January 2022 – According to The Kidd

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS. 17. The Dramatic Evolution of Music. Part 2 of 3.

From Big Mama Thornton and Smokey Robinson to Bill Haley’s Comets and the Flamingos. A series of posts on the politics and culture, the structure and history of music.

Music and musicians come in all shapes and sizes. Some wrestled with God (Johnny Cash) while others created music that uplifted the human soul (The Righteous Brothers and Leon Russell). Some created great music and lived long stable lives but others created masterpieces then succumbed to despair and took their own lives (Kurt Cobain, Richard Manuel, Chris Cornell, Kim Jonghyun).

This is the second of three posts on the evolution of music. If you want a comprehensive historical overview of the history of music in a relatively short space, with some politics here and there then this is for you. World Music is simply too comprehensive and complex to be included here and I am not knowledgeable enough to do it justice. In these descriptions it is impossible to list every important performer and composition but it is hoped that a comprehensive, balanced representation has been achieved. This material is organized as follows:

POST 1 – Folk, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Gospel, Galant, Classical, Romantic, Theatrical, The Blues, Modernism and Jazz.

POST 2 – Country Music, Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll, Postmodernism, Pop, Funk, Heavy Metal and Hip Hop / Rap.

POST 3 – Rock Music

TIME LINE:

2700 BCE on – FOLK MUSIC
2700 BCE – the ancient Egyptian Orchestra – the earliest Western classical music
500 BCE – Pythagoras worked out mathematically how musical tones are created
500 – 1420 – MEDIEVAL MUSIC
1420 – 1600 – RENAISSANCE MUSIC
1580 – 1750 – BAROQUE
Early 1600’s – GOSPEL
1720 – 1780 – GALANT
1750 – 1820 – CLASSICAL
1800 – 1910 – ROMANTIC
1850 – 1918 – THEATRICAL – BRITAIN (Music Hall)
1870’s – THE BLUES
1880 – 1930’s – THEATRICAL – NORTH AMERICA (Vaudeville)
1890 – 1975 – MODERNIST
1900 – JAZZ
1920’s – COUNTRY (Hillbilly)
1940’s – COUNTRY (Country and Western), RHYTHM AND BLUES
Late 1940’s – ROCK AND ROLL
1950 – POSTMODERN
1950’s, 1960’s – POP, FOLK REVIVAL
Mid 1960’s – FUNK, ROCK
Late 1960’s – HEAVY METAL
1970’s – HIP HOP / RAP

Since approximately 1980 music has thrived and expanded into many genres and sub-genres, and into the blurred spaces between genres.

George Bush went into Iraq based on a lie about non-existent weapons of mass destruction, and he invaded without exhausting all other avenues. Estimates vary but the number seems to be in the hundreds of thousands ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War ). But what happened when the highly successful country music band The Dixie Chicks, from Texas, said that they were ashamed that George Bush came from the same state as they did? Death threats and widespread record / concert boycotts across the country music world in the U.S. happened, that’s what. Their response was to attack back with great force, musical skill and sadness in this remarkable video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pojL_35QlSI&ab_channel=dixiechicksVEVO . Note that the European country music community, however, were wildly supportive of the group.

COUNTRY MUSIC

In the 1930’s country music was influenced by Western Swing music and in the 1950’s by Bill Monroe’s Bluegrass Music. In the 1960’s Country Music was centred around Nashville but the Nashville sound went into decline when two of its biggest stars, Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves, died in plane crashes in the early 1960’s. In the 1970’s and 1980’s Outlaw Country and Countrypolitan dominated and in the late 1980’s Neotraditional came to the fore. In the 1990’s Country Music became a huge phenomenon in the US and acts like The Dixie Chicks and Garth Brooks were filling stadia. In the 2010’s there is more diversification, including Country Pop and Country Rap. This music depends mainly on a guitar sound, sometimes a steel guitar, and the songs are often about relationships, cowboy life and misbehaving men.

Time Period: Country music started in the 1920’s and was called hillbilly music, in the 1940’s it gained some respect and became known as Country and Western music then finally just Country Music.
Influences: FOLK, BLUES, Cajun, Western Swing, Bluegrass.
Some Practitioners: Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Gene Autry, Carrie Underwood, Bill Monroe, Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Tanya Tucker, Buck Owens, John Denver, Tammy Wynette, Glen Campbell, Lynn Anderson, Charley Pride and Lil Nas X.
Some Sub-genres: Traditional Country, Western Swing, Neotraditional, Country Pop, Bluegrass, Honky-Tonk, Outlaw Country, The Bakersfield Sound, Countrypolitan, Country Rap

– Johnny Cash – Hurt composed by Trent Reznor of the Nine Inch Nails. This was recorded shortly before Johnny Cash died an is absolutely devastating ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AHCfZTRGiI )

RHYTHM AND BLUES

Rhythm an Blues is somewhat hard to define, and has been associated with different genres at different points in time. Perhaps the biggest effect Rhythm and Blues has had is on Motown and Soul Music. Motown originated in Detroit (The Motor City) and it spawned some highly popular vocal groups, and many famous Girl Groups. Rhythm and Blues spread to Britain where it developed a huge following. American sailors brought American boogie woogie and blues records over to British ports, and later many great American blues artists toured Britain. First came Skiffle Music in Britain which featured instruments almost anyone could come up with (Lonnie Donegan, Ken Colyer, The Vipers Skiffle Group). Then a lot of British skiffle amateur musicians sprung up some of which later created British Blues Rock.

Time Period:1940’s to the present.
Influences: JAZZ, BLUES, GOSPEL, spirituals, boogie woogie (Albert Ammons, Meade Lux Lewis, Pinetop Smith, Champion Jack Dupree, Dr. John, Professor Longhair), jump blues, swing
Other music influenced by Rhythm and Blues: FUNK, ROCK AND ROLL, HIP HOP, Doo-wop, Ska, Disco, Soul
Some Practitioners: Louis Jordan, Ruth Brown, Big Mama Thornton, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, Whitney Houston, Rihanna, Bruno Mars, Prince, The Weeknd, Destiny’s Child, Mary J. Blige, The Supremes, The Temptations, Sam and Dave, Smokey Robinson and the Miracles, The Jackson Five, Ray Charles, Mary Wells, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Jose Feliciano, Stevie Wonder.
Some British Rhythm and Blues Practitioners: Cyril Davies, Alexis Korner, John Mayall, The Animals, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Manfred Mann, The Yardbirds, The Spencer Davis Group, The Pretty Things, The Moody Blues, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Long John Baldry, Ten Years After, The Jeff Beck Group, Jools Holland’s Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.

– The Temptations – Papa Was a Rolling Stone ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XYPE7rZkYRg

– Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra, with Sam Moore (of the Soul legends Sam and Dave) and Sam Brown (daughter of Rock and Roller Joe Brown) – Together We Are Strong – Sam was 67 in this clip and as energetic as ever ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylcoON2b13M ).

ROCK AND ROLL

This combines the energy of gospel and the beat of rhythm and blues, and it is aggressive and subversive. It was condemned by the establishment because it was tapping into uncontrollable feelings, particularly sexual, at a very conservative time. The first rock and roll record with wide influence was Bill Haley’s ‘Rock Around the Clock’. The mainstream culture was scared to death of anyone questioning the status quo so Elvis Presley was mocked by the mainstream at first but he was then co-opted and tamed. White Americans were appalled by teenagers loving so-called rock and roll race records by black Americans (Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Fats Domino). In the US in the 1950s blacks and whites were to a great extent segregated in the US but then white teenagers started listening to what used to be called race music – white teenagers loved it because it was more interesting, complex, adventurous and generally superior to the formulaic mainstream safe pop music of white America.

Time Period:Late 1040’s to the Late1950’s.
Influences: POP, COUNTRY, GOSPEL, RHYTHM AND BLUES, boogie woogie, jump blues.

When British rock and rollers and rhythm and blues bands such as The Beatles and the Rolling Stones toured the US the mainstream also made fun of their long hair and ridiculed and insulted them as people, ignoring their formidable musical talent. People like old school drummer superstar Buddy Rich called their music simple and primitive even though many of those he attacked would go on to create music far more creative, complex and innovative than anything Buddy Rich ever did. For years Dick Clark’s Bandstand show had mainly white middle-class performers and teen dancers. Along came Soul Train and it blew Bandstand out of the water. Soul Train, with mainly African-American performers and dancers, was far more interesting than Bandstand.

RICHARD VALENZUELA WHO HAD TO GO BY THE NAME RITCHIE VALENS. HE DIED AT THE AGE OF SEVENTEEN.
By [1], Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25108255

Rock and roll declined when at about the same time Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper died in a plane crash, Eddie Cochran died in a car crash, Chuck Berry was imprisoned for having sex with a fourteen year old, Elvis Presley was drafted into the army, Little Richard became a preacher, and Jerry Lee Lewis married his thirteen year old cousin. Rock and Roll was primarily an American invention but it quickly died when The Beatles spearheaded The British Invasion of America. Ironically, many of the British bands, including The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, loved American rock and roll and soul records, that is the records of African-Americans. They covered the songs of their idols and gave new life to black Americans who had been shunned by racist America. Many of the white British bands ended up being musically and culturally far better than any of the mainstream American white bands, but it was the African-Americans (e.g. James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Tina Turner) who gave the Brits a run for their money.

Some Practitioners: Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Little Richard, The Everly Brothers, Bo Diddley, Fats Domino, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison, Eddie Cochran and Gene Vincent.

Some Sub-genres: Rockabilly (Carl Perkins, Ronnie Hawkins), Doo Wop (Dion and the Belmonts), British Rock and Roll (Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard, Marty Wilde, Adam Faith, Billy Fury, Joe Brown).

– Bill Haley and the Comets – Rock Around the Clock– Haley was almost thirty when he recorded this teenage anthem – ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgdufzXvjqw ).

– Bo Diddley – Hey Bo Diddley in 1965 – ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeZHB3ozglQ )

– Marty Wilde – Money in 1964. Compare this to the James Brown clip (under FUNK) from the same year. This is not very wild ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKqk0kqXHqA .

POSTMODERNISM

Postmodernism abandons modernism without really rejecting it. It does reject structural unity and it loves contradiction and randomness, but it tries to respond to cultural and political changes. It welcomes a wide variety of musical styles and traditions yet it has no substance or personality of its own and as such is on the musical fringes and is largely irrelevant. Postmodernist compositions combine different kinds of music. Postmodernism includes experimental music and general musical chaos.

Time Period: 1950 to the present
Influences: Modernism
Sub-genres: Hypermodernity, Metamodernism, Posthumanism, Postmaterialism, Post-Postmodernism, Post-Structuralism
Some Practitioners: Pierre Boulez, Gyorgy Ligeti, Brian Eno, John Tavener, John Cage, Philip Glass

– Tenebrae Choir – The Lamb by John Tavener ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-mSmEfLmZc )

POP

This kind of musicemerged first in 1914 and in the early decades it came out of Broadway, Tin Pan Alley and Hollywood films. In the mid-1960’s pop expanded enormously and became rock music though there are many tracks that could be called either pop or rock. This is comfortable mainstream music designed to appeal to a large audience. Many teen idols were pop singers, singing about teen issues such as love / sex, alcohol, school and fast cars.

