Posts

Showing posts from 2014

Whiplash

Image
My father was a jazz aficionado. Big band jazz. He knew all the songs, all the players. Put on a track, he'd call it out within a bar or two, say who was playing on the track, and give details. While not being a player himself, he had spent hours upon hours upon hours listening to the music, studying it, breathing it, learning every detail. His favorite stories were of his time in the Army: the 19 times he saw Benny Goodman play, and of the one time at Fort Ord when he was the only person in a dining hall where Lester Young was practicing. When dad was 80, an old record would make him 20 again. That was the power of the best music. Today, my 17- year old son is becoming a player. Not yet breathing it, really, not yet really  studying it, but passionate enough. Big band jazz has long faded from being this country's pop music, it's still fairly standard for kids learning to play in high school combos. Aaron plays drums and double bass. His bass teacher recently had a reco

Joy and a Lot of Wonder -- Stevie Wonder, November 20, 2014

Image
Playing Sir DukeL Stevie Wonder at The Palace of Auburn Hills, November 20, 2014 Songs in the Key of Life has always been, to me, the  perfect album. An album of astonishing breadth, both topically and musically. An album in which every note, every utterance, seemed perfectly placed. The album that taught me why a great double album might have side one on a different disc than side 2, because of course  I'd want to hear all 4 sides in order without having to get up so often to flip the disc. The album in which the "bonus" EP - though played far less often - was still superb. I've seen Stevie play before, including once in Malmö, Sweden . But never behind this album. This tour, this short tour of just 11 dates, had "don't you dare miss this" all over it. Never mind the ticket price, this was a treat. Thursday's snow storm resulted in a very late arriving crowd, and Stevie didn't take the stage until almost 9:15pm, more than an hour after

I'm With the Band

Image
September 19: Full house for homecoming. Today is recovery day. Yesterday the West Bloomfield High School Marching Band , including both kids, performed at The Michigan Competing Bands Association (MCBA) State Finals at Ford Field in Detroit . The band finished in 9th place in Flight I, with a score of 88.125. Two years ago, that might as well have been written in Greek, but today I can translate every word of it. August 22: At band camp. September 5: For the first half of the first game, the dress stayed casual. Two years ago, I would never have expected to become a band dad. Aaron's school didn't even have a marching band, just a loose-knit ensemble of a few kids in a quasi-rock band that played various school events. They did ok, we had no complaints. Aaron played guitar, but with the encouragement of the group's advisor, he also tried electric bass, and it stuck. He started private lessons. Then he decided to transfer to WBHS. WBHS didn't have an ense

Tambourines and Elephants: John Fogerty at the Toledo Zoo Amphitheater, July 30, 2014

Image
John Fogerty at the Toledo Zoo Amphitheater (photo: John Fogerty facebook page) Growing up, I had 3 musical heroes. First, there were the Beatles. And eventually there was Bruce. But along the way, there was also Creedence Clearwater Revival. CCR released just 7 studio albums. Six of those albums were crammed in to an amazing 30 month period, as John Fogerty cranked out 3-minute masterpiece after 3-minute masterpiece. Being too young to see CCR play, I waited... a long time. I didn't see John play live until the 1990s, and last night was still just my 4th show -- and two of the other 3 weren't full length performances. In recent years, John has come around as an opening act for performers like John Mellencamp and Jimmy Buffett . No offense to those guys, but... really?  I couldn't bring myself to pay money to see Fogerty in that role, not for artists I didn't especially want to see otherwise, not even this past Saturday when Fogerty opened for Buffett in Detroi

Fourth of July, Lake Walloon

Image
July 3, 2014 One of the few vacations we take is a trip to Michigania Family camp . This is a one week camp on Lake Walloon in Northern Michigan. For us, this has meant celebrating July 4th at camp. Sometimes the camp celebration is on July 3rd or July 5th due to details of the camp schedule. This post is a retrospective of some pictures from July 4th celebrations at camp. July 4, 1999 1999 Our first year camping as a family, and July 4th was our first full day of camp. It was very hot, and Aaron -- then 2 years old -- was already a ball of sweat when I took this photo of him trying on my sunglasses. In the background is the old dining hall. July 4, 2002 2002 Elianna was 14 months old. The heat broke just in time for the parade. July 4, 2006 2006 Elianna, now age 5, at Ceramics, Arts and Crafts, working on a project. July 4, 2008 2008 July 4th was the last day of camp in 2008. This is Elianna at the closing ceremony, overlooking the lake. July 4, 20

