'hIP trOPe'

'hIP trOPe' 9/12/14 I was talking with a friend the other night and somehow got goin' on some of the things I've seen bout peoples bein heard . It started with me tellin him about Art Tatum and how unbelivable this guy was/is . For alot of folks , if you don't compose music, your own music , then in a way you're just a musician , a hired gun or worse , a hack . To get the respect you have to 'create' somthing . Well Art Tatum got credit for very few recordings , choosing to do other peoples songs . But he made everyone of them his own . Turning them on their heads , playing 'em backwards and throwing in a few tunes on top of the original melody , just for fun . Twisting the song in such a rapid fire fashion that you could barely keep hold of the tune that started as close to normal sounding. So , through fantastic improvisation , created somthing altogether new . Like the first time I heard Hendrixs play 'All Along The Watchtower' , thinking wow, I never knew Dylan could sound like that .! Same thing with Tatum in his day , astounding everyone but especially the greatest musicians in the land . Incredible imagination that combined with a steel trap memory that allowed him to renavigate and delight every aspect of your notions about where this story was going or could ever end . On the listening front ; I went to see/hear 'Hawkwind' a few nights ago and had a good time . I had wondered what it would be like and found out that Nick Turner , the sax/flautist for one of the early versions of this storied band would be 'fronting' the show and was the only "original" member . The backing band didn't dissapoint playing with precission and studied abandon . The lead guitarist was another Brit , a hotshot all-round rocker named Nick Garratt who brought a band from (?) Portland to help with the Hawkwind ovure , playing loud and fast on those punkish anthems or slow and spacey on the more romantic , landscape tapestry pieces , like traveling the English country-side in a hot air baloon on acid . When it got loud the bass was the seismic thunder rattling the rafters . Then there was Arianna on , well she was a violin player with her band 'Hedersleben' , and got to stretch out on her fiddle a little in the set they did before coming back magically transformed into 'Hawkwind' , but the only stretching out she did with Nick Turner on stage was in a see-through jump suit , in a sort of comic juxtaposition with the 74 year old next to her in perfect mime of Anastasia from her strip routine of back in the day . With the band so intent on 'acting' and sounding like the original it made me wonder to what lengths will someone go in serching for the "AUTHENTIC" . ? On another but similar note , I saw a band on Jimmy Kimmel the other night and they were alright , I could look up their name but it isn't that important to my point . They were a kind of rock/pop band , heavy on the romantic voicings of the lead singer , and the whole band was white . BUT , they had 3 black vocalists backing him up , you know , doing the doo-wahs and repeating verse and doing what they're sposed to do , but wait a minute ... I've seen this same combo or formula about half a dozen times lately , mostly on late night TV like Kimmel or Carson Daly or some of the other ones . And I'm thinking here's another group searching for a sound that's authentic , maybe add a little soulfulness here with the Sisters cooing and swaying on the side . Maybe get a little 'sexy' with it . ?? Or maybe somebody told them it (their sound), needed somthing , more , I don't know but it strikes me as odd how many groups are using that 'soul' card to try and make it these days . Of course it's like deja vu all over again . And for a final thought ; Listening to a Brittany Spears interview the other night (on the Telly), I swear there was an 'auto-tune' on when she was talking , and then sombody turned it off . I don't know if it was Brittany's idea of a joke but once again I'm hit with questions about reaching for the 'authentic' and how far down what promised but lost road will some seeming desperate folks travel to find IT ??? Pax-On , MikL