Auld Lang Syne

Music Zombie's musical year in review:

2012 was fantastic!  I made the trip to Clarinetfest, explored the National Music Museum, attended an Aebersold jazz workshop, visited the birthplace of Glenn Miller, saw Dave Matthews Band at Alpine, and Hugh Laurie in Iowa City.

On a more personal level, I helped to launch a clarinet trio (with two of my clarinet students) and wrote three new arrangements that were performed publicly for the first time.  My debut as an arranger, if you will.  As a bonus, I learned an entirely brand-new musical in a week and sharpened my flute and piccolo playing skills.

I am learning some new technologies, and hope to start recording some things soon. There are plans for more arranging and perhaps some composing.

This Zombie is counting her musical blessings and looking forward to more great adventures in 2013.

Be safe out there!  And take care of your musicians!!

Catch you on the flip side.

Happy New Year!!!

Tree

A Music Zombie Christmas tree.

Getting a little carried away with the drawing program. 

:-)

♪♫ On the 12th day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me: ♪

Dirty Dozen Brass Band
11 Beastie Boys
10000 Maniacs
9 Female rockers
8 Mile Marshall
7 minute music
6 ft. tall Grace Jones
Ben Folds Fiiiiiive
4/4 time
3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits in a treeeeeeee! 

We've made it!  What an insanely lengthy carol.

Anyhoo.

The Dirty Dozen Brass Band is a horn-driven (obviously) brass band out of New Orleans.  It was formed in 1977, heavy on New Orleans inspired jazz.  They definitely make use of the rich musical heritage that comes out of New Orleans, but are just as adept at moving a little outside of the gumbo.  For example: I'm listening to a track featuring Chuck D (of Public Enemy) in a funky rendition of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On?

The result of this boldness is a rollicking, funky, brass band that you can't help but groove to.  And it is good!

Merry Christmas to all! From your friendly Music Zombie!

(As a side note, with regards to The Twelve Days: the 12 days of Christmas actually start on Christmas day and stretch into the new year.  Its seems more timely to do it this way, though.)

♪ On the 11th day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me: ♪

11 Beastie Boys
10000 Maniacs
9 Female rockers
8 Mile Marshall
7 minute music
6 ft. tall Grace Jones
Ben Folds Fiiiiiive
4/4 time
3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits wailing in a treeeeeeee! 

I know, I know, there are only three Beastie Boys, but do you know how obscure the number 11 is in music history?

The Beastie Boys is a three-piece (originally a quartet) hip hip group formed in 1983 out of New York City.  Michael "Mike D" Diamond (drums), Adam "MCA" Yauch (bass, died May 2012) and Adam "Ad-Rock" Horovitz (guitar).  All three provide vocals as well.

"Beastie" is a backronym* for Boys Entering Anarchic States Towards Internal Excellence.  Some of their best-known, game-changing tunes include: Brass Monkey, and Fight For Your Right (to paaaartaaaay!)

*A backronym is an acronym that is created after the fact.  For example: Zebra Orphans Making Boring Inchworm Earrings is a backronym for zombie.

♫ On the 10th day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me: ♪

10000 Maniacs
9 Female rockers
8 Mile Marshall
7 minute music
6 ft. tall Grace Jones
Ben Folds Fiiiiiive
4/4 time
3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits swinging from a treeeeeeee! 

I actually don't know anything about this band.  They were popular in the 1980s (and are still going strong, with a slightly different line-up) and one of their most famous members is Natalie Merchant, who left the band in 1993.  Mary Ramsey stepped in to fill her shoes, and from the reviews it seems that she's done well.

Some of the band's notable hits include These Are Days, More Than This, and Because the Night.

♪ On the 9th day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me: ♫

9 Female rockers
8 Mile Marshall
7 minute music
6 ft. tall Grace Jones
Ben Folds Fiiiiiive
4/4 time
3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits tearing down a treeeeeeee!

As James Brown says, it's a man's world but it wouldn't be nothing without a woman.  Hence, here are 9  females that show us that women can rock the music scene as hard as any man:

1. Ann Wilson -and-

2. Nancy Wilson of Heart  The first women of rock to not only sing, but to write the songs and play the instruments.

3. Blondie Deborah Harry, really, and known for several new wave hits including Call Me, Rapture, and Heart of Glass.

4. Alanis Morissette Canadian rocker who gave us an ironic definition of the word "ironic."  She also played the part of "God" in Dogma.

