Trombonist with Qatar Symphony, playing “Peter Gunn”
I’m not the world’s greatest fan of Henry Mancini, but I’m probably in the top 100. I love his melodies, his rhythms, harmonies and versatility. I love his direction of a good band, which he always put together.
I also love to find good arrangements of his compositions, and was happy to find this brass ensembler arrangement of “Peter Gunn,” from the Qatar Philharmonic Brass, in 2016.
3 Comments | 
Geography - Physical, History, Jazz, Music | Tagged: Henry Mancini, Jazz, Music, Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra | 
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Posted by Ed Darrell
This song, one of my favorites, got me thinking about alternatives to the hoary old Christmas carols and songs we grew up with, and may be tired of. I collect some of these songs — not just specialty or humor, but songs that inspire, or put us to reverie.
Washington Post picked up on it: A lot of musicians make great performances of non-standard Christmas tunes.
Joni Mitchell’s “River” has picked up covers by quite a few artists as a Christmas tune.
Does it just mention Christmas, or is it really a song of the season?
For example, Sam Smith:
In a discussion of Joni Mitchell back in April 2017, here on Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub (with Paul Sunstone), I noted how people appreciate Joni Mitchell as a songwriter more as time goes on, including the use of “River” in Christmas collections:
Joni Mitchell’s fans are superappreciative, including such people as Judy Collins, who covers Mitchell on several songs.
But generally, yes, I think she’s not considered a great composer by those who compile lists of great composers, and she’s not considered a great singer by those who compile lists of great singers.
Part of the issue is that Mitchell came out of Canada as folk-rock took off. When I first bought her albums they were in the folk section; later they moved to the “pop” section (go figure). Her later albums stayed in rock or pop, even as her love of Mingus and Jazz pushed her work solidly into jazz. I’ve never seen her work listed as jazz in any recording sales store.
So she’s tough to categorize. Is she as strong or influential in folk as Joan Baez or Bob Dylan? Is she as strong in Rock as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (at least half of whom she had affairs with)? Is she as good at jazz as Ella [Fitzgerald] or Tony Bennett? Is she as good a poet as Leonard Cohen?
I think one can make a solid case that Joni Mitchell’s work is as poetic as Paul Simon’s, deserving as much attention for that reason as his. Simon won the Gershwin Award from the Kennedy Center; in 2017 I wondered, has Mitchell ever been considered? Is she less deserving than Billy Joel?
One of my criteria: I think every party I attended as an undergraduate, someone put on the album “Blue.” In graduate school, in a hotter climate, Maria Muldaur made a run (time to get away when “Midnight at the Oasis” came on); but “Blue” has stayed a turntable hit for decades. When our oldest son was at the University of Dallas, on one visit I was struck that “Blue” played out of three different apartments in his complex, at least 40 years after its release. It’s not Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” but I think it lasts longer on the play list of people who play them both.
In the past six years I’ve been impressed at the appearance of her song “River” on Christmas song compilations. “I wish I had a river I could skate away on,” she and her covering artists sing. She captured a feeling of Christmas much as Irving Berlin did, with a more beautiful melody, if not quite as hummable. Has anyone ever compared her to Irving Berlin?
Long post required. I’m not musicologist enough to do it justice, I think.
See these:
“River” has become a movement!
This one is odd; I wonder if someone did a mashup of Charlie Brown and Joni Mitchell, or if the Schulz cartoon organization really did use Mitchell’s tune.
“River” is not ready for use in churches, I think. Yet, in 2022 I saw it listed on the Christmas programs of a couple of Dallas churches, and not during the Blue Christmas services. It’s a good song for the time of year, if not the actual religious celebration.
Any other good versions of “River” you like? Any on Christmas albums? Tell about them.
Any other songs you like that aren’t the old chesnuts? Tell us about them, please.
More: Discussion of the song at Jeff Meshel’s World
Leave a Comment » | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Joni Mitchell, Music, River, Sam Smith, Writing | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Cover for a version of The Pogues, “Fairytale of New York. Wikipedia image
If you think Joni Mitchell’s “River” represents a turn to blue for Christmas songs, what does “Fairytale of New York” show?
Shane McGowan passed on November 30. He was the chief composer and singer for the song.
At the church during his funeral, an all Irish-star cast of musicians sang the song, and mourners danced. Then people in Dublin turned out to honor him as his casket wended to the cemetery. The crowd burst into tune, singing “Fairytale of New York.”
