A friend turned me on to Esperanza Spalding, a tremendous singer/bass player. She released an album a couple years ago which was a great launching point for what, hopefully, will be a tremendous career. It’s also inspiring to see musicians of this caliber able to be commercially viable, if just a little bit.
I’ve been a fan of Norah Jones since the first album and, as a performer, she just keeps getting better. Her last studio effort “Not Too Late”, however, was a truly uninspiring affair. Most of the tracks were forgettable, even if the band and her voice was spot on. She released a new album in 2009 and I basically just ignored it, which I am finding was a mistake.
She put together all new songs and ditched her usual band in favor of some new musicians to provide a fresh flavor to the music. Her passion for these songs really comes out in the recordings and her performances. Here is Norah playing Back to Manhattan off her new album, “The Fall”.
YouTube has become something I’m sure the founders had never expected, an archive of classic, brilliant live music from eras past. This bit is from a television show that used to run in the 1960s called Ralph Gleason’s Jazz Casual. Gleason was a
jazz columnist and his show was meant to deliver quality jazz and blues performances in an “intimate” (no audience) setting.
Here they captured the King on his ascent into greatness and the result is a tremendous performance. It’s hard to believe now that there was a time something like this was on broadcast television.
Wow, three days and three music videos. I swear this blog isn’t turning into a video aggregate! But, I couldn’t help but post this one.
Otis Redding is one of the greats of soul music. Every note he sang was drenched with emotion which raises another point. The state of popular music today is a sad one. From the Hannah Montanas to the Jonas Brothers to Justin Bieber (though I swore for the longest time his last name was ‘Beaver’) what is being accepted as good these days is really unfortunate. I think the shift came when adults stopped being the driving force behind media acquisition.
Parents started letting their children decide what was cool or worthwhile and there was a fundamental shift. Thirteen year olds have no clue what emotion is or what life even is so how can they connect with this kind of music. But it seems like this generation of parents (and probably others before them) have dumbed down their approach to entertainment. Whether it’s out of laziness, or ignorance or some attempt at holding on to their own lost youth we are left reeling from the repercussions.
Getting back on track, we have this live performance from ’66 with Otis in front of a fantastic band doing it right. The voice, the moves, the groove; how can a living, breathing, feeling person not connect to it?
My name is Justin Winslow and I currently reside in Austin, TX.
By day I work for the design/development firm responsible for all web activity for the state of Texas, by night I am an aspiring musician and freelance designer.
If you would like to get in touch with me please use the contact form on my portfolio site, jwindesign.com.