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Tag: Wynton Marsalis

  • Unlikely collaborations…

    Unlikely collaborations…

    Every day, I run across something that reminds me that unlikely collaborations can lead to amazing creations…

    I was home alone last night. My husband, Bill, was on his way home from New York City, where he attended a job interview. The interview seemed to go well; we should know the outcome within the next week or so. Anyway, as is my habit, I was trying not to drink alcohol while he was gone. I think it’s a good practice not to and a good exercise in self-discipline. I lasted until about 8:00pm, then cracked open a beer. Bill was on his way home, after all. Oftentimes, when I start drinking beer, I get to a point at which I want to listen to music. That’s what happened last night. I realized that my music collection has quite a few unlikely collaborations in it. You know, music that was made by people you wouldn’t expect to get together…

    I kind of touched on this theme last week, when I wrote my post about oddly awesome covers. Maybe, once I listened to it, it wasn’t a huge stretch for Ricky Skaggs to make a record with Bruce Hornsby… though on the surface, it seems like their collaborations would be unlikely. As I was listening last night, I ran across some other unlikely collaborations. Texas legend Willie Nelson is pretty good for this practice. A few years ago, he made an album with Wynton Marsalis, famed jazz trumpeter.


    “My Bucket’s Got A Hole In It” is one of my favorite tracks from the unlikely collaboration of Wynton Marsalis and Willie Nelson. This was on their album, Two Men With The Blues.

    I ran across a very cool song Willie Nelson did with Santana back in the 1980s…


    I found this unlikely collaboration a few years ago, when I decided to download some Santana. It works.

    The great opera star Pavorotti had a very successful album series in the early 90s. He got together with rock stars like Sting, Bryan Adams, and even Barry White…


    Sting and Pavorotti


    Pavorotti and Barry White??? Wow… I wouldn’t have put them together.

    A few days ago, I read a very interesting article about funny country-alt singer and author Todd Snider. I own a few Todd Snider albums, having discovered his hilarious song “Beer Run”. I wouldn’t imagine he’d want to collaborate with a singer like Garth Brooks. But wouldn’t you know it? The “Friends In Low Places” country star sure enough wanted to cover one of Todd Snider’s songs. Garth Brooks was interested in recording Snider’s “Alright Guy” for his 1999 album, In the Life of Chris Gaines and even wanted Snider to play guitar on the project. It turned out Brooks didn’t end up putting the song on his album because his mother objected to the subject matter. But still, it’s a pretty cool story about two seemingly unrelated artists getting together to create something different.


    Todd Snider plays “Alright Guy” live.

    A few years ago, Emmylou Harris got together with Mark Knopfler and they made a fine album.


    Here they sing “Done With Bonaparte”… I love this!

    One might wonder why a country folk singer would hook up with a legendary rock guitarist like Mark Knopfler, who was the front man for Dire Straits for years and brought us songs like “Money For Nothing” and “Walk of Life”. But they blend pretty damn well, I think… kind of like Alison Krauss and Robert Plant.


    Alison Krauss and Robert Plant get together on a cover of “Black Dog”…

    I remember when I first heard about Alison Krauss and Robert Plant teaming up. It seemed like an unlikely collaboration, but their 2007 album Raising Sand was a huge success. I started thinking about other people I’d love to hear Alison Krauss play with… like Mark Knopfler! Why not?

    Music is a universal language and like any art, it can be expanded and shaped into new and unusual directions. I love finding unlikely collaborations among musicians I admire.

  • Chart Chat 7/20/08: ABBA/”Mamma Mia”, Natasha Bedingfield & More!!!

    The soundtrack to the motion picture \"Mamma Mia\".

    After taking a break to look at the mid-year charts, we’re back on our weekly grind. Here are this week’s Top 20 singles and albums, as compiled by the good folks at Billboard magazine.

      Top 20 Albums

    1) “Tha Carter III” -Li’l Wayne
    2) “Viva La Vida or Death & All His Friends” Coldplay
    3) “Camp Rock Soundtrack” Various Artists
    4) “Modern Guilt” Beck
    5) “Rock & Roll Jesus” Kid Rock
    6) “Now That’s What I Call Music Vol. 28” Various Artists
    7) “Mamma Mia Soundtrack” Various Artists
    8) “Good Girl Gone Bad” Rihanna
    9) “T.O.S. (Terminate on Sight)” G-Unit
    10) “Where the Light Is: John Mayer Live in Los Angeles” John Mayer
    11) “Here I Stand” Usher
    12) “One of the Boys” Katy Perry
    13) “Indestructible” Disturbed
    14) “Taylor Swift” Taylor Swift
    15) “Spirit” Leona Lewis
    16) “Last 2 Walk” Three Six Mafia
    17) “Definition of Real” Plies
    18) “Revelation” Journey
    19) “3 Doors Down” 3 Doors Down
    20) “Two Men with the Blues” Wynton Marsalis & Willie Nelson

      Top 20 Singles:

