COFFEE & BISCUITS

I was in New Orleans for four days, most of which I was actually working. However, my love for the city (well, at least the French Quarter area) is just as much as what I felt 4 years ago, on my visit just a couple months before Katrina. One sentence to summarize the experience: New Orleans is a different world from the rest of US. (this is the same reaction I had from my last visit).

Being in New Orleans is like travelling to the old world. It is entirely in its own world. It is slower than other US cities such as Houston, Atlanta, all those cities in East or West coast. The people, especially musicians, are more down to earth than their counterparts elsewhere in US.

I love the lazy Mississippi river. Love the creole tune. I love that for every block you walk in French Quarter, you’ll hear a different sort of music. Everywhere you go there is this upbeat sound of trombone or trumpet. Every night of those four days, my friend and I would venture into the French Quarter and go to some jazz/blues club.

And we found gold. Fritzel’s, a so called European Jazz pub, had us there for two days. I even got their CD. I can honestly say that this jazz club is the BEST that I have ever been to — in all the cities I’ve been to (SF, Chicago, HK, DC). Perhaps the jazz across these cities are not exactly comparable. (New Orlean’s jazz is the first in US, known as Dixieland Jazz). Nonetheless, I love New Orlean Jazz the best: banjo, trombone, cornet, clarinet, bass, drums, piano. Love the fedora hats.

It was a very memorable musical experience, sitting in that intimate little pub, in front of this loud, rauchy old man who kept making exclamations during the song. In this little place, all people care about is the music, not money, and not the world outside.

I remember that red-faced old man who threw a Benjamin Franklin into the bucket and requested the song “Many Mermaids” (a total impromptu). I remember how as the band played “Someday You’ll be Sorry” (written by Louis Armstrong’s wife, to Louis Armstrong), and all the old men in the audience threw up their arms during chorus to chime in.

I remember the first time I heard “St James Infirmary”, and then again the second night.

I remember the first time I heard “Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans”, and heard it again the second night.

A common word to describe the music and people I met here is “charming”. But “charming” is a little condescending. I much prefer “warm” and “passionate”, and “family-style”.

Being immersed in the jazz scene of New Orleans is a memorable, very memorable experience.

Now I am back, currently at the school library. I can’t help but relive the scene when the band played “Someday You’ll be Sorry” with that old raunchy voice yelling behind me.

On the plane back, I kept listening to this song, “Do you know what it means to miss New Orleans.” It conveys the spirit of New Orleans and its people, very well.

Since last year, I kept coming back to watching this performance of this song, by Katherine McPhee (my favorite American Idol performer next to David Cook) and Chris Botti. OHHHHH so much chemistry. As Botti puts it, Katherine has the perfect phrasing of the song. Makes me want to jump up and sing and dance. I also especially like the crescendo of the band at the first break of the song before the trumpet solo starts. What a classic!

Here are the lyrics for me to sing a long:

I’ve got you under my skin.
I’ve got you deep in the heart of me.
So deep in my heart that you’re really a part of me.
I’ve got you under my skin.
I’d tried so not to give in.
I said to myself: this affair never will go so well.
But why should I try to resist when, baby, I know so well
I’ve got you under my skin?

I’d sacrifice anything come what might
For the sake of havin’ you near
In spite of a warnin’ voice that comes in the night
And repeats, repeats in my ear:
Don’t you know, little fool, you never can win?
Use your mentality, wake up to reality.
But each time that I do just the thought of you
Makes me stop before I begin
‘Cause I’ve got you under my skin.

Search for “Por Una Cabeza Dancing” on youtube, you’ll find many awkward, stiff wedding dances to the song which in my opinion, completely butchered the passion in the dance. If you can’t do it justice, just please don’t do it.

But then I came across the following clip, of street dances in Argentina. I thought it was the best interpretation of the song I have seen yet.

In the CD version of Cruella Deville, the left hand is totally the basic 12-bars blues.

Yet, see what the following person has done to the song! SICK!

In no particular order:

1. 夜来香
2. Misty
3. So this is love
4. 不了情
5. Makin’ Whoopee
6. Unforgettable
7. Tea for Two
8. Smoke gets in your eyes
9. Ain’t Misbehaving
10. Moonriver
11. Somewhere over the rainbow
12. Bare Necessities of Life

And oh YEAH, definitely the goodies Christmas songs:
Winter wonderland,
Have yourself a merry little christmas

(will update continuously)

Is it me, or this summer feels conspicuously like fall? I am already thinking about Christmas!

I am not a fan of Mozart’s opera, but I am a fan of Mozart’s violin concertos. In particular, recently I couldn’t get enough of the following piece.

In early 1980s (or late 1970s), the Chinese government invited Isaac Stern for a “music exchange” visit to China. It was all documented in the documentary “From Mao to Mozart”. For me, the most memorable sequence of the film is when Isaac Stern taught the current Chinese National Philharmonic how to properly play this piece.