Time Period:1914 to the present
Sub-genres: Classic Pop, Teen Pop, Crooners, Modern Pop, Dance, Doo Wop, Surf, Skiffle, Mersey Beat, Britpop, Australian Pop, Brill Building, bubblegum, Experimental Pop
Some Early Pop Singers: Al Jolson, Josephine Baker, Rosemary Clooney, Marlene Dietrich, Bing Crosby, Dinah Shore, Judy Garland, Carmen Miranda, Ethel Merman, Edith Piaf, Ethel Waters, Lena Horne
Some Later Pop Singers: Nat King Cole, Tony Bennett, Perry Como, Peggy Lee, Patti Page, Doris Day, Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Matt Monro, Bobby Darin, Barbra Streisand, Sammy Davis Jr., Andy Williams, Liza Minelli, Julie Andrews, Eartha Kitt, Vicki Carr, Cleo Laine, Billie Eilish, Fiona Apple, Grace Jones, Kate Bush, Beck, Kylie Minogue, Amy Winehouse, Taylor Swift, Myoshi Umeki, Dusty Springfield, Linda Ronstadt, Diana Krall, Lady Gaga, The Righteous Brothers, Pat Benatar
Some Teen Idols: Frank Sinatra, Connie Francis, Leslie Gore, Paul Anka, Frankie Avalon, Fabian, Bobby Rydell, Ricky Nelson, Tommy Sands, Bobby Vee, David and Shaun Cassidy, Hanson, The Monkees, Britney Spears, Avril Lavigne, Christine Aguilera, Ashlee Simpson, Justin Bieber, Momoiro Clover Z, The Jonas Brothers, Pat Boone, The Spice Girls.
Some Boy Bands: The Jackson Five, N Sync, New Kids on the Block, Bay City Rollers, Backstreet Boys, One Direction, BTS, Menudo, Boyz II Men, Take That, The Osmonds
Some Male Vocal Groups: barbershop quartets – The Ink Spots, The Ames Brothers, The Mills Brothers, The Crew-cuts, The Four Freshmen, The Flamingos, The Four Lads, The Lettermen.
Some Girl Groups (1950’s) – The Supremes, The Shangri-Las, The Chiffons, The Shirelles, The Crystals, The Chordettes, The Dixie Cups. There have been hundreds of Girl Groups for decades, particularly in Asia (Korea, Japan, Malaysia, The Philippines, Hong Kong, Russia), most European countries, Canada and Mexico, and even in South Africa, Serbia and Lebanon. For an exhaustive list here is the link – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_girl_groups
Some Female Vocal Groups: The Andrews Sisters, The McGuire Sisters, The King Sisters, The Lennon Sisters, The Spice Girls, TLC, Destiny’s Child, Bananarama, The Pointer Sisters, En Vogue, Atomic Kitten, The Boswell Sisters, Salt-N-Pepa, Shakespeare’s Sister, Sister Sledge. There have also been various bands in which all the members play instruments and they are all female (e.g. Fanny, The Bangles, The Go-Gos) going back to the 1920’s with the Ida Cox band. They play serious adult music and so would not be considered pop groups.
Some The Mersey Beat: The Beatles (with and without Ringo Starr), Rory Storme and the Hurricanes (with Ringo Starr), Gerry and the Pacemakers, The Remo Four, Kingsize Taylor and the Dominoes, Billie J. Kramer and the Dakotas, Derry and the Seniors.
Some Bands in the British Invasion: The Beatles (with Ringo Starr), The Rolling Stones, Freddie and the Dreamers, Herman’s Hermits, The Dave Clark Five, Chad and Jeremy, Peter and Gordon.
Some Britpop Bands: Blur, Oasis, Suede, Pulp.
Some K-Pop Bands: BTS, H.O.T., TVXQ, BoA, 2NE1, 2PM, MBLAQ, Wonder Girll.

– Judy Garland – Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Garland was 17 here. Listen to the lyrics given that she died at the age of 47 after a long history of substance abuse ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSZxmZmBfnU )

– BTS is a highly-disciplined hard-working Korean boy band who emerged as a powerfully successful force after breaking out of the predictable pattern of K-Pop with their rebellious, honest lyrics – Butter – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WMweEpGlu_U&ab_channel=HYBELABELS

– The Pointer Sisters – Jump – https://www.youtube.com/watch ? v=uyTVyCp7xrw&ab_channel=PointerSistersVEVO

FUNK

Funk isn’t very interested in the melody or the chord progressions so important to other kinds of music. Funk stresses the drums and bass line, it’s danceable and there is typically one strong rhythmic groove with other sub-grooves weaving in and out. Minor chords are typical (with added sevenths, elevenths) along with dominant seventh chords (with added ninths and thirteenths). It started with James Brown using a signature groove that emphasized the first beat of each measure (the downbeat). Sly and the Family Stone, Parliament-Funkadelic and others developed Brown’s innovations further.

Time Period:Mid-1960’s to the present.
Influences: soul, JAZZ, RHYTHM AND BLUE
Some Practitioners: James Brown, Prince, The Commodores, Earth Wind and Fire, Isaac Hayes, The Isley Brothers, KC and the Sunshine Band, Fela Kuti, Curtis Mayfield, Tower of Power, Sly and the Family Stone, George Clinton, Parliament-Funkadelic, Herbie Hancock, Rick James, Tom Tom Club, Cameo, Living Colour, Terence Trent D’Arby, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Ohio Players, Outkast, The Bomb Squad.
Some Sub-genres: Psychedelic, Jazz Funk, Synth, Nu-Funk, Disco, Avant-Funk, Go-Go, Electro-Funk, Funk Metal, G-Funk, Timba Funk, Funk Jam

– James Brown’s band and backup singers were highly disciplined and if any of them missed a beat or a cue during a show Brown fined them heavily afterwards. If you don’t want to watch this entire clip at least start at the 6 minute 30 second mark and watch to the end to get a feel for the time. This is 1964 and yet listen to how sustained the audience screaming is (e.g. at the 12 minute 50 second mark). Notice how Brown interacts with his audience, which no one else did back then. An act like this was far more dramatic than any white act at the time, and it made Elvis Presley look tame and silly. At this particular show the next act was a British band few had heard of at the time as they were trying to become known in America. That band was The Rolling Stones. Mick Jagger tells the story that when Brown was on Jagger was watching carefully in the wings. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing it was so energetic and dramatic, and he seriously thought about not going on it was such a tough act to follow. From then on Jagger completely changed his stage act to try and be as good as Brown. Here is the clip ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-E0X2JxCs4 ),

– Prince – Kiss ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9tEvfIsDyo )

One of the dozen best videos I have ever come across is one by a band named Disturbed. Strangely enough the song is an old Simon and Garfunkel song that Paul Simon wrote and which was the duo’s first hit. Disturbed’s version is far darker, the lead vocalist David Draiman has an incredible vocal range and voice control. The excellent keyboard work on this track is done by one of two members of the group who were also computer programmers using software with sequencers and synthesizers. The image of the musical ark at the end is a great metaphor for the evolution of music itself. The track is called The Sound of Silence – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9Dg-g7t2l4&ab_channel=Disturbed

Now take a look at this track called One – ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NgoGTN1lEo8&ab_channel=FilidaPalomo )

Heavy Metal music has a reputation for being pretty straight ahead loud and violent with little subtlety. My hope is that these two heavy metal tracks will dispel some of the stereotypes. The first track’s music style isn’t all that typical of heavy metal but the oppressive images and nihilistic lyrics are very heavy metal. The second track is by Metallica with The San Francisco Symphony Orchestra conducted by Michael Kamen who died all too young from multiple sclerosis.

*FOXY BROWN 1998*
*By Mika-photography – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=38408849*

Time Period:1970’s to the present.
Influences: FUNK, RHYTHM AND BLUES, JAZZ, scat singing, talking blues, reggae, disco, dub.
Some Practitioners: Foxy Brown, Grandmaster Flash, Run-DMC, L.L. Cool J., Public Enemy, Nas, NWA, Eminem, A Tribe Called Quest, Tupac Shakur, Notorious B.I.G., Puff Daddy, 50 Cent, Queen Latifah. Lil’ Kim, Ice-T, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Wu-Tang Clan, Drake.
Some Sub-genres: Old School, Gangsta Rap, West Coast Hip Hop, East Coast Hip Hop, Alternative, Experimental, Hardcore, Industrial, Psychedelic, Political, Mafioso, Jerkin, Hardcore, Nerdcore, Snap, Trap, Phonk, Crunk, Mumble. Freestyle, Bounce, Native American, Christian, Chill, Country Rap, Jazz Rap, Rap Metal, Rap Opera, Rap Rock, Reggaeton, Soul Rap, Pop Rap. Cumbia, Ragga, Low Bap, Merenrap, Nuyorican, Emo, Glitch, Wonky, Grebo, Hip House, Hiplife, Hyphy, Brick City Club, Chicano Rap, Desi Hip Hop, and many other Hip Hop varieties internationally.

– 2Pac – Dear Mama – Tupac Shakur was 25 when he was murdered. His mother, Afeni, named Tupac after Tupac Amaru II, a descendent of Tupac Amaru, the last Incan ruler. Both of Tupac’s parents were prominent Black Panthers ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mb1ZvUDvLDY ).

NEXT POST -THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1966 to 2022 – From troubadours who die before they reach Bombay to wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.

PLEASE NOTE: I have attempted to include a wide range of music in these posts, including music I don’t like but which is important or demonstrates a musical idea well. Almost any piece of music is interesting in some way. I recommend at least sampling all the music here – you might be pleasantly surprised. At least check out specific sections of compositions which I have identified. If you don’t like a clip just stop and jump to the next clip.

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS

Posts already posted or still being planned as we speak:

STAND TO ATTENTION, OR ELSE – Anthems, National and Unofficial. From Black Power to one small flower of eternity, from Oceania ‘Tis of Thee to Lift Every Voice and Sing – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/09/22/music-to-your-ears-1-stand-to-attention-or-else/
WHY? – Twenty-five purposes and functions of music. From Pressed Rat and Warthog to Rainy Day Women Number Twelve and Thirty-five, from propaganda to religion, labour relations to storytelling – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/09/29/music-to-your-ears-2-why/
LISTEN UP – Things to listen for when you listen to a piece of music. From Kashmir to Vine Street, St. James Infirmary to Scarborough Fair – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/06/music-to-your-wars-3-listen-up/
THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE – Silly and Satirical Songs. From vegetables to metaphysical dogma, inebriated philosophers to short people – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/14/music-to-your-ears-4-the-bright-side-of-life/
THE COMPLEXITIES OF WAR – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/21/music-to-your-ears-5-the-complexities-of-war/
HOMELAND AND LIFE: A Case Study – An examination of the recent explosive viral video Patria y Vida – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/27/music-to-your-ears-6-homeland-and-life/
REALITY CHECK – From Kristallnacht to the Long March, massive floods and burning rivers, Wounded Knee to the École Polytechnique – Music memorializing real events – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/music-to-your-ears-7-reality-check/
CINEMATIC MUSIC – From the Squid Game to the Witcher in the heat of the night in the darkest depths of Mordor – how music offers an added dimension to the cinematic experience – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/10/music-to-your-ears-8-cinematic-music/
DRAMATIS PERSONAE – From Nelson Mandela to Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman to Sally Ride – Music celebrating real people – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/17/music-to-your-ears-9-dramatis-personae/
THE BEATLES – GOOD, BAD AND WRONG – From The Rolling Stones to Pete Best, from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to the Walrus – things about The Beatles rarely said but which need to be said – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/22/music-to-your-ears-10-the-bad-the-good-and-the-wrong/
MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT – From the King to the Kid, Uncle Son to Joe Hill – music from the extremes of the political spectrum – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/music-to-your-ears-11-music-right-and-left/
MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT REDUX – Further thoughts about MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/12/08/music-left-and-right-redux/
DANCE TO THE MUSIC – From Slim and Slam to ring shouts and the macabre. – dances political, religious and silly – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/?p=5344
STREAMING AUDIO – Third Stream Music from Bach as Rock to Yiddish Reggae – deftly combining broad categories of music – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/01/05/music-to-your-ears-14-streaming-audio/
INVISIBLE VIRTUOSI – The secret musicians everyone has heard but no one has heard of – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/01/12/music-to-your-ears-14-invisible-virrtuosi/
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 2700 BCE to 1900 CE – From a Satanic violinist to a blues master who sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/01/19/music-to-your-ears-16-the-dramatic-evolution-of-music-part-1-of-3/
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1900 to 1980 CE – From Big Mama and Smokey to Bill Haley’s Comets and the Flamingos.
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1966 to 2022 – From troubadours who die before they reach Bombay to wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
HEAVEN, HELL AND UTOPIA. Part 1 of 2.
HEAVEN, HELL AND UTOPIA. Part 2 of 2.
Musical Families – musical dynasties

GHOST STORIES. In preparation as a break from the endless music posts, these are stories about people no longer alive who did important and amazing things, sometimes risking their lives, but were largely unknown or are now forgotten. From the ENIAC Girls and the Zamani Soweto Sisters to The Wrecking Crew and master magician and charlatan nemesis Harry Houdini and his secret operatives.

