In any event, Little Richard rocks the piano as well as anybody, and he outdoes the Beatles on his "woo" effects. His outrageous stage persona and unbridled raw energy make him one of my five "Founding Fathers of Rock" (along with Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, and Jerry Lee Lewis).
Ask one of my music theory students about my patented Little Richard impersonation...
I'll be on hiatus for the holiday week ahead. See you with more "3 Minutes of Awesome" on July 8. Happy Birthday, USA!
I went looking for some similar bands and found Monobloco. This is how they describe themselves:
Monobloco's eclectic repertoire goes from traditional carnival marchinhas by João Roberto Kelly to sambas by Cartola and Clara Nunes; from xotes by Alceu Valença to forrós by Luiz Gonzaga; from the Brazilian funk of MC Leonardo to pop songs by Paralamas do Sucesso, Raul Seixas and Tim Maia. Among the hits performed during the shows are Taj Mahal, Fio Maravilha, País Tropical and Santa Clara Clareou (all by Jorge Benjor), Rap do Real (by Pedro Luís and Rodrigo Maranhão) and São Gonça (by Farofa Carioca). This unexpected mixture is also seen in the array of instruments - electric and bass guitars are added to traditional samba school instruments such as cavaco, repique, tamborim, shaker, surdo and agogô.When you check out the video, watch for some of these instruments, like the tiny tamborim (frame drum), the caixa (snare drum), the large surdo (bass drum), and various agogo bells. You'll even hear the apinto, which is the whistle used to signal a new section of the tune for a large percussion bateria marching in a samba parade.
Enjoy!
Here's the whole album on Spotify:
Stravinsky wrote L'Histoire in 1918 for a small chamber ensemble with narrator. It tells the story of a Russian soldier who makes a deal with the devil over his violin. It's pretty complicated, but it involves typical themes of love, loss, and greed. The piece, however, is quite often played without the narration as a separate suite. This is how I first encountered it. Since the work involves a great deal of mixed meter, it makes a challenging test piece for directors. In our advanced conducting course at Northwestern, we had to direct it while our professor, Mr. Paynter, sat in the back and graded us. And as if that wasn't enough to make us nervous, he gave the performers little slips of paper with mistakes they were to play on purpose to see if we could hear the errors.
Here's an Israeli ensemble performing the "Royal March" movement.
Here's the full work, as played by members of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra conducted by Neeme Jarvi.
In the late 70s/early 80s, there was a ska revival in the UK, led by bands like The English Beat and The Specials. I first encountered the style when my brother and I ("The Brame Brothers") were asked to add trumpet and sax to a rock band made up of some of our friends. The leader and guitarist was way into music that became the soundtrack of the 80s for me: Talking Heads, REM, English Beat, etc. It was very cool being in a rock band--we played a battle of the bands and a street fair in Glenview. I have some very embarrassing pictures that will not see the light of day...
Here is a great tune by the English Beat that will give you a good idea of the ska revival sound, "Twist and Crawl."
If you want to delve further, check out this Spotify playlist:
This song is his only top 20 hit in a long line of varied recordings dating back to 1968. Last year he came out with another critically acclaimed album, Locked Down, that is also worth checking out. The video I have posted here is a real trip--someone actually recorded the 45 rpm single spinning on a turntable!
Spotify link:
La Peri is a short ballet written in 1912 that was not staged until the 1930s in London. The fanfare is performed much more often; in fact, the DHS Wind Ensemble has played a band transcription of the work from time to time. It is full of Dukas' modern, yet tonal, harmonies that make his music sound so sparkling and appealing. Here is the world-famous University of Illinois Wind Symphony, directed by Robert Rumbelow, performing the work live in 2012:
As always, I'll share a Spotify link as well. The performing ensemble is the Orchestre National de Lille, a French orchestra from the north of the country, near the border with Belgium.
One of the coolest albums from that year was Last Splash, by a band out of Dayton, Ohio called The Breeders. Led by twin sisters Kim and Kelley Deal, it was a great example of what was considered alternative at the time--quirky, post-punk, grungy music with attitude. Every band had their own sound; there was nothing homogenous about 80s-early 90s alternative. This is before it became a record company/radio station format.
The whole album is a lot of fun. Staying with the "3 Minutes of Awesome!" theme, I chose "I Just Want to Get Along" for its danceable beat, chiming guitars, and thick distortion. The muffled, sarcastic vocals fit perfectly: "If you're so special, why aren't you dead?"
I highly recommend checking out the entire album on Spotify. The highlight is the hit single "Cannonball" - one listen and I'm back in 1993, my fifth year at DHS when we had two bands and a mandatory marching band, all crammed into M106 with a practice room for an office. Good times...
I'm not sure how I first encountered this work, but I know it was in high school. I have always been captivated by the bitonality (left hand in one key and right hand in another), which creates some delightfully "crunchy" harmonies. In Milhaud's music, however, it always seems natural, as if we are in the middle of the street in Rio hearing sounds coming from two different night clubs.
In college, I arranged four of the twelve movements for band, with somewhat mixed results. I was fortunate enough to have them performed by the North Shore Concert Band at Pick-Staiger Concert Hall at Northwestern University. Some day I'll dust them off and see if they are worth looking at with a band at DHS.
Here is piano player Michael Kozlovsky's rendition of the first movement, "Sorocaba." You can follow along with the sheet music in the video.
Here is version on Spotify that I like even more:
I highly recommend listening to the entire suite, but that's way more than just three minutes of awesome!
"Night in Tunisia," Charlie Parker
We'll start with this classic jazz tune that Dizzy Gillespie wrote sometime around 1945. Its chord progression with a D-6 to Eb7 vamp implies various scales, including dorian and phrygian modes. This gives it an exotic flavor that is vaguely Arabic, at least to his mid-20th century, American audience. The DHS Jazz Band performed a version this spring that incorporated a traditional Tunisian tune, transcribed by our oud-playing bassist, giving the number a more authentic sound. My personal favorite recording of "Night in Tunisia" (and there are dozens out there) is by alto saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker. It features Miles Davis on trumpet, Lucky Thompson on tenor, Dodo Marmarosa on piano, Arvin Garrison on guitar, Vic McMillan on bass, and Roy Porter on drums. The rhythm section is not the most famous, but Bird's solo break and improvisation are quite amazing. Enjoy!
Check it out on Spotify:
