Ma!!! They're using my song. . .

. . . Tom Petty asked a Republican candidate recently to NOT use his song, "American Girl". Petty also asked another not to use his song "I Won't Back Down" in 2000. The band Heart asked that their hit "Barracuda" not be used for politicizing while John Mellencamp did the same with "Our Country". Likewise "Independence Day" from Martina McBride, "Running on Empty" by Jackson Brown, Foo Fighters' "My Hero", Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" and "More Than A Feeling" by Boston.

What is this penchant for stealing intellectual property on the part of our politicians? Are these the kind of folks that we want to run our country?



download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak

Please Visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com


Tweet

From the ridiculous. . .

. . . to the sublime.

John Coltrane, who passed away 44 years ago this month, was a bebop trailerblazer, hard-bop co-founder, pioneer in the use of modes in jazz, revolutionary in the free jazz movement and ALSO a cannonized saint in the African Orthodox Church.

My initial exposure to Coltrane, not counting dialing the FM radio past a station playing 'A Lover Supreme' on one of the early anniversaries of his death, was a combination of the influence of my good friend Bob and my exposure to the music we call, for lack of a better word, jazz while working at my college radio station over 35 years ago. I always liked Coltrane's sound. I must confess though, I didn't always understand it.

And like other, truly creative, brilliant, musical pioneers (read: their music was always changing), John Coltrane's music was very different depending upon which stage of his career (and development) you consider. True, his tone was clearly and consistently distinctive and his 'sheets of sound' approach is evident in many of these stages, but nevertheless, his development is evident.

Over these years I have begun to understand more of his phases of musical exploration and as a result, appreciate and enjoy John Coltrane's music more with each year that I continue to listen.

I encourage you to do the same. (Don't let the shot of Eric Dolphy throw you. Dolphy's presence here is a nice bonus.)




download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak

Please Visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com


Tweet

What's in a name?

The new video that greets you at the homepage of my website http://www.rayjozwiak.com is a performance of my composition entitled IMPRESSIVE, of which the studio version appears on my latest release ANOTHER SHOT (digital-download-only at)

The title, I would like to explain, is truly not a shameless display of unwarranted ego or any such thing, it is inspired by the John Coltrane piece IMPRESSIONS which has, likewise, a blues-based, modal structure not unlike many tunes on Miles' 'Kind of Blue', and subsequently the title is a corruption of that of its inspiration. (Maybe I should have called it BLUENESS?)



Please Visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com


Tweet

Another 'winner' . . .

. . . wants to be our president. Now Michelle Bachmann can officially join the ranks of the 'Sarah Palin Mouth-Off About Things of Which You Are Not Really Sure' club. Imagine the foreign policy problems people like this could cause IF ELECTED!!!

Ah, Michelle Bachmann. The candidate who said back in March, ". . . "What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty," the potential GOP presidential candidate said. "You're the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history." In fact, the 1775 Battles of Lexington and Concord that marked the first military engagements of the American Revolution took place in Massachusetts. But Bachmann did not correct her error when she referenced the battles again later in her speech.

Now she has confused the The Duke with Pogo the Clown (which by rights, should not sit very well with the conservative voter base. ". . . Bachmann repeated that idea to NBC News in an interview. "I'm not pining for nostalgia back in the 50s and 60s, that isn't it," she told NBC's Kelly O'Donnell. "But that sensibility about how we were grounded here is so important. For instance, another American that was born in Waterloo was John Wayne. We were a very patriotic 'yay rah rah America' city and nation and I think that's what America's looking for again." The problem: While actor John Wayne – the gravelly-voiced Western film star known for his characteristic walk and his conservative values– was in fact from Iowa (and, Bachmann’s campaign later pointed out, his parents briefly lived in Waterloo), he was born in Winterset, about 150 miles away. The famous similarly-named guy who did make his home in Waterloo: John Wayne Gacy -- the serial killer known for dressing as “Pogo the Clown” who buried over two dozen of his young male victims in the crawlspace of his Illinois home."

As if the errors aren't bad enough, the ". . . rah rah America" line ALONE is enough to make you vomit. I'll say it again and I hope you'll say it with me, we can ALL SAY IT TOGETHER, "Do we really want this person to be our president?"




download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak

Please Visit
http://www.rayjozwiak.com


Tweet

The news. . .

. . . includes Blagojevich, violent video games, justification for bombing Libya and Pakistan, Greek debt, Iranian missiles reaching the U.S., economists and a brighter second half, a debt ceiling, presidential elections, Bachman, Romney, Overdrive, a forecast of rain and fires in New Mexico. FIRES??

Some things never change.



download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak

Tweet

But I only want to. . .

. . . SING!! NNNAAAHHHHHH! Not really.

Joe, of the American Flyer mentioned above, was himself branching out from country into other types of music. And Joe was also, in fact, a guitarist, which naturally led to a musical collaboration. Electric guitar and accordion. And no vocals. Although not striking me at the time, I find it amusing, in hindsight, that I never attempted (thankfully) vocals (of course, POST-Wyatt Earp [see prior blogs]). While all, or most, kids who play guitars, drums and various forms of keyboards as young bands in garages and basements or an occasional backyard in the summertime, want to and do sing, I quite naturally shied away from vocals. I did play with vocalists but never seriously attempted vocals after about the age of eight.

And of course, after hearing folks like this years later, why even try? I do attempt vocals on recordings these days, but this is merely in the interest of 'demoing' the songs since I do write lyrics quite frequently. It's not something I'm very comfortable with nor very adept.




download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak

Tweet

In the beginning. . .

. . . there was Adam, then Eve. . . or was there?

"The story of Adam and Eve is not a story about the first man and woman. It is the story of every man and every woman who has ever lived. Everyone who reads the Adam and Eve story needs to be reminded that they are not reading history. Rather they are reading an ancient story that seeks to explain why things in life are the way they are. . .

. . . People who try to read the creation and Garden of Eden stories as history will always be chasing rabbits that do not exist. Myths can never be read as history. Myths do not conflict with history. History attempts to report the facts of what has happened. Myths attempt to explain why things happen the way that they do. . .

. . .The Israelite tradition says that the experience described in the Garden of Eden story is repeated by every human being. We human beings keep making the same wrong decisions over and over again. One would think that we would learn and change our ways. But we do not. The Israelite tradition says that life is unrelentingly consequential. But we constantly avoid and deny this truth. Profoundly, I believe the Adam and Eve/Garden of Eden story. People who deny it, do so at their own peril. The writing of this column was triggered by the current argument about whether or not Adam and Eve were historically the first man and woman on earth. The brief summary that I have shared is taught in every non-Fundamentalist seminary in America. I cannot fathom why ministers do not share with their congregations what they have learned in seminary. Meantime we avoid the hard truths of the stories and engage in silly discussions."

(excerpts from ADAM AND EVE ARE YOU AND I by Howard Bess
The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer, Alaska. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net)





download your
very own copy of
ANOTHER SHOT
by Ray Jozwiak

Tweet