FriPod: Babies

I realized the other day that "baby" returned a good number of songs on my iTunes.  Hence this FriPod.

1.  "The Arrival of Baby Harry" by John Williams, on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone soundtrack.  Starts with a creepy/magical celesta sound, followed by swirling strings.  Now the english horn introduces more strings with bell towers, some wordless chorus, all anticipatory of the arrival.  Ah, now Harry's theme comes in, that's the arrival we've been waiting for.  The second part is happier, but very brief.  Harry has a hard life ahead.

2.  "Baby, Don't Tell on Me" by Lester Young, Count Basie, and Jimmy Rushing; performed by the Count Basie Orchestra on The Essential Count Basie, Volume 1.  Nice muted trumpet solo for this blues.  Jimmy sings, apparently on his criminal activities that his lover shouldn't squeal about.

3.  "Babyface" by U2 on Zooropa.  Interesting fusion of Bono's lower register with someone (Bono?) singing falsetto an octave higher.  

4.  "Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby", traditional tune arranged by Gillian Welch and T Bone Burnett, sung by Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack.  Beautiful three-part harmony with a haunting bowed saw (or theremin?) and a guitar that seems off on its own world.

5.  "I Found a New Baby" by J. Palmer and S. Williams, performed by the Benny Goodman Sextet on Charlie Christian: Genius of Electric Guitar.  One of the first integrated jazz combos, this showcases Charlie's great blues feel.  The piano and Benny trade comical little licks, very flighty.

6.  "I'm Crazy 'bout my Baby" by Fats Waller, performed by Fats Waller with Ted Lewis & his orchestra, on Jazz: The Singers 1930s.  Fortunately, Fats' baby is crazy about him as well, since Cupid is their teacher.

7.  "I'm Nobody's Baby" by Ager, Davis, and Santly; performed by Mildred Bailey & her orchestra, on Little Jazz.  A great trumpet solo by Roy Eldridge, such a fat yet mellow sound.  And his bends seem like trombone glissandi, they are so clear.

8.  "There Goes My Baby" by Nelson, Patterson, and Treadwell, performed by The Drifters on The Best of the Drifters.  Heavily produced, with strings and strong reverb on the drums and voices to give a very spacial feel.  In the fourth verse producers Mike Stoller and Jerry Leiber put a cello line that they claim resembles Rimsky-Korsakov.  

9.  "Hush Little Baby" traditional melody, performed by Yo-Yo Ma and Bobby McFerrin on Hush.  Very upbeat, not a lullaby.  

10.  "When My Baby Smiles at Me" by Bill Munro and Harry von Tilzer, performed by Benny Goodman on Live at Carnegie Hall.  A great little number (50 seconds), it sounds like a cross between Dixieland and klezmer.  

FriPod: The Zoo

Today we took a bunch of seven year-olds to a birthday party at the zoo, because we are totally insane. It actually went very well, especially as it was done after regular zoo hours in a special zoo program that involved dinner and meeting some animals up close. We all got to pet a chincilla, a pygmy hedgehog (very cute!), a ferret, and a nine-banded armadillo named Leonard. This list is for you, guys.

1. " Zooropa," by U2, from Zooropa. Message: commercialism is ridiculous. Interesting layering effects.
2. "Visit the Zoo and Letters from Hogwarts," by John Williams, from the Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone soundtrack. This is when Harry performs his first magic, making the glass disappear from the snake's cage and then talking to the snake. Thus we get lots of magical sounding motives, a little scary but mostly in amazement. Then we cue in the celeste for the Letters segment. Lots of swirly strings for the owls delivering more and more letters.
3. "Old Yazoo," Fats Waller/Andy Razaf, performed by the Bowell Sisters. I love this old recording. "If you don't like beans and rice, get some rice and beans."
4. "A Little Duet for Zoot and Chet," Jack Montrose, performed by Chet Baker on Chet Baker With Strings. Naturally, this is also with Zoot Sims, a nice bit of counterpoint with minimal cheesy strings compared to the rest of this album. Chet's solo sounds much like Clifford Brown, though with a simpler timbre that is more consistent through all the register.
5. Animal Ditties, by Anthony Plog, performed by the Summit Brass. This eight movement work was originally for trumpet, narrator, and piano. Plog arranged it for brass choir with the narrator reciting the poems by Ogden Nash. Turtle, Porpoise, Python, Dog, Ant, Centipede, Rhinoceros, and Mule.

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.