Skip to main content

The Wallflowers - I'm Looking Through You

The Wallflowers - I'm Looking Through You
  • Written by: John Lennon and Paul McCartney
  • Music from and inspired by: I Am Sam motion picture
  • Genre: Rock, Pop
  • First recorded and released: 1965

"The Wallflowers have existed as two different bands, both helmed by lead singer, guitarist, and songwriter Jakob Dylan. Guitarist Tobi Miller, keyboard player Rami Jaffee, bass player Barrie Maguire, and drummer Peter Yanowitz formed the band in 1990."


The swing era lasted just ten years, from l935 to 1945. In researching this article... when the Swing Era ended, it also marked the end of Jazz as a Dance and a Popular music. It also marked a change in the culture of this country. What went before was never to be again, the society that created the music from New Orleans Dixieland through this era had changed for good... That past time had been destroyed by the immense social disruption which accompanied the War itself, but it was the foundation, good or bad, for who we are today. As such, my orientation for this period is both the culmination of fifty years of musical evolution and as a transition to the modern, a new way of viewing the world and a new way of viewing Jazz.

Jazz up to the advent of Bebop was a dance music. Its function was to provide musical accompaniment for dancing, in venues designed for dancing. Its very development was a striving to fill larger and larger spaces which existed to fill the social need for dance entertainment. Swing did this better than anything that had come before, but it was the final music whose function was social. Bop changed the artistic percentage, its focus turned inward, centering on the musical elements and the expressive abilities of the individual artist in manipulating those elements. The audience was left to participate only as consumers of art, not participants.

Also, the musicians themselves were striving to break loose from the musical cliches of the Era. Bop reflected a revolt against the confines of the Big Bands, the sparse solo spots in the swing arrangements minimized the opportunities for exploratory improvisational expression. This also reflected a change in emphasis from the melodic to the improvisational. The younger players chaffed at the restrictions the Swing style and the Big Band imposed... And finally, in some ways, the younger players felt section work did not favor or reward creativity but rather craftsmanship.
Source: History Of Jazz by Michael Morangelli


Cannonball Adderley - New Delhi
  • Released: 1961
  • Written by: Victor Feldman
  • Recorded in: New York on May 11, 1961


"The Cannonball Adderley Quintet featured Cannonball on alto sax and his brother Nat Adderley on cornet. Cannonball's first quintet was not very successful, however, after leaving Mile Davis' group, he formed another with his brother, which saw more success."

See previous Song of the Day

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ry Cooder - Available Space

It all started with gospel music. After the American Civil War, in the mid 19th century, people moved north from the plantations to the cities, St Louis, Chicago and Memphis. By the end of the 19th century the syncopated rhythms of ragtime and the improvisational nature of jazz had arrived. Hard times in the great depression of the 1930s drove many swing jazz big bands out of business. Jump blues filled the gap. Patrons of dance halls needed small groups who could match the volume and atmosphere of the departed big bands. Singers would shout and saxophonists would honk. This gave performers names like shouters and honkers. Jump blues was an uptempo jazz tinged style of blues. Usually characterised by a vocalist in front of a large horn driven orchestra or medium sized combo with multiple horns. The style had a driving rhythm, intensely shouted vocal and honking tenor saxophone solos. There was also less reliance on the guitar as a lead instrument. It also had a hard, rhythmic drive and...

Copyrights and Public Domain

Copyrighting and Public Domain Music A song is the combination of melody and words. Each is protected by copyright, the melody as a musical work and the lyrics as a literary work. One or the other could be used separately and still be protected. Image by Markus Spiske Public Domain Music Public domain essentially covers creative works that are no longer protected by intellectual property laws, compositions and musical recordings in which the claim to intellectual property has either expired, been forfeited, or been waived. Most people recognize the term public domain in reference to published works, including sheet music or musical recordings, which once were protected by copyright, but the copyright expired several decades after the artist’s death or a considerable length of time after the work’s creation. Once copyright expires on a work like a recorded song, you can use it for any purpose without paying the publisher, the artist, or another institution. The Two Types of Copyright ...

Lester Young - Ghost of a Chance (Take 1)

Philadelphia was well positioned to play a leading role in popular music. The city had long been one of the nation’s most important musical centers, with strong traditions in both European derived and African American music dating back to the eighteenth century. In the early twentieth century Philadelphia saw a dramatic increase in its Black population as a result of the Great Migration. By the 1940s, Philadelphia’s large and diverse Black population had created thriving scenes in jazz and gospel music. From these traditions a new kind of music emerged in the 1940s, in Philadelphia and across the nation. Usually played in small combos called jump bands, the music featured rollicking dance rhythms coupled with fairly simple blues based harmonies and melodies. The adaptation of this style, known as rhythm and blues or R&B, by white musicians essentially created rock and roll. In Philadelphia in the late 1940s and early 1950s, jump bands played dance halls, nightclubs, and corner bars...