Giving birth to Janis Joplin

So great was her voice that even for those who lack any knowledge in Jazz or blues have come to hear her voice or at least her name while passing by a music store. That woman of long brown hair, small face, mischievous smile and enchanting eyes behind a pair of sunglasses caught my attention a pair of years ago. With curiosity as my sin, I tipped in youtube her name and became lost in her sultry voice.

She was born in January 19, 1943 in Texas. She was what nowadays an outcast for her strong beliefs against racism, took a liking to music probably from her own mother at the age of sixteen. I’d like to say she was an example setter for new generations, but I would be lying, she was just like any other teenager growing up looking for attention;She began singing in the local choir and expanded her listening to blues singers such as Odetta, Billie Holiday and Big Mama Thornton.

She found peace in Jazz, blues voices that rang from previous generations, and so she decided to become a singer in local bars. She gained a lot of weight still at school, and well kids can be cruel. She was taunted, mocked, pretty much bullied just because she didn’t go along with standards of society back in 1950’s.

She went to college but again didn’t fit as the rest, she was just being herself and for the rest it seemed like chaotic and something to be shunned about. She didn’t end her superior education because of her drug use and alcohol, weighting once 35k. Her friends decided to help her get cleaned and start over, starting with her moving back to Texas where she tried to become normal, she went back to school to study sociology, met a man who she started to date and was supposed to ask her hand in marriage but it turned out to be someone who wasn’t worth of her time and tired of waiting for him, she left for San Francisco where she started playing music and being herself. She joined the Big Brother and the holding company whom with she started her music career and became the legend we know…Janis Joplin

This video is actually from her first performance with The Big Brother and Holding Company, she gave the lucky audience a show to remember and talk to future generations.

 

Janis Jopling was truly a normal woman with an exceptional voice that lets you know that she has fallen and learned how to stand up on her own, a voice that tells of laugher, of tears, of love, of grieve but overall is a voice that has lived to its fullest.

David Liebman: To jazz for another year!

Happy Birthday David Liebman!!!

 

 

While checking another jazz blog( Noticias jazz) I came across this amazing saxophonist, who was turning 65 years, and couldn’t help but to keep looking more for his music.

When asked how he feels when playing he said:

“  For those moments when I (as a horn player) am playing in front of a good rhythm section, I am simply “the king of the world”–everything is perfect!! One is in complete control; you can do whatever you want within that space inhabited at the moment. You are truly the master of the universe…not the cliché.. the real deal! Getting to that place takes years of experience and observing those who are ahead of you on-line. There is a confidence, an unseen swagger, an assertiveness (even if the music is gentle). It’s so good that all you want is to repeat it… like a junkie…hooked forever.”

To be playing for almost 40 years, and be able to say those words, one cannot help but to feel a bit jealous. Indeed, he deserves all the prices given and those to come. His ever-changing and adapting to the music evolution always adding his own personal touch to every piece he plays, tell how much of a fighter he is.

Besides being a great performer, he has also managed to keep the jazz alive by teaching it to other generations ( you can actually see how much he cares, only by clicking on his official web page). A man to admire, and paradigm to follow. No need for more words, only listening his saxophone breath is enough.

 

David Liebman’s official page

Bernt Moen: a mystery to discover

Though I am a bit sick, I tried looking up for some good jazz to make me feel better, if not at least I would enjoy resting in bed from the flu and not be bored out of my mind. However,I was not disappointed for my decision, when I found a nice modern jazz pice by someone I haven’t heard off before. Bernt Moen. As far as my research goes, he is a norwegian Jazz pianist and composer working as an assistant teacher at UIA, he just released a couple of songs – To be precise, today was his album release-He is probably going to give us more of his music to enjoy soon, otherwise I will have to agree completely with those who say our generation is degenerated and can’t appreciate good music anymore . I looks forward hearing more from him! Hope you share my opinion after hearing this:

 

 

 

Good luck Moen!

Ps. Check this out to support him!

Madeleine Peyroux: Half the Perfect World

Isn’t that how we see our own worlds, always longing for a bit more? But do we need perfection? I Think that would be terribly boring. That’s what in my humble opinion Madeleine tries to say in this album, why not enjoy the present instead of waiting for the future.

