Tributaries (Keith Jarrett)

Okay, I admit it. I'm terrified of the ECM jazz catalogue. I know I'm unworthy. It's such a beast (over a thousand albums in the archive). The (usually fantastic) arty sleeves give you no clue, the names of the artists are usually exotic (Arvo Part? Anouar Braheim?), and the names that are accessible (Keith Jarrett, Pat Methany) have released tons of albums and I have no idea which are the good ones without a guide (for instance - Roger gave me a copy of The Koln Concert and it's brilliant).

So when I came across a pile of ECM CDs in the local souq (market) I freaked out somewhat. For a starter it was so bizarre to find amongst the exotic spices, watches, fabrics and eateries a pile of jazz CDs from Germany!! I am managing to sift through them slowly but it's such uncharted water for me. I enlisted the internet and here's a list of someone's recommendations on Jazzcorner.com.

1. Dave Holland Big Band - What Goes Around (2002)
2. Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin - Stoa (2006)
3. Paul Motian - Garden of Eden (2006)
4. Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin - Holon (2008)
5. John Abercrombie - Cat 'n' Mouse (2002)
6. Louis Sclavis - Napoli's Walls (2003)
7. Dave Holland Quintet - Extended Play / Live at Birdland (2003)
8. Jacob Young - Sideways (2007)
9. Tomasz Stanko Quartet - Lontano (2006)
10. Cyminology - As Ney (2009)
11. Trio Beyond (DeJohnette, Goldings, Scofield) - Saudades (2006)
12. Wolfert Brederode - Currents (2008)
13. Terje Rypdal - Vossabrygg (2006)
14. John Abercrombie - The Third Quartet (2007)
15. Arve Henriksen - Cartography (2008)
16. Arild Andersen - Live at Belleville (2008)
17. Charles Lloyd - Hyperion With Higgins (2001)
18. Tord Gustavsen- Being There (2007)
19. Vladimír Godár - Mater (2006)
20. John Surman - Brewster's Rooster (2009)
21. Charles Lloyd - Rabo de Nube (2008)
22. Louis Sclavis - L'Imparfait des Langues (2007)
23. David Torn – Prezens (2007)
24. Arild Andersen Group - Electra (2005)
25. Tomasz Stanko - Suspended Night (2004)

Mojo recently did a Top 10 in their 'How to buy...' series - and that helped too. But I still feel overwhelmed by the ECM catalogue.

Here are a few clips of worthiness I found, using these sources as a guide.

Great guitar clip - check this bloke out!

I'd like to be somebody else and not know where I've been, I'd like to build myself a house out of plasticine

It has been a long time hasn't it; that does mean peace, not... (to quote Jimi). If you check my other blogsites you'll know why - mainly planning a move to Qatar from New Zealand. That's where I am now - Doha in Qatar and my musical habits have changed. A lot!

I bought an ipod classic (black one left) before leaving NZ and loaded some CDs on it - 30 gigabites worth = because I'm not sure when I'll see my collection again. Could be a while - who knows. That was traumatic enough on its own. I'm not a fan of the compressed MP3 sound but it beats lugging vinyl half way around the world.

I also bought a (reasonable sounding) docking station in NZ and in Doha I bought an armband to hold the ipod while I use the gym at the hotel complex I'm staying in for the next few months.

This is different to blasting away the music at home in Stratford. The volume has to be measured and the content has to suit both my wife and youngest daughter who came with me. Those waters are next to impossible to navigate so I reserve the headbanger stuff for the gym.

Also different is the opportunity to buy music in Doha - only three places I've found. A Virgin megastore at Villaggio mall; a CD/DVD store at the Hyatt Plaza mall; and a tiny little place next the cinema multiplex at the City Center mall.

As a consequence of all this I've only bought two CDs since we left in late November. That's a record - I'm not sure how I've coped. The two CDs? Rory Gallagher BBC Sessions and another called Chill n'Jazz - various obscure artists. I haven't heard them yet - I need to burn them to my ipod first. If I listen to them on tinny computer speakers I'll instantly be disappointed.

I'll report back on Chill n'Jazz as soon as I can.

Currently grooving to Crowded House in the apartment and Cold Chisel in the gym. Rock on!!

Fly me to the moon.

I've been away for a while haven't I. That's down to my father passing away recently. He died from complications from a stroke that he had August 18. He died September 21. It's taken me a while to regain the blogging urge.

He was a huge jazz fan. More specifically he absolutely loved the pre-world war two big band jazz outfits...and piano driven jazz from Oscar Peterson to Diana Krall. When I looked through his vinyl collection as a boy I loved looking at the Dave Brubeck, Jimmy Smith, and Count Basie covers. As a teenager I bought him stuff by Peterson and Basie. The last present I bought him was for his July 26th birthday - a DVD of Diana Krall Live in Rio. He loved it.

This entry (re-entry) is dedicated to my dad - Graham Nugent Purdy 1928-2009 - the jazz fan.

Come on skinny love just last the year

This one's for my friend Mark who asked me yesterday for some recommendations. Always tricky that - what if they don't like them?

I thought for a minute and blurted out - BON IVER. It's such an amazing experience listening to his music. Bon Iver isn't his real name, by the way. It's Justin Vernon. The mystery associated with the choice of Bon Iver to perform under is also there in the haunting music on the album For Emma, Forever ago.

