Another Horace Silver video. See previous one here.

Horace Silver & Blue Mitchell: ‘Senor Blues’ 1959

Oscar Peterson Trio (Ray Brown, Herb Ellis & Oscar Peterson) – A Gal In Gallico (1958)

Ah finally found a good video. See more of Oscar Peterson here.

“Scientists have discovered that certain parts of the brain become deactivated when we’re in love, including areas linked with negative emotions, planning, critical social assessment, the evaluation of trustworthiness and fear.

Biological studies have found that this phase of reduced cognitive function, during which faults are ignored, can last from one to two and a half years. This temporary state of delusion has a vital human function. If we immediately saw all our partner’s faults, we would be less likely to form a stable relationship in which to produce children.

And it is just as well that it is short-lived: romantic love is has an enormous metabolic cost. “I think romantic love evolved to enable people to focus their mating energy onto just one person at a time, thereby conserving mating time and energy,” says Dr Fisher. “It’s not conducive to real life to live in this state for 20 years because you’re distracted by it, you can’t think of other things, you forget what you are doing, you probably don’t eat properly, you certainly don’t sleep well and you go through highs and lows.”

Problems can arise when the pink mist eventually lifts and we see our loved one for what they really are – as flawed as we are. It may to wise to wait until brain function is fully restored before making a decision to marry. By then you may well feel sufficiently attached to your partner to put up with their irritating habits. “I think attachment evolved to tolerate someone at least long enough to rear a child together,” says Dr Fisher. But don’t dismay that the best bit is over once lucidity returns. Couples can feel peaks of romantic love throughout their relationship.”

I must remind myself:

“Research suggests that to help maintain a successful relationship you should say five positive things to your partner for each negative statement about them.

...Researchers found that the first three minutes of a married couple’s argument indicate whether they will get divorced within six years. Those who engage in critical statements such as “you always” or “you never” are more likely to split up.”

Source.

Very belatedly, I note Balliett’s passing.

See Washington Post for his obituary, from which the excerpt below is taken:

Whitney Balliett, 80, a jazz reporter who spent more than four decades writing thousands of graceful and definitive stories for the New Yorker magazine and helped create one of the finest jazz programs on television, died Feb. 1 at his home in Manhattan, N.Y. He had liver cancer.

Jazz critic and poet Philip Larkin described Mr. Balliett as “a writer who brings jazz journalism to the verge of poetry.” Dan Morgenstern, director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University, called him “the greatest prose stylist to ever apply his writing skills to jazz.”

Mr. Balliett began writing a regular jazz column for the New Yorker in 1957. To convey the essence of music and musicians, he avoided technical terms. He considered himself an “impressionist” when he wrote about musicians because music itself is fleeting, so “transparent and bodiless.” Jazz in particular, he wrote, had “odd non-notes and strange tones and timbres.”

See also a previous post where Balliett was mentioned.

I’m in the midst of moving house and settling down at my new place. I would only have an internet connection from home sometime in March. This means no or very infrequent updates till I relocate my internet connection account to my new address.

Incidentally, I moved to a place where I spent many years as a child. I have the most poignant feelings whenever I walk or drive around the area. So many memories of Tiong Bahru...

I’ll see if my wife can take some pretty pictures of our area so I can post it up here.

Bet you didn’t know about good and bad procrastination.

See interesting excerpts with my emphasis in italics.

“...No matter what you work on, you’re not working on everything else. So the question is not how to avoid procrastination, but how to procrastinate well.

There are three variants of procrastination, depending on what you do instead of working on something: you could work on (a) nothing, (b) something less important, or© something more important. That last type, I’d argue, is good procrastination.

...That’s the sense in which the most impressive people I know are all procrastinators. They’re type-C procrastinators: they put off working on small stuff to work on big stuff.

What’s “small stuff?” Roughly, work that has zero chance of being mentioned in your obituary. It’s hard to say at the time what will turn out to be your best work … but there’s a whole class of tasks you can safely rule out: shaving, doing your laundry, cleaning the house, writing thank-you notes—anything that might be called an errand.

Good procrastination is avoiding errands to do real work.

Good in a sense, at least. The people who want you to do the errands won’t think it’s good. But you probably have to annoy them if you want to get anything done. The mildest seeming people, if they want to do real work, all have a certain degree of ruthlessness when it comes to avoiding errands.

..The reason it pays to put off even those errands is that real work needs two things errands don’t: big chunks of time, and the right mood. If you get inspired by some project, it can be a net win to blow off everything you were supposed to do for the next few days to work on it. Yes, those errands may cost you more time when you finally get around to them. But if you get a lot done during those few days, you will be net more productive.

