White Hot Center

Sweet Seventeen

2010-01-28T07:04:00.000-08:00

So I was Goodwill hunting again yesterday. And behold I was a mighty huntress. Yesterday's Booty...

Radio La Chusma (local group...really good stuff)
Joe Satriani.....Flying in a Blue Dream
Alicia Keys.....The Diary of Alicia Keys
Tonic.....Lemon Parade (I have NO idea who or what this is. But sometimes I like to try something completely unfamiliar as a musical adventure)
En Vogue.....Funky Divas
Aaron Neville.....The Tattooed Heart
Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis.....Baroque Duet
Paul McCartney.....Flaming Pie
Bruce Hornbsy and the Range.....A Night On the Town
Fine Young Cannibals.....The Raw & The Cooked
Toy Story 2 Soundtrack (my boys are thrilled)
Barbra Streisand.....Memories (the duet You Don't Bring Me Flowers always makes me think of my Dad)
Andrea Bocelli.....Aria
Harry Connick Jr.....20
Jackson Browne.....World In Motion
Brandon Heath.....Don't Get Comfortable
Phil Collins.....Both Sides

All told...this haul was less than 40 dollars. Not bad. Not bad at all! :D Any thoughts on any of my selections? What have you heard? What would you like to hear?

So I skipped a few letters...

2010-01-20T16:56:00.000-08:00

O was Oingo Boingo
P was Phil Collins
Q was a free day
R was Robert Palmer, Rush, Richard Bona, and Red Hot Chili Peppers
S was Sarah Machlachlan, Sara Tavares, Sting, Seal, and Simon&Garfunkel

And Today was T! Tchaikovsky, They Might Be Giants, Toto, Tower of Power, and I think I'll do more Tchaikovsky in just a minute.

Today was also Piano Lesson day. We've decided to make it a goal for both boys to finish Suzuki book two in less than six weeks. This would be a BIG accomplishment...but I think they can do it. We're moving and this would be something of a gift to their teacher.

Here's one of my little players...this is my second son.

N is for Notes

2010-01-14T06:23:00.000-08:00

I'm writing this morning with the N music already tantalizing my ears, waking my mind, and bringing a nascent smile to my face....

N does not have many choices for us, but they are good ones.

We have several albums of the Newsboys, our favorite Christian group. High energy, good harmonies, solid lyrics... You gotta love 'em. Lead singer Peter Furler recently departed the group and was replaced by Michael Tait, formerly of DC Talk. The feel won't be quite the same...but I think they'll still rock.

A mix CD of the music of New Orleans is also on tap. I want my boys to learn the Neville Brothers' song Brothers. Our favorite on this album though is Allen Toussaint's deliciously groovy Funky Bars, which has some of the dumbest lyrics ever...but sounds so good you don't care!

For the unfamiliar choices, I have two Nina Simone albums to get acquainted with. And as I mentioned above, I am imbibing some intoxicating tones along with my morning coffee. Now playing is violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg with guitarists Sergio and Odair Assad. The music has a stirring gypsy flair...a glorious way to start the day!

I couldn't find any videos from this album, but here's Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg.

Music, Mean Moms, and Many Michaels

2010-01-13T06:20:00.000-08:00

Well, I didn't get as much of L listened to as I would have liked. Ahhh the price you pay for raising musicians. A lot of the the music of the day involved small people practicing piano and then jamming on the new electric keyboard.

They got the keyboard for Christmas. Every night I take the power cord and I don't give it back the next day until they've practiced piano. Meeeean Music Mommy! And it's January, which means it's time for my oldest son (he's almost 12) to do his annual "I don't really wanna play piano" mope. We had our usual chat about he's way too good at it to waste the skill, and how I can find hoardes of adults on any given day who wish they had learned, and how if he never touches it again after he's grown up that's fine but it won't be MY fault he doesn't know how to play.... ;) But when he was practicing, I think I really hit on something that will help. I started telling him, conversationally rather than mommy-lecturish, about the neurological impact of working towards playing an instrument. He was intrigued. He loves sports and likes working out. So I pointed out to him that practicing an instrument was a workout for his brain. We're going to start studying that more in depth in days to come. Here's hoping!

Anyway. Today's letter is M. And appaently today's name is Michael since we have no less than seven albums just by Michaels. Specifically Michael Buble, Michael Franti, and Michael Jackson. We also have Miles Davis, Marc Cohn, Marc Anthony, Madou Djembe, Mario Otero, Matt Cattingub, Mandy Patinkin, Morphine, mixes of Motown, and Mundial Muzique.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!!

The Marc Cohn is a new album, The Rainy Season, I picked up at the thrift store. I had his self-titled one when I was much younger... I think we'll start out with that one and do some Miles Davis today. Also the Mundial Muzique has not been listened to yet. Then I shall earn cool-mom points by playing Michael Jackson in the car.

In the meantime...If you only know Mandy Patinkin from Inigo Montoya or Criminal Minds, you're missing out! His singing is incredible! Check this out!

La la la

2010-01-12T06:17:00.000-08:00

Ah L...lovely lyrical L lolls and languishes lazily.

We're back on alphabetic track today and I'm excited about the L-ish possibilities, as we have a good mix of the familiar and the novel.

Music we know:

Soundtracks from Labyrinth and Little Shop of Horrors. My boys love both of these. Ever since they were teeny, I have answered the question "Why not?" with "because I'm a mean green mother from outer space". When I finally got the Little Shop soundtrack, they found out where I got that! And did you know that was written by Ashman and Menken of Disney fame? You can hear a strong resemblance to The Little Mermaid's ballad Part of Your World at the end of Somewhere That's Green.

Music we kinda know:

Lenny Kravitz It Is Time For A Love Revolution and Greatest Hits. We've heard the former a few times and the latter only once. I need to be productive today...so I'll definitely spend some time groovin' with Lenny.

Louis Prima... another Disney connection, Louis played King Louie in The Jungle Book! These two cds were gifts. I have listened to them once through.

Music we don't know.

Latin Jazz - a 3 disc set of artists such as George Shearing, Ike Quebec, Johnny Blass, Eddie Palmieri and more. I've never played it....but the titles look good. ;) Lots of bossas and sambas...yum.

Late Night Moods - another mix. This one has names from the very familiar like Michael Buble and Ella Fitzgerald, to the "Who is that?" like Nicola Conte and Royksopp. One fabulous chanteuse on there is familiar to me, but might not be to you. The beautiful-inside-and-out Zoe Theodorou. I helped put on her studio concert here back in June. She will have a live DVD and CD coming out very very soon, and you will want to get in on that action! It was one incredible evening of jazz!

Lizz Wright...another gift. Don't know anything about her at all!

Time to get moving!!

K-less.

2010-01-11T20:04:00.000-08:00

Unbelievable. With over 744 albums on my iPod, I have no letter K. So today was something of a musical free-for-all. I must be awfully rebellious, because I really enjoyed the freedom from my self-imposed alphabetical dictatorship!

I started the morning off with some Artie Shaw, followed by Jack Johnson. Then indulged in one of my new favorites, Sara Tavares. She is magically delicious in a make-my-ears-so-happy kinda way! After that, we got really adventurous and simply hit Shuffle. Hall&Oates to Sarah Vaughan to Dvorak to Preston Reed to Bing Crosby to Ella Fitzgerald to Paul Simon to.... Well, you get the idea.

I got to hit the thrift stores a bit and found three to add to the library.

Barenaked Ladies: Stunt - this has the song One Week that makes me ridiculously happy. The boys were THRILLED with it from the very first measure. We listened to it three times before we got home.

R.E.M. Automatic For The People

Bizet: Carmen Suites No. 1 & 2

I welcome suggestions of Ks you think I should try. And if you want something a little different and delightful...try this!

J is for Juxtaposition

2010-01-10T06:08:00.000-08:00

Why? Because today I juxtapose another topic on top of merely listing our listening for the day.

