What exactly is the history of the spoken word in jazz music? It actually has its earliest roots in the late 1920′s and 1930′s when scatting along with a jazz tune, became more commonplace. This started with the vocals imitating the instruments but later came to be rhythmic words spoken in beat to the music. Even later, in the late 1950′s and 1960′s, modern music borrowed elements of this ‘talking jazz’ into what was to be called ‘beat poetry’. The words were moved from containing only relational importance to…
Read MoreBlessed with a tuneful, breathy soprano, and a gift for playful, deeply personal, lyrical expression, Olive Louise presents Nothing’s The Same (seen/heard here). It’s not uncommon to look back on our youth and be wistful for what seems now a simpler, brighter time, or was it? Nothing’s The Same examines, it seems, a young Olive Louise: “I remember the good old days Where I used to run outside to play Nothing’s the same Nothing’s the same Want to go back to being pre teen summers felt like eternity And my skin was so soft And my…
Read MoreConcept Humanity has a universal language that we need to use as often as we can-the language of music. Music speaks to the soul, reminds us who we are to make us better people, healing wounds, providing a catharsis from fears, anger, love loss, and more. Bands have a tendency to create themselves within a formula and then, whether they like it or not, that formula can bind them to it forever. That can restrict the universal impact of their music and even the enthusiasm the band has for…
Read MoreFull of jangle and mid-tempo alt-rock goodness, Slugs came out with Super Sane (seen/heard here) at the end of the year (December 2020). If it feels alternately celebratory and depressing, that’s by design. The song was written during a time when one friend was killed in a motorcycle accident and another had just given birth to a new baby. It is against that counter-point that Super Sane plays, and it’s successful in every aspect! The four-piece is comprised of Marissa Longstreet (singer/songwriter/guitarist), Sarsten Noice (bass/vocals), Josh Beavers (lead guitar), and Dash Hutton…
Read MoreA track that fell through the cracks for me back in November 2020 when it first came out, Robb Marr’s Death and Comfort (heard here), is so breathtakingly beautiful it will leave you wanting to play it again and again. It comes from his new podcast, Book Of Man, and is the first single from the LP by the same name, featuring music from the podcast, which should be out any time now. Death and Comfort was written during a time when Marr was losing his father,…
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