I've written a lot about Flume on the 49er list below so I thought I'd add a few clips to this post instead. There's a guerrilla style a cappella version of For Emma; Lump Sum; I have to include Flume and a raw version of Skinny Love from the Jools Holland show Later. It's spectacular. Enjoy!!

49 Bye Byes

Thought I'd do a bit of a summary post of those last 49 songs, mainly for my own interest sake, just to see a breakdown of decades, genre, gender (although I already know it will be heavily tilted to males) and maybe some other things.

So here's the list:

1 The Beatles - Don't let me down
2 Eels - Grace Kelly blues
3 The Carpenters - Rainy days and Mondays
4 Jim Croce - Alabama rain
5 Rory Gallagher - Cradle rock
6 Charlie Parker - Romance without finance
7 Dave Brubeck - Take five
7 Glen Hansard/Marketa Irglova- Falling slowly
8 Grover Washington Jnr - Jamming
9 George Harrison - Under the Mersey wall
10 John Lennon/Yoko Ono - Cambridge 1969
11 Paul McCartney - Ode to a Koala bear
12 Ringo Starr - Love is a many splendoured thing
13 Patti Smith - Babelogue/ Rock 'n' roll nigger
14 Ricky Nelson - Garden Party
15 Rage Against the Machine - Killing in the name
16 Rammestein - Asche zu asche
17 Avenged Sevenfold - Almost easy
18 Jethro Tull - Thick as a brick
19 Bon Iver - Flume
20 Jefferson Airplane - Crown of creation
21 Bob Dylan - I shall be free
22 Jimi Hendrix - All along the watchtower
23 George Harrison - Be here now
24 Badfinger - Without you
25 The Raspberries - I can remember
26 Aimee Mann - Red vines
27 Billy Bragg - Levi Stubb's tears
28 The Four Tops - I can't help myself (Sugar pie honey bunch)
29 Headband - The laws must change
30 Evermore - Light surrounding you
31 Chi-lites - Have you seen her?
32 BoyzIIMen - The end of the road
33 Oasis - Sunday morning call
34 Van Morrison - Haunts of ancient peace
35 Joni Mitchell - Song for Sharon
36 Prince - Let's go crazy
37 Beach Boys - California saga: California
38 Brian Wilson - Orange crate art
39 Woody Guthrie - Deportees
40 Mountain - Nantucket sleighride
41 David Crosby - The lee shore
42 Frank Zappa - Big swifty
43 The Tremeloes - Here comes my baby
44 Syd Barrett - Dominoes
45 Velvet Underground - Waiting for the man
46 Rolling Stones - Wild horses
47 New Radicals - You get what you give
48 Embrace - Ashes
49 The Beatles - Let it be

Okay I know there's actually 50 songs there - I stuffed up with repeating number 7. Neverthemind.

So - what have we got? The male female split is overwhelmingly male. Only three females figure in their solo state. And only four entries are of a mixed gender. So even at best it's only 7 female and 43 male. I don't consciously just listen to male musicians - it's just worked out that way. The females I do gravitate towards are strong/different ones - Yoko, Grace Slick, Marketa Irglova, Joni Mitchell, Patti Smith, Aimee Mann types rather than the Karen Carpenter types.

Groups and soloists are fairly even though.

The Americans outnumber the British almost 2 to 1 and of the others there were two NZ, and one German. This is interesting because I generally feel that my cultural bias is to British bands and soloists. I was a tad surprised to see such a lack of balance.

Rock music clearly predominates in the genre stakes because as I stated along the way - that's what I love most!

All the decades since the 50's are represented on the list. The most heavily represented decade is the seventies - when I was aged 13 to 23. The least represented are the fifties (2 entries) and the nineties (4); then the eighties (5); the naughties (9); the sixties (12); and the seventies are the champs with 18 entries. What surprised me a little are the number from the eighties - a much maligned decade.

Okay - next entry will be about the (very few) songs I can not stand listening to.

Whisper words of wisdom

49 The Beatles, ‘Let It Be’

And so the journey comes to an end, because all things must pass.

The slight dilemma about where to end this list of 49 songs (49 reasons) was settled in my mind as I wrote about the Velvet Underground and the Rolling Stones a few entries ago.

My love of music begins and ends with the fab four, and in terms of bookending opposites - John Lennon and Paul McCartney fit the bill.

I began in entry number one with a celebration of John Lennon’s superb ‘Don’t Let Me Down’, which was written and performed during the ill-fated Let It Be sessions. What could be more appropriate for this last entry, than a celebration of his partner – Paul, and HIS finest moment as a Beatle, also written and performed for the Get Back project that became Let It Be.

They were chalk and cheese weren’t they? Not so freakishly, they were fated to meet and work together. They were both young guys living in Liverpool who were interested in music - not hard to imagine them eventually getting together is it? All it took was a couple of mutual friends, a love of playing guitars and creating songs. This happens all over the world every second of every day – somewhere on the planet right now - two people are sitting down trying to figure out guitar chords or trying to match some poetry to an original tune.

What is freaky is that two giant talents should get together in Liverpool and by their actions totally change my world.

What often gets me is that they grew so far apart having started out like ying yang twins. Paul and John - two halves of a whole that couldn’t sustain their working arrangements. Even though they could later patch up their friendship, they couldn’t (and didn’t) ever get together in the studio, or on the stage again. No mind. They left such a fantastic body of work behind, both as a group and as solo artists. Rejoice in that.

Let It Be is, for me, the perfect end of the Beatles. The message is a good one – let it be.