Lessons from the Road

We have once again made the trek up to the north shore to visit family and friends in Cleveland for the holidays and, as is always the case, I learned a few things in the car (and before) on the way up (some of which you think I would have learned already).

1. If you get your children a Wii for Christmas, it is best to not stay up the night before until midnight playing Super Mario Brothers instead of getting the packing and prep done for the trip (but it sure was fun).
2. We know far too many of the employees at the Bob Evans in Breezewood.
3. It appears that he who rides in the back--in this case, The Captain--seems to be the best traveler of the bunch.
   
4. I would really like to hang out with They Might Be Giants when they write a song for one of their kid's albums.
5. Even though it seems like a good time to plan some things (like say, life, for instance), we never really manage to do it.
   
6. If it is slanting-southern-sunny day, create some sun-blocking device for the Engineer's window since he sits on the side facing south and he is going to be HOT!
7. Tunnels are endlessly fascinating.
8. Thinking that a long road trip is the perfect time to listen to that stack of discs College Roomy sent earlier this month is based on the faulty premise that you can hear the music well enough to attend to it.
9. The Artist has thought of a lot of alternative (and faster, much faster) means of transportation.
   
10. Arriving just as a nice winter storm starts is perfect timing.

We shall see what the return trip has to offer.

Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night

Hey all--

Life is too busy and fun for much more than to say Merry Christmas to all and may you have a wonderful holiday and a happy new year. Here is Wynton wishing you the same.

Peace all.

Twas the Night Before Christmas

Holiday Music 09 Installment Two: For the Kids

Yes I said I would be posting about holiday music and yes I said I imagined it was going to mostly focus on jazz as that seems to be the mood I am in, but see we had this little snow blizzard thingy that changed things. First it resulted in a lot more time hanging inside with the boys (who basically had their holiday break extended to two full weeks by the snow) and that meant more holiday music oriented toward their tastes. And that means, you get to hear about one of my favorite kid holiday discs.

Now the Veggie Tales cartoons are not for everyone I realize, but I do find the humor to be of that special kind that makes both kids and adults giggle alike and that is true on A Very Veggie Christmas. The basic premise of the disc is that the various characters (yes they are all vegetables) are all gathering at Bob the Tomato's place for a sing off with each character singing a holiday song in a different style (kinda). This is complicated by the fact that (stay with me here) Larry the Cucumber was in charge of food and has ordered it from the Oscar the Polish caterer who runs notoriously late and so the food jokes run throughout the disc until Oscar finally arrives--with various wrapped meats.

I won't go on here--you will get the gist from the music and banter below featuring Pa Grape and Family, the French Peas (my personal favorite--anyone have a good French Christmas music recommendation BTW?), and the whole cast singing along with Oscar. It really is a good one for the kids--trust me that it has been well tested and approved by the boys in this household.

Veggies Talking

Go Tell It On the Mountain

More Veggies Talking

He is Born, The Holy Child

Still More Veggies Talking

The 8 Polish Foods of Christmas

And in case you aren't keeping track, it is almost time for Santa to take off!

All Parts of the Pig Weekend

It has been a while since we bought our house, but the last time we did, all the rage was to have chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven when you entered an open house so you felt welcome and "at home" (and didn't smell the pets that lived there for the last decade). A fine strategy if you are in love with chocolate chip cookies. But if you want to sell me a house, here is the correct recipe:

Heat up a small amount of olive oil in a frying pan, add some thick cut bacon or pancetta, let simmer for a few minutes--then when you see me pulling up to look at your house, throw in some garlic. Result? I walk in and offer to buy your house on the spot, because I want to live in this house with your bacon and garlic.

