The 1920's and 30's are often referred to as the Jazz Age. That time when jazz music gained national and worldwide popularity. There's a great TV series called Babylon Berlin (so far 4 seasons, with a 5th and final season yet to be broadcast). Babylon Berlin takes place in the late 20's early 30's Berlin, Germany which saw the rise of the nationalist Nazi Party. It is great drama against that backdrop of jazz and changing political and social times.
Many performers have been chameleons throughout their careers with the prototype being David Bowie. With Berlin Babylon we see the emergence of another chameleon. At the end of the first season and into the second (and I believe third season) Bryan Ferry, of Roxy Music (and solo) fame appears in the series. He performs Roxy Music songs completely re-imagined as Jazz Age classics.
And so we come to the them of "cover versions". It's not often when a musical artist so transforms their own work so that it not only maintains the integrity and hints of the original while become a stand alone work of art on its own. He is given credit in the series as the Bryan Ferry Orchestra. And they have recorded a couple of albums in the style of the Jazz Age.
Here again, I'm going to post 2 tracks. First is the popular Roxy Music track AVALON released in 1982 and sent back to the 1920's/30's for a complete imaginative rework. And below that DANCE AWAY from the 1979 album Manifesto. Enjoy.
Sting is probably one of the most often covered pop songwriters. Especially by jazz musicians. And FRAGILE is probably one of the most oft covered songs of Mr Sumners. Sting has always had a relationsihp with jazz. In fact his first couple of solo albums featured many jazz musicians that have come to to be seen as masters in their own right.
Here is a truly delightful cover of the FRAGILE by the Andrew McCormack Trio from 2022. I love how they start out as a smooth standard then break out in the improvisations touch base periodically on the melody. Really Enjoyable in my mind.
One type of music I've never imagined covered by a string quartet is techno/electronic. But here we have The world renowned Balanescu Quartet from their first album Possessed. They cover THE ROBOTS by electronic pop pioneers Kraftwerk originally from the album Mensch Machine (The Man Machine). On the Possessed album they also do a great job of covering AUTOBAHN, COMPUTER LOVE and THE MODEL and POCKET CALCULATOR also by Kraftwerk.
I decided to post a couple of experimental shots. Imperfect shots with little to no retouching. It is necessary to step outside ones comfort zone from time to time and just “wing it” with a shot that you may expect to throw away. That was certainly the case with both of these images. Like much of my work they came to me without me looking for them. I guess that’s sort of the “spiritual” nature of my photography in that I typically do not have a plan. I just go – camera in hand – and what happens, happens. I have never felt real comfortable with reflections (and yes I’ve posted some in the past – but not many). So reflections for me are more experimental in that they typically do not draw my attention. But as I suggested earlier its important to see what the “spirit” will reveal to you and your creative endeavors and that means sometimes it will reveal things to you that are outside your comfort zone – like reflections.
In the image on the Left I had taken my trash out early evening last fall and saw the postal carrier delivering mail to the cluster of mail boxes for my apartment complex. I decided to wait in my garage and then go pick up the mail. As I was waiting and milling about the garage I ended up leaning on the rear of car. I’ve seen this view “a thousand” times before but never thought anything about it. But as I stood there this time and began to think about it with my limited/hyper focused view it seemed a diptych of sorts and then it started to become interested as I started looking at the details. I went and got my camera and took a few shots. I still find it surprisingly interesting with the look out at the trees at the end of my driveway compared to the abstract reflection of the garage door opener and light off the rear window of the car. I thought about a square crop but it didn’t work as well for me. I liked the “weight” of the black at the bottom of the image in contrast to the lighter outdoor scene above. The only editing was a few minor tweaks to the lighting.
The second image was taken inside a car park in downtown Akron near the university. The office of the car park was dark and as I was driving toward the exit I found the view you see above. I like the angles, the deep dark shadows compared to the outside being reflected on the office glass. Like the first image I did very little editing. I tweaked the color saturation only minimally. The biggest change was the crop. I did a re-alignment and used a 16×9 crop to cut out the very bottom of the image that just seemed wasted space. I thought about taking out the very top part of the image also to let the window frame better frame the image but like the “garage” photo on the left I liked the “weight” which I feel helps add to the context of the place the photo was taken in. So for better-or-worse I left it alone. Maybe in the future I’ll think differently but I didn’t want to mess too much with it right now.
Hope you enjoyed reading a little about my thought processes for these two images.
****as is often the case when I post multiple images. If you click on one it will bring up a larger version that you can view….
