Resurrected unified MUSIC thread.

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Sadly, Crosby was a guy who had a whole lot of trouble keeping his life together.
May his name be remembered for a blessing among the righteous.

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This is basically for Zards: a new biography of the great Sonny Rollins has me thinking about him & listening him. The man is still around at 93, btw -- stopped playing a few years ago.

Here he is in an absolutely dynamite set:

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=TerminalPassage

Just tenor sax, bass & drums, format he more or less invented. & these are dynamite players as well: the great great Niels Henning Ørsted Pedersen on bass Alan Dawson on drums.

I'd never heard Dawson before, at least not to my recollection, but based on this performance he is one of the greatest drummers... ever! Which, I now find out, is also what Tony Williams called him.

A little research & I discover that Dawson was renowned as a teacher -- a bunch of great jazz drummers studied with him.

His work here is unbelievably musical. A real wow performance.

&... Rollins is absolutely amazing!
As he usually was. One of the handful of greatest improvisers in the history of the music.

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Here's an English folk song that's probably 500 years old, maybe more, done by one of my favorite English bands, Traffic:

Watch on YouTube

Love Traffic! Their album "Low Spark of High Heeled Boys" is one of my favs. It's a beautiful blend of rock, pop and jazz.

Missed your response, Zards -- yes, that album is wonderful. I'm a total Steve Winwood fan too. & Clapton, though possibly something of a jerk, is a transcendent musician. Hence... I just loved Blind Faith.

Here are the aforementioned pair reprising one of the great tunes from the only Blind Faith album:

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=AntVarandonis

Note Derek Trucks as well (that's for the young'uns.... )

& from the same session, my other favorite Blind Faith song:

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=dac10012

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I guess, if we're going to stop on guitar for a moment, we might as well spend a few moments in heaven with the god of the guitar:

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=PepeGrillo

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I was thinking of adding Richter playing Schubert -- but it's a bit too far from the current musical tone. Hence back to the amazing Sonny Rollins -- a brief interview followed by some amazing music.

Watch on YouTube

;t=304s&ab_channel=DavidRourke

[AFM]

Still waiting on your thoughts on that Dave Mustaine instrumental break.

Look up his background. Really interesting fella

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Still waiting on your thoughts on that Dave Mustaine instrumental break....

I'm not sure which video you're referring to.
I listened to all of a couple of them, parts of another one.

This genre of music appeals to me not at all. To me, it's pointlessly (& unrelievedly) aggressive to no purpose, & if there's a "message" in the lyrics it's one I find hollow, wrong, & foolish.

OTOH, whether a genre of music appeals to me or not is kind of unimportant. Let's say I send you to listen to:

Watch on YouTube

You might or might not respond to it. But whether you did or not wouldn't make it any more or less great (it's great) & also wouldn't indicate whether you're a dummy or a smart guy (you're a smart guy).

Of course, even though I dislike metal, there's lots of rock that I do like. Blues-inspired, as you might expect, but not only that:

Watch on YouTube

& Mick Taylor's guitar-playing is incredible on this song. On the whole album. As it often is.

Similarly in the world of (so-called) "classical" music, there are plenty of people who might love the Bach recording I included above but would not like

Watch on YouTube

(Richter plays the opening movement at the slowest pace I've ever encountered!). Or vice versa for that matter.

OTOH, different kinds of music can be more closely related than one think at first. Listen to the first ffew bars of that Schubert followed by the instrumental opening to:

Watch on YouTube

As to Dave Mustaine himself, the person...

Look up his background. Really interesting fella

...I'm glad he's off the sauce (hope he still is), but right-wing, so-called "born-again" "Christians" don't much appeal to me. Especially not when they're openly political (i.e. it's not just opinion but active support of what -- to me -- are the most dangerous tendencies in American life today).

But, in this case as well, I don't judge a person I don't know -- or at least not unless I really have to, which in this case obviously I don't.

Let's close this over-long post with... I'll call it simple transcendence:

Watch on YouTube

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...Saw the 19 year old pianist Joey Alexander at Blues Alley last weekend. A hip show attended by hip folks like myself.

OMG... this kid got past me. How about this at 12 years old:

Watch on YouTube

[DCZards]

...Saw the 19 year old pianist Joey Alexander at Blues Alley last weekend. A hip show attended by hip folks like myself.

