Time4Music

C R E A T I V I T Y

Non classé, Time4Fashion, Time4Music

MonkGGNS

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GENERIC & GENIUS

 

Just like you I listen to a lot of music. Heck there is too much music to listen to. So I made a rule – if in 10 seconds it doesn’t grab me by the throat I zap and move on.

And then this morning on Facebook I hit on Solomon Burke and my EUREKA moment hit me. From the very first note I KNEW it was Solomon Burke.

WHY? ‘COS HE IS UNIQUE.

When Miles was asked aren’t there any good white jazz musicians he answered « Yeah but they aren’t creative » Cruel, but not entirely wrong – we recognize Miles, Mingus, Monk, Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday et al from the very first note.

When Jean Paul Gaultier was asked aren’t there any couturiers who aren’t gay he answered « Oui mais ils ne sont pas créatif » Cutting, but we recognize instantly a JPG, YSL frock et al at first sight.

So now my mantra is: If from the first note I say « Hey this is different I listen, if not paff! » No matter what the genre.

I’ll bet a dime to a dollar that when you heard the above either you knew instantly that it was the Duke and Mingus, or you went « Awesome I gotta hear this. »

If not you are a Backward Country Girl or Boy. 

Generic is ok for everyday, goodbye. Creative is WOW,  unique, forever and a Lady Day.

 C R E A T I V E  IS  U N I Q U E  IS  G E N I U S – OK!

Bach2Bach

Time4Music

GG

GLENN GOULD – MAESTRO – MADMAN

Had Gould been born 50 years earlier than in 1932 he would probably have been destroyed musically by electric shock treatment – at the very least.

Gould was obsessive, with many tics and tocs – he didn’t like people, was rude and abrasive, was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome. He hated Concert Halls and did his greatest oeuvre on his fetish Steinway, sat on a low, little folding stool in the recording studio, often humming, moaning and groaning as he played.

He was also analytical, intellectual, contentious, more perhaps for his manner, than his highly distinctive performance.

He was, in the opinion of many Bach lovers, the greatest baroque and contrepoint Bach master of the century.

GOULD’S GOLDBERG VARIATIONS AND HANNIBAL LECTER

Reportedly the music you have just listened to was the delight of Hannibal the Cannibal when he was carving a new victim or « having a friend for luncheon ».

Sadly Glenn Gould didn’t live to learn this bit of filmic gossip. Suffering a massive cerebral attack which paralyzed his left side and later left him brain dead at the young age of 50. His father had the sad duty of instructing the doctors to shut off his artificial life supply.

Johann Sebastion Bach (1685 – 1750) continues to inspire through to today and beyond. . .

Monk

THELONIOUS MONK – MAESTRO – MADMAN

Monk (1917-1982) was distinctly weird, a man of fetishes who had difficulty dressing and performed little circular dances on stage when he wasn’t at the piano. He played with his massive hands and fingers impossibly flat.

He was also – you got it first time – analytical, intellectual and musically highly eccentric.

And a genius.

His early years were difficult as his compositions were considered too difficult to play… however his Ellington collection established him in the Jazz milieu and when he teamed up with Coltrane the world recognized their genius.

A BRIDGE BETWEEN BAROQUE AND BEBOP

Where is the difference? In my book there isn’t any. None whatsoever. These giants from different centuries, cultures and languages march together from the past into the future.

TOCCATA – FUGUE – OFF MINOR IT DON’T MEAN A THING IF IT AIN’T GOT THAT SWING.

WOT’CHER

Time4Music

EMHall

. . AND LATER – SGT PEPPER’S LONELY. . .

 

‘AVE A BANANA

  • The Beardsleys, the Bovver Boys, the Beatles, the Liverpool lasses and Jack the lads were brought up on the old Music Hall songs, wot Grandpa learned us and Mam sang to our old man.
  • We learned Cockney Rhyming Slang that not a livin’ soul on this page could ever un’erstand.
  • Neither up nor down the apples and pears, despite all the stares.
  • Paul – Macca’s old man worked in a Music Hall band. That’s where the Beatles got their inspiration, cockney culture and « savoir faire » for SGT PEPPER’S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND.
  • In’it me ole cock sparrers. TaTa for now. . .

AN ALTOGETHER OTHER « SOUND OF MUSIC ».

GOD SAVE THE QUEEN

Time4Music

 

MRS QUEEN WAS NOT AMUSED.

Being a loyal subject of Her Gracious Majesty Elizabeth 2, I hereby inaugurate my Group with the, admittedly notorious, National Anthem by the Sex Pistols, who were vomited on stage in 1975.

John Lydon, aka Johnny Rotten, is still around and the darling of the anti-establishment to the  – Establishment. He will undoubtedly end up as a Knight of the Garter, pause for laughter.

Sid Vicious was charged with murdering his squeeze Nancy Spungen, by stabbing her dead on an unmade bed in the Chelsea Hotel NYC.

The same where Janis performed an unmentionable, rhyming odd job for Leonard Cohen on an unmade bed in the Chelsea Hotel NYC.

RULE BRITTANIA – MARMELADE & JAM!

 

THE WHITE ZULU WARRIOR

South Africa, Time4Music

 

Johnny-Clegg

JOHNNY CLEGG PHD – OBE

This jewish kid, born in Lancashire, England in 1953, emigrated to South Africa, first arrested at 15 in anti-Apartheid rally – prof of Social Anthropology at Wits University, author, songwriter – received the highest honors in South Africa, for his life-long fight against Apartheid, ranking 23rd of the greatest South Africans of all time.

And the music – 2 platinum and 5 gold records

JULUKA

JC&SMCH

Partners in « crime » – Johnny with Sipho Mchunu

Banned from playing in public in South Africa they played in restaurants, private homes and internationally where JULUKA became famous world-wide with Universal Men, Work for All. . .

SAVUKA

Savuka

Johnny teamed up with Dudu Zulu when Sipho went back to sheep farming.

More big, global hits followed: Third World Child, Heat, Dust, Dreams and then in 1987 the greatest of all – you guessed. . .

ASIMBONANGA

JC 46664

Every man, woman and child in the country sang this anthem for the release of Madiba from Robben Island.

Hear it once again.

Millions of people today are again suffering and need our support and succor in this dark night of terror and deadly disorder – where we are increasingly suffering from compassion fatigue.

But there is hope. . .

 

 ONE MAN’S FIGHT WITH MUSIC TO SHINE THE LIGHT OF FREEDOM

« WE DON’T GET NO EDUCATION. »

Time4Music

Brick« ALL IN ALL WE’RE JUST ANOTHER BRICK IN THE WALL. »

In the village of Longdjap in the Eastern village of Cameroon these children get enough to eat, they have a roof over their heads – with beautiful bricks made from latterite earth. They get by without electricity, running water, telephones, transport.

So what more do they need?

EDUCATION – EDUCATION – EDUCATION.

Primary education is available locally, but college from the age of 10/11 costs: fees, uniforms, satchels, books, paper, pens & pencils, travel – and for girls the essential sanitary wear & toiletries.

This doesn’t cost much – maybe like 250€ per annum per head – but when you got nothing this is unattainable.

And so these beautiful kids, who have seen the writing on the wall, have their development cut short & their dreams turned to dust.

My Association will set up a trust fund to help these precious children – our best assets for building a better future.

I will need your help – WATCH THIS SPACE.

« TEACHERS, PLEASE DON’T LEAVE OUR KIDS ALONE. »