FriPod: Rock-n-Roll never dies

I'm back from the holidays, and just finished the second day of my Winter Term course, the History of Rock and Roll. It's fun so far, though the students are still getting back into classroom mode.

1. "Big Rock Candy Mountain" by Harry McClintock on the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Not really rock, but it is part of the rock-n-roll genealogy as we discussed yesterday and today.

2. "It's Still Rock and Roll to Me" by Billy Joel on Glass Houses. I had a friend in high school who made a karaoke tape of this, which haunts me to this day.

3. "Jailhouse Rock" by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, performed by Elvis Presley. Written by two white guys who thought they were black, performed by the first white guy to sing rhythm-n-blues.

4. "Rock 'n Roll Music" by Chuck Berry. I'm getting slightly tired of this music, since it is used as the title music for the History of Rock and Roll Video series I'm screening for class.

5. "Rock Around the Clock" by Max Freedman and Jimmy DeKnight, performed by Bill Haley and the Comets. I'd like to hear more accordion on this. Happy Days anyone?

6. "Rock-a-Bye Basic" by Shad Collins, Lester Young, Count Basie, Arranged by Jimmy Mundy for the Count Basie Orchestra. Another ancestor of R&R.

7. "Rocker" by Gerry Mulligan, performed by Miles Davis on Birth of the Cool.

8. "Rocket 88" by Ike Turner, performed by Jackie Brenston and the Delta Cats. Jackie is credited with this song, but Ike really wrote it.

9. "Rockin' In Rhythm" by Harry Carney, Duke Ellington, And Irving Mills, performed by the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

10. "The Rocky Road to Dublin" performed by The Chieftains & The Rolling Stones on The Long Black Veil.

11. "Jelly Roll Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton, performed by Louis Armstrong.

12. "Let the Good Times Roll" by Sam Theard and Fleecie Moore, performed by Ray Charles on Ray!

13. "Roll 'Em Pete" by Joe Turner and Pete Johnson, performed by Joe Turner.

14. "Shake, Rattle and Roll" by C. Calhoun, performed by Joe Turner. Today we looked at the changes between Turner's version and Bill Haley's cover.

FriPod: Hearts

1. "Heart and Soul" by Hoagy Carmichael, performed by Eddy Duchin and His Orchestra. The old classic, learned by every piano student, has lyrics that can be taken as light and fun or as full of angst: fell in love madly, like a fool, his heart and soul have been stolen (does he want them back?) [The linked MP3 is of the Indianapolis-based Buselli-Wallarab Jazz Orchestra]

2. "A Heart Full of Love" from Les Miserables Original Broadway soundtrack. A sad love triangle, I find myself empathizing with Eponine.

3. "Heart, We Will Forget Him" by Aaron Copland, performed by Arleen Augér on Arleen Auger, American Soprano. From Copland's Emily Dickinson songs, I'm not ready for the darkness of this one.

4. "Heartache Tonight" written and performed by The Eagles on Eagles Greatest Hits Volume 2. "There's nothing we can do." "Everybody wants to touch somebody." Truth is found in California country rock.

5. "Hold On My Heart" written and performed by Genesis on We Can't Dance. While I really liked the This American Life episode that showed Phil Collins talking about heart-break songs, I find myself increasingly annoyed by his work. This song, however, is one of the more tolerable ballads, excepting Tony Banks' soulless keyboards.

6. "I'll Follow My Secret Heart" by Noel Coward, performed by Arleen Augér on Arleen Auger, American Soprano. Why keep it secret? I've been learning that open vulnerability is a good thing.

7. "My Foolish Heart" by Victor Young, performed by Bill Evans on Waltz for Debby. This performance gets all of the nuances, from hope to fear, love to anger, joy to sadness.

8. "My Heart" by Lilian Armstrong, performed by Louis Armstrong on The Hot Fives & Sevens, Vol. 1. Lil was Louis' second wife and a fine jazz musician in her own right. This Dixie styled piece gives some bounce that was missing from this playlist.