Today is J. The hard thing about J is that many of my favorites are Js and I have to force myself *not* to listen to them while working on listening to more unfamiliar tunes. So...I must resist the pull of Josh Groban, Jack Johnson, John Mayer, and John Legend to spend quality time with Joshua Redman, Jimmy Dorsey, James Taylor, and yes, even Jessye Norman. I have Joshua Redman swirling his sax through my speakers write now...and it's goooooood.

I was thinking yesterday about what I am doing, potentially, to my brain with this delicious bounty of new music.

From Daniel Levitin's book This Is Your Brain on Music:

…Listening to music caused a cascade of brain regions to become activated in a particular order: first, auditory cortex for initial processing of the components of the sound. Then the frontal regions…that we previously identified as being involved in processing musical structure and expectations. Finally, a network of regions – the mesolimbic system – involved in arousal, pleasure, and the transmission of opiods and the production of dopamine, culminating in activation in the nucleus accumbens. And the cerebellum and basal ganglia were active throughout, presumably supporting the processing of rhythm and meter.

So...you might as well see yourself as pushing play on your brain as well as your iPod whenever you crank up the tunes. And the activity for new-to-you music is even more neurologically frenetic...

Trying to appreciate new music can be like contemplating a new friendship in that it takes time, and sometimes there is nothing you can do to speed it up. At a neural level, we need to be able to find a few landmarks in order to invoke a cognitive schema. If we hear a piece of radically new music enough times, some of that piece will eventually become encoded in our brains and we will develop landmarks.

I think of music and the brain like water wearing a path over the ground. We go so much more easily towards the established paths. That's why familiar music is so soothing. Why when we are stressed or distressed, reaching for favorite tunes is often a first-line response. Well-loved music boosts dopamine production in the brain, which is a guaranteed mood-lifter. But the unfamiliar? With unfamiliar music, there is that feeling of...awkward "Hey...do I know you? Can I let you in?" on an almost primal level. I've noticed that, even though I like what I'm listening to, I can feel a very slight level of anxiety that isn't there when I'm listening to music I have memorized. However, I know as "we" get to know each other...as my brain becomes accustomed to the melodic flow and knows better what to expect from each artist...I will be able to relax and enjoy the music even more than I do on first listen.

My point? Listening to new music is like a workout for the mind. I'm stretching my neurons in new directions. I'm forcing my grey matter to work at processing new sensations instead of simply stagnating with the routine. January is the time when many are working on pushing their bodies into new strength...don't forget to work your brain at the same time!

I....I...I love music!

2010-01-09T06:42:00.000-08:00

Our adventures in H yesterday were quite delightful. Highlights included our first listen of Herbie Hancock's Rock Your Soul (loved it) and Holst's The Planets during dinnertime. My sons were intrigued that the music represented planets, and my nine year old had neat questions about composers, conductors, and different orchestras. Fun listening to little voices trying to say "Philharmonic" ;D

I picked up two new-to-me cds at the thrift store yesterday. Artie Shaw's Greatest Hits and George Winston playing Vince Guaraldi. Unfortunately, neither falls in with the letter of the day!

Today's letter is, of course, I. We don't have many I choices, so it's tempting to run in some of J. (I have LOADS of Js!) But I shall refrain.

Options under I are:

Imogen Heap...heard of her, but never heard her. A friend gave me this.
Importance of Being Earnest soundtrack...love this playful set composed by Charlie Mole
In Love With Jazz...a mix. Also a gift that I haven't listened to yet.
India Arie...yum
INXS...great for housework, working out, and, of course, a favorite with my high-energy boys
Israel Houghton...also extremely high energy. I haven't listened to these cds yet. But I saw him in concert at a Worship Conference. Oh MAN was the house hoppin!! I think we could have stayed there all night...it was fantastic!

So that's what I has for us today. I need to workout, do some cleaning, and do some jewelry work before afternoon appointments. Let's see how *I* get through the day! :D

H is for...

2010-01-08T05:09:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was G. We started off the morning with Genesis - Turn It On Again. I always knew I was a Phil Collins fan, but I had never realized how many Genesis songs I already knew and loved until picking up a few albums at Goodwill. The opening of Tonight, Tonight is so freakin' cool! And I think Congo will be a new favorite.

