Posted on 09/11/2014 4:45:53 PM PDT by WesternCulture
Or sooner; What has the US done to the music tradition of Western Civilization?
There are plenty of Americans who understand and appreciate great composers like Beethoven, Vivaldi, Albinoni, Bach and Mozart, but something must be wrong with a nation that year after year produces crap like the music of 50 Cent, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga.
I'm European and I admit we make a lot of worthless music too, but at least we Europeans are fostered in the great tradition of composers like the giants mentioned above.
Gershwin is one of the greatest composers ever.
It’s a shame he died young, just like Mozart..
“I don’t know that I agree with that. Blues derive from African music. Bluegrass and country have Celtic roots.”
Sure, bluegrass and country have roots in scots/irish folk music, but they were definitely influenced by the blues musicians (who were living right down the road or across the river from the bluegrass/country musicians). For example, Bill Monroe, Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Williams Sr, were all influenced by blues musicians and made no secret of it.
Segregation or no, the whites of that day didn’t grow up not hearing the blacks’ music, or vice versa, and anything good a musician hears, they are probably going to try to work into their music one way or another.
Then there are any number of serious American composers such as the afore-mentioned Ferde Grofe,Virgil Thompson, and the fine man who taught me for a semester of composition at Penn, George Rochberg. One might mention Morton Gould, and if you wanted to step a bit outside of theUS proper, how 'bout Cuba's Ernesto Lecuona or Venezuela's Hector Villa-Lobos - all write music more colorful, expressive, and moving the the staid, sterile, boring output of Mozart, Bach, and those other guys......
I had heard Belushi was in a band in high school, but I never heard them before. Not bad for a 60s garage band, if they had a better guitar solo (or production maybe), they could have gotten some radio play.
I hear Bill Murray was in a high school band around that time too, but I don’t think there is any recorded evidence of it.
Speaking of Metheny, this is pure magic, the perfect blend of Rock, Jazz and Folk.
San Lorenzo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs_wmNgxkNw
The White Album is still my favorite album of all-time. I wish he’d at least acknowledge that the early ECM years are what will always define him.
Frankly I don’t think that Europe has put out much in the way of “great music” lately such as the classical and romantic era composers that you mentioned. The fact of the matter is that most of the “music” that is “popular” is crap no matter where in the world it was produced.
That being said, America gave the world Swing music, the Blues and Jazz. And George Gershwin was an America Composer who probably was the equal of many of the classical greats. I also believe that John Williams should be included in that category.
Below is a link to a Jazz standard from the late 1950’s which shows that not all great music is composed with quills and pens and some music just comes from the heart:
Take Five:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2In5a9LDNg
I agree. I also like some of it. But it is, much of it, just pop music with a cowboy hat. :)
Joe Bonnamassa.
OK, we’ve made it past 150 and no one has mentioned the greatest dobro player ever. I love this guy... her too.
Jerry Douglas with Allison Krauss and Vince Gill, Tryin’ to get over you
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfXbDH3DZwg
I love this.
Emmy Lou Harris, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Louie Armstrong, Jimi Hendrix, the Band, Joe Cotton, BB King and so many others.
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Stephen Foster - "Old Folks At Home "
Stephen Foster - "Beautiful Dreamer"
Stephen Foster - "My Old Kentucky Home"
Stephen Foster - "Old Black Joe"
Stephen Foster - "Oh! Susanna"
Stephen Foster - "Gentle Annie"
Stephen Foster - "Camptown Races"
Stephen Foster - "Hard Times Come Again No More"
Take Five was a game changer. Still is.
Too many people don’t appreciate Jazz because they don’t understand the intricacies of the alternate chord structures, alternative rhythms, what we call “playing outside the box”, and the use of variations on a theme. But if you go back and listen you will find all of these elements in composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin. They used these elements to a degree, but guys like George Gershwin took them to a new level and then he was followed by guys like Brubeck and Oscar Petersen.
True but he was guilty of using too many notes on occasion. :) And this clip from Amadeus never ever gets old. Likewise from that film, Piano Concerto No. 20 in D Minor KV 466 is a favorite and, in my mind, represents a high point in Western culture.
“Segregation or no, the whites of that day didn’t grow up not hearing the blacks’ music, or vice versa, and anything good a musician hears, they are probably going to try to work into their music one way or another.”
My 94 yr old father can vouch for that. He grew up in the same Mississippi city as Jimmie Rodgers, about 25 years later, and was a pretty fair musician himself. He put himself through college by playing Dixieland. There was a black auditorium in town that would get some very prominent musicians coming through and my dad and his friends would go there to hear them. They would have to sit in the balcony because segregation worked both ways, but they could hear the music just fine. I’ll have to see if he remembers any of the names that he saw. His memory for younger times is still good. And he can still play his clarinet.
AC/DC are Australian.
Tommy Chong in Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers “Does Your Mama Know About Me”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT_SnwdPZfA
I prefer the Outsiders.
Slim Gaillard (I think from Steve Allen’s show) on piano and guitar. He learned from Duke Ellington in the 1920s and lived into the 1990s.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qphs31yLcZk
Here’s the first part of a first person hosted documentary about his life (unfortunately it ends just before his music career really takes off).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3MR4rWovro
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