Music Taste - 2

[soroban]

The orignal thread was getting quite long.
I thought I'd start a new one.


Hello, MarkFL!

Since you appreciate guitar virtuosos, I thought I'd chat about them.

Tommy Emmanuel has mastered his guitar as a jazz pianist masters
his/her entire keyboard. .So he can play a melody line with chords,
plus a walking bass line during an improvisation. .(Meanwhile, I'm
trying to remember how to place my fingers to form a Gm7 chord.)

I was familiar with such virtuosity many years ago when I grooved
on Barney Kessel and Joe Pass, two truly excellent jazz guitarists.
Please give them a try.

 

[MarkFL]

I will check them out tomorrow and let you know what I think!

 

[MarkFL]

Hey soroban, I truly appreciate you pointing out these jazz greats to me. Both are wonderfully expressive, soulful and technically brilliant players!

My father and I used to love listening to great musicians together, and I couldn't help but wish he was here to hear these guys with me!

Speaking of jazz, back when I used to go to NYC regularly, I saw a group I really enjoyed in a well known club there down in The Village called "The Blue Note." The group was led by a saxophonist known as Illinois Jacquet. You might want to check him out.(d)

I also saw another notable performance by Chick Corea...the only time I ever saw a pianist crawl inside his piano to play it.

 

[soroban]

Hello, MarkFL!

Yes, I know Illinois Jacquet.

I went to a state music college way back then. .My roommates introduced me
to his "Blue Nocturne" and I was hooked.

I still can sing most of "Moody Mood for Love" by King Pleasure.
(There I go, there I go, there ... I go.)

 

[Deveno]

The orignal thread was getting quite long.
I thought I'd start a new one.


Hello, MarkFL!

Since you appreciate guitar virtuosos, I thought I'd chat about them.

Tommy Emmanuel has mastered his guitar as a jazz pianist masters
his/her entire keyboard. .So he can play a melody line with chords,
plus a walking bass line during an improvisation. .(Meanwhile, I'm
trying to remember how to place my fingers to form a Gm7 chord.)

I was familiar with such virtuosity many years ago when I grooved
on Barney Kessel and Joe Pass, two truly excellent jazz guitarists.
Please give them a try.

Gm7: barre on fret 3, third finger on the A string 2 frets above (5th fret).

a "cheesy" way: form a B-flat major chord on the top 3 strings (1st finger 1st fret on high E string, 3rd finger 3rd fret on the G string, 4th finger 3rd fret on the B string), leaving the D string open, and stretching that 2nd finger for the bass G on the low E string (3rd fret), deadening the A-string as you do so.

alternate method: barre on 10th fret, 2nd finger on B string 1 fret above, 3rd finger on D string 2 frets above...this is pretty high up the neck, so the barre has to be firm, and if your intonation isn't true, will sound slightly off...but a clean fingering has a certain "jazz" feel to it, since the treble is so high. recommend not voicing the low E string.

there is a barre fingering on the 6th fret, but the root (G) is inverted (you only get it as a treble note on the B string), and the fingering is dicey: you have to "double fret" the A and D strings simultaneously with your 3rd finger (2 frets above the barre), 2nd finger on the D string fret above, and da pinky on the B string 2 frets above the barre.

one way to "simulate" a Gm7 is to just do a straight G-minor chord, and slide one of the G notes down to an F before you strike the next chord, this works especially well if you're in the middle of a Gm, Gm7, Gm6 descending line (Gm6 fingerings are even more awkward than Gm7).

o gawd, someone stop me before i start rambling....

 

[ModusPonens]

I didn't read much of the first thread.

My favorite type of music is minimalism (not the subtype of electronic music, the original minimalism). Terry Riley's masterpiece "In C" is a wonderful work. La Monte Young's "Well Tuned Piano" is magnificent. Others like Meredith Monk, Steve Reich, Arvo Part, etc. are also wonderful.

I also like indian classical music, at least the very litle I know of it. L. Shankar is a spetacular violinist.

My relationship with jazz is weird, because I either love a jazz music or hate it. It's not coherent. But I love Keith Jarrett's solo concerts and also like fusion.

In rock, I like Pink Floyd the most.

 

[Deveno]

my favorite "minimalist" piece is brian eno's 2/1 (from music for airports). the idea (behind the composition) is especially appealing to anyone who knows a little group theory:

you take single notes of varying duration, and put them on loops (cycles) that consist of co-prime integers. you then watch (hear?) the direct product unfold. it turns out that just 5 generators is enough to synthesize what we interpret as "melody".

of course, john cage's 4:33 is the ultimate minimalist piece (all you hear are the brackets of the empty set). one of my favorite quotes is robert fripp's: "music is the cup that holds the wine of silence". so true...the spaces between the notes...the "phrasing" is every bit as important as what we hear. context matters.

