Bye Bye Blackbird.
Always love your music posts,
@GearMe I did listen to all of your cuts above. It was cool, loved it, but. . . bye bye blackbird.
From the cuts you posted, I really truly like them all, but this Zac Brown guy needs to calm the hell down. I really wasn't too fond of the Crosby, Stills and Nash version. The guitar got in the way for me, it was technically really mediocre (I just took another listen, it's just plain bad), and they were running the guitar through some kind of garbage flanger or something, which cut against the song feeling, and I didn't see the points to the high notes in the singing. Of course Casandra Wilson is great, but I don't think she got the most out of the song. I thought it was on the weaker side of her performances. I have one Sheffield Labs direct to disk LP, the Dave Grusin one, and as far as the one you posted, I felt the same way about the Dave Grusin one--yeah, it was well recorded, and, as you say, it was well recorded, and the less said after that the better. As far as the Al Dimeola, yes, he's among the greats, but that fell a little flat for me and his take on it wasn't anything special to me.
So my favorite was. . . the mindless synth noodling! This will show a huge blind spot in my musical tastes, but I know nothing about Rick Wakeman, but will google him right after this. To me he got the best emotion out of the song, transformed it harmonically, I believe he ended in a minor key, didn't try to do too much with it but still took us to a lot of new places, and just a really nice feeling. Wasn't showing off what he could do with his instrument, was focused on the song. Nice intro, that was a nice touch, starts out pretty, takes you to a dark place, and then into the joy of the tune. But it is in some ways a tune with a dark setting, a bird with broken wings and sunken eyes (metaphorically) trying to get to a good place again. Really nice motion in the bass lines. Nice use of space and silence and counterpoint here and there. Very musical grace notes and tremelo. Extraordinary use of rubato. So that was my favorite by far. And for the phrase "blackbird fly into the light of the dark black night" at the end he takes that to a creatively different place, I picture the blackbird jumping from somewhere and falling and flying up a little and falling and flying up a little and falling and then getting his bearings and flying off serenely and maybe a little sadly into the night's darkness in the end. But maybe that's just me. To me he really did the most with the song in terms of musicality and musical expressive techniques and originality and harmony and emotion and in a short amount of time too--the same amount of time it took the Beatles!--I just checked--and to me for this particular song the Beatles version is still the gold standard (and I am more than happy to make fun of the Beatles when it is warranted). But to me this Rick Wakeman version is great. I just googled him real quick and I see he was a member of
@bigshot's nemesis Yes so I am in trouble now!
Anyway, bye bye blackbird. I found this cut in an LP in the cut out bin (corner of cardboard cut off) in a department store and fell in love with it right away. Two buck or 99 cents, I forget. The LP jacket was a really tacky flimsy gold color and the vinyl was really thin. I got some really good Charlie Parker in the cut out bins as well. Anyway, at the time I thought it was a throw-away song and track that I happened to fall in love with right away. It was the first time I had heard the song. But decades hence here is the track with much better mastering on Youtube:
And Dexter Gordon would always say you should know the words to the song you are playing (and I think by extension listening to) so this helps:
It can also help to follow along with the written music:
And in my mind if he played it and you haven't heard a Red Garland rendition of a song you haven't heard the song (just by listening he's obviously on the Miles Davis cut above too):
And for a much more modern take, with modern influences in the singing and extended scat singing:
And the one I think may appeal the most to the younger or more modern listeners or those not steeped in jazz, this has more modern influences and is a little more out there: