Z: Music from a Zen Garden

And there I was, wondering what I was going to write for 'Z'. Oh me of little faith.

When I need to pause, not stop as such, just pause - this is the music that can help with that.

A Japanese bamboo flute and Japanese zither played with art and grace. There's little more than can be asked - or said.

Music to sit with. Sanctuary - Music from a Zen Garden.

Y: Yo-Yo Ma

It was inevitable. This choice for "Y", I mean. I'm very fond of the cello as an instrument. The baritone...tenor of the instrument is very appealing.

Then, of course, there's so much Bach for the cello, including the cello suites - unaccompanied, so the virtuosity of the composer, the instrument and the performer are all on display. And I am very fond of Bach.

Then, there's Yo-Yo Ma. a man for whom everything seems to be music, no music seems to be off limits and there also seems to be no music style beyond his ability.

I could fill this entry with images of Mr. Ma's discography - but I will content myself with two.

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone and Simply Baroque.

Enjoy.

X: Xuefei Yang

A Chinese performer of classical guitar, Xuefei Yang brings a different sensibility to the traditional guitar repertoire. Her performance of Rodrigo's Concierto De Aranjuez is gorgeous. Beautifully nuanced. She's also turned her hand, guitar, talent to transcribing some of Bach's harpsichord and violin concerti for guitar.

The results sit very well with this listener (confessing a love, both of Bach and classical guitar.)

Finally, to a China-inspired album of music - Si Ji (Four Seasons). Beautiful music, well-adapted to the guitar and played with grace and style.

W: Remembering Kate Wolf

Kate Wolf, a singer/songwriter, died of leukemia far too early. The songs on this album are all hers, sung by a range artists, many of them her friends. The songs are gorgeous. The singing beautiful. The emotion and heart in the lyrics are brought to the fore by the performances.

A personal favorite is "Here in California". The song contains the line: "And the hills go brown in the Summertime". And, in the Summer as I drive around, that song comes strongly to mind as I look at the sun-burnt hills around the Bay Area.

Truly, treasures left behind.

I had thought to make W refer to the Windham Hill "A Winter's Solstice" series. We have all of them, I believe. Good music, well performed. But, the above is quite special.

V: Tomás Luis de Victoria

In the latter part of the sixteenth century, Tomás Luis de Victoria was regarded as one of the most important composers in Spain. He spent time in Italy, Rome, but was allowed to return to Spain by the then king, Philip II.

Sacred works were his métier - no surprise given the times and the fact he was an ordained priest. Given our fondness for choral works (and the fact that the two of us are fond of 'older' music) it's no shock Victoria is among our collection. The album, "Motets" is a good exemplar of his work.

What, for me, is a surprise is that I don't count his "Lamentations of Jeremiah" among my collection. Usually anything with the word "Lamentations" in the title is a sure fit. That's just the way of things.

So, excuse me, I need to go buy a new CD.

U: U2

U2's Rattle And Hum album is a mix of studio and live performances, from a tour of the US. This is another CD that I find difficult to simply sit and listen to. It's the kind of music that makes you (or me) want to dance.

The largest problem? I can't. Dance, that is. Not to save my life. My Mother was most disappointed.

But I can sing - and I do.

The music, let alone the performances, is a mixture. "When Love Comes To Town" is sung with B.B. King. If you like blues - and how could you not? - this is a song you'll enjoy.

 The funny thing is, this is a song written by an Irish rock band. And it's a B.B. King song.

"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was on a previous album. But it was picked up by a Gospel Choir in Harlem - and what unfolds is pure magic. It doesn't hurt that I love gospel.

See here: What you're looking for.

T: Tall and Tan...

...and young and...

And if you're not humming already...but you are, aren't you?

The CD, Getz/Gilberto, is a feast for the senses. The song "The Girl From Ipanema" is only one of the delights. The performers include Stan Getz on saxophone, João Gilberto on guitar, Antonio Carlos Jobim on piano. These last two are credited with being among those who created Bossa Nova.

