Why?
Why this blog and what's with the title? Let's start with the title. For one thing, It's a partial quote from Shakespeare's "Macbeth" - the soliloquy that goes "Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage...". This is my small stage, and a place to do my own share of strutting and fretting. For another, "struts" and "frets" are parts of an acoustic guitar, one of my instruments, and this blog is in no small part about music.
I studied the violin as a child, taking lessons and music classes (history, theory, harmony, composition) at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music's branch school in Flushing, NY. I played through High School, including a stint in JHS in the Queens All-boro Orchestra, and as first chair in the 2nd Violin section of my High School orchestra (a very good one, actually). It was also in High School that I got caught up in the folk revival of the late fifties/early sixties, and picked up acoustic guitar; when I graduated HS, my chosen gift from my parents was a Gibson J-50 with an adjustable bridge, and I played it for many decades.
I also grew up in a home with a piano (my sister got the piano lessons, I got the violin - my mother dreamed of recital halls), and learned to fake that pretty well; later on in life, I acquired a few keyboards (including a rackmount Casio CZ-101, an early model that lets you design your own envelope), picked up some harmonica along with a neck brace for Dylan-style performing, bought a cheap autoharp, was given a lovely old tenor banjo by a friend - well, you get the idea. These days, I'm trying to get back into the violin, but with a folk fiddler kind of bent (cajun, Irish, old-timey). I had my old one cleaned up and picked up a new bow; now all I have to do is carve out enough woodshed time to scrape the rust off. I'm looking forward to it.
Meanwhile, I listen to a lot of music, and thought this would be a good place to talk about it. I work as an analyst, and spend a lot of my workday in front of a PC; since it has a CD drive and a headphone jack, and since I've been working to music since Junior High (doing homework while listening to Murray the K and his Swingin' Soiree), I bring one CD per day to work, and listen to it through a few times while doing my documents. Why only one? Well, I've got a lot of music at home (probably close to 1000 CDs at this point plus cassette tapes and a bookcase full of vinyl), and it seemed a good opportunity for close listening; repeating the disc through the day gives me a chance to really hear it.
I drive to and from work (about 45 minutes each way), and give that time to the radio. I listen pretty much exclusively to two stations - WFUV and WBGO. FUV is "Fordham University's Voice" (90.7 in the NYC metro area) and plays a progressive mix of folk, country, pop, blues, and world. It's got professional DJs, who are given a wide latitude in playlist and no commercials (it's membership supported and yes, I am a member). BGO calls itself "Jazz 88" (88.3 out of Newark, NJ), and is also listener-supported (no commercials). It plays a wide range of jazz and blues, focusing on what the DJs call "the 4 B's - blues, bebop, ballads, and bossa nova", although it ranges far afield of that group. On weekend mornings, for example, they play a lot of R&B, including doo-wop, funk, soul, and so on. Both stations are worth a listen, and both are good ways for me to find out what's new in the kinds of music I particularly enjoy. Incidentally, if you're out of range, they both stream on the Internet.
So - folk, jazz, progressive rock, trad country & bluegrass, world (particularly African genres - Congo, South Africa, Mali, Madagascar, Algeria), singer/songwriter - these are the types of music I listen to most frequently...and then there's classical. I was trained classically, and my parents were classical music lovers; my father was a chamber music fan, and my mother was a opera buff. I still enjoy and listen to classical along with the other musical forms I mentioned earlier (although - despite many attempts - I've never gotten into opera; but that's another posting in itself).
In postings to come, I'll be talking about the music I listen to, the whys and wherefores. I'll post about the daily CDs and my wake-up music for the week (I've got one of those Bose CD/radios in the bedroom, and wake up to music each weekday) and the various sets I put together for myself and friends. I'll also post about the NYC theatre, which my wife and I both enjoy a great deal, and other topics that cross my mind.
I invite comments from anyone who stumbles upon this blog, particularly if you like to talk about music (no flames, please - they're not worth your effort or mine), and especially if you've got something to recommend. I figure anyone who searches on a string like "Debussy Van Morrison Mississippi Sheiks" will get here - and deserves to!
If you've somehow found your way here - Welcome! I hope you find it worth revisiting.
I studied the violin as a child, taking lessons and music classes (history, theory, harmony, composition) at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music's branch school in Flushing, NY. I played through High School, including a stint in JHS in the Queens All-boro Orchestra, and as first chair in the 2nd Violin section of my High School orchestra (a very good one, actually). It was also in High School that I got caught up in the folk revival of the late fifties/early sixties, and picked up acoustic guitar; when I graduated HS, my chosen gift from my parents was a Gibson J-50 with an adjustable bridge, and I played it for many decades.
I also grew up in a home with a piano (my sister got the piano lessons, I got the violin - my mother dreamed of recital halls), and learned to fake that pretty well; later on in life, I acquired a few keyboards (including a rackmount Casio CZ-101, an early model that lets you design your own envelope), picked up some harmonica along with a neck brace for Dylan-style performing, bought a cheap autoharp, was given a lovely old tenor banjo by a friend - well, you get the idea. These days, I'm trying to get back into the violin, but with a folk fiddler kind of bent (cajun, Irish, old-timey). I had my old one cleaned up and picked up a new bow; now all I have to do is carve out enough woodshed time to scrape the rust off. I'm looking forward to it.
