Without the state

Eclectic?

I literally don't know anyone with quite the range of musical interests that I have. That concerns me, since music is one of the great arts and the narrowness  of taste which seems common, means that people are missing out on a huge amount of pleasure. By way of illustration , the last 6 tracks played as I type are:

Rose Room - Cannonball Adderley
Ex Girlfriend - No Doubt
Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll - Ian Dury & the Blockheads
Reel du forgeron - La Bottine Souriante
Reynardine - Fairport Convention
So Sad - Canned Heat

Since I started work, I have had Tchaikovsky, Beyonce, Muddy Waters, Charlie Parker, Santana, Nat King Cole, Fletcher Henderson, Dusty Springfield, Amalia Rodriguez, Astor Piazzolla. I'm not claiming that all of these are of equal quality. I am saying however that they all have the right to be considered on their own terms as of equal merit. Am I alone in this?   

Singers male and female

For some reason the past few years seems to have thrown up a number of female singers with good voices and the capacity to rise above the pretty limited material most of them seem to be given, while very few new male singers of any quality are coming forward. I don't pretend to be an expert on the current music scene, so it is possible the 'new'  singers I'm talking about have been around for years. That is certainly the case for a couple of bands I have belatedly come across. Natalie Merchant, for example, the singer with a group called 10,000 Maniacs (now gone), and Samantha Sprackling (Saffron) singer with Republica both appear to have musical ability and a good voice.

Other female singers I have noted include Sharlene Spiteri (Texas), Gwen Stefani (No Doubt), Cerys Mathews (Catatonia), the rather delectable Beyonce, Beverly Knight and Miss Dynamite. Also worth  listening to if you come across her is Heather Small, formerly of M People. All these women have traditionally good voices, with distinctive timbre and seem to have the capacity to do more than simply carry a tune.

I think (hope) this is more than an aging rocker's fascination with attractive young women, although I have to admit that watching Beyonce on TV is an altogether more pleasant prospect  than watching Mick Hucknall.

In case you think I'm overstating things, it is worth looking out an album by Larry Adler of Gershwin songs,'The Glory of Gershwin"  where you will find all sorts of people - including Meatloaf and Bon Jovi! - making pretty good jobs of a range of Gershwin songs. By contrast, Ella Fitzgerald's first recording 'A Tisket  A Tasket' was by any measure a pretty trivial piece that gave no real hint of the majestic  career ahead.

My point, if there is one, is simply that there seems to be a good range of musical talent available amongst the current crop of female singers, but the obsession with rap has either prevented or is obscuring the male equivalents.

Country Music

In between telling us all why the war in Iraq was right , Norman Geras has been running a series (he's up to number 16) celebrating all those (sorry Norm) awful,  excruciatingly sentimental country songs about mommy and daddy.

As it happens, I like Emmy Lou Harris, Dolly Parton and on occasions, even Willie Nelson. However I like them despite being country singers, not because, and if anything is likely to make me hit the 'next' button on the CD player it is songs like 'To Daddy'.

I'm pretty happy to accept sentimentality too - in music or in life - but I find the country version just too much to bear. For full on pathos - not bathos - you need Lady Day. Listen to the Lady in Satin album

John Peel

A nice tribute.

More trivia - but interesting this time

A delayed birthday present brought me this. I'm not usually much of a fan of tenor quartets, since they are too often an excuse for extended self-indulgent blowing from the sax player. This is different though - it is a genuine quartet for a start - but Gordon's tone and inventiveness here is great, standing alongside anything by the great Sonny Rollins.

Happy birthday, we miss you...

Apropos this, it turns out that today is John Lennon's birthday

You may say I'm a dreamer,

but I'm not the only one,

I hope some day you'll join us,

And the world will live as one.

[via John Massengale]

Why does God have all the best tunes?

Arranging a funeral – and the rather morbid realisation that I have more years behind me than ahead – led me into thinking about the way we handle death in our society.

Only about 7% of us attend the Anglican Church with any frequency and only about 16% attend any Christian church.

In the UK, Church membership and attendance are declining relatively rapidly. Church membership figures for the UK show 6.7 million church members in 1990, 17.3% of the Christian population, with 4.4 million church attenders. In 1995, the number of church members had declined to 6.4 million (16.8% of the Christian population), with 4.0 million attenders. Projections for the year 2000 give 5.9 million members (15.6% of the Christian population) with 3.8 million attenders. (Source : World Churches Handbook / Christian Research)

More international data on church attendance here

Even so, as far as I can tell the majority of British funerals are religious in character. That may be hedging our bets - although it’s probably too late by then! - but I suspect it is more to do with our need for ritual at times of great emotion.

I’ve never been to a Jewish or Muslim funeral so I can’t speak for what happens there. British Christian funerals are however underpinned by a strong tradition of hymn singing. The effect of that is very different to the same hymns sung by the choir. The funeral I recently attended included one hymn – How great Thou art - with a wonderful tune (and for a believer powerful words) that even as a long-standing atheist still managed to raise the hair on the back of my neck. Add ‘Abide with Me’ and ‘The day Thou gavest’ and you have a strong – and shared - emotional experience.

For the atheist, there is no equivalent. There is obviously powerful and emotional music to draw on, but it will not be shared in the same way as the Christian hymn. Nor is there a shared equivalent to the St James Bible. As a consequence, since most people probably do not plan their funeral in advance, I suspect therefore that when the time comes the relatives settle for the comfort of a familiar ritual.

As you might expect I have my own ideas about music.

West End Blues – Louis Armstrong (if only for the tremendous opening solo)

For all we know - Billie Holiday (because I can’t imagine going anywhere without Billie)

Ode to Joy – from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony (going out on a big finish!)

Others on the short list:

Vissi d’arte from Tosca (it passed the neck hair test even though when I first heard it I had no idea of the meaning or the context)

Three from Duke Ellington

Ducky Wucky – (it makes me laugh)
Warm Valley – (warm and sensuous - Duke at his best)
Caravan – (more classic Duke)

My question therefore is this – given a non-religious ceremony, what music and what words would you choose?

If there are enough responses I'll post some form of list.

The greats of rock'n'roll

The Poll results are out at Normblog and there are some strange things in it - as might be expected. What strikes me most however is the huge range of what people consider to be rock'n'roll. I mean - Leonard Cohen? Simon and Garfunkel? Joni Mitchell? - all fine and dandy but rock'n'roll?

And only five votes for Bob Marley? And if Joni Mitchell why not Carly Simon or Sandy Denny?

Hugh Masekela and William Godwin

I've posted before on William Godwin and on Hugh Masekela.

I was intrigued therefore to hear today on the BBC Desert Island Disks which had Hugh Masekela as the guest, that he received his start in music because Father Trevor Huddleston got him his first trumpet - a classic demonstration I think of Godwin's idea of our duty to those we see before us as much as to any abstract ideal of justice.

As a boy growing up in the impoverished townships of South Africa he was inspired to learn the trumpet after seeing Kirk Douglas play Bix Beiderbecke in Young Man With A Horn. He begged one of his teachers – the anti apartheid crusader Father Trevor Huddleston to buy him a horn and in return he promised to stay out of trouble.

His choice of music was interesting too - everything from Louis Armstrong to Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie - plus the inestimable Billie Holiday with 'You've Changed' from her Lady in Satin album, which would certainly be one of my eight in the unlikely event of my being invited.

Previous guests have included Linton Kwezi Johnson and Jack Vettriano

Rock'n'Roll Poll

Norm is still waiting for more votes. Here is the list from the writer Francis Wheen, so you can see you'll be in good company.

Seeing this list reminded me I missed out Warren Zevon from my list of those who might have been included - and as I write I also think of Hendrix who has I think an even greater right to be there.