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS. 16. The Dramatic Evolution of Music Part 1 of 3.

From a Satanic violinist to a blues master who sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads. A series of posts on the politics and culture, the structure and history of music.

Compare this ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHSL0Wvyf3k&ab_channel=TheLastOfTheRockstars ) with this ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9CHNJSxvPI&ab_channel=FirasRada ) 3400 years separate these two musical works. Think about what the guitars can do in the first case (at 2 minutes 47 seconds) compared with the second. Think about what a concert would be like in 1400 BCE and 2016 CE. How are the two works the same? Stroll down the corridors of musical history and you will encounter a charismatic personality whose audiences succumbed to his charms in rapturous ecstacy (Franz Liszt) and a thunderous figure pacing the Austrian fields screaming and roaring as he composed his momentous Ninth Symphony after his ability to hear was gone (Beethoven). Some figures you might meet created great music before dying frighteningly young (Amadeus Mozart, Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Amy Winehouse).

This is the first of three posts on the evolution of music. If you want a comprehensive historical overview of the history of music in a relatively short space, with some politics here and there then this is for you. World Music is simply too comprehensive and complex to be included here and I am not knowledgeable enough to do it justice, as wonderful as it is. In these descriptions it is impossible to list every important performer and composition but it is hoped that a comprehensive, balanced representation has been achieved. This material is organized chronologically as follows:

POST 1 – Folk, Medieval, Renaissance, Baroque, Gospel, Galant, Classical, Romantic, Theatrical, The Blues, Modernism and Jazz.

POST 2 – Country Music, Rhythm and Blues, Rock and Roll, Postmodernism, Pop, Funk, Heavy Metal and Hip Hop / Rap.

POST 3 – Rock Music

TIME LINE:

2700 BCE on – FOLK MUSIC
2700 BCE – the ancient Egyptian Orchestra – the earliest Western classical music
500 BCE – Pythagoras worked out mathematically how musical tones are created
500 – 1420 – MEDIEVAL MUSIC
1420 – 1600 – RENAISSANCE MUSIC
1580 – 1750 – BAROQUE
Early 1600’s – GOSPEL
1720 – 1780 – GALANT
1750 – 1820 – CLASSICAL
1800 – 1910 – ROMANTIC
1850 – 1918 – THEATRICAL – BRITAIN (Music Hall)
1870’s – THE BLUES
1880 – 1930’s – THEATRICAL – NORTH AMERICA (Vaudeville)
1890 – 1975 – MODERNIST
1900 – JAZZ
1920’s – COUNTRY (Hillbilly)
1940’s – COUNTRY (Country and Western), RHYTHM AND BLUES
Late 1940’s – ROCK AND ROLL
1950 – POSTMODERN
1950’s, 1960’s – POP, FOLK REVIVAL
Mid 1960’s – FUNK, ROCK
Late 1960’s – HEAVY METAL
1970’s – HIP HOP / RAP

Since approximately 1980 music has thrived and expanded into many genres and sub-genres, and into the blurred spaces between genres.

NATALIE MacMASTER AND DONNELL LEAHY IN 2018.
By Tabercil – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69977238

FOLK MUSIC

Folk music often goes with folk dancing, all part of folklore. Traditional folk music tends to be transmitted orally in previous centuries and the composers of folk music are usually unknown. Folk music often deals with historical and personal events, and the seasonal cycle. Contemporary folk music after World War Two included copyrighted songs recorded by known composers. Folk music is the music of folks, the music of the majority of the people, so there is a huge overlap with World Music or roots music. It is often very politically subversive and honest, and the best of it rests on theoretical foundations, such as Marxist labour songs. In China it was raised to a higher level with the appearance of the Maoist era opera The East is Red directed by Ping Wang in 1965.

Time Period : Its origins are uncertain, lost in the mists of time. There was a major Folk revival in the 1950’s and early 1960’s.
Other music influenced by Folk Music:: COUNTRY, GOSPEL, RHYTHM AND BLUES
Some Practitioners: Gordon Lightfoot, John Allan Cameron, Joni Mitchell, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, The Chieftains, The Rankin Family, Natalie and Buddy MacMaster, Murray McLauchlan, Ashley MacIsaac, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Stan Rogers, The Fisk Jubilee Singers, Susan Aglukark, The Carter Family, Bob Dylan, Leahy, Bruce Springsteen, Chumbawamba, Pentangle, Donovan, The Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span, The Pogues, Billy Bragg and Ewan MacColl. Haydn, Brahms, Bartok and other classical composers have also used folk melodies in their compositions.
Some Sub-genres: Acadian, Irish-Canadian, First Nations, Spirituals, Work Songs, Sea Shanties, Cowboy Songs, Railroad Songs, Appalachian, Cajun.

– Chumbawamba sing about the 1911 Idris soft drink factory strike in Wales – Idris Strike Song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHC-m0iKS4o&ab_channel=Chumbawamba-Topic

RICHARD THE LION HEART
By Adam Bishop – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17048652

MEDIEVAL MUSIC

Often consisting of Gregorian chants and many-voiced works, this music was both religious and secular, including both songs and instrumentals using European instruments which had been adopted from Islamic instruments. During this period the foundations of early music theory and notation were established. They also worked out the patterns of tones and semitones that are used to construct the different modes / scales. Troubadours (highly trained poets, singers and instrumentalists) also travelled the land.

Time Period: 500 to 1420 CE.
Some Composers: Kassia, Hucbald, Hildegard of Bingen, Richard the Lion Heart, Johannes Hadlaub.
Some Troubadours: Aires Nunes, Cadenet, Denis of Portugal, Martin Codax, William IX of Aquitaine.

– Monks singing a Gregorian chant entitled Sweet Jesus in a Catholic Benedictine Seminary ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBwh1OXw6uI ).

RENAISSANCE MUSIC

Musical notation developed further during this period, the first opera was written and with the invention of the printing press in 1493 music became more widely distributed. Music education improved and a greater demand for music as entertainment evolved. Secular music in the form of the chanson and madrigal were popular, and early versions of the violin, guitar, trombone, bassoon and keyboard instruments appeared. The most prominent musician of the day was John Dunstable, who was also an eminent mathematician and astronomer; he died on Christmas Eve 1453.

Time Period: 1420 to 1600
Some Composers: John Dunstable, Josquin des Prez, William Byrd, Pierluigi da Palestrina, Jacob Obrecht, Christopher Tye, Claudio Monteverdi, Jacques Arcadel

– The Icelandic Downtown Quartet – ‘Il Bianco e Dolce Cigno’ by Jacques Arcadelt ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUH11wqPRfU )

BAROQUE MUSIC

This period saw the rise of complex counterpoint (contrapuntal) music in which several melodies wove in and out of each other in fugues and other forms. The greatest master of this art was Johann Sebastian Bach and several of Bach’s sons also became prominent composers. However neither one of his daughters, Lucia Elisabeth or Johanna Maria, were encouraged to develop what musical talent they might have had. What a surprise. Harpsichords and church organs were the dominant musical instruments, two new instruments appeared on the scene (the piano and the cello) and new forms of music become popular, e.g. the cantata, oratorio, concerto, and sonata. Composers were usually either church musicians or court musicians.

Time Period: 1580 to 1750
Some Composers: J.S.Bach, Henry Purcell, Antonio Vivaldi, George Frederick Handel, Barbara Strozzi, Georg Philipp Telemann.

– Baroque Brass of London – March for the Funeral of Queen Mary by Henry Purcell ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xWRcx9LHBJU )

– Sky – Toccata in D Minor by Johann Sebastian Bach, a piece often heard during horror movies ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgbgUrp1a70&list=TLPQMDEwOTIwMjCgJ3jJT1z-3A&index=53 )

SISTER ROSETTA THARPE. GOSPEL SINGER TURNED ROCK AND ROLL PIONEER
By James J. Kriegsmann – The photo was first published as a publicity photo.Original source: Scan of the full original publicity photo via WorthPoint. A crop of this scan can be found in the upload history below as additional verification of the lack of copyright notice.Instant source: Scan via PBS American Masters photo gallery, which reproduces a copy of the original photograph held by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=101555793

GOSPEL MUSIC

This is intensely religious music, it is rhythmic and loud, sometimes featuring call and response, often with a cappella singing, hand clapping and foot stomping. It has been incredibly important in the culture of African-Americans as they continue their battle against the deep-seated racism they must still face day to day. The wonderful enthusiasm of gospel music, compared with Christian religious music, is captured succinctly by Eddie Izzard – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuEuY4BUMfM&ab_channel=Carmen . After World War Two Gospel Music moved into giant auditoriums, concerts became very elaborate, often televised, particularly in the southern US.

Time Period: The Early 1600’s to the present
Influences: Christian hymns, spirituals
Other music influenced by Gospel Music: RHYTHM AND BLUES, ROCK AND ROLL, COUNTRY, soul
Some Composers: George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Fanny Crosby.
Some Practitioners: Mahalia Jackson, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, The Fisk Jubilee Singers, The Fairfield Four, The Dixie Hummingbirds, The Five Blind Boys of Mississippi, The Golden Gate Quartet, Thomas Dorsey, The Crabb Family, The Mercy River Boys, The Oak Ridge Boys.

– Albertina Walker – Don’t Let Nobody Turn You Around ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cHczWerrfFY )

GALANT MUSIC

This was a transition period between Baroque and Classical music. It was a return to simple music after the complicated music of the Baroque period. The music was more personal and sensitive. This was urban music not court music, and was dominant in Venice, Paris, Berlin and Dresden.

Time Period: 1720’s – 1770’s
Some Composers: Carlos Seixas, Giuseppe Tartini, Johann Stamitz, the early music of W.A.Mozart.

– Australian Romantic and Classical Orchestra – Sinfonia a Quattro in A Major by Johann Stamitz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4ZGe7CbkQw )

W.A MOZART. PAINTING BY JOSEPH LANGE.
By Joseph Lange – http://www.mozartforum.com/images/Mozart_(unfinished)_by_Lange_1782.jpg, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1068061

CLASSICAL MUSIC

Musical forms become standardized, and continued to be simple and definite, yet also dramatic. The piano, a new invention, is the dominant instrument as keyboard instruments became richer and more powerful. Haydn basically invented the symphony at this time, too. Classical music, like classical art, literature and architecture, became popular as an imitation of the style of ancient Greece. The sonata form continued to develop and late during this period string quartets became prominent. The greatest of the composers in this era was the highly influential Mozart, a child prodigy, who died at the age of thirty-five.

Time Period: 1750 – 1820
Some Composers: W.A. Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Luigo Boccherini and Muzio Clementi.

Ludwig van Beethoven, Franz Schubert and Giaochino Rossini were both Classical and Romantic composers.

– Tomasz Tzcinski – Moonlight Sonata by Ludwig van Beethoven. Legend says that this was composed by Beethoven for a child who was blind and who wanted to know what moonlight was like. Is this what moonlight sounds like? I wonder how often legends are true? Here is the first movement only ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZZ3-YU2o6g )

JIM MORRISON (FAR RIGHT) 1966, LEAD SINGER OF THE DOORS. DEAD AT 27.
By Elektra Records-Joel Brodsky – eBay itemphoto frontphoto back, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17012719

ROMANTIC MUSIC

Music became more emotional, colourful and even dissonant. Feeling was more important than thinking, much like the days of the counterculture and The Summer of Love (1967). This reaction was also seen in the literature and art of the day. The music was all about the mystical and supernatural, about nature, and the legends of the knights of the Middle Ages, and it was very nationalistic. It was a reaction against The Enlightenment. The music was subjective and spiritual. It had no use for the conventions and musical formulae of the Baroque and Classical eras. Nocturnes and preludes became dominant, and grand opera became popular with the rise of the middle class as music lovers, Many of today’s symphony orchestras were founded during this period.