Meanwhile, I listen to a lot of music, and thought this would be a good place to talk about it. I work as an analyst, and spend a lot of my workday in front of a PC; since it has a CD drive and a headphone jack, and since I've been working to music since Junior High (doing homework while listening to Murray the K and his Swingin' Soiree), I bring one CD per day to work, and listen to it through a few times while doing my documents. Why only one? Well, I've got a lot of music at home (probably close to 1000 CDs at this point plus cassette tapes and a bookcase full of vinyl), and it seemed a good opportunity for close listening; repeating the disc through the day gives me a chance to really hear it.
I drive to and from work (about 45 minutes each way), and give that time to the radio. I listen pretty much exclusively to two stations - WFUV and WBGO. FUV is "Fordham University's Voice" (90.7 in the NYC metro area) and plays a progressive mix of folk, country, pop, blues, and world. It's got professional DJs, who are given a wide latitude in playlist and no commercials (it's membership supported and yes, I am a member). BGO calls itself "Jazz 88" (88.3 out of Newark, NJ), and is also listener-supported (no commercials). It plays a wide range of jazz and blues, focusing on what the DJs call "the 4 B's - blues, bebop, ballads, and bossa nova", although it ranges far afield of that group. On weekend mornings, for example, they play a lot of R&B, including doo-wop, funk, soul, and so on. Both stations are worth a listen, and both are good ways for me to find out what's new in the kinds of music I particularly enjoy. Incidentally, if you're out of range, they both stream on the Internet.
So - folk, jazz, progressive rock, trad country & bluegrass, world (particularly African genres - Congo, South Africa, Mali, Madagascar, Algeria), singer/songwriter - these are the types of music I listen to most frequently...and then there's classical. I was trained classically, and my parents were classical music lovers; my father was a chamber music fan, and my mother was a opera buff. I still enjoy and listen to classical along with the other musical forms I mentioned earlier (although - despite many attempts - I've never gotten into opera; but that's another posting in itself).
In postings to come, I'll be talking about the music I listen to, the whys and wherefores. I'll post about the daily CDs and my wake-up music for the week (I've got one of those Bose CD/radios in the bedroom, and wake up to music each weekday) and the various sets I put together for myself and friends. I'll also post about the NYC theatre, which my wife and I both enjoy a great deal, and other topics that cross my mind.
I invite comments from anyone who stumbles upon this blog, particularly if you like to talk about music (no flames, please - they're not worth your effort or mine), and especially if you've got something to recommend. I figure anyone who searches on a string like "Debussy Van Morrison Mississippi Sheiks" will get here - and deserves to!
If you've somehow found your way here - Welcome! I hope you find it worth revisiting.
posted by DJStan at 1:11 PM
7 Comments:
Putting aside actual music for one second, the Conservatory was two blocks from our place. It's moved and is now on Main Street, south of Elder.
Getting back to the topic at hand, my stint at the Conservatory (five years of piano) convinced me that the best thing I could do for the world of music was to be a consumer and not a producer.
I've been listening to a lot of blues-inflected non-blues lately. Today was Joan Osborne day; I'm thinking old Stones for tomorrow's long day of desk work.
Today is Basia day.
Hi Don - nice to see you here. Yeah, I went to the old school on Franklin (as I recall) between Union and Kissena. I had a wonderful teacher there, a Miss Elizabeth DeMartini (it was the pre-Ms. days - and she was in fact married, but used her "professional" name).
I have some Joan Osborne, and basically like her - have you heard her set of Motown covers? Any thoughts? And have you listened to any Susan Tedeschi (more of a Janis descendent than Osborne, but they could be cousins)?
The Stones are an old favorite, especially their early blues-bar-band cuts and "Exiles", my pick for best Stones album (or maybe "Let It Bleed").
Hi Froggy. If you have a chance, tell me more about Basia, who AMG describes as cocktail lounge jazzy (and there's nothing wrong with that - Holly Cole Trio, anyone)? Any particular disc you recommend?
Samba with a Polish accent, swingy and happy. Good mood music. And, with a couple exceptions, I'm only tempted to hum along, not sing, which makes it conducive to reading and thinking.
My fave albums are Time and Tide (especially for the title song, but they're all good) and London Warsaw New York (for "Until You Come Back to Me").
Friend of mine who likes Basia saw her in concert and said: B-O-R-I-N-G.
djS -
One last old-home-week comment: we're close enough in age that the guy running the Conservatory when I was there - whose name escapes me - was probably there in your era. You remember a dachshund running around the first floor?
My take on Osborne is that, with her voice, she could make anything sound good. The Motown covers aren't my favorite song, but her versions of them are great. On a few songs, she starts to remind me of Janis on "Cheap Thrills."
As it happens, I got caught up in work and the music cycled without my input to "The Wall" (it's stuck in my dinosaur rock collection). "Exiles" and "Some Girls" are for later, I guess.
I'll check out Tedeschi.
I miss you already Uncle Stanley. Thank you for questioning my questionable tastes, but never criticizing. Thank you for all the music you bought me, told me about, or turned me on to.
Post a Comment
<< Home