The song mentioned above is performed on the album by Astrud Gilberto, João Gilberto's wife.

With Fado, I wrote of Portuguese music. Now, to the Portuguese language, we add Brazilian rhythm.  Nothing finer.

S: Sugarland

Reading a Sunday paper, some time ago, I came upon a set of brief interviews with artists who felt their music video added to the song being performed. I was curious and turned to my computer, invoked the Google, cranked up the iTunes, and went searching.

Three of the videos I watched were complex, highly-produced affairs. Short-short movies, in effect. In truth, it was difficult to remember the song, given the complexity of the video.

And then there was "Stay". Jennifer Nettles said in the interview, if I remember rightly, that her Gran doesn't like to watch the video. She doesn't  like to see her granddaughter cry. It seems in the performance, while it is a performance, Ms. Nettles tapped into real emotion, and it spilled over (so to speak).

The video structure is very simple, just the two performers, but it packs a punch that...um...stays with you.

The other songs on the album aren't so emotional, least not in that way. But an enjoyable CD nonetheless.

R: Rachmaninov

The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by Rachmaninov is a major work in Russian Church music - a glorious piece of music. This recording, by the Kansas City Chorale, is astonishing and regarded as one of the great performances of this work.

We find it a wonderful way to begin a Sunday morning.

A long time ago I was on the periphery of a...discussion...as to whether a {insert your favorite classical composer} would be able to write anything as good as {insert your favorite classic rock composer/performer}. The contention on one side was that silly, simple melodies were easy but beneath the "masters". The opposing view held that to write something that caught the ear needed a talent beyond/not possessed by creators of "long hair music".

Given the hairstyles of many of the classic rock composers/singers, I've always been amused by such a description of classical music composers. But I digress.

Years later I discovered the connection between a song, "All By Myself" - a song of such melancholy that, of course it couldn't fail to appeal to me, and the 2nd. movement of Rachmaninov's 2nd. piano concerto.

The music for the verses of the song is directly from Rachmaninov's work - the very notes if I'm not mistaken.

So, the...discussion...is over. The answer is "Yes".

Q: Queen

Well, what else could it have been?

One of the classic rock bands, with one of the finer guitarists, Brian May, and one of the best front-men in the business, Freddie Mercury. The CD, Queen - Greatest Hits II is wonderful, full of the energy the band had.

Hearing Freddie Mercury sing "Who wants to live forever" is always tinged with melancholy for me, because he didn't. The song is also featured on the soundtrack of the movie, "Highlander". It fit well there too. And, the film echoes in the words to the song "It's a Kind of Magic" also - I mean, there can be only one, yes?

In addition to the CD, one of several I have, I also have the DVD of Queen's concert in Wembley Stadium in London. Thereon Freddie Mercury struts his stuff all over the stage. And could he ever strut! And did he ever have stuff to strut!

I may be a fan.

And then he sits at the piano for the opening of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and music pours forth. Such a talent.

P: Pink Floyd

"...the band is just fantastic, that is really what I think. Oh by the way, which one's Pink?..."

Ah, gotta love it. The above lyric is from the album, "Wish You Were Here" by Pink Floyd. The follow-up to "Dark Side of the Moon". The song is "Have A Cigar" and is scathing in its characterization of the record industry.

What can I say about this music that won't seem like a retread, or trite? Just listen to it. There's nothing like it.

Years ago, during my time working at Apple in Cupertino (name dropper, KjM!) I set one of the system sounds - the calendar alarm if I remember rightly, to a sound file named "Floyd Ping". It was the single, pure electric guitar note heard on the track "Shine On You Crazy Diamond" on "Wish You Were Here".

Just gorgeous.

O: The Origin of Fire

Capable women, doing things the world around them doesn't expect them to do. Not a modern concept.