At the church:
Along the procession route:
I must admit, this is one I was not familiar with — I’d heard it before, but not paid much attention. Surprised to learn it was written and rewritten 1985 to 1987, with a first recording by the Pogues in 1987. Judging by its popularity in the UK, it’s a song we all should be familiar with.
“Fairytale of New York” is a song written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan and first released as a single on 23 November 1987[1] by their band The Pogues, featuring singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl on vocals. The song was written as a duet, with the Pogues’ singer MacGowan taking the role of the male character and MacColl the female character. It is an Irish folk-style ballad, and featured on The Pogues’ 1988 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
Originally begun in 1985, the song had a troubled two year development history, undergoing rewrites and aborted attempts at recording, and losing its original female vocalist along the way, before finally being completed in summer 1987. Although the single never reached the coveted UK Christmas number one, being kept at number two on its original release in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys‘ cover version of “Always on My Mind“, it has proved enduringly popular with both music critics and the public: to date the song has reached the UK Top 20 on fourteen separate occasions since its original release in 1987, including every year since 2005, and was certified platinum in the UK in 2013.[2] The song has sold 1.18 million copies in the UK as of November 2015.[3] In the UK it is the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century.[4] “Fairytale of New York” has been cited as the best Christmas song of all time in various television, radio and magazine related polls in the UK and Ireland.[5]
Is it a downer of a song? Voices in the lyric do not appear happy, but rather angry with each other for imagined slights that put each of them where they did not wish to be, when they met years ago.
But still the bells ring out on Christmas Day. (Remember that, if I get around to posting the Chieftans’ recording I have in mind for this series.)
I found the song in 2017 on Twitter, improbably, in something called the World Cup of Christmas Songs, sponsored by UK radio guy Richard Osman (@RichardOsman). It’s not a serious competition, and it excluded most Christmas music we all know, which tips the scales a bit, it seems to me. But here it is, and the vox populi rings out.
More:
Yes, this is an encore post. Defeating ignorance takes patience and perseverance.
1 Comment | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Fairytale of New York, holiday, Music, The Pogues | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
It’s an encore film going around — I think a Spanish bank paid to film these musicians to flash mob “Ode to Joy.” I may have posted this before.
Video created by Banc Sabadel:
This film brings joy, and God knows we need this sentiment of unity, played loudly, with a full chorus joining in, today.
Tip of the old scrub brush to Roshan Rinaldi on X @Roshan_Rinaldi.
2 Comments | Art, Beethoven, Humor, Music | Tagged: Art, Flash Mob, Ludwig van Beethoven, Music, Ode to Joy | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
I discovered the Seldom Scene within the first year I moved to Washington permanently. To me, Washington was the Bluegrass Capital of the World in those days.
At the venerable Birchmere in Alexandria, Virginia, the best bluegrass bands and performers of the day came through every week, and on Thursday nights the Seldom Scene could be seen as they seldom were.
Somebody caught this video, not at the Birchmere, but a song they often played.
Members of the 1979 Seldom Scene: John Duffey (Mandolin), Ben Eldridge (Banjo), Mike Auldridge (Dobro), Phil Rosenthal (Guitar), & Tom Gray (Bass). I do not know the venue.
Perhaps I could blame the band for discouraging me from taking up playing again. On every instrument, they were so superior to most, playing at a level very few could ever hope to reach.
Still loved them.
From the Bluegrass Library.
Bluegrass legends Seldom Scene, c. 1979. Left to right, John Duffey on mandolin, Tom Gray on bass, Phil Rosenthal on guitar, Ben Eldredge on banjo and Mike Auldridge on Dobro. Probably a publicity photo, via Rocky 52.
See also:
2 Comments | Bluegrass, History, Music | Tagged: Bluegrass, History, Music, Seldom Scene | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This song, one of my favorites, got me thinking about alternatives to the hoary old Christmas carols and songs we grew up with, and may be tired of. I collect some of these songs — not just specialty or humor, but songs that inspire, or put us to reverie.
Washington Post picked up on it: A lot of musicians make great performances of non-standard Christmas tunes.
Joni Mitchell’s “River” has picked up covers by quite a few artists as a Christmas tune.
Does it just mention Christmas, or is it really a song of the season?
For example, Sam Smith:
In a discussion of Joni Mitchell back in April, here on Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub (with Paul Sunstone), I noted how people appreciate Joni Mitchell as a songwriter more as time goes on, including the use of “River” in Christmas collections:
Joni Mitchell’s fans are superappreciative, including such people as Judy Collins, who covers Mitchell on several songs.
But generally, yes, I think she’s not considered a great composer by those who compile lists of great composers, and she’s not considered a great singer by those who compile lists of great singers.
