Evan Valentine, Stay-at-Home Dad

A while back, I made a post featuring a track by an mp3.com artist named Thuggin' It. Apparently there are very few people who remember Thuggin' It the way I do (here is one place that talks about it and titles the post "Worst Rap Song EVER!"). Though I didn't mention it in my post, I knew of another song that the kid had released under a different name, presumably because the material released under his Thuggin' It moniker was the butt of so many jokes. I searched the internet, I searched my hard drive, and I asked a few friends about it. No one knew what I was talking about (or even believed such a thing existed, quite frankly). I went through my ancient "misc mp3" folder and listened to every song that I didn't recognize. I couldn't find the song anywhere. Why would I have deleted such a gem?

I had one last-ditch effort. I contacted my cousin David (with whom I lived for three summers) because I know we definitely used to rock out to both of those songs. He still has his old PII up and running as a toy for his 16month old daughter. He said it was running very slowly, the registry full of junk, and his daughter had all but destroyed the mouse and keyboard, but he would look for it. The next night I received a text message: "Masta Verbalists - Welkome 2 Our World."

Sometime that weekend he was able to get the file off his old PC and email it to me. I have searched quite a bit for any reference to this song on the internet, and it seems to have vanished from the collective unconscious. So I am proud to say that I have exclusive content of this awful track, released by the Thuggin' It crew under a different name. His voice is immediately recognizable.

Masta Verbalists - Welkome 2 Our World

Our car has three banks of six XM station presets. One of the banks is mine. These are my stations.

1. Lithium: Can't go wrong with 90's alt-rock.
2. 40's on 4: Self explanatory. I really, really wish they had a 30's station.
3. Chill: Downtempo electronic, also including trip-hop and ambient.
4. The Joint: Reggae.
5. Bluegrass Junction
6. Raw Dog Comedy: Uncensored stand-up comedy.

Since the stations I listen to are not very popular, most of them feature commercials which is quite annoying. Despite whittling down 150+ stations to six, none of them are particularly good. I mostly switch between Reggae and Raw Dog Comedy. Oh well, it's my wife's car, and she loves Sirius XM... and it was free! (my aunt re-activated our account as a Christmas present).

Speaking of Reggae, here are some of my favorite lesser-known tracks.

Tiken Jah Fakoly - Le Pays Va Mal - Reggae in French from the Ivory Coast. Political lyrics (translated)
Beres Hammond - Just Like A Woman
Melodians - Rivers Of Babylon - Most people don't know the Sublime version is a cover of this
Bob Marley - Mr. Brown - Not one of his popular tracks, but a great and fun song

From the outside, everything looked great for The Monkees in 1967. In one year they had leaped from semi--or total--obscurity to overnight superstardom. They had a hit TV series, two #1 singles ("Last Train to Clarksville," and "I'm A Believer"), and two #1 albums ("The Monkees," and "More of The Monkees"). The only problem was the Monkees weren't allowed to play on their own records. Why not? Because Don Kirshner, the musical supervisor of The Monkees, said so. It was... well... embarassing. Here they were, pretending to be a real group, when in fact they had almost nothing to do with "their" music. Critics made fun of them. Even worse, teenyboppers idolized them for something they weren't doing. And to add insult to injury, Kirshner made more money from their records than they did. They each got a 1.5% royalty, but Kirshner go 15%! They had their pride, after all.

Trouble had been brewing for some time between Kirshner and the group, particularly Mike Nesmith, who wasn't even allowed to play guitar on the songs he wrote. That was Kirshner's studio policy, The Monkees just sang vocals while studio musicians played on the tracks. But what the hell, Kirshner reasoned, he was getting results--hits--and that was his job. So what if Nesmith had to stand by and watch Glen Campbell put the guitar licks on his own song, "Mary Mary"? This was the only way management could be sure it was right. The bottom line was what counted, after all. Nesmith, a genuinely creative individual, just stewed.

"Essentially, the big collision I had with Don Kirshner was this," said Nesmith; "he kept saying, 'You can't make the music; it would be no good, it won't be a hit.' And I was saying, 'Hey, the music isn't a hit because somebody wonderful is making it, the music is a hit because of the television show. So, at least let us put out music that is closer to our personas, closer to who we are artistically, so that we don't have to walk around and have people throwing eggs at us,' which they were."