OMG... this kid got past me. How about this at 12 years old:

Watch on YouTube

I saw Alexander perform with Jazz at Lincoln Ctr in NYC when he was 12. The show was a salute to Thelonious Monk. Joey played several of Monk’s classics.

But Joey’s best stuff is his original tunes like those on his latest album “Origin.”

But his album “Eclipse” featuring Joshua Redman sax may be his best work.

[DCZards]

I was thinking of adding Richter playing Schubert -- but it's a bit too far from the current musical tone. Hence back to the amazing Sonny Rollins -- a brief interview followed by some amazing music.

Watch on YouTube

;t=304s&ab_channel=DavidRourke

One of the great living masters. Had those years when he would practice at night on the Willamsburg Bridge in NYC. Said he did it so not to disturb neighbors in his tenement.

Got a chance to see Rollins at the Kennedy Ctr about 15 yrs ago. He was in his late 70s.

Brilliant mind.

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This is great --

Watch on YouTube

;ab_channel=JazzVideoGuy

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I was thinking of adding Sviataslav Richter playing Schubert -- but it's a bit too far from the current musical tone. Hence back to the amazing Sonny Rollins -- a brief interview followed by some amazing music.

Watch on YouTube

;t=304s&ab_channel=DavidRourke

One of the great living masters. Had those years when he would practice at night on the Willamsburg Bridge in NYC. Said he did it so not to disturb neighbors in his tenement.

Got a chance to see Rollins at the Kennedy Ctr about 15 yrs ago. He was in his late 70s.

Brilliant mind.

I'm trying to remember where I first saw/heard Rollins live. I began listening to him in the mid 1950s when I was a young teenager & just becoming obsessed with jazz. I still have my copy of the extraordinary "Volume II" Bluenote LP from 1957 -- one of those "holy objects" you never get rid of. I'm sure you know it; if it's not handy, & you haven't heard it ina while, listen to Misterioso from that LP (i.e. on Spotify, youtube, etc.). Writing that sentence, I can hear the opening bars of his solo well up from a deep, a life-long place where they live in my soul.

Zards, do you know what the Sutherland Lounge was? In Chicago? You might want to google it. Came to mind trying to recall whether Rollins ever played there in the late '50s. I was there at least 3 weekends a month for @3 years as a kid. Where I had my two encounters with Miles Davis (I bought him a drink when I was 15... but that's another subject).

Rollins had two long woodshedding periods when he didn't play in public. The first was with the emblematic business of practicing on the bridge. But I didn't think Sonny Rollins lived in a "tenement" either then or... ever. He was born on St. Croix, moved to NY at the age of 9 or 10, & grew up with his family in Harlem.

He is one of the greatest musicians I've ever heard, that's for sure. & a phenomenal improvisor. I'm glad he's still among us!

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Hi Ren.

Watch on YouTube

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W/o question this is extraordinary. What more information can you provide about Ren?

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AFM... you've just taken my whole evening from me. I've spent it listening to Hi Ren & to other work by this extraordinary young artist. You must know his song "Chalk Outlines" a duet with a singer named Chinchilla. It's an extraordinary song about suicide -- or the presence of suicide in the minds of those on whom it exerts pressure:

Watch on YouTube

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This is not for everybody, ok? Here's a video by Ren from 2014, when he was a quite sick kid....

Watch on YouTube

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AFM -- I assume you know his band, the Big Push....? Here they are busking on the streets of Brighton UK @3 years ago. An amazing version of Wade in the Water:

Watch on YouTube

[daSwami]

Still waiting on your thoughts on that Dave Mustaine instrumental break.

Look up his background. Really interesting fella

16-year-old me LOVED Megadeth. But today, as a 51-year-old, that style of playing feels soul-less to me. At some point in the '80s (Headbangers Ball era), the calculus for musicianship became: faster equals better. I'm glad the shredder trend ran its course. "Peace Sells" does hold up as a great song, imo, but I'm a sucker for a great bass hook.

[bulletproof_32]

W/o question this is extraordinary. What more information can you provide about Ren?

Hey PIF – I was the one who posted the Ren link. I had never heard of him until about a week ago when I stumbled across the “Hi Ren” video. I reached out to some family and friends to see if anyone knew anything about him but he was new to all of us. So, I did what you did and spent the next couple of days consuming as much as his other material that I could find and trying to learn as much as I can about him.

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Thanks, bullet... for the info & for posting "Hi Ren."

Every kind of music can be great in its own way. This certainly is.