...Conversely, forcing someone to perform errands synchronously is bound to limit their productivity. The cost of an interruption is not just the time it takes, but that it breaks the time on either side in half. You probably only have to interrupt someone a couple times a day before they’re unable to work on hard problems at all.

...Errands are so effective at killing great projects that a lot of people use them for that purpose. Someone who has decided to write a novel, for example, will suddenly find that the house needs cleaning. People who fail to write novels don’t do it by sitting in front of a blank page for days without writing anything. They do it by feeding the cat, going out to buy something they need for their apartment, meeting a friend for coffee, checking email. “I don’t have time to work,” they say. And they don’t; they’ve made sure of that.

... I’ve learned a lot of tricks for making myself work over the last 20 years, but even now I don’t win consistently. Some days I get real work done. Other days are eaten up by errands. And I know it’s usually my fault: I let errands eat up the day, to avoid facing some hard problem.

The most dangerous form of procrastination is unacknowledged type-B procrastination, because it doesn’t feel like procrastination. You’re “getting things done.” Just the wrong things.

Any advice about procrastination that concentrates on crossing things off your to-do list is not only incomplete, but positively misleading, if it doesn’t consider the possibility that the to-do list is itself a form of type-B procrastination. In fact, possibility is too weak a word. Nearly everyone’s is. Unless you’re working on the biggest things you could be working on, you’re type-B procrastinating, no

...If you want to work on big things, you seem to have to trick yourself into doing it. You have to work on small things that could grow into big things, or work on successively larger things, or split the moral load with collaborators. It’s not a sign of weakness to depend on such tricks. The very best work has been done this way.

...I think the way to “solve” the problem of procrastination is to let delight pull you instead of making a to-do list push you. Work on an ambitious project you really enjoy, and sail as close to the wind as you can, and you’ll leave the right things undone.”

Yesterday, I heard the opening track “I Loves You Porgy” of this album at the Esplanade Library.

I chose to listen to “I Loves You Porgy” because I’ve always been very partial to that song, especially ever since I heard Nina Simone sing it. I believe I’ve posted a video of her singing that song here. See here for the love story that inspired this George and Ira Gershwin song from their opera Porgy and Bess.

Keith Jarrett’s version gave me goose pimples. Not much music does that to me nowadays and I’m very fortunate to be able to discover music that moves me.

His rendition of “I Loves You Porgy” had a graceful, naked and vulnerable simplicity. He made the piano sing (as much as a piano can “sing”) the song in an extremely lyrical way that struck me, setting the tone for how he interprets the remaining songs on the album. The songs have a quiet reflective yearning mood. They are sentimental in a lyrical but not mushy way. There is passion and yearning, both quietly burning with a soft, heart swelling and understated quality. Jarrett approaches the standards in the album like hymns, nocturnal hymns or nocturnes a la Chopin if I may. For some reason, I felt remotely like crying when I heard “My Wild Irish Rose”, even though I’ve never heard the song sung before. I don’t have the words to do justice for the album. Suffice to say, I’m moved.

This album will be suitable for quiet reflective moods alone or with a lover. There is melancholy, there is romance, there is grace, there is humility, there is dignity, there is sincerity and earnestness, there is emotional depth and simplicity. I dedicate the opening track to the muser and hope that he has experienced the last of those haunting “almosts”.

Despite my views, the album has a fair bit of criticism. See the AMG review here, which I disagree with. But I can understand why some of his fans may not like this album because it has none of that complex, dramatic, over the top, virtuostic improvisation that his fans have come to expect. For example, see video below of a 1984 performance, which I dedicate to my wife to inspire and encourage her to even get better at the piano. She has been making remarkable progress ever since starting classical piano in Sep 06 and I’m so envious. I want to make the same sort of progress like her and to do so, I’ll listen to her and not be so greedy and spread myself too thin learning too many things. I’ll focus more.

There’s also an interesting story behind the album, which I hope you will take the time to read here.

I intend to play this album when Chloe and I have our first dinner together at our new home.

See other positive reviews that share my views here, here, and here. Also see Amazon customer reviews here.

Yesterday, read this amusing post from the Yahoo Jazz Guitar Group:

“Noah, awaken and heed my words!”

And Noah didst tremble, saying, “Lord, why hath thou wakened me?”

And the Lord did say, “Noah, build me a jazz band. For the earth will be visited by a plague of Brides, followed by forty days of Trade Shows and forty nights of Awards Banquets followed by Rock & Roll and Country/Western Music. They will all be jazz oblivious. This pleaseth me not and so we must invent jazz.”

And Noah didst say, “Command me Lord.”

And the Lord didst say, “First, thou must find me a leader.”