Eventually the feud came to a showdown in early '67 at Kirshner's suite at the Beverly Hills Hotel. Kirshner had just handed the four Monkees some new demos (including "Sugar, Sugar," a bubblegum hit later for Kirshner's Archies) that they would be putting vocals on. Nesmith stepped forward and demanded that musical control be given to The Monkees. When Kirshner refused, Nesmith angrily smashed his fist through the wall, declaring, "That could have been your face!" Then The Monkees went off to record some original material without Kirshner's approval.

What happened next is a little unclear. While The Monkees were working out their own songs, Kirshner appears to have approached Davy Jones, one of the members of the group, and talking him into going into the studio without the rest of The Monkees. Jones put the vocals on several tunes, one of which was "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You." But The Monkees weren't doing the backing vocals. Who was it? Eric Lefcowitz, author of The Monkees Tale, speculates "Kirshner was quoted once as saying that Neil Diamond and Carole King had sung back-up vocals on some Monkees songs, and I think that if you listen closely to 'A Little Bit Me,' you can hear them. It sounds like Neil Diamond to me." And why would Jones record without the rest of the group? "I don't know, of course," Lefcowitz says, "but Davy Jones hadn't ever had the chance to sing lead before. This was his session. Maybe that had something to do with it."

Maybe, maybe not. The important thing is that in a power play, Kirshner recorded and released "A Little Bit Me, A Little Bit You" without even telling The Monkees he was doing it! That was the last straw. Monkees' producers Bob Rafelson and Bart Schneider wanted hits, but they weren't going to put up with that from anyone. They fired Kirshner, and yanked the single out of American record stores. Then they re-released it with a Monkees original--Nesmith's "The Girl I Knew Somewhere"--on the B side. Finally The Monkees could smile. They were out from under Kirshner... and a song they'd actually played on made the Top 40--"The Girl I Knew Somewhere" reached #39 on the charts.

Leon Redbone is a fringe performer with a dedicated following. I have seen him 8 or 9 times in concert.. if that's not dedication, I don't know what is. I have traveled to different states on more than one occasion to see him. I was literally the only one left to see his last 3 songs during a hurricane in Chattanooga at an outdoor concert. Leon Redbone strikes a chord with some people, and I am one of them. I am seeing him again next Friday, and I'm already excited.

Redbone's history begins at the beginning of his career because virtually nothing is known about his background or personal life. His real name, birthday, country of origin and ethnicity are all unknown, though people have speculated about these things for 35+ years now. He has claimed to have been born in Bombay during a monsoon to parents Niccolò Paganini (a composer and violinist who died in 1840) and Jenny Lind (a singer who died in 1887), which contributes to the mystique about his age. He has also listed his date of birth as October 29, 1929, the day of the stock market crash that sent America into the Great Depression. He often claims (erroneously, of course) that songs written well before his time were "stolen" from him. It hearkens back to the days before information was so readily available about celebrities' personal lives and upbringing. It appears he has worked very hard to create and maintain this mystique.

Leon Redbone has made a career out of arranging and performing songs that originated before my grandparents' time, though he attracts a wide and varied audience, ranging in ages and musical tastes. His style is hard to pin down as it is a mix of old-time blues, ragtime, jazz, country, and vaudeville. If it were necessary to sum up his style, one might say he does cleaned-up renditions of Tin Pan Alley classics from the 1920's and 30's. He has a very unique voice and is able to pull a lot of yodel-style octave jumps. He is also an excellent acoustic guitarist, which is often obscured by his interesting baritone vocal stylings. He is somehow able to emulate all the counterpoint of ragtime on a six-string acoustic guitar--a feat not attempted by many. Upon his arrival to the music scene, Leon Redbone was rumored to be an alter-ego of Bob Dylan, Andy Kaufman and even Frank Zappa.

He composed/performed the theme song to Mr. Belvedere (and apparently composed/performed the theme song to the sitcom version of Harry and the Hendersons, which I did not know existed). He voiced the character Leon the Snowman in the 2003 film Elf, where he was also featured heavily in the soundtrack and film score.

Seeing Leon Redbone live is akin to stepping in a time machine. His fedora hat, dark sunglasses and cane contribute to the mystery and timelessness of the act. The stage versions of his songs are stripped down to the bare essentials. For the past ten years or so, he most often performs with just a trumpet player and pianist. His act is peppered with banter and jokes that feel over a century old. He often shuffles through papers and proposes "a sing-along" to his instrumentalists; the suggestion is met with a sigh and eyerolls as Leon breaks into song (usually "I've Been Working on the Railroad" or "Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star"). At the end of nearly every show, he re-emerges on stage to take a picture of the audience. If I were to ever develop a stage presence, I often wonder which of Leon Redbone's stage gimmicks I would "borrow."

Here is a video of Leon performing Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone, originally released in 1930:

Some of those guitar licks are extremely difficult. It is very laid-back and does not give that impression, but do not be fooled. This is the magic of Leon Redbone. It sucks that his left hand is obscured in this particular camera angle. Here are some more videos...

On Alf's talk show
I Ain't Got Nobody
Walking Stick
Harvest Moon (better version than the Alf one)
Leon Redbone can certainly whistle

Travelers Insurance chooses good music for their commercials. First it was Trouble by Ray LaMontagne, and now Worries by Langhorne Slim.

Another Travelers commercial, this one, also has a great song that was specifically composed for the commercial and consequently can not be heard anywhere else. It really sounds like the "hot jazz" playing of virtuoso violinist Stéphane Grappelli (though it is clearly not, because Grappelli has passed). More information about this style can be found in my article about Django Reinhardt.

Though Emmett Miller is little remembered today, his influence was far-reaching during the dawn of country music. He was born in 1900 in Macon, Georgia, and was performing in minstrel shows as early as 1920. His backup band The Georgia Crackers included noted jazz musicians Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Gene Krupa, and Eddie Lang. Some of his earliest recordings have been "lost," but his was the first voice to utilize yodel-style vocals in popular music. He performed in blackface into the early 1960's, long after it had fallen out of fashion/favor with the public. His influence on early country vocalists is most evident in early Jimmie Rodgers recordings, and Hank Williams' recording of Lovesick Blues is nearly identical to Emmett Miller's recording. Most of his recordings and performances open with skits that feature African American stereotypes and voices (such as I Ain't Got Nobody), making him a polarizing figure in the history of music.

Leon Redbone's version of "Big Bad Bill" is very similar to Emmett Miller's original recording. The same can be said of "I Ain't Got Nobody," "Sweet Mama (Papa's Getting Mad)," and many others. It seems that Miller is Leon Redbone's most direct influence, particularly in singing style and song selection.

Much of Emmett Miller's material from the 1920's can be found on archive.org if one searches his name.

I'm going to nerd out here for a second. Bear with me.

I built a new computer over an 18month period. That alone is a long story. It was meant to be a gift to my brother but I failed over and over to get this thing to boot. Anyhow, I instead bought my brother a camera and this is now my computer. I got it working maybe six months ago. It's a new computer. It's nice. I can actually use Lightroom as it was meant to be used. Blah blah. I've never been one for flashy new computers; I always just wish my old one would have kept working. Anyway, it took me way too long to realize that this new computer can't record audio worth a damn. Lots of noise.. it seems to add a frequency in all the recordings, like a low-to-mid hum. I believe everything that has been recorded onto this computer in the last six months is useless. It's all I can hear when I listen now.

As a workaround, I purchased a USB interface cable, which has audio hookups on one end (that go into my mixer) and a USB plug on the other end (which goes into my PC). Ain't USB grand? I can barely remember what we did without them.

So I had difficulty getting everything to work right, BUT... I think it's going to work. Not only that, I think it's going to work really well. While I was trying to get everything set up properly (pacing around, muttering curse words, running wires, reading related message boards--all in between feeding and changing the baby), I left my Dave Smith Evolver plugged into my computer. That way, if anything started to work while I was messing with settings, I would know instantly because I would be able to hear my synthesizer coming through.

Dave Smith is a pioneer. Among other things, he was the main engineer of the Prophet-5 (and its more recognizable brother, the Prophet-10... early Van Halen, anyone?) and the originator of the MIDI interface (maybe the most important music technology invention to date). He has worked for several companies, but eventually went on to form Dave Smith Instruments.

I have owned a desktop version of the Dave Smith Evolver (Serial 00694) for maybe six years and I am very happy with it. It certainly doesn't look like four hundred dollars (I paid that for a used one actually), but it sounds like it. It is an analog-digital hybrid, sort of the best of both worlds. You really can't make the analog filter on this thing sound bad even if you try. Of course it has its disadvantages: it is hard to program, it can only input monophonic MIDI signals, and only one setting can be altered at once. Basically it's not good for live performances. I think the layout of it is nice and I can cook up a sound/sequence pretty quickly on it. Here is about three minutes of what I recorded last night. It takes a little while to fade in, so don't turn up your speakers.

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It appears (though it is not yet official) that I am going to the Birchmere two nights in a row in March of 2010. Thursday March 4th is Gaelic Storm, and Friday March 5th is Leon Redbone. The funny part is that I would like to attend the same venue to see Bobby McFerrin (this video impresses me to no end; his range is incredible) on March 17th, but that would just be too much concert gluttony for one person to handle. I have found a lot of good venues over the years by going to see Leon Redbone. Since I first went to the Birchmere to see him, I have been back three times to see some other shows. The venue is the most important aspect of a concert, because the venue is what determines the mood more than anything. Nothing worse than a bunch of out-of-place headbanging morons, and sit-down shows typically prevent that from happening.

It's time for Evan to pass the hat. Steve and I need money to get our album mastered. We get a surprisingly good response to this old album when we give it out, so we thought we'd set up a system for donations. If you click "download" on the link below, it will bring up a Paypal payment screen. If you have a Paypal account, it couldn't be easier to donate seven dollars. If you do not have a Paypal account, it is still easy to purchase/download the album with a secure credit card payment. We have it set up for a minimum of $7, in case our relatives wanted to give us more as a Christmas present or something. You can stream all the tracks for free below, or visit the actual site on which it is hosted. It is an easy, convenient system. Anyway, throw us a bone! $7 for the album means a) less than 34 cents per track and b) less than ten cents per minute of audio. Also, if you like it, you can click the "share" link below and post a link to it on your Facebook/Twitter/Livejournal/What have you. Thanks in advance.

This is a set of self-produced home recordings. All 21 songs run together seamlessly to create the feeling that the listener is hearing a jam session. This album will never be released as-is except through bandcamp.com. Proceeds from downloads of "innovation avenue" will go towards the mastering of our next album, for which we will be seeking representation from record labels.

CREDITS:
Released 19 July 2009
All songs composed, arranged, performed, recorded, and produced by Evan Valentine and Steve Bower
Cover art by J. Adam Morris
Hosted by bandcamp.com
©All rights reserved

Most people are at least somewhat familiar with savant syndrome (savantism). Some savants can do difficult calculations in their head (I hear they are also excellent drivers... excellent drivers), while some can remember every song they have ever heard and play it back on a piano. Derek Paravicini (born 1979) is more than that--he has been called the "super savant." He not only can play back every song he's ever heard (over 10,000), but he can improvise among the best in the world.

Derek Paravicini was born quite prematurely, at 25 weeks. He is blind and severely autistic. He does not know his birthday and he can barely tell his left from his right. He can only dress/feed himself with a great deal of assistance. But let me tell you, sit him down at a piano and the boy can play. It seems that most of his brain is dedicated to music. It is not known whether his brain was born functioning this way, or if his neuron paths have slowly reconfigured (a feat thought impossible until recently) throughout his life. Here is an excerpt from his Wikipedia article:

Though autism is thought to be the source of Derek's extraordinary musical ability, his blindness may contribute. Because Derek is blind, the part of his brain that would normally be used for sight and light detection could be used for extra auditory ability. Derek is able to, with a great deal of precision and accuracy, detect and recognise not just one but multiple notes played at once (so far he can distinguish over 20 notes).

Most "normal" people, even the ones with an extremely keen musical sense (ie, perfect pitch), can only distinguish 2 or 3 notes at once. Being able to distinguish over 20 notes is way off the charts. Incredible.

I first saw a little 20 minute piece about Derek on NOVA as part of a larger episode about music and the brain. A search on YouTube brought up video about Derek put together by Ben Gooder. This TV special is phenomenal. It is 47 minutes, so it has to be split up into five parts on YouTube. The video goes into a lot more than just Derek's history and talent. A little bit of neurology and related information spread throughout. The piano playing itself isn't what makes it interesting, it's the whole picture. The portrait of a man who can not cross the street or open a bag of chips, but when he sits down at a piano, he has a level of understanding that can't be fathomed.