 

[ModusPonens]

Nice to find another minimalism apreciator.

I don't think John Cage's 4:33 has to do with minimalism. I think it has to do with silence itself. It is said that the first minimalist composition was Terry Riley's "In C", and that was 12 years after 4:33. But I'm not an expert on the subject. I just happen to really like what minimalists do.

There's a piece by Steve Reich, called "Come Out". It's just an observation of what it sounds like if two tape recorders are playing the same sample at slightly different speeds. Some guy on youtube did the same thing but with Rebecca Black's Friday, playing a sample from it at different speeds

"Come Out" has no musical merit to me, but "piano phase", that's a different story! Check out this guy doing "piano phase" by himself

 

[Deveno]

i prefer "It's Gonna Rain" to "Come Out". listening to it is *weird* it's very hard to "get into it" because if you don't listen very close, it's just this set of phrases repeated over and over. but a strange thing happens if you DO pay attention, you stop hearing the words "as words" and they turn into "sounds" (that is, our brain filters out the repetitive information, and starts focusing on the "differentness").

as the sounds go further "out of phase" they start to decompose...it's like hearing an atom split into sub-atomic particles.

i'm really rather surprised there hasn't been more minimalistic music using generating methods of mathematics...for example it's well-known in the math world that even simple deterministic systems can lead to results of great complexity (conway's "game of life" and rule 110 come to mind). or, with the case of the mandlebrot set, a generating function that is easy to write down, can give rise to a set structure that is at the same time, unpredictable AND beautiful.

i did find the following example rather charming:

What pi sounds like - YouTube

 

[ModusPonens]

There have been musicians that worked with chaos theory, fractals and music. The results that I heard, in my opinion, where, although curious, unimpressive. But it's definitely a field to explore!

You must know Xenakis. My brother, the one who initiated me in the wonderful world of contemporary classical music, says Xenakis uses stochastic algorithms to write music. I don't know if the following video is the case, but it's very good!

What was the best concert you ever experienced live?

 

[pickslides]

In rock, I like Pink Floyd the most.

 

[SuperSonic4]

In the words of Dio "I am metal and I'll never die"

 

[Sudharaka]

Currently listening to Yanni. Some of my favorites are,

1) Yanni - World Dance (HD) - YouTube

2) Yanni - The Storm (HD) - YouTube

3) Yanni - Within Attraction live 2009 HD - YouTube

 

[Deveno]

you know, Yanni just isn't my thing. it's not that he's bad, he's actually quite good...i just find him a bit...homogeneous. he's like John Tesh in that regard. i suppose one could level the same critique at a lot of heavy metal bands...some of them are very good at what they do, but they can be one-trick ponies.

music is funny that way: often, we find some particular example of something one artist does, and we *like* it, and then we become dismayed when the rest of their career is just variations on one theme.

in response to Modus Ponens, the best live concert i ever attended was Pandit Ravi Shankar and Usted Ali Akbar Khan in Berkeley (i believe it was Rag Darbari, also known as "the Grand One", they performed). the Hare Krisna temple in Berkeley also used to have a weekly thing where various Indian classical musicians would perform. sometimes the audience (mostly folks from "Little Bombay" near the waterfront) would hum along.

a close second would be when i saw Oregon (before their drummer Colin Walcott died in a car crash) in college. they turned their warm-up exercises (which they referred to as the ancient Chinese tune "Tu-Ning") into a beautiful improvisation which flowed effortlessly into one of their better-known tunes. it was like seeing someone you know materialize out of the fog.

one of the more interesting concerts i went to was a Fred Frith concert. most of it was a bit...unsettling, and a hard listen. for example, he took an electric guitar, laid it down while it was feeding back...and proceeded to cut it in half. but i remember this one part, where he was shaking salt over a guitar...it sounded *just* like falling snow. something like that stays with you.

another memorable concert was the Art Ensemble of Chicago...most of the evening was more like a sound painting of the jungle, trombones mimicking elephants, tribal drums, ominous cello rumblings...when suddenly, without warning, they launched into a letter-perfect rendition of "Ornithology" (a Charlie Parker song which itself is a variant on "How High The Moon" a signature tune of (but not written by) Les Paul). it was astounding.

(and my apologies to Sudharka, i'm not picking on ya bro)

 

[ModusPonens]

Very cool.

I didn't have the same luck as my brother. He went to see Kronos Quartet playing Different Trains. He also had the honor of listening to Jordi Saval and Montserrat Figueras, something that is now impossible.

The best concert I went to was Stimmung, by Stockhausen, interpreted by Singcircle.