That, in fact, is one of the smells that you would have experienced in our house this weekend during the great Christmas blizzard of 2009 as we were buried in two feet of snow in 36 hours. But only one, as there was much cooking (and shoveling, and sledding, and other snow activities--not to mention cookie making) at our house. And much involved pork as Neats responded to the oncoming storm by reverting to her German heritage and bought pork in as many forms as she could imagine using during the storm--a ham, bacon, and sausage (two kinds). That resulted in the following:

• Saturday Dinner: Risotto with ham, mushrooms, green beans and cheese (with a base of garlic and onions of course).
• Sunday Breakfast: French toast and sausage.
• Sunday Dinner: Bacon, garlic, tuna and spinach tossed with spaghetti (a killer recipe that is an easy and quick fall back on any well stocked pantry when you are in a pinch).
• Monday (snow day!) Dinner: Slow cooked red sauce with Italian sausage over penne along with a spinach salad with a warm bacon dressing and apples and pine nuts.

Lest you worry that we only eat pork, there were other items in our diet this week . . . like cookies--five kinds in fact, all fresh made for the holidays! And suddenly, I feel the need to sleep.

Name that tune. Not that one. The one this one reminds you of.

Do you ever hear a song and the minute you hear it you think it sounds like some other song you know, but you can't figure what that other song is? You play the former over and over thinking that the other tune is going to pop into your mind, but it just won't? Perhaps you play the former for just a short while and then turn it off so it doesn't distract you from rummaging around in the mental pile of thousands of songs you have heard and stored and clear them away one by one until you extract the one you know is there in the folds of your memory? But more often than not, you can't?

Well, I am here to tell you I have overcome! My memory and recall functions are not completely dulled by age, children and certain distilled liquids.

This week one of the only non-Christmas albums being played is Arcade Fire's Funerals (I have been catching up with them since they made so many decade lists--more later). And one of the many great tunes on the album is call "Haiti." Here you go. I will wait while you listen if you don't already know it.

Haiti Arcade Fire

Done? Nice song, right? But are you sitting there with a funny feeling that you have heard that song kinda, sorta somewhere else? Of course you are. It is not that the opening guitar style and chord progression are exact matches, but there is something that is so familiar that makes you want to start singing something else, right? But what? Don't worry, I am here to spare you the angst and sense of failure and defeat.

For I have listened to this song again and again and each time I could feel it getting closer. Then it would slip away. And then come back, even closer until finally . . . I knew it. The Clash! I could just hear Joe Strummer's voice coming in over that guitar--but what song? Must be on London Calling with that poppy sound. Side one? No. Two? No. C'mon think! Alas I was in the car so I finally gave in to the fact that I was going to have to wait to get home and look at the album and others because clearly I was forgetting a song or had the wrong album, but I was sure it was a Clash tune--aren't you?

But just as I arrived home, so did the answer. It was Joe Strummer--just not The Clash. In fact it is this song.

Johnny Appleseed Joe Stummer and the Mescalaros

OK--it isn't some total rip-off, but you do hear why I was making the connection right? Right? And it is impressive that of all the songs out there, I was able to retrieve this particular one from memory right? And you, too, now feel victorioius don't you? Of course you do.

Okay, now back to the holidays--more Christmas music to come, I promise, as soon as the cookies are done and the piano recitals completed.

Working the Christmas Countdown

Conversation this morning with The Captain upon seeing new presents under the tree:

Captain: Can we open them after breakfast?

Me: Not until Christmas.

Captain: There are only nine days until Christmas?

Me: Um, today is the 15th, so (counting on my fingers) 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25--that is eleven days.

Captain: No. It is nine.

Me: Okay, no fair counting Christmas since it basically starts at the crack of dawn, but since it is the crack of dawn now, today should count, so it is at least 10.

Captain: No. It is nine.

At which point I realize that:

1. I am debating Christmas with a four- (almost five-) year old and, really, do I think I am going to win that one?
2. It doesn't matter to me (other than I am short on days to get everything done that needs to get done by Christmas) . . . but it really does to him.
3. Perhaps he will grow up to be a state budget officer who realizes that you control what counts as the fiscal calendar and if you just adjust the calendar by a day, you can argue that your budget is balanced (at least until next year).

And, so my life continues to be a weird combination of family and work.

