So, what have you been listening to lately?

[wellREDman]

This Month I have been mostly listening to The Mission

That feeling you get when you go to a small local barto check out a one hit wonder from your teens and then find out that their new bass player is the guy who inspired you to play bass in the first place  "Bloody hell. its Craig Adams ! "


after spending most of my life voraciously seeking new music, my late 40s have been charecterised by relistening to bands that I loved as a kid but havent paid attention to in years, and rexperiencing them with the ears of a musician and producer that I now have

the wonder of the internet means that this rediscovering has an amazing depth, the show below was exactly 3 days after I was one of the spiky haired ejits jumping around at the front of their Brighton show on this tour. this was the night that hearing, nay feeling Craig's thunderous basslines made me decide that playing the bass was the job for me

the funny thing is I have always remembered it as a Thunderbird and it turns out its (I Think) an RD !

[uwe]

You are forgiven to mistake an RD for a TBird - a lot of people have before. I remember when RDs came out, people would refer to them as "that new Firebird bass - heavy as a log" and I have a faint memory from discussions here that the RD was even initially slated as a new TBird model (to follow the Bicentennial reissues) and only then developed a life (and an identity) of its own.

[westen44]

"Surely, this should be considered cultural enrichment now that J.S. Bach is involved."

Now I am entirely sure it does not. 

Qualify as art I mean. 

Or maybe it does. In a post-Dadaistic manner. She even seems to be German (groan ...) which goes a long way in explaining her beginner's banjo playing; she obviously didn't learn it sitting on the patio watching her parents work the land. She meddles in art: stick figure nudes (there must be a double entendre hidden in that term, but I haven't worked it out yet) as a concept.

www.judithclara.de

"My art

The pencil is not lifted until the design is finished.
That's how I design artworks with a single line.
Main theme is the woman as a unique and fascinating being.
The focus is on the clarity of the line and the resulting female forms.
Every artwork is a unique one and thrills with its individual expression."

Fräulein Clara has certainly done away with the unjust stereotype that we strive for perfection in everything we do. Rather, her slogan is "less is more". How apt. And now put on a sweater please, you'll catch a cold.

Her poetry shows she may not be a modern Goethe.  However, she scores an overwhelming victory over him in the looks department.  Anything poetic she might have to offer should probably be considered lagniappe. 

[wellREDman]

You are forgiven to mistake an RD for a TBird - a lot of people have before.

I just feel very sheepish that the foundations of my love for this instrument turned out to be based on an error !

[westen44]

Deep Purple and Grand Funk on Playboy After Dark.

[Dave W]

And now for some real art ... Yes, I saw the movie and it made me curious about his music so I bought a few CDs. I also found the concept of piano, cello and bass for a trio format rather refreshing. The way he molds classical runs with the Great American Songbook surprised me too.

Had any of you guys heard of him before Green Book came out? I sure hadn't.

I hadn't heard of Don Shirley but Waterboy is an old traditional black folk song. During the 50s and 60s folk era it was recorded and performed by Odetta and also by Harry Belafonte but it's much older than that.



Still being sung.

[Pilgrim]

I would imagine the movie Green Book introduced Don Shirley to a lot of people who would never have heard of him otherwise.  I certainly was not aware of him, but jazz fans often are aware of jazz artists from previous decades.  It seems that jazz is somewhat more timeless than "popular" music.

[Dave W]

I would imagine the movie Green Book introduced Don Shirley to a lot of people who would never have heard of him otherwise.  I certainly was not aware of him, but jazz fans often are aware of jazz artists from previous decades.  It seems that jazz is somewhat more timeless than "popular" music.

I'm aware of artists from the past in most genres but never heard of Don Shirley, or of the movie.

[westen44]

I'm aware of artists from the past in most genres but never heard of Don Shirley, or of the movie.

"Green Book" was in the news because someone made a controversial comment during a press tour. I think that gave it bad PR briefly.  It was also in the news for beating "Roma" for best picture.  Other than that, I knew nothing about the movie until this thread. 

