Music thoughts to me

I like music but I have the weirdest tastes when it comes to music. I can go days without listening to up to date music. One week i went into this music history phase I listened to some 20s music but I found if I listen reeally hard some of that music is genius and if you try to sit down and pick out the notes its hard as hell. People like Jelly roll morton were genius on the piano. I spent a whole summer picking out a rag tune I thtink it was called "maple leaf rag" i cant read a single note of music so I have to just listen to a song till I go to sleep and when I wake up i can usually start playing a simple version. But, With this tune I could never get it. Someone told me that you have to play it with your right hand instead of your left or something like that and I cant do it so I learned the hard way to respect that classic music. Because those men were geniuses. Also mary Lou Williams was a genius and Willie The Lion Smith. Tho I was able to pick out his version of "Swing brother swing" he plays like one of those pianists in a Baptist church. Very solid

I should practice my music more but if I havent mastered it by now I have excepted i never will. Plus I dont hunger for it.

I dont care to do the show for Mondays which is the classic R&B show. Kem use to do such a good job I like some R&B but its a mood thing. I do like early Rock & Roll like Lavern Baker, and Ruth Brown.Theres a show that comes on radio that plays what my mother use to call Liquor house music. I get a kick out of it. But I have to be in the mood for that 80s R&Bits not very creative . Its electronic and it tends to date easy. The 70s they used instruments alot and I think they were creative. I didnt know until talking to Mr. brown that the 1970s were also considered the era of the big bands in R&B because the bands had horn sections and everything! I wish I had learned to play the clarinet. Every year my mother would send the paper in too late and id get stuck with that damn violin. I hated that instrument. But I did play in the 4th grade orchestra LOL. The violin is so gay. It gurantees a boy at least 5 good fights per semester!

I have found myself really getting in to jazz alot. The funny thing is some of the voices arent shit. Alot of the african american jazz singers unless they have something special all sound alike to me.Some I am just learning to swallow. I watched "cabin In The Sky" This weekend it starred Ethel waters and lena Horne. Then I went to Virgins on west 14th and bought 3 of her re issued CDs. I learned the most amazing thing. Every early jazz singer stole this womans phrasing. I collect CDs and stuff just for my own pleasure and learnning. Last payday i bought a singer named Mildred Bailey and she sounds a lot like Ethel waters and Billie Holiday lifts her phrases note for damn note. I hear it way more than you hear her claims of influence by Bessie Smith she sounds nothing like smith. But alot like Ethel waters. So, I researched this on the internet and found out Ethel waters was a lesbian and a mean bitch. Thats a touh combination.

The story goes that Ethel waters was one of the first influential singers to come out of the African american slums in the early part of the century. Back then they had an operatic form of singing a cross between vaudevillian and opera. really straight singing where they followed the notes and the songwriters were the stars of that time. Thats why all those singers sang the same songs! I always wondered why this was the case!

The singers were promoting sheet music which was way more important than the singer! The singers were paid about 35 us dollars per side. they usually recorded three or four sides per session. Im listening to a stack of 78 RPM records that belonged to gabes grandmother. they are in excellent shape too! They go around and around so fast damn.