In the 11th century, Hildegard of Bingen showed the world that its picture of women, the frame within which women might operate, was too small. A woman skilled in medicine, a musician, composer, an intellectual, a mystic, a leader. All in a time when women, and women in the Church, were less than their male counterparts.

Or so it was believed. Ah well, society can't be right all the time, I suppose.

"The Origin of Fire" is only one of the CDs we have of Hildegard's music. It's a CD I particularly like, possibly because of the inclusion of some Gregorian Chant - but then, I'm partial to that. As I am to the performers, Anonymous 4.

There's a very good movie, "Vision", that takes the viewer through the life of Hildegard von Bingen. It shows a very human person, but an extraordinary one for all that.

N: Sean Nós - Nua

Sean Nós - song, sung in the "old style". It's a traditional form of singing from Ireland. A capalla, for sure, with much vocal decoration.

Nua, means new. And Sinéad O'Connor takes a new look at some traditional Irish songs, ballads. The result can't really be called "Sean Nós", for the songs are accompanied by music, played by some of the finest musicians to be found. Nor is the characteristic vocal athleticism demonstrated by traditional Sean Nós singers in evidence.

And yet, and yet... There's an old flavor to Sinéad O'Connor's interpretation of the songs, some of which I remember from my childhood ("I'll tell me Ma" and "Báidín Fheilimí" - I'm looking at you two). We'd sing them in the car as, as a family, we went on drives through the Wicklow countryside south of Dublin.

And so, a "new" take on the "old style". Sean Nós - Nua.

M: Mannekrianna

Back in the day, the day being sometime in 2003, we watched "Breakfast with the Arts", a show on A&E hosted, at that time, by Elliott Forrest, a very talented and knowledgeable presenter and interviewer.

He was present at a performance by Mannekrianna, an improvisational piano duo, Marianna Rosett and Ken Bichel. They asked for themes, a set of them, and they then wove a piece of four-handed music right there and right then.

Sometimes it was like ping pong or badminton, as they traded musical phrases back and forth from piano to piano. Other times - waltzing, but trading the leader's role back and forth. I'd never heard anything like it before. And haven't since.

We found a CD of theirs and I'm glad I bought it. It doesn't seem to be available any longer. There does seem to be a download of the music available here.

L: The Children of Lir

An old Irish story, in the vein of the "evil stepmother" - in this case doubling as an evil aunt. Lir had four children but his wife died. He then married her sister, who grew jealous of the love her husband had for the children of his first wife.

She cursed them, changing them to swans and they were to spend 900 years, 300 at a time, in three different locations. Versions of the story tell how the children, after the 900 years, were changed back into human form at the sound of a bell from a christian church.

The image to the right is of the statue in the Garden of Remembrance in Dublin. The link to information about the image is here.

The "Children of Lir" by Patrick Cassidy is an oratorio in the style of Handel, at least to my ear. Have a listen to the track samples - and then go buy the CD. You won't be sorry.

K: Kothbiro

It seems we're back to films. Soundtracks anyway.

I own the CD of the soundtrack to the film, "The Constant Gardner". The film itself hurts, but that's what a good story, well told, should do - reach in and touch you.

And it does. The story ends well, but not everyone gets out alive. And the audience feels right along with the main character. Of course, it never hurts to have your main character played by Ralph Fiennes. :) Rachel Weisz is no slouch either.

If you do visit the Amazon page for the soundtrack - play the piece of track 13, Kothbiro, found there. It's one of the more atmospheric and poignant melodies I've ever heard.

J: Jorane

Jorane - a French-Canadian singer/cellist/songwriter I heard on the radio some year back. To begin with, I'm very fond of the cello. There's something about the tone of the instrument.

Jorane, however, manages to push, or gently entice, the cello out of its comfort zone. The results are wondrous.

I have only one of Jorane's CDs - partly because I rarely see her in stores. It's entirely possible I'm looking in all the wrong places. Her music is difficult to classify.

