Rapping, deconstructed: the best rhymers of all time

Vox explained rap to me in Rapping, deconstructed: the best rhymers of all time:

Jazz Music and Physics Have a Lot More in Common Than You Think

Jazz Music and Physics Have a Lot More in Common Than You Think. I'm surprised.

It might not seem like music has much to do with cutting-edge physics at first glance. In his new book, The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe, Brown University physics professor Stephon Alexander argues that using music as an analogy can shed light on some of the deepest mysteries in cosmology.

Alexander is not your typical physicist. Born in Trinidad and raised in the Bronx, he developed twin passions for jazz and physics at an early age. As a graduate student, he played the saxophone in jazz clubs and mastered Einstein’s equations. It’s a unique perspective that informs his approach to both; for instance, he views John Coltrane’s seminal Giant Steps album (1960), with its trademark ‘sheets of sound,’ as the ‘sonic equivalent to Einstein’s bending of the space-time fabric.’ Gizmodo caught up with Alexander to learn more about this hidden link.

Movie Reivews: Sound of Redemption and Miles Ahead

On Sunday I went to the Coolidge Corner Theatre for a special event, Grace Kelly presents: Sound of Redemption. The movie was a documentary about saxophonist Frank Morgan, followed by a Q&A with the director and Grace Kelly who afterwards played a few songs. This is a pretty good summary of the film:

Frank Morgan was a prodigal alto sax player who, like so many of his fellow musicians of the era, saw his career plagued by drug addiction. What sets Frank apart is not just his exceptional talent, but also the amazing fact that he survived 30 years of revolving door incarceration and drug abuse and went on to a much heralded comeback career in the last 22 years of his life, during which time he served as a mentor to Brookline saxophone prodigy Grace Kelly. Morgan's story is one of brilliant promise in his youth, a journey through the depths of hell, and redemption through his art.

I didn't know of Frank Morgan before this. I also didn't know that San Quentin prison had a 16 piece jazz band populated by inmates that Morgan called the best band he ever worked with (Dexter Gordon and Art Pepper were in and out of San Quentin too). Morgan's father was a guitarist with the Ink Spots, he took a young Frank to see Charlie Parker. Frank fell in love with the sax and eventually played with Parker, learning from him not just bebop but heroin. I knew that lots of jazz musicians had heroin problems, I didn't realize that it often led to crimes to fund their addiction and not just early deaths, but regular stints in prison.

The documentary took an interesting approach around the problem of not having a lot of footage of Frank to use. They arranged for a remembrance concert to be played by people who knew him, in San Quentin for an audience of friends and loved ones as well as other prisoners. Performing are: George Cables, Ron Carter, Mark Gross, Grace Kelly, Delfeayo Marsalis, and "Smitty" Smith. Good stuff.

Right after this I watched Don Cheadle's Miles Ahead. Cheadle wrote, directed and stars in this biopic of Miles Davis. So far it's my favorite movie of the year. He had the support of Davis' family so they have his music to use, which helps a lot. But Cheadle took an interesting approach to the story.

Instead of a straight biography or really concentrating on specific event or period, he does something unique. There's a starting event, a flashback to a (rather crazy and hopefully fictitious) story which lets Cheadle act out some of Davis' famous demons then it comes back to the "present". To me at least, it gave the film the effect of a jazz song, with a statement, a bunch of improv drawing on his past experiences and a restatement. He tries to get into Davis' head and does it visually, often blending different events into the same scene. It remains coherent and while I read up afterwards to see what was true and not, I feel like I learned about Davis and wanted to hear even more of his music. It helps to know some of Davis' music (particularly the Gil Evans period) and if you do you'll know who various background characters are supposed to be, though people in the group I saw it with all liked it, regardless of background knowledge.

My Spock - Hamilton / Star Trek Parody

David Bowie’s Genre-Hopping Career

The Economist graphs David Bowie’s genre-hopping career.

RIP David Bowie

I was never a huge Bowie fan but of course there are so many of his songs that are just in the fabric of culture. I've been listening to his music all day and reading article after article. Nothing has been a more poignant remembrance than this.

There are so many layers of meaning, from being a huge song on it's own, to being a very personal creation of fan in a way that only a handful of people could actually do, to being a commentary on our advancement as a species that someone could actually do this and make it available to the world to watch (and knowing that recording studios idiotically banned it before relenting).

Federal judge rules 'Happy Birthday' song in public domain

Federal judge rules 'Happy Birthday' song in public domain

"The music publishing company that has been collecting royalties on the song 'Happy Birthday To You' for years does not hold a valid copyright on the lyrics to the tune that is one of the mostly widely sung in the world, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge George H. King determined the song's original copyright, obtained by the Clayton F. Summy Co. from the song's writers, only covered specific piano arrangements of the song and not its lyrics. The basic tune of the song, derived from another popular children's song, 'Good Morning to All,' has long been in the public domain."

Anatomy of Songs

anatomy of songs by Wrong Hands

The Story of 'A Love Supreme'

John Coltrane's masterpiece A Love Supreme was recorded 50 years ago today. Here's an NPR piece, The Story Of 'A Love Supreme'.

