Fruitive Activity

The Saddest Poison

If you've ever been angry, wanting to hurt another person, I'll bet you have. If you've ever been proud considering yourself superior to another person, then you have been just a few steps away from extreme violence; maybe you've even done something akin to extreme violence.

Daniel Goldhagen points out that such an atrocious crime as genocide is merely an escalation that begins with exclusion. My own thoughts are that it begins a little closer to our own hearts than Goldhagen realises, or perhaps he's not able to make such a statement in his "quasi-authoritative" book(s). My own slant on this phenomenon is that it starts as close as resentment.

Well, now look at yourself. Who have you excluded from your group? Was it a "political" act? Was it about a group, or sub-group with whom you merely disagree? Look around you, look what's going on in your street, in your life. This ain't just governments and militia groups, this is deeply ingrained and very widespread.

I leave you with a few clips from YouTube by people who've experienced extreme violence first hand, Billie Holiday and Nina Simone, growing up in the US of A, one can imagine, often feared for their life; their crime: black skin.

First Billie

Billie Holiday Strange Fruit 1939



Next, a little background to let you in on why we have to learn to love each other, not just get our way, by anger and violence. Billie didn't write the song, she sang it, but she sang it in such a way that it rammed the message home; sang it in such a way that only one who understood what living in fear for one's very life, 24/7, is all about. One who understood, how evil we can become with so little, or even no provocation, merely the greed for an easy life whilst others do all our work. What horrendous karma these poor people are generating for themselves and for those whom they teach their horrific ideas.

The story behind Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit"



And then cam another African American who also took up the cause of awakening the people of the world via her vocal music. Who else but the inimitable Nina Simone.

Nina Simone - Strange Fruit

An altogether effective rendition of a haunting song.



After all that, a little doco (sorry no music to speak of in this clip) by Captain Brian Steidle, author of "The Devil Came on Horseback" (an eyewitness account of the genocide in Darfur).

I have read Captain Steidle's book. If you read it, prepare to be shocked.

All people are children of God. Punish them if it's your duty before God, if not, tolerate, cooperate and try your best to love whoever you can as well as you can. 

If you get caught up in this shit, your life is gonna be a whole lot worse than it currently is and for many lifetimes to come. 

Make music not war.

Joy to all beings

Hey it's Warren

Purple Ha(n)ze

For all those who think that Dave Matthews is just some hillbilly country hick, hick-pickin' his thar hillbilly geetar and singin' down home soooeee blues, this clip of Dave and Tim accompanied by southern rock guitar maestro Warren Haynes will serve to demonstrate that Dave is a revered member of the international music professional elite.

The broad smile on Warren's face towards the end can attest to the virtuosity of Tim Reynolds, and Tim, as always, is nothing short of magnificent, but "than agan" we never doubted good ole Dave and Tim, did we? The more I see Tim Reynolds the more I realise that Dave was right when he said that he couldn't believe how well Tim can play guitar. Tim, of course, just smiles and bows humbly.

Warren tends to get "cut off" here on Sonic Explorer, this here hillbilly down home country high hills wild weed smokey cloud hazey dazey music blog, cuz weez made the left hand division a long time ago prior to widescreen (it's a tad shy of wide enough); so if yoood like ta see thar who-o-o-ole thing right dere on YousTube, including Warren, you jes click on this link right here, go on, y'orl! It's finger pickin' good!

Joy to all beings

Personal Personality

Nina Simone Bares Her Beautiful Soul

I first heard Nina way back in the middle '70s but Sunday arvi at Graeme's, stoned to the tips of the tree, gutsing down tequila as we often did (just for fun) "perhaps" does not generate the ideal mood required for listening to Nina (or listening to anybody, for that matter).

Listening to this 1985 concert (which, by default, wasn't available to listen to during the 1970s) for the first time just last night, I truly began to understand the depths of Nina. What an amazing individual and incredibly talented person. I adore her.

Nina Simone at Ronnie Scott's 1985

Joy to all beings

Danger

Skeptics Beware

This concert is addictive. It goes for almost three hours and is absolutely brilliant.

