HAPPY BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY! 1-31-10

Happy Birthday to Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera who is 59 today! Everyone, do the strand!

ROBOTS OF THE DAY! 1-21-10

I know I know... you must listen and look past the Pat Metheny part of this video... I'm not a fan of his playing or his writing or, really, his hairdo.. seems like a nice enough guy though, I guess. Anyway, it's what he is playing WITH that is mind blowing. Now people have made Orchestrions before... beyond the actual ones from back in the day (you can still see great old turn of the century ones at Musee Mechanique in San Francisco and at Wall Drug too)... but I mean there are those that have created ones to play live music along with. This though is a whole bunch of triggered instruments actually 'listening' to his playing and reacting accordingly. Wha?!! That's amazing! Looks like he had help from the Lemur folks who are amazing on their own.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY! 1-20-10

Happy Birthday to Lead Belly (or Leadbelly... both work) who would have been 112 today if he had lived this long. Whew!

Here we get the great:




... and the terrible (...terrible acting that is):

INSTRUMENT OF THE DAY! 1-15-10

The Auerglass is a two-person, mechanical-action organ. The instrument requires two people to create music and cannot be played alone. This marriage of interdependency and cooperation is achieved as one player pumps the bellows while the other creates music and vice versa.

The two keyboards cover a four-octave range and have been divided so that each of the two players has every other note at their disposal. Auerbach and Mesirow (of the band Glasser), will play a composition written specifically for the instrument. It combines music that Auerbach wrote as a child, songs from Glasser, and new material.

Here is an video interview of the two women who thought it up.

MUSIC ARCHIVE OF THE DAY! 1-14-10

The Marr Sound Archives is located on the ground floor of the Miller Nichols Library on the campus of the University of Missouri--Kansas City. The archives was established in 1987 with a foundation gift from Olga and Gaylord Marr. Since then, the collection has grown to include over 300,000 sound recordings.

The focus of the collection is the American experience as reflected in recorded sound. The archives’ holdings include jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, spoken word, vintage radio programs popular, rock and roll, soul, opera, classical and numerous other genres of music. Researchers internationally benefit from the archives collections and services.

Momentum & Marr from j kerfeld on Vimeo.

The Raymond Scott Collection was donated to the University of Missouri-Kansas City by Mitzi Scott, Raymond's widow, in 1993. It contains music scores, photographs, correspondence, journals, diaries, scrapbooks, notebooks, schematics, news clippings, production notes, and personal and miscellaneous items. The collection, which encompasses much of Scott's career until 1980, has been organized into 11 series that occupy 28 boxes and an oversized drawer. A 12th series of audio material, primarily open-reel tapes and instantaneous-cut discs, is housed in the Marr Sound Archives, the audio division of Special Collections.

The strength of the collection lies in over 400 manuscript scores by Scott. They are in various stages of development including sketches, fragments and completed scores, which provide opportunities to see the progress of a work from a rough copy to a completed, published score. This is especially true with The Lute Song manuscripts.

The collection also gives insight into the other side of Scott's career - that of inventor and electronic music pioneer. There are 20 spirals and 36 disclosures to indexed inventions. Additionally, there are miscellaneous invention and engineering notes, and schematic drawings and diagrams.

Other items of interest include journals, diaries and scrapbooks of Raymond Scott and his second wife, Dorothy Collins; personal and business correspondence; and several hundred photographs, including publicity and candid shots.

TENOR GUITAR PLAYER OF THE DAY! 1-7-10

TINY GRIMES!
This week I was chatting with a friend who was telling me about a great 40's swing/jump guitar player named Tiny Grimes who made his name playing the tenor guitar. I have been drawn more and more to the tenor guitar over the past year or two due to having my baritone uke as my 'go-to' instrument in most cases for both composing and just messing around. Anyway, Tiny's description reminded me of the 30's-40's band Cats and the Fiddle (video clip of 'Killin' Jive' posted in an earlier post). My friend had not heard of them but we each mentioned checking out each other's recommendations. So, of course, as things go.... Tiny was actually IN Cats and the Fiddle.... later than the when the clip was shot by a few years... but still. It was a fun coincidence.

More on Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes:
He played the tenor guitar (a four string version of a guitar) and played with countless artists on as many recordings by the likes of Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, and even Billie Holiday. One of his own bands, Tiny Grimes and the Rockin' Highlanders included a young Screaming Jay Hawkins years before he made a name for himself.

Though he was known as being a master of swing, jump, and jazz in the style of Charlie Christian, Tiny is also one of the many artists thought to have written and performed the very first rock and roll song, his 1946 "Tiny's Boogie". Other artists thought to have also written the very first rock and roll song are Big Joe Turner, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ike Turner, Fats Domino.... and the list goes on and on.

More on Tiny HERE.

A CAPPELLA OF THE DAY! 1-2-10

Wow! Here is the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" LP with only the voices... a cappella versions of the tracks!! AMAZING! What a peek into the mind of Brian and his intricate and unique way of creation. NOTE: the link for the tracks is found within the comments section. (Thank you Steve for the link!!)

NEW YEAR OF THE DAY! 1-1-10

Happy new year with the New Year! (yeah, old video of good band but you know... I had to post it for the pun... always up for the pun...)

The New Year were (are?) a nice band that rose from the ashes of Bedhead (the Kadane brothers) and has over the years had members from Come (Chris Brokaw on drums), Three On A Hill (Peter Schmidt on bass), the End (or End Over End) (Tench Coxe no longer part of the band at this point). Yea for late 80's Dallas bands!

I think his video puts to rest any questions one might have about the loyalty this band has to Fender products.