Part of the issue is that Mitchell came out of Canada as folk-rock took off. When I first bought her albums they were in the folk section; later they moved to the “pop” section (go figure). Her later albums stayed in rock or pop, even as her love of Mingus and Jazz pushed her work solidly into jazz. I’ve never seen her work listed as jazz in any recording sales store.
So she’s tough to categorize. Is she as strong or influential in folk as Joan Baez or Bob Dylan? Is she as strong in Rock as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (at least half of whom she had affairs with)? Is she as good at jazz as Ella [Fitzgerald] or Tony Bennett? Is she as good a poet as Leonard Cohen?
I think one can make a solid case that Joni Mitchell’s work is as poetic as Paul Simon’s, deserving as much attention for that reason as his. Simon won the Gershwin Award from the Kennedy Center; has Mitchell ever been considered? Is she less deserving than Billy Joel?
One of my criteria: I think every party I attended as an undergraduate, someone put on the album “Blue.” In graduate school, in a hotter climate, Maria Muldaur made a run (time to get away when “Midnight at the Oasis” came on); but “Blue” has stayed a turntable hit for decades. When our oldest son was at the University of Dallas, on one visit I was struck that “Blue” played out of three different apartments in his complex, at least 40 years after its release. It’s not Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” but I think it lasts longer on the play list of people who play them both.
In the past three years I’ve been impressed at the appearance of her song “River” on Christmas song compilations. “I wish I had a river I could skate away on,” she and her covering artists sing. She captured a feeling of Christmas much as Irving Berlin did, with a more beautiful melody, if not quite as hummable. Has anyone ever compared her to Irving Berlin?
Long post required. I’m not musicologist enough to do it justice, I think.
See these:
“River” has become a movement!
This one is odd; I wonder if someone did a mashup of Charlie Brown and Joni Mitchell, or if the Schulz cartoon organization really did use Mitchell’s tune.
“River” is not ready for use in churches, I think. Still a good song for the time of year, if not the actual religious celebration.
Any other good versions of “River” you like? Any on Christmas albums? Tell about them.
Any other songs you like that aren’t the old chesnuts? Tell us about them, please.
More: Discussion of the song at Jeff Meshel’s World
10 Comments | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Joni Mitchell, Music, River, Sam Smith | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Cover to Thisbe Vos’s “A Jazzy Christmas.”
A December, near-Christmas episode of “Bull” on CBS ended with this one, “It’s Beginning to Snow,” performed by Thisbe Vos. In my quest for Christmas music that isn’t trite or way overplayed, this song fit in just right.
I have at least four other albums, all collections, that share the title “A Jazzy Christmas.” Thisbe Vos’s album dropped in 2015, I think. She wrote “It’s Beginning to Snow,” and (ironically) recorded it in Pasadena.
More:
Thisbe Vos, publicity photo from AllAboutJazz.com
Yes, this is an encore post. Defeating ignorance takes patience and perseverance.
Leave a Comment » | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Christmas Music, Jazz, Music, Thisbe Vos | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
The genius behind P. D. Q Bach, and the compoaser of the score to Silent Running, is 86 today. Happy birthday, Peter Schickele!
This is a mostly encore post, of course.
Peter Schickele, born 1935 in Ames, Iowa, and some hope, immortal.
May he live to be a happy, robust, still-composing, still performing 139, at least.
Some people know him as a great disk jockey. Some people know him as the singer of cabaret tunes. Some people know and love him as a composer of music for symphony orchestra, or to accompany Where the Wild Things Are.
Then there are those happy masses who know him for his historical work, recovering the works of Johann Sebastian Bach’s final and most wayward child, P. D. Q. Bach.
One need not be a classical music fan to appreciate much of the humor in Schickele’s work. But if one is familiar with classical music and the tropes of critics and artists, there will be added nuances and fits of laughter.
Shickele has spent his life having a great time in music, and spreading cheer. A life well lived.
Happy birthday!
Tip of the old bathtub-hardened conductor’s baton to Eric Koenig.
Heh. The old “encore post” graphic is really appropriate here.
Yes, this is an encore post. Defeating ignorance takes patience and perseverance.
3 Comments | Art, History, Music, Parody | Tagged: Arts, Eric Koenig, History, Music, P. D. Q. Bach, Parody, Peter Schickele | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Six months we haven’t met.
Denton composer and mandolinist Steve Horn recorded “Georgia on My Mind” at one of the second-Sunday jazz jams at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Oak Cliff back in March 2018. That’s Steve on mandolin up front, in the hat.