 

[Sudharaka]

you know, Yanni just isn't my thing. it's not that he's bad, he's actually quite good...i just find him a bit...homogeneous. he's like John Tesh in that regard. i suppose one could level the same critique at a lot of heavy metal bands...some of them are very good at what they do, but they can be one-trick ponies.

music is funny that way: often, we find some particular example of something one artist does, and we *like* it, and then we become dismayed when the rest of their career is just variations on one theme.

in response to Modus Ponens, the best live concert i ever attended was Pandit Ravi Shankar and Usted Ali Akbar Khan in Berkeley (i believe it was Rag Darbari, also known as "the Grand One", they performed). the Hare Krisna temple in Berkeley also used to have a weekly thing where various Indian classical musicians would perform. sometimes the audience (mostly folks from "Little Bombay" near the waterfront) would hum along.

(and my apologies to Sudharka, i'm not picking on ya bro)

Too bad you don't like Yanni. There's plenty of Yanni's music that I still haven't listened to, and so I don't know if I will feel the same when time goes on. One thing I like about Yanni is his usage of different music styles which gives his orchestras a unique touch.

Ravi Shankar I think is someone to be aware of although still I haven't listened to any of his music. I was never interested in listening to Sitar music, but thanks for mentioning about him I should start listening to his music in the future to see what it looks like.

By the way, as of lately I have also taken a passion out of listening to Igudesman and Joo. Do you listen to these kind of humorous things?

 

[soroban]

Hello, Sudharaka!

By the way, as of late I have also taken a passion out of listening to Igudesman and Joo.
Do you listen to these kind of humorous things?

I certainly do!
My favorite of their routines is "Where's the remote control?"

I also like two other humorous/classical groups:
. . The Mozart Group and PaGAGnini.

 

[Deveno]

Very cool.

I didn't have the same luck as my brother. He went to see Kronos Quartet playing Different Trains. He also had the honor of listening to Jordi Saval and Montserrat Figueras, something that is now impossible.

The best concert I went to was Stimmung, by Stockhausen, interpreted by Singcircle.

Stimmung is a lot easier to like than Kontakte (it sounds like someone recorded a train crash and took out all the noises that didn't make your hair stand on end).

 

[kanderson]

Lego Beer Song - YouTube

This might seem a little childish, but thought I would post it anyways.

Vat19.com's Curiously Awesome Products - YouTube

As well as this

Tiger Beer TV Commercial - YouTube

I think I might be on to something here.

Local Vocal - 90's Dance acapella medley mix - YouTube

Totally sidetracked to acapella's.

UC Men's Octet - Bohemian Rhapsody - YouTube

Tee-hee

UC Men's Octet - I Like Big Butts - YouTube

Sir-Mix-Alots x 8

UC Men's Octet-Men in Tights, Mel Brooks - YouTube

Bunch of sisseee's

Yo-Yo Ma - Bach, Cello Suites - YouTube

Cello suite

Igudesman & Joo - Piano Lesson - YouTube

I think sudharaka needs a piano lesson.

 

[Sudharaka]

Just another piece of music that I like so much. Thought you people would like it too.

 

[alane1994]

Have any of you heard 2CELLOS? They are fantastic.

2CELLOS - YouTube

 

[mathmaniac]

Mine favourite music band:COLDPLAY.

 

[Fernando Revilla]

Niño Miguel, possibly the best flamenco guitarist of all time.:

Niño Miguel "Cuevas de la Joya" - YouTube

However, nowadays Miguel hangs around the streets in Huelva, forgotten, with an old battered guitar that is always missing two or three strings:

Niño Miguel.Entre dos rios - YouTube

I think that the points (Perelman, Mathematics) and (Niño Miguel, Flamenco's guitar) belong to the same hyperbola.

 

[kanderson]

Deadmau5 - 8 bit (HD) - YouTube

Sometimes I feel weird because my music contrasts so differently from you guys lol!

 

[Sudharaka]

Deadmau5 - 8 bit (HD) - YouTube

Sometimes I feel weird because my music contrasts so differently from you guys lol!

Not a problem, I too think my music tastes are quite different sometimes. Here are some of my favorite Sri Lankan music, I know you people won't understand these but anyway I am linking them here. Sorry for the bad quality of videos, these are the best I could find on the internet. Since these songs are pretty old and the current trend in Sri Lankan music is somewhat deviated from traditional music styles of this nature, people aren't much interested in uploading them into You Tube I guess.

Meaning of the above song might be guessed (rather inaccurately) from watching >>this<<.

It seems that only one video can be embedded in one post. So to continue I'll create some other posts.

The first song in the following video is one of my favorites.

All the above songs were sung by Victor Ratnayake. This one is a one of my favorites sung by Sunil Edirisinghe. He is trying something different here, the original version can be found >>here<<.