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 1

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 2

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 3

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 4

The Musical Genius - Derek Paravicini - Part 5

His only short-coming (and I feel like an ass for even saying that) is that he doesn't quite have a handle on all the emotions of music, though he is much better than other savants in this area. He more than makes up for it. He's the best improv musician I've ever seen. The musical limitations of his mind have yet to be discovered. You don't have to believe me; Jools Holland says the same sorts of things in the video (his opinion regarding piano expertise is worth 20 of my opinions). The icing on the cake for me is that Derek's favorite piano pieces are from the early 20th century.

"Even though it's hard to believe, I think music is an inherent part of the universe."
--David Pinto, founder of Academy of Music for the Blind

I couldn't agree more.

Virtually nothing is known about Blind Blake's life. His real name, his birth year, his birth location, and the circumstances surrounding his death are all educated guesses and hearsay. Only one picture survives of Blind Blake. He recorded about 80 sides between 1926 and 1932, though some of "his" final sides are believed to be someone other than Blind Blake. Though his singing voice wasn't as passionate as other blues singers, his guitar playing is inimitable. He was advertised as "Blind Blake and his piano-sounding guitar" and is considered by most to be the king of ragtime guitar. He was able to emulate counterpoint ragtime, including full chords and melodies, on one six-string guitar. In my mind, he was one of the best guitarist ever. It is very difficult to believe that some of his songs are played on one guitar.

His heavy drinking, along with Paramount Records' bankruptcy, led to his career (and life) ending early. Some say he was killed by a streetcar during a drinking binge at age 40.

Too Tight Blues No. 2 (1929)
Blind Arthur's Breakdown (1929)
West Coast Blues (1926)
Police Dog Blues (1929)

This article contains much more information (in the way of quotes and opinions of more recent performers) about Blind Blake and his influence.

I mentioned some time ago that a lot of my music is hosted on archive.org, and that I would get to the details later. Well, later is now. Or.. now is later. I'm confused.

Netlabels release material under Creative Commons licenses. This means that the author can determine how his music (or video, or book) is licensed. Typically it is released as "Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative" which means you are free to share the music--spread it far and wide as long as you give the author credit and do not use it for commercial purposes. This means that people can take my songs and burn 100 copies to CD if they like, as long as they do not sell the CDs for profit or use them for commercial gain (use them as the soundtrack to a film, for instance). In the unlikely event that someone 'stole' my songs for commercial use, I could sue and it would be upheld in court, even though I have not pursued an actual copyright. Not to mention, I have the source material for all my songs and could prove that I composed them.

I followed the custom of releasing material as albums, though they are not actual albums. I will list them here in chronological order, with a bit of explanation. All the following music is non-dance electronic music. The whole genre is really esoteric and not for everyone. Although I started making music in 1996, all of this "released" material is from 2001 and beyond (there's good reason for that).

Ekiv EP - several short, intense tracks from my first year living with Jaime in Athens. Most of the percussion sounds on here were sampled by me (smash two things together and call it a snare drum)

Fish Food EP - more laid back, more lush sounds

Safety Glass EP - back to rough, harsh sounds. I think this is my best release

Sinister Device LP - full-length (about 50minute) release that has over 15,000 downloads. "The public's" favorite release of mine. Lots of help from friends on this one.

Millions Never Tried EP (with e-sin) - cooperative album with a friend of mine. The latest (and most mature) of my releases. I love the first two tracks, along with "Seren." (The link below plays the songs out of order, so scratch that previous statement)

Plus there are several more songs (of different types) on my personal music page, and several "leaked" tracks on different file-sharing networks.

Django Reinhardt (born Jean Baptiste Reinhardt, 1910) may not be the best guitar player ever, but he did more to promote the instrument than anyone thought possible. Django spent nearly all of his youth in gypsy encampments, and played several instruments professionally from an early age. When Django was 18, his home caught on fire while he lay sleeping, severely injuring him. He was pulled from the fire, but the burns paralyzed one of his legs and made his third and fourth fingers on his left hand inoperable. Doctors wanted to amputate his left leg, but he refused the surgery, and left the hospital against all doctors' orders. His brother bought him a guitar, and he slowly learned to play the guitar again, without the use of his ring finger or pinky. Losing the use of those fingers on the right hand would not have been such a big deal for a right-handed guitarist, but the left hand generally uses all fingers for nearly every task. Within a year, he was able to walk again with the aid of a cane.

