David Kirby was on the Bob Edwards radio show this week to talk about his new book on Little Richard and how Tutti Frutti changed musical expression forever. The St. Petersburg Times has a nice review of Little Richard: The Birth of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Little Richard is one of my favorite musical characters. Little known tidbit: At the 2001 Madison Blues Festival, I danced up on stage with him. Midway through another supersonic number, he picked up a little girl who was dancing her heart out and booty off, placed her on top of his piano and went right back to performing. It was a sight to behold – her beaded braids flying while Little Richard’s flamboyant energy, encapsulated in thick, shimmering velvet, yoyoed everywhere from his central spot in front of the piano. I didn’t get too close to the center of the action owing to a crazy certainty that had he banged on that baby grand any harder, the whole thing would have gone crashing into Lake Monona. Velveteen Richard, the piano, the kid on it and all. Everyone who has come into contact with Little Richard has a story and David Kirby sounds like he has many. I can’t wait to read this book.
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I’ve heard enough of Thelonious Monk’s music to consider him one of those musicians who get dictation from another world. Pianist Vijay Iyer says it isn’t so in his loving Ode To A Sphere (thanks, Mimosa). There was a lot of logic, practise and purpose – actual human craft – to the transcendental. Again, I stand ignorant about a lot of jazz, but appreciate Iyer’s passion for Monk’s passion and that his nerdspeak makes this topic accessible to someone like me.
The idea that music that feels good might require craft, discipline and hard work runs contrary to prevailing wisdom about Monk. Many people still harbor a false and uncharitable image of an untutored, unpolished, intuitive savant. But close attention to Monk“s music reveals the result of decades of purposeful experimentation, discovery and refinement.
… Cecil Taylor once spoke in reverential tones of Monk“s different combinations of notes in different registers, as if that quality were somehow the key to it all. And indeed, this is how sound works: Overtones of a low fundamental start out sparsely in the lower octaves, and become gradually denser as you climb up to the high register. Monk displayed intimate knowledge of this physical law, and he put it to the test.
If you haven’t yet listened to Historicity by The Vijay Iyer trio, give it a whirl. Their version of MIA’s Galang is a quiet riot.