She is more of a street musician who loves to play for the people and create from her learnings of her surroundings, being a much . Her smoky voice just seems to caught you off guard to do not let you go.I can almost picture myself walking off the beaten path in Paris and listening her sing from nowhere as if it was quiet normal, when she could be standing in front of millions. The way she feeds on her audience and their response just makes her shine. She just seems to live for her music and nothing else…

Now in her latest thirties- Not so polite to ask a girl her age, XD- She  as four albums: Dreamland, Careless love, Half the perfect world, Bare Bones and the latest one Standing on the rooftop and plays with her soul.

 She does has that it factor that makes you listen as the great Billie Holiday did…

Madeleine Peyroux\’s official web page

Honey boy Edwards, may the blues be with you

A bit about him

I wish sometime to had been born when the blues still rang in the air, and you couldnt’ see a notch in the heavy smoke that clung in the clubs. The suddenly awakening to an other new world and nothing else…I guess that was David Edwards pride. To be the last one to go of a great generation of amazing blues players, playing ’till death caught up and had to rest, he was damn right to say “Blues ain’t going nowhere”. Amen to that.

Incredible man, until the end. of a great generation of amazing blues players

Maybe there is no yesterday…

Well rather than being too high or too low, I haven’t been able to feel at all. I was rather just trying to be nice and to get along with yesterday. A friend came by and I had just forgotten how much of a sweet talker she was…XD. Yeah, girls do have a poisonius and dangerous tongue under their will – shrudders-, but the problem comes when they don’t want to admit it. I though of strangling her, but then I remembered that I still cared for her and she was just messing with me for not having visited her, so maybe I did have an input in her evil weeves.
Anyways, I knew I did wrong by not going to see her, but sometimes I actually think of her and feel like I’m already with her, no need for time nor space.
As usual jazz has its own ivy capable way of describing my friendship with her, no matter how far you let go it never seems to die. This song is called: “I Though of you” by the one and only Frank Sinatra.

                      

I Thought About You
Miles Davis, Frank Sinatra
I took a trip on a train and I thought about you.
I passed a shadowy lane and I thought about you.
Two or three cars parked under the stars a winding stream.
Moon shining down on some little town
And with each beam the same old dream.

And every stop that we made I thought about you.
And when I pulled down the shade then I really felt blue.
I peaked through the crack and looked at the track,
The one going back to you and what did I do?
I thought about you.

There were two or three cars parked under the stars…
a windin’ stream.
Moon shining down on some little town
And with each beam the same old dream.

And then I peaked through the crack and I looked at that track,
The one going back to you, and what did I do…
I thought about you

 

Hello world!

“Jazz washes  away the dust of everyday life”

-Art Blackey-

 Do you remember those huge vynil disks that grandpa used to have and the ever amazing turntable that exploded with life in endless simphonies and melodies that now are engraved in our childhood memories, where grandpa’s house suddenly turned cozy and not so scary because even he started smiling at the sound of the trumpets and bass, probably remembering when he used to be young.

The music world is so diverse in genders nowadays and through history itself, creating, changing and evolving. One of those genders that actually seemed to rock the world was the jazz. It is imposible to try and define what that silly word can mean; however that doesn’t mean I won’t try…

The jazz has certaing magic on its own accord. It is to improvise, is a kind of art that became a huge revolution during 1914’s, where the native american music, african music and european symphonies came together to create a unique melody that bonded all of them. It is a melody that constantly changes and evolves under its own rules, but that sprouts roots on those who take the time to listen to it, it’s about life itself. The hardest kind of uniqueness, because none can copy it, just feel it…

-En español-

Recuerdan aquellos discos vinilos de la casa del abuelo y esos grandes tocadiscos que solían explotar en vida con un sinfín de sinfonías y melodías que ahora  rebotan entre las paredes de su niñez mientras .Memorias en el que el ambiente se tornaba cálido bajo una corneta o una voz dulce a la cual no podían mas que escuchar embelesados hasta que terminase y luego vendría el abuelo de buen humor, probablemente recordando sus años mozos y todo lo que esa música represento en su juventud

La música es tan diversa en géneros tanto actuales como aquellos que generaron la música que ahora disfrutamos. Uno de estos géneros que cambiaron la historia fue el jazz. Una definición de lo que el jazz es? Imposible. Sin embargo eso no significa que no vaya a tratar…

Su magia es de un arte improvisado revolucionario para los años 1914, donde la música autóctona americana, africana y europea se mezclaron para crear una melodía que los uniese a todos. Es una melodía de constante cambio y evolución con sus propias reglas, pero que se arraiga en aquellos dispuestos a escucharla y trata de la vida. Es el individualismo mas duro, pues no se copia, simplemente se siente.

( El video es parte de una serie documental sobre los orígenes del jazz)