We can’t get back at it soon enough. Lot of room for the bassist here to pick up the game.
We get a couple of great trumpet/flugelhorns regularly, and usually a couple of good sax players — you’re welcome to bring your horn anytime, please! — but rarely a trombone. Almost any instrument you play jazz on will work.
Come for the fun, stay for the fun!
When will we be back again? Not soon enough.
4 Comments | Dallas, Jazz, Music | Tagged: Jazz, Labyrinth Walk Jazz Jam, Music | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
All Blues from Steve Horn on Vimeo.
One of the guys from our monthly jazz jam at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Oak Cliff called — needed a bass for a more regular band he puts together up in Denton. How could I resist?
The Gypsy Cats play Gypsy Jazz (will a different name come along?) — Django Reinhardt-inspired, guitar and string driven, often fast, stuff you might hear in a French cafe or at Eastern European folk dances. Sometimes they take jazz standards and adapt.
What do you think?
Sadly, A Creative Arts Studio is closing down. What has been a monthly gig for great music in Denton will need a new home.
Glad I got into it, if only for a brief while.
5 Comments | Jazz, Music | Tagged: All Blues, Gypsy Cats, Jazz, Miles Davis, Music, Steve Horn | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Cover for a version of The Pogues, “Fairytale of New York. Wikipedia image
If you think Joni Mitchell’s “River” represents a turn to blue for Christmas songs, what does “Fairytale of New York” show?
I must admit, this is one I was not familiar with — I’d heard it before, but not paid much attention. Surprised to learn it was written and rewritten 1985 to 1987, with a first recording by the Pogues in 1987. Judging by its popularity in the UK, it’s a song we all should be familiar with.
“Fairytale of New York” is a song written by Jem Finer and Shane MacGowan and first released as a single on 23 November 1987[1] by their band The Pogues, featuring singer-songwriter Kirsty MacColl on vocals. The song was written as a duet, with the Pogues’ singer MacGowan taking the role of the male character and MacColl the female character. It is an Irish folk-style ballad, and featured on The Pogues’ 1988 album If I Should Fall from Grace with God.
Originally begun in 1985, the song had a troubled two year development history, undergoing rewrites and aborted attempts at recording, and losing its original female vocalist along the way, before finally being completed in summer 1987. Although the single never reached the coveted UK Christmas number one, being kept at number two on its original release in 1987 by the Pet Shop Boys‘ cover version of “Always on My Mind“, it has proved enduringly popular with both music critics and the public: to date the song has reached the UK Top 20 on fourteen separate occasions since its original release in 1987, including every year since 2005, and was certified platinum in the UK in 2013.[2] The song has sold 1.18 million copies in the UK as of November 2015.[3] In the UK it is the most-played Christmas song of the 21st century.[4] “Fairytale of New York” has been cited as the best Christmas song of all time in various television, radio and magazine related polls in the UK and Ireland.[5]
Is it a downer of a song? Voices in the lyric do not appear happy, but rather angry with each other for imagined slights that put each of them where they did not wish to be, when they met years ago.
But still the bells ring out on Christmas Day. (Remember that, if I get around to posting the Chieftans’ recording I have in mind for this series.)
I found the song in 2017 on Twitter, improbably, in something called the World Cup of Christmas Songs, sponsored by UK radio guy Richard Osman (@RichardOsman). It’s not a serious competition, and it excluded most Christmas music we all know, which tips the scales a bit, it seems to me. But here it is, and the vox populi rings out.
More:
Leave a Comment » | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Fairytale of New York, holiday, Music, The Pogues | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Cover to “A Jazzy Christmas,” by Thisbe Vos. Image from ThisbeVos.com
A December, near-Christmas episode of “Bull” on CBS ended with this one, “It’s Beginning to Snow,” performed by Thisbe Vos.
I have at least four other albums, all collections, that share the title “A Jazzy Christmas.” Thisbe Vos’s album dropped in 2015, I think. She wrote “It’s Beginning to Snow,” and (ironically) recorded it in Pasadena.
More:
Thisbe Vos, publicity photo from AllAboutJazz.com
Yes, this is an encore post. Defeating ignorance takes patience and perseverance.
1 Comment | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Christmas Music, Jazz, Music, Thisbe Vos | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
This song, one of my favorites, got me thinking about alternatives to the hoary old Christmas carols and songs we grew up with, and may be tired of. I collect some of these songs — not just specialty or humor, but songs that inspire, or put us to reverie.
Washington Post picked up on it: A lot of musicians make great performances of non-standard Christmas tunes.
