Stages: Volume II - Ryan Montbleau

This guy has an amazing voice.  Its unique, its soulful, and it reminds me of Stevie Wonder.  Typically he is touring and recording with the Ryan Montbleau band and all of those albums are great as well.  This time, he released a solo acoustic album.  The proceeds from purchasing this album go directly to recording their next studio album, due out in the fall.  I cannot wait.  Montbleau proves that a guitar is really all he needs to accompany his unforgettable voice.  The skilled picking and percussive sounds he derives from it perfectly compliment his blues-like melodies.  The lyrics are not depressing, more realistic, but always optimistic.  Do not expect Montbleau to blend into the large category of singer/songwriters out there now.  It is definitely a rare sound he accomplishes and as much as I love each album, they are an amazing band to see live as well.  The live shows better exhibit their jam band influences and will always leave you in a good mood.  Don't pass up an opportunity to see these guys in concert!

Some of my favorites songs made it onto this album including "Maybe Today," "75 and Sunny," "City," "Grain of Sand," "Quickie," heck I like them all.  "Duncan" is a Paul Simon cover.  Its a good choice and he plays it well.  Like Simon, Montbleau's musical interests vary widely.  According to JamBase, the Ryan Montbleau Band "weave a tapestry of folk, blues, rock-steady, country, cocktail music, rock, gypsy jazz and psychedelia that’s exciting, elegant and sometimes even elegiac."  It doesn't get any better.

Played in Space - Something Corporate

This was my favorite band in college.  Now they have this compilation album, which seems a little weird since they've only released two full length albums.  In the meantime, Andrew McMahon has been working on his solo project, Jack's Mannequin, and battling leukemia.  Both bands have a great sound.  McMahon hit the keys with the same passion in his voice and songs are melodically well put together.  This album features remakes of songs that were a little raw when they were first leaked on the internet or unofficially released.  Some of these songs including "Wait" and "Letters to Noelle" were my favorites.  Its maybe better to buy this album on Itunes since that is the only way to get "Letters to Noelle" and then go back and buy the rest of the songs on North and Leaving Through the Window.  Ultimately it is the second disc of the set that makes it worth buying.  "Watch the Sky" and "Konstantine" finally make it on an album, where they belong.  It's very exciting that Something Corporate is back on tour, although with very limited dates, but I'm eagerly awaiting new songs from either this band, even with new members, or Jack's Mannequin.

IRM - Charlotte Gainsbourg

Never having heard of Charlotte Gainsbourg before, I guess I wasn't expecting much, just another indie chick in the vein of Feist, but not quite as good.  This album is much better and worth listening to in its own right.  Sonically, its very interesting, creating a lot of space (hear big drums, the low end of the piano doubled on bass) that makes you feel engulfed in sound, and spiced with a variety of percussion.  Beck influence and hand as producer is obvious in the experimental sounds and repetitive but flowing quality of each song.  Born in London, but raised in Paris, Charlotte links to her French upbringing with a song sung in French and French vocal sections scattered in other songs.

Overall, the album is an entertaining 45 minutes and well-crafted.  Its a little dry and mundane at some points, but at these moments it would redeem itself and present an interesting instrumentation or sound that would recapture my attention.

Musical Instrument Museum

The Musical Instrument Museum seems like one of the coolest places I've seen in a long time.  It houses instruments and showcases performers from all over the world and situates them in their culture by showing how they are played and what they sound like.

Dual - Éamonn Doorley, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Julie Fowlis, and Ross Martin

This album is in the vein of my recent (and not so recent) love of Celtic music, specifically from Ireland.  It is unique in that is contains a mix of both Irish and Scottish musicians and traditions, highlighting the differences and similarities between them.  These four musicians (Éamonn Doorley, Muireann Nic Amhlaoibh, Julie Fowlis, and Ross Martin) have been playing together since 2003, two of them from Danú, another traditional Irish band I really like.  Amhlaoibh grew up on the smallest of the Aran Island, where Irish is the first language (a Gaeltacht), and Fowlis grew up in the Outer Hebrides in Scotland, where Scottish Gaelic is the main language.  Both are primarily singers and as a result, the album is comprised of twelve songs, all with vocals sung in one of their native languages.