9. "Of One Heart, Of One Mind" by James Horner, from A Beautiful Mind soundtrack. I like this cut, especially since it quotes the title song. How much can a heart stand? How do changes in the mind affect two hearts?

10. "Piece of My Heart" by Rogovoy and Burns, performed by Janis Joplin with Big Brother and the Holding Company. In the Wikipedia article, Ellen Willis is quoted giving two different interpretations: "When Franklin sings it, it is a challenge: no matter what you do to me, I will not let you destroy my ability to be human, to love. Joplin seems rather to be saying, surely if I keep taking this, if I keep setting an example of love and forgiveness, surely he has to understand, change, give me back what I have given." I think both views can coexist, self preservation and hope.

11. "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (and reprise) by Lennon and McCartney, performed by The Beatles on Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. These are not about the heart, but instead are a prologue and conclusion to the fake concert.

12. "Shape of My Heart" written and performed by Sting on Ten Summoner's Tales. The lyrics suggest that we have control of our own heart, it isn't controlled by fate (as represented by the cards). But the mask isn't good news, perhaps he is fooling himself that the cards don't show the shape of his heart.

13. "Thy rebuke hath broken His heart" from Messiah by George Handel, performed by John Aler; Andrew Davis, Toronto Symphony, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. I found this blog post that has some relevance to my thoughts right now.

14. "Two Hearts" by Lamont Dozier and Phil Collins, performed by Phil Collins on Serious Hits...Live! Ack.

15. "Unchain My Heart" by Teddy Powell and Robert Sharp, Jr., performed by Ray Charles on Ray! Ray's woman has left him, but he feels she hasn't released his love. This is tricky, when two hearts have been entwined. How do they become separate, especially when one person leaves the other? Is Ray's heart his own responsibility, that he should unchain his own heart? Or does his ex-lover still have control that she needs to relinquish? Does she need to give him permission to stop loving her? Is it possible to stop loving someone?

FriPod: States

1. "Hotel California" written and performed by The Eagles on Eagles Greatest Hits Vol. 2.
2. Three Places in New England - 2. "Putnam's Camp, Redding, Connecticut" by Charles Ives, performed by (a) the Philadelphia Orchestra, and (b) San Francisco Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas.
3. "Florida Stomp" by Battle, Eldridge, and Hart; performed by Roy Eldridge on Little Jazz.
4. "Georgia Grind" by A. Williams, performed by Louis Armstrong on The Hot Fives & Sevens, Vol. 1.
5. "Georgia on my mind" by Hoagy Carmichael, performed by Ray Charles (twice) on Ray!
6. "Sweet Georgia Brown" by Ben Bernie, Maceo Pinkard, and Kenneth Casey; performed by (a) Bud Powell on Jazz Giant and (b) Ella Fitzgerald on Compact Jazz.
7. "(Back Home Again in) Indiana" by Ballard McDonald and James Hanley, performed by (a) Art Tatum on Solos (1940) and (b) Roy Eldridge, Dizzy Gillespie, and Clark Terry on The Trumpet Kings at Montreux.
8. "The Lost Souls (Of Southern Louisiana)" performed by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band on Open Up (Whatcha Gonna Do For the Rest of Your Life?)
9. "Louisiana/Field Song from Senegal" traditional.
10. "Bright Mississippi" written and performed by Thelonious Monk (quartet) on Monk's Dream.
11. "Stop in Nevada" written and performed by Billy Joel on Piano Man.
12. "New York State of Mind" written and performed by Billy Joel on Turnstiles.
13. "Tennessee Waltz / Tennessee Mazurka" by Redd Stewart & Pee Wee King, performed by The Chieftains with Tom Jones on The Long Black Veil.
14. "Moonlight in Vermont" by John Blackburn and Karl Suessdorf, performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong on Jazz Masters 24.
15. "I'm Coming Virginia" by Will Marion Cook, performed by Benny Goodman on Live at Carnegie Hall.
16. "Tides of Washington Bridge" by the Clogs on Lantern.

