Watkins Glen, New York

Watkins Glen
http://youtu.be/zZmDDl9qleQ

Watkins Glen Clips
http://youtu.be/8Zk2qppbBpY

Origins or Racism

The Little Mustard Seed by The Mascots

The Little Mustard Seed by The Mascots

This is a song my mother used to sing to me all the time.  While sorting through her old record collection of 45's and 78's, I found this.  It was in really bad physical shape but  armed with a mangyfying glass, pin and toothpick I managed to get most of the crud off however, there are a few gouges I don't know how to get around and consequently the record skips in a few places.  Lo siento.  If I can figure out a way to resolve the gouges, I will re-record it and upload it.

http://youtu.be/X5S4fRvf4yA

November 12, 1955
The Billboard Music Review of New Pop Records
"Tender song with an inspirational message.  Okay job." Number 72

Nobody's Arms / The Little Mustard Seed ‎(7")     MGM Records     K12107     US     1955
A     Nobody's Arms  
B     The Little Mustard Seed

Conductor – LeRoy Holmes
Vocals – Harry Bell, Jerry Lloyd, Joe Toland, Larry Hovis

MGM, Published by Robbins Music Corp

Bring Back "Stop Look and Listen"

Almost every day you can read online about a pedestrian somewhere being hit by a car.  Today's offering is an eight year old boy.  The police are not releasing information yet, the driver was neither arrested nor ticketed so, I'm willing to bet that the boy didn't stop, look and listen.

The "pedestrian has the right of way" law is costing lives as more and more people are being stupefied into blindly walking into moving traffic.  I was walking with a friend and as we approached the curb she neither stopped nor looked.  She just stepped off of the curb and I grabbed her as cars from both directions were giving no indication of stopping.

If you watch people coming out of grocery stores or places such as WalMart, most of those people are not looking either.  They just walk out with blind faith that the world will stop for them.  The law does force drivers to be more cognizant of pedestrians since all the blame will be on the driver and their insurance company but it is also making pedestrians oblivious to the danger of 4,000 pounds of steel coming at them at thirty or fifty miles per hour.  Regardless of the law, my money is on the 4,000 pounds of steel.

Just because the pedestrian has the right of way does not mean that the driver is not eating fast food, putting on makeup, on the phone, fiddling with the radio, setting the GPS or nodding off.  We can make laws against those (Schumer, get on it) or we can give pedestrians a foolproof way to not get hit by cars: Stop, Look and Listen.  It works every time.  Go to your local highway and try it. 

Maybe we should take all the politicians who voted for that law to a busy highway and see which method they choose to cross the street.  Our eight year old little boy didn't get that choice because he somehow learned that cars will always stop for him.  Always.

When I was a kid there was a deluge of commercials on TV on the topic of Stop, Look and Listen.  Yielding to a car will keep you alive 100% of the time.  Stepping in front of one, not so much.  I think I'd rather be alive than to brainwashed into thinking I have super human powers to stop traffic.

Maybe if politicians created harsher punishments for drivers who hit human lemmings -  yes, that will save lives -  But, really, we don't need more laws, we need one less law.  Rescind the pedestrian right of way law.   If we have to keep it so we can place the blame, at least couple it with the admonishment to stop, look and listen, too.

A Peek Under The Hood Of Modes

Modes are ancient scales of the church which are still used today by jazz musicians.  You can also hear modal music in many of today's film scores and in some churches who still value their rich musical heritage.  Film composer John Williams composes many of his movie themes in modes.  One of the first jazz musicians to come to mind when I think of modes is Chick Corea.  Most jazz musicians are actually drawn to these classical scales because they are very rich in melodic and harmonic possibilities.  The church, in an effort to dumb down for the common person is actually dumbing down the common person.  If you can find a church offering a Tridentine Mass, most likely you will hear a lot of modal music.  As much as I love contemporary Christian music, it is very much trapped in the Ionian Mode (major scale) and doesn't give a sense of the sacred as many other modes do. When I attend other churches, I usually leave feeling numb from the "white bread" music and musicians.

This video is a simple example of how one may explore the modes as an improvisational tool.  One does not need to explore the modes for only jazz styles, but they are a great tool and inspiration for writing melody and fleshing out rich harmony.

For further listening:
Theme from the movie ET, Jurasic Park, The Simpsons

Rye Bread Music Festival

July 10-12, 2015 at The Barn, 100 Glen Road, Fort Edward, NY 12828

Pack your tent, sleeping bag, chairs, food, cooler, grill, beer, wine.
Family friendly.  Dog friendly.  Over a dozen bands.  Admission $20.  Arrive any time after 3 to claim your spot. 

Owning our Mistakes, Honoring our Mistakes, Everybody Makes

I recently performed a concert with a young artist who is going off to college to study opera.  He has dreams to then move to Europe to live and perform music.  Not only does this young man have a deep and rich bass voice but, he was also a pleasure to accompany.  Rarely do I get to play for someone who can both lead and follow an accompanist at the same time.  Many singers will either hijack a piece and force the accompanist to blatantly follow them or in contrast slavishly follow the accompanist.  When I encounter a singer who is neither a leader nor follower but does both, that is when music happens and a pleasure to work with. 

There was one moment however when he began to sing the wrong verse at the end of the song.  He stopped and corrected himself, everyone knew he made a mistake.  Many musicians learn and memorize their music from rote by practicing them dozens of times over until it is "memorized."  That method can set up many traps and things to go wrong without notice.  Rare is the musician who eats, drinks and sleeps their craft so that they are one with the song. 

I once played the show "Nunsense" for a year and a half, performing six shows per week.  All the musicians in the pit had the score memorized.  One evening, Mother Superior accidentally sang the wrong lyrics and without a second thought, all the musicians looked at one another and we all seamlessly jumped to the spot where she was.  After her verse was over, knowing that she skipped an important lyric, Mother Superior walked to the edge of the stage, looked down and said to the pit "Vamp boys."  Then she proceeded to tell the audience that she skipped a verse and said to the pit "take it back to the second verse" and we all flipped our pages, she counted us off and it was magic to have a mistake a living and breathing part of the performance.   

At my concert last weekend when my bass started to sing the wrong lyric and melody, I knew exactly where he was and was prepared to jump to that spot because I was prepared for the possibilities.  When I practice music, I jump around on the pages, mixing and matching beginnings and endings, playing the piece in different keys, different styles and in general, exploring the possibilities of the work.  This helps me to learn it and to be prepared for whatever may go wrong or, in other words - own the song.  I thrive on these challenges.

My suggestion for all musicians, especially singers, when you practice with your accompanist, don't just practice the song the way it is "supposed to go."  Play with it.  Try different rhythms, accents and styles.  Without notice, jump to a different section so that the accompanist has to find you.  If your accompanist can't do this, find a new accompanist.  There is nothing more frustrating than trying to make music with someone who is not a "musician."  Music should not be something which is regurgitated from a page or set in stone.  It should be a living breathing expression of our selves and spirit.

The worse thing for a musician to do when they encounter a bump in the road is to stop.  Don't train your mind to stop.  Don't practice making mistakes.  Train your mind to be flexible and prepared for the possibilities.  I once worked with a great singer who during rehearsals would stop every time she made a mistake.  That practice manifested itself when she made a mistake on stage, she didn't know how to recover and everyone in the audience knew it.  It also made rehearsals unbearable for me.

If one were to tell the story of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, chances are we are not reciting a memorized version of the story but, extemporizing, improvising and re-living the story pretty much in our own words.  If we make a mistake, we don't stop, go back or apologize.  We effortlessly and almost invisibly correct it on the fly and continue with the story.  Nobody would even notice.  Music can be like that too if we are not a slave to notation, propriety or our egos.  The purpose of telling the story is to tell the story.  The purpose of music should be to tell a story, not put on a concert.  Janis Joplin once said that she doesn't put on concerts when she sings, she makes love to the audience. 

This is what making music should be about. That is the difference between an amateur, professional and artist.  Very often amateurs can also be artists and very often, professionals can be mere amateurs.