Meanwhile...

I know that what you really come here for are...

YouTube clips!

Howzabout George?

If the "helmet hair" era is not your thing, here is a young George:

And this:

Of course there are those who complain that there are no singers like him anymore. I disagree. Alan Jackson is, as far as I can tell, the heir to a great country music tradition. Here he is with George Jones:

And, finally, this is a great example of Jackson's voice:

Well, not really "finally." You can't do a country post without Hee Haw and Buck!

Maybe that will be the new format: All Hee Haw All The Time!

Of course, who doesn't love Loretta?

Benny Hill on Twang?

It is like hanging out at the bar with your old friends. One more and we'll all go:

Ursonate and You

Well, there is this thing that Mark Shea posted that is very funny, and it puts me in mind of a couple of other things, Kirt Schwitters' Ursonate being one of them.

While blogging will be light today, until later, I leave you this 21st century take on Schwitters:

If you object because you are a purist, then I will simply raise and eyebrow and say, "what, pray tell, is a dada purist?"

Although it would make a great band name: Juerg Volta and the Dada Purists.

Of course the best way to come up with a band name comes from the legendary Al Jazzbeaux Collins. I could not find any of his comedy material on YouTube, but I did find this footage of him talking to Lionel Hampton (and how can anyone complain about Lionel Hampton? And his band plays towards the end, with some great close up footage of Hampton):

We listened to the Purple Grotto every Saturday night, and have yet to find a weekly radio event that comes close (although Mal Sharpe's Back on Basin Street every Sunday night on KCSM comes close (and you can hear it online)).

Lute Backed Hurdy Gurdy?

What, pray tell, Mr. Keilholtz, is a "lute-backed hurdy-gurdy?" Is that the thing that the man with the monkey plays?

No! No! No! That is a barrel organ. The only thing it has in common with a hurdy gurdy is a handle. It only plays what has been pre-programmed, as it were, into it by means of pegs or loops that trigger notes much as a music box does.

A hurdy-gurdy is a string instrument that plays by means of a wheel scraping the strings. A keyboard stops the main melody string to make various notes, and one or more other strings play drones. When the hurdy-gurdyist moves the wheel a little fast, a special string that buzzes makes a sound. Hurdy-gurdies can be either diatonic or chromatic, and they can take a variety of basic forms.

One of the common way to make a hurdy-gurdy is to take a guitar or lute and use it as the body. Here we have a guitar-backed hurdy-gurdy:

If the hurdy-gurdy maker had used a lute to start with, it would have been a lute backed hurdy-gurdy (a very hot recording, turn down the volume first, as this is a bright instrument as well). Be sure to watch to the end, as it is a very good performance, and you have to see the musicians grin at the end:

There are other types of hurdy gurdies as well, like this Hungarian variant, which I posted to show that there are other types of hurdy gurdies, and that one does not need to be a guy in a beard to play the thing:

By now you are probably noticing something: yesterday (or the day before, I don't remember), it was bagpipes. Today hurdy gurdies. What is the connection? Hurdy gurdies sound like a hybrid between the fiddle and the bagpipe because of?

Yes. Drones. Keilholtz likes droning instruments.

First person to comment "that is why he drones on and on so" gets a fat lip.

And finally, enjoy this rather primitive, yet good sounding hurdy gurdy with a Russian tune:

Christmas Music!

Get in the Christmas Spirit with... bagpipes! Yes, the traditional Italian Christmas instrument (it makes sense. Think sheep, and it will all come together). This is a great clip:

Or, here is a shorter clip, but very well played:

And, last, but not least, Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Really:

Gamelan

This is a Balinese gamelan (as part of some instructional program):

It is a nice, scaled-down ensemble. For those who want the flash and dazzle of a large, virtuosic gamelan, we have to go no further than Berkeley, where Gamelan Sekar Jaya is the King of the metallophones. Here they are doing Margapati:

No, The Blog is Not Going to Be All YouTube All the Time

I know. It is like a kid with a new toy. I am like that, but it sometimes takes me decades to get over the new toy.

Since today is one of those days when a Major Feast trumps a Friday, I thought I would post a clip of Dizzy Gillespie doing "Hey Pete, Let's Eat More Meat!" Unfortunately that doesn't seem to exist, at least not on YouTube. But I did find this gem:

One last You Tube Clip...For Now

Uh-oh. On a lark, rather than doing the sensible thing of going to bed, I did a search for Dino Saluzzi on You Tube.

Enjoy!

It All Started With Russolo

I have been meaning to post this for awhile...

When we were discussion Stockhausen, I was going to link to some version of Edgard Varese's Poeme Electronique, which remains one of my all time favorite pieces of music. In fact, if any one piece can be credited as making me want to become a music major in college, it was this one. It still haunts me, and I listen to it fairly regularly (in fact it is one that has been on regular rotation in the iPod constantly since we got the thing). The film has some interesting moments, and I imagine that these images were spectacular when projected on the Phillips Pavilion, but it is not nearly as exciting as the music itself. The other piece that was played in the Pavilion regularly was Xennakis's Concret pH, but You Tube does not have a film with that on it.

So, take eight minutes out of your day, put on some headphones and enjoy:

And now from the other end of the country...

With St. Ambrose in the North, we have to achieve balance by looking to the South, and, guess what? Today is Louis Prima's 96th birthday. He was of Southern Italian ancestry (who came to the US via Argentina), and he was born and raised in New Orleans, so he is Southern all around.

So, with a Milanese Saint and a Sicilian sinner (isn't that a redundancy?), have a Wopalicious Day!

Enjoy the clips:

Don't miss this one:

And this is just an amazing relic of a past era, when you could smoke, sing, and pray at the dinner table on National TV! From the 1957 Dinah Shore Chevy Show, Prima has a bit part, but when he sings his two lines, you notice:

And, of course, you cannot have a tribute to Louis Prima without this (I would like to slap the editor who cut out most of Butera's solo):

Or this (probably my favorite of all these clips, and not just because of Keely Smith's reaction):

Speaking of Keely's reaction to Louis:

Of course Prima also wrote this:

And, finally, the bit of Primiana that absolutely everyone knows:

Laurie Anderson

The song "O Superman" is one of my all time favorites. The video is just icing on the cake...

Cocktails...and Jazz.

To go with your martinis, might I suggest some Monk?

Or this one...

Ah, but you are feeling blue, perhaps... (I love this recording)