FriPod: Mind, Thought, Hear

1. "Georgia On My Mind," composed by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell, performed by Ray Charles.
2. "New York State of Mind," by Billy Joel.
3. "It Never Entered My Mind," composed by Richard Rodgers & Lorenz Hart, performed by Miles Davis.
4. A Beautiful Mind soundtrack, composed by James Horner.
5. "Behrani's Thoughts - Long Ago," from the House of Sand and Fog soundtrack, composed by James Horner.
6. "I Thought I'd Write to Juliet," by Elvis Costello, performed with the Brodsky Quartet.
7. "Ridiculous Thoughts," by The Cranberries.
8. "Why Wait to be Wed - You Thought Wrong," from the Shrek soundtrack, composed by Harry Gregson-Williams & John Powell.
9. "Do You Hear the People Sing?" from the Les Misérables original Broadway soundtrack, composed by Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil, and Herbert Kretzmer.
10. "Hear a New Story," by Rob Hudson, performed by the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble.
11. "I Hear Music," composed by Burton Lane and Frank Loesser, performed by Bobby McFerrin.

FriPod: Hit to Hope

1. "Hit the Road Jack" - Percy Mayfield, performed by Ray Charles on Ray! A relationship breaks up, because the man is no good. Clearly part of his problem is that he doesn't listen.

2. Hoc Largire, a 6 - Anonymous, performed by Copenhagen Cornetts & Sackbutts with Ars Nova. This is the fourth verse of O Quam Glorifica: O Father of all lights, through this sacred Flame/give unto us thy only Begotten Son,/who with Thee reigns brilliantly in the heavens,/ruling and governing for all ages./Amen. Very peaceful, yet with a certain trepidation.

3. "Hoedown!" - by Bobby McFerrin, performed by Bobby with Yo Yo Ma on Hush. This piece doesn't start out sounding like a hoedown, but the middle section is stereotypical. It seems to poke fun at this culture, with the simplistic and highly repetitive nature of this middle section. No understandable lyrics in this piece, but I'm inclined to not approve of this stance.

4. "Hogwarts Forever and the Moving Stairs" - John Williams on Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone. Sounds like a brass quintet arrangement rather than a typical orchestral soundtrack score. I wonder if this is available for quintets to purchase? The second half is more typical, evoking the spookiness of Voldemort's theme.

5. "Hold On My Heart" - Genesis on We Can't Dance. Yes, I own CDs of Phil Collins and Genesis, holdovers from my high school days in the 80s. It is truly painful to listen to most of these tracks now.

6. "Holde Gattin, dir zur Seite" from The Creation - Haydn, performed by John Eliot Gardiner and the English Baroque Soloists. Very classical operatic, a love duet for Adam and Eve.

7. "Homecoming Hymn" - from the Lawrence University Jazz Ensemble's New Stories. This CD was cut when I was a junior at Lawrence. The particular track is a combo piece, based on a theme that is a pared down version of "Joyful, joyful we adore thee." It has a great sax solo by Doug Schneider.

8. "Honesty" - Billy Joel on 52nd Street. "Honesty, is hardly ever heard, and mostly what I need from you." Preach it, Billy.

9. "Honeysuckle Rose" - Fats Waller, performed by Benny Goodman on Live at Carnegie Hall.

10. "Hooker's Hooker" - Marvin Hamlisch on The Sting soundtrack. Think "The Stripper."

11. "Hope and Memory" - Howard Shore on The Lord of the Rings - Return of the King. I love this one.

12. "Hope Fails" - also from LOTR-ROTK. I don't like ending on this track. Previous tracks are much more hopeful, even Billy's plea for honesty. He at least hopes for honesty, whereas hope is lost here.

FriPod: International Women's Day

Yesterday was International Women's Day, so I'm putting off the shortest track list to next week, so I can list the tracks about women and ladies.