The album plays on many common threads the two cultures share, entwining characteristics from both traditions within many of the songs.  Track 6 and the beginning of track 7, are based on traditional tunes surrounding the life of a Scottish Irish soldier, centered in the middle of the album, perhaps to symbolize the meeting or overlap of the two cultures.  These traditional tunes, and many other on the album have been recorded by numerous Scottish and Irish groups alike.

As expected, this album features a traditional instrumental lineup - small pipes, flute, tin whistle, fiddle, guitar, bodhrán, keys.  All four musicians are skilled and very proficient on one, and most often multiple instruments. The instrumentals do not simply accompany the vocalists, and in fact both vocalists play instruments in addition to singing, but they are of equal importance and often mirror the vocal melody, follow it exactly, or one of the two and then continue the vocal idea in many only instrumental sections.  The voice is used as an instrument in the purest sense in these traditions. 

This is a video of the four performing the fourth track:

Harper Simon - Harper Simon

I won't pretend that I can listen to this album and not hope for Paul Simon material with a twist, after all, three of the songs are co-written by Paul himself.  However the music sounds more like Elliot Smith, especially the vocal quality.  Many of the songs, have a Midwest quality and a country swing.  Harper blends this with his folk sensibility, well-crafted lyrics, and an array of enlisted musicians including Petra Haden, Sean Lennon, and Steve Gadd among many others.

El Turista - Josh Rouse

My friend recommended this album to me.  I love it from the first phrase - a simple repetitive bass line (repetition being one of my favorite musical devices) and then piano enters with crisp clear chords and I'm hooked.  Here's the thing about this album, cleverly titled El Turista, that really appeals to me - Rouse is playing with multiple cultures, languages, and influences.  He sings in both Spanish and English.  I hear a bossa nova rhythm and mood, and maybe its my devotion to Paul Simon, but I hear his vocal influence, interest in rhythm, and play of layers, both culturally and musically.  Its a similar concept to many Paul Simon albums and songs, a white American male playing with music outside of his immediate realm, specifically music from Latin America, both with a strong interest in Brazil, displaced from his inspiration, recording and producing the final product largely in America (Nashville for Rouse).  Where Simon was more interested in the musical languages of specific artists or groups, Rouse uses bossa nova as a whole as his muse.  Rouse's appropriation is more subtle, like earlier Simon, but equally as effective.  "Sweet Elaine" and "I Will Live on Islands" are the best example of this.  This is a good review of the album: <http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/121060-josh-rouse-el-turista>

Who Cares If You Listen - Milton Babbitt

Last week my brother came home to work on an assignment for his general music class.  He and his friend had to give a report on Milton Babbitt's "Who Cares If You Listen?" and Christopher Palestrant's reply.  I thought this would be a good chance to revisit this article and consider how a current composer might view this seminal article.  Both the original and the response are found at the following website: http://www.palestrant.com/babbitt.html

Babbitt intended the article to be titled, "The Composer as Specialist," but it was published under its better known and more reactionary title.  I believe Babbitt's title better illustrates his point.  Palestrant's article irritates me from the outset and he has clearly missed the point entirely.  He begins by criticizing Babbitt's choice of a title, accusing him of negligence for his art and work.  I find it hard to believe he would begin an argument without even a minute of research, which is about how long it to me to find out that Babbitt had different ideas about his publication than did his editors.  From the first sentence of Palestrant's article, I have already chosen sides.  I have little patience for an unfounded rant and incredible respect for Babbitt, a better established composer, and apparently with a better ability to write and craft a thoughtful essay.

Babbitt begins by illuminating the state of new music during his time, which echoes the state of our own new music.  Except for those of equal compositional endeavors, the music remains largely unheard and unplayed.  Now I regress already, coming from a school like UB where new music is a common occurrence.  Perhaps it is more common these days, but still resigned to a small academic community.  Babbitt refers to this as isolation, although it may not seem so isolated to those of us immersed in it everyday, intent on earning a degree and then remaining in an academic setting for the rest of our professional lives.

There is no doubt a giant rift between this "serious" music and popular music.  Amateur musicians used to play the latest compositions by composers around the home, but today amateur musicians are far less common, playing the music of composers from centuries ago, or simple guitar tabs from the internet.  I am drawn to Babbitt's comparison of his music to the studies of science, mathematics, philosophy, etc.  There are theories, problems, and ideas in each of these academic fields which we learn through high school, but the majority lies beyond the grasp of anyone without an advanced degree in this field.  This seems like a valid argument.  It is only because a great deal of music lies in the popular realm that the general public, or perhaps even composers like Palestrant, cannot accept that some music may be about concepts beyond 4 minutes of dancing or commiseration on the radio.  This music finds a refuge and a means of existence in universities, much like what Babbitt is calling its comparative programs of study, for specialists.  It is here that the composer can explore new modes of communication, description, and exploration without concern for public opinion influencing the path music will take.  While new music may begin largely unheard and unappreciated it has the possibility to influence and even leak into the popular music realm, for example, consider how different popular music was one hundred, two hundred and even three hundred years ago.  Who knows what we will be listening to in the years to come.

I believe Palestrant has missed the basic essence of Babbitt's article. He argues, as I understand it, that music should reflect the human perspective and transcend analysis; music is objectified in its performance and therefore cannot be alienated from an audience and performers.  He is calling for composers to cater to the preferences of these two groups so that music may continue to exist.  Palestrant seems unwilling to stretch the boundaries of music.  He is limiting it to a static existence, and it is in fact this, and not alienation which will kill it.  While audience and performers as a whole will prefer more established works, there are always those which will push for new music, a new means of expression, one current and reflective of the world in which we live.  The human experience is ever-evolving and and such composers, performers, and audiences should not complacently deny this fact and live in the past.  These works they rehash are no doubt great works of art, as evidenced by their longevity, but they at one time were viewed as unpleasant and their authors had to fight for their existence.  That's my thought on the matter anyway.

Speaking of new music and popular music and the boundaries between them, Northwestern University is holding their Music Marathon April 30th - May 1st (http://www.musicmarathonconcert.org/).

Only the Lonely - Frank Sinatra

In 1958, Sinatra released another album of loneliness and loss with Capitol Records, again the result of his, now finalized, divorce from Ava Gardner, compounded with the recent family deaths of his frequent collaborator, Nelson Riddle.  Arguably portraying a perfect Everyman, Sinatra invites the listener to wallow in close to an hour of despondency.  A song less and perhaps the effect would be broken, but after twelve sad songs in row, you can't help but empathize.  It seems that even the instruments and tempo have fallen into this trap.  Every so often the music presents a spark of hope.  I swore at the beginning of "Angel Eyes" that this album might not be complete gloom, but it really is only a spark.  Sinatra's voice overcomes the orchestra and almost seems to mock it, feigning cheer, but is quick to succumb to the real melancholy behind it.  "Willow Weep for Me" is a personal favorite.  The melody sounds like the willow rocking in the wind, a soothing image, despite his plea for the willow.  "Goodbye" has to be the saddest song on the album.  The solo opening reminds me of the haunting opening of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and at times Sinatra's voice fades out at the end of his "goodbye" like smoke into the air.  "One for My Baby" seems almost like a codetta to the album.  Set at a piano bar, hear the piano accompaniment, Sinatra steps outside of himself, coming to terms with heartbreak, with the universality of this all-to-common emotion.  He slides with the melody, gets kicked out of the bar as it closes and takes one more for the road.  The sadness isn't gone, but its time to move on and take it somewhere else.  The music fades out with a slow arpeggiated piano chord, at the low end of the piano, "well that's how it goes."

Only the Lonely was a favorite of the public and Sinatra alike.  It's easy to see why, even after a single listen.  One of the few great albums to really embodied those times when you need to immerse yourself in your sadness and only music understands.

Performance an as Extreme Occasion - Edward W. Said

Edward Said, best known to me as author of Orientalism, a staple of any class touching on the subject of the "other" or related issues (ie. class, gender, race), always surprises me with his thoughts thoughts and writings on music.  This is a book of three chapters, each a lecture delivered at the University of California as a part of the Wellek Library Lectures in 1989.  Although I believe a good portion of the text is over my head at a first cursory read, I can still appreciate his mastery of the topic and insight.  The first chapter, "Performance as an Extreme Occassion," focused on Adorno's points from various publications and Toscanini and Gould as examples of modern performance.

