Last Commented Music Blogs (1,259)

A beautiful Ghazal that depicts the reality of life.

There are a vast treasure of musical heritage hidden within the rural areas of West Bengal...

Here are a few sample collected from there...

Thursday, I got a message from K asking if I wanted to join her at a concert on Friday afternoon. I looked at the lineup and thought "Yeah, I'd like to see those bands", so I wrote "You're on. How much is it?" "Well it's in The Courtyard, and those shows are always free. Let's meet up in front of my place at 4 pm, so we'll get a good spot."

"Score", was my immediate thought. Live music again, without social distancing or face masks. I live for concerts, so it was really a no brainer. The bands were Lotan and Urkraft, two Danish metal bands. Lotan is black metal with satanic undertones, and Urkraft is just pure death metal. I had a great time, however.. By 6 pm, before any of the bands came on, my body suddenly decided to go "Here, have a cold!". I sneezed like mad, coughed like I was a heavy smoker and my nose was clogged. But, that wasn't going to stop me from enjoying the show. Luckily, I had a spare face mask, so I wore that. I did get some looks, but I explained it was because I was having a sudden cold, and I didn't want to pass it on to someone else. Luckily, fans of metal are an understanding bunch, so they were all "No worries, I'll just keep a foot between you and me. Cheers!"

I love metal fans.. Anyway, back to the evening!

Shortly before 9 pm, the show ended, and K and I went on our way home. I was feeling VERY rough, but I told her I could make it, even if she had to do some food shopping when we got to our stop. I did walk slowly, like someone had hit me with a truck.

She did her shopping, paid and we were off home. I followed her all the way to her door, because I am a gentleman, and I wished her a good night, and told her I had a great time. I then walked the remaining five minutes home.

I locked myself in, sat on my bed and was extremely close to falling asleep. A quick brush of my teeth later, and I was ready to fall asleep. However, I didn't get a lot of it. Mainly because of my cold, but also because I couldn't really fall in a deep sleep. I think I managed about 5 hours or so, so by the time it was 7 am, I was up again.

Here twelve hours later, I feel a lot better. I can feel the cold leaving my body, which is fantastic. I need it to be gone by Monday. If it's not gone, we'll see how I feel at 6 am. If I feel rough, I will not go to school. It sucks because I want to have a perfect attendance record, but if you're sick, you're sick.

So in summary: I spent a few great hours with K, got a cold, slept bad and now I feel better. If only I hadn't developed that stupid cold.. The evening might have turned out differently..

Anyway, tomorrow might actually be great. K and I have a semi-confirmed "date". I have invited her over to my new place, and if she can find the time tomorrow, she might come by. We'll see what happens.

Final thoughts: Black metal and death metal concerts rule!

Remembering The Real Heroes ...
The Patriots ... The Martyrs ...

You might like it, if you try it.

Seriously, Fourplay is a clever name for a band with 4 members.
An excellent pianist collected 3 other excellent musicians to play on one of his albums.

All 4 musicians already had quite successful music careers.
Well, in recording that album they enjoyed playing music together so much, the four of them decided to team up and form a band.
One of them came up with the name, Fourplay.

Their original guitarist, Chuck Loeb died.
So, they added another good guitarist, Lee Ritenour.
Lee left and they replaced him with a guitarist, that used to do studio work for the band, Steely Dan.
Larry Carlton later toured with Steely Dan and still does on occasion. He also has his own band and tours with his son, the bassist his band. Yeah, he's a busy guy. Oh, he's also won 4 Grammys

Larry's music evolved. Some people stay stuck with whatever they played & listened to in high school or college. Others grow. Larry certainly has. Thus, he's an even better guitarist now.

Here's his rendition of the song 'Blues Force' (with Fourplay);
Bob James - piano
Nathan East - Bass
Harvey Mason Jr - Drums
Larry Carlton - Guitar

One of my favorite progressive-rock bands is ELP. Sadly 2 of the members are gone now.

Keith Emerson died by suicide March 11, 2016. He had several health related issues and nerve damage in his right hand that added to his depression.

Greg Lake died from cancer on December 7, 2016

All 3 members were active after the breakup of ELP and performed a few reunion concerts.

I first heard Greg Lake around 1969 when he was with King Crimson and considered him to be one of the best vocalists of his time. While everyone was wowed by Paul Rogers (of Free) it was Greg with a more colorful sound and a wider range.

This past weekend, I binged on some ELP and also listened/watched a few Keith Emerson Band videos featuring Marc Bonilla on guitars and vocals.
They performed a melodic version of the ELP hit Lucky Man and Bonilla did a great job on vocals.

Excellent Sax, Guitar & Piano (in order of solo appearances);

This is from Houston Person's album titled 'All Soul'

Musicians;

Houston Person – tenor saxophone.
Eddie Allen – trumpet.
Stan Hope – piano.
Randy Johnston – guitar.
Per-Ola Gadd – bass.
Chip White – drums.



And as a bonus here is Randy Johnston cookin' live on guitar
with 'Secret Love' along with his trio in an intimate setting (Small's in New York City);

Randy Johnston - guitar
Pat Bianchi - organ
Fukushi Tainaka - drums

Rock on !

Guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan 'live' at Montreux 1985