[Steve999]

it's just a matter of where and when we lived. I think You Tube is a great place to realize how big the world really is(liar Disney land!). when I see a song with 500 million views and have no idea who the band is, I start thinking:

no comment on why I thought about that song or even knew about it as an adult with no kids. ^_^

Well @castleofargh, in this Big Big World, in this Land of Discovery (I like the song, by the way, thanks!), I went fishing around for young people music I would like and found this song called Smoking Section. I know nothing about this, nothing about the artist, nothing about the context. I just really like the music. The lyrics are poetic and surprising and surreal, the voice is quite good, the music is of the modern production variety, with synths, organs, very low bass, some piano, and big impacts, and the song progresses and builds very well and then ends on a major piano chord in what seems to me to be a clever way.

After the Nana Mouskouri fiasco (see above), with my luck this singer is known by everyone but me, at every space refueling station in the universe.

 

[Don Hills]

Remember the Teletubbies? The music was surprisingly sophisticated. A good thing too, as I was exposed to a lot of it, being a stay-at-home father of toddlers at the time.

I don't know who these guys were, but it was typical of the things that popped up.



There were a couple of albums, here's one of them.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kBdUyFiAmhd0-4_mQgr6xgSaH3nFWTPuo
I suggest "Ships", "Animals", "Trees", and "Clouds". Spot the borrowed themes.

 

[Steve999]

Remember the Teletubbies? The music was surprisingly sophisticated. A good thing too, as I was exposed to a lot of it, being a stay-at-home father of toddlers at the time.

I don't know who these guys were, but it was typical of the things that popped up.



There were a couple of albums, here's one of them.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kBdUyFiAmhd0-4_mQgr6xgSaH3nFWTPuo
I suggest "Ships", "Animals", "Trees", and "Clouds". Spot the borrowed themes.

Super-cool! Definitely some "real" stuff there in the music!

We were more of a Boobah family when my kids were very young. Hint: I hope you like Lady Gaga!

 

[Steve999]

This video is awesome because it makes a very complex genre of music viscerally accessible to, well, normal people. I believe it was directed by Spike Lee.

If you want to hear a seven-minute version of this song and some meticulous, hard-swinging high-flying small group jazz take a listen to Branford Marsalis's 1986 CD Royal Garden Blues. (This video was shot in 1986 as well, if I understand correctly.) I consider the CD a classic. I'm not sure anyone else does. : ) If you are into jazz check out the personnel on the CD and I think you'll be surprised.

I got to meet Wynton and Branford (believe me they wouldn't know me from a hole in the wall) on a plane ride and at the airport once and a few years before that I saw Wynton at his official big-time public introduction at the Kennedy Center in D.C. when Dizzy Gillespie introduced him and they played together. I saw Miles Davis at the same festival. Man those were the times. . . On the plane I showed Wynton that I had one of his cassettes in my Walkman and at the airport Branford made pointed fun of a classmate who had not been too nice to me. Great memories. Anyway, enough about me!

 

[Steve999]

This is one of the more conventional jazz albums recorded in 1960. More than anything, this makes really good background music and is very relaxing. It would be really great for studying. Personally I think they all just phoned it in. They just memorized their simple little parts and played this soothing music for thirty-six minutes and fifty-eight seconds and went home. I don't think there's any improvisation at all. There may be a little sight-reading, and the rest they'd played a million times before and they were just going through the motions. And it's so harmonically conventional there's not much to discuss about that. This is definitely just about commercialism and crowd-pleasing. Pandering at its worst.

If the question is do I like this, well, I listened to it intently today and I do like it very much. I've put in a Wikipedia link below in case you want to know more about this soothing schmaltz.

If you like Abba, if you like Barry Manilow, if you like The Carpenters, if you like Barbara Streisand, or Chicago, if you like Ian and Sylvia, if you like the Stylistics or Smokey Robinson, or Liberace or Chuck Mangione or Kenny G, I'd venture to guess you'll just love this.

At about 15:12 or a little after they play Jingle Bells. Like you couldn't have seen that one coming from a million miles away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Jazz:_A_Collective_Improvisation

 

[GearMe]

This is one of the more conventional jazz albums recorded in 1960. Snip...If the question do I like this, well, I listened to it intently today and I do like it very much. I've put in a Wikipedia link below in case you want to know more about this soothing schmaltz.