After Genesis, we played Glenn Miller. Not the best house-cleaning music, I'll admit. But certainly a mood setter. ;) I wanted to throw on a WAC uniform and start dancing! And the drumming reminds me, we need a new set of brushes for our kit!

Next was Gershwin while I cooked lunch and the boys had their drum lessons out in the garage. Our drum teacher made a house call. The mix I was listening to featured Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holliday, Joe Williams and more... What more need I say? S'wonderful!

And then finally we did listen to some Glenn Kotche in the car. His percussion album is an interesting choice for driving. I was almost mesmerized...which is not necessarily a good thing on the interstate. ;)

I'm excited about today's adventures in the letter H. We have lots of choices.

Hall & Oates

Happy Feet Soundtrack (which is some of the best upbeat get-yer-body moving music ever, and MAN could Brittany Murphy sing)

Harry Connick Jr...no less than 8 albums. We need to spend more time listening to the unfamiliar ones like Harry on Broadway and 30. She is probably the boys' favorite.

Herbie Hancock... Herbie is a recent addition to our musical library. I picked up Possibilities back in the Fall. That album is chock-full of the most incredible collaborations. John Mayer's Stitched Up is ridiculously catchy, and the version of When Love Comes to Town with Jonny Lang and Joss Stone stopped me in my tracks. It seems heretical to think that someone could improve on the original...but maybe...just maybe.... ;) Anyway, we now have 3 albums of Herbie and one hasn't been played yet.

Holst - The Planets

Hootie & The Blowfish...and old favorite from college days. They still sound great. But I can't get my brain wrapped around Darius Rucker's having gone country! O_O

Howard Jones...The first big concert I ever went to was Howard Jones back in 86. He was fantastic. I never thought he got the attention he deserved. I have plenty of his old 80s hits...but also a much newer album Working In The Backroom which is quite evocative.

So. There are our options for the letter H. I think we'll start with Herbie and Holst and go from there.

Here's a groovy view of Herbie Hancock and John Mayer from the Possibilities documentary...

ABC easy as 123

2010-01-07T06:24:00.000-08:00

Back in the summer I realized that for someone who loves music as much as I do to only have an 8G iPod was both ridiculous and sad. I replaced it with a 120G iPod Classic and have been diligently, yea even obsessively, working towards filling that behemoth ever since. I have scored (get it, scored?) countless CDs at thrift stores, closing sales, and who knows where else... Just yesterday I bought six, and would have gotten seven if that pesky man hadn't picked up U2's Rattle and Hum before I could grab it. ;p Still, I did okay, having harvested:

Rush: Roll The Bones
Billy Joel: Koehupt (a live album)
Wynton Marsalis: Standard Time Volume 3 (had this one in college)
Harry Connick Jr: Blue Light, Red Light (also used to have this one)
A Putomayo sampler of the music of Israel
A Midsummer Night's Dream soundtrack (mostly opera)

All of these were from thrift stores. Total Bill... Sixteen dollars.

At this point I have close to 5500 songs on my iPod. And a good chunk of them are songs I have never heard! At thrift store prices, I can pick up music just to try it out...however the tendency to listen to the comforting and delighting strains of songs I already know is often so strong...

I decided we needed a systematic approach. The alphabet. From henceforth, we (my boys and I) will be using the day of the month to dictate the letter of the day and therefore the music(s) of the day.

Today, for example, is the 7th...which is the letter G! So we may listen to Genesis, Gershwin, Glenn Kotche, and/or Glenn Miller. That may not sound like much until you factor in that Gershwin is one of my absolute favorites and I have ten CDs of his work on my iPod! ;) But we don't have to listen to ALL of any letter. (the Js would be impossible!) I aim to start with the most unfamiliar before going to the familiar. Drummer Glenn Kotche, for example. His CD Mobile is absolutely stunning. But we've only listened to it two or three times. So we will give it serious play today. Maybe we'll even pull out our DVDs and watch him. His technical skill is breath-taking...while his creativity is jaw-dropping. So you're left breathless with your mouth hanging open which is rather uncomfortable and silly, but hey, he deserves it.