It features people and guitars, both. If you like either, or both, or all four (2 people, 2 guitars) you are bound to become addicted. I liked all four and now I am hopelessly addicted to Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds. Dave can sing and play, good. Tim can really, really play, very good.

Actually Dave plays a variety of guitars, mostly his Martin and his Taylor, but somtimes others. Tim has a Martin, interestingly enough, with a 3 piece back. All the guitars are masterpieces, all the playing is brilliant.

Before seeing this concert, I had heard of Dave Matthews but not Tim Reynolds. After seeing this concert once, I am a hopeless addict. The people are beautiful, the music fantastic.

Three hours is long time, but like a good book, this is hard to put down.
Here is a link in case you'd rather watch it on YouTube or full screen, as Blogger doesn't appear to display the full width of the video.
http://youtu.be/nGp31HY0QIg

Joy to ALL beings

Marcus Miller

Basic Bass Based Base

Well, not actually basic at all; it just sounded good to say that.

Some people have never heard of Marcus Miller (how, may I ask you, have people never heard of a legendary bassist that was a member of Miles Davis's band, played with Eric Clapton, etc, etc, in any gendre one can imagine, etc, etc, have people never heard of Marcus Miller? Sad, I know).

Hard to imagine Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata played as a laid back bluesy funk, let alone played as a laid back bluesy funk on an electric bass guitar. Yes, that's right, this is Marcus Miller we're talking about, and he's probably the only bassist in the world who could even imagine the concept let alone pull it off this nicely.

Enough talk ...

And Dean Brown's pretty good at struttin' his strat, too!


Joy to ALL beings

Reflections

More of the Same

Just a little more of similar stuff to the post from the other day, only these ones are a little more sweet, or tender as one person commented regarding Aneli Drecker (vocalist) on Ketil Bjornstad's (pianist/composer) "Grace."

The other track wherein Peter Gabriel is joined "with" (by) vocalist Sinead O'Connor is "Blood of Eden," one of Peter's prettier tracks.

Both are beautiful, outright.

First Peter and Sinead ...









There ...

Joy to ALL beings

Beauty

What is Beauty

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, get it out with Optrex.

Spike Milligan

Seriously folks, there are different kinds of beauty. I post here a couple of items of beauty. The grand piano tones of Ketil Bjornstad are easy to identify with beauty but perhaps those with "good eyes" can see the beauty of Peter Gabriel's Digging in the Dirt.

Joy to ALL Beings

Dog's Day

You can't argue the facts

Every dog has its day
BUT
Cats rule the night
so
now
it's
time
to
jam
with

DurgaCat
DurgaCat
DurgaCat
DurgaCat
DurgaCat
DurgaCat

Joy to all beings
ys
tkd

Long Time Comin'

Back from a short break of about 18 months

Sometimes it's hard to keep up everything I start because I'm so omnivorous, but I DID get back to sonic explorer ... eventually.

Anyway we've got a treat of old Aussie psychedelia to start with, an excellent title by the Dave Miller Set.

Might not sound all that incredible to you but, let me tell you, these guys came on the Don Lane Show one night and really startled me. Some of the most innovative music to come out of an Australian lineup. (Well two of the guy were from Enz but we never let the truth get in the way of a good rave).

Mr Guy Fawkes



Try to remember that, although Led Zeppelin (one) was available in the shops in those days, and also graced my collection, as did Iron Butterfly In a Gadda Da Vida and Ball, and Surreakistic Pillow from Jefferson Airplane, Cheap Thrills er Janis, etc, you didn't hear this stuff on the radio or TV.

The fact that Dave Miller Set doing Mr Guy Fawkes was being played on commercial radio was a BIG PLUS for Australian listeners, I mean there was some real cr@p assaulting the listeners' ears, and you can't blame Molly Meldrum's promoting it for everything, the Aust. public were buying that stuff and encouraging them to play it. Molly wasn't all bad, he plugged a few good albums on Saturday morning TV, ya just gotta admire Molly, he put up with a lot of shit to get where he is today.