5. Lady Gaga If you don't know who Lady Gaga is by now there is just no hope for you. And I am not apologizing for this pop star on a "rock" list.

6. Linda Ronstadt Started her career in the 1960s with a band called Stone Poneys.  She dominated in the 1970s as a solo act and is still rockin' today.

7. Grace Slick Singer for Jefferson Airplane/Jefferson Starship.  Proved that women could front a band and be more than just a sex symbol.

8. Janis Joplin Part of the "27 club": musicians who died at the age of 27, usually at the top of their careers, due to problems with drugs and/or alcohol.

9. Stevie Nicks Part of the heart and soul of Fleetwood Mac.

♫ On the 8th day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me: ♫

8 Mile Marshall
7 minute music
6 ft. tall Grace Jones
Ben Folds Fiiiiiive
4/4 time
3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits living in a treeeeeeee!

Eminem, AKA Slim Shady, AKA Marshall Bruce Mathers III is an American rap artist that got his start by hustling his self-made tracks to record stores.  He was discovered in the 1997 Rap Olympics (who knew that kind of thing existed?! Amazing.) in LA by producers from Interscope, who gave his demo disc to Dr. Dre.  Dr. Dre tracked him down and the rest is proverbial history.  In 2002 he starred in a semi-autobiographical movie called 8 Mile about a struggling rap artist. 

I've always had a bit of a fascination with rap music.  It isn't my go-to music on an ordinary basis, but it is interesting to hear the inventiveness from some of the best rap artists.  Their ability to free-form in rhythm and rhyme (all the while making their story coherent) is not unlike what a skilled jazz musician can do.  And Eminem is one of the best, for sure.

Drawing

As promised, I learned to use a drawing program.  So, here are two very poorly drawn clarinets.

The State of Pop Music

From the eyes (and ears) of a moderate pop-music consumer.

Lately I've been switching my radio station from the usual classic rock station (there's only so many times you can hear Brown Eyed Girl or anything by Steely Dan, regardless of quality) to the local pop music station.  I will admit that I picked up this habit while driving around Iowa and Nebraska this summer.  A change will do you good, says Sheryl Crow.  After listening to the output of the summer and last few months, these are some of my impressions:

Most of it is just bad.  Lousy hooks, uninspired lyrics, bad songwriting.  Also, as much as I try to listen with an open mind, everything I've heard from Justin Bieber is over-processed and unoriginal.  He has perhaps some moderate talent, but he is all engineered, bolstered-by-collaborations-with-other-artists, and clever marketing.

At some point over the summer months, stations decided to play Demi Lovato's one, and seemingly only, hit Give Your Heart a Break and didn't stop playing it.  Ever.  Honestly, this song irritated me from the very first time I heard it, and it just got worse when radio stations would play it Every. Single. Hour.  I wanted to kill my radio. Then she suddenly appeared on American Idol as a "judge", but, really, American Idol isn't really relevant anymore, and is hopefully in its death throes as a hackneyed, sensationalized vehicle for cliched emotional cloying for ratings.  It even fails as compelling reality TV.

Edit: I realized later that Lovato is a judge on The X Factor, not American Idol.  Simon Cowell is involved with both, hence my confusion.  However, I still stand by my sentiments.

Some of the music is okay though, which is what probably keeps me tuning in.  Ke$ha managed to release a pretty good party song with Die Young, even though the accompanying video is kind of dumb.  Oh well, no one watches music videos anyway.  And, speaking of American Idol, Phillip Phillips (the Dave Matthews doppelganger and season 11 winner of American Idol), has released a nice song in Home.  Belgian-Australian Wally DeBacker, AKA Gotye, was also a pleasant discovery, with his 2011 song Somebody That I Used to Know (a song I like so much I am arranging it for clarinet quartet) and for a short time even that song was a bit overplayed, but it is nowhere near as irritating at the Lovato song.  Consider me a newborn Gotye fan.  I am also brave enough to admit my appreciation for LMFAO, as cornball as they can sometimes be.  I guess I'm a gooey dance-party fan wrapped in a jazz musician's crunchy layer.  Drizzled with a sweet classical coating. 