Words to Elianna upon becoming a Bat Mitzvah

Image
This past Saturday, Elianna had her bat mitzvah service. It is customary in many synagogues for a parent to say a few words to the young adult during the service. Following are the words I said to her. Beyond the opportunity to kvell,  I hope some parents may read this and see their own child, and their own feelings, reflected. And never to forget those feelings. Elianna: I went to a concert recently. Yes, really. Imagine that. You didn’t come to this one. Anyway, at the concert, the bandleader – you’ve met him once or twice, sort of – said this: "First thing you do, before you write a decent song, … before you play your first gig, you lay in bed at night and you dream yourself up. Everything you weren't in the day… So the first thing you do is, you dream yourself to life." I thought about that quite a bit when I read your d’var torah . You’ve brought yourself to life, your whole life. You dream and imagine and read and create and you commit yourself to your frie

Riding Round Heaven's Wheel - Pittsburgh, May 23, 2014

Image
Last night in Pittsburgh Bruce Springsteen concluded more than two years of touring by performing with Joe Grushecky and the Houserockers at Soldiers and Sailors Hall. While we never know where Bruce might show up, this seems to be the end of scheduled dates, at least for a while. Bruce came on stage at 9pm in his plaid shirt for his initial mini-acoustic set, as the audience lit up in the collected glow of hundreds of cell phones trying to capture the moment. His first song, "Further On (Up the Road)," delivered slowly and sung low, drove home the point: This is it. For a while. Racing in the Street '78 Bruce said, after that first song, "it's always nice to come to Pittsburgh and try something I haven't tried before." He added that every song writer is good for about 2 or 3 songs their whole lives, that "Cadillac Ranch" and "Darlington County" are really the same song, and that "it works if you refresh and rewrite the

Get Along, Get Along! - Pittsburgh, April 22, 2014

Image
Last night in Pittsburgh, Bruce Springsteen put on a show that might have been a hard core fan's dream. A brilliant setlist for the long-time fans, including world premieres and tour debuts, nearly half of the High Hopes album, highlights for all of the band members, and inspired Brucetalk bits. A show that was conspicuously absent of the features so many hardcore fans love to complain about. A show in which more than half of the songs weren't in the set just two weeks ago in Cincinnati. Who on earth changes up their sets  that  much? Johnny 99. Photo - Matthew Orel But was it a great show? Let's start with the almighty eternal everlasting ass-kicking power of the night. And there was a  lot  of ass-kicking power last night, from the very first note of the evening. Bruce's blue shirt, black vest, and tucked-in tie are gone, replaced by the Joe Strummer look. And last night, we got a bit of the Joe Strummer sound as well, as the band opened with a hard-driving

Growing Younger with Bruce - Cincinnati, April 8, 2014

Image
Since Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band last played in Cincinnati in March, 2008 , the United States has gone through two presidential elections and a great recession. Two cherished members of the E Street Band have passed away. Bruce has released two powerful studio albums and, along the way, has enabled new voices and new sounds for his Hall of Fame-bound band. During those six years, while the rest of us aged, Bruce somehow became younger. We can conjecture from what or where his fountain of youth came. Was it from the booty shaking? The love making? The earth quaking? Perhaps it was the Viagara taking. He has mentioned Viagra taking. Whatever the elixir, whoever the alchemist, the results have been spectacular. But what about Cincinnati? Bruce's 2008 Cincinnati show didn’t pass the two-hour mark until the evening’s last song. Tonight’s show could have come with a warning label: For a show lasting longer than 3 hours, audience members should call their doctors

The Beatles Were More Exciting Than This

Image
The smiles that changed America: George Harrison and Ringo Starr in the moment, February 9, 1964. This past Sunday evening marked the 50th Anniversary of the Beatles' first appearance on The Ed Esullivan Show .  The Fabs, virtually unknown in the United States just 6 weeks prior, but that evening 73 million people turned to CBS to watch them perform live. By early April, the Beatles owned each of the top 5 positions in the Billboard Hot 100  singles chart . To commemorate the anniversary, CBS aired The Night That Changed America: The Beatles - A Grammy Salute , and it was everything the Beatles weren't:  Tame. Boring. Inert. Dreary. (an encore will air tomorrow evening). And most of my Beatles-fans friends loved it. The anniversary program was really three shows: A historical presentation focusing entirely on the events leafing up to and including February 9th, 1964. A musical tribute focusing almost entirely on pieces written after  February 9th, 1964.  Performanc

Springsteen Goes Viral

Image
Bruce Springsteen has made national headlines many times over the past 30 years. But he's never really been an internet sensation. His website is modest with few interactive features beyond links to order products. His  official videos on youtube , especially of more recent vintage, typically generate fewer than a million views. His first twitter post was just a few months ago. That changed Wednesday morning. On Tuesday, Bruce's latest studio album, High Hopes, was officially released. That didn't make a dent. But that evening, he appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon . And by Wednesday morning, seemingly the whole world knew about it. My facebook wall exploded with links. Not just from my Bruce friends, either: From my old high school friends from New Jersey. From college friends in the diaspora. From conservatives. Bruce's appearance on Late Night came as no surprise; after all in 2010 he went in the show and spoofed his own '70's look  for a c