I grew up in a safe environment. Everything was safe. The food was safe. Society was safe. School was safe. Home was safe. But as I got older I learned that it wasn’t safe it was just protected.
There are people who still want to live in their own comfortable “protected” worlds. But protection is a myth. A legend elders tell children. It does not exist. And insisting it does exist, does not make it so.
Further I suggest that propagating this delusion is more harmful than preparing for the facts. The truth. Example: Climate change deniers often use their arguments as an excuse to keep from preparing for the consequences of climate change and taking action to slow it’s impact. And now with the pandemic, humanities approach to disease belies their own unpreparedness. Death and sickness has become unacceptable (even though it is inevitable) So they wear masks, they fight over it, they try to shame those who are “awake” and not afraid. They want a safe world where things don’t change. The climate doesn’t change. People don’t get sick and die. The world doesn’t change. Everything is safe.
What does this have to do with difficult music/difficult listening?
Like the quote from William S Burroughs in the Laurie Anderson video,
“language is a virus from outer space.”
Difficult music challenges a listeners perception of the norm. It suggests there is something else we need to consider. It suggests that we look into the dark corners. Difficult music is to sound what abstract expressionism was/is to art. And most people who have abstract art work treat if more as wallpaper than as something that has something to say/contribute to the conversation of our times. And in music, people typically do not choose to engage it because it requires them to think about what they are listening to. It is often difficult if not impossible to just hang it on a wall as pretty wallpaper for the soul. Difficult music is often derided as messy, juvenile, scary, ugly, inaccessible (not conforming to any known genre parameters) and ultimately ignored. It is the red-headed stepchild of the music world.
But we can learn much from difficult music. It is not something to be afraid of. The shadows are not scary if you enter with a flashlight. It can teach us about ourselves in ways we haven’t considered or dared think about. But to encounter and engage difficult music one must be prepared and perhaps that is the problem with our “protected”, “safe” elders they are not prepared and they do not know how to prepare the younger generation for the facts and truth of existence.
So, do you want to explore difficult music? Don’t know where to start?
Step One: Turn off the radio and TV – they are notorious “taste makers” that would rather keep you safe than expose you to truth. There are many artists that have helped me in preparing for the real world. I started learning about many “difficult” artists just from reading the underground music press (back in the 1980’s) when popular music was experiencing an explosion of variety. But difficult music existed long before I started reading about it.
Here are some artists you can start with (in no particular order):
Laurie Anderson Public Enemy
Einsturzende Neubauten/Blixa Bargeld The Last Poets
Alva Noto Lustmord
Laibach Rapoon/Zoviet*France
Robert Fripp/King Crimson et al Ornette Coleman
Diamanda Galas Lester Bowie
Sun Ra Terry Riley
The Art Ensemble of Chicago Steve Reich
Philip Glass (early works) Markus Reuter
Robert Rich Scott Walker (after 1994)
Merzbow Cabaret Voltaire
Swans Nurse With Wound
Matana Roberts Godspeed You! Black Emperor
The above artists all have work available on Youtube so enjoy your excursion into difficult music. Maybe in the future I’ll write about some of the specific recordings. Again this is just an introduction to difficult listening. Maybe not what you want to listen to in these difficult times but the music does speak to the truth of the times we are experiencing.
I’ll start you off with this Nurse With Wound video for the song BOTTOM FEEDER
I been in a cave
For forty days
Only a spark
To light my way
I wanna give out
I wanna give in
This is our crime
This is our sin
But I still believe
I still believe
Through the pain
And through the grief
Through the lives
Through the storms
Through the cries
And through the wars
Oh, I still believe
Flat on my back
Out at sea
Hopin’ these waves
Don’t cover me
I’m turned and tossed
Upon the waves
When the darkness comes
I feel the grave
But I still believe
I still believe
Through the cold
And through the heat
Through the rain
And through the tears
Through the crowds
And through the cheers
Oh, I still believe
I’ll march this road
I’ll climb this hill
Upon on my knees
If I have to
I’ll take my place
Up on this stage
I’ll wait ’til the end of time
For you like everybody else
I’m out on my own
Walkin’ the streets
Look at the faces
That I meet
I feel like I
Like I want to go home
What do I feel
What do I know
But I still believe
I still believe
Through the shame
And through the grief
Through the heartache
Through the tears
Through the waiting
Through the years
For people like us
In places like this
We need all the hope
That we can get
Oh, I still believe
... on being and becoming ... 