I am always surprised at how our musical tastes so closely intersect at times. Tom Lehrer! I had so many of his songs in my piano bar repertoire. So funny, and listen to that piano playing! And he's still alive. 96 years old.
I think I played "Take Five" too many times, over the years, to remember just what a breakthrough that was. I'm going to listen again this weekend.
And in the "Gone Too Soon" department, Al Jarreau. I only saw him once live. But he delivered the goods, oh did he deliver the goods.
And Tom Lehrer has made all of his songs available for free download and put the music in public domain: https://tomlehrersongs.com/
"I, Tom Lehrer, individually and as trustee of the Tom Lehrer Trust 2007, hereby grant the following permissions:
All copyrights to lyrics or music written or composed by me have been permanently and irrevocably relinquished, and therefore such songs are now in the public domain. All of my songs that have never been copyrighted, having been available for free for so long, are now also in the public domain. In other words, I have abandoned, surrendered and disclaimed all right, title and interest in and to my work and have injected any and all copyrights into the public domain.
Thanks for posting that here, NickS. I linked that site when we marked his birthday in April, but since I hadn't restarted playing my flute then, it wasn't in the context of me potentially playing any of Lehrer's music. Now I'm curious to see what I might be able to attempt.
Yep; we celebrated Lehrer's birthday here. Many of his pieces sound like they're fun to play.
I would have liked to see Al Jarreau live, but I don't think I ever had an opportunity. The metal-hating former spouse wasn't big on jazz either, and definitely not scatting.
Such a great tune. I love Joe Morello's extended drum solo over Dave Brubeck's vamp. The rest of the album is wonderful, too, and still sounds fresh after all the intervening years of 4/4 and 3/4 dominance.
One of my all time favorites. Thanks for this!
I am always surprised at how our musical tastes so closely intersect at times. Tom Lehrer! I had so many of his songs in my piano bar repertoire. So funny, and listen to that piano playing! And he's still alive. 96 years old.
I think I played "Take Five" too many times, over the years, to remember just what a breakthrough that was. I'm going to listen again this weekend.
And in the "Gone Too Soon" department, Al Jarreau. I only saw him once live. But he delivered the goods, oh did he deliver the goods.
And Tom Lehrer has made all of his songs available for free download and put the music in public domain: https://tomlehrersongs.com/
"I, Tom Lehrer, individually and as trustee of the Tom Lehrer Trust 2007, hereby grant the following permissions:
All copyrights to lyrics or music written or composed by me have been permanently and irrevocably relinquished, and therefore such songs are now in the public domain. All of my songs that have never been copyrighted, having been available for free for so long, are now also in the public domain. In other words, I have abandoned, surrendered and disclaimed all right, title and interest in and to my work and have injected any and all copyrights into the public domain.
..."
Beautiful! As I wrote years ago, Who's Afraid of the Public Domain? <https://stpeter.im/writings/essays/publicdomain.html>
I did not know that, Nick. But definitely in character for TL.
Thanks for posting that here, NickS. I linked that site when we marked his birthday in April, but since I hadn't restarted playing my flute then, it wasn't in the context of me potentially playing any of Lehrer's music. Now I'm curious to see what I might be able to attempt.
Yep; we celebrated Lehrer's birthday here. Many of his pieces sound like they're fun to play.
I would have liked to see Al Jarreau live, but I don't think I ever had an opportunity. The metal-hating former spouse wasn't big on jazz either, and definitely not scatting.
Such a great tune. I love Joe Morello's extended drum solo over Dave Brubeck's vamp. The rest of the album is wonderful, too, and still sounds fresh after all the intervening years of 4/4 and 3/4 dominance.
I didn't get to listen to the full album yesterday and probably won't today, either. But I will soon! Really looking forward to it.