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Monthly Archive for April, 2007

Keith Jarrett

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on April 24, 2007
in Jazz and Piano
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Jazz piano has a long tradition and is a difficult skill to master. Keith Jarrett is known as one of the most accomplished pianists and composers and has made a big contribution to the genre as a group leader and for solo work. He is especially feted for his work in improvisation and he enjoys fusing different types of music with jazz, such as gospel, blues, classical and traditional folk tunes. His career, dating from the early 1970s, has taken him all over the world. Tours have included dates in Japan, Paris and Vienna and such musical landmarks as The Carnegie Hall Concert.

He was born in 1945 in Pennsylvania and developed as a child prodigy on piano. After graduation from high school and music school in Boston, Massachusetts, he re-located to New York City and played gigs at the prestigious Village Vanguard Club. His breakthrough came when Art Blakey asked him to become a member of his group, the Jazz Messengers. This was followed by a stint in the Charles Lloyd Quartet. Keith Jarrett also formed his own trio, alongside Charlie Haden and Paul Motian, recording a number of albums.

The trio would later add a saxophone player called Dewey Redman and they called themselves the American Quartet. Keith Jarrett also performed on soprano saxophone and percussion whilst working with the quartet. The music was an intriguing blend of jazz, gospel and even traditions from the Middle East. Jarrett had been a huge fan of the legendary Miles Davis and he was thrilled to become a member of his group. He made four albums with Davis, on which he played electric organ and electric piano.

He has also made many solo recordings on piano, including live albums of his freeform, improvised concerts. One of these improvisations was captured on The Köln Concert in 1975 and was one of the most successful jazz albums ever. Keith Jarrett was also involved in another trio, recording jazz standards and freeform music, with bassist Gary Peacock and drummer Jack DeJohnette.

The musician and composer is a perfectionist and has ruffled some feathers in pursuit of acoustic excellence. He is very choosy about where he plays live and has been known to pointedly give out cough sweets to audiences. Jarrett demands complete silence during his performances, particularly when improvising. See Keith Jarrett - Art of Improvisation

He has resisted being boxed in to any one genre and has recorded some classical pieces, from the repertoire of Mozart, Handel and Bach. He has also shown his classical credentials by composing classical music of his own.

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50 Cent Songs

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on April 24, 2007
in Rap
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The world of hip hop and gangsta rap is a controversial one and the top rappers are in the news for their personal lives as much as their recording career. 50 Cent is amongst these controversial rappers, a man who grew up in a tough section of Queens, New York City and became a drug dealer at a very young age. His public image and the 50 Cent songs reflect his difficult upbringing.

50 Cent has achieved critical and commercial success, gaining the respect of other artists in the genre and being nominated for ten Grammy Awards. His musical career was helped by a meeting with Jam Master Jay from Run-DMC, who took him under his wing. Jay showed him how a recording studio works and gave tips on writing songs. The debut album from 50 Cent was produced by Jay but it was not released. His next step was to sign for Columbia Records in 1999, releasing an album called The Power of the Dollar. Two controversial 50 Cent songs were released as singles, How to Rob and Ghetto Qu’ran and were successful.

Columbia Records dropped the rapper after he was shot and wounded in a gun attack. No other American label would take him on, so he went to Canada and made an album there called Guess Who’s Back. 50 Cent made a comeback, forming a relationship with producer, Sha Money XL and helping to form the record label, G-Unit. He did re-mixes of other artists’ work, including Jay-Z. G-Unit was a success and signed many other acts.

50 Cent became a household name after the release of his album, Get Rich or Die Tryin’ from 2003. It was number one in America and number two in the UK. This was followed by the album, The Massacre in 2005, which reached number one in the US and the UK. Both of these albums went platinum and brought 50 Cent songs to the attention of the public and other rappers. He has provided guest vocals on records by Missy Elliot, Eminem, Mary J.Blige and Mobb Deep.

The rapper, who was born Curtis James Jackson III, has come a long way from the tough neighborhood of Queens. He now lives in a home that used to belong to boxer Mike Tyson. More 50 Cent songs are scheduled for release on an album titled Before I Self Destruct, set to appear in May 2007. 50 Cent has had much publicized disputes with fellow rappers and 50 Cent songs like Get Rich Or Die Tryin and their lyrics will continue to evoke strong reactions.

The Beatles Songs

Published
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admin
on April 24, 2007
in Beatles and Popular Music
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As an avid Beatles fan, I love everything about them. I think that there were three main ingredients, which led to their amazing success: the quality of the songwriting, the strong vocals and the musical experimentation. Their development was fascinating to observe. The Beatles songs began as catchy tunes with a few soulful ballads. It was almost unheard of in the early 1960s for pop groups to write their own compositions. Lennon and McCartney were unusual in that regard and wrote songs for other people too, such as the Rolling Stones.

The lyrics started to go beyond the conventional boy meets girl scenario. The group were fans of Bob Dylan and were influenced by his lyrics that were full of imagery and metaphor. John Lennon said later that he thought that pop songs and poetry had to be two separate things until Dylan showed that they could be combined. Hallucinogenic drugs also became an influence in Beatles songs, although some words were cited as drug references when that wasn’t the case. Equally, some drug references got through unnoticed. In the heady days of 1967, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds from Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was said to be about a drug experience. In fact, the title was taken from a school painting that John’s young son had done and the lyrics were inspired by Alice in Wonderland, which John re-read every year.

The Beatles evolved musically too and this was aided by the creative partnership with their record producer, George Martin. Martin was a classically trained musician and he was able to interpret the ideas that the group had and the sounds that they wanted. Beatles songs were the first mainstream songs to use tape loops, backward tapes and alternating the speed of tapes. They recorded in the Abbey Road studios belonging to EMI, where many orchestras made their records. This was significant as there would be instruments lying around that weren’t usually used for pop music. The Beatles and Martin made clever use of them.

Striving for an unusual sound was always important to the Beatles. The haunting opening bars of Strawberry Fields Forever is played on a theramin. The invention of the moog synthesizer also made a contribution, able to electronically simulate virtually any sound e.g. the barrel organ on For the Benefit of Mr. Kite. George Harrison introduced pop music to the wonderful Indian sitar on Norwegian Wood and Within You, Without You. The Beatles songs led the way and proved that critical and commercial success could be combined. Discover more of the background behind Beatles songs from: A Hard Day’s Write, 3e: The Stories Behind Every Beatles Song