    1) “I Kissed a Girl” Katy Perry
    2) “Take a Bow” Rihanna
    3) “Lollipop” Li’l Wayne feat. Static Major
    4) “Bleeding Love” Leona Lewis
    5) “Forever” Chris Brown
    6) “Pocketful of Sunshine” Natasha Bedingfield
    7) “Viva La Vida” Coldplay
    8) “A Milli” Lil’ Wayne
    9) “7 Things” Miley Cyrus
    10) “Bust it Baby Pt. 2” Plies feat. Ne-Yo
    11) “Leavin’” Jesse McCartney
    12) “When I Grow Up” The Pussycat Dolls
    13) “Burnin’ Up” Jonas Brothers
    14) “Dangerous” Kardinal Offishal feat. Akon
    15) “Disturbia” Rihanna
    16) “Shake It” Metro Station
    17) “Closer” Ne-Yo
    18) “Get Like Me” David Banner feat. Chris Brown
    19) “Lolli Lolli (Pop That Body)” Three Six Mafia feat. Project Pat, Young D & Superpower
    20) “I Luv Your Girl” The-Dream

    *Geez, looking at hip-hop’s presence on this week’s singles chart almost makes me ashamed to be a fan of rap music!

    *Speaking of the Top 20 singles, it’s obvious from looking at it that there are very clear ways to get yourself a hit single in summer 2008:

    1) Be a hot chick (or a group of hot chicks, in the case of PCD).
    2) Be Chris Brown or Date Chris Brown (the Brown/Rihanna axis is responsible for 1/5 of this week’s Top 20 singles chart)
    3) Be a terrible rapper, be a mediocre rapper with a lot of hype and charisma (Lil’ Wayne) or be an articulate, political emcee and sell your ass for a hit single (David Banner)
    4) Be Ne-Yo (who has two entries as an artist and also co-wrote Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” at #2.
    5) Have a Disney channel tie-in (Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers are joined by former teen titan Jesse McCartney).

    *Geez, that top 20 singles chart makes you appreciate Coldplay all the more, huh? Is this really what radio plays these days? (I’ll admit that I haven’t listened to a Top 40 radio station in literally five years if not more).

    *Wynton Marsalis scores his highest chart entry ever and Weeded Out Willie lands in the Top 20 for the first time since the Reagan administration. Let’s hear it for odd collaborations!!

    *Who green-lit a movie based on a Broadway play featuring the music of ABBA? Seriously??!?! And Meryl Fucking Streep is in this movie!! If we do a Duran Duran musical, do you think we can get Dame Judi Dench?

    *Hey, I don’t hate ABBA. After all, Swedes have a knack for great pop music. Plus, ABBA lend themselves well to covers, as this Erasure cover from my high school years will attest to.

    *Think Fiddy has trashed his record company’s offices yet? I wonder what publicity stunt he’ll plan for his *next* album?

    *Natasha Bedingfield has somehow finagled herself into a long-running Top 10 hit with “Pocketful of Sunshine” (a song I’m admittedly lukewarm about), and her album of the same name darts back into the Top 40 six months after it’s release, approaching Gold status. Hmm. Who’d have thunk?

    *Also on the “he’s hanging in there better than I thought he would”, Jason Mraz. His third effort, “We Sing, We Dance, We Steal Things” has hung around the Top 30 for 9 weeks now and is on pace to outsell his previous effort, “Aren’t I Just A Little Full of Myself” “Mr. A-Z”. “I’m Yours” is a cool little summer song, too.

    *Finally, check out that Beck album. You won’t be disappointed.

  • New Music In Stores & Online: 7/8/08: Beck, Yaz, Billy Joel & More!!

    Looks like the dog days of summer have arrived early, because there are very few releases of note this week. Let’s jump right into it.

    Beck's Modern Guilt

    Beck-Modern Guilt: Beck switches it up on his first album in two years, installing Danger Mouse (Gnarls Barkley) into the producer’s chair. On paper, the two seem like a perfect fit, and the album has gotten pretty good advance notice. Then again, do you remember any Beck album that didn’t get good reviews? Critically, he’s as much of a sure bet as any artist out there.

    http://www.modernguilt.com/

    Alison Moyet-The Turn/Yaz-In Your Room: Our very own Paul wrote a column a couple of weeks back on British synth-pop duo Yaz and their return to the concert stage a quarter-century after their split. In order to commemorate that tour, we have “In Your Room”, an exhaustive box set containing basically every note the two played and sung together. Yaz’s vocalist, Alison Moyet, also sees the U.S. release of her latest album, “The Turn”, which was released in the U.K. last October.


    Billy Joel-“The Stranger: Legacy Edition”: “The Stranger”‘s probably Billy Joel’s best-loved album, with hits like “Only the Good Die Young”, “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)”, the title track, and “Just the Way You Are”. This thirtieth anniversary edition of the hit album is remastered and comes in two versions: one adds a second disc from a Carnegie Hall concert, while another includes the concert and a DVD from the old British musical variety show “The Old Grey Whistle Test”.

    Home

    Um…after that? Crickets, pretty much. Strokes frontman Albert Hammond Jr. releases his second solo album, entitled “Como Te Llama?”, and there are a couple of interesting collaborative efforts out today: one from Willie Nelson & Wynton Marsalis (there’s a joke in there somewhere that I can’t quite figure out), and the other from Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Patti Smith and My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields. “Country Sings Disney” finds the likes of Tim McGraw, Rascal Flatts and Brad Paisley tackling some of the Mouse’s favorite songs, while in the “curiosities” section, there’s a new album from Devin Lima of former C-List boy banders LFO. Yay!!

    Enjoy that Beck CD!!

    A full list of releases can be found here: http://www.pauseandplay.com/cdfront.htm