(from wikipedia.com)
"Hallelujah" is a song written by Canadian singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, originally released on his album Various Positions (1984). Achieving little initial success, the song found greater popular acclaim through a cover by John Cale, which later formed the basis for a cover by Jeff Buckley. It is the subject of the book The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley & the Unlikely Ascent of "Hallelujah" (2012) by Alan Light. In a New York Times review of this, Janet Maslin praises the book and the song, noting that "Cohen spent years struggling with his song 'Hallelujah.' . . . He wrote perhaps as many as 80 verses before paring the song down." Many cover versions have been performed by many and various singers, both in recordings and in concert, with over 300 versions known. The song has been used in film and television soundtracks, and televised talent contests. It is often called one of the greatest songs of all-time
In 2004, k.d. lang recorded a version of "Hallelujah" on her album Hymns of the 49th Parallel. She has since sung it at several major events, such as at the Canadian Juno Awards of 2005, where it "brought the audience to its feet for a two-minute ovation." Lang also sang it at the 2006 Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame when Cohen was inducted into the Hall of Fame. Cohen's partner, singer Anjani Thomas, said: "After hearing k.d. lang perform that song at the Canadian Songwriter's Hall of Fame in 2006 we looked at each other and said, 'well, I think we can lay that song to rest now! It's really been done to its ultimate blissful state of perfection'." Lang sang it at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, before a claimed TV audience of three billion.
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(from wikipedia.com)
. . . (Keith) Jarrett grew up in suburban Allentown, Pennsylvania with significant early exposure to music. He possessed absolute pitch, and he displayed prodigious musical talents as a young child. He began piano lessons just before his third birthday, and at age five he appeared on a TV talent program hosted by the swing bandleader Paul Whiteman. The young Jarrett gave his first formal piano recital at the age of seven, playing works by composers including Mozart, Bach, Beethoven, and Saint-Saëns, and ending with two of his own compositions.[4] Encouraged especially by his mother, Jarrett took intensive classical piano lessons with a series of teachers, including Eleanor Sokoloff of the Curtis Institute.
In his teens, as a student at Emmaus High School in Emmaus, Pennsylvania, Jarrett learned jazz and quickly became proficient in it. In his early teens, he developed a strong interest in the contemporary jazz scene; a Dave Brubeck performance was an early inspiration. At one point, he had an offer to study classical composition in Paris with the famed teacher Nadia Boulanger—an opportunity that pleased Jarrett's mother but that Jarrett, already leaning toward jazz, decided to turn down.
Following his graduation from Emmaus High School in 1963, Jarrett moved from Allentown to Boston, Massachusetts, where he attended the Berklee College of Music and played cocktail piano in local clubs. After a year he moved to New York City, where he played at the Village Vanguard.
In New York, Art Blakey hired Jarrett to play with the Jazz Messengers. During a show with that group he was noticed by Jack DeJohnette who (as he recalled years later) immediately realized the talent and the unstoppable flow of ideas of the unknown pianist. DeJohnette talked to Jarrett and soon recommended him to his own band leader, Charles Lloyd. The Charles Lloyd Quartet had formed not long before and were exploring open, improvised forms while building supple grooves; without quite realizing it at first, they were moving into terrain that was also being explored, although from another stylistic background, by some of the psychedelic rock bands of the west coast. Their 1966 album Forest Flower was one of the most successful jazz recordings of the mid-1960s and when they were invited to play the Fillmore in San Francisco, they won over the local hippie audience. Although the band would become plagued by internal instability and (according to Jarrett) siphoning-off of show revenue by Lloyd, its tours across America and Europe, even to Moscow, made Jarrett a widely noticed musician in rock and jazz underground circles. It also laid the foundations of a lasting musical bond with drummer Jack DeJohnette (who also plays the piano). The two would cooperate in many contexts during their later careers.