[gearHed289]

This Month I have been mostly listening to The Mission

That feeling you get when you go to a small local barto check out a one hit wonder from your teens and then find out that their new bass player is the guy who inspired you to play bass in the first place  "Bloody hell. its Craig Adams ! "


after spending most of my life voraciously seeking new music, my late 40s have been charecterised by relistening to bands that I loved as a kid but havent paid attention to in years, and rexperiencing them with the ears of a musician and producer that I now have

the wonder of the internet means that this rediscovering has an amazing depth, the show below was exactly 3 days after I was one of the spiky haired ejits jumping around at the front of their Brighton show on this tour. this was the night that hearing, nay feeling Craig's thunderous basslines made me decide that playing the bass was the job for me

the funny thing is I have always remembered it as a Thunderbird and it turns out its (I Think) an RD !

Thanks for that clip. I haven't listened to the Mission in a VERY long time. Brings me back. Stuff like this was huge in Chicago back in the day. I actually saw them open for Robert Plant once. JPJ had just produced an album for them. Interesting Alembic-esque 12 string guitar...

[uwe]

It's a buddy movie set in the early 60ies Jim Crow South,  working class Italian Brooklyn bouncer - Tony Lip (he of Sopranos fame) played by Viggo Mortensen - drives ultra-refined black (and gay) classical-turned-jazz-to-earn-a-living pianist - Don Shirley played by Mahershala Ali - on a tour through the South. Tony is a unabashedly racist initially, but has a heart; Don doesn't quite know where he belongs ("If I'm not black enough, not white enough, not man enough, then what am I, Tony?!" is his key outcry in the movie), but sees himself pushed again and again into the "negro"-bracket by people and times. The "Green Book" was a lodging and accommodations guide for black motorists travelling the South - places where they would not be turned away or beat up.



Ali won an Oscar for his supporting role as did the movie as such and the original script.

The film received some criticism from the Shirley family (doubting that Don was ever friends with Tony and the latter not just his employee) and from people bemoaning that it was yet another "white savior"-story. (These days you can't even make a film AGAINST racism anymore without rubbing someone in the wrong pc-way.) I didn't see it that way, if anyone was saved in that movie then it was Tony Lip who had his horizons broadened from his initial ignorant racism. (Back in the early 60ies it was easier to get someone rid of his individual racism than free yourself as a black man from the implications of the general racism all around you.)

Green Book isn't an agitprop movie (it plays in the months before Christmas and you can guess where Don Shirley will somewhat unsurprisingly end up on Christmas Eve and how a bunch of Brooklyn wops overcome their resentments when it comes to sharing food). It's quiet, told straightforward very conservatively and there are no surprising twists, but I liked it. The music - Don Shirley's idiosyncratic mix of jazz, easy listening, classical runs and gospel lovingly recreated and rerecorded by Kris Bowers - struck a chord with me.

[Pilgrim]

I really enjoyed Green Book, and am surprised more haven't seen it.  I agree with Uwe that it struck some nice notes, and told its story without waving it in your face.  I also thought the principal actors were excellent, and I believed their portrayals.

[westen44]

I'm not sure how well that movie was promoted.  The difficulty in finding accommodations reminds me of some of what was discussed in "Black Like Me" by John Howard Griffin. 

[Dave W]

Shows you how much attention I pay to award shows. Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor and I never heard of its existence.

Since Uwe brought it up, I did a bit of reading about it, and read an article about the pushback from the Shirley family. Among other things, they said the tour was a tour of black colleges and universities, not a general public tour. That alone makes a big difference. Sounds like the movie has a hefty dose of fiction along with the biographical elements.

[westen44]

Shows you how much attention I pay to award shows. Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor and I never heard of its existence.

Since Uwe brought it up, I did a bit of reading about it, and read an article about the pushback from the Shirley family. Among other things, they said the tour was a tour of black colleges and universities, not a general public tour. That alone makes a big difference. Sounds like the movie has a hefty dose of fiction along with the biographical elements.

Esquire tends to agree about the hefty dose of fiction part.  Yet, the number of times that Hollywood has done this kind of thing can't even be counted.  Hollywood isn't known for its accuracy, needless to say. 

https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a26486233/green-book-true-story-explained/