Alternate history artyfact

Write-up day today, audio next week.

 

Starting to fool around with this stuff.

 

Seasonal Decor

Ok, let's get our decorations up.  Has anyone seen the plywood Santa?  

 

It doesn't rate a Sunday post because it's not new, but Open AI's version of Frank Sinatra, crooning a holiday hello, is the sort of Firestone Tires Songs of Christmas we like around here.  I especially dig the arrangements-- Nelson and the boys were really toasted.  A Christmas Song of Childhood Dreams.

 

Open AI: In the Style of Frank Sinatra (3:09) 

 

And for an antidote to all the musical cheer that's about to be inflicted on us, I recommend Les Wilson, who sings, as someone once said, like a tone-deaf person listening to music on headphones.  

 

Les Wilson: Deck the Halls (1:14)

 

We may continue to drop bizarre holiday music in here during the month.  

One Man

 

The problem with the Unitary Executive theory.

Play (2:08) 

Alexander Tsfasman, "The Guy From the South"

 

Here at last is a song about some guy.  

I was listening to a collection of Soviet jazz on Youtube, and found this unexpectedly Hot Jazz, with very little info.  

 

The subject of the song, a "man from the South", who's identified by "a big cigar in his mouth",  was totally irrelevant to the combo, who combined the styles of Raymond Scott, Fletcher Henderson and wild Betty Boop music.  This was Stalin-era Soviet jazz?  

 

play (2:20)

 

 

 

Alexander Tsfasman

 

The notes on the video were in Russian. I got the composer and title from that.

 

Alexander Tsfasman was a Ukrainian composer, one of the giants of Soviet jazz, and creator of the country's first jazz orchestra.  

 

The track is available at Apple Music- who stole a couple of my pieces from an anthology and refused to give me a penny AND I HOPE YOU'RE NOT BUYING MUSIC FROM THOSE CAPITALISTS (kidding of course.  If they had to pay people, maybe they wouldn't play anything.  I know I wouldn't.)  

 

The thing about their version, and maybe all the others except this one, is that it's screwed up-- there's like a half-beat missing from the intro.  See for yourself:

 

original intro

 

fixed

 

My guess is, somewhere along the way, a misguided music producer who didn't understand the time nature of music (fixed beats per measure and all that) heard a glitch on this recording and simply chopped it out.  So now there's a jump in the intro.  Because who notices that kind of thing, huh?  There's so many beats in an average song, you can probably throw out a few of them with no one noticing...

Why people with no rhythm sense end up producing music is a mystery to me.  The same thing happened with "Dr. Jazz" on the Bonzo's "Cornology" collection (EMI Records).  There's a drop-out during the bass clarinet solo, and they just removed that portion of song, and made it 7/8 for a bar.  If you want the track complete, it's on vinyl.  But the official CD version has an obvious glitch, and it's out there now, too.  (And this is from the people who make themselves the "owners" of the music.)  

I hope you enjoy what is perhaps the only restored version of this song.  (Sorry about the low volume levels.  When I made them louder, it got really distorted.  I'm only a simple country sound nut, with my little wind-up deal, here.) 

 

 

Parades

 

The 1999 Thanksgiving Day Parade on CBS, re-articulated for your listening pleasure. 

 

Yes, it is a rerun, and very much an oldie.  I took it off the site when it was included in one of the sets on Bandcamp.  Why is it here today?  Well...
 
One idea I have for this site is soundtracks for annual holiday parades.  The idea is, you folks at home play it while watching the parade, and maybe some crazy synchronicity will occur-- some overwhelmingly appropriate and silly collision of image and sound.  My gift to you.  Ya never know.  
 
So, why is it just this one short little bit?  Because (1) I didn't give myself enough time to mobilize the concept this year, and (2) no one else sounded anywhere as silly as these two.  

 

The potential silliness of parade commentary is actually pretty high, but it depends on the hosts; of course there's the natural reluctance to be a goofball on national TV.  But these two hardy souls were up to the task, and I applaud them.  We know and love and eat!

 

Parades (5:21) 

 

Aack Seasoning

 

New sponsor.

 

Play (1:29) 

Today's unintentional cutup

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