Onward and upward, so to speak
Since the end of the Pepsi-iTunes contest I’ve had to console myself with the free iTunes $15.00 gift card that Amazon.com was giving away with select purchases. I bought the 6-pack of pod-socks and Apple’s fitted earbuds. Perhaps because the earbuds really boost the bass, I’ve been gathering a number of tracks that pump up the ‘fat’ sound. The latest of these was mentioned in my post about taxes – “For the Love of Money” by The O’Jays. The rhythm established in the first 50 seconds lays a base for true funk artistry. How bass players keep the same intricate line moving through a piece like this amazes me. The vocals wind around it like a snake climbing a tree and the other instruments punctuate the highlights fantastically. Like many songs of the era, this one takes on a societal power base (i.e., money) and illustrates the inequities it creates. Truly marvelous.
On a somewhat lighter note comes a quartet of tunes from the Verve Unmixed and Verve Remixed albums. The latter collections feature Jazz standards brought into the more modern world by electronically supplementing the original recordings with sampling and complimentary music. “Manteca (Funky Lowlives Remix)” featuring Dizzy Gillespie has the fat vibe often associated with cool, lounge music – think James Coburn– thanks to the marvelous horn work of the incomparable Mr. Gillespie. Clear direction from the percussion keeps everything moving at a casual, laid back pace. The same feeling is evoked by “Peter Gunn (Max Sedgley Remix)” featuring Sarah Vaughn. Yes, it has vocals. Despite having several renditions of this tune (including a recently downloaded rock version by Roy Buchanan), I’ve never heard lyrics applied to it before. Perhaps because of this novelty I’ve a hard time of late keeping the tune and Miss Vaughn’s sultry voice out of my head. If it were any more ingrained in my brain I could delete it off my iPod. The mixing mostly involves reverbs and samples of the vocals. If there are additional music strains they sound extraordinarily natural. Dinah Washington was similarly remixed in “Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby? (Rae and Christian Remix).” The music doesn’t have any noticeable changes until compared the original. Then some time stretching and additional percussion is detectable. Miss Washington’s voice is also put through sampling and reverb, a classic sign of a remix. It is also clear that that Verve has definite preferences for smoky female voices in their remixes. Maybe it is because women in Jazz seldom have Pop-style voices.
Nina Simone certainly doesn’t have a pop voice. Thank goodness Verve released an unmixed version of “Feeling Good” as the cover isn’t nearly as good. Continuing with the fat sound, the horns on this piece might remind the casual listener of the “Theme from Perry Mason” (an excellent cover of which can be found on the Blues Brothers 2000 soundtrack). There’s a sense of desperation lent to the tune by the horns providing the fat sound and the strings add a counterpoint of hope with some help from some light piano work.
It seems that vocals are a continuing preference lately. Nearly a dozen of my contest acquisitions featured superior vocals. I never did pick up the Shirley Bassey I had my ears on, but I still might pick them up yet. Another artist that hasn’t been in my library finally is … Frank Sinatra. His “Fly Me to the Moon” is an absolute essential but I’ve been so busy looking for “My Way” that I’ve overlooked it. ‘Old Blue Eyes’ had a wonderful voice that was velvety smooth, had versatile range, and a unique tone that made every song uniquely his.
That was one of just a couple exceptions to the recent spate of ‘fat sounds’ downloads. The other is “Veggie Tales Theme Song” by Rebecca St. James. It is one of several songs on Veggie Tales: Veggie Rocks! based on the popular cartoons. While it is a pretty good rock song, the silly lyrics keep it from being the hard rock song the melody and orchestration want it to be.