And that is just a few of the observations I've made through my probably very biased lens.  I know that many types of people make the musical world go 'round, but sometimes bad music should just be called out.  But, maybe I'm just getting old.  Maybe.  <End Rant>

♪ On the 7th day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me: ♪

7 minute music
6 ft. tall Grace Jones
Ben Folds Fiiiiiiive
4/4 time
3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits singing in a treeeeeeee!

 Most pop songs fit neatly into the 4 minute mark.  There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is our increasingly shrinking attention spans (but tradition is strong on this matter: the first recordable discs could only hold about 3-4 minutes of music).  There are many radio-friendly rock songs that run well over the typical four minutes, stretching to 7 minutes or more.  Here are just a few of them:

The End -- The Doors
Isn't It a Pity --George Harrison
Scenes From an Italian Restaurant --Billy Joel
Maggot Brain --Funkadelic
In-a-Gadda-da-Vida --Iron Butterfly
Free Bird --Lynyrd Skynyrd
Purple Rain --Prince
Cortez the Killer --Neil Young
Won't Get Fooled Again --The Who

♫ On the 6th day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me: ♪

6 ft. tall Grace Jones
Ben Folds Fiiiiiiive
4/4 time
3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits swinging from a treeeee!

Grace Jones is a Jamaican singer, actress, and model.  As I write this, I'm watching a YouTube video of Jones performing Slave to the Rhythm while hula hooping throughout the entire song.  Impressive. 

She's not actually 6 foot tall, but she's close.  A statuesque and androgynous woman, she's created a following through outrageous outfits, live animals on stage performances, and creative personas.  Jones got her start as a model, then moved into acting and singing.  She appeared in Conan the Destroyer (1984) with Arnold Schwarzenegger and A View to a Kill (James Bond movie #14, 1985), among others.  Jones is a source of inspiration for many artists, including Lady Gaga, as well as for some male celebrities. 

Are you okay?

I will soon be getting re-certified for CPR/AED first responder and lifeguarding.  Thinking back on my first go-round with CPR training, I remember Resuscitation-Annie (or Anne, depending on who you talk to).  Resusci-Annie is the dummy-torso that is used when training for CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation).  It has a set of "lungs" and "trachea" that are set up to work like a real human adult so the trainee can learn and practice rescue breathing and chest compressions.

Thinking about Resusci-Annie brings up another Michael Jackson tidbit: in his 1988 hit Smooth Criminal, the lyrics ask "Annie are you okay?  So, Annie are you okay?  Are you okay, Annie?"  This is basically what CPR trainees are taught to ask the victim before they begin any assistance.  If the individual can speak, CPR is really unnecessary. 

Annie never spoke back to us in CPR class, so we would always proceed with rescue methods.

♪ On the 5th day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me: ♪

Ben Folds Fiiiiiiiive
4/4 time
3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits singing about a treeeeeee!

 Ben Folds Five is an alternative rock trio out of North Carolina.  The group is made up of Ben Folds on piano, Darren Jessee on drums, and Robert Sledge on bass.  The band made the scene in 1995 with their self-titled debut album that featured their hit, Brick.  They released three albums before parting ways in 2000.

But it's okay!  After pursuing personal projects, the band reunited for one concert in 2008, then again to record three tracks on Ben's The Best Imitation of Myself: A Retrospective, and in early January of 2012, the group formally reunited to record and release a new album, The Sound of the Life of the Mind.  The first single from this album, Do It Anyway, features the cast of Fraggle Rock.  Any band that makes room for Muppets in their creative vision is okay in my book.

♫ On the 4th day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me: ♪

4/4 time
3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits in a treeeeee!

4/4, or common, time means that there are 4 beats to a measure and the quarter note is the beat.

It's easiest to reinterpret the lower number in a time signature as a fraction: 1/4 => quarter => quarter note.

A quarter note.  Observe the filled in head and stem.  The stem may go up or down.

I promise that I'll learn some sort of Photoshop or drawing program someday.  For now, though, you get my low-tech drawings.  Zombies can only do so much at one time.  Braaaaaaaaainsss...

 When placed into a measure (which is really just a way to organize the sound into a readable, easily comprehensible format) you get something like this:

More low-tech music notations.

