We are so busy with our lives; we often forget what’s important. We forget the need to get quiet and just get present with the moment; Or the need to reflect and celebrate and live in the moment; Or the need to just dance in the moment.
Help me to help you find this thoughtful place, at least once a week.
Join me on this journey!
It is hard to believe that Lyle Mays has been dead now for more than a year. Equally hard to believe this video was made 28 years ago, when The Pat Metheny Group was it its heyday.
This song feels like you are floating, or flying, due to its unusual 11/4 time signature (6+5).
Lyle Mays' piano solo starting at 4:30 is nothing short of magical.
With Spring on the wing, and the United States opening up from the hard times of the pandemic, this music gives me a breath of hope for the future.
Pat Metheny Group: Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Paul Wertico, Steve Rodby, Pedro Aznar, Armando Marcal.
I just need a minute of silence, and then some music for ear cleansing.
This Musical Moment is a tribute to my dear friend Eddie Glickman, may he rest in peace. Eddie was a dancer, a choreographer, a singer and musician and a fellow mortgage broker. He loved A Capella singing, and would often travel to A Capella conventions. Here is a group he might have heard, Kings Return, from Arlington Texas. They have made a little career, singing A Capella arrangements in the stairwell of their church.
This video was recorded in July 2020. Their path to success was sidetracked by COVID-19.
James Emory McKissic, the group’s founding member known simply as “JE,” tested positive on Dec. 3. The 40-year-old has six children and says the virus spread throughout his family. He suffered from congestion, fatigue, headaches, a fever, achiness, watery eyes and a “brain fog” that he says made his thoughts “slow.”
A month later, McKissic had recovered and his voice was unaffected. But plans for a rehearsal were scrapped when another member, Vaughn Faison, revealed that he was waiting on test results after having symptoms. He tested positive for COVID-19 later that day, on Jan. 5, after visiting family in New York for the holidays.
Now they hope to be able to record a new album this Spring. “When the vaccine is available, we will all be taking it,” McKissic says. “We have to be able to rehearse and travel with a clear mind, without worrying about getting sick. But we can’t complain about what happened. We’ve had a lot of success, and our journey is not completely written. What the future holds for us is up to God. We just have to be a little smarter and safer.”
I am still trying to get over the death of Chick Corea in February. The gigantic legacy he left of recorded music, as well as live performances, will luckily be with us forever. The more I dig into his catalog, the more I find.
If you have 20 minutes to spare, I would recommend hanging out with Chick and his musical partner Gary Burton at this Tiny Desk Concert from 2016. These friends first played together 44 years ago, when they recorded their very first album, Crystal Silence. In his autobiography, Gary Burton tells the story: "We set aside three days for the recording. ... we figured we would need a fair amount of time to choose songs and finalize arrangements. But to our amazement, it all went incredibly fast. We would spend maybe twenty minutes creating an arrangement, and then record. We did every song in just one take, except that we required a second spin through 'Senor Mouse'." The record was finished in just a few hours, and the two realized they had a unique musical chemistry with the ability to anticipate each other's improvisational ideas. That album went on to become a classic: flawless yet fresh and forever new. https://youtu.be/15IHNYq6stw
Or for a shorter hit of amazing talent, check out Chick with John Patituchi on bass and Dave Weckl on drums, playing Round Midnight in 1991, 20 years ago.
Playing For Change is an organization that has been around for years. It started as a bunch of street musicians, "playing for change" and now it is a worldwide force creating international videos that show the power and universality of music
This video, featuring Peter Gabriel on vocals and Yo-Yo Ma on cello, was released in February as part of a fundraising effort to raise $50,000 for "Peace Through Music - A Global Event for Social Justice". The fundraiser runs through the end of April.
Way before COVID sent everyone scurrying to their h9ome studios, Playing For Change has been creating these compelling videos that really show the power of music, and how we a humans on this earth are all connected by this one universal language. More than 25 musicians from seven countries join Gabriel for this global rendition of a song he wrote 40 years ago! They join together to share a message of unity, peace, and hope, including Beninese vocalist and activist Angélique Kidjo, Silkroad’s Yo-Yo Ma, and bass legend Meshell Ndegeocello. Enjoy!
I usually try to keep the musical moment brief, but this week I am asking you to take a little trip with me.
John Adams wrote this quirky, fun piece thirty six years ago, when the idea of writing something melodic was extremely out-of-style for modern contemporary music. The piece has more than stood the test of time - it has grown in stature from the first performance in New York where the audience booed to become a standard-bearer of late 20th Century music.
This OUTSTANDING performance by members of the Los Angeles Phil was recorded recently on the stage of the Hollywood Bowl, and it is a wonderful document of COVID-time, with the musicians in separate plastic cubicles, and the pianists wearing masks. It all somehow adds to the other-worldly quality of the music. WARNING: it is 33 minutes long, but it is worth the trip. You can catch John Adams' dream of dueling concert grand pianos barreling down Interstate 5 if you watch closely.