In 1934, Django formed the Quintette du Hot Club de France with Stéphane Grappelli, violinist extraordinaire. This would become one of the only successful all-string jazz bands ever formed (though there are many copyists around today who have this same arrangement). The setup was typically three guitars, a violin, and a double bass. Some video of them playing shows the style very well. Only a few minutes of Django playing on video have survived, but this video shows off his two-finger style in an up-close segment, along with showing the whole band in action on stage.

Before Django Reinhardt, the guitar was never thought of as a lead instrument. In jazz bands of the 20's and very early 30's, the guitar was only used for chords in the rhythm section, never for leads. Blues musicians used the guitar merely as a way to accompany their voice. In the Quintette du Hot Club de France, however, guitar and violin shared equal time as lead instruments, without even a hint of horns. Like most musicians of that time period, Reinhardt's repertoire was mostly reinterpretations of famous songs from the day (Charleston-my favorite | Ain't Misbehavin | Sweet Georgia Brown | Limehouse Blues | Dinah). He was also responsible for making the Selmer Modèle Jazz guitar famous. This was the first guitar to feature a cutout, making higher frets much more accessible to the solo guitarist.

This is definitely my favorite jazz music. The style, the pace, and the instrumentation are all right up my alley. Not to mention, Django could do amazing things with only two fingers on his left hand (technically, he sometimes used his crippled fingers for chords, but never involved them in his lightning-fast solo style). Being a French band, this was the first proof that jazz had exported. A French group was not only playing jazz, but playing it well.

Reinhardt was a very eccentric fellow, sometimes skipping out on high-paying shows (unannounced) to take a stroll through town or walk the beach. Stéphane Grappelli told stories of Django throwing a fit on stage because his name was not introduced first. I found out about Django Reinhardt because of the Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown (1999). The movie follows a fictional guitarist in the 1930's and his obsession with Django Reinhardt (after seeing the movie, I was delighted to find out that Django was not fictional).

This video shows one of Django's guitar solos in both sheet music and guitar tab form, real-time as they are played. Pretty interesting for guitarists to look at. Much of Django Reinhardt's material can be streamed or downloaded for free if you search his name on archive.org.

earsauce (no majuscules allowed) is a studio music project involving only Steve Bower and myself. We have focused solely on the recording of songs. We make something up, slowly record the parts in my basement (over a period of weeks or months), then forget how to play them. On to the next song. Don't look back. We have begun well over 50 songs using this method, and finished about 60% of them so far.

There are obvious drawbacks to making music this way. With two albums worth of finished songs, we have no way to play most of the music live. No way to reproduce the layers and parts with just two people on stage. So now we're going back and making stage versions of the songs (take the 'album version' and cut out the guitar/bass/vocals, and leave the rest as a fake backup band). Even still, we have to go back and re-learn most of our own parts.

My plan is to have a mastered album that we can promote sometime in the first half of 2010. That would still mean it took us five years to make one album.

I don't know how to describe the style of music--not because it is unique, but because it is so varied. Between the two of us, there are many musical influences, and we try to let them all shine through. Some stuff is electronic (my department), some stuff is folksy (both), and some of it has a tinge of rock (Steve). We also split the duties pretty evenly:

Songwriting - both
Lyrics - both
Guitar - both
Vocals - both
Bass - Steve
Hand Drums - Steve
Harmonica - Evan
Piano - both (but mostly Evan)
Banjo - both
Violin - Steve
Synthesizers - Evan
Recording Engineer - both
Production (beats, levels, etc) - Evan

At times we're really interested in recording new stuff, and at times we're not. That's the beauty of the arrangement. We're not 'on the clock' paying for studio time. No schedules. Nothing is forced. That's the way it should be. Hopefully the relaxed attitude comes through in the music, because that's what I like.

Most Jazz fans consider Art Tatum to be the greatest jazz pianist of all time (case in point). I suppose I am not a jazz aficionado (and I am not), for I always prefer Fats Waller. Waller and Tatum were contemporaries, but while Fats Waller looked backwards to a time of Ragtime, Art Tatum looked forward, taking hundreds of years of piano technique and throwing them out the window. I much prefer the styles of the first half of the 20th century, so I am drawn to the music of Fats Waller (though I do not deny that Art Tatum had extraordinary ability and, for better or worse, reinvented jazz piano).