You will remember that "beat" is the pulse that you would tap your foot to.  Rhythm is the interesting stuff that happens over the beat.  Note (hehe) that there are 4 quarter notes inside this measure.  Four beats of music, with the quarter as the beat.  Tadaaa! 4/4 time!

There are other time signatures, but the formula to figure them out is always the same.  The top number (which can be anything, really) tells you how many beats are supposed to be in a single measure.  The bottom number can only be one of a few numbers (because there are is a set amount of kinds of notes).  So, with this in mind, we know that the time signature of 7/16 would result in 7 beats within a measure, with sixteenth notes as the beat.  We also know that music in this kind of time signature would be annoying, at best, and would be impossible to march to.

♪ On the 3rd day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me:  ♫

3 Pips and Gladys
2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits in a treeeeee!

Gladys Knight and the Pips.  A soul and R&B family group out of Atlanta, GA featuring Gladys Knight, her brother Merald "Bubba" Knight, and her cousins, William Guest and Edward Patten.  Berry Gordy, Motown founder, discovered them in 1966 in Harlem's Apollo Theater.  They were signed onto Motown's Soul label that year.

The group's most well-known hits include Midnight Train to Georgia (1973), Neither One of Us (Wants to Be the First to Say Goodbye), and an uptempo version of Marvin Gaye's  I Heard it Through the Grapevine. 

The group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.  Gladys continues to perform, sometimes sans Pips.

You know you're a musician when...

You have a well-stocked closet of black clothing.  And, if your regular gig requires it, a second-hand black suit jacket to create the illusion of a tuxedo.  Because, you know, you're a broke musician who can't afford a real suit jacket.

You only know the first bit of a song, because then you have to start playing and can't pay attention to the lyrics.

You see the word "beetle" and have to remind yourself that there is also an insect with that name, and it is not spelled wrong.

You are familiar with the back entrances of venues and bars all over town.  You only occasionally get to see the lobby, and even then it's only to pickup a copy of the program.

You know every possible version of Brown Eyed Girl.  You also know that most drunken "guest" singers really don't know the words...but they think they do!

You can point out the girls (or guys) in the bar who are most likely to try to play one of the instruments on stage or try to sing into the microphone.

You keep music stands, horn stands, and stand lights in your car.  Just in case.

You know what "circle of fifths/fourths" means.

You know the difference between valve oil and rotor oil.  And the difference between valves and rotors.

When attending concerts, you watch for things like hand positions and fingerings and listen for intonation and articulation.  Also, you start counting, through shear habit, when the orchestra starts to play.  Only about 8 measures in do you realize that you can just relax and listen this time.

You can't go see your friends' bands because you've got a gig that night.

You know all of the "fast, cheap, quick" repairs for on-the-job breakdowns.

You've continued a performance through a power outage or blackout.  The show must go on, dammit!

What did I miss?

♫ On the 2nd day...

...of Christmas, my Zombie gave to me:  ♪

2 Live Crew
and Tom Waits in a treeeee!

 2 Live Crew is a hip hop group from Miami, FL.  They are notorious for their controversial and sexually-explicit songs but are almost better known for the 1994 copyright case concerning their parody of Roy Orbison and William Dees' song Oh, Pretty Woman.  2 Live Crew's version was on the album As Clean As They Wanna Be, which was created and released with much less profanity and vulgarity than their normal output.  Their Pretty Woman version featured the same bass riff, but completely different lyrics.  The Woman of 2 Live Crew needs to shave, is bald, and is apparently a cheater.

The whole case was an excellent example of the Fair Use section of the existing Copyright Act of 1976.  Because the song didn't cause Orbison to lose fans, market-share, or his reputation as an artist, the 2 Live Crew parody was deemed as fair use, even though 2 Live Crew profited from it.


And that was that.

♫♪ On the 1st day...

...of  Christmas, my Zombie gave to me:  ♫

TOM WAITS IN A TREEEEE!

I'm totally in love with Tom Waits.  He is an American songwriter known best for his raspy, gravelly voice (described by one critic as "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, then taken outside and run over with a car.") but also for his willingness to experiment with different styles, sounds, and instruments.

He's brilliant though!  His early career had a somewhat mainstream Tin Pan Alley/jazz style, but his later and most recent output can be described as a psychedelic Vaudeville show.  The lyrics are all cinematic imagery and lean, mean hooks.  His latest studio album, Bad As Me, was released in 2011.