The CD I own is "the You and the Now". It seems, on Amazon, it's temporarily out of stock. If you click on the link and go to Amazon - check out Track 5. Not your traditional cello.

F: Fado, Fados

Fado, not "Fadó, fadó...", which in the language of the Irish (Gaelic) Storyteller means "Long, long ago..." or, more freely translated, "Once upon a time..."


No, Fado is a type or style of song from Portugal, and all parts of the world Portuguese. A style of which I have become fond. Well, there's a romantic element, a melancholy element. How could I not?

I first ran across the form in the film, Fados. A musical, of sorts. It's made up of a series of performances of Fado - including rap! The film is visually and musically stunning. And I became fascinated with the musical form.




A modern exemplar of it is Ana Moura. I missed her concert when she was here in San Francisco last year. But I do own the CD. And it makes for wonderful listening.





By the way, there's a belief that Fado, as a word, has something to do with Destiny - or Fate. And so, a tie-in with the A to Z "F" entry by Laura Eno - The Fates.

E: Enya

I became aware of Eyna (Eithne Brennan) with the release of her album "Watermark", back in the late 80s I believe it was. Sure, you couldn't turn around then without hearing "Orinoco Flow" coming at you from all directions.

And no bad thing, either. Most of the album appealed to me, with a special fondness for "Cursum Perficio" - because I'm fond of any form of singing in Latin, even if Enya's dense tracks and vocals are a far cry from Gregorian chant.

There are those who've said that one of Enya's albums sounds like any other. I don't agree. But music is a subjective business.

Enya is, of course, sister to another well-know Irish chanteuse, Máire Brennan of Clannad. Máire is also known as Moya - and now you see where "Enya" may have come from.

Clannad wrote theme music for a number of TV series. The theme for one of them, Harry's Game, reached the Top 5 in the British charts. For a song in Irish (Gaelic), that was quite an achievement. The series itself was highly-regarded, which helped, but the haunting music was what captured the listeners.

And still does.

I've gone so far as to have it as a ringtone on my phone. But, that's just me.

D: The Dubliners, Dubliners, The Dead

Full disclosure - I hail from Dublin. Ireland, that is. Baile Átha Cliath as it is in the Irish.

Some years ago, so I wouldn't forget my roots (unlikely, but he was ever a cautious man) my Dad sent me a CD of The Dubliners, 30 Years a Greying. A double CD set, packed with many, many memories. Included with the package was a note apologizing to my partner for what the sounds might do to our music system.

Ever the courteous man also.

If the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem resembled the Beatles (just go with it, OK?) in their impact on music and the introduction of a particular type to the US, The Dubliners always reminded me of the Rolling Stones. Edgier, a little less polished (well, "Seven Drunken Nights" was one of their popular songs - perhaps a lot less polished.)

But they had staying power. Some of the sounds on the double CD are a little more mellow than they once were - but they team up with The Pogues and also with Billy Connelly - so not all the edges are worn off.

And that put me in mind of another "Dubliners", that of James Joyce. A set of 15 short stories covering the lives of everyday men and women of Dublin, back in the day. I have the book, and it's a masterclass of the short-story form.

It's also fascinating, for me at least, as it paints pictures of a Dublin now gone. Still there, mind you, as I grew up, but much/most of it now vanished.

Cities, societies, need to move forward. Else they die, or become frozen in time and little more than tourist venues. For a city that celebrated 1,000 years of existence more than two decades ago, that would be a tragedy.

The last story in the volume is, perhaps, the most famous. The Dead. Famous for the movie, the last one if I remember rightly, by John Huston. And starring his daughter, Anjelica Huston. I remember, when I first saw this movie - and still do, thinking to myself, "I know these people."

Even though I wasn't born for another half century after the story's set, you could find these people still around about the city. Some things don't change.

Many years later, I saw it, become a musical, on stage in San Francisco. And it still had its power.

The movie also starred the late Frank Patterson, a very well known Irish lyric tenor - playing a tenor.