Saturday, April 17, 2010

Apache

Hogan and I played Apache last night.

It sounded familiar when he started playing it, and he showed me the bass part.

But he couldn't remember who performed it, "Jordan?" he thought.

This is the one (Tommy Seebach) I remembered, I think I found it at Know Your Meme.

Today, he said Jorgen Ingmann And His Guitar was the version he knew.

It turns out that it was written by Jerry Lordan and first popularized by The Shadows in Europe. Bert Weedon first recorded it.

*check out this sidebar - an exchange between YouTube commenters on the Shadows performance:

wftjet: English audience clapping "on-the-beat" so typical...haha

letsaveyer: whats that meant 2 mean?

wftjet: I meant that in England it's quite common for audiences to clap on the "on beat" (beats 1&3 in 4/4 time) rather than the "off-beat" that Americans and others do. Elton John once said he made a bit of fun of this in his song "Bennie and the Jets" for example where the sound effects of audience claps are "on the beat" because that's what his English audiences always did.

OnBetamax: what did you though that "beat generation" meant? xD


wftjet: It's funny in the first few measures you can hear some of the audience is clapping on the "off beat" but most are clapping on beat. Then after a bit everyone is clapping on beat.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Tent of enrichment

I was checking the news on jsonline late Thursday night, and was confused by the headline, "Big Top hat trick started as a prank."

So I read the story, and though I had heard of the Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua , I wasn't quite sure of what it was, so I googled it.

I found a good, professional website with big-time-act ticket prices, but I didn't recognize many of the artists. So I clicked on Brandi Carlile, and boy, am I glad I did. I went to YouTube and found the first and most popular video under her name, for her song The Story. Right away it struck me as a song I wanted to learn well. And from my perspective as a lifelong music-lover and student, and my more in-depth focus on song structure and musicianship of my last year or so, I have to say this: (and this declaration may be a little over the top), but the beautiful truth and emotion that she expresses at the 2:53 mark, when taken in the context of the song, is one of the most powerful sounds I have ever heard from someone I don't know. (The feelings I associate with the sounds of my children are on a scale far beyond these measurements.)

The Story is an excellent song, musically and lyrically. Brandi Carlile is a true artist.