This is one of these questions, like
What's been happening with you recently?that I never know the answer to. One thing that occurs to me is that if someone would just come by my apartment and look at the CDs on my shelves, they'd quickly realize the answer. Much better than I could figure it out myself.
But then I don't even really like all the CDs I have all that much. Some of them are just things I bought for rather bizarre reasons.
Okay, to start with, what's in the bedroom is mostly jazz. Not new age stuff, and not really ancient stuff either. Mostly classic bebop from the Fifties (i.e. approximately 1945 to 1962). Lots and lots of Miles Davis and John Coltrane. Quite a bit of Duke Ellington, but that's partly because I had to buy a lot of albums before I found the ones I was looking for. Also some Jimmy Smith and some Dexter Gordon.
Wynton Marsalis, but I'm not super enthusiastic about him. He's got really good technique, and he's a fantastic teacher (if you've seen him on PBS), but he's never going to be Miles. Joshua Redman is extremely good. Some guitar stuff, Kenny Burrell, Joe Pass.
It's not that I'm totally against more modern stuff. I like Randy Weston. And Keith Jarrett, I've got several Keith Jarrett albums and wouldn't mind having a few more.
My daughter gave me a Pat Metheny album called Off Ramp which I like a lot, but I've never been able to find anything else by him I like.
Okay, now in the living room: Lots of country-western, you'd notice that right away. But I don't really like most country-western that much, it's too bland: plastic, white-bread. I've got lots of Waylon Jennings, because I keep looking for the albums that I keep not finding. The way he shouts is okay, but there was an album called ``Ladies Love Outlaws'' that I used to have on vinyl where he doesn't shout, but sings with a really rich, deep, nourishing voice. I guess for some reason they never put it on CD.
I've got several Lyle Lovett albums. I like K.D. Lang's [excuse upper case, but I'm old fashioned] first album, Shadowland, but I don't care much for the later, more pretentious ones. Absolute Torch and Twang is okay.
I've only got one David Allen Coe album, but I'd put that one up against most of Waylon Jennings and all of Willie Nelson. And Dwight Yoakum is just not in the same ball park, but I do have one of his albums. And a couple by Merle Haggard, because I figure that everyone ought to have a little Merle Haggard around, just for when one gets in that mood.
Okay, on to country girl singers. Reba McIntire is okay, I've got a couple of her albums. And Shelby Lynne, 'cause I like her really loud voice. And The Best of Linda Rondstadt, because I figured I ought to have something by her.
But the girl singer who is really conspicuous in my CW selection is Emmylou Harris. I don't have every album she ever made, but I've got a whole bunch of them.
And then some girl jazz singers. Kitty Margolis, because I've heard her live in San Francisco and she's a really nice person, and also a pretty good scat singer. I'll buy any album she makes. And Annie Ross (Lambert Hendricks and Ross), who is definitely listenable. And Suzannah McCorkle, a fairly young jazz singer who, as far as I'm concerned, sounds a lot better than a lot of the older well known classics. And Ella Fitzgerald, because like Merle Haggard, you just can't not have her available. No Billie Holliday, but that's an omission. Most of the rest of the girl jazz singers I have represent attempts to find something I could just never find.
Then boy jazz singers. Not so many of those. Eddie Jefferson, King Pleasure, Babs Gonzales. All well know bebop singers from the Fifties and early Sixties. Like with the girl singers, I keep looking for a certain sound that I've heard but can never track down.
And then a small collection of classic Sixties rock: the Doors, Bob Dylan (six or eight albums), the Stones, Janis Joplin(almost everything), the Eagles, Lou Reed, Pink Floyd. I don't listen to these very often, but you gotta have it for when you need it. The Grateful Dead. (And yeah, I know, some of this is Seventies, but it's all Sixties to me.)
And a whole bunch of blues, but not much I really like, except for Etta James and B.B. King. And Chuck Berry, who I have shelved under Blues for whatever reason. And Paul Butterfield, but I never got the album by him I really wanted.
Several Big Band recordings, although I'm not really that keen on Big Band. Several Harry James albums. (Hey, don't knock him until you've heard him. They guy had a really lush sound on the trumpet. I discovered him because Woody Allen uses his sound.) Again, just like Merle Haggard and Ella Fitzgerald, something to have available for those rare moments when I want it.
Likewise for classical music. I have no well developed taste in classical music, all I want is something that sounds "classical." I have a handful of baroque: Vivaldi, Corelli, Boccherini, and Bach (the Brandenberg Concertos, what else?) (There's basically only one piece by Boccherini anyone ever wants to hear, a string quartet. Famous for its use in the Alec Guiness movie The Lavender Hill Mob. I keep winding up with everything else except that one). A little Mozart, although he's one of my least favorite composers. I used to play him on the piano a lot when I was in high school. And Beethoven's Ninth, just in case I'm in that particular kind of mood.
And a little more modern stuff. Nothing twelve-tone (although maybe one day I'll buy something by Alban Berg, maybe the violin concerto which I used to have in vinyl).
A little Ravel and Debussy. In fact, the soundtrack from Un Coeur en Hiver, which I highly recommend. It's probably the only really decent classical music I have. That and the Bartok string quartets, anyway.
What kind of Music Do You Like, Lee?
You see, it's the wrong question. What you should ask is, ``What kind of music are you interested in?''
That one I can answer. That's the one my daughter understands. She knows that I'll also be interested in hearing anything a little odd, anything really strange.
Tom Waits. Not because I like his singing, not because I like his gravelly drunken voice. But because whatever he sings, it's almost always interesting. It's Poetry and Jazz, and he does it a lot better than most of the old beatniks did. I have all of his CDs except the compilation album Big Time. I discovered that when I bought one of his albums, no matter how much I might dislike it at first because of the dreadful voice, by the time I listened to it a few times I'd find something in it that touched me really deeply.
With all respect to Bob Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and other great song lyricists/poets, listening to Tom Waits is the one thing that really makes me wish that I wrote more poetry.
Laurie Anderson, although purely as a singer she's not even in the competition. But she's an incredibly great writer/comedian/performer/performance artist.
Leonard Cohen.
The Bobs. Can you imagine a group that would sing Jimmi Hendricks and Led Zeppelin acapella? These guys are truly bizarre. This was a present from my daughter, who also gave me a jazz rap group (``acid jazz'') called Digable Planets.
Emmylou Harris doing ``Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend'' as a rap song. Until you've this version, you've never really thought about what those lyrics really say.
I've made up a couple of tapes of music I find especially strange and interesting, and occasionally I give a copy of one to a friend. (No, I'm not offering them over the net, for money or otherwise. One ought to have at least a little respect for the copyright laws.) In a way, these tapes are an acid test for people I'm getting to know. If someone doesn't appreciate them, that that's probably not someone I want to be friends with.
Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies
Strippers, Swingers, etc. / Poets and Low Life