Having said that, there were a lot of people who liked Russel Morris, both Molly and me included. Of course, the dyed in the wool Brittish blues fanatics wouldn't hear a bar of him (pun intentional) but to this day I really like Russel. His vocal emotion in Sweet Sweet Love is beautiful

Sweet Sweet Love (Recent LIVE performance)




I was thinking also about Jim Keays, the front man from the Masters Apprentices, good old Aussie rock gold, but my fave album from Jim was the Boy From the Stars. I might even buy a new copy of this. This particular rendition suffers from a terrible production, rife in Aust recording studios of the era. Nowadays with the advanced production techniques one can get a pretty good sound even from a good brand ghetto blaster, even my diskman with as set of good headphones sounds incredible, but back then we didn't have that option, you either played it on a top quality hi fi or put up with not being able to hear it all.

It's not too bad, if you strain your ears, I would've liked to put the title track on here but couldn't find it on YouTube, nevertheless please have a listen to Jim Keays from the album Boy From the Stars singing:

The Right Way to Go




Joy to all beings
tkd
(that's short for tarunkrsnadas for those who don't know)

Space Music

Hearts of Space

If you like space, ambient, Indian, new age, relaxing, or otherwise gentle, poetic music, visit http://www.hos.com/

You may like what you hear.

Joy to all beings
cha
terrence

Collosus of Rhodes

Rhodes Warriors

Thursday's my day off, as much as anyone like me can have a day off. So I was enjoying a little of the legendary George Duke keyboard jazz on You Tube whilst having a leisurely brunch when I happened across the wonderful clip that follows. I kinda think of it as George Duke Rhode testing the Rhodes at a Rhodeshow.

Well since I had mentioned the Fender Rhodes during a recent post I figured that I better put this baby on the blog before it became one of the many subjects that I was gonna post about but just, well, I guess, this white boy just gets lost in the blues; he don't know where he been nor how to get back.

Please enjoy ...

Fender Rhodes Mark VII



Joy to all beings
cha
terrence

Katmandoo

For Gary P.

My daughter recently purchased one of those iPod dock thingiis that amplify your mp3 music. Man that thing makes a racket ... a criminal racket.

Which, although it has nothing to do with anything, brings us to Elisabeth Katmandoo

Well, actually, it's Elisabeth Kontomanou but I can't pronounce that name let alone remember it, so Katmandoo it's gonna be. (Con-tom-a-no?)

This lady's vocals are strong and vibrant, but it's her sense of rhythm that gets to me, she can be in and out of a whole mix of rhythms like it ain't nobody's business, and she pulls it off every time ... flawlessly.

Trouble, though, with this 'Lisbeth lady is that YouTube, which I utilise to "demonstrate my point" on certain musical topics, has like zilch Elisabeth Kontomanou clips that I can track down apart from this 12 second clip below. Well, anything's better 'n nuffin' I guess, but since my friend Gary likes the blues, and I mean like there's a whole world of blues out there like everyone is already aware of, electric, acoustic, avant g... ah forget it, but you see we's Sonic Explorers, bringin' you the best of the rest so God Hisself don't know where we likely t' end up.

Ace of Clubs

In 1965 (thereabouts) I bought one of those cheaper label Ace of Clubs blues compilation records on glorious twelve inch vinyl (no, I wasn't buying bakelite, I'm not really that old). The Ace of Clubs label was a bit obscure t' ordinary folk but all the blues fans knew it well. It's possible you might remember that John Mayall's "The Blues Alone" was first released on Ace of Clubs.

Anyhow, to cut a long rave in half, this blues compilation record had a few tracks of the unforgettable Otis Spann. Till then, I'd never really heard of the man, since then, I never forgot him.

I think you're gonna like this ...

First, the whole 12 seconds of the Kat lady ... followed by Otis Spann.

Jazz Middelheim 2008 - Elisabeth Kontomanou




Otis Spann - T'Ain't Nobody's Business If I Do





Joy to all beings
cha
terrence

Bladerunner

Racer Blade in Runner Grass

Oh the things I have seen with your eyes


Those who, like me, are affectionados of the Bladerunner movie, will need no introduction to today's post, especially if you're already a devotee of the Greek synth master, Vangelis.

