All back to normal after 2 days of snow. Supposedly this would be the worst snowstorm of the last 3 decades had said the weather station...I guess weather-wise, this is the new normal now; a big snowstorm means just two days of fluffies :)...
As Mark Twain once said;
“Climate is what we expect,
weather is what we get."
Here is the list for this weekend;
Nils Frahm - "Fundamental Values"
Frank Zappa - "Black Napkins"
She Past Away - "Rituel"
Lijadu Sisters - "Come On Home"
Portico Quartet - "Prickly Pear"
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 piece is dedicated to the great Chick Corea who passed away very recently. He was considered to be one of the major piano players to emerge in jazz and a pioneer in the creation of fusion at a time when jazz was fading away...
Here is the song for this week;
"Spain"
It is an instrumental jazz fusion composition by jazz pianist and composer Chick Corea. It is likely Corea's most recognized piece, and is considered a jazz standard. "Spain" was composed in 1971 and appeared in its original (and most well-known) rendition on the album Light as a Feather, with performances by Corea (Rhodes electric piano), Airto Moreira (drums), Flora Purim (vocals and percussion), Stanley Clarke (bass), and Joe Farrell (flute).
The introduction used in the song is from Concierto de Aranjuez, a guitar concerto by the Spanish composer JoaquÃn Rodrigo.
The Light as a Feather version of "Spain" received two Grammy nominations, for Best Instrumental Arrangement and for Best Instrumental Jazz Performance by a Group. In 2001, Corea was awarded the Best Instrumental Arrangement Grammy for "Spain for Sextet and Orchestra".
Here are the 7 versions I picked for you;
Bela Fleck & The Flecktones - "Spain"
Al Jarreau - "Spain (I Can Recall)"
Stevie Wonder - "Spain"
Blood, Sweat & Tears - "Spain"
Michel Camilo & Tomatito - "Spain"
Wolfgang Haffner - "Spain"
And just for this post here is the great Chick Corea with Hiromi...RIP great master!
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.
The weather station reported that after many weeks of warm weather, a snowstorm is coming our way. Well it was about time, otherwise we would have to take out our swimwear from the closet as this winter is probably the warmest winter in a decade... Nothing to do with global warming yeah? ðŸ˜
I just noticed that I have not written enough about Bowie songs, so here is one from 1977 co-written by the man himself and Brian Eno and recorded in July and August 1977 at Hansa Studio by the Wall. It was released on 23 September 1977 as the lead single from his 12th studio album of the same name, backed with the song "V-2 Schneider". A product of Bowie's "Berlin" period, the track was not a huge hit in the United Kingdom or the United States after its release, but it has since become one of his signature songs.
Here is the song for this week;
"Heroes"
This was originally an instrumental composition, whose title was a reference to the 1975 track "Hero" by the German Krautrock band Neu!. This song tells the story of a German couple who are so determined to be together that they meet every day under a gun turret on The Berlin Wall. Bowie, who was living in Berlin at the time, was inspired by an affair between his producer Tony Visconti and backup singer Antonia Maass, who would kiss "by the wall" in front of Bowie as he looked out of the Hansa Studio window. Bowie didn't mention Visconti's role in inspiring this song until 2003, when he told Performing Songwriter magazine: "I'm allowed to talk about it now. I wasn't at the time. I always said it was a couple of lovers by the Berlin Wall that prompted the idea. Actually, it was Tony Visconti and his girlfriend. Tony was married at the time. And I could never say who it was. But I can now say that the lovers were Tony and a German girl that he'd met whilst we were in Berlin. I did ask his permission if I could say that. I think possibly the marriage was in the last few months, and it was very touching because I could see that Tony was very much in love with this girl, and it was that relationship which sort of motivated the song."
Following his death in January 2016, the German government thanked Bowie for "helping to bring down the Wall", adding "you are now among Heroes".
"Heroes'" has received numerous accolades since its release, as seen with its inclusion on lists ranking the "greatest songs" compiled by various music publications; Rolling Stone named the song the 46th greatest ever, and NME named it the 15th greatest. Bowie scholar David Buckley has written that "'Heroes'" "is perhaps pop's definitive statement of the potential triumph of the human spirit over adversity".
Robert Fripp, formerly of King Crimson, played guitar on this track. His band, King Crimson, performed the song at the Admiralspalast in Berlin on September 11, 2016 in celebration of Bowie. This version was released on an EP called Heroes in 2017. Featured in this song are not only Brian Eno's synthesizer and Robert Fripp's guitar, but also producer Tony Visconti banging on a metal ashtray that was lying around the studio.
Here are the 7 versions I picked for you;
Motörhead - "Heroes"
Depeche Mode - "Heroes"
Oasis - "Heroes"
Peter Gabriel - "Heroes"
Blondie - "Heroes"
King Crimson - "Heroes"
Janelle Monáe - "Heroes"
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.
Virus variants continue to evolve all around the world and people are asking whether the vaccines will be controlling this situation or not. It seems that we still have many uncertainties ahead of us and we need to pay even more attention today. No one is sure when this pandemic will end but it seems that not in the very near future.
As Anselm Kiefer once said;
“Art is longing. You never arrive,
but you keep going in the hope that you will."
Here is the list for this weekend;
Sophie (RIP) - "It's OK to Cry"
Ane Brun - "Do You Remember"
David Lynch & Lykke Li - "I'm Waiting Here"
Aldous Harding - "The Barrel"
FKA Twigs - "Cellophane"
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.
