Depressing Glasgow Domestic Violence Statistic.

A quarter of all cases which involve a suspect being held in custody in Glasgow are related to domestic abuse, according to a pioneering new prosecution unit.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Europe's Oldest Puffin

It's 34 years old!

That's the same age as Angelina Jolie, Jamie Oliver and The Fall of Saigon.

Billie Holiday

Lady Day died 50 years ago today.

Let's let the music speak for itself. My favourite is Don't Explain.

Learning a Song

What occurs to me is that when a tune grabs me there’s a process that has to be gone through to learn it. The grabbing is an essential part of the process, and if I enjoy a tune, there's an almost irrepressible urge to sing it. Being compelled to sing the tune isn’t enough though, and it's good to know more before starting. Although I have good ears, it’s very useful to have sheet music for the song, preferably a few different versions. The ever-expanding music library on the bookshelf contains Real Books, Fake Books, downloaded sheet music and a variety of jazz composer anthologies. Given the nature of jazz, it’s common to hear a tune and later discover that it’s in one of those books already and you had no idea it was by one of your favourite composers. Greats like Harold Arlen wrote for stage and screen, churning out a big show tune a week so there are thousands of treasures out there to learn.

Once I’ve got my hands on the sheet music it's time to set about listening to as many versions as I can get my ears on. For standards that’s very easy, and sources such as spotify are invaluable for all of those versions you haven't yet bought. A lot of jazz standards started life in the musicals and if you're lucky it might have come from a film or a show that you can obtain a recording of. This gives valuable insight into the original meaning of the song. My Funny Valentine is a good example of this, and seeing the film (Babes in Arms) may make you change your mind about the meaning of the lyrics.

So now to set about learning the tune. If it's a well known melody it's easy to skip over this stage quickly, but in doing so idiosyncrasies may become habit, and errors become fixed. Singing the melody straight is very valuable as it can aid understanding of the song structure and how the sections are connected. So, it's a good idea to sit down with the sheet music, original and early recordings (Sinatra and Nat King Cole are good for singing songs "straight") and listen. Jay Clayton once told me that it's a good idea to listen to the tune ten times without singing before you begin. By which stage I'm itching to start, or to be more truthful, I just can't stop humming or singing for those ten times, but I pay close attention. Instrumental versions where the musicians play the head before and after soloing are useful at this stage too because different instruments may be playing in unison and have to play it straight.

The tune's in my head now, and I've absorbed the chord structure underneath from listening. I've still got the music in front of me and now to sing along, either to recordings, acapella or using music software such as band in a box. Unfortunately I don't have enough talent to play along with my songs (and the piano is on its last legs), but while I'm thinking about the melody I really have to consider the words of the tune. I'm not one for watching talent shows but when I do I get properly peeved with all the fake emoting that goes on in the singing. You can tell when it's real and when it's fake, really. If the lyrics are sad I want to be on the verge of tears when I sing it, at least while I'm learning it. There are many songs that I've loved and not been able to sing once I gave them a shot because the waterworks start, real ones, but in time they'll be keepers. Melody learnt, lyrics understood, then it's time for the fun.

By fun I mean playing about with the timing, the phrasing, the melody, and improvising. My natural style is to sing like I would talk which means that lots of fun can be had putting the natural rhythms of speech into the musical rhythm of a melody and fitting things around each other and making it my own. Listening to singers such as Ella Fitzgerald while learning a tune can be counterproductive, as you end up absorbing too much of her phrasing and improvisation and end up copying. It's good to be inspired, but when singing jazz in particular, you don't want to go mimicking the arrangements and quirks of other singers, especially well-known ones. You want to turn a hackneyed old show tune or standard into something shiny and new. If I'm feeling adventurous, there's the options of completely changing the melody for a chorus, scatting, or changing the feel of the tune, latin to swing to waltz.

And then the excitement of singing the tune with a live band. There's nothing like it, and it never works out quite like you expect, it's sometimes a disaster, but usually a revelation, no matter what.

"Beat It" - Mariachi Style

Antichrist

Having been fortunate enough to see Antichrist at the Edinburgh International Film Festival a few weeks ago, it seems fitting to write a little about it on the week of it's UK release. I'm no film critic, but I'm open minded and can enjoy the strangest of films. Two of Lars Von Trier's previous films, Dancer in the Dark and Dogville, are favourites of mine and are unlike anything I've ever seen, so a horror film of sorts with his name on it was a big draw.

Unlike half the audience I went into the film blind, apart from hearing the words misogyny and torture porn bandied about. The cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle is breathtaking from the word go, whether in lush, almost psychedelic colour or stark black and white. It is simultaneously the most beautiful, heartbreaking and repulsive film I have ever seen and I adored it.

Without spoiling, and from the official imdb entry: A grieving couple retreats to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse. Understatement of the year. Utterly compelling performances by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe, with Gainsbourg winning the Best Actress Prize at Cannes.

This is extreme cinema, completely shocking, and probably the most visually stunning thing I have ever seen. The stuff of nightmares. Be prepared.

I love this little self tribute

What a joyful blog entry!

http://angrygrayrainbows.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/appreciating-wellroundedtype2/

FAT UP yourself!

That difficult first step

To take the plunge into restarting this blog I've had a good long think about what I want to write about. I have kept it impersonal, with very little about my life up until now, and that's a good thing. However, writing well is writing with passion about topics that interest me. So, given the length of my break from blogging, I've had a good old think about where I am and what I love.

For now, my favoured topics are likely to be:

Music/Books - including brief reviews, topics on singing, jazz and soundtracks, favourite authors

Outdoors - the pleasure that can be derived from a walk in the park, the natural world and Scottish holidays

Web - my favourite links

Musings - my simple thoughts on life, learning and how I see things

Stories - the occasional short story

There was always the option of rubbing it all out and starting again, but you know, this is my place, and I like it here.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

The Small Things

Spending a lot of time at home for whatever reason can change your mindset quite a bit in a short space of time. Whether through illness or choice, staying at home doesn't need to be boring or depressing. It's easy to find things to enjoy at home. Wonderful services like Spotify can open up a whole new world of music, and if you've got access to iPlayer or internet radio you've got more entertainment than you can shake a stick at at your fingertips. I've recently discovered The Jazz House on Radio Scotland with Stephen Duffy. This led to a whole new wolrd of music for me, and although I've not managed to see many of them yet, I'm compiling a great big list of performers who I'm interested in checking out. The Anatomy of a Solo feature is improving my jazz theory no end on a weekly basis without the aid of textbooks. When I get those jazz festival programmes through the door I am starting to know what I'm looking at and what to expect, which is wonderful, now, if I could only afford it!

Enforced time at home, once you've got used to it, is really quite liberating, as you can do a million things you've never had time to do before, whether that's writing that novel, reading all those books that have been building up, really listening, listening to music, or researching your family tree. And when you venture out into the world again it's a richer and more fascinating world than it ever was before. A walk round the park costs nothing but if you're lucky and you time it right you never know what you might discover. This probably all sounds rather obvious but most of us waste or time pottering and watching TV when we're stuck at home. Not that there's anything wrong with that in itself, but when you realise there's more to life, more to yourself than that passive old couch potato mentality, everything changes.

This might be a philosophical point worth making or maybe I'm just waffling and being self indulgent. Enjoy the small things, the big stuff can wait. Be easily pleased. That's all.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Billy Mackenzie - Balgay Hill

Dundee's finest late lamented singer has had a play written about him, performed by Dundee Rep. About time too.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Tags: music, theat