I like Cantonese rap (plain vanilla Cantonese rap…not techno/english-infused-ABC like Edison Chan’s). As P said, Cantonese has 9 tones. Perhaps this is a language meant for rap? Some Cantonese rap lyrics can be so “dei sei”.

Anyway, I find the following song by LMF (Lazy Mutha Fucka) quite soulful. Currently listening one of their older albums.

个个乎 返屋企既故事香港地算唔算是我地屋企试下只身处地去念下我地点解个个都觉得自己衰到贴地九七过后班鬼佬就纳晒包袱飞番屋企 PET低你地班孤臣儿子响树食自己厄 去到第二度又黑鬼憎丢空人咪死死地滥番来风暴过后D人就更加净是识得照顾自己无晒方向感D心态就更加投机 D贵楼就继续起 丢空无人住都继续起唔俾你搬上去等公关拒拖住你连班级饭碗都渗 无晒士气做甘多门面也都是晒气家阵既香港同以前又边树 有得比无论你去到几远记得要番屋企边度至是我地既成长地无论你去到几远记得要番屋企唔好忘记 唔好忘记无论你去到几远记得要番屋企呢度至是你地既成长地无论你去到几远最紧要识得返来咪劳气 咪泄气又有无念番起以前细个 一家人一张折台一齐食饭电视送饭 睇欢乐今宵但是家阵就各有各食喳喳琳扒完就呢埋入房玩ICQ 以前既家个个都系狮子山下睇下而家个个就要乜乜豪霆你问下你个细佬边个是卫亦迅拒唔知 净是识得有个陈亦迅以前歌仔都有甘唱我地大家系狮子山下顶硬上而家香港唔似样香港无根 香港人无归属感你班高官点唱都是废话有钱个班讲野都是甘假市民既生活就越来越差至怕个个缆住一齐等死咪怪我越描越黑无面俾无论你去到几远记得要番屋企边度至是我地既成长地无论你去到几远记得要番屋企唔好忘记 唔好忘记无论你去到几远记得要番屋企呢度至是你地既成长地无论你去到几远最紧要识得返来咪劳气 咪泄气有太多的说话如何去表达各有各的选择 是无奈既潇洒谁不想可以留在家 谁人问可对话有多少既年华

Well, I have heard of Bruce Springsteen many times, but never have I really listened to his music. And then I fanatically watched the “We are the World” clip (which I posted earlier), and the one voice that really stood up for me is Bruce Springsteen’s. You can call it howling, but I call it soul — he had it when he rocked out that phrase “we are the world” with his closed and slanted eyes. This kind of singer is quite particular to the rock music genre….I have always had the idea that the most powerful singers are rockers.

Another random thought is this: very good singers sometimes don’t demonstrate their power in their own songs…but when called to participate in other singer’s song, playing minor role, such as backup, harmonizing voice, or co-singer, they shine — very, very brightly. Some of the great singers whom I have discovered through this collaborations (and not from their own music) are: Reba (from duet with Natalie Cole), Nelly Furtado (in Michael Buble’s Quando Quando Quando), Julio Iglesia (in duet with Frank Sinatra), and now with Bruce.

Anyway, I post his song “BORN TO RUN” here. Each time I re-listen to it, my liking for it increases. The tone of this song undulates between that of the the voice of a man pleading softly, and then calling forth urgently. In particular, the way Springsteen delivers the following line with the mix of pleading, seductive desperation really touch me:

“Together wendy well live with the sadness, Ill love you with all the madness in my soul”

This is NOT a boring song. Within it there is variety. That is probably why I think it truly deserves its title as the 14th greatest guitar song in music history (as voted by Rolling Stones)

In the day we sweat it out in the streets of a runaway american dream
At night we ride through mansions of glory in suicide machines
Sprung from cages out on highway 9,
Chrome wheeled, fuel injected and steppin out over the line
Baby this town rips the bones from your back
Its a death trap, its a suicide rap
We gotta get out while were young
`cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run

Wendy let me in I wanna be your friend
I want to guard your dreams and visions
Just wrap your legs round these velvet rims
And strap your hands across my engines
Together we could break this trap
Well run till we drop, baby well never go back
Will you walk with me out on the wire
`cause baby Im just a scared and lonely rider
But I gotta find out how it feels
I want to know if love is wild, girl I want to know if love is real

Beyond the palace hemi-powered drones scream down the boulevard
The girls comb their hair in rearview mirrors
And the boys try to look so hard
The amusement park rises bold and stark
Kids are huddled on the beach in a mist
I wanna die with you wendy on the streets tonight
In an everlasting kiss

The highways jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybodys out on the run tonight but theres no place left to hide
Together wendy well live with the sadness
Ill love you with all the madness in my soul
Someday girl I dont know when were gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go and well walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us baby we were born to run