Visual Insights: music news

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28 July 2010

Music News - A Song Of Longing: Harmony to My Heartbeat

*** Views today: 3,980 and Thank You!

*** Check out some excellent lyrics from the soft sweet voice of folk rock genre artist Sally Seltmann as she explores life as much as she explores her music.

Folk Rock Genre

From Denny: Music critics can be harsh on the new comers who do anything even remotely similar to something else done in the past. Yet that's how we build our music or art from generation to generation. An artist gets inspired by a technique - whether it's fine art painting or composing music. We lift it to play with it like a cat with catnip, figuring out how far we can push the technique, wondering how far it will go before we reach our final creative destination. We explore and play and wonder and while away some time until we hit on something that sounds or looks different. Then we go about figuring out how to structure that discovery into something others can enjoy.

This song from Sally Seltmann, "Harmony to My Heartbeat," was inspired by other artists. From the Phil Spector creative corner came the drumbeat and the pop-orchestral sense of grandeur. Fussing critics complain there is even a passing resemblance of the verse lyrics' structure as in Oasis' "Morning Glory." Then they complained the very start of the chorus was probably drawn straight from the Tommy James' "I Think We're Alone Now."

Do these critics have anything better to do than crush young artists when they are just getting started? So what if they were influenced by previous music artists? Those artists were as well and the next generation and the next generation will be as well. The real question at hand should be, "So, how does it sound and does it strike a heart chord with you?"

The point is that pop music is limited to a small group of components. It was revolutionary 50 years ago and it sounds like current music critics are bored with the genre after all this time. But hey, guys, don't take it out on the artists who are still in their exploring phase, working toward something great one day. Give them some elbow room at the table before you crowd them out.

Sally Seltmann is the former singer from New Buffalo. Right now, she is working with what is familiar to her and weaving them into something new to hear. Seltmann diverges from the Spector music because she is addressing the more adult sense of longing instead of teenage angst and longing. Tommy James was known for the need to escape while Seltmann is more settled and not fumbling like a fool. She isn't running blindly out of fear but rather more from the desire to quit waiting. This is a woman who knows what she wants out of life and isn't going to sit around any longer and wait for it to happen. She's running to it, instinctively recognizing her destination is close to her if only she will move in that direction. She possesses contentment for having acted with mindfulness.

From her time with New Buffalo:

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08 July 2010

Music News: Featuring Marilyn Monroes Jazz Pianist Hank Jones

*** Listen to the dean of jazz pianists, from the generation of Coltrane, who accompanied Marilyn Monroe on her birthday song to President Kennedy

From Denny: Another jazz great has left planet Earth and passed his music on to the next generation to enjoy, interpret and play. Ever since I went to college at LSU Baton Rouge I've been saturated with the Louisiana culture of rhythm and blues and jazz. As students we often day tripped to New Orleans to hear local jazz legends just like Hank Jones.

It was heartening to see how New Orleans revered even their aging musicians. There, in those smokey night clubs, large tall doors thrown open to the Louisiana humid air, overhead fans beating in time to the music, were 85 year old men tinkling the ivories at such a fast pace their fingers were a blur in motion. And the merriment as they played was contagious, rippling throughout the night club, people swaying as their minds danced in their chairs. Those musicians and their smooth renditions of traditional songs were soothing and thoughtful, calming the patrons when stroking the night to a close. As tourists and locals alike filtered out onto the streets, promises of "next time" lingered as a warm musical scent.

Hank Jones was as famous for his silky touch as he was his musical pedigree. The man had a musical resume never to be found again. He played with the greats in the jazz genre like Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald and Benny Goodman. His brothers played with John Coltrane and Count Basie.

Remember those black and white news clips of actress Marilyn Monroe singing "Happy Birthday" to President Kennedy? It was Hank Jones who accompanied her on piano. Even if you didn't follow his music or career you now realize you saw him on the news.

From NPR: In a 2005 interview with host Terry Gross, he described what it was like to accompany Monroe during her performance at Madison Square Garden.

"She did 16 bars: eight bars of 'Happy Birthday to You' and eight bars of 'Thanks for the Memories,' " he said. "So in 16 bars, we rehearsed eight hours. So I think that's something like a half-hour for a bar of music. She was very nervous and upset. She wasn't used to that kind of thing. And, I guess, who wouldn't be nervous singing "Happy Birthday" to the president?"

Check out some of his music, courtesy of National Public Radio. May the dean of jazz pianists rest in peace. He gave a lot to this world and we say thank you!

*** ALSO over at The Social Poets blog to experience a New Orleans jazz night:

Jazz Music poem - Libations Friday 21 May 2010

In Memorium: Hank Jones On Piano Jazz (NPR)

In a career that spans seven decades, Hank Jones has worked with everyone who's anyone in jazz, including Benny Goodman, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Billie Holiday. On Sunday night, Jones died after a brief illness. He was 91......

Remembering Hank Jones, 'The Dean Of Jazz Pianists' (NPR)

Hank Jones, whom critic Whitney Balliett once called "the dean of jazz pianists," died Sunday, 16 May 2010. He was 91.

Jones was the last surviving brother in one of the most remarkable families in jazz history. His brother Elvin played with John Coltrane and became an influential jazz drummer. His younger brother Thad played trumpet and was a member of the Count Basie Orchestra before forming his own ensemble, The Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Orchestra.

Hank, the oldest of the brothers and the first to leave home, toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic, recorded with Charlie Parker, accompanied Ella Fitzgerald and worked for many years as the house pianist at CBS. When Marilyn Monroe sang "Happy Birthday" to President Kennedy in 1962, it was Jones who accompanied her on the piano........

*** ALSO over at The Social Poets blog to experience a New Orleans jazz night:

Jazz Music poem

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