Chillin' but Grateful

Oh, the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful. And thank goodness since two nights ago (Friday) our furnace died. We had actually had Furnace Guy here that day and he said the motor was dying (prescient that one), that he would order part and be back Monday. So Saturday morning we sighed and called Furnace Guy, expecting to hear that they would be out, but only in exchange for next year's salary or one of the boys. Nope. Apparently the Lennox heating supply stores are closed on the weekend and no one could get that part. What?

It is like some small crack in capitalism--an error in the program. How could it be that someone had not taken advantage of a perfect opportunity to extract exaggerated profit out of the situation? Wasn't this a perfect example of limited elasticity in the demand/supply equation favoring the supplier?

Whatever, it is all to our advantage from where I sit (in front of the fire). Yes, we are a bit chilly here and there, but we also have so much to be grateful for--here is my list:

• Friends who immediately offered up space heaters and offered (nay, insisted) we sleep at their house.
• An adventuresome crew of a family who didn't bat an eye about how to make it work in the house without the furnace.
• The fact that we worked hard to finish the family room so we have access to the fireplace which has been cranking it out virtually all weekend.
• That we took the time to insulate the basement and family room to the hilt.
• The fact that we still have electricity and the water heater.
• The bacon and rosemary-wrapped pork roast we slow cooked all afternoon using said electricity, both warming the kitchen and our bellies.
• The fact that while chilly, it isn't colder out (low around 30/high around 40).
• The beautiful southerly slant of the sun yesterday.
• The Engineer's total willingness, even this morning in the icy rain, to head out back with me to split and stack wood.
• Games, music and movies.

Ultimately, life is still pretty darn luxurious even without a furnace, but we will also be grateful for getting it back.

Cory Chisel: Suprised, Not Surprised

I know, I know--I should be doing Christmas-y things. But see I have all this music I have been listening to and then College Roomy sent me ten new discs--ten!!! So I am in danger of drowning in new music, which is fine except that what gets lost is any sense of what I wanted to say about different discs/artists, so I have got to get some of it out. So let's talk Cory Chisel & the Wandering Sons for a little bit, shall we?

The new album, Death Won't Send a Letter which came out earlier this fall is the band's first major label release which follows the well-received EP release Cabin Ghosts, which we discussed back in The Room. Chisel is new enough on the scene, but I was surprised not to see more reaction, if not attention to this effort--not because it is earth-shattering, but it is a very solid album and Chisel seems like one of those dudes who might just be around a while (although it is hard to see).

However, when I did read through other reviews such as this one over at Consequence of Sound, I wasn't surprised to see discussion of Dylan, Springsteen and Petty--all names that came to mind as I listened to this disc. Not because he is any of one these guys (calm down ya'll), but because the influences seem to resonate through the disc at different moments--and that was, well, a surprise. After Cabin Ghosts, I was expecting a bit more of an acoustic album and here we have more of a rocker album--I'm not talking metallic, but rocking nonetheless (due, in part to some help from various Raconteurs). That isn't to say there aren't some acoustic-oriented or quieter songs--there are. But the album as a whole is really a blues-based rock album with folk and pop tendencies. And Chisel's voice--which really is the highlight--is very well suited.

It isn't beautiful and he isn't showing off some amazing range--but it is sincere and straightforward--gravelly and growly at times, soft and sweet others. I surely said this before but he really reminds me of Marc Cohn vocally. All of which makes me wish that we had caught their show when they were in town this week, but alas, that just was not to be this week.

Okay, so I really have to get back to the holidays, so here are the samples. First up is the video for "Born Again" which opens up the album, followed by two bluesy tunes that appear back to back in the middle of the album--and by the way can I say that I really like discs that have a strong set of songs in the middle of the disc and this one does.