And Noah replied, “But Lord, will I not be thy leader?”

And the Lord sayeth; “Fool, thou will be my contractor. Ask not why!”

And Noah didst bow his head, saying, “Yes my Lord. And what instrument will the leader play?”

And the lord said, “It matters little whether he play or not, or whether he be proficient or not. For his job shall primarily be to schmooze, and to deal with clients, and to count the tempos wrong, and to inquire as to whether overtime will happen, and to try to segue tunes that should not be segued. If he playeth any instrument, thou must always have another player of that instrument in the band just to be safe.”

And Noah didst say, “And what else shall this leader do?”

And the Lord replied, “It shall be his job to spread bad information and confusion amongst the sidemen and to pit them one against the other, and to delay all payments.”

“Further shall it be his job, until we can afford a soundman, to create feedback, and to invent new equalization.”

And Noah didst shake his head in wonder, saying, “Lord, thy ways are strange and mysterious. What more shall I do?”

And the Lord said, “Next, find me a Rhythm Section. First, find me a drummer. And three things above all must this drummer possess.”

“First, this drummer must have slightly imperfect time, so that whenever he playeth a fill (and he shall play many), he always emergeth at a different place, but thou may not guess which, nor where ‘one’ now is.”

“And second, he must be supremely discontent, always hoping for the Big Break which will lead him to playing with Wedding Bands or for other high paying gigs, so that he secretly despiseth jazz.”

“And third, he must always be convinced of his righteousness, in all things, including time, volume, tempo and feel, so that he argueth always with the leader and the bass player.”

And Noah didst say, “Bass player?”

And the Lord didst say, “Yes, Bass player. He shall be bored. That is All.”

And Noah didst say, “Of course. And next, my Lord?”

And the Lord did say, “Next shall be the Keyboard Player. And he shall play as if he has twenty fingers, and he shall play substitute upon substitute, until no man may name the chord, and he will not be helpful. Furthermore, he shall always be late. And he shall always be trying out new gear of which he has no knowledge.”

And Noah didst wonder aloud, “Lord, Great is thy wisdom!”

And the Lord didst wisely continue, “Next shall be the Guitar Player and he shall be loud, and he shall sing off key. Also shall he know not The Page, and so shall rely upon his ears, which have been damaged by exposure to high sound pressure levels. For guitar players who read shall already being playing shows, and will be making the big shekels. And his uniform shall be the rattiest.”

And the Lord didst say, “Next thou shall need Horns.”

“First shall be Saxophones and Clarinets. And they shall either be Beboppers who play Bird quotes in every song, yea, even the ballad medley, or copiers of Johnny Dodds and Sidney Bechet. They shall get drunk and high on every break, chase but never catch women, and make long faces all night long, but especially when “Bill Bailey” is called.”

“Next, shall be the Trumpeters. And they shall every one attempt to take everything up an octave, and fail frequently. And of changes they shall know nothing.”

“And finally shall be the Trombone Player. And many jokes will be made about him, for he will have a beeper that never beeps, as well as a day job, and he will be the first to be cut from the band.”

And Noah, taking many notes, didst say, “Mighty is the Lord!”

“Next, shall be the String Player. He will attach pickups to his violin that is more ancient even than myself, so that the instrument screecheth and causeth great pain. His job shall be to dress in foppish clothing with hair in a pony tail, to fake parts, and to complain about the volume and the intonation, and to impede the swing.”

And Noah didst say, “What can be left, Lord?”

And the Lord didst say, Finally, find me the singers. And they shall be two, one male and one female. And the male shall be a strutting peacock, with girlie man hair, and he shall never have to wear the tuxedo, and also shall play the harmonica.”

“The female shall ALWAYS sing the power ballads, and the novelty songs. She shall sing backup for the male, and forget the words, and be late, and know nothing of keys or form. And together, they shall leave every gig immediately, having never touched a piece of equipment. And they shall be paid more shekels than the sidemen. Ask not why.”

And the Lord continued: “Together they shall be melded into a dissonant band that plays mysterious polyrhythmic music called Jazz. It shall grow to immense proportions in New Orleans amongst sinners, whorehouses and honky tonks several millennia from now. But fear not within a 100 years from birth, it shall be played in Churches and other places of high learning. And it shall be called art. Go figureth.”

And the lord didst command him, “Search high and low for these, as not every musician can fulfill these requirements. And though we have no work yet, a commitment must be secured from all. And while you ‘re at it, start looking for subs.”

And Noah didst say, “Lord, thy will be done.”

“Recent excavations of Salisbury Plain in southern England have revealed at least two other large stone formations close by the world-famous prehistoric monument.”

Source