9 For ‘09.

As regular readers of this blog know, I don’t write very many music reviews; rarely does an album shake me hard enough that I feel inspired to write about it.  But instead of revisiting those albums and compiling a list of my favorites from the past year, I would like to showcase some other albums I thoroughly enjoyed in 2009.  Even if they didn’t quite merit a full post, the following albums certainly deserve honorable mentions.

M. Ward, Hold Time

From its finely detailed packaging to its meticulous arrangements, this is baroque folk at its best.

“I watched my old habits die and it was painful / Sometimes it’s painful in the light of the truth / But you held me fast to that light, and I wanna thank you tonight / Honey, I ain’t never had nobody like you.”  –M. Ward, “Never Had Nobody Like You”

“Jazz Lovers, Rejoice.”

A week ago, Senator John McCain stood on the floor of the Senate to rail against the “porkbarrel-laden” omnibus spending bill that is currently working its way through Congress. He rattled off the figures for various arts and cultural programs, and then snidely said:

“The list goes on and on. The next time you are in New York, go to Lincoln Center. We are spending $800,000 of your money for jazz at the Lincoln Center. Jazz lovers, rejoice.”

Click HERE for video (around min. 119). Appropriate responses can be found from Peter Hum, Jason Parker, and David Hill.  I just have a few thoughts to add.

I ♥ NY.

Point:

Counterpoint:

A Christmas Song.

This one goes out to a very special U.S. Senator.

Click below for lyrics.

Christmas Time is Near…

As a kid growing up in a Jewish home, I never celebrated Christmas with my family. We lit the Chanukah menorah, played dreydl, and helped my dad deck the halls with tacky decorations as he sang along to klezmer music.  That was my holiday season, and it was fun.  Yet I always had a yearning for Christmas.  Not for any religious or spiritual reasons, I was just taken with the secular American holiday: the peppermint candies and gingerbread cookies, the sparkling lights, even the hustle and bustle of shopping at the mall.

On Christmas Eve, when most of my friends were awaiting a visit from Santa, my family would hop in the car and cruise the Chicago suburbs, gazing at the houses decorated with lights, wreaths, and giant inflatable reindeer.  And while we drove, we listened to Christmas songs on the radio.

I loved those songs, and I am moved by Christmas music to this day.  I think it’s because those Christmas songs are the only Great American Songbook songs that are still familiar to the majority of Americans. Even as pop music marches inexorably on in search of the “new,” the core repertoire of Christmas songs remains old, stable, and beloved. The resilience of these songs is also the source of their wonderful flexibility – we all know them well enough to appreciate when a musician does something new with one. As an improvising musician, it makes me glad that this widely shared musical idiom still exists, even if we only get to hear it for one month a year.

Yes We Can! Istan.

“He’s the one who likes / all our pretty songs and he / likes to sing along and he / likes to shoot his gun but he / don’t know what it means / knows not what it means and I say…”  –Nirvana, “In Bloom”

Some years ago, I discovered a summary of my scores on an IQ test.  My scores in math and reading were outstanding; my performance on questions requiring “critical thinking” was abysmal.

One of the first math assignments I can remember involved memorizing multiplication tables. Most of the students in my class achieved this goal without difficulty.  I was, therefore, surprised to see the same students struggling with multiplication in later years.  What had changed?  Nothing, as I eventually discovered: whereas I had been drilled on the method of multiplication from an early age (thanks to Kumon, a method of learning math and reading developed in Japan), my fellow students had merely memorized the answers to multiplication tables.  They viewed my fascination with the mechanics of math as perverse; all they cared about was the answer.

Wish List.

I’m not a big fan of gift registries; however, I’ve been asked to drop some hints.  Bombs away.  I’ll even spare you the drudgery of the hunt!  Each of the following products (and product descriptions) is available at skymall.com.

Put a gift of money or a gift card inside the Bilz Pinball Game–they’ll have to win the game to get their prize!

Way more entertaining than simply putting a $50 bill inside a greeting card!  The Bilz Pinball Game has real flipper buttons and a plunger, just like a full-sized arcade game. The recipient has to get all three balls in the hole at the end of the lightning bolt. Once there, push the money holder’s win button and pop open the gift drawer. Sized for currency, check, gift certificate or a movie ticket.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope that you all have some things to be thankful for. We certainly do.

Enjoy the original Martha Graham ballet, as filmed in 1959. The whole thing is definitely worth watching, but this is the part you want.

Two New Releases.

If you find yourself wondering whether Nirvana was really as good as they’re made out to be, go to your record shop of choice and pick up their recently released live recording, Live In Reading.  I was seven years old when this concert happened, and my musical life was dominated by The Beatles, Simon and Garfunkel, and whatever else I could find in my parents’ CD collection; however, a few months prior to their Reading show, I stumbled into the living room while my sister and her friends watched MTV.  “Smells Like Teen Spirit” blasted out of the television, and I watched the video in awe: the hellish, yellow-tinted basketball court; the high school assembly-turned-mosh pit; Kurt Cobain staggering menacingly to and fro; and, above a vicious tumult of drums, bass, and guitar, a voice unlike any I had ever heard.  I couldn’t make out most of what he was saying, and what I could hear confused me.  What was “self-assured,” and why was it a dirty word?

Now, I know what you’re thinking: music videos on MTV?

In Defense of Learning the Trombone

Not how you should hold the trombone.

I’ve decided to learn to play the trombone. When I told friends this, they invariably replied “What? WHY?” Most scoffed at the idea. Some questioned my sanity, and my manhood.

Now, I understand their incredulous reactions. After all, there isn’t a shortage of trombone players. I’m pretty certain that the bands of the world are mostly NOT waiting for some heroic slide jockey to arrive, horn in hand, to fill their empty hearts and trombone chairs. But I have my reasons, which I shall attempt to articulate here.