Lewis Porter heads the masters program in jazz history and research at Rutgers University-Newark. He's the author of John Coltrane: His Life and Music. Porter says that simple idea culminating in the first movement with an unprecedented verbal chant by Coltrane forms the foundation of the entire suite. It's a theme Coltrane consciously uses in subtle and careful ways throughout A Love Supreme. For example, toward the end of part one, "Acknowledgement," Coltrane plays the riff in every key.

"Coltrane's more or less finished his improvisation, and he just starts playing the 'Love Supreme' motif, but he changes the key another time, another time, another time. This is something very unusual. It's not the way he usually improvises. It's not really improvised. It's something that he's doing. And if you actually follow it through, he ends up playing this little 'Love Supreme' theme in all 12 possible keys," says Porter. "To me, he's giving you a message here. First of all, he's introduced the idea. He's experimented with it. He's improvised with it with great intensity. Now he's saying it's everywhere. It's in all 12 keys. Anywhere you look, you're going to find this 'Love Supreme.' He's showing you that in a very conscious way on his saxophone. So to me, he's really very carefully thought about how he wants to present the idea."

OK Go - I Won't Let You Down

Nice use of drones.

Hear Tracks From the Original Score for '2001: A Space Odyssey' That Kubrick Replaced at the Last Minute

Hear Tracks From the Original Score for '2001: A Space Odyssey' That Kubrick Replaced at the Last Minute "Film buffs are familiar with the story surrounding 2001’s iconic score. For those who aren’t privy, the story goes that Kubrick hired North, who he had collaborated with twice prior to the release of 2001, to compose the score. However, as he began editing using the classical backdrop that is now inseparable from the film, he found himself unable to part ways with the guide. To make matters worse, North was kept in the dark about the issue, and attended the premiere expecting to hear his hard work set to Kubrick’s masterful vision—sitting through all 161 minutes, only to learn that his score was abandoned in full, must have been demoralizing to say the least. Mondo Creative Director, Justin Ishmael sheds some light on the importance of the release, 'Alex North's Music For 2001: A Space Odyssey is beyond just an important piece of musical history, it is one of the best 'what ifs' in cinema history."

The site has some clips. The second one is for the space station docking sequence. It's interesting but I think Kubrick's choice is better, juxtaposing something old and something new made space travel more relatable. Still that could just be my bias for something that's now very familiar.

Why Classic Rock Isn’t What It Used To Be

So now FiveThirtyEight is applying data analysis to Classic Rock, Why Classic Rock Isn’t What It Used To Be They also came up with a list of The Biggest One-Hit Wonders of Classic Rock.

The Kinks to Reunite!

Four years ago at IFFBoston I saw, Do It Again which "Chronicles Boston Globe reporter Geoff Edgers on his irrational quest to reunite The Kinks."

Now it seems his dream might come true, The Kinks set to reunite for new album and tour. "The Kinks could reform to release a new album and tour, it has been claimed, as Ray Davies says members have resolved their differences. The band, which broke up in the 1990s, hope to release new material after a musical about their career helped lead them to reconcile. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Ray Davies, the Kinks’ lead singer and songwriter, said he had been meeting his brother Dave with a view to writing together again."

Google Music Timeline

This Google Music Timeline is limited to Google Play data but is still pretty cool. "The Music Timeline shows genres of music waxing and waning, based on how many Google Play Music users have an artist or album in their music library, and other data (such as album release dates). Each stripe on the graph represents a genre; the thickness of the stripe tells you roughly the popularity of music released in a given year in that genre. (For example, the "jazz" stripe is thick in the 1950s since many users' libraries contain jazz albums released in the '50s.) Click on the stripes to zoom into more specialized genres."

Watch Animated Sheet Music for Jazz

Watch Animated Sheet Music for Miles Davis’ “So What,” Charlie Parker’s “Confirmation” & Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”. This is an article that picks out three examples from a YouTube channel. Kinda neat. Here's one example.

James Wood Podcast on Keith Moon's Drumming

This is a few years old but this 15 minute audio clip was wonderful, A podcast with James Wood "This week in the magazine, James Wood writes about Keith Moon, the drummer for the Who. Here Wood talks with Blake Eskin about discovering the Who and learning to play drums. Wood also demonstrates—by finger-drumming—how Moon’s wild style stands out in the world of rock and roll."

Related is this article.

The Only Video of Charlie Parker Playing Live

"Here’s a historic TV broadcast of the founding fathers of bebop, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, playing together in 1952. It’s one of only two known sound films of Parker playing–and the only one of him playing live, rather than synching to a prerecorded track." (from openculture)

February Things

In addition to watching the Oscars and seeing a lot of movies in preparation for that I did a few other things in February.

