I got completely hooked on Game Of Thrones, and I really have to say that I love the theme music for it.
There’s a slew of wonderful covers of it doing the rounds on youtube these days, but this one is perhaps my favourite:
It’s such a beautiful melody.
For a long time, all I really knew of Sinéad O’Connor was her famous cover of “Nothing Compares 2 U”, and little bits of other songs I heard on the radio. But one of my brothers gave me a present of her Best Of cd when I was a teenager, and I was blown away by just how good she is.
Her debut album is a powerful record, and she has always been an arresting live performer. Even when wearing boots and a unitard.
There was a conversation on a forum recently about what songs from Sinéad O’Connor would make a great introduction to her work, and most of my own choices were from her pre-2001 output, as I didn’t really enjoy Sean Nós Nua / Theology etc. But, I’ve liked what I’ve heard from the new material that is being recorded at the moment.
However, this song is one of those that seems to appear on many “best of Sinéad” lists, and she absolutely nails it live:
Her voice is simply astonishing. She is one of those singers who you argue could sing anything and sell it.
I was obsessed with kd lang for a while as a teenager. I was blown away by her voice and the songwriting on Ingenue. She knocks this Roy Orbison song out of the park every time she sings. She’s one of the greatest singers ever. No contest. Brilliant control, tone, pitch, and power, all used with great musicality. She knows when to pull back, and when to let rip. I prefer the arrangement in the MTV Unplugged session she did in ’93, but her vocal from the induction of Roy Orbison into the The Songwriters Hall of Fame is stunning.
Speaking of that Unplugged session, this performance from it of the song “Barefoot”, is one of my very favourite performances of hers. The song is from the movie Salmonberries, which also kd lang also starred in, is one of those songs that will randomly pop into my head for no apparent reason. The melody of is utterly divine:
I remember completely enjoying the movie Midnight In The Garden Of Good And Evil, but having it open with kd lang singing “Skylark”, a capella, was an absolute gem. Just her voice, unadorned.
Whether cowpunk, or pop, powerballads, or country tinged folk, her vocals are always golden. This song, from the album Invincible Summer is always one of my happy summer driving songs:
When I was in university, every so often one of my friends would announce some random gig or other that we all just had to go to. Sometimes the excitement was well founded – like the first time Damien Rice came to play in NUIM was just at the university open mic, but the excitement was well built up by the time he came back a year later with a full band. Other times, the hype fell through. But this particular friend had never gotten so enthusiastic about a gig before this. She wanted us to go and see the Esbjörn Svensson Trio. Nika is Swedish, and we figured it was just some random Swedish band who no-one else would know about, so we’d all go along with her and see them in Vicar St. In her eagerness, Nika ended up being one of the first people booking tickets, and we were seated up in the two tables front and centre in Vicar St – right up at the stage with a full clear view of the jazz trio set up.
We gathered first out in the bar, before going in to take our seats, and I got chatting to some random guy who was asking me what I thought of the group, and if I’d seen them before. When he discovered that not only was this the first time I’d be seeing them live, but also that it would be my first exposure to their music at all, he was surprised. But upon also find out that we were all music students, he decided to give me a copy of “Strange Place For Snow“, which he had intended to give to the friend he was meeting to go to the gig with. But it ended up in my bag instead, and I said thank you as we headed into the gig.
I felt a bit guilty taking the best seats in the gig, especially as only one of us even knew of e.s.t. beforehand. But as the gig progressed, I was kinda glad we had those seats, as the band completely blew us away. A gang of eager music students hanging on every note was perhaps the best thing you could have in those seats at a gig. The energy coming from the stage was astonishing, and seeing how each musician stretched the boundaries of what they could make their instrument do was inspiring. It completely reignited my love of jazz and Esbjörn Svensson quickly moved into my list of inspirational pianists.
After the gig, the simple gesture of a stranger giving me a copied CD of some music meant a hell of a lot more, and that album has become one of my most listened to records over the years.
Astonishingly wonderful piano playing. I love how he incorporates prepared piano techniques into his music, and quite effortlessly, and to brilliant effect:
The two piano lines in this track really showcase the Baroque influence on his piano style, and always brings to mind that amazing piano solo in Nina Simone’s version of “Love Me Or Leave Me” :
Tragically, Esbjörn Svensson died in 2008 in a diving accident. His obituary in The Independent tells how he brought jazz to new audiences, and speaking from personal experience, that is most definitely true.
The pianist and composer Esbjörn Svensson was one of the most popular and influential figures in contemporary jazz. His group e.s.t. (Esbjörn Svensson Trio) […] drew inspiration from Bach and the baroque, ambient music, rock and techno to create a new form of intensely textured instrumental music that proved as attractive to younger fans with no previous interest in jazz as it did to admirers of the classic piano trios that the group’s ensemble-based style referenced.
[…]As a jazz pianist, Svensson had an unusually versatile style, which combined the structural importance of baroque counterpoint that he had learned to appreciate in his classical studies, with lightly twinkling improvisations that recalled Bill Evans and Keith Jarrett, the two most influential piano trio leaders of the post-war period.
What made Svensson most unusual within the normally promiscuous world of jazz is that almost all his mature work was with the same group, and the same personnel. He was also very happy to let Berglund and Oström take up solo space themselves, and the great delight of e.s.t. as a group was the strength of the ensemble rather than that of the individuals who comprised it.
Someone I was chatting to recently about music, was hating on jazz, and saying that a lot of instrumental jazz had no heart, and was just experimentation and a wild mess that was unlistenable and had to structure. I’ll be the first to admit that I loved vocal jazz a lot earlier than I developed a love for purely instrumental jazz, but can you listen to this and say it has no heart:
The melody at the end of that track just hits me really hard. It’s just beautiful, and the whole ending of that piece is magical.
Along with everything else in this track, listen to the double bass part here around the 5min mark especially. Seeing a double bass being used like that live for the first time was ear and eye opening for a young music student, let me tell you:
After hearing him interviewed on LyricFM this afternoon, I just had to investigate this guy more. I love how he talks about music and performance, and the value of music.
Here’s this afternoon’s interview:
[audio:http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2011/pc/pod-v-08021118min30seclyricbestpekka-pid0-1110072.mp3]
And a great video interview with Britten Sinfonia violinst Lizzie Ball where he “explains his unique outlook on music, performance and life in general.”
Interview with Pekka Kuusisto from Britten Sinfonia on Vimeo.
Both interviews are well worth spending the time listening to if you’re passionate about music – classical or not. There’s a great random impromptu hotel room fiddle session in the middle of that video above. Fantastic folk music and an absolute gem.
One little gem of advice that made me smile at the same time:
“If you’re hungry, you should play more chamber music. If your television is broken, you should play more chamber music.”