Smoking Trumpet Players
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
4M ago
Someone on FB commented they were amazed that trumpet players could smoke. Three meanings of "smoking" of course, but they were talking about tobacco. You'd think playing itself would slake any oral need, but as a trumpet player myself, I know it's not so. Perversely, there's a very satisfying feeling, after you've been blowing hard, to suck smoke into your lungs.  It became more common for album covers to features players smoking in the 1950's, so there starts to be more documentation. It's harder to tell with the early cats, but smoking was pretty ubiquitous. Then, apres Coltrane, sta ..read more
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A.I. Reanimates the Beatles
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
5M ago
The whole world-why restrict it-the entire universe-knows that the Beatles have released a song called Now And Then. This Frankenstinian effort was, as the YouTube P.R. says: “brought to life and worked on anew with contributions from all four Beatles.” The reconstruction entailed using AI to extract an old John Lennon vocal track and adding new musical backup. Now And Then is probably the highest profile use of AI in popular music. It shows us that this technology can do something that couldn’t be done before: separate sounds that had already been mixed together. A machine-learning algorithm ..read more
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Booker Little "Out Front" (Recorded April 4, 1961)
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
1y ago
  The cohort of 1950s trumpet players is a pretty astonishing lot. Booker Little, one of that (often ill-fated) group, died of uremic poisoning at 23 and only recorded between 1959 and 1961. The album Out Front (released in 1961, now being reissued by Candid), is arguably the best recorded representation of his unique voice as trumpeter and composer-arranger. The lineup: Booker Little, trumpet; Eric Dolphy, alto sax; Julian Priester, trombone; Art Davis and Ron Carter, bass; Don Friedman, piano; and Max Roach, drums. All compositions are by Little. From Memphis and schooled at the Chica ..read more
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Embalmed, Blotto and Owled: Moving from Dry January into Dry Martini February
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
1y ago
  Edmund Wilson; a man who doesn't look like he enjoys his work. Otherwise known for more high-fallutin’ work, writer Edmund Wilson did some of his best work when he compiled The Lexicon of Prohibition, in 1927. He said the list was arranged “in order of the degrees of intensity of the conditions which they represent, beginning with the mildest stages and progressing to the more serious…” I’m not certain I agree with Wilson, although what 'half screwed' meant in 1927 may differ from how we see it now.  Lit, squiffy, oiled, lubricated, owled, edged, jingled, piffed, piped, slop ..read more
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Peaches For Zappa
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
1y ago
 In honor of Frank Zappa's birthday, here are my lyrics to "Peaches En Regalia" (every note). ENSEMBLE 1 Too lifelike to destroy, That fruit can bring you joy. Let’s put those peaches en regalia; March proudly with them, Watch them walk down the street. Please won’t you let them pass by safely; Don’t spit on them and don’t eat their little feet. On a melba float, you can gloat, As you proudly cheer: “Let the peaches vote,” they can quote, Shakespeare, they’re sincere, You won’t feel remote, if you note, How they wave to you Just as if you were the proudest parents who had raised t ..read more
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Taking the Sting out of Climate Change: "Summertime"
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
1y ago
  If I'm to be dragged into the fires of Hades while I'm still alive, I'll take this one along. Originally composed as a recurring aria for "Porgy and Bess," It's been taken in a wide variety of tempos and re-harmonized in some pretty radical ways. Yet, probably because of the strength of the melody, it retains its, well, Summertime-i-tude. All credit to George Gershwin and lyricist DuBose Heyward. There's a widespread notion about Gershwin having been influenced by a Ukranian song. Wikipedia says:  "The Ukrainian-Canadian composer and singer Alexis Kochan has suggested t ..read more
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The Worst Xmas Tunes
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
3y ago
This is not to knock the idea of hearing songs befitting the season. There are some that retain their charm despite being in heavy rotation decade after decade-mostly the religious ones, not the secular ones, although "The Christmas Song" as sung by Nat King Cole and Judy Garland's version of "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas" are hard not to like. The fact that the ones I list below are still disturbing the ether is beyond me. And why didn't "(Everyone's Waitin' For) the Man With the Bag" and "I Want a Hippopotamus For Christmas" get more traction? Even the best efforts of the Institut ..read more
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Stormy Daniels: Super-Heroine
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
3y ago
Stormy Daniels: Space Force      If you're basing a comic book and an animated cartoon series on a sex scandal, who are you gonna choose for your hero? Will it be the always frisky ex-Presidential contender Gary Hart? Jerry Falwell, Jr. and his ménage a trois? What about basing it on humiliated family values and abstinence crusader Representative Mark Souder?    The eventual winner, it turns out, easily outpaces Hart, Falwell, Mills and their tawdry peccadilloes. For that heroine is none other than Stormy Daniels, adult film star and real-life antagonist of a man easi ..read more
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New Orleans, Lost and Found
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
3y ago
With another extreme weather event bearing down on New Orleans, it seemed like a good time to re-visit a little bit of Crescent City Jazz history: Musicians One-Nostril Clyde Toothpick Willie Joseph 'Vaseline' Brunelle Clyde 'Ofal' Pivnik L'il Chicklets Big Sluice Leroy 'Creampie' Shavely Melatonin Slim Rufus 'Cutacle' Scaline Buzz The Flea Girdle and Griddlecakes Duffy(Siamese twins) Oleander 'Sniffles' Zampa Two-Crack Max Figgis Langdon 'Crabcakes' Beaudoin Joints Sweetie Pie's Monodrome Mamie's Mantis Hideaway Queen Lillie's Nectar trap Pookie's Natural Foods Betty's Both-Ways Cabaret ..read more
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Music and Political Agita
Brilliant Corners
by Steve Provizer
3y ago
One thing both Biden and Trump voters seem to agree on is that there’s a lot at stake in this election. The degree of partisanship itself signals how much everyone is worried about the results. Of course, the more partisan you are, the more likely you are to believe that only your side has due cause for concern. The degree to which you accept the idea that someone on the other side has a right to be concerned is the degree to which you accept them as fully human. If you can take a breath and step back from this combative environment, you’ll see there’s kind of an ironic symmetry in this situa ..read more
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