Let's talk music, no genre boundaries

@stuartk 

I streamed Mary Coughlan singing Billie Holiday songs and I had to turn it off. I don't know what her problem was. I read that she drank a lot and has had a rough life.

But when I play other songs by her, she's got the feeling that jazz singers need. Her voice sounds like a jazz voice to me because she sounds like she sitting next to me and I can feel her heartbeat. 

So, try one more and see if you don't think she has a jazz singer's voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LEkUeIoWr0

BTW, still watching Ken Burns' Jazz series, I got to the part where the better musicians like Parker and Gillespie lose most of their audience playing be-bop. There is a real rift in which the be-bop musicians look down upon the old swing musicians who still draw crowds. The narrator said that the be-bop musicians (almost all black) thought of someone like Louis Armstrong as an Uncle Tom.

So, even among "jazz" musicians, some didn't think others were. Louis Armstrong is shown in the Hollywood Bowl singing a song that makes fun of Parker et al, saying be-bop closes clubs. I think that rift still exists, where some people think that successful jazz players like Diana Krall are not real jazz. I've seen Diana Krall live several times and watched the older jazz musicians backing her marvel at her piano playing. She can do some mean riffs. So can Patricia Barber. If you listen to her piano playing she's as interesting as any jazz pianist I've heard playing today.

@mahgister 

Thank you for taking it easy on me. I do get tired more easily than I used to.

I'm going to post a song just for you. Because much of what you post has an esoteric and intellectual component. I'm going to post a song that became very popular among the masses. Perhaps a seemingly simple song. As a poet, however, I think the poetry of its lyrics are masterful because they go straight to the heart and every word belongs. Nothing false. Emotionally, everything in this song is solid and true and deep, in that it's talking about people's most intimate feelings. Bonnie Raitt is the singer, and she absolutely kills this song. If you're prone to weeping, she could make you weep.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nW9Cu6GYqxo

@audio-b-dog - That Ken Burns Jazz series is great, yeah? I don't even like jazz and I thoroughly enjoyed that... 

@larsman 

I'm watching the Jazz series for the second time and getting a lot more out of it. Ken Burns also did a series on country music I thoroughly enjoyed. And then there was the baseball series that kept me mesmerized.

I can't remember who I was talking to about Sibelius, but here is a poem I wrote about him a long time ago.

Sibelius

 

 

cold northern wind

whips in

stutters choppy water  .  lean

& ache of light

on wave's underbelly

 

vast spectacle of light

refracted

across the ocean's

face scooped by swift

hands fashioned

beyond description

 

but then again—

a waltz  .  soft

cheek meets warm

        lonely cheek

gliding like smooth winds

over an icy sky

 

sad last waltz

tomorrow we die

 

 

 

@mahgister 

Here's a snippet from Kiri Te Kanawa singing Puccini's La Rondine. I love her voice in this opera. It is a pristine soprano.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8pg4rsj1_g

I listened to Liszt played by Sofronitsky today. Absolutely electrifying. I couldn't find Moravec playing Liszt, but I listened to a piece by Debussy and it was excellent.