In those years, Jarrett also began to record his own tracks as a leader of small informal groups, at first in a trio with Charlie Haden and Paul Motian. Jarrett's first album as a leader, Life Between the Exit Signs (1967), was released on the Vortex label, to be followed by Restoration Ruin (1968), which is arguably the most bizarre entry in the Jarrett catalog. Not only does Jarrett barely touch the piano, but he plays all the other instruments on what is essentially a folk-rock album, and even sings. Another trio album with Haden and Motian, titled Somewhere Before, followed later in 1968, this one recorded live for Atlantic Records.. . . Jarrett has acknowledged that audiences, and even fellow musicians, have at times been convinced he is African American, due to his appearance.[19] He relates an incident when African American jazz musician Ornette Coleman approached him backstage, and said something like, "Man, you've got to be black. You just have to be black", to which Jarrett replied, "I know. I know. I'm working on it.". . . "
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My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:
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. . . they're everywhere. Possibly even in your chair right now.
That's right. I would like you to be a critic. Simply visit http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3, listen to the samples, (hopefully buy the album), then login to CD Baby.com and write your own review. And you can write anything you want! Tell everyone you love it, hate, find it distasteful, were offended, were bored, danced all night after listening, would never listen to it with a Savignon Blanc. . . WHATEVER YOU WANT! Because, simply because, I would love to hear from you.
Black
& White Then Back transports you to a complete range aural locales
inhabited by emotions, sentiments, memories, hopes, joys and challenges
we've all encountered.
Genre: Jazz: Piano Jazz
Release Date: 2013
available for download only
Tracks
song title
time
1. Cheer
5:47
2. Blood Brother
8:04
3. 12 Hours
6:37
4. Always You
4:19
5. Low Lights
4:44
6. Distraction
6:29
7. 3rd Hand Intelligence
9:55
8. Goosefight
5:42
9. Little Men
6:08
10. Zed
5:49
ABOUT THIS ALBUM
Album Notes
Creative
Musician Ray Jozwiak's new, digital-download only, solo, instrumental
piano music release Black & White Then Back transports you to aural
locales inhabited by emotions, sentiments, memories, hopes, joys and
challenges we've all encountered. You may even hear a snippet of a song
you remember from childhood, have flashes of your first date, recall
aromas from the kitchen when you visited your grandmother, remember your
favorite summer vacation or when you fell in love.
Ray Jozwiak, Gonzo Piano [Gonzo: Definition of GONZO 1: idiosyncratically subjective but engagé 2: bizarre 3: freewheeling or unconventional especially to the point of outrageousness ] has
been making music of one kind or another for over forty years. He
currently writes, records and performs his unique original music and
also participates in the creation of prog/rock/folk/jazz music with
Baltimore's longtime, iconic band "Oho"
From Eric Boehlert, Senior Fellow, Media Matters for America (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/ben-carson-fox-news_b_2998799.html)
". . . Obviously, if (Dr. Ben) Carson aspires to be a serious national leader and wants to groom himself for a possible presidential run he shouldn't have spent the last two months making nearly 20 appearances on Fox News. And he certainly shouldn't have teamed up with comically unserious Fox if one of his crusades is to help educate voters whom Carson thinks are being poorly informed by the press.
"You know, intelligent people tend to talk about the facts," Carson recently said, condemning those who reduce political disagreements to the kind you find on a "third grade playground." He urged partisans to "find some accommodation" and to "tone down the rhetoric a little bit."
He said these things while appearing on Fox News, the cable bastion of name-calling and blind partisanship.
