Musical Influences

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Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

ChiO wrote:face-to-face interaction for most humans will always be better.
Absolutely. Before the internet, I did a lot of legwork through mail and telephone calls (still do).
ChiO wrote:So, it's being individually amendable to being educated plus having a supportive community to assist. It takes a village....(or a metropolis, sometimes).
While it is easier to for the average person to be exposed to new forms of music (or film) in a bigger city, it is quite a different premise to be actively pursuing such things. My post was simply a refutation of the concept that to live in a small town equals "white bread world".
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JackFavell
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by JackFavell »

Oh, my sister lived in a bigger town in Oklahoma than I did in Illinois. :D

I certainly didn't mean to suggest that people from a certain area are closed minded. My bad. It just took that move to help me realize how much more was out there.
RedRiver
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by RedRiver »

In my case, living in a major city inspired me to pursue interests and learn more. Yes, it can be done from almost anywhere. But if you've never heard of something...You're more likely to develop an interest in jazz by going to The Green Mill than by listening to the radio in western Kentucky.

That being said, I wouldn't trade my small town history for anything. Heaven help the kid who grows up in an urban environment!
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ChiO
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by ChiO »

RedRiver --

Are you the brother my parents never told me about?
Everyday people...that's what's wrong with the world. -- Morgan Morgan
I love movies. But don't get me wrong. I hate Hollywood. -- Orson Welles
Movies can only go forward in spite of the motion picture industry. -- Orson Welles
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Dewey1960
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by Dewey1960 »

I just found out today that Fred Milano, who sang tenor with Dion
and the Belmonts, passed away last week.

[youtube][/youtube]
Here's an article about it:
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/obit ... -1.3424135
The appearance of this Musical Influences thread takes on a much more
timely component for me now because Dion and the Belmonts were the
first rock and roll singers who completely captured my imagination. Even
after Dion split from the group in 1960 I still dug the discs that The Belmonts
put out on their own, especially Diddle Dee Dum and Tell Me Why. Fred Milano's
voice was part of a giant wave of coolness that transformed me from a ten year
old kid to an eleven year old kid in record time. I hope that makes sense.
"Tell Me Why"
[youtube][/youtube]
"Diddle Dee Dum"
[youtube][/youtube]
R.I.P.
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movieman1957
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by movieman1957 »

I, for some reason, began reading the thread again and thought I'd bring up the classical music part again. It has always struck me how moving music can be. The pieces I still listen to most are the ones I find the most emotional to me.

Tchaikovsky's 6th Symphony still is among the most heartbreaking music I've ever heard. Sometimes I'll just listen to the last movement. Brahms' 1st Piano Concerto is one of the most exciting works. The bold opening movement is powerful. (Originally intended to be his first symphony he held off.) Even the last minute and a half is exciting. Copland's Appalachian Spring has a sweetness about it in the opening that comes to joy later. The suite is only about 24 minutes so that makes for easy listening. Almost anything by Beethoven. There is drama and boldness and tension and beauty. So much more. I wish I was more educated about it.

I wish I had more time to listen to it all.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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JackFavell
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by JackFavell »

I'm not a huge classical fan, but I like Appalachian Spring, especially the section with the hymn "it's a Gift to be Simple...". I also like this section of Rodeo:

[youtube][/youtube]

with my particular favorite being the bucking melody that starts at 1:25. Our Town also brings up some emotion for me, since my first role in theatre was Emily, and we used the piece for the intermission music, which helped me immensely in getting ready for the final cemetery scene.

If I don't recognize the music but love it, it must be Mozart. I really love Mozart and Chopin. They stand high above all classical composers for me.

I also like Dvorak, the New World Symphony in particular, and Sibelius. I also am drawn to Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and the impressionist composers Debussy, Ravel Satie, and Delius.
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movieman1957
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by movieman1957 »

I have quite a few Dvorak pieces but not like Mozart, Beethoven and such. I don't have a lot of Sibelius but I am very fond of the 2nd and 5th symphonies. I am only the most casual kind of listener to Prokofiev, Delius, etc.

Tchaikovsy, ("Pete" as The Bride calls him) has many things in addition that I like. I find Robert Schumann interesting because of his mental health issues and what effect, if any, that had on his music. The story of the friendship of him and his wife Clara with Brahms makes for very interesting reading.

Thanks.
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

JackFavell wrote:and the impressionist composers Debussy, Ravel Satie, and Delius.
Ditto. My mother collected and played music from the romantic and classical eras while my father (who played the radio and turntable) loved big band Jazz and collected film soundtracks. I got an earful of all that music as a child and while I enjoy it (and had to play some of it), I could never say I was influenced by it in my own music. So many rock guitar players studied that stuff (Paganini's 24 caprices, etc.) that I avoided it like the plague. It was through studying Beiderbecke's horn playing that I connected with Debussy and Ravel and from there jumped to modern composers like Ives and Cage.

Despite all this, probably the first rock player that influenced me was Uli Roth, who was very much inspired by the classical era. I remember hearing this as a kid in the seventies (before Van Halen came on the scene) when most guitar players were mainly blues-based and was dumbstruck by the sheer ferocity of his playing:

[youtube][/youtube]
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JackFavell
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by JackFavell »

That's intense! Were your parents musicians, Arkadin? I bet they played.

Those in between strings sound so cool, kingrat!
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

JackFavell wrote:That's intense! Were your parents musicians, Arkadin? I bet they played.
My mom played piano. I took lessons for four years (started at about 5 or 6), then quit because my teacher wouldn't show me how do legato type rolls like Basie and Monk because it was "the wrong way to play".

We never really listened to rock in my house (although my dad liked some pop and a little Gene Vincent on the QT) and I was not allowed to purchase such noise until I saw Help! (1965) on afternoon TV in the 5th grade. John, Paul, George, & Ringo did to me in the 1970's what they had done to millions of kids on Ed Sullivan in '64--they made me want to be a musician.

I fought my parents for several years on getting a guitar, and when I did, began practice in earnest. One thing I would like to say about musical influences; One can be inspired by anything, but if you have little or no technique to perform it, it's not really an influence in your playing. I had heard a lot of great music up to that point, but was struggling with basic chords when I began the guitar. Did my mind turn to Berlioz or Kiss? I thought the opening chords to Calling Dr. Love were more obtainable at that point.

I got back into Jazz in high school when my drummer presented me with a cassette of Herbie Handcock's Inventions and Dimensions for my birthday. At that point, I'd pretty much explored the music of my day, dug back to classic rock, motown, & country (Jimmy Bryant is still amazing), but Jazz players were doing more of what inspired me, although most of them were not guitar players. I spent a lot more time transcribing passages by Bud Powell or Freddie Hubbard than Charlie Christian. I also picked up the trumpet in later years, but I've never gotten as comfortable on that instrument as the guitar.

I'm very inspired by vocalists and film. I used to play about four hours a day and some of that time I would watch a film while running scales (a great way to practice your modes). If it was a film I'd seen many times, I would sometimes play along with the score or try to match the characters lines and inflections on the guitar, note for word. Anton Walbrook in the Red Shoes (1948) (which is also a great film for any aspiring artist to see) was a really good example, as he had a very interesting rhythm and cadence and had great control over his voice.
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movieman1957
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by movieman1957 »

Great story. You mentioned "my drummer," I guess you're in a band. Jazz band? Do you write?

And so on....
Chris

"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."
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JackFavell
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by JackFavell »

I love that you played along to old movies! and especially that you played along to voices...that's wonderful! Oh I am watching The Red Shoes as soon as possible just to listen to Anton Walbrook, though I can probably reproduce whole sections of the movie in my head.

It makes me think of the movie Pygmalion, with its Vorkapichian montages of Leslie Howard pounding "How kind of you to let me come" into Wendy Hiller's head with the xylophone! and the final section of that scene (seen in the first few minutes below) when Freddie comes to the door, and Howard simply hits three tones which denote - "Throw him out".

[youtube][/youtube]

Your childhood sounds a lot like mine. We didn't listen to rock and roll radio until late in my childhood, about nine. My parents both played piano until my mom developed arthritis so badly that she had to stop.

We listened to showtunes, jazz and classical music (my mom), and early jazz and Tin Pan Alley pop tunes (my dad), plus the odd Ray Charles, Fanny Brice, Chet Atkins, Bea Lillie or Roger Miller albums. Oh and Stan Freberg. My sister was heavily into folk music. We were pretty eclectic now that I think about it, within certain parameters. There was always country somewhere playing in the background, because we lived in Oklahoma. And then there was the muzak in the five and dime store. My first memories of music playing as we shopped were Strangers in the Night, Born Free, Call Me, and Downtown. They are firmly and deeply connected in my mind with the bicycles and tricycles for sale on big racks in one section of the store and the pony that rocked back and forth when dimes were inserted.

Rock and roll (outside of the Beatles) came to me at age 9 or so, when I got my first radio. My mom and I had moved to the Chicago area by that time so the rock was heavily spiced with funk. I played in the band, the oboe, an ill wind that no one blows good. I could play by ear quite well, and picked up tunes all over the place, but I rarely practiced unless I loved the song we were working on at the time. You could not accompany yourself on the oboe, or play different parts like you could on piano...and this disturbed me. For some reason, probably my parents' divorce, I never got piano lessons until I was in high school, and I hated them. All I ever played was scales and badly at that. I spent most of my junior high and high school years catching up on rock and roll classics and eventually despising disco, though I have a secret fondness for top forty hits of the early to mid seventies, no matter how awful. I never did like Elvis or country music - though now I like classic country - it took some broadening of my horizons to appreciate it. Growing up in OK, I couldn't get away from it fast enough.

In college, I got into punk, indy, noise, and funk, more obscure stuff, like everyone. Now I am constantly looking for interesting music, but I find myself drawn back to the simpler jazz standards, pop tunes, 70's hits, classical music, showtunes and even the country music I heard as a kid.

Mostly I listen to the college stations around here. I do miss the many types of radio stations I grew up with. You'd be riding along in the car on vacation and suddenly, out of nowhere, a station would come up that played nothing but 1930's music. Or at night, you could flip the dial and sometimes tune in a Quebec station if the weather was right. It was like magic. I also remember one entire year that I forsook music at bedtime for CBS Radio Mystery Theatre - after hearing Riders on the Storm during a rainy night. :D :D It scared the bejesus out of me! I still can't listen to it without a chill going up my spine. :twisted:
Mr. Arkadin
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Re: Musical Influences

Post by Mr. Arkadin »

movieman1957 wrote:Great story. You mentioned "my drummer," I guess you're in a band. Jazz band? Do you write?

And so on....
I've played with the same two guys (one of them is my brother) since I was 17 (I'm in my early 40's now), and we started out playing rock, but when our singer was killed on a car crash we began transitioning to instrumentals, and finally Jazz. There was a very eclectic scene in Texas when I was younger, and I was able to see a lot of different artists who were making a living playing music with no vocals. At the moment though, it's pretty much country, dance, and a small rock scene that is leaning toward punk.

All the music I've been writing lately is vocal oriented (we have a new singer for the first time in 20 years), basic pop/rock type music, but there are lots of places to twist the material and improvise within the song. Sonically, it's something like The Pretenders meet Soundgarden, with the jamming emphasis of bands like Cream or Hendrix. I've had to change a lot of my playing style because most of the stuff we did as an improv band let me play a lot more exotic stuff that actually sounds pretty stupid in a rock song, so I'm playing a bit more roots oriented and just ratcheting up the intensity to compensate, or as my drummer said "Play like you're 16 again!"
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