Here's a sampling...

I'll try and report back daily on what we listened to and how we enjoyed it...

Discovering Drums

2009-02-28T05:16:00.000-08:00

How this journey began

As of this month, I have been taking drum lessons for about a year. And it's still a few months from the anniversary of my starting to play live percussion with the band. Only a year...

The decision to start playing was such a small thing. I have four young sons. My older two play the drums (and the piano) and are really good. The second one is something akin to a prodigy actually, scary is the word our teacher uses. As I watched them learning to play, I started noticing exactly how important the drums, the rhythms, have always been to me in my musical tastes. Strong rhythms, strong harmonies - those are what I gravitate towards. And I prefer the exotic. Brazilian beats, for example, do strange and wonderful things to me.

I am the musical parent in this house. I have been singing and performing since preschool days, I play some piano... I knew that if the boys' drum talent had any genetic component, it must be from me...so I started thinking "What if I could... Maybe I could...."

I didn't realize it at the time, but I was also profoundly influenced by my rediscovery of the music of Vinx. I saw Vinx live twice when I was in college. Fall of 1990, I believe it was. He was opening for Sting and I vividly remember being entranced by this blue haired man with his rich voice and his evocative drum. Something reminded me...I don't even know what..of how much I loved that music almost 20 years ago. So I went looking. I have no idea what happened to the CDs I had back then, but I found some of his music on iTunes and fell in love all over again.

Vinx plays the djembe. So I liked the djembe. Just one simple drum which can talk and sing so beautifully... Plus there's just something so lovely about the its shape. Silly I suppose, but I just love that drum. So djembe it was to be for me. (in one of those strange coincidences that make life so vastly amusing, turns out my teacher used to play with Vinx. )

So lessons began. Singles. Doubles. Paradiddles. Simple exercises. Simple patterns. Within a few weeks, I used some money for a voice-over gig to buy my own drum. I was tickled with this new hobby and it was fun... I didn't have a hunger for other instruments. And I was convinced that I would not ever be able to play the drum kit. Oh no. Not ME...

Video of Vinx performing It's Too Late

Relax

2009-02-27T07:24:00.000-08:00

Fall into the flow
Relax with the groove
Breathe in the music
Let your heart guide the moves
Of your hands as they’re dancing
So rhythmically smooth
And loose
No need to force
or to push
or to pound
Simply play
As the sound and the silence surround
Sweetly surrender and softly slow down
Slow down

Straight to my Heart

2009-02-22T15:45:00.000-08:00

My drum teacher gave me the cd Bona Makes You Sweat on Friday. I had no idea who this "Bona" was...but my teacher knows my tastes and he assured me I would love it. So late Friday as I drove the 30 minutes across town to play percussion with the band, I slipped it into the truck's cd player. I was daydreaming and talking to myself (what? that's not normal?) during the first few songs...so although I heard the music and knew I liked it, it had yet to really touch me. But as I neared my exit a song came on that cut right into my chest. Honestly, that's what it felt like. The harmony was so exquisite, I felt diagonal bands across my rib cage of yearning pleasure. I know...sounds kinda goofy, but that's how it felt. And the delicate pastel stripes of a desert sunset seemed to match the music for a sensory moment that was so glorious, I thought I was gonna wreck the truck! I'm telling you...It was GOOD. ;)

The song is an accapella number built loop upon loop, every perfect piece the voice of Richard Bona. Soaring, dipping, diving, popping, laughing... The beauty of it such that I actually found myself choking back tears. Even the laughter of the live audience seemed to be part of the music, part of the joy of the piece.

I fell in love at first hear with the song, and Richard Bona can now count me as a devoted fan. Don't you LOVE it when that happens?

Here is a video of him performing the song Samaouma . It's not the same concert as the cd. But the song sounds almost exactly the same... Never mind watching - just crank it, close your eyes, and soak it in.

What do I have to say?

