Literally half of the year has gone by. The second quarter of the year has been quite dramatic due to the virus and it looks like that this difficult period is not ending soon. I wonder how we will remember the year 2020 in the future, as a lost year or as a year that thought us many things. Will there be songs composed about these days of Corona?
As Tom Waits once said;
“I like beautiful melodies telling me terrible things."
Here is the list for this weekend;
Kahil El’Zabar ft. David Murray - "In My House"
The War on Drugs - "Thinking Of A Place"
Celeste & Paul Weller - "You Do Something To Me"
Gevende - "Sanki"
AH! KOSMOS - "Trace of Waterfalls"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
I determined this week's song while watching the crazy events going on in USA. For me, it is the epitome of the protest songs dating back to 1939 and that was written by Abel Meeropol. It protests the lynching of Black Americans, with lyrics that compare the victims to the fruit of trees. Such lynchings had reached a peak in the Southern United States at the turn of the 20th century, and the great majority of victims were black. The song has been called "a declaration of war" and "the beginning of the civil rights movement".
Here is the song for this week;
"Strange Fruit"
This was written by a white, Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from New York City named Abel Meeropol, who was outraged after seeing a photograph of a horrific lynching in a civil-rights magazine. The photo was a shot of two black men hanging from a tree after they had been lynched in Marion, Indiana on August 7, 1930. The two men are the "Strange Fruit."
This was written by a white, Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from New York City named Abel Meeropol, who was outraged after seeing a photograph of a horrific lynching in a civil-rights magazine. The photo was a shot of two black men hanging from a tree after they had been lynched in Marion, Indiana on August 7, 1930. The two men are the "Strange Fruit."
Holiday first performed the song at Café Society in 1939. She said that singing it made her fearful of retaliation but, because its imagery reminded her of her father, she continued to sing the piece, making it a regular part of her live performances. Because of the power of the song, Josephson (owner of Café Society) drew up some rules: Holiday would close with it; the waiters would stop all service in advance; the room would be in darkness except for a spotlight on Holiday's face; and there would be no encore. During the musical introduction to the song, Holiday stood with her eyes closed, as if she were evoking a prayer.
The first recording of the song was also made by the great Billie Holiday in 1939.
Holiday approached her recording label, Columbia, about the song, but the company feared reaction by record retailers in the South, as well as negative reactions from affiliates of its co-owned radio network, CBS. When Holiday's producer John Hammond also refused to record it, she turned to her friend Milt Gabler, whose Commodore label produced alternative jazz. Holiday sang "Strange Fruit" for him a cappella, and moved him to tears. Columbia gave Holiday a one-session release from her contract so she could record it; Frankie Newton's eight-piece Cafe Society Band was used for the session. Because Gabler worried the song was too short, he asked pianist Sonny White to improvise an introduction. On the recording, Holiday starts singing after 70 seconds. It was recorded on April 20, 1939. Gabler worked out a special arrangement with Vocalion Records to record and distribute the song.
The song was highly regarded; the 1939 recording eventually sold a million copies, in time becoming Holiday's biggest-selling recording.
In 1999, Time magazine voted this the Song of the Century. When the song first came out it was denounced by the same magazine as "A piece of musical propaganda."
Here are the 6 versions I picked for you;
Beth Hart & Joe Bonamassa- "Strange Fruit"
Diana Ross - "Strange Fruit"
Siouxsie & the Banshees - "Strange Fruit"
John Martyn - "Strange Fruit"
Kandace Springs - "Strange Fruit"
Andra Day - "Strange Fruit"
Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).
nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.
We are almost in the middle of summer. Time is passing by with corona and most probably we will finish this year without even noticing. What a crazy year this is and there is not much to do apart from being extra careful and trying to stay away from the virus. Numbers have started to increase as the precautions have been relaxed just a bit. So stay home and listen to music, try to discover new songs and artists.
As Maria August von Trapp once said;
“Music — what a powerful instrument, what a mighty weapon!”
Here is the list for this weekend;
Manchester Orchestra - "The Silence"
CeeLo Green - "Fuck You"
Nadja Kossinskaja - "Oblivion"
Bryan Ferry & Todd Terje - "Johnny & Mary"
John Zorn - "Zaphiel"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
This week's song is one of the most well-known jazz standards of all time. It is composed by Paul Desmond and originally recorded by the Dave Brubeck Quartet for their album "Time Out" at Columbia Records' 30th Street Studio in New York City on July 1, 1959. Two years later it became a surprise hit and the biggest-selling jazz single ever. Revived since in numerous movie and television soundtracks, the piece still receives significant radio airplay.
Here is the song for this week;
"Take Five"
Paul Desmond, who was Brubeck's alto saxophonist, wrote this song. It's called "Take Five" because it was written in an unusual 5/4 meter. It was one of the first Jazz songs with a time signature other than the standard 4/4 beat or 3/4 waltz time. Brubeck explained in a 1995 interview with Paul Zollo that he asked Desmond to try writing a song in 5/4. Said Brubeck: "I told Paul to put a melody over (drummer) Joe Morello's beat. So Paul put a couple melodies. But he didn't have a tune. He just had two melodies. He said, 'I can't write a tune in 5/4,' and he had given up. I said, 'You've got two good melodies here, let's work out a form.' So I worked out an A-A-B-A form and Paul caught on immediately."
On the album Time Out, Brubeck used a different time signature for each track, which was very unusual. In Brubeck's interview with Zollo, he said: "The album came out but the salespeople, they have formulas that are unwritten laws about what's going to work, what's going to sell. And my album couldn't have worked because it's all originals. They said you should never put out all originals, you have to put in some standards and some show tunes. Well, they were wrong. It worked. And you have to be in tempos that the public can dance to. Well, they couldn't dance to most of Time Out unless you got into some dance halls where people could dance to 5/4 and they did dance to it. So it's exposure. And also they didn't want a painting on the cover. I was breaking a whole bunch of rules."
The Dave Brubeck Quartet first played "Take Five" to a live audience at the Village Gate nightclub in New York City in July 1959.
"Take Five" is known for its distinctive two-chord, piano/bass vamp; catchy blues-scale saxophone melodies; inventive, jolting drum solo and an unorthodox quintuple (5/4) time.
The single was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1996.
Here are the 6 versions I picked for you;
Carmen McRae - "Take Five"
Trio Elf - "Take Five"
The Specials - "Take Five"
Rodrigo y Gabriela - "Take Five"
Sachal Studios Orchestra - "Take Five"
North East Ska Jazz Orchestra - "Take Five"
Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).
nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.
After many months of Covid isolation, things are starting to get back to normal? Or not? Unfortunately, I witness an overdose of relaxation in society and I really hope that the virus will not strike back in the coming days. Please stay safe and don't give up the precautions at this time till this dangerous stuff goes fully away...
As Lana Del Rey once said;
“Distance sometimes lets you know who is worth keeping,
and who is worth letting go."
Here is the list for this weekend;
David Bowie - "Rock 'N' Roll Suicide"
Baxter Dury - "Miami"
John Carpenter - "Distant Dream"
Jimi Tenor & Tony Allen - "Darker Side of Night"
Rodrigo y Gabriela - "Hanuman"
Hope you have a great weekend.
nb. You can open the actual youtube page by clicking the name on the upper left side of each video.