My Heart Would Be There

Curious Thing

And if you are digging it, you should go Buy the Album!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Do you have anyone in your life who around this time of year notes that they had all their holiday planning done in July? And their shopping in August? And probably baked their cookies and sweets ahead and froze them in the sleepy days of September? Yeah, me too. And yes, I scoff at there sad, empty lives that leave them so much time to think about the holidays that far in advance and are unable to enjoy those things which are meant to enjoyed at the appropriate seasonal moments as indicated by the calendar. I mean really shopping for Christmas presents in August--haven't you heard of fresh tomatoes and corn?!

And are you not aware of the rule? You know the one: no singing Christmas songs or engaging in December holiday activities until after Thanksgiving! And really it is totally doable. See, here is all we have left to do:

• Send out Christmas letters and cards with appropriate personal touches added to various letters (or, more likely, we will just stuff them and send them so they go out before January).
• Finish shopping for the boys--luckily the "jolly old elf" takes care of the stockings so we don't need to worry about those (wink, wink).
• Deal with gifts for parents--struggle for idea with one set, and with how a digital frame works for the others (and then fall back on digital frame for both).
• Attend boys' recitals and holiday concerts.
• Go replenish the two pounds of butter we used up on Thanksgiving, get a few pounds of sugar and nuts for cookies--so many cookies--to be made and boxes stuffed and transported and delivered.
• Figure out presents for new nephew Nicolas and his big sister Ella.
• Make sure to find time to hang by fire and finishing reading The Christmas Carol to elder boys and other assorted holiday favorites to all as well as watch all the favorite holiday kid shows.
• Plan out all scrumptious-ness that will be prepared and eaten over days around Christmas.
• Try not to think too much about having to take it all down right after Christmas so we can get in the car and travel and focus on knowing we will be happy to be with our family once we get there.
• Gussy up this blog a bit with some holiday feel and make sure we post a lot on the Brothers K or The Artist will be disappointed that we posted less this year than last--it is all about progress and achievements for that one!

Totally manageable right? And really who wouldn't want to be busy this time of year--what are those other people doing now anyway? Spring cleaning?!

Holiday Music 09 Installment One: Carla Bley

Last year when The Room was still my virtual home, I did a series of posts on Christmas music which I imagined that I would make an annual feature--and indeed we shall--just here in the new space. We are particularly in the mood since we got a little snowy blizzard yesterday that involved snowmen, hot chocolate and of course hanging by the fire (one of the first of the year given the family room project--really, pictures coming). On to the music.

I am feeling that this year's look at holiday music will be pretty heavy on the jazz given what seems to be playing most often around our place. And it is going to start with a disc that came out this year and that I just recently acquired thanks to a rec from AccuJazz--which, by the way, has gobs or holiday jazz streaming if you are looking for such a site. The disc in question is Carla's Christmas Carols featuring Carla Bley (piano) Steve Swail (guitar) and the Partyka Brass Quintet. It is in many ways the perfect mix for me.

First, it is wonderful blend of jazz arrangements with a classical feel. The instrumentation is wonderful since, as someone who played trumpet for a long time, I love brass (but this is not your parents' brass quintet). It is mostly quiet, but with some nice upbeat tunes and moments within songs, but nothing schlocky like so many jazz holiday albums. As All About Jazz points out, Bley picks mainly traditional--that would be traditional, not boring--tunes and deals with them uniquely.

While others look for obscure Christmas tunes to lend themselves identity, Bley's choices are as conventional as they come—"The Christmas Song," "Ring Christmas Bells," "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen," and "Jingle Bells" are but four of the twelve tunes that are so familiar as to be nearly Jungian. Still, this isCarla Bley, one of the great arrangers of the past half century, and her arrangements manage to tread the fine line between veracity and expansive, personal interpretation. There's no mistaking the "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire" melody of "The Christmas Song" but, while avoiding any "jazzin' up Christmas" schtick, Bley makes this an unequivocally jazz album, as flugelhornist Axel Schlosser lays down some bop-inflected lines during his solo.

Indeed. Here are a few samples starting with their beautiful version of "O Tannebaum" which opens the album, and then, one of my favorites, "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" (here, Part's I and II):

O Tannebaum

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Part I

God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Part II

And if you are a Christmas music fan, a jazz fan and/or a classical brass fan, then, buy this album.

