music matters

Song
Tom’s Diner by Suzanne Vega

Back story
Suzanne Vega is a New York-based singer-songwriter whose plaintive vocals and folksy arrangements have made her a staple of the liberal arts college crowd for much of the 80’s and 90’s, her most prolific period.    She is often compared to Leonard Cohen, as both use poetic metaphor and spoken-word phrasing to explore themes of love and loss.

Why this song
The recent funky live performance with the Roots (see below) re-sparked my interest in Tom’s Diner.  When Suzanne Vega wrote the song in the early 80’s, she envisioned it for piano and voice, but since she didn’t play piano, she decided to sing unaccompanied.  She opened concerts with the song to channel her energy and to encourage the audience to settle down, and claims it has never failed her.  An interesting side note is that the original a cappella recording was used a reference track for those developing the MP3 file format.  Apparently the warmth of her unprocessed voice was very difficult to preserve during MP3 compression, so the algorithm was fine-tuned until this song sounded acceptable.  Thus Suzanne Vega is sometimes called “The Mother of the MP3.”

More info
Suzanne talks about the song
Wikipedia

Check it out

This is the web-only video recently recorded with the Roots for the Jimmy Fallon Show. That’s right, Suzanne Vega and the Roots! She was on the show to play an acoustic version of a song from her new record, and graciously agreed to perform this song with the Roots during a sound-check.

This is the original a cappella version. Also available on her Solitude Standing album.

Finally, this is the remixed version by DNA that made the song famous. Suzanne liked this remix (done without her permission) so much that she allowed it to be officially released by her label.

Buy it
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010

Robert Glasper was in Seattle this week for a 2-night run at Jazz Alley, and I caught his show on March 24.  He is touring with a quartet, billed as the Robert Glasper Experiment – Robert Glasper (piano and Fender Rhodes), Casey Benjamin (saxophone and vocoder), Derrick Hodge (bass) and Chris Dave (drums).  The group was in fine form, and played non-stop for over two hours, focusing on the funky, electronic side of jazz.

He started the show with solo piano.  Not sure if this was to put the crowd at ease or demonstrate that he can actually play the piano, but either way, it was a gentle and effective beginning.  From then on, the band was in full-on “Experiment” mode.  At one point someone in the crowd suggested a favorite, and he responded “Yeah, I like that one, too, but that’s a trio piece.”  Robert moved effortlessly from piano to the Fender Rhodes, sometimes playing both simultaneously.  Styles varied widely throughout the evening, moving from soul to jazz fusion to modern jazz to funk and back again.  The overall vibe was a mix of Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters, plus a little bit of modern jazz and pop thrown in.  This is the mashed-up sound of the future of music.

The playing was top notch, with Robert acting as bandleader from the side of the stage.  He took his fair share of solos (focusing on the vibe over all else), but managed to stay just left of center, allowing others to be in the spotlight for most of the night.  Casey Benjamin took center stage on many numbers.  His alto and soprano saxophone work was great, but I was even more impressed with his vocoder/keytar work.  For those unfamiliar with this musical device, it combines vocal sounds with an instrument (usually a synthesizer), producing a hybrid spacey sound.  Think “Mr. Roboto,” but not cheesy.  Many critics say the vocoder is a silly distraction from the music, but I disagree.  Casey Benjamin proves that it can be just as effective and exciting as other instruments.  Seeing the undeniable joy on his face while he was singing/playing the lead via vocoder was mesmerizing.

Chris Dave was forceful, adding rhythmic accents at every turn, and attacking the beat so ferociously that the venue was shaking.  It’s been a long time since I’ve seen so many heads bounce back and forth at a jazz show.  The bassist Derrick Hodge kept the groove anchored, and took a nice solo at the beginning of the show’s closing number, Open Mind, which he wrote.

Robert is known for fusing gospel, jazz and hip-hop, but I was not aware of his skills as an arranger.  He seamlessly combined his own material with Radiohead’s “All I Need” and Stevie Wonder’s “Superwoman (Where Were You When I Needed You).”  Each song flowed into the next, so the groove continued the entire night.  The final song must have lasted over 20 minutes, with the band pushing for one more round, obviously not wanting the music to end.  Overall, it was a very satisfying show.  And to think this is just ½ of his current repertoire, with the acoustic jazz work unrepresented on this tour.  We will be hearing much more from Robert Glasper in the coming years.

Check it out

This is a video from 2008 and gives you a feