Sensual Shock

“The listener must be gripped and—whether he likes it or not—drawn into the flight path of the sounds, without a special training being necessary. The sensual shock must be just as forceful as when one hears a clap of thunder or looks into a bottomless abyss.”

Boulez 88

“I believe that music should be collective hysteria and spells, violently of the present time.”

Cash

John R. “Johnny” Cash
26 February 1932 – 12 September 2003

The great man would have turned 91 today.  Any comment of mine would be superfluous.

Florian Fricke

23 February 1944 – 29 December 2001

At its highest level film music becomes an equal player in the drama, with a particular capacity to engage the viewer’s feelings and insinuate the deep, unspoken meanings of a film. The early masterpieces of Werner Herzog, such as Aguirre Zorn Gottes, shorn of the music of Florian Fricke, would be as impoverished as Hitchcock without Herrmann, Fellini without Rota or Leone without Morricone. Fricke’s early death was a great loss to the true art of cinematic Music.

Smoking is Cool #25

Earl “Fatha” Hines
28 December 1903 – 22 April 1983

One of the true originators of jazz, Hines joined the virtuosity of Tatum to the eccentricity of Monk, anticipating both. He was a man filled to overflowing with music and I would without a moment’s hesitation name him the greatest of all jazz pianists.

Now Playing #21

I acquired this strange and beautiful disc a few days ago and after several listenings it has become a favourite. I don’t have the liner notes, and know nothing about Ancient Greek musical systems, so I am very curious as to how these compositions were reconstructed. Male and female voices, plucked strings, flutes, shawms and percussion evoke atmospheres of esoteric ritual and bardic declamation with hints of Asiatic influence and the occasional ecstatic outburst. This is a unique and very enjoyable recording.

Christa Päffgen

“Nico”
16 October 1938 – 18 July 1988

Photo by Herbert Tobias, 1956

Masters of Tone

Wagner – The rape of the Sabines… a kommers in Olympus.

Beethoven – The glory that was Greece… the grandeur that was Rome… a laugh.

Haydn – A seidel on the table… a girl on your knee… another and different girl in your heart.

Chopin – Two embalmers at work upon a minor poet… the scent of tuberoses… Autumn rain.

Richard Strauss – Old Home Week in Gomorrah.

Johann Strauss – Forty couples dancing… one by one they slip from the hall… sounds of kisses… the lights go out.

Puccini – Silver macaroni, exquisitely tangled.

Debussy – A pretty girl with one blue eye and one brown one.

Bach – Genesis I, I.

From The Smart Set, May 1912
H.L. Mencken

Smoking is Cool #20

Thelonious Sphere Monk
10 October 1917 – 17 February 1982

Smoking is Cool #19

Nathan Milstein, Vladimir Horowitz and Gregor Piatigorsky enjoying a cigarette break.