I saw the play God of Carnage by the Huntington Theatre Company and a couple of days later saw the Roman Polanski film version, Carnage. It was interesting comparing a theatre and film version of the same material. The play was written by Yasmina Reza and first performed in Europe in 2006. It opened on Broadway three years ago with Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, James Gandolfini and Marcia Gay Harden. It won Tony's for best play, director and actress. It's about two couples who meet in an apartment to discuss a violent incident between their eleven year old sons. The play is in real time and covers just over an hour. The conversation starts out almost civil and then degenerates. There are a lot of fun insults but the situation does feel a little forced as you wonder why doesn't the visiting couple manage to leave the apartment. Polanski's cast (Jodie Foster, Kate Winslet, Christoph Waltz and John C. Reilly) were first-rate, so I'm not surprised they were better than the Huntington's cast. I was surprised that for a story that takes place in one room, I thought the film did a better job of feeling claustrophobic than the stage. The film set was much smaller than the stage and the camera afforded different angles. One character constantly takes phone calls to the annoyance of all the others. He steps away a bit but given the stage it was hard to tell if it was a polite distance or not. Also there was one scene where a character spoke at length and everyone else was still; I wasn't sure if it was meant to be thoughts or a pause in time or real-time. Finally Polanski added two scenes during the opening and closing credits. The first is of the incident with the kids in a park. It's a long shot and there's only music so it's still unclear exactly what transpired but it distracted me and I didn't think it was a good addition. The final shot I won't describe, but I loved it and it made up for the first.

Wynton Marsalis is doing a two year six lecture series at Harvard. I went to the third in that series, "Meet Me at the Crossroad". It was history lesson of American music up to the 1950s. He had a band on stage and played lots of examples. It was 3.5 hours long so I won't completely summarize it. There's more here. They played a lot of examples of American music from the 19th century and noted how while there was tremendous segregation, musicians just want to play good music and are willing to borrow from everywhere. As people travelled, their music travelled and in particular rhythms were borrowed. I didn't realize America invented the rhythm section. As public schools flourished in the late 1800s, people got really good music educations. He snipped that even at a juvenile prison, a 10 year old Louis Armstrong could get a first class music education and free trumpet and now we're cutting music programs from public school. Rhythms kept getting more complex through bebop and then the big bands started fading and in a post WW-II, GI-bill American, for the first time teenagers had disposable income and math and science became more important than music education and rock and roll recording companies took advantage of that.

The story of Shackleton's expedition to the south pole is amazing. I was intrigued by a performance at Arts Emerson called 69º S. The Shackleton Project . "Theatre, dance, puppetry, photography and film unite in an impressionistic, stunning and evocative series of tableaux vivants, taking us on an artistic and emotional journey that explores the symbiotic relationship between humans and the environment and reinvigorates the spirit of foregoing individual glory for the sake of collective survival." It's turns out the key word in that description was tableaux and that means very little motion. It was only a little over an hour and it felt like forever. Rather than a story it was more like 9 dioramas with four foot tall puppets controlled by people on stilts. The set was kinda interesting, but that's all that was.

I went to Phoenix to visit some friends and we spent one day in Sedona. It was my first time and yes the rocks are very red. It also happened to be during the Sedona International Film Festival so we saw three films: The Big Fix, Cracks, and The Heir Apparent: Largo Winch. The first was an effective documentary on corruption by BP and Washington in the gulf oil spill cleanup. The Q&A was helpful as they presented some of the later information in a more balanced way that I wish had made it into the film. Cracks was girls school story that lost its way and was a little week. Largo Winch is based on a comic series I hadn't heard of and is Bond-like adventure story but the espionage is corporate rather than governmental.

Most recently I saw Stephen Tobolowsky tell stories for the third time. This was a fund raising event for IFFBoston held at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. He's really an amazing storyteller, both engaging and insightful. His stories are true and they happened to him and he's led a surprisingly eventful life. I've been listening to the podcast, The Tobolowsky Files on long drives and I highly recommend it (not for kids). I get it via iTunes.

Animated Sheet Music: "So What" by Miles Davis

This is a pretty cute idea. Others on youtube.

A Trove of Historic Jazz Recordings, But You Can’t Hear Them

A Trove of Historic Jazz Recordings has Found a Home in Harlem, But You Can’t Hear Them "It turns out that one man—a jazz musician and technical genius—figured out a way. But during his lifetime, William Savory kept these recordings largely to himself. He refused to reveal how many recordings he had and what performances they contained. He let only a very few of his recordings be heard by a small number of acquaintances. Over time, the Savory collection became a tantalizing enigma to jazz connoisseurs who yearned for access to its treasures. The mystery ended last summer. Six years after Savory passed away, his collection was acquired by the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. And jazz experts were stunned. The extent and quality of the Savory collection was beyond anything they had imagined."


"The question, however, is whether that will happen anytime soon. And if it doesn’t, music fans might be justified in putting the blame on copyright law. “The potential copyright liability that could attach to redistribution of these recordings is so large—and, more importantly, so uncertain—that there may never be a public distribution of the recordings,” wrote David G. Post, a law professor at Temple University in Philadelphia, on the Volokh Conspiracy blog. “Tracking down all the parties who may have a copyright interest in these performances, and therefore an entitlement to royalty payments (or to enjoining their distribution), is a monumental—and quite possibly an impossible—task.”"