Attack ships burning off the shoulder of Orion

Everyone else, please take off your shoes, settle back, roll up a mind expanding diploma of Web Development, inhale deeply and let your mind soar to the the strains of the hauntingly beautiful, rich harmonic sweetness of Rachel's Song, closely followed by the almost bizarre, technically oriented, otherworld lament, "Tales of the Future".

Vangelis - Rachel's Song




Vangelis - Tales of the Future





Joy to all beings (including all fellow replicants) as together we explore the rich emotions rampant within the inner space of the matrix within the matrix within the matrix ...
cha
terrence

Merlin

Infected Mushroom - Merlin - Classical Mushroom

For my friend Nanda who's a tech-know-crat

I love the way this song builds from madness to compounded madness. You know I once had a neighbour who had a Siamese cat. I asked her what the cat's name was and she replied "Merlin".

Well, she's a New Zealander and y'know the slightly funny way they speak. Plus the fact that I am half deaf. For months I called that cat Melon till Verity (another neighbour) called it Merlin one day and I twigged. That cat was so in and out of everybody's house it was hard to tell who actually owned it. Finally it moved away and took it's owner with it.

Poor Melon fancy having a dumb name like Merlin.






Joy to all beings
cha
terrence

Mr Bassman

Lars Danielsson Trio - Pasodoble

I tend to find the best artists by checking out who the best bassists are playing with and my favourite bassist is ... no prizes if you guessed Lars Danielsson.

Of course there are plenty of other fine bassists, more on them later.




Joy to all beings
cha
terrence

Acropolyptic

Brotherhood of a Man

So, I guess after the last post, no not "The Last Post", the last post I made to this Sonic Explored blog, it is abundantly apparent that there is more to a remarkable tune than just emotion, although I do believe that emotion does play a significant role. Other things to take into account may well be skill, energy, passion, belief in oneself and one's ability to write and perform, etc.

And speaking of emotion and skill in one breath brings us to today's "victim", Yanni. Yanni has long been a favourite of mine since my ex-wife first played her Yanni record for me back in the last century. Later, it was with great delight that I watched Yanni perform the fabulous music extravaganza "Live at the Acropolis" which, incidentally is deemed to be the second best selling music video of all time.

During the concert, Yanni spoke of astronauts who have observed planet Earth whilst in orbit. He was quick to point out that the astronauts said that the Earth looked very beautiful from "up there" but that even though it was easy to see the different countries, it was difficult to tell where one country ended and another began because there were no lines drawn on the Earth like there are on a map.

Yanni's belief in the brotherhood of man and his quest to remind people that we all belong to each other regardless of the country of our birth together with his efforts toward fund raising for public broadcasting has earned him the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters from the University of Minnesota, where Yanni studied as a young man.

When I see him and hear his exquisite music I wonder if he isn't some demigod sent to Earth to teach us lowly humans to be more loving and kind to each other. If the beauty of his heart is even remotely like the beauty of his music, I think that we could all learn much from Yanni's loving nature.

Yanni - One Man's Dream

From: Live at the Acropolis



If you don't have the opportunity to hear the entire Acropolis performance

also recommended:

Nostalgia

In this clip Yanni actually mentions the word emotion, albeit in Greek



Not your kettle of fish? Want something more upbeat?

The lyrics to this song are especially important to anyone involved in a personal relationship with another human being. This guy so aptly and so poetically sums up many of the pitfalls.

Try this one: unfortunately, embedding has been disabled but you can view the clip on YouTube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xx53c_6h-W4


Lots of funky beat here, not necessarily emotional though, just a long time fave of mine

Joy to all beings
cha
terrence

Essence of Music

Blog about the Music why Doncha?

One blogger was "lamenting" the fact that music blogs all post about the musicians rather than the music. I left a comment on his blog to the effect that "It's the singer not the song".

I mean, what are we supposed to do? Nice tune. Key of Gm. Begins with a Cm7 for a couple of bars and then moves on to F7 for a while and finally to Bflat-maj7. The initial little arpeggio begins at ...

What the heck?

