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Music

Seconds of Pleasure

March 26, 2019

In a previous post called, “Favorite Means Favorite”, I wrote this about Lizz Wright, my favorite singer:

“There are great singers everywhere, vying for my (or any potential fan’s) attention. They get my attention, sometimes, temporarily. But no one tugs at my heart strings or resonates with my musical taste and sensibility like Lizz Wright.

For example, she does a cover of Nina Simone’s song called, “Seems I’m Never Tired Loving You”. It’s my current favorite.

It’s a simple but beautiful song about unconditional love between two people. But in her arrangement, Lizz added church-style piano and a choir, which makes it sound like a Gospel song, adding a second underlying theme of unconditional love between God and humanity. The lyrics are neutral enough to easily be read or viewed either way.

I don’t know if she intended to create that effect or if I just see it that way. But, nevertheless, the arrangement adds an extra dimension to the feeling of the song, and I think that was intentional. And it’s congruent with something she said in an interview I heard once, where she was talking about the act of balancing between the sensual (our humanity) and the sacred (our spirituality). So I think she did manage to balance both, within the song, by conceiving and doing that arrangement.

To me, her music is the kind I don’t want to just play in the background. It’s the kind I want to just sit and listen to, closely, without any interruptions. That’s why traveling to see and hear her sing means so much to me. To just sit and listen to her is a privilege, joy and honor.

It’s all in the details. The song. The musicians. The mixing. The arrangement. Her inimitable style of singing. The way she crescendos or decrescendos. The way she holds a strong vibrant note and then turns it into a whisper. The way she breaks her voice at the right moment, etc. I could go on and on.

It’s discovering these little things that she does in the song, that always seems to fit perfectly at the right time and in the right place in the song, that bring moments of joy, pleasure and awe, to me. These moments only last for seconds, in the song, but they stand out and illuminate her genius.

There’s an artistic energy and restlessness inside her which produces these fabulous results.

All these things are why I prefer her over others.”

Health and Wellness, Music, Travel/Adventure

Let Them Talk in Vancouver, B.C.

February 3, 2019

(The photo above was taken in Vancouver, B.C., in front of the basketball courts at David Lam Park with a view toward False Creek.)

“Let Them Talk”

From the title of this post, you might have thought I was going to write about some juicy gossip or start a rumor. But I don’t do rumors or gossip.

This is about a weekend trip I took to Vancouver, British Columbia, and about a song called, “Let Them Talk”, which I heard for the first time about three weeks ago.

Health and Wellness, Music, Photography, Travel/Adventure

Sound Bytes (Intro)

December 19, 2018

The Puget Sound is an exceptionally beautiful area around Seattle.

Viewing it with the naked eye, or in this case, viewing it with my eyes “clothes’d” (meaning covered by my eyelids…not naked….”clothes’d”) for lack of a better picture 😩, hyper activates my senses.

I can See the Sound, Smell the Sound, Hear the Sound, and Hear the See…..well, the Sea. 😁

creativity, Music

For The Love Of It

December 17, 2018

All my life I’ve enjoyed learning and I’ve tried to do things to the best of my ability. I do a few things pretty well that I’m kind of proud of:

I learned to play guitar and read music. I like to sing, make harmonies and write songs. I also have a great appreciation for listening to music.

I’m athletic. In High School, I high jumped six feet at a State Meet in Missouri during my Junior year. I played basketball and I was a left half back on the football team and we won the Championship that year.

I embrace and enjoy learning about other cultures and customs during my travels to different parts of the world. I lived in South Korea for 12 years. I learned to read, write and speak Korean. While I was there, I sang Korean songs on all of the Korean TV stations and two of the Korean radio stations. I also traveled throughout Korea.

I have three college degrees.

I write these posts about things that interest me the most.

I enjoy photography.

And last, but not least, I’m a father of three very special sons.

I’m pretty good at a lot of things but I’m not great at any of them. And I don’t know if that’s because I never tried hard enough, or I wasn’t motivated enough, or I simply am not talented enough to be great at one or more things.

But what I think is more accurate to say here is that I am as good at these things as I want to be.

Health and Wellness, Music

Autumn Leaves Revisited

November 5, 2018

Early this morning, while it was still dark, I backed out of my “parkway” (it makes more sense than calling it a “driveway”, right?), paused for a moment to sip some coffee and listen to the song on the radio that was just ending, and then as if to signal to the radio DJ that the “audience” (me) was ready and he could start up the next song, I put it in drive and slowly headed down the road to go to work.

Then after a few seconds of silence, a beautiful guitar chord progression started to play and I soon realized it was the song Autumn Leaves.

That got my attention.

I just wrote a post called “Autumn Leaves” on October 7. At the end of that post, you can listen to Lisa Simone sing her version of “Autumn Leaves”.

The lady singing the song this morning, on the radio, sounded a lot like Lisa so I thought it might be Lisa doing a different version than the one she is singing in my previous post.

So, later on, I searched the playlist on KNKX, the local NPR station I was listening to, to see if it was Lisa who was singing.

Turns out it was a woman named Eva Cassidy. I had never heard of her before. So I googled her and down the “youtube rabbit hole” I went.

This is her version of “Autumn Leaves”. I think it is an equally beautiful version of the song.

As I listened to her version, I noticed another youtube video of “The story of Eva Cassidy”, which was produced by ABC Nightline. So I listened to it.

Her story was interesting but sad. She died at 33 from cancer, before she ever became popular or knew fame.

The people who appeared in the Nightline documentary who knew her and talked about her said she was shy and afraid of what fame might do to her. That she loved to sing any genre as long as she liked the music and the lyrics and she connected with the song. They also said when they listened to her they were blown away by her voice and raw talent, without the need for any fluff or gimmicks. That she had a mellow voice and that she was very melodic when she strayed away from the melody and came back to it. That she was stylistic in her own way. And not willing to change herself for the music execs to be what they wanted her to be. She remained true to herself. She was eclectic and sang blues, folk, pop, soul, rock, jazz and gospel.

As I was listening to all of them talking about Eva, it seemed like they could have been talking about Lizz Wright. There are many similarities between the two. And although I wasn’t blown away by Eva, I do like Eva’s voice and style of singing too.

But for me, no one will ever top Lizz. I was blown away by Lizz when I first heard her sing “Reaching For The Moon”. She’ll always be my favorite.

So now it is evening. I finished work and came back home. And as I write this, I think about serendipity again.

The leaves are still falling all around here in Seattle. And I’m still loving the Fall and wishing it were longer. The fiery brilliance of all those leaves at their peak, stir up passion and warmth in me, and in all of us, I think.

It was 330 a.m. when I slowly pulled away from the house and the beautiful guitar chord progression grabbed my attention. Then, to my delight it was a cool version of Autumn Leaves. How did they happen to play that song on the radio, at just the right time of the morning, when I had just got into my car? Also, I usually listen to Lizz’s music when I go to work. But this morning I didn’t. Serendipitous? I think so.

Special Treat For You From The Youtube Rabbit Hole

I’d like to end this post with a beautiful, audio-visual collage of “Autumn Leaves”.

It’s Fall at its finest with Eva’s version of Autumn Leaves playing in the background.

It’s brought to you by David Borg, Eva Cassidy, and me.

I never get tired of Autumn Leaves-both, the song and Nature’s fiery brilliance.

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