Conjure up an image of Jim Morrison of The Doors in his prime shortly before he died. Or young Marlon Brando. The Romantic Era of music was a time of charismatic performers like them. Women in the audience fainted at the sight of Paganini who many viewed as Satanic. His playing was dramatic and technically breathtaking, and his personality was overwhelming. He figured out a way to play two simultaneous melodies on the violin which seemed like magic, and it was rumoured he had murdered one of his many clandestine lovers using the strings on his violin. Similarly Franz Liszt as a young and brilliantly talented pianist as well as a composer was captivating as a presence, and so has been portrayed in a dozen feature films. Even Chopin cut a rather romantic figure, having an affair with Lucile Dupin after she became George Sand, and dying while still in his thirties. With all this irrational emphasis on superficial looks and personality one can’t help but be nostalgic for the good old days of The Enlightenment, can one.

Time Period: 1800 – 1910
Some Composers: Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Niccolo Paganini, Edvard Grieg, Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Frederic Chopin.

– Evgeny Kissin – The Revolutionary Etude by Frederic Chopin. This work was inspired by the Russian attack on Poland during the November 1831 Uprising. The piece was dedicated to Chopin’s friend Franz Liszt. Chopin was Polish but Poland was defeated in the 1831 attack. In this clip the piece is played by Kissin, ironically a Russian concert pianist ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VWHBHeNrg4 ).

FRANZ LISZT
By Henri Lehmann – The original uploader was Todeswalzer at English Wikipedia., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1839557

THEATRICAL MUSIC

In France Vaudeville included light comedy interspersed with songs and dances. In Britain Music Halls were pretty rough places and became more respectable when they started calling it Variety. In North America Vaudeville featured a wide variety of entertainment, including musicians, singers, dancers, comedians, trained animals, magicians, ventriloquists, male and female impersonators, acrobats, clowns, jugglers and so on. In London, England, most successful theatrical productions were presented in an area known as the West End. The first public theatre was constructed in 1576 and of the many famous theatres in the West End perhaps the best known is The London Palladium. Most of the music for West End Shows were by the composers listed below. In New York, most successful productions were presented in the area known as Broadway aka The Great White Way. New York City didn’t have a theatre district until about 1750. In the early 1800’s Broadway became the centre of theatrical activity, having its first long run shown in 1857. Vaudeville was influenced by the Minstrel shows which reinforced racist stereotypes with its white entertainers often wearing blackface.

Time Period:In Britain Music Halls operated from 1850 to 1918, Variety halls operated from 1918 to the present, in France Vaudeville emerged in 1880, spread to Canada and the US and faded away in the 1930’s.
Influences: Concert Saloons, Minstrel Shows, Freak Shows, Dime Museums and Burlesque.
Some Music Hall Practitioners: Charlie Chaplin and his brother Sydney Chaplin, Stan Laurel (of Laurel and Hardy later), Stanley Holloway, Dan Leno, Marie Lloyd, George Formby, Gracie Fields.
Some Musical Vaudeville Practitioners: Morey Amsterdam, The Andrews Sisters, Josephine Baker, Count Basie, Irving Berlin, The Boswell Sisters, Cab Calloway, Ida Cox, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Judy Garland, W.C. Handy, Guy Lombardo, Ethel Mermen, Jelly Roll Morton, Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, John Philip Sousa, Victoria Spivey, Fats Waller, Ethel Waters, Lester Young.
Some Theatrical Composers: Arthur Sullivan, Meredith Wilson, Harold Arlen, Irving Berlin, Leslie Bricusse, George M. Cohan, Noel Coward, Sammy Fain, Rudolf Friml, George Gershwin, Victor Herbert, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Frederick Loewe, Galt MacDermot, Stephen Sondheim, Kurt Weill.

– Hiromi Uehara –I Got Rhythm– composed by George Gershwin. Dedicated to the Canadian jazz virtuoso Oscar Peterson. This starts out at a reasonable pace but at the 3 minute 4 second mark one can hear how incredible Uehara’s technical skills are, not to mention her wonderful personality ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JfKY0K_NQk ).

THE BLUES

The Blues emerged within the African-American population in the southern US, with songs often about racism and poverty and the problems they cause. The Blues and Country Music were originally very similar but The Blues was sung by African-Americans and Country Music (originally called Hillbilly Music) was sung by whites. The Blues is more complicated than Country music, however, using a blues scale with flattened blue notes (thirds, fifths and sevenths), sometimes employing blues shouting, a particular verse form and particular complex chord progressions (including 12 bar blues). The Blues became extremely influential in Great Britain on the bands that went on to become the most successful of the rock bands (e.g. The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, The Animals, Cream, The Yardbirds, Fleetwood Mac, Deep Purple, The Who, The Pretty Things, Ten Years After, The Moody Blues, Black Sabbath etc.). The Rolling Stones took their name from Rollin’ Stone Blues by Muddy Waters.

Time Period: 1870’s to the present
Influences: FOLK music, spirituals, work songs.
Other music influenced by The Blues: ROCK AND ROLL, RHYTHM AND BLUES, COUNTRY, JAZZ, Bluegrass, Jug Band Music and Ragtime.
Some Sub-genres: Country Blues, Delta Blues, Piedmont Blues, Chicago Blues, West Coast Blues, Memphis Blues, New Orleans Blues, Detroit Blues, Louisiana Blues, British Blues, Boogie Woogie Blues, Electric Blues, Jump Blues, Swamp Blues, Soul Blues, Urban Blues, Rhumba Blues, Blues Rock and others.
Some Practitioners: Robert Johnson, Ma Rainey aka The Mother of the Blues, Bessie Smith aka Empress of the Blues, Victoria Spivey aka Queen Victoria, Janis Joplin, Lucille Hegamin, Lucille Bogan, Susan Tedeschi, Bonnie Raitt, Memphis Minnie, Polka Dot Slim, Big Joe Williams, Pink Anderson and Floyd Council (who gave the band Pink Floyd their name), Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie McTell, Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup, Hound Dog Taylor, Washboard Sam, Peg Leg Sam, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Leadbelly (Heddie Ledbetter), Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Slim, Sleepy John Estes, Champion Jack Dupree, Johnny ‘Yard Dog’ Jones, Slim Harpo, Luther ‘Snake Boy’ Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Junior Wells, Big Mama Thornton, The Three Kings (B.B.King, Albert King, Freddie King), T-Bone Walker, Professor Longhair, Guitar Slim, Dr. John The Night Tripper, Pinetop Smith, Big Bill Broonzy, Tail Dragger Jones, Bo Diddley, Sonny Boy Williamson, Tampa Red, Willie Dixon, Colin James, W.C. Handy aka Father of the Blues, Alexis Korner, John Mayall, Ray Charles and many others.

– Howlin’ Wolf – How Many More Years – Howlin’ Wolf on British television in 1965, presented by a new blues rock group called The Rolling Stones who worshipped people like Howlin’ Wolf. Notice Brian Jones, the founder of The Rolling Stones, at the 54 second mark. Jones died at the age of 27, less than half of Howlin’ Wolf’s age in this clip – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldjsWQTUyec&ab_channel=BadlyDrawnBallbag

– Janis Joplin – Ball and Chain ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5If816MhoU )

BESSIE SMITH 1936
By Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964, photographer. – American Memory from the Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=417457

MODERNISM

This music challenged the old ideas about melody, harmony and rhythm. It was innovative and no single idea dominated. For example, twelve-tone music gave equal emphasis to all twelve tones of the scale rejecting the idea of music being in a key. There is a wide debate about what modernism consists of, whether or not it includes jazz and rock, and when it ended.

Time Period: 1890 to 1975
Some Sub-genres: Expressionism, Hyperrelism, Abstractionism, Neoclassicism, Neobarbarism, New Objectivity, Serialism, Futurism.
Some Practitioners: Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy, Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, Aaron Copland, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Sergei Prokofiev, Amy Beach, Aram Khachaturian and Bela Bartok.

– Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra – Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland. Leonard Bernstein was a brilliant conductor, composer, pianist himself. Notice Copland at the 35 second mark listening ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MK1N46dRPVg )

JAZZ

Jazz originated in New Orleans where it combined marches and dances with multiple melodies and improvisation. For a long time it was a vital, highly creative force with extremely talented and disciplined soloists but it began to be self-indulgent on one hand and lightweight and insubstantial on the other, and has been supplanted by Rock and Hip Hop. In recent decades it has become superfluous. Perhaps the greatest of the jazz musicians / composers was an incredibly talented, hard-working, ground-breaking orphan raised in poverty named Louis Armstrong. He took on an affable, non-confrontational approach to life in order to survive the deep racism of his country but he was extremely hard-working, and when the government asked him to tour Russia during the Cold War he uncharacteristically angrily told the president he could go to hell until he did something about the racism in the south.

Dixieland dominated jazz at first, then swing bands took over in the 1930’s led by the Benny Goodman Orchestra. The early jazz pioneers were almost all African-American but whites gradually began playing jazz but in whites only groups at first. Eventually the groups became integrated, though not without threats of violence and loss of revenue for the bands that were determined to integrate. Many American jazz artists had greater success, and respect, in Europe than they did in racist America. After World War Two jazz became more complicated and faster, more abstract, cerebral and experimental. Bebop replaced swing and it was for listening not dancing. In the late 1960’s Jazz Fusion emerges using mixed meters, odd time signatures and complex chords. This movement was spearheaded by Charles Lloyd, Frank Zappa, Miles Davis, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and others.

Jazz uses swing and blue notes and one important aspect of jazz is improvisation, that is when the performer creates the music spontaneously around a basic melody and therefore on one level is more important than the composer. Syncopation, another main feature of jazz, happens when the standard stress patterns in traditional music are creatively abandoned in jazz compositions.

Time Period: 1900 to the present
Influences: BLUES, ragtime, spirituals, FOLK, marches, classical, West African music.
Some Sub-genres: Dixieland Jazz, Swing Bands, European Jazz, Afro-Cuban, Cool Jazz, Be-Bop, Avant-garde / Free Jazz, Chamber Jazz, Hard Bop, Neo-Bop, Post-Bop, Progressive Jazz, Gypsy Jazz, Latin Jazz, Modal Jazz, Afro-Brazilian Jazz, Sacred Jazz, Smooth Jazz, Soul Jazz, West Coast Jazz.
Some Practitioners: Jelly Roll Morton, Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Mary Lou Williams, Cleo Brown, Lil Hardin, Billie Holiday, Dorothy Donegan, Marion McPartland, Hazel Scott, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, Chick Webb, Django Reinhardt, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Dave Brubeck, Paul Desmond, The Modern Jazz Quartet, Fatha Hines, Wynton Marsalis, Teddy Wilson, Billie Holiday.

– Here is a New Orleans Jazz Funeral seen during the credits to the film ‘The Cincinnati Kid’ starring Steve McQueen. The band is The Eureka Brass Band. At jazz funerals traditionally the band accompanies the coffin to the funeral playing slow, sad music, but then the music stops, the bass drum starts beating faster than before and the band, and the mourners, return from the cemetery playing joyful music while everyone dances ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aTrGrTUjjw )

– Louis Armstrong – West End Blues – Many experts have judged this to be the greatest jazz recording ever made. Armstrong plays the opening cadenza, and Earl ‘Fatha’ Hines plays a piano solo at the 2 minute mark. At the 2 minute 26 second mark is a photo of Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five. On the far right is Lil Hardin, Armstrong’s wife, who was a jazz pianist and composer in her own right ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W232OsTAMo8 )

[NOTE – Many were convinced that violin virtuoso Nicolo Paganini was Satan incarnate. There are also those convinced that Robert Johnson emerged as a blues master because he had sold his soul to the Devil].

NEXT POST: THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1900 to 1980 CE – From Big Mama and Smokey to Bill Haley’s Comets and the Flamingos.

