[HaPpY BiRtHdAy, Dave Bryce!!!]

HBD Dave - hope you had a great one! The KC remains my interweb spot to laugh and learn about music.

[JT on Tiny Desk]

Anybody else seen this? Musicianship is ace, and that distinctive red board is delivering, front and centre. 

[Just watched Greatest Night in Pop doco..]

7 hours ago, obxa said:

Unexpectedly great and well done.   Had the same reaction.  Highly recommended, and I'm usually jaded to stuff that feels like self-back patting.

 

 Really felt Dylan's discomfort and brief moment of "how do I even compete with these vocalists?"  Watching Quincy (and Stevie) coach him, and the  encouragement  of "just do you" was really amazing, especially the end result.   I won't spoil it, but the Paul Simon joke was also hilarious!.

 

Often wondered why Geldoff wasn't knighted, but he was given an honorary KBE.  Didn't know you had to be born in the UK. 

 

Yeah Dylan seemed so sweet and humble, despite being such a cultural giant. A landmark night. 

[Show me your favourite wah clav solos]

14 hours ago, CHarrell said:

This is just rehearsal footage, but Bernie is well...burnin' here, especially throughout after 2:00:

 

 

How the heck can this be so funky??

[Are the supposed endless sonic capabilities of synths overrated and exhausted?]

Interesting topic around sounds, authentic(?) and emulated. In response to @ElmerJFudd, I was watching a Leonard Bernstein documentary last night where he described his music for West Side Story as hip and funky. I scoffed.

 

But man, just from his and the producer’s playback sessions, he wasn’t wrong. What can be wrung out of traditional orchestral sounds and arrangements is jaw-dropping. At one point, the whole caboodle swung from symphonic movement into jazz combo feel. At that point even my wife looked up. 😄

[The first video from my new live album!]

This is great, Doug! Thanks for sharing. 

[Morning uplift]

Just happened on this and thought I’d share. Light and poppy, but solid writing imho and dig the groove. Also, some unexpectedly tasty gospel tinges to the keys and the vocals (one of the ladies is definitely channeling Kim Burrell).

Appropriation arguments notwithstanding (and I know they’re out there 😅), this got me grooving this AM. Happy Tuesday to y’all.

 

 

[OT: Final Beatles Song]

Without being schmaltzy, the Beatles’ music has always had a strong affective, even personal, element to it. George’s All Those Years Ago is one that hits a strong emotional chord for me.

This tune is another such example, a fitting coda to an unparalleled legacy.

[Life of a Musician]

Yup, totally relate to that trajectory. Pity nobody will ever hear that one amazing album I’ve got inside me. 😅

[Aha!]

Morten’s vocals in Stay on these Roads: incredible!

[Tony Bennett passed away]

RIP Mr Bennett - a unique artist.

[Searching for funk / soul music played with Synth Bass]

Madonna may not strictly fit the genre, but that opening bass line on Like a Virgin made my teen soul-funk ears perk up for sure! That bass sounds very synthy, and is very similar to and at least as funky as Billie Jean’s. Come to think of it, Material Girl also rocks that same funky-ass bass. I think Nile Rodgers produced the album so no surprise there.

[What keyboard is Babyface playing?]

He’s got his detractors but man, what an unprecedented run of success Face had. Talented mofo. 

[How great singers' voices have or have not held up over time]

17 hours ago, Shamanzarek said:

Maurice White also has Parkinson's but is still able to sing well.

You mean the one from Earth, Wind and Fire, who died?

[Time, groove, metronome, and the grid: a philosophical discussion]

6 hours ago, GovernorSilver said:

This might be relevant.  Quite a few YT videos out now, in which somebody tries to analyze J Dilla's time feel.  On the one hand, he was known for working with machines like the Akai MPC line.  On other hand, he was known for unquantized beats that sound like a drunk 3-year-old played the beat.

 

 

The "drunk 3 year old" quote appears here too.  Might order a copy of the book

 

 

This guy’s time was deliberately ‘off’ and felt so sparse, but somehow the groove he created was rich and powerful. For my money, the best examples are on D’Angelo’s Voodoo album. 

[OT - What are you listening to right now?]

 

 

[Grammy Award Show]

Yeah, the Motown contingent was switched on! And did anybody clock Berry Gordy? How in the world is he NINETY-THREE and rockin' like that? 

[If you like jazz/funk this should impress you .....]

Serious groove!

[Play That Funky Music responsibilities]

6 hours ago, timwat said:

Solid advice, especially ‘sitting on the back end of the one’. I call that the afterburn. 🏎️💨

 

 

[Jeff Beck RIP]

RIP Jeff. 

[Emma Stevens sings the Beatles' "Blackbird"... in Mi'kmaq]

Really evocative expression, both yours and hers. Thanks. 

[Drum loop for the Meters' "Hey Pocky A-way"]

On 1/6/2023 at 7:20 PM, ProfD said:

That's an absolute fact.  Anyone who disagrees must sh8t Febreze because they clearly aren't funky.🤣😎

Haha true. The level of funk in Kissed my Baby should come with a health warning - filthy. 😄

[Quotes from your favorite pianist (or fav musician)]

I’ve got this on my WhatsApp profile:

’To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable’ (Beethoven).

[OT - What's your full-time job?]

Teacher/researcher, trying (without much success at the moment 😅) to at least slow down on the hamster wheel of academia. This is mainly to focus on my amazing 2.5 year-old daughter (a mid-life surprise!) and my lovely wife. 

[World Cup 2022]

Amazing match, with both teams playing their hearts out. Tend to agree with Docbop that, within the rules of the professional game, winning takes precedence over everything else.

 

In the interests of fairness, I recall an infamous Argentina vs England WC encounter in 1986. Terry Fenwick an England player remembers defending against Maradona this way: “I belted him two or three times. I thought ‘that’s him done’. He was off the pitch for four-and-a-half minutes after I whacked him once.”

So those hack jobs didn’t just come from one side, I can tell you.

 

For me, the difference between champions and also-rans is fairly simple: the former are singularly talented, single-mindedly hardworking, and can take the heat of elite competition. They win, and often come back stronger - then they win again. Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina and Uruguay have done this, as has France. And no doubt they’ll do so again.
The latter are almost always simply not good enough, however hard they work. So instead they complain: the ref favoured the other guys, they had better gear, the wind wasn’t right, Mars wasn’t aligned with Saturn, I didn’t get to call my dog first. Urgh.

 

Can’t remember where I first heard this but it’s an extended paraphrase that underscores my point: Regardless of circumstance, genius always does what it must; talent often does what it should; mediocrity sometimes does what it can.