1. "Bess, You Is My Woman Now" by Gershwin, performed by Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. This comes across as a love song, even though the words imply an unequal ownership, with Porgy owning Bess. This cognitive dissonance bothers me, perhaps because the opera is about race and disability issues, but ignores gender issues here.

2. "I Got a Woman" performed by Ray Charles. Yes, more ownership issues. This is worse, as it is more contemporary, and has a line that lays it out explicitly: "She knows a womans place is right there now in her home." My kids love this CD, and often would ask for it when we were commuting a lot. I hated it when this song came up, and frequently felt obligated to point out how wrong it was.

3. "Kind of Woman" from the musical Pippin. Much more empowering, this song is about the strengths of average women.

4. "Lonely Woman" by Horace Silver. A haunting ballad, no lyrics to offend.

5. "Pretty Woman" by Duke Ellington. This love song annoys me, but not because of the lyrics. They are fairly standard, about a guy who is in love with a pretty woman and hopes she loves him. The emphasis on "pretty" could be offensive, but this term could be taken to mean her attitude or her intelligence as much as her looks. No, the song is annoying because I don't like the singer (Al Hibbler) and the band sounds chunky on this track.

6. Sequenza III for woman's voice, by Luciano Berio, performed by Luisa Castellani. This breakthrough piece blurs the edges of performance space, when the soloist comes on stage muttering to herself. Has the piece started yet, or is the performer crazy? Either is a valid option for many performers. One could make an issue about the incomprehensibility of most of the lyrics, but I think Berio was going for the interesting timbre issues rather than for statements about women. He did compose this piece for his then wife, Cathy Berberian, so I would think it was done with a positive attitude towards women in general.

7. "My Lady", by Bill Russo, performed by Stan Kenton's big band. This gives off a slight femme-fatale feeling because of the sax solo, but overall it doesn't have enough grit for that. I think this is an attempt by the Kenton band at sentimentality.

8. "Song for Lady M" performed by the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Nicco describes it better than I can: B

ut the other song on the album which captured my teenage attention was Song For Lady M—a sad, slow saxophone solo number. Although some of the progressions are still reminiscent of Dixieland, this is more of Coltrane-inspired sound. It starts slow and sad. For some reason I could always imagine it being played from a high window off a dark street. It’s that kind of smoky feeling. In the middle of the song it starts to pick up—but the sound is not any less sad, it starts to communicate a sort of desperation. A Desperate Song for Lady M.

At 15, I had no idea what heartbreak was. But Song for Lady M was heartbreak—an intense, personal heartbreak, different from “Soul Gestures in Southern Blues”. Marsalis’ jazz genius on that number is the menacing yoke of history; the Dirty Dozen sax solo is mournful, a personal love lost.

9. "Sophisticated Lady" by Duke Ellington, Irving Mills, and Mitchell Parish. I have two versions of this, by Duke and by Chick Corea. The instrumental by Corea is very elegant and sophisticated. The lyrics of the original song are okay, except for the line "She sticks close to her lover, she obeys God's rule." This strikes a little too close to the idea of woman obeying man.

Resurrecting the Dead

A few days ago I was slow in switching from the NPR station with the pledge drive to the other NPR station.* During that delay, the local pledge announcer described one of the gifts, a CD that combines old recordings of Ray Charles with new arrangements and performances by the Count Basie Band.** I have mixed feelings about this, primarily negative. The joy of collaboration is in how both parties feed off of the energy and ideas of the other party. While the Basie Band can be inspired by Ray's singing, Ray's performance will not change to better fit with the band's ideas. But the effort in "aural Photoshopping" (from the Amazon review) could provide some interesting sounds.

* I am fortunate to live between the Indianapolis-based WFYI and the Bloomington-based WFIU, with access to both.

** What is it with these big bands that keep the same name decades after the founder died? This does not seem to be a healthy trend for jazz.