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS

Posts already posted or still being planned as we speak:

STAND TO ATTENTION, OR ELSE – Anthems, National and Unofficial. From Black Power to one small flower of eternity, from Oceania ‘Tis of Thee to Lift Every Voice and Sing – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/09/22/music-to-your-ears-1-stand-to-attention-or-else/
WHY? – Twenty-five purposes and functions of music. From Pressed Rat and Warthog to Rainy Day Women Number Twelve and Thirty-five, from propaganda to religion, labour relations to storytelling – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/09/29/music-to-your-ears-2-why/
LISTEN UP – Things to listen for when you listen to a piece of music. From Kashmir to Vine Street, St. James Infirmary to Scarborough Fair – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/06/music-to-your-wars-3-listen-up/
THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE – Silly and Satirical Songs. From vegetables to metaphysical dogma, inebriated philosophers to short people – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/14/music-to-your-ears-4-the-bright-side-of-life/
THE COMPLEXITIES OF WAR – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/21/music-to-your-ears-5-the-complexities-of-war/
HOMELAND AND LIFE: A Case Study – An examination of the recent explosive viral video Patria y Vida – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/27/music-to-your-ears-6-homeland-and-life/
REALITY CHECK – From Kristallnacht to the Long March, massive floods and burning rivers, Wounded Knee to the École Polytechnique – Music memorializing real events – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/music-to-your-ears-7-reality-check/
CINEMATIC MUSIC – From the Squid Game to the Witcher in the heat of the night in the darkest depths of Mordor – how music offers an added dimension to the cinematic experience – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/10/music-to-your-ears-8-cinematic-music/
DRAMATIS PERSONAE – From Nelson Mandela to Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman to Sally Ride – Music celebrating real people – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/17/music-to-your-ears-9-dramatis-personae/
THE BEATLES – GOOD, BAD AND WRONG – From The Rolling Stones to Pete Best, from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to the Walrus – things about The Beatles rarely said but which need to be said – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/22/music-to-your-ears-10-the-bad-the-good-and-the-wrong/
MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT – From the King to the Kid, Uncle Son to Joe Hill – music from the extremes of the political spectrum – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/music-to-your-ears-11-music-right-and-left/
MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT REDUX – Further thoughts about MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/12/08/music-left-and-right-redux/
DANCE TO THE MUSIC – From Slim and Slam to ring shouts and the macabre. – dances political, religious and silly – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/?p=5344
STREAMING AUDIO – Third Stream Music from Bach as Rock to Yiddish Reggae – deftly combining broad categories of music – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/01/05/music-to-your-ears-14-streaming-audio/
INVISIBLE VIRTUOSI – The secret musicians everyone has heard but no one has heard of
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 2700 BCE to 1900 CE – From a Satanic violinist to a blues master who sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads.
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1900 to 1980 CE – From Big Mama and Smokey to Bill Haley’s Comets and the Flamingos.
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1966 to 2022 – From troubadours who die before they reach Bombay to wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
HEAVEN, HELL AND UTOPIA. Part 1 of 2.
HEAVEN, HELL AND UTOPIA. Part 2 of 2.
Musical Families – musical dynasties

GHOST STORIES. In preparation, as a break from these music posts, are stories about people no longer alive who did important and amazing things, sometimes risking their lives, but were largely unknown or are now forgotten. From the ENIAC Girls and the Zamani Soweto Sisters to The Wrecking Crew and master magician and charlatan nemesis Harry Houdini and his secret operatives.

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS. 15. Invisible Virtuosi.

With a little help from my friends, like the Wrecking Crew and the Wall of Sound. This is a post about the politics and history, the culture and structure of music.

Please take a listen to this track. Particularly interesting are the first 23 seconds which features a pianist named Larry Knechtel who you’ve probably never heard of. He is a session musician and this bit of session work was judged to be so good it was awarded a one off Grammy. He was a member of a group of session musicians named The Wrecking Crew and he also played electric guitar, harmonica and bass guitar, and he has played on over a hundred tracks for other musicians. His playing throughout this track is excellent, particularly at 1 minute 26 seconds, and 2 minutes 53 seconds. This is one of those songs that starts quietly and by the end is like a musical explosion (perhaps a little overdone here) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4G-YQA_bsOU&ab_channel=SimonGarfunkelVEVO

This was recorded in 1970. Jump ahead 39 years and here is Knechtel doing the same song again while Vince Gill handles the vocals. Knechtel is now 69 years old but he plays it just as well here as he did in 1970 if not better. The camera spends a lot of time on Knechtel here, and Gill nicely acknowledges his playing at the end of the song. At the very end of this clip is a black and white photo of a young Knechtel. Take a good look at Knechtel as he plays here because a few months later he died – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ1waT6QC8w&ab_channel=marionthegoat .

Two of the purposes of this post are to expand the reader’s understanding and enjoyment of great music, and to raise an awareness of great but under-appreciated unknown musicians. Session musicians may play several sessions a day for months, and be able to play at a moment’s notice a wide range of styles, often playing more than one instrument, and work amicably with a wide range of often ego-driven music stars. Studio time is also expensive so they’d better not make any mistakes. For years this was done usually uncredited until Randy Newman put the names of his many session musicians on the cover of his first album and many other groups and individuals followed suit on their albums.

PAGE AND JONES OF LED ZEPPELIN

Before Jimmy Page created Led Zeppelin, before he rose to fame in The Yardbirds, no one had heard of him but he could be heard on hundreds of records released by others. He was a well-respected session musician who played on hundreds of recordings while remaining invisible to the general public. Some examples of Page’s work:

1. THE ROLLING STONES – Scarlet – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl0COtEG-TM

2. DONOVAN – Sunshine Superman – one of Donovan’s biggest hits; Page starts at the 8 second mark on the high note then climbs down an octave – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhBYx2a89AM

3. PETULA CLARK – Downtown – Clark has a reputation for being one of the most talented, hard working, modest, most stable and sane performers in a music industry rife with ego and greed. Page played on her biggest hit, Downtown – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_m4Qb0iW-o

4. Page did a session with the Sheffield bluesman Joe Cocker playing on five tracks, the most famous being Cocker’s extraordinary cover of With a Little Help From My Friends from The Beatles’ ‘Sgt. Pepper’ album. Both Jimmy Page, and B.J.Wilson of Procol Harum, play on this track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXV4WyQMHFM&list=OLAK5uy_nnEW-wK8S1zZHSIS9y-0H_YJAzqW-EnrU&index=9 . On the album on which this track can be found the session musicians included two of the four best keyboardists of the rock era – Steve Winwood of Traffic and Matthew Fisher of Procol Harum, as well as guitarist Albert Lee, and Carol Kaye, the greatest of all the session musicians (more on her later).

Page also played on tracks by The Kinks, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Hallyday, The Who, Marianne Faithfull (on her biggest hit As Tears Go By by Mick Jagger and Keith Richard of The Rolling Stones), Brenda Lee, and Shirley Bassey’s incredibly powerful rendition of the James Bond track Goldfinger. Page’s bandmate in Led Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, has also played on hundreds of tracks as a session musician, including:

1. THE YARDBIRDS – Goodnight Sweet Josephine – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euQ3fCgroYk&ab_channel=TheYardbirds-Topic

2. JEFF BECK – Beck’s Bolero – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLkLcnu_e_g&ab_channel=JeffBeck-Topic

3. THE ROLLING STONES – She’s a Rainbow from their ‘Satanic Majesties Request’ album. Jones wrote the string arrangement for this recording. Also playing on the track is another of the top British session men of the day, Nicky Hopkins on piano and celesta (see below). He can be heard prominently here from the very first notes of the song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKfJXUey8r0&list=PLL44kuYYS8yknyo6BY5kp75ew_gB9DtEZ&index=7&ab_channel=TheRollingStones-Topic

Think about how influential and dominant Led Zeppelin was in the 1970’s. Think about the money they commanded and about the millions of units they sold worldwide. Can you now imagine what it would be like being a little known singer and having the four members of Led Zeppelin as your backup band? That was what happened to sixties’ singer P.J. Proby. Jimmy Page had just formed the group, which was calling itself The New Yardbirds, and they hadn’t recorded their first album yet and no one had heard of them. However here they are as session musicians with Jimmy Page (guitar), Robert Plant (harmonica), John Paul Jones (bass) and the late John Bonham (drums) backing lead vocalist P.J. Proby on Jim’s Blues – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXud3tpDKAI&list=RDLXud3tpDKAI&start_radio=1&ab_channel=Psiched%27EliaFM

Now imagine having The Beatles as your backup group. The Beatles were Johnny Gentle’s backup band on a short tour of Scotland in the early 1960’s before anyone had heard of them.

NICKY HOPKINS 1973
By Columbia Records – Billboard, page 5, 28 April 1973, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27104702

NICKY HOPKINS (1944 – 1994)

Hopkins began playing the piano at age three, and in his teens won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Music. He suffered from Crohn’s Disease and had to undergo many operations and endure long periods of convalescence so he was unable to join a touring band. He died at the age of fifty from complications after intestinal surgery for his disease. He played with many of the top bands of the day, on many top hits. He recorded with The Kinks, The Who, Jeff Beck and Jefferson Airplane, amongst others. He was also a successful songwriter and orchestrator. Here is an example of his work on perhaps the most famous and controversial track released by The Rolling Stones in their prime – Sympathy For the Devil. Note ‘Thanks Nicky’ in red at the beginning. Nicky plays the sub-dominant note uncharacteristically sharp in the repeated major scale phrase here which subtly throws the listener off to go with the lyrics – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgnClrx8N2k&ab_channel=ABKCOVEVO

Before 1968 the standard practice was for a band to go into a studio to record and sometimes they would hire session musicians to play on different tracks for a flat fee. In 1968 The Beatles instead invited high profile guitar hero Eric Clapton to play on the track While My Guitar Gently Weeps, which was unheard of at the time He was an old friend, not a session musician and after that many rock star friends began playing on each others recordings, often songwriting and arranging as well, and the distinction between session musician and guest musician begins to blur. One of the very few outside musicians to appear as a friend on a Beatles recording, by the way, was Nicky Hopkins, on Revolution in 1969 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZpKhjQh6rw&ab_channel=TheBeatles-Topic

The Wrecking Crew was a Los Angeles-based loose collective of session musicians who played on thousands of records by big name stars, including many big hits. Most of the musicians had formal training in classical or jazz music, and could play a huge variety of styles at the drop of a hat and a quick look at the required chord progressions, but again they were invisible for the most part (a few, such as Glen Campbell and Leon Russell, later became known as stars on their own). Drummer Hal Blaine appeared on about 140 top ten hits. They were also known as ‘ghost musicians’, for example playing the songs uncredited on the first two Monkees albums because the Monkees themselves (except for musician Mike Nesmith) initially were actors not musicians (to their credit they learned to become excellent musicians and played and composed their own material on later albums).

