Matt – J.S Bach – “Passacaglia in C Minor BWV 582” {arr. for piano by E. d’Albert) – Really gentle and the melodies unfold perfect. It’s from 1713 and I wonder if it was intended for piano.
“Silbermann showed Johann Sebastian Bach one of his early instruments in the 1730s,
but Bach did not like the instrument at that time, saying that the higher notes were too
soft to allow a full dynamic range. Although this earned him some animosity from
Silbermann, the criticism was apparently heeded.[10] Bach did approve of a later
instrument he saw in 1747 and even served as an agent in selling Silbermann’s pianos.
“Instrument: piano et forte genandt”—a reference to the instrument’s ability to play soft
and loud—was an expression that Bach used to help sell the instrument when he was
acting as Silbermann’s agent in 1749”
Palmieri, Bob & Meg (2003). The Piano: An Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis.
There is a gradual Melodic/Harmonic growth to everything Bach writes and the lyricism feels inevitable.
Then Matt says he heard this Bach – J.S. Bach – “Ich ruf zu dir, Herr Jesu Christ, BWV 63” and recognized a similarity between it and a Stevie Wonder composition “They Won’t Go When I Go”. I recognize it immediately and (in jest) wonder about Matt’s Stevie Wonder take down over the last 2 weeks. We wondered last time if Stevie took any influence from Donny Hathaway, but truthfully all of these heroes take things from so many places. I hear Bach’s Melodic logic in Charlie Parker, but all these influences are re-contextualized so I have no problems with borrowing. I find whenever I borrow compositionally and I return to the original I am surprised at how unalike they actually sound. Stevie can do whatever he prefers because everything he creates/created is profound and beautiful.
Nawi – Some of Nawi’s 90’s guitar vibes, but no voice yet. Weird when the voice(s) arrive, and coupled with strange shifts in the chords and rhythms. Simple but thick and budgy. The voice is more Alternative sounding and the guitars have moments of feeling heavy, but are rather washy too. Creating a blurry edge. The voice also makes me think newer than 90’s, but fans of the 90’s? Shudder to Think – “Pebbles”. My recall is Shudder to Think being popular in the 90’s and specifically with friends I had at the Disc-Go-Round CD store that I worked on South st. I don’t recall this song specifically, but may have heard it and Nawi thinks he may have seen them with My Bloody Valentine at a show. Which in terms of washy, maelstroms of guitars makes total sense.
Dan – Herbie Nichols Trio – “House Party Starting” – I have been contemplating a Herbie tune for the expanse of Seshjawn history. He still is relatively unappreciated and I wasn’t sure of the Sesh familiarity. Possibly nil… And this is definitely one of my favorite songs of his, but his most famous is “Lady Sings the Blues” which was retitled for Billie Holiday’s use of it as a theme song. Originally titled “Serenade”. Herbie became an interest after reading David Rosenthal’s Hard Bop, a book which revealed many lesser known musicians and is a read I highly recommend. It began a philosophy, that many great musicians were not discovered and that opportunity played more into popularity than the skill or art of it, that has informed my musical discovery since. There are several modern groups who interpret Herbie’s music, though I love the trio sides most and a later album Love, Gloom, Cash, Love which I found in NOLA. He writes great songs, solos vibrantly and always refracting the melody and mostly seems undiscovered because he didn’t hang out + had his own mind about things. A brilliant study would be to connect all of the early Max Roach trio sides because they are a guide to Modern Piano, these included. This song creeps along and its contours are still fresh and original to me, after 30+ years of listening to them. The recordings were initially very hard to find too, eventually reissued on Mosiac & Blue Note.
The Temprees – “Something So Right” – Something new to me this week, a Philly group, a Paul Simon song and a Soul cover which we also discussed a few weeks back with Matt’s play of Donny Hathaway’s version of “Jealous Guy”. I love the whole vibe, though the end fade out could be earlier and tighter. I didn’t realize it was the Paul Simon song until Matt brought it up, but I find a very different view of Popular music when refracted in R&B/Soul covers and most of my favorite artists included them on their albums. They were interested in Popular songs despite the segregation of record markets and radio. We just usually receive greatest hits collections that give us an overview of a career, and there are many well crafted albums that are typically embraced in Classic Rock, but treated differently for a lot of R&B/Soul. Finding CDs of the original albums is not so frequent for me, so I snap them up when I can.
Travis – Some guitarist’s wet dream. Maybe something Travis alluded to at the last Sesh. A synth guitar, I think, is at play here. Definitely some looping occur, occur, occurring. Andy Summers / Robert Fripp – “New Marimba” – I hear the Fripp here, less so the Andy Summers, but a completely different concept. Also, yeah guitar orgy.
Found Sounds 