Joni Mitchell’s “River” has picked up covers by quite a few artists as a Christmas tune.
Does it just mention Christmas, or is it really a song of the season?
For example, Sam Smith:
In a discussion of Joni Mitchell back in April, here on Millard Fillmore’s Bathtub (with Paul Sunstone), I noted how people appreciate Joni Mitchell as a songwriter more as time goes on, including the use of “River” in Christmas collections:
Joni Mitchell’s fans are superappreciative, including such people as Judy Collins, who covers Mitchell on several songs.
But generally, yes, I think she’s not considered a great composer by those who compile lists of great composers, and she’s not considered a great singer by those who compile lists of great singers.
Part of the issue is that Mitchell came out of Canada as folk-rock took off. When I first bought her albums they were in the folk section; later they moved to the “pop” section (go figure). Her later albums stayed in rock or pop, even as her love of Mingus and Jazz pushed her work solidly into jazz. I’ve never seen her work listed as jazz in any recording sales store.
So she’s tough to categorize. Is she as strong or influential in folk as Joan Baez or Bob Dylan? Is she as strong in Rock as Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (at least half of whom she had affairs with)? Is she as good at jazz as Ella [Fitzgerald] or Tony Bennett? Is she as good a poet as Leonard Cohen?
I think one can make a solid case that Joni Mitchell’s work is as poetic as Paul Simon’s, deserving as much attention for that reason as his. Simon won the Gershwin Award from the Kennedy Center; has Mitchell ever been considered? Is she less deserving than Billy Joel?
One of my criteria: I think every party I attended as an undergraduate, someone put on the album “Blue.” In graduate school, in a hotter climate, Maria Muldaur made a run (time to get away when “Midnight at the Oasis” came on); but “Blue” has stayed a turntable hit for decades. When our oldest son was at the University of Dallas, on one visit I was struck that “Blue” played out of three different apartments in his complex, at least 40 years after its release. It’s not Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon,” but I think it lasts longer on the play list of people who play them both.
In the past three years I’ve been impressed at the appearance of her song “River” on Christmas song compilations. “I wish I had a river I could skate away on,” she and her covering artists sing. She captured a feeling of Christmas much as Irving Berlin did, with a more beautiful melody, if not quite as hummable. Has anyone ever compared her to Irving Berlin?
Long post required. I’m not musicologist enough to do it justice, I think.
See these:
“River” has become a movement!
This one is odd; I wonder if someone did a mashup of Charlie Brown and Joni Mitchell, or if the Schulz cartoon organization really did use Mitchell’s tune.
“River” is not ready for use in churches, I think. Still a good song for the time of year, if not the actual religious celebration.
Any other good versions of “River” you like? Any on Christmas albums? Tell about them.
Any other songs you like that aren’t the old chesnuts? Tell us about them, please.
More:
4 Comments | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Joni Mitchell, Music, River, Sam Smith | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Cover sleeve for Macy Gray’s “All I Want for Christmas.” Amazon image
This one speaks for itself, I think. From experience, I can tell you that playing this song can weed out the Trump supporters in your party attendance rather quickly.
Oddly, I think, it also brings out the dangerous elements of American society to complain about it, judging by comments at the site (go see; there are a lot more):
Grotesque comments at YouTube on Macy Gray’s Christmas wishes.
Those thought zombies walk among us. Our cross to bear.
Gray didn’t include it on any album I’ve found.
More:
1 Comment | Christmas, Civil Rights, Economics, Justice, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Justice, Macy Gray, Merry Christmas, Music | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Sufjan Stevens lists 100 of his Christmas song performances, 100 to 1; “Christmas in the Room” is #1.
Stevens’ catalog of Christmas is so large it’s a wonder any list can be made without some of his performances on it, and a major piece of work to run a radio station’s Christmas play list without several of Stevens’ recordings included (but somehow they pull that off).
Interesting artist, interesting work.
The Verge lists all 100 of the songs, and explains Stevens’ work on the seasonal stuff.
He’s the kind of guy who would record an album of songs for every state in the union. And yes, he did set out to do that (but slowed down after a few releases, and it is an uncomplete project).
Hey, confess: How much have you listened to Sufjan Stevens’s work?
You may benefit from Stevens’s other songs:
Sufjan Stevens released a 5 EP set of Christmas songs in 2006.
3 Comments | Christmas, Music | Tagged: Christmas, Christmas in the Room, Music, Sufjan Stevens | Permalink
Posted by Ed Darrell
Ed Darrell on Texas's Colorado River
Come on in, the water's fine. Come often: Cleanliness is next to godliness.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 