http://cptv.vo.llnwd.net/o2/ypmwebcontent/Commodore%20Skahill/Colin%20McEnroe%20Show%2005-16-2012.mp3
I once heard a story about Liza Minelli talking to a fellow singer about her approach to a song called "Bobo's Bar and Grille." It's a Kander and Ebb song and not one of their really memorable ones. Anyway, it turned out that Minelli had an explanation, a motivation, a strategy for how to sing every word of the song. And when she got to the end of all that she said: "Or" --dramatic exhalation of cigarette smoke -- "you could just sing the damn thing." Actually, she said something a little more colorful than "damn thing."
That sums up, for me, a fundamental tension in music -- listening to it or performing it. You can do a lot of thinking about it or you can just get into it at a fairly instinctual level. And nowhere is this tension more evident than in jazz. A lot of us just like jazz without necessarily knowing anything about straight aids or trading fours. We were not told there would be math. Does there need to be?
Noah Baerman will be at The Buttonwood Tree Performing Arts & Cultural Center in Middletown on Thursday, May 24th at 7:30pm.
He'll also be at Castle Street Cafe in Great Barrington, MA, on Saturday, July 21st at 8pm.
Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin.