Some of the Wrecking Crew became part of Phil Spector’s house band creating his famous Wall of Sound. Various other studios also had similar house bands (e.g. the MFSB band that created The Philadelphia Sound, and Barry Gordy’s house band in Detroit). Some notable members of The Wrecking Crew:

GLEN CAMPBELL – he played on recordings by Frank Sinatra, The Beach Boys, Elvis Presley, Merle Haggard, Bobby Darin, Nat ‘King’ Cole, Dean Martin, Ricky Nelson, The Monkees, Bing Crosby, Sammy Davis Jr., The Everly Brothers, The Kingston Trio and many others. Campbell was particularly talented and some years later he had several big hits himself as a singer and guitarist. They were commercial and sappy and I hate them so there are no links here to them. However, Campbell, besides being a very nice person by all accounts, was also a guitar virtuoso so here he is quite wonderfully playing a piece of classical music – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUBhE00h9U0&ab_channel=GlenCampbellForums

HAL BLAINE – he played on recordings by Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley, The Beach Boys, Simon and Garfunkel, The Carpenters, Neil Diamond, The Byrds, Dean Martin, John Denver, Barbra Streisand and many others. Here he is playing drums on Be My Baby by The Ronettes featuring Phil Spetor’s wife Ronnie (Veronica) Spector – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSPpbOGnFgk&ab_channel=TheRonettesVEVO

LEON RUSSELL 2009
By Carl Lender – Commons: File:Leon Russel April 2009.jpg, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=53169335

LEON RUSSELL – he played on recordings by George Harrison and Ringo Starr of The Beatles, Eric Clapton, The Rolling Stones, Elton John, Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, Willie Nelson, Badfinger, The Beach Boys, Joe Cocker, B.B. King, The Band, Herb Alpert, Phil Spector and many others. His piano is prominent on this track by Bob Dylan which also features the great Jesse Ed Davis on guitar (Davis never made it to his 44^th birthday) – Watching the River Flow – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xRlojtDdEs&ab_channel=BobDylanVEVO

Leon Russell managed to gather an impressive group of session musicians himself on his first solo album (see the listings at the end of the post). On this track, Shootout on the Plantation, George Harrison and Ringo Starr of The Beatles are playing – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJJp_X4ckCo&ab_channel=LeonRussell-Topic

CAROL KAYE

This American guitarist started working for Phil Spector and Brian Wilson (of The Beach Boys) as early as 1957 and in a career spanning fifty years played on more than 10 000 tracks (!), turning some of the mediocre ones into hits. She also played on film soundtracks for Quincy Jones, Lalo Schifrin and others. In her later years she continued to play sessions, as well as publish books on guitar technique. At age thirteen she received her first guitar and at fourteen was teaching others how to play the damn thing. She played bebop jazz guitar in many clubs around Los Angeles in her teens, at one point playing in a band backing revolutionary stand up comic Lenny Bruce. As she became known in the business for being extremely good at what she did, she was soon very much in demand, and played on recordings by Frank Sinatra, Barbra Streisand, The Supremes, Simon and Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, The Four Tops, The Monkees, The Temptations, The Beach Boys and many more. Here she is playing bass on Nancy Sinatra’s These Boots Are Made For Walking. The song opens with Kaye playing a descending bass line, that is repeated later in the song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDmidrIDB4o&ab_channel=NancySinatra-Topic .

These days if a particular star, say Drake, records a track, say Take Care, and someone famous, say Rihanna, contributes, it isn’t done anonymously – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zzP29emgpg&ab_channel=DrakeVEVO . There was a time, however, when many well-established stars played on other people’s records uncredited because they didn’t use their own names. Their egos didn’t require it. Some examples of pseudonyms used by The Beatles, usually on other people’s records: Hari Georgeson and L’Angelo Misterioso (George Harrison), Dr. Winston O’Boogie and Dwarf McDougal (John Lennon), Bernard Webb and Apollo C. Vermouth (Paul McCartney) and Richie Snare and Billy Shears (Ringo Starr, a reference to his persona on the Beatles’ album ‘Sgt. Pepper’). Ringo Starr itself is a pseudonym since his real name is Richard Starkey.

There are individual striking cases of guest musicians, for example John Lennon’s vocals on David Bowie’s track Fame on the album ‘Young Americans’. None of the Stones ever played on a Beatles recording but John Lennon and Paul McCartney sang uncredited on the Stones’ track We Love You. Also, three of The Beatles (Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr) and Eric Clapton were session musicians on the album ‘Is This What You Want?’ released by Jackie Lomax. The Rolling Stones released the album Let It Bleed in 1969. They were at the height of their Satanic street fighting rough-edged peak yet on the track You Can’t Always Get What You Want they had the London Bach Choir provide backing vocals. That same track also featured noted blues guitarist / keyboardist session musician Al Kooper but on this track he plays a short classical french horn solo.

There are also cases of young rock musicians aware of the history of music inviting well-respected veterans from previous eras to play on their recordings. Paul Simon’s solo album Still Crazy After All These Years was notable in that his old partner, Art Garfunkel, reunited with him on the title track even though the two didn’t get along very well after splitting up. More importantly, however, is that the album contains the track Night Game which hardly anyone noticed at the time because it’s less than three minutes long and its soft-spoken. But it’s one of my favourite Simon tracks because first of all it tells the bizarre story of a big league baseball pitcher who dies in the middle of a game. Second, the time signature seems to be in 7 / 8 for three bars and 8 / 8 in the fourth repeatedly. Finally it features a great heart-rending harmonica solo from the harmonica virtuoso Toots Thielmans then in his fifties ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILGsLlS7stw&ab_channel=PaulSimon-Topic ).

STEPHANE GRAPPELLI 1976
By Allan warren – Own workwww.allanwarren.com, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9594156

On Paul Simon’s album There Goes Rhymin’ Simon he features an incredible exuberant vocal performance by the Reverend Claude Jeter then almost sixty, accompanied by the Onward Brass Band whose first incarnation saw the light of day in 1886 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bthJdCqlGMk&ab_channel=PaulSimonVEVO ). Also on the album are The Dixie Hummingbirds whose first incarnation sprang up in 1928 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjFzw8AxSBA&ab_channel=PaulSimonVEVO ). Stephane Grappelli of France (1908 – 1997) is famous for originating the Quintette du Hot Club de France with the legendary gypsy guitar virtuoso Django Reinhardt in 1934. Grappelli was known as the Grandfather of Jazz Violinists and he basically brought jazz to Europe. There are so many stories to tell about the man, who once played a duet with the esteemed classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin. He is in his sixties when he plays on this track from Paul Simon’s album Paul Simon ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTx-8NjHqzg&ab_channel=PaulSimon-Topic ). Both Hal Blaine and Larry Knechtel of The Wrecking Crew also play on this album. On other albums Paul Simon has also worked with the Jessy Dixon Singers, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and Phoebe Snow, amongst others.

Sometimes guest musicians are sent in to support a promising prospect. The Canadian singer / songwriter Gordon Lightfoot considered signing with an American record label. Bob Dylan and others had proclaimed his genius, his songs had been covered by many Americans, and so he went down to the States and recorded what I think is his strongest album, If You Could Read My Mind. Heavyweights Ry Cooder, Van Dyke Parks, John Sebastian and Randy Newman contributed musically to the album in an effort to win him over. But Lightfoot soon saw how they did things in the music business in the States and despite a lucrative offer he turned them down and quietly returned to Canada. Here is a track from that album with a wonderful harmonium backup accompaniment from Van Dyke Parks and some mandolin playing by Ry Cooder. Notice, this is just the same short musical phrase repeated over and over again but it works, and the lyrics are interesting ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vwfjg2U1juQ&ab_channel=GordonLightfoot-Topic ).

There are also some bands who released many albums without any (or hardly any) guest musicians, probably because every member has impressive musical abilities themselves, for example Queen, Procol Harum, U2. That’s why it was nothing short of amazing when Led Zeppelin over its entire career only invited one guest soloist, and that was Sandy Denny of Fairport Convention. She delivers an overwhelming soaring vocal duet with band member Robert Plant on the legendary track Battle of Evermore from their famous 1971 untitled album ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_3yDImIQYU&ab_channel=RockStar ). She was to die seven years later at the age of thirty-one. I have recently discovered that Ian Stewart was one other outside musician on a Led Zeppelin record, playing piano on Rock and Roll from the same album, but he was in the background and was uncredited. Stewart, Scot, was an original member of The Rolling Stones, and he also died relatively young (in his forties).

PAUL DESMOND (RIGHT), 1954.
By Carl Van Vechten – Van Vechten Collection at Library of Congress, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=674336

I’m going to end with one final guest musician. I have listened to, enjoyed, analysed and / or played probably thousands of musical compositions composed / recorded by hundreds of musicians. Every so often you come across someone who is purely musical, they think musically, they eat and sleep musically, music is seeping from their pores, they are the Platonic absolute of Musician, and they have worked hard to hone their skills to produce music of the highest quality. It is pure pleasure to listen to their work even if you’re not crazy about their musical genre. I would be hard put to compile a list of as many as ten individuals (not groups) who met these criteria but Bach would be on it. Perhaps one of the Beatles but perhaps not. None of the Rolling Stones (though Brian Jones is borderline). Nobody from Led Zeppelin or The Eagles. Definitely not Bob Dylan. From the 1980’s and 1990’s the following people are good and they dominated the musical landscape but none of them make the list (Michael Jackson, Madonna, U2, Duran Duran). Today Taylor Swift, Adele or Thom Yorke not quite. I’m talking about really great musical talents. I’m not a particular jazz fan (most of it I can’t stand) but two jazz greats make this coveted list. One is obviously Louis Armstrong, unhesitatingly.

The second is one of those musicians who puts the notes out there improvisationally effortlessly and he is just as good at placing the rests as the notes. His grandfather came from Austria and his American father was very musical but his mother, sadly, suffered from a series of serious mental conditions. He was rather unstable himself and he led a short life laced with hallucinogens and alcohol. I’m talking about Paul Emil Breitenfeld (ever heard of him?) who later changed his name to Paul Desmond (ever heard of him?). He joined The Dave Brubeck Quartet playing sax but he and Dave were opposites. Dave was seriously religious, drug-free and a family man, and Paul grew up in an unstable household without love or religion. Paul was a heavy drug user (cocaine and amphetamines) and his only marriage lasted a brief two years, without children. However he was a highly disciplined musician, and very well read. He had various girlfriends on a temporary basis. On one occasion he and Dave passed a couple on the street and Paul recognized an ex-girlfriend arm in arm with a wealthy well-dressed man. He turned to Dave and said “There she goes, not with a whim but a banker.” (apologies to T.S.Eliot).

The Dave Brubeck Quartet was famous for improvising naturally in and out of complex rhythm patterns and atypical time signatures. Though Dave composed almost all of the quartet’s compositions their biggest selling hit was Take Five composed by Desmond. It was the first jazz recording to sell a million copies though it was very non-commercial, written in 5 / 4 time with a convoluted drum solo in the middle. It was released as a single, and on the album Time Out which jazz historians list as one of the half dozen most revolutionary albums in jazz history. Dave and Paul were also famous for improvising brilliant complex contrapuntal intertwined melodies together. Another rare Desmond composition is called Eleven Four because it’s written in 11 / 4 time and Dave lets Desmond do all the improvising because no one else in the band is good enough to handle the job – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ga4IBcQBFc&t=24s&ab_channel=Bundle813 .

When he was diagnosed with lung cancer in his forties Desmond laughingly expressed surprise because he had thought that it would be cirrhosis of the liver that killed him. His last concert was in February 1977. Three months later he was dead at the age of fifty-two. Here is the last recording Desmond made before he died. He was working as a session musician on an album by Art Garfunkel who had gone solo after breaking up with Paul Simon. This is the track Mr. Shuck and Jive from the album ‘Watermark’ released October 1977. Desmond was a man who had been taking oxygen backstage before concerts in order to play his lungs were so bad. He was on his last legs but on this session he still sounds good (his solo starts at the 3 minute 20 second mark) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDc9gKt9Ly4&ab_channel=kylecrazyford

SOME EXAMPLES OF GATHERINGS OF GREAT MUSICIANS AS GUEST MUSICIANS

Musicians like Klaus Voormann, Van Dyke Parks and Ry Cooder were excellent session musicians and though they were unknown to the general public they were better than many well-known musicians. Their lack of fame and public presence had to do with factors other than musical ability or work ethic, both of which they had lots of. I could write pages and pages on the careers of these three people, and others like them, but this is not the place for it.

1. LEON RUSSELL – the album ‘Leon Russell’ – two Beatles (George Harrison and Ringo Starr), three Rolling Stones (Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts and Bill Wyman), Steve Winwood of Traffic, B.J. Wilson of Procol Harum, Eric Clapton and Joe Cocker, amongst others.

2. SHERYL CROW – the album ‘Live From Central Park’ – Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders, Sarah McLachlan, The Dixie Chicks.