2009-02-20T10:51:00.001-08:00

I'm still reading Neil Peart's Traveling Music... This little sentence gave me pause:

The keystone of any artistic construction is contained in that simple question, what is the intention?

Hmm. I don't normally think of myself as a shallow person...and I don't know that I've ever been described that way. But there are times when I really start to wonder. My drum instructor does these insightful music workshops, and one of the points he always endeavors to hammer home is the idea of "expressing what's inside". That the whole point of gaining skill on your instrument is so you can say what you want to say. But I honestly am left twiddling my neurons going "I have something to say??...... Do I?"

Singing is easy. Singing, you are saying what the lyrics say. And I have never had trouble connecting with the songs and pouring myself out into someone else's carefully chosen words. A few months ago, communication was even easier, when for the first time I sang a solo where *I* had penned the lyrics. Words that truly reflected something from my own heart.... intense.

But drumming? Percussion? When I play...the only thought or emotion I have is simply how very much I LOVE playing. I am not thinking deeper meanings or profound epiphanies. When I'm jamming well enough that I'm not thinking about technique...which is happening more as my skills improve...then I'm really not thinking at all. I'm just lost in the delight and wonder and exquisite sensory overload that is making music. Is that enough of a message? Is that enough intention? To simply want to make the best music I can...because I really, really love it. That's all I've got. I hope it's enough.

And speaking of fire....

2009-02-18T15:24:00.000-08:00

I stumbled across this poem by Stephen Spender recently and it is moving me in strange and mysterious ways.

I think continually of those who were truly great
Who, from the womb, remembered the soul's history
Through corridors of light where the hours are suns,
Endless and singing, Whose lovely ambition
Was that their lips, still touched with fire,
Should tell of the spirit clothed from head to foot in song,
And who hoarded from the spring branches
The desires falling across their bodies like blossoms.

What is precious is never to forget
The delight of the blood drawn from ageless springs
Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth;
Never to deny its pleasure in the simple morning light,
Nor its grave evening demand for love;
Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother
With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.

Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields
See how those names are feted by the waving grass,
And by the streamers of white cloud,,
And whispers of wind in the listening sky;
The names of those who in their lives fought for life,
Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre.
Born of the sun they traveled a short while towards the sun,
And left the vivid air signed with their honour.

Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre....
Grave evening demand for love...

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm One wonders about the line, "born of the sun, they traveled a SHORT while towards the sun". I do wonder about people who truly throw themselves after their passions. It doesn't always seem to be a life-prolonging phenomenon. I think of one of my musical heroes, George Gershwin. He was completely sold out to his musical visions. He died in surgery for a brain tumor at 37...but what an incredible musical legacy.

In Traveling Music, Neil Peart says about his own somewhat "fiery" (my word, not his) pursuits:

In a seldom-visited corner of my mind, I knew I probably couldn't get away with carrying on like that forever, but it still seemed the right way to live- as if every day were my last, though hoping desperately that it might not be. [...] The only consolation was that I could only die of one thing, and there was no knowing what that would be, or when it would strike. Earthquake, aneurysm, plane crash, ansy of the dark multitude of cancers - who knew?

Carrie sometimes type-casts me as a "risk-taker", even a "daredevil", talking of the way I drive, motorcycle, and live, and I guess it's true. How do I equate being "intelligent" with being moderately (I say) self-destructive?

Thrills? Yes. Sensuality? Yes. Sheer cantankerousness? Yes.

I have lived my life to this point with extreme caution. One reason I did not pursue music as a major and as a career was because I had myself convinced that "I'm not the starving artist type". That I couldn't handle the risks. And those with influence over me enthusiastically voiced that position as well. You can't handle the emotions. You can't handle the rejection. You can't handle the RISK. Looking back, how desperately I wish that the path had been to teach me to handle the dangers, instead of pushing me to avoid them. But still...if I had been more courageous I would have defied everyone, including my fearful self.

But I am no trembling child now. And I am TIRED of being ruled by fear. And the idea of yielding to thrills, sensuality, and even sheer cantankerousness is tempting indeed. But ohhhhhh the stakes are so much higher now... for we all know what can happen if you play with fire.