Before I begin, just noting that I haven't read any of your blogs recently; mainly that's because I saw E3 ones pop up and I haven't had an opportunity to read all the news yet. I'm still on Tuesday of last week as far as looking at Gamespots daily updates because there are so many and I haven't had time! Once I've caught up I will go back and look at all the previous blogs on my tracked list that I've missed. On with the show!
Thelonius Monk - Brilliant Corners (1957)
I suoppose this would fit in the jazz category, but piano plays a more important role here. The opening track opens with a brief piano solo, before trumpets come in and steal the show, and later in the track drums take the fore. Megan tells me this a common thing in jazz; for each musician to get their own time within a song to do a solo. Overall I find that I don't really find this album memorable. The title track is decent but after that I'm not really maintaining interest. I'm listening to a track on this as I write and I was able to pick one of the melodies as it came up, but generally it's not doing anything for me than being ok music.
Marty Robbins - Gunfigher Ballads & Trail Songs (1959)
Thus far I'm glad I've listened to most of the albums on this journey to gain knowledge of the musical history, but Frank Sinatra's Songs For Swingin' Lovers is the only one so far I might buy... until now. And once again it's from something out of left field and not in my musical repoirtoire; country. In fact, country is usually counted amongst my least favourite genres, but I guess part of this journey is turning that on its head and not being judgemental.
The album opens with the stellar Big Iron. Now that is the first time I've linked a song, so that should say how impressed I am. The album as a whole is full of old styIe Western stories, and this is a great example. The music itself is generally understated, and the focus is Marty's vocal delivery. It's almost as if he isn't singing at all and just telling a story in a lyrical voice. And when you are telling a story, the structure and the words that you use are vital, and the lyrics here are superb. It probably does no justice to take some lines out of context of the whole story, but a favourite of mine is;
"Wasn't long before the story was relayed to Texas Red
But the outlaw didn't worry men that tried before were dead
Twenty men had tried to take him twenty men had made a slip
Twenty one would be the ranger with the big iron on his hip"
If I had to sum up this album in one word, it would be drama. While the music doesn't swell and rise to much degree, the stories themselves and the emphasis in Martys voice really delivers that sense of drama. Without having listened to a lot of country, I don't know what this has that I haven't felt before in other albums or how it compares, but for whatever reason I do enjoy this album.
Dave Brubeck - Time-Out (1959)
Jazz piano strikes again! The piano is more pronounced here than in Brilliant Corners above. The opening track, Blue Ronda A La Turk, and the third track Take Five stand out above the others (which are the same tracks highlighted in the book) but overall I'm not finding this album a keeper. I rather do like one of the drumming sections in Blue Ronda A La Turk though. The entry listed in the book makes me wonder about jazz though, and that maybe appreciating jazz comes much easier to those who actually have a knowledge about music. The entry by the contributor lists a bunch of stuff about timing, and I have no idea what he or she is talking about; I might have to ask Megan. I would say this sounds a bit more experimental than some of the other jazz that I've listened to.
So I'm just about done for the 50's. There are some that I haven't been able to obtain, though I think my dad might have found me some. So the next entry might include a few albums from the 60's. It's interesting to note that the 50's takes up 23 pages in the book; the 60's takes up 145. It does look like there is more variety in the 60's, as I think I'm getting a little stale with all this jazz!