Monthly Archives : August 2016

JAZZ FM LIVE TO AIR BLUES SUPERHOUR

One of the perks of doing volunteer work at a radio station is you get access to meet some pretty interesting people, both radio personalities and artists that drop by for interviews and live performances.

One such character is the host of the blues program Bluz-FM, Danny Marks.  A very talented blues artist and historian who could sing just about any blues song you throw at him.  On Wednesday August 24, 2016,  he hosted and participated in a live to air performance called blues SUPERHOUR.  Now, hearing that title one might expect a huge band including drums, bass, guitars, keyboards and maybe even a horn or two.  But that night it was just Danny and two very special guests, Paul James and Jack de Kyzer.

Toronto native, Paul James started playing in the 60’s and has played in bands with Neil Young, with founding members of Steppenwolf, sat in with Muddy Waters, played in Bo Diddley‘s band and backed up Lightening Hopkins and Sunnyland Slim, John Hammond and even John Dylan. For decades the Paul James Band was a Toronto staple and highly sought after band.

Jack de Kyzer, is a highly recognized and awarded Canadian great who worked with Etta James, Ottis Rush, John Hammond, Robert Johnson and the band Blue Rodeo.  jack also plays some fantastic jazz guitar.

The performance was as you would expect, very intimate but there was no lack of blues intensity or playful musical conversation between the three.  Each took turns playing songs from their own repertoire with the others playing along and Danny threw in a few standard blues tunes like ‘Sweet Home Toronto’ (come on he just had to do it).   Paul did a really great solo acoustic number that had a lot of Hammond influence and Jack did a great rendition of his tune ‘If You Were My Woman And I Were Your Man’. (see video below).

It was a fantastic performance by all three well seasoned musicians.  And what a bunch of down to earth gentlemen they were. Here are a few clips from that night’s performance.

The Music That Shaped Me (part 3 of 4)

Part 3 of 4 – CLASSICAL MUSIC
In the mid 80’s I was introduced to classical music through someone I was in a relationship with who was an art teacher and a lover of the ballet.  Her department head was a big classical music fan and would often invite us to the symphony.

Even back then I had a great appreciation for music and would jump at the chance to see and hear anything musical (even musicals, of which I’m still not a big fan. But that’s another story).  I was so intrigued by the enormity of the compositions and the variety of instruments that I just had to learn as much as I could about classical music.

So I started buying books and magazines, read up on the different periods and the composers affiliated with each.  I bought huge amounts of CDs (which at the time was just becoming a popular media).  I was almost as hooked as I was on jazz (did I just write that?).

I must say, I really do enjoy and have an huge appreciation for classical music. I wish I could say the same for it’s sub genre, the opera.  I could never really get into it.

My favorite periods are the Baroque and the 20th century periods and my favorite pieces from each are Vivaldi‘s ‘The Four Seasons‘ and Stravinsky‘s ‘Rite of Spring‘. If you’ve heard my music, you will no doubt find a lot my tracks have some of that dramatic sense ingrained in me from listening to the likes of Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.

Here are the composers that shaped my classical me. There are of course many others that I love but these are my major influences.  To make things easy I’ve arranged them in their musical periods. I’ve also chosen pieces that are more popular that you may have heard at some point in your musical journey.  Again I’ve chosen videos that show the music being performed.  For me it’s the best way to really appreciate it other than being there yourself.

THE BAROQUE PERIOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ehbar90jHz8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CS86maxUnXk

THE CLASSICAL PERIOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jh-E5m01wY

THE ROMANTIC PERIOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4wnk5LD21o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P73Z6291Pt8

THE 20TH CENTURY PERIOD

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rq1q6u3mLSM

 

 

The Music That Shaped Me (part 2 of 4)

In my last post I gave you the Jazz artists who influence me from about 12 years of age to now.  Here I give you my rock and blues influences.  This was a little harder to choose because with Jazz I started early and I’m still finding interesting  and forward thinking musicians where with rock I started listening as a teen and intently up to the early 2000s.  I’m still listening but haven’t found many game changers lately.

That said, here are the artists that shaped the rock and blues me.

Again this is not nearly the full list but the ones that had a major effect on me.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g0jBXB-wEkw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgubG-MOPT4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0OX_8YvFxA

THE MUSIC THAT SHAPED ME

JAZZ ROCK CLASSICAL HIP HOP AND R&B

Part 1 of 4 – JAZZ

So looking back as far as you can remember and recalling the music that shaped you, that influenced you, that brings you to the music that you listen to or play now, what and who were they?

Mine are a varied and different mix of likely and unlikely suspects.  Here I give you my major artist influences.  The one stipulation was that I wanted to have a video of my choices.  Of course this is by far not the full list. There are so many more I can’t include due to spacial constraints or availability of videos.

Because I’m such a musical person I could not in all honesty do this in one sitting so I decided to split this blog into 4 genres (jazz, 
Rock, Classical and Hip Hop/R&B).  There are other genres and sub genres mixed up in those but those are the main ones. The other genres will be posted later in separate blogs.

The videos and specific songs I’ve chosen are just examples of the music from each artist and what I could find really quick.
Please excuse the sound and video quality on some of these.

So here is Part 1, my JAZZ artist influences.

What’s yours?