So yes, it's difficult to take Carson's pontificating seriously when he treats Fox News, of all places, as a serious meeting place of ideas. Did Carson not think it was odd that people on Fox were constantly saying things like, "I would vote for you in a heartbeat." "This guy's a star." "Hallelujah. Amen. I don't think that anybody could have said it better." Is that what he considers to be normal political give and take, or did he knowingly sign up for hero worship duty?. . . "
(from Marcela Y., Odenton [MD])
"To say that, and I quote Daniel Rodricks, "Ben Carson had firmly developed, antiquated beliefs that he wants a wide audience to hear," is an understatement ("Ben Carson's conservative views are drawn from the Bible" Mar 30). Dr. Carson is an admirable man because of the contributions in pediatrics that he has made throughout his career, but as a human being and as a member of our society, he needs to educate himself and understand that this is 2013 and we, as a society, need to evolve. How sad to know that such an intelligent man is so narrow minded and ill informed."
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http://www.rayjozwiak.com/guestbook.html
My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
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From Captain Beefheart's (Don Van Vliet) "10 On Guitar". . .
1. Listen to the birds.
That's where all the music comes from. Birds know everything about how it should sound and where that sound should come from. And watch hummingbirds. They fly really fast, but a lot of times they aren't going anywhere.
2. Your guitar is not really a guitar Your guitar is a divining rod.
Use it to find spirits in the other world and bring them over. A guitar is also a fishing rod. If you're good, you'll land a big one.
3. Practice in front of a bush
Wait until the moon is out, then go outside, eat a multi-grained bread and play your guitar to a bush. If the bush doesn't shake, eat another piece of bread.
4. Walk with the devil
Old Delta blues players referred to guitar amplifiers as the "devil box." And they were right. You have to be an equal opportunity employer in terms of who you're bringing over from the other side. Electricity attracts devils and demons. Other instruments attract other spirits. An acoustic guitar attracts Casper. A mandolin attracts Wendy. But an electric guitar attracts Beelzebub.
5. If you're guilty of thinking, you're out
If your brain is part of the process, you're missing it. You should play like a drowning man, struggling to reach shore. If you can trap that feeling, then you have something that is fur bearing.
6. Never point your guitar at anyone
Your instrument has more clout than lightning. Just hit a big chord then run outside to hear it. But make sure you are not standing in an open field.
7. Always carry a church key
That's your key-man clause. Like One String Sam. He's one. He was a Detroit street musician who played in the fifties on a homemade instrument. His song "I Need a Hundred Dollars" is warm pie. Another key to the church is Hubert Sumlin, Howlin' Wolf's guitar player. He just stands there like the Statue of Liberty-making you want to look up her dress the whole time to see how he's doing it.
8. Don't wipe the sweat off your instrument
You need that stink on there. Then you have to get that stink onto your music.
9. Keep your guitar in a dark place
When you're not playing your guitar, cover it and keep it in a dark place. If you don't play your guitar for more than a day, be sure you put a saucer of water in with it.
10. You gotta have a hood for your engine
Keep that hat on. A hat is a pressure cooker. If you have a roof on your house, the hot air can't escape. Even a lima bean has to have a piece of wet paper around it to make it grow.
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AAAAANNNNNDDDDD. . . . .
My latest release, Black & White Then Back,
can be downloaded digitally at:
(or you can copy-and-paste this URL directly to
your browser: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/rayjozwiak3)
This is the Day. . . April 2, 2013 My new, digital-download only, solo, instrumental piano music release BLACK & WHITE then BACK is now available at www.cdbaby.com. The first exclusively solo acoustic piano music release since 2008's critically acclaimed 'Put A Finger On It'.
BLACK & WHITE then BACK transports you to aural locales inhabited by emotions, sentiments, memories, hopes, joys and challenges- life events that we have all encountered. You may even hear a snippet of an old song you remember from childhood, have flashes from your first date with that special person, recall the evocative aromas from the kitchen while visiting your grandmother, remember your favorite summer vacation . . . or maybe even the first time you fell in love.
BLACK & WHITE then BACK is a digital download-only release brought to you by Boskey Dell & Sylvan Glade Records and www.cdbaby.com.
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You can NOW download
your
very own copy of Ray Jozwiak's
newest release:
AMBIENCE & WINE
