Jimmy Webb >Worst That Could HappenGlen Campbell >By The Time I Get To PhoenixPhilip Glass >Music with Changing Parts (this is a huge file: 56.5MB)
My musical friends are generally the hippest of the hipsters. Out jazz, Middle Eastern pop, the trippiest hop. One of the reasons they like me is that I can be pretty sharp with my taste too --after all, I did start my career producing
Cecil Taylor records-- but they look very sad for me when I try to convince them to enjoy a genuine hit song.
So it's probably fitting that the two times I've gone to see live music in the last couple (!) of years (both in the last two weeks, by the way), the perfomances have spanned my complete horizon.
Our friend
Jon Kane took a couple of years off from his day job as an amazing director to become one of the editors in the famous avant-garde
Qatsi film triology by Godfrey Reggio (
Koyaanisqatsi,
Powwaqatsi, and
Naqoyqatsi) with equally famous music by
Philip Glass. Jon wanted some more art in his life, and his sheer talent caused Godfrey to promote him to lead editor and -- unprecedented in his pictures-- creative director. Jon was nice enough to invite Robin and I to the world premiere of
Powwaqatsi with a live, synchronized performance by the
Philip Glass Ensemble, and we were excited because neither of us had seen Philip live in decades. It reminded me how much interest I had lost in his music starting with
Einstein on the Beach, but also how thrilled I was with his early pieces like
Music in Similar Motion and
Music with Changing Parts. Love the minimalism, but also using those rock'n'roll organs in such formal works.
From the sublime to the ridiculous, only my friend Roy would call to see if we wanted to see a cabaret performance of
Jimmy Webb, featuring
Glen Campbell. Having never given
Jimmy Webb a second serious thought until about five years ago (when I discovered his solo piano and voice album
Ten Easy Pieces; I'm a sucker for a composer singing his/her own songs, even if he/she can barely sing), we were intrigued, especially because Robin has always loved
Glen Campbell (I suppose she needed a break from her work with
Motley Crue). I had a great awakening to Glen's talent when I shot a playing/singing commercial with him about 25 years ago (he might be a jerk, but he is intensely gifted), so I was completely up for the show. It was underrehearsed and pretty ragged, but listening in a living room style set up at
Feinstein's at the Regency made it a wonderful, unusal musical experience in a city where you sometimes get the feeling there's nothing fresh under the sun.
This track from the aforementioned
Ten Easy Pieces was my great Webb revelation. Originally done in a overwrought Top 10 hit by the
Brooklyn Bridge (with Johnny Maestro from
the Crests) I must admit I absolutely adore
the song in any version I've ever heard. (this is a huge file: 56.5MB)
OK, so I'm not such a hipster.
Philip Glass >Music with Changing Parts (this is a huge file: 56.5MB)
Glen Campbell >
By The Time I Get To PhoenixJimmy Webb >Worst That Could Happen