Thomas 'Fats' Waller was born in 1904 and made his first recordings in 1922, at the age of 18. He was taught by the great James P. Johnson, who himself taught many greats including Duke Ellington. In my mind, the death of Fats Waller was the end of stride piano, which was an extension/modernization of Ragtime. He composed many songs each year and sold them for small sums (he was known to be short-sighted and wreckless). Because of this, his compositions were often stolen by other composers claiming to have written the songs themselves. It is not known how many jazz standards were actually written by Fats Waller, but it is believed that he penned over 400 new/original songs in his short career. He was also a master of improvisation, and his improv style was much-copied for many decades. Additionally, he was well-versed in classical music and performed a number of Bach organ pieces with regularity.

Waller's real skill was on the piano and organ, but he was more than that--he was an entertainer. He was always calm and relaxed, and sang all of his tunes with levity, making sure never to take himself too seriously. All of his performances were punctuated with jokes and funny facial expressions (which was not uncommon, given the style and time period). Many of his songs had hidden meanings that were sexual in nature, such as All That Meat and No Potatoes. Many of his compositions have become jazz standards, such as Ain't Misbehavin, Honeysuckle Rose, Your Feet's Too Big, and Jitterbug Waltz.

Fats Waller led a fast life and is told to have consumed large amounts of food and alcohol at every turn. His chubby, happy persona contributed greatly to his genius never being recognized (in the opinion of this author). After all, he didn't take himself seriously, so why should anyone else?

His playing once put him at risk of injury. Waller was kidnapped in Chicago leaving a performance in 1926. Four men bundled him into a car and took him to the Hawthorne Inn, owned by gangster Al Capone. Fats was ordered inside the building, and found a party in full swing. Gun to his back, he was pushed towards a piano, and told to play. A terrified Waller realized he was the "surprise guest" at Al Capone's birthday party, and took comfort that the gangsters didn't intend to kill him. According to rumor, Waller played for three days. When he left the Hawthorne Inn, he was very drunk, extremely tired, and had earned thousands of dollars in cash from Capone and other party-goers as tips.

I'm not sure if the above story is true or not; it's from the book Fats Waller (1977). Stories like this contribute to Waller's reputation as a fast-living boozer who often affiliated with the seedier side of New York and Chicago. He continued to rise in fame and visibility until he contracted pneumonia in 1943, and died on a train near Kansas City. His ashes were spread in the air over Harlem. Louis Armstrong cried for hours when he heard of the passing of Fats Waller, or so the story goes.

Not many videos of Fats Waller are around, and most of the videos he made were for gag type songs that don't show off his skills. Some audio recordings that showcase his talent are 'Tain't Nobody's Bizness If I Do and I'm Crazy About My Baby (click the links to hear the songs, hosted on my server). If you like this style, you may want to look into this comprehensive list of Stride pianists. Also, the 1978 musical revue Ain't Misbehavin uses the music of Fats Waller to give tribute to the Harlem Renaissance and all those involved in furthering the black cause in the 1920's an 30's. Many of Fats Waller's recordings can be streamed and/or downloaded for free if you search his name on archive.org.

Just heard an interview of Ralph Stanley conducted by some pretentious NPR host. He's now 82 years old and has been making music for 63 years. He got a lot of attention when the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack was doing well. He had the only good songs on an otherwise not-so-good soundtrack.

He characterizes his style as Old-Time Mountain Music as opposed to Bluegrass. I think he falls somewhere between the two.

Bluegrass, which can be enjoyed in small doses by most people in the US, is a pop version of many forms of American Roots Music. Bluegrass mostly came about because banjo players all around the country started to copy the stylings of Earl Scruggs, and a uniform style of playing the banjo was born. Before recorded music was widely spread, American Roots Music was regional.

Although American Roots Music had a different sound all over the country, the style most commonly associated is that of Appalachian Music. Musicians out of the mountains of Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

Roscoe Holcomb (example 1|example 2|example 3) is a good example of Old-Time Mountain Music, as well as Clarence 'Tom' Ashley (example 1|example 2|example 3)