Nevertheless, there is some truth in what that blogger posted, so much so that I pondered it often but didn't come to any immediate conclusions till one day when I was listening to Australian virtuoso guitarist Frank Gimbale and thought to myself, "Whilst I don't dislike anything you're playing Frank, and you've tuned your guitar in such a way as to permit you new and exciting expressions, but you're still using a lot of the same old tried and true moves you normally would".

So I was prompted to wonder what it is that makes a tune truly unique, like Lennon and McCartney's Yesterday, Van Morrisson's Moondance, Page/Plant Stairway to Heaven, John Mayall's Room to Move, Gershwin's Summertime, Roland Kirk Seranade to a Cuckoo ... the list goes on. You know the kind of music I mean. Not just another song but distinctly unforgettable.

I thought long and hard and eventually came to the conclusion that it is purely the emotional content of the tune. Emotion, after all, is what music is all about. What else is being communicated?

Music can be composed "digitally" and by this I mean clinically, mathematically, but without emotion it always sounds as if it was composed by a machine, lifeless like a salt lake on a hot Sunday arvi.

This explains to me why some tunes sound as if they're played by robots using human's instruments. Of course robots should play robots instruments to capture the "soul" of the robot. (I love you R2D2, come home to the battery bank). A lot of shred and fusion guitar can fall into this trap, like a machine practicing its scales.

This brings me to the point wherein the late, great Frank Zappa enters the dialogue (you know you're getting old when lots of the acts that inspire you can be described as late, great). It's difficult for me to think of anything that Zappa wrote that is especially unique.

Hot Rats? Black Napkins? Extremely nice music. In fact all serious music written/played by Zappa is nothing short of spectacular. I saw Frank play Chunga's Revenge from about 3 metres away during an encore in Sydney the 1970s. Awesome is a serious understatement. This guy was nothing short of amazing. During that concert Zappa, talked to the audience, conducted the "orchestra", sang and played the guitar, and all somewhat simultaneously.

To add to this, Zappa was unbelievable prodigious in his writing. His discography is epic in proportion. Frank must've written in his sleep, in the shower, whilst praying (somehow I can't imagine Frank Zappa praying although anything's possible).

The Crux of the Biscuit is the Apostrophe!

So having said that music is all about emotion and then that F. V. Zappa didn't produce anything extraordinary, despite the possibility that everything he ever played was extraordinary I am left wondering just what is the soul of music?

I haven't come any closer to the truth, and remain totally undecided. That's my lack of opinion and I'm stickin' to it.

As I rest my inconclusive "case" I leave you with a virtuoso version of Stairway to Heaven that just reeks of emotion.

Perhaps there's nothing better than a dichotomous enigma, despite all of the opinionated opinionation.

Please enjoy: Stairway to Heaven live (Rodrigo y Gabriela)

Nyaa-aa didn't expect that did ya. I'll bet you thought I'd put Zappa here.


Oh alright ... the emotional sound of Frank Zappa ... ... ...

Watermelon In Easter Hay




Joy to all beings
cha
terrence

One more thing

Zappa's Understudy?

I probably should have included Frank Zappa in that last post, almost sacreligious of me to omit him, but, Zappa and I have always had a love/hate relationship.

Shut Up and Play Yer Guitar

Zappa was a brilliant composer and musician, no doubt about that, but Zappa displayed something that was to me, totally incomprehensible.

Zappa had such over the top ego (megalomania?) that he appeared to belittle his audience, so much disrespect for his listeners, almost contempt, and smut, often funny but not what I would pay for although who could forget such memorable lines as "Fuck, I'm gonna need a truss".

I can truly understand why people would request him to shut up and play.

Zappa at his best was fabulous. At his worst a disgusting bore. But his post isn't actually about Zappa, it's about Daevid Allen.

I think that Daevid has a wonderful command of music and can really create amazing tunes, yet, a bit like Zappa, he seems to sing such childish songs, like nursery rhymes. To make matters worse, unlike Zappa, Daevid's not much of a guitarist. Better than me but that's not difficult to do, a 3 year old can out play me.

Just go to this fabbiatti website and listen for yourself and make up your own mind.