3. RINGO STARR – the album ‘Ringo’ – After The Beatles broke up with Paul on one side and the other three on the other, two extremely hostile enemy camps, the four Beatles would never appear together on the same recording again (at least not while John was still alive) with one exception and this album is the exception. This album also features a lot of other highly successful musicians off the day. The following people joined Ringo on this album – John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison of The Beatles (they all played and also composed songs for the album), Marc Bolan of T.Rex, Steve Cropper of Booker T. and the MG’s, four members of The Band (Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Levon Helm and Rick Danko), Billy Preston, Nicky Hopkins and Martha Reeves. One of the tracks on this album, I’m The Greatest, composed by John, features three of The Beatles (Ringo, John and George) with Klaus Voormann playing bass instead of Paul. This is significant because Klaus was one of the people who were excited about and supported The Beatles madly when they played for long periods in Hamburg, Germany before anyone else had heard of them. Later Klaus moved to England where he joined Manfred Mann’s band, but also worked as a session man on dozens of recordings by others. He was also a graphic artist whose design for the Beatles album ‘Revolver’ won awards.

4. HOWLIN’ WOLF – the album ‘The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions’ – many of the important and highly successful British rock stars worshipped the American blues performers who had limited success in America for reasons to do with race. So when the ageing Howlin’ Wolf came to London to record the rock stars of the day scrambled just to play on the album, stars including three of the Rolling Stones (Charlie Watts, Bill Wyman and Ian Stewart), Beatle Ringo Starr, Steve Winwood of Traffic and Eric Clapton.

5. DON HENLEY of The Eagles – the album ‘Building The Perfect Beast’ – Randy Newman, Patty Smyth of The Patty Smyth Group, Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac, Belinda Carlisle of The Go-Go’s, Sam Moore of pioneering soul singers Sam and Dave, and Pino Palladino of The Who.

6. GEORGE HARRISON – the album ‘All Things Must Pass’ – Ringo Starr, Dhani Harrison (George’s son), Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker of Cream, Klaus Voormann, Billy Preston, all four members of Badfinger, David Mason of Traffic, Peter Frampton of Humble Pie, Gary Brooker of Procol Harum and Sam Brown.

Some albums are recordings of significant concerts at which an impressive line-up of musicians contributed. Far too many acts participated in Live Aid and Live 8 to list here, but two other landmark concerts (at least) are worth mentioning:

1. GEORGE HARRISON organized and hosted the Concert for Bangla Desh and produced the 1972 recording of the event which included, besides George, Ringo Starr (The Beatles), Bob Dylan, Indian classical master Ravi Shankar, Leon Russell, Billy Preston, Eric Clapton. Jesse Ed Davis, Klaus Voormann and many others.

2. THE BAND – The Last Waltz, their final concert before disbanding, produced the 1978 recording of the event which featured The Band plus Beatle Ringo Starr, Rolling Stone Ron Wood, Muddy Waters, Eric Clapton, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Hawkins, Dr. John, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, Neil Diamond, Paul Butterfield, EmmyLou Harris and The Staple Singers, among others.

Robbie Robertson of the Band has been a guest musician on hundreds of recordings as well. The Beatles were perhaps the most frequent guests on records by others. As individuals or pairs they guested as performers on over 200 recordings and composed, arranged, conducted, remixed and produced on many others. A complete list of their efforts as guest musicians can be found on my recent post about The Beatles – The, Bad, The Good and The Wrong ( https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/22/music-to-your-ears-10-the-bad-the-good-and-the-wrong/ ).

NEXT POST: THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 2700 BCE to 1900 CE – From a Satanic violinist to a blues master who sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads.

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS

Posts already posted or still being planned as we speak:

STAND TO ATTENTION, OR ELSE – Anthems, National and Unofficial. From Black Power to one small flower of eternity, from Oceania ‘Tis of Thee to Lift Every Voice and Sing – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/09/22/music-to-your-ears-1-stand-to-attention-or-else/
WHY? – Twenty-five purposes and functions of music. From Pressed Rat and Warthog to Rainy Day Women Number Twelve and Thirty-five, from propaganda to religion, labour relations to storytelling – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/09/29/music-to-your-ears-2-why/
LISTEN UP – Things to listen for when you listen to a piece of music. From Kashmir to Vine Street, St. James Infirmary to Scarborough Fair – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/06/music-to-your-wars-3-listen-up/
THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE – Silly and Satirical Songs. From vegetables to metaphysical dogma, inebriated philosophers to short people – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/14/music-to-your-ears-4-the-bright-side-of-life/
THE COMPLEXITIES OF WAR – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/21/music-to-your-ears-5-the-complexities-of-war/
HOMELAND AND LIFE: A Case Study – An examination of the recent explosive viral video Patria y Vida – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/27/music-to-your-ears-6-homeland-and-life/
REALITY CHECK – From Kristallnacht to the Long March, massive floods and burning rivers, Wounded Knee to the École Polytechnique – Music memorializing real events – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/music-to-your-ears-7-reality-check/
CINEMATIC MUSIC – From the Squid Game to the Witcher in the heat of the night in the darkest depths of Mordor – how music offers an added dimension to the cinematic experience – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/10/music-to-your-ears-8-cinematic-music/
DRAMATIS PERSONAE – From Nelson Mandela to Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman to Sally Ride – Music celebrating real people – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/17/music-to-your-ears-9-dramatis-personae/
THE BEATLES – GOOD, BAD AND WRONG – From The Rolling Stones to Pete Best, from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to the Walrus – things about The Beatles rarely said but which need to be said – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/22/music-to-your-ears-10-the-bad-the-good-and-the-wrong/
MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT – From the King to the Kid, Uncle Son to Joe Hill – music from the extremes of the political spectrum – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/music-to-your-ears-11-music-right-and-left/
MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT REDUX – Further thoughts about MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/12/08/music-left-and-right-redux/
DANCE TO THE MUSIC – From Slim and Slam to ring shouts and the macabre. – dances political, religious and silly – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/?p=5344
STREAMING AUDIO – Third Stream Music from Bach as Rock to Yiddish Reggae – deftly combining broad categories of music – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2022/01/05/music-to-your-ears-14-streaming-audio/
INVISIBLE VIRTUOSI – The secret musicians everyone has heard but no one has heard of.
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 2700 BCE to 1900 CE – From a Satanic violinist to a blues master who sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads.
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1900 to 1980 CE – From Big Mama and Smokey to Bill Haley’s Comets and the Flamingos.
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1966 to 2022 – From troubadours who die before they reach Bombay to wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
HEAVEN, HELL AND UTOPIA – Part 1 of 2. From God to Satan, from the compassion of the Sisters of Mercy to the despair of Friedrich Nietzsche.
HEAVEN, HELL AND UTOPIA – Part 2 of 2. From the Prince of Peace to the Prodigal Son, from Blind Faith to The Inner Light.
Musical Families – musical dynasties

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS – 14. Streaming Audio

From Bach as Rock to Yiddish Reggae. This is a series about the politics and history, the culture and structure of music.

Please give the following two tracks a listen. Can you identify what they have in common?

Track One – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuS5NuXRb5Y&ab_channel=TheBeatlesVEVO

Track Two – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVgXI-Ye_dw&ab_channel=Normallhuman

These tracks both combine rock music and classical music. Most importantly, both the classical and the rock elements are equally important. I find the combination of different categories of music quite interesting, and it is something that is quite difficult to do and still produce something of quality. One has to be good at both categories. The first track, Eleanor Rigby by The Beatles, features a classical string octet. It is on the album ‘Revolver’, the album many say transformed Pop into Rock. The second track features, to my mind, the best of the rock keyboardists, Jon Lord. He began as a driving force in the hard rock band Deep Purple delivering high quality rock improvisations on the organ. Then he began composing more elaborate compositions, including large scale works for rock band and symphony orchestra. This particular track, called Cologne Again, is in 7/4 time as well, something that happens far more frequently in rock than in classical music. Note Lord’s improvisations starting at the 3 minute 35 second mark.

The term Third Stream Music was coined by composer Gunther Schuller in 1957, and he defined it very carefully as music halfway between jazz and classical music. Since then the term has also come to mean the combining of any two disparate categories of music. Some say that Third Stream music dilutes each of the two musical categories, while others say that it actually does the opposite, utilizing the strengths of both categories. Schuller cites the work ‘Sketches of Spain’ by Miles Davis as a good example of Third Stream music. Here is a short excerpt, Concierto de Aranjuez (Adagio Movement), from that work – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgPEsk2_eLQ&list=PLN9czHtAsHfsi4-VhwbQCxONMo4rqWdkz&index=12&ab_channel=MilesDavis-Topic

NOT THIRD STREAM MUSIC

Schuller emphasized that Third Stream music is NOT:

Jazz with strings.
Jazz played on classical instruments
Classical music played by jazz musicians
Bits of classical music inserted between jazz chord changes

To be sure, even if one uses the phrase Third Stream Music to refer to the combination of any two large fundamentally different types of music, it does not include things like the following track which shows the rock group Emerson, Lake and Palmer taking the classical composition Fanfare for the Common Man by Aaron Copland and performing it in the style of a rock song- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe49IF7IySw&ab_channel=The1stGunner Third Stream Music also does not include taking a non-classical work and adding a classical arrangement as an enhancement, as great as some arrangements might be, for example those written by Randy Newman. As an illustration, here is one of his best classical arrangements used in one of his best compositions, Sail Away, which features a honey-coated speech made to recruit slaves during the days of the Slave Trade: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCRGrnhdNQE

CLASSICAL JAZZ

One particularly good example of Third Stream music involving classical music and rock music goes back sixty-one years. The Dave Brubeck Quartet performed a composition by Dave’s brother Howard called Dialogues for Jazz Combo and Orchestra. The orchestra is The New York Philharmonic led by legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein. The orchestra plays a carefully-crafted score which leaves gaps for the jazz quartet to improvise in and out of. The track linked to here is called Allegro-Blues, the final movement, and it features some excellent drum improvisations by Joe Morello – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0Tm9V_zc9M&ab_channel=DaveBrubeck-Topic . Later The Dave Brubeck Quartet recorded two further examples of Classical Jazz. In 1961 they released a 19 minute work entitled Brandenburg Gate inspired by Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos. In 1964 the quartet recorded a 17 minute work entitled Elementals in the same vein.

CLASSICAL ROCK

The many examples Schuller gives of Third Stream Music I actually find quite uninteresting so I am going to talk mainly about Classical Rock, Folk Rock and Jazz Rock. A good example of Classical Rock would be the following work performed by the progressive rock group Procol Harum with the Danish National Concert Orchestra and Chorus in 2006 – Simple Sister – note bassist Matt Pegg at 3 minutes 27 seconds. His father Dave Pegg played in the progressive rock band Jethro Tull decades earlier. Makes me feel old – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IvbunWoysI&list=PLoIDt_C5y1LsWuj3szv0ANQtF1peQEWqI&index=10&ab_channel=DavidRequena . Procol Harum were in the forefront of Classical Rock when in 1972 they recorded a live album with the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra. The concert included the ground-breaking 19 minute five-movement work In Held ‘Twas In I. Once Procol Harum led the way Progressive Rock became far more popular than it had been before but what started out with good intentions and half decent music ended up spawning concerts and recordings of pretentious compositions by mediocre rock bands and, probably, bored orchestra members. One of the early examples of fairly good Classical Rock is the work ‘Days of Future Passed’ recorded in 1967 by The Moody Blues and the London Festival Orchestra – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djX1pjS-E1M&list=PL8a8cutYP7frrQljhgxmT3_ESE26XYOxR&index=4&ab_channel=EssentialDegnities

PROCOL HARUM 1967
By KRLA Beat/Beat Publications, Inc. – KRLA Beat page 7, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=83786845

An excellent later example of the use of classical music combined with rock music is the following track by David Gilmour of Pink Floyd delivering a great performance of the song High Hopes from the Pink Floyd album The Division Bell here with help from an impressive array of talent ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgE-FNhHy54&ab_channel=DavidGilmourHD ):

1. Michael Kamen on the piano at the 26 second mark and the 3 minute 4 second mark. We see him again several times in the final minute (from the 6 minute 57 second mark on) playing the English Horn. Kamen is the conductor of the San Francisco Orchestra, and was conducting the orchestra in a Third Stream performance (released under the title S & M) with Metallica, seen here doing No Leaf Clover ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sh5S3OxiE-s&ab_channel=WarnerRecordsVault ). Kamen died two years after the David Gilmour concert of multiple sclerosis. He was fifty-five.

2. Caroline Dale on cello. She has recorded widely, her work is highly-respected, and she plays Principal Cello for the English Chamber Orchestra and the London Metropolitan Orchestra

3. Chucho Merchan on stand-up bass, is a jazz and rock session musician born in Colombia. He has a degree in music from Cambridge University where he studied composition, orchestration, direction and orchestral conduction, and he plays guitar and piano as well as double bass.

Jethro Tull also took a classical work, a Bourée by J.S. Bach, and interpreted it as a rock musician. This is not strictly Third Stream classical / rock but it does a nice job of combining classical and rock styles. Here he plays with the American violinist Lucia Micarelli and members of the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. This is a live track from Vienna in 2006 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nTVuFKozfJg&ab_channel=hclee

Here is keyboardist heavy metal musician Jon Lord again, this time combining modern rock with the Baroque classical music of the great German composer Georg Philipp Telemann (1681 – 1767) who was a contemporary of Johann Sebastian Bach. Lord also features the nyckelhrpa virtuoso Emilia Amper from Sweden on this track. This work, ccalled The Telemann Experiment, was composed by Jon Lord – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQ2crN1_ypE&ab_channel=Normallhuman

GEORG PHILIPP TELEMANN 1750
By Valentin Daniel Preisler – Valentin Daniel Preisler, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=111944

FOLK ROCK

Folk music, by most definitions, was first transmitted orally before recording technology. It used traditional acoustic instruments and was non-commercial. It talked about important issues around culture and national identity. Rock music has always used recording technology and some of it has used sophisticated recording techniques such as backmasking and tape loops to improve the music. It has also been commercial. Folk rock uses electric instruments, is usually political, and makes use of studio technology.

The main folk singers during the folk revival of the 1950’s and 1960’s were Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Phil Ochs, Gordon Lightfoot and Peter, Paul and Mary. The term folk rock was first coined to describe the music of The Byrds, for example this recording called Turn, Turn, Turn whose lyrics consisted of the first eight verses of the third chapter of the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Christian Bible – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eiprqeaydik&ab_channel=TheByrdsVEVO . Though the event is probably long forgotten now, when Bob Dylan, the most aggressive and caustic folk singer of the day, traded his acoustic guitar for an electric guitar, the folk purists in the audience screamed invective at him (the most common epithet was ‘Judas’). It got so bad that the drummer in his back-up band, Levon Helm, quit in mid-tour. Folk rock was here to stay, however. Other practitioners of the form included Buffalo Springfield, and Simon and Garfunkel, and in England the main Folk Rock groups were Pentangle, and Fairport Convention led by the remarkable vocalist Sandy Denny. Denny later became the only musician, besides the band members themselves, to perform on a Led Zeppelin album, on the song Battle for Evermore ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88b0OYxdtyM&ab_channel=LedZeppelin-Topic ) which may be described as a Folk Rock song. She was only 31 when she died.

Here are Simon and Garfunkel doing a driving up-tempo Faking It (note the mention of Mr. Leitch at 2 minutes 17 seconds which refers to Folk Rock Scottish performer Donovan Leitch who performs simply as Donovan) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkFBOd4YN60&ab_channel=kylecrazyford . Here is a track from Buffalo Springfield recorded during the War in Vietnam. It is unusual in that though the group was left wing the lyrics exhort both sides (pro-war and anti-war) to stop fighting with each other – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXvyq4SyDwU&ab_channel=BuffaloSpringfield-Topic . Thirty years after this recording was made Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield, who composed the song, incorporated this song into a striking hip-hop music video of the song He Got Game put out by Public Enemy in the late 1990’s, a unique combination of music categories I suspect.

JAZZ ROCK

Jazz developed out of the Blues and Ragtime. It originated in the African-American culture and since its inception its greatest practitioners (e.g. Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Art Tatum, Miles Davis and others) have been black. The form features improvisation and syncopation prominently, and the instruments most frequently used are those in an orchestra or large band (e.g. trumpet, saxophone, clarinet, trombone and drums) along with the piano. More recently traditional swing jazz has spawned new forms such as modal jazz and free jazz. In the mid-twentieth century the big bands were replaced by small combos. Rock welcomes improvisation and syncopation as well but it uses electric instruments, and most rock bands consist of a lead singer, lead guitarist, bass guitarist and drums. Rock is also louder and more aggressive than jazz, and covers a wider territory.

Most jazz rock groups include electric guitars along with brass and / or woodwind instruments, and often use jazz harmonies, phrasing and progressions. The first jazz rock group was the Free Spirits active from 1965 to 1968. Important jazz rock groups include Colosseum, Steely Dan, Chicago, and Blood, Sweat and Tears. The most adventurous of the jazz rock groups was Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. The Doors was a rock band that used jazz instrumentation and some jazz sonic patterns. The Grateful Dead, basically a folk rock or country rock band, also strayed into jazz now and again, particularly in its use of unusual time signatures.

BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS 1972
By Columbia Records – Billboard, page 5, 14 October 1972, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27101446

WORLD MUSIC

Some of the greatest World Music performers have now and again teamed up with Western musicians to play a combination of eastern and western styles of music. Some examples:

1. The Algerian musician, singer and songwriter Cheb Mami recorded Desert Rose with Sting of the Police. Try not to think of the five year prison sentence he received for domestic violence as you listen to this excellent recording (note how Mami uses his voice like a musical instrument) – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3gzqsmx1KGU&ab_channel=LaraOfBosniaSaveOurPlanet

2. Here is Youssou N’Dour, a Senegalese singer, musician, composer, actor, businessman and politician teaming up with Peter Gabriel formerly of Genesis performing the feminist anthem Shaking The Tree – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQifL-eGiaU&ab_channel=YoussouNdourVEVO

4. Simon and Garfunkel recorded a Peruvian folk melody called El Condor Pasa. Here is their live performance of that song, played with South American musicians – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzAfYRk811g&ab_channel=Superstellina2011

5. Singer, songwriter, activist Angelique Kidjo of Benin teamed up with British singer in this video performing one of the better Rolling Stones songs, Gimme Shelter in a style that departed radicall from the original recording of the song – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zA7TqHCbTpE&ab_channel=angeliquekidjoSME

7. There is a 1932 Yiddish musical comedy called Men Ken Lebn Nor Men Lost Nisht and it featured the song Bei Mir Bistu Shein. The song, in its Germanized version (Bei Mir Bist Du Schön – I Think You Are Beautiful), became a worldwide hit when The Andrew Sisters recorded it in 1937. Can you imagine something like that being performed as a reggae song? You don’t have to imagine anything – here is Joss Stone again, teaming up with Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra doing a reggae version of Bei Mir Bist Du – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL1r9o5MsKM&ab_channel=TheGRStars

8. Here is Chuck Berry’s rock and roll standard Johnny B. Goode done first by Chuck himself, then done by reggae star Peter Tosh. First Chuck Berry in 1958 – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ROwVrF0Ceg&ab_channel=gaslightrecords

Now Peter Tosh – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6jV8FWoaytM&ab_channel=GNDGeneral

9. Paul Simon recorded several tracks with South African musicians. Here he sings with the great Xhosa Afropop singer Miriam Makeba aka Mama Africa who was both a powerful singer (a protoge of Harry Belafonte) and a powerful anti-Apartheid activist. She was married to the American Black Panther leader Kwame Ture (whose slave name was Stokely Carmichael). Here Makeba and Simon sing Under African Skies in harmony together at a concert in Zimbabwe two years before Nelson Mandela was released. Apartheid was still in effect so this concert would have been illegal in South Africa since Makeba was black and Simon was white. Here is the track – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85rr5SqrCZI&list=RD85rr5SqrCZI&start_radio=1&ab_channel=PaulSimonVEVO

RACHID TAHA 2011
By Unknown author – http://www.knittingfactoryrecords.com/artists/rachid-taha/news/rachid-taha-algerian-roots-american-rock-n-roll, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=15416355

Finally, here is the great Algerian Rai singer and activist Rachid Taha, who was an absolutely electric performer in his prime. The hand picked members of his band are among the best musicians in the Middle East. The lead guitarist here, however, is Mick Jones, lead guitarist with the Clash. Also on stage is one of the most influential people in rock, musician / composer / producer Brian Eno (at the microphone at the beginning). This is from a 2005 Stop the War concert against President Bush’s illegitimate Iraq War. Taha died in 2018. He was fifty-nine. The song is called Rock the Casbah – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qmyiR9iNyM&ab_channel=StoptheWarCoalition

YIDDISH POSTER FOR THE ORIGINAL NEW YORK MUSICAL COMEDY MEN KEN LEBN NOR MEN LOST NISHT
By Unknown author – http://nonblog.typepad.com/the_nonbloggish_blog/2006/04/in_1938_bei_mir.html, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=19005202

MUSIC TO YOUR EARS

Posts already posted or still being planned as we speak:

STAND TO ATTENTION, OR ELSE – Anthems, National and Unofficial. From Black Power to one small flower of eternity, from Oceania ‘Tis of Thee to Lift Every Voice and Sing – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/09/22/music-to-your-ears-1-stand-to-attention-or-else/
WHY? – Twenty-five purposes and functions of music. From Pressed Rat and Warthog to Rainy Day Women Number Twelve and Thirty-five, from propaganda to religion, labour relations to storytelling – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/09/29/music-to-your-ears-2-why/
LISTEN UP – Things to listen for when you listen to a piece of music. From Kashmir to Vine Street, St. James Infirmary to Scarborough Fair – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/06/music-to-your-wars-3-listen-up/
THE BRIGHT SIDE OF LIFE – Silly and Satirical Songs. From vegetables to metaphysical dogma, inebriated philosophers to short people – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/14/music-to-your-ears-4-the-bright-side-of-life/
THE COMPLEXITIES OF WAR – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/21/music-to-your-ears-5-the-complexities-of-war/
HOMELAND AND LIFE: A Case Study – An examination of the recent explosive viral video Patria y Vida – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/10/27/music-to-your-ears-6-homeland-and-life/
REALITY CHECK – From Kristallnacht to the Long March, massive floods and burning rivers, Wounded Knee to the École Polytechnique – Music memorializing real events – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/03/music-to-your-ears-7-reality-check/
CINEMATIC MUSIC – From the Squid Game to the Witcher in the heat of the night in the darkest depths of Mordor – how music offers an added dimension to the cinematic experience – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/10/music-to-your-ears-8-cinematic-music/
DRAMATIS PERSONAE – From Nelson Mandela to Albert Einstein, Harriet Tubman to Sally Ride – Music celebrating real people – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/17/music-to-your-ears-9-dramatis-personae/
THE BEATLES – GOOD, BAD AND WRONG – From The Rolling Stones to Pete Best, from Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds to the Walrus – things about The Beatles rarely said but which need to be said – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/11/22/music-to-your-ears-10-the-bad-the-good-and-the-wrong/
MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT – From the King to the Kid, Uncle Son to Joe Hill – music from the extremes of the political spectrum – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/12/02/music-to-your-ears-11-music-right-and-left/
MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT REDUX – Further thoughts about MUSIC LEFT AND RIGHT – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/2021/12/08/music-left-and-right-redux/
DANCE TO THE MUSIC – From Slim and Slam to ring shouts and the macabre. – dances political, religious and silly – https://thekiddca.wordpress.com/?p=5344
STREAMING AUDIO – Third Stream Music from Bach as Rock to Yiddish Reggae – deftly combining broad categories of music
INVISIBLE GENIUSES – Session Musicians and Guest Musicians – an appreciation of great musicians you have probably never heard of.
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 2700 BCE to 1900 CE – From a Satanic violinist to a blues master who sold his soul to the Devil at the Crossroads.
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1900 to 1980 CE – From Big Mama and Smokey to Bill Haley’s Comets and the Flamingos.
THE EVOLUTION OF MUSIC 1966 to 2022 – From troubadours who die before they reach Bombay to wisdom from the Tibetan Book of the Dead.
Music Religious and Secular
Musical Families – musical dynasties