Three to Consider: Dinner Party Music

OK—I have to get some of the music blogging out of the way as it is getting crowded in in my mental music blog closet—and since College Roomy seems worried that I have completely abandoned jazz as of late, we shall start there with a quick look at two newer jazz albums and one other that came out last year. Bottom line here is that these are three well-performed and recorded disc, better than average, but ultimately not the kind of discs I might listen to routinely because they are so incredible. They are more apt to be a discs I could imagine lining up for different stages of a dinner or cocktail party—people swinging and chatting, they might ask who it is, but no one is going to run out and pick them up afterward. But let’s see what you think. Here is a mix of six songs (two from each) that you can listen to while you read on, or make dinner, or whatever.

I Can't Help It (Parlato)

"A" Dance (Figarova)

Uncle James (McBride)

Theme for Kareem (McBride)

Weak (Parlato)

Bedtime Story (Figarova)

First up we have Gretchen Parlato’s newest album, In A Dream (we are skipping including album cover art here for previously stated reasons). For those who don’t know Parlato, she is an up-and coming jazz vocalist who first got real attention when she one the Thelonious Monk Jazz Vocals Competition in 2004. I ran into her this summer when she did a bit on The Checkout. The album was billed as a minimalist showcase for Parlato’s voice with only limited instrumentation on most songs. There is no doubt that she is a talented singer and particularly if you like the Brazilian flavor, bossa nova type sound you will dig the interpretations here. It keeps you feeling like you should be gliding through a hip crowd of sleekly dressed folks, in a mod bar sipping elegant drinks as Parlato gently swings the joint with her slightly funky interpretations (although you might wonder who brought their kid along at a couple of points). Very cool, very competent—just not so amazing I will regularly chose the disc over other vocalists.

Shifting gears, let’s move on to the new Christian

McBride album, Kind of Brown, which has also been getting a lot of attention, because, well, it’s Christian McBride and he has played bass of every sort with just about every jazz musician alive (and passed) even though he hasn’t even hit 40 yet. I had been avoiding it a bit because the band, “Inside Straight,” included vibraphones and I am just not a big fan. But people kept asking if I had heard, people were calling it the best album of the year, best in recent years, etc. and so I checked it out.

Kind of Brown is probably the best of these three albums and it will definitely get a lot of accolades this year. The performances are really, really solid and it is the kind of straight ahead jazz I typically really like. But again, I wasn’t as moved as others. It just didn’t grab me and make me really want to just turn it up and get into the groove of the music—it seemed almost too clean, too well-performed . . . safe. Now that said, I do think this is an album I will come back to and see if it just hit me wrong at the time, but for now it just isn’t coming across as the amazing albums others see it as.

Last up, we have Amina Figarova’s Above the Clouds (with another bad cover). Figarova is a Dutch pianist who fronts a nonet here, playing all original pieces. She has been composing and performing a while, but this is the first offering of hers I have listened to. I should note that the instrumentation includes flute which is right up there with vibes for me, but similarly here as with the vibes on McBride, it is okay.

The tunes are, for the most part, very straight forward jazz pieces with someone laying down the theme, the passing around of that theme to various soloists, and then a return to the full band synthesis of that theme--reminds me a bit of Blue Note albums I like that way. I don’t know a lot about European artists, but the ones I have listened to all have a certain smooth quality to them, very precise and clean but not hard. I don't mean that as a warning that this is tame or smooth jazz as in the kind you hear on radio stations with names like "The Breeze," but rather that they have a certain lyrical quality to them I enjoy. In fact, of these three albums, this is the one that has had the most listening time--although it does get a bet too theme-oriented in the middle if the disc.

Ultimately, they are all worth a listen, and if you like what you heard here, below are links where you can pick them up.

Gretchen Parlato: In A Dream

Christian McBride: Kind of Brown

Amina Figarova: Above the Clouds