My friend Mitsuo (you might have seen Mitsuo doing pick jockey stuff behind a Gibson Les Paul) likes Daevid (and Gong) but I don't get off on Daeve or Gong much at all, thus to quote Zappa, "I was not impressed".

On the other hand I recently saw Daevid Allen do a 10 miniute slot with Kangaroo Moon during their recent concert down at Mullumbimby. Daevid's skat was full on and amazingly energetic (and this guy's 70 years old), not to mention extremely entertaining. Daevid Allen's cameo was a definite highlight of a really wonderful concert.

Anyway you make up your own mind about Daevid. On the other hand, I can, and do, sincerely recommend Kangaroo Moon. Aw fanks Micro.

Joy to all beings
cha
t3rry

Autumn Leaving

Oestrogen, I mean Easter again

Autumn

Easter is a great time of year since it occurs in the Autumn, at least here in the southern hemisphere. Happy Easter to everybody.

In the 1970s although I had heard and was reasonably familiar with such jazz greats as Oscar Peterson, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Dave Brubeck, etc, even a few lesser entities such as Jeremy Stieg and the amazing Albert Ayler (I had a really nice Jeremy Stieg album back in those days), I was undeniably a rock fan although not died in the wool, fickle creature I am. More on jazz in the '70s in a later post(s), I pwomise.

Jarrett Consciousness

Back in them days (to paraphrase myself) most of my musical gluttony was appeased by the sound of the electric strings of such names as Hendrix, Bloomfield, Blackmore, Page, Santana, West, Harrison, Winter, to name a few, so the brilliance of Miles Davis was OK but not something I though about very much (our subject played piano for Miles), although once I became aware of the cool sound of the Fender Rhodes I tended to drift away from guitar music for longer and longer sojourns.

NB: the Fender Rhodes, possibly best described as an electric piano as distinct from an electronic piano, one could write a whole blog on the Fender Rhodes.

So it's little wonder that I didn't actually become clearly conscious of Keith Jarrett till 1978 when I had a flat mate who had one of those amazing hi-fi stereo systems; you know the sort, they cost many thousands of dollars and had speakers big as coffins, separate pre-amp, blackbox amplifier with totally minimlistic markings that only affectionados could recognise for what it is, state of the art turntable, et-bloody-cetera. Green is the colour of envy.

Perhaps Jim wasn't as Young as Neil

Although Jim didn't particularly like us playing rock on his system, more to do with his stylus than anything, you shoulda heard Neil Young's "Like a Hurricane" on Jim's system. Unforgettable.

Well, Jim loved Keith Jarrett, and played quite a lot of his solo piano, but it wasn't actually until 1995 when I listened to a borrowed copy of Jarrett's Koln Concert that I actually became hooked on Jarrett. I very soon had my own copy of the Koln Concert and utilised it as an evening wind down, calm down, take 100 deep breaths and relax, focus back on reality ... device.

Nowadays, my experience of Keith Jarrett has extended to a plethora of hours listening to multiple Jarrett albums. I love this guy's playing although I couldn't tell you which tune is which most of the time.

Milk and Two Sugars Please, Standard

Yep, that's a standard, but that's not the kind of standard I mean here. The song itself (Autumn Leaves) , originally written in the 1940's by some French guys (one a poet, the other a musician) and initially entitled "The Dead Leaves" has become a jazz standard of considerable note (pun intentionally unintentional as usual), and was featured as the title song of the the movie, you guessed it, Autumn Leaves, sung by the late, great Nat King Cole.

Before Keith "rips into it" as Keith tends to do with tunes playable on the piano, and quite a few that aren't playable on the piano, just have a listen to the tune itself. Such an elegant, almost simplistic, display of emotion.




Joy to all beings
cha
terrence

Pre-school Power

Rock 'n' Roll & other Children's Music

I love that line. Heard it from Tom Lehrer (Pollution, The Vatican Rag, etc)

Little kids are getting exposed to some pretty funky music these days.





A bit too old fashioned '70s cum '80s for your liking? OK whadda 'bout something more modern?




Joy to all beings
cha
terrence