Foliage Special: The Many Colors of Music

The Beatles - "Two of Us" - A song I downloaded to my phone and played on a remote Orkney headland letting the wind take an old friend's ashes...a beautiful place, she would have approved (she would have liked it more if it had a beautiful old pub, but that's another story). (D. Dugre-Martin) (Editor's note - This is a Paul song which just about every Beatle thought was about his relationship to John and how it soured ("You and me, chasing paper..") but Sir Paul claims it's a love song he wrote for his girlfriend Linda Eastman. 

EDEN - "Drugs" - EDEN is composed of a single member, Jonathon Ng, who is also a record producer and model (who knew!). This was the first song by him that I found, and I fell in love with the relaxed, yet energized atmosphere of his music. As I listened to more of his work I found that there were certain lines from various songs that really stuck in my head and made me think, which is why I was so drawn to listen his music over, and over again. (M. Winslow)


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Jason Aldean - "Fly Over States" - I'm going with a little country this week. Thinking of all my Army colleagues out there who live and work in these great places. (T. Williams)

(Editor's Note - On our honeymoon lo those many centuries ago, we drove across the US to Wyoming in Volkswagen Squareback that broke down with regularity as we drove through those "fly-over states."  We met some of the nicest people in Indiana, Nebraska, and Montana as well as the fine people of Douglas, WY.  We should all do a Blue Highway tour once in our lives, if not several times.)

Banda Magda - "Thiamandi" -  Banda Magda is the ensemble led by a friend and arranging partner of mine named Magda Giannikou. I hate the word genius, because even educated people throw it around without any understanding of what the word actually means, especially in the arts. But Magda is a GENIUS. The accessibility of her work (including, but not exclusively, with this band) belies the artistry and craftsmanship behind it - essentially, the more you know about what you’re hearing, the deeper the rabbit hole gets. Banda Magda is known more for their fun up-tempo stuff, but this slow track is the one I end up playing on repeat for hours - such incredible vibe. The ensemble itself is comprised of some of the heaviest cats in NYC, including my wife Brooke on violin and my brother-in-law Sam on cello, as well as some other people that are veteran members of both her ensemble and mine. (K. Saulnier)



And, now for the 7th inning stretch:

Kate Smith - "God Bless America" - At the seventh inning stretch of New York Yankees home games, an armed service veteran is introduced and honored. Usually he or she stands behind home plate with their family, while their image is shown on the jumbo screen over the outfield bleachers. Then Kate Smith sings “God Bless America” and most of the 45,000 fans sing along with Kate. At the end of her rendition, the jumbo screen image is changed to a picture of that service veteran when he or she was younger. I am especially moved when I see the picture of a WWII veteran in full dress uniform and think of how young they were to be thrown into such a tumultuous world to execute such a monumental task. It affirms to me that God has blessed America and we better take good care of her as we proceed.

Wikipedia tells us that Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1918 while serving in the U.S. Army at Camp Upton in Yaphank, New York, but decided that it did not fit in a revue called "Yip Yank Yaphank", so he set it aside. In 1938, with the rise of Adolf Hitler, Irving Berlin, who was Jewish and had arrived in America from Russia at the age of five, felt it was time to revive it as a "peace song," and it was introduced on an Armistice Day broadcast in 1938, sung by Kate Smith on her radio show. Berlin had made some minor changes, most notably, he provided an introduction that is now rarely heard but which Smith always used:

"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea

 Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free

 Let us all be grateful for a land so fair

As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer." (J. Gaffney)

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Lorraine Feather - "It All Adds Up" - Ms. Feather, the daughter of pioneer jazz writer and composer Leonard Feather, is one of my favorite vocalists.  Her music is erudite, many of her lyrics are clever, even funny, and, judging by the songs on her new album "Math Camp", she can write ballads as powerful as Randy Newman (check out these videos, the first from "Toy Story 2" - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElhbTsKsros - and this one from his adaptation of Goethe's "Faust" - www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEDusVxVKbA ). Anyway, back to Ms. Feather.  She's had quite a career, from off-Broadway to singing back-up for Grand Funk Railroad (?!?) to writing lyrics for and recording songs by Fats Waller and Duke Ellington to writing songs for movie soundtracks. She's been a solo artist since the late 1990s and releases albums every 2-3 years.  Her new CD is the first she's made since moving back to the East Coast from rural upstate Washington and many of the tracks feature a jazz quartet (including the track below which has the great Fred Hersch on piano, James Genus on bass, Gilad Hekselman on guitar, and Terri Lyne Carrington on drums). Also, many of the songs are "scientific" in nature. Give a listen. (RBK)