Adorno's points, as Said understands them, are as follows:

1. The death of Beethoven ushered in an era marked by the complete separation of music from the social and plunged it completely into the aesthetic.  Adorno believe that Schoenberg fully grasped this new direction of music and embodied it in his compostion.  Thus music became a "pure" form of cultural expression which reflected the isolation and alienation of composers from their listeners and the world.

 2. Music has relevant to other cultural studies and modern thinkers were able to link these various disciplines with music and society itself.  However, now these disciplines are no longer integrated and even disciplines within music are split (into theory, history, ethnomusicology, composition, performnace) reflecting the current fragmentation of music (into the public and the private, between composer and performer).

3. As an autonomous, "mysterious" art form, fully privatized with Schoenberg's composition (as begun during early romanticism, the gap between the public and private in music is bridged through today's performance practices.

I enjoy Said's dramatization of the performance.  He discusses everything that comprises the performance, but which occurs beforehand such as the practicing involved, ticket sales to a willing audience, time, and money all to create a single event, unrepeatable, temporal, and unable to be revisited.  This extremism of the performance is exemplified in Toscanini and Gould.   My knowledge of Toscanini was previously, and embarrassingly limited.  I knew of his connections to the NBC Symphony Orchestra and the location of his annotated scores in the basement of the Buffalo and Erie County Public Library Central Branch and that I fully appreciate his recordings of the Beethoven Symphonies, but that's it.  Said applauds his memory, command of the orchestra instruments, and mastery of the score.  There is the problem of his domination over the music, and how he manages to strip it of individuality, that of the composer or performer.  Gould is another noteworthy example, especially in the case of the disappearing composer as master performer of his own work.  This is where I wanted to attempt to tie this reading into my recent Frank Sinatra exploration, but I'm necessarily sure it applies completely.  However, Sinatra like Gould, makes his performance almost a new composition through the interpretation.  Modern performances have the ability to concurrently redefine performance practice and compositions of the past.

Songs for Swingin' Lovers - Frank Sinatra

Once again I'm struck by the command in Sinatra's voice.  It is instantly apparent that this album is much more uplifting than In the Wee Small Hours, if not from listening, from the album cover and title alone.  Another masterpiece in collaboration with Nelson Riddle, arranger, and Capitol Records, it was his fourth studio album, released in 1956.  Many of the songs were taken from films or musicals of the 1930's, illuminating an association between film and popular music presented much differently today.  I'm no expert, but I might generalize that films back in the 1930's had more diegetic musical numbers than those of today.  The actors were not only actors, but also singers and dancers.  Today, it seems to me that popular music is produced and then subsequently selected to become part of the soundtrack of a film at least more often than the reverse.  These older movies are a different breed.  Apparently Riddle and Sinatra were looking to the past to assert the cultural virtues of the standards in a changing music industry.

Frank Sinatra appeared in quite a few films in his day from the 1940's through the 1980's.  My favorite would have to be Guys and Dolls with Marlon Brando.  I also enjoy Sinatra's 3 movie stint with Gene Kelly for what they are.  These all feature him in musical roles, but almost anything through 1959 is pretty good.

This album features some classic Sinatra recordings.  Composers such as Mercer, the Gershwins, and Cole Porter are almost always standard.  "Love Is Here to Stay" and "I've Got You Under My Skin" are sung by Sinatra like no one else.  They are typical favorites, but I could listen to them over and over.  After all, they're popular for a reason.

In the Wee Small Hours - Frank Sinatra

Frank Sinatra's voice enters like a dream.  It's so rich and smooth, it's almost hard to believe he's real.  I love this album - the gloom and melancholy that pervades the room while it plays.  As a whole, its a great work of art.  It would be difficult not to appreciate his treatment and interpretation of these jazz standards.

The album starts with the title track written for Sinatra. He is lying awake in the morning - the beginning of the album mirroring the beginning the day.  This song is an apt introduction to the rest of the album.  The theme is loneliness, unrequited love, lost love, etc.  Without knowing quite how to phrase this, I'll say that there is no traditional verse- chorus format which my ears are accustomed to.  I believe its still strophic form, with a phrase or two in each strophe, usually the title repeated to bring unity to the song, but a catchy hook and a chunk of music designated as chorus does not occur in most if not all of the songs on this album.  To me, this creates more of a stream of consciousness feel.  In a way, this is a more realistic way to portray dejection, creating a more authentic bleak, despondent atmosphere.  The second track, "Mood Indigo" is a jazz piece, composed by Duke Ellington and Barney Bigard a clarinetist in Ellington's band from the late 1920's to the early 1940's.  Sinatra pulls off the jazz phrasing smoothly, and puts his own mark on this jazz standard recorded by many great jazz vocalists and instrumentalists both before and after this release.  "Glad to Be Unhappy" interests me lyrically.  It's another characteristic sad love song, but points to a human quality perhaps not always articulated.  As miserable as love can sometimes be, do we not sometimes revel in that emotion?  It does allow us, or in this case Rodgers and Hart to write a great standard with universal appeal.  Again, it's one of the many tracks on this album to be recorded by a long list artists.  The rest of the album follows suite.  Sinatra sings about his broken heart backed by the orchestra.  His voice is overpowering and follows his own tempo that in turn follows the emotion of each song, but still never abandons or pulls his accompaniment.  There are two more Rodgers and Hart songs, a Cole Porter and a Harold Arlen - all names I recognize from Ella's Songbooks.  "Can't We Be Friends" is one of my instant favorites, composed by Kay Swift and important female composer of Tin Pan Alley with ties to Gershwin.

Frank Sinatra is famed to have perfected the concept album with this release in 1955 under Capitol Records.  It is his second collaboration with Nelson Riddle, featuring darker material than that in his days of bobby soxers appeal.  The album is full of contradictions, mostly of the lyrical variety and a careful listen pulled my emotion and understanding of each song back and forth only to be left unfulfilled at the end of each song.  It puts you in the head space of Sinatra and if you can relate to the events his sings about it works even better.  Althougth Sinatra's separation from Ava Gardner clearly made him less than happy, as we can hear, it sure is appreciated by music lovers and the lonely alike.

I've got a few more Sinatra albums on deck to listen to coming up.  I could get sidetracked awhile on Sinatra.  If you get a chance to read Reuben Jackson's poem "Frank" it's a good one and mentions the album.

The rules of the game

It's been done before - blogging through a list or book. More specifically, the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die has been the muse for numerous music enthusiasts to publish their album reviews online. While I admit it's not an inherently unique endeavor, I cannot pass up such a challenge. Albums I *must* hear before I die?  If they insist, then I accept.  Less famously 1000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die is also worth considering.  This list is more eclectic, containing a greater variety across genres including classical.  I'll also be looking at Rolling Stone's The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  I'm anticipating there will be a lot of duplicates and that's just fine.  I plan on adding a lot of albums of my own interest.

There isn't an album I won't listen to at least once.  I believe everything is worth hearing.  What I hear might become the source of my next obsession, and I am always looking for new music to obsess over, or it might just be worth knowing about - something useful to add to another conversation about music.  That being said there are few things more satisfying than crossing an item off a list.  Normally a list with so many items or so would be daunting and overwhelming to say the least, but with a topic so intriguing, something I would pursue list or no list, I just can't resist.  Although I've already heard a number of these albums, I plan to peruse each book and attempt to recreate my initial fascination with albums and songs I've loved for months, if not years.  If 1001+ albums weren't enough, I also plan to indulge any tangent this list inspires me to take, relay my experiences at live concerts and shows, and discuss any additional albums I find in my lap.  That's where this blog differs.  These albums aren't simply isolated events to briefly consider and dismiss in favor of the next album, instead they will be starting points for new discoveries into the oeuvres of artists and genres previously unknown to me. Hopefully this undertaking will fill in some of the gaps in my knowledge of music history and encourage some conversation about some really great music.  So the only rule for this challenge - no rules.  Let's see where this takes us.