If you like Abba, if you like Barry Manilow, if you like The Carpenters, if you like Barbara Streisand, or Chicago, if you like Ian and Sylvia, if you like the Stylistics or Smokey Robinson, or Liberace or Chuck Mangione or Kenny G, I'd venture to guess you'll just love this. (ftfy)

At about 15:12 or a little after they play Jingle Bells. Like you couldn't have seen that one coming from a million miles away.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_Jazz:_A_Collective_Improvisation

Had to...

 

[Steve999]

Had to...

This calls for some Free Wheelin'

 

[bigshot]

No need to explain why this is great. RIP Roy

 

[Glmoneydawg]

 

[Glmoneydawg]

Story goes he wrote this and surprised the sound check guy when setting up the venue for a concert ..thats a soundcheck

 

[Steve999]

I got to see a performance of this a few weeks ago live. The spectacle of the the four French horns standing in front of the orchestra is an original and arresting and striking sight. You know you are in for something special. This is a very original work by Schumann, a concerto for four French Horns.

I am not suggesting for a second that anyone listen to all of this. I am just trying to give plenty of resources so the piece is accessible to anyone who is interested.

Rather than me try to write about it I'll just copy the Berlin Philharmonic's web site synopsis:

The Konzertstück for Four Horns and Orchestra, the third Schumann work on this programme, is rarely heard, despite its beauty and originality, because it is not easy to find four hornists for the demanding solo parts. As in several other programmes during the 2008/2009 season, compositions by Robert Schumann and Bernd Alois Zimmermann were also juxtaposed in this concert. The Symphony from 1953 is one of Zimmermann’s early works inspired by Arnold Schoenberg, and integrates the elements of the symphonic model with several movements into a single movement. Schumann strived for something similar in his Fourth Symphony. Thus, the two composers on this concert programme resemble each other not only because of their sometimes depressive temperaments but also in their relentless search for new forms.

At the end of the concert I saw they got an encore and the four French horns came back out and played some Star Wars music by themselves--very fun.

I looked for full performances on Youtube that presented the best balance of visuals and music. . . not easy:

This one seems extremely good to me although the horns are placed behind violins and cellos, not what I believe is the conventional place right in front of the orchestra:



This one the audio is nice and punchy but the horns are placed off to the left because of the nature of the venue:



This one seems good too, except again the horns are not lined up horizontally right in front of the orchestra in the way I saw it. This is the most light-hearted performance of the work to me, and I think for that reason it is the performance I personally enjoy the most. The work is dense and serious enough standing on its own, you don't need the orchestra adding even more gravitas, IMHO. To me this kind of playing of the piece best illuminates the beauty of Schumann's writing:




Below is a world-class version where you can follow along with the music and listen to a first-class performance. Unfortunately for us (but fair enough) it looks like if you want to watch the full video recording of the orchestra you have to pay the Berlin Philharmonic cash money, some kind of subscription or something. They do put up a two-minute teaser on YouTube but it's really just that. . . a teaser to market their subscription service. The audio plus visual quality is spectacular but it looks like it'll cost you 10 or 15 bucks a month at least.

Teaser video from Berlin Philhamonic (you can see how the four horns are in front of the orchestra):



However, even though they don't let you see but two minutes of the video if you don't pay cash money they do let you follow along with the music if you are interested in hearing a world class performance and reading the music along with it. I really enjoy doing this once or twice just to help me correlate what is going on visually in written music with what I am hearing, especially with something this complex. In addition, this is going to be the best audio of any of the full-length options I've provided.

Full world-class performance with music to follow along:

https://www.clip.fail/video/1dsQAac4rWA

 

[Steve999]

I do think there is a subtle underlying message that the girl is bad. See what you think. It's sort of an undertone, to be implied, very nuanced.

Also if you listen enough you get to realize that Parliament Funkadelic was an actual band, with its own really super-strong musicians and characteristics, however dizzying and confusing their output may have been at times.

 

[taffy2207]

Kauan - Sorni Nai. Everyone should own this Album and as it's NYP, there's no excuse not to :-



EDIT. For the curious, it's a Concept Album based on this :-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyatlov_Pass_incident

 

[Glmoneydawg]

Country rock blues with kettle drums!..i think..sounds like kettles anyway.

 

[PointyFox]

Super-cool! Definitely some "real" stuff there in the music!

We were more of a Boobah family when my kids were very young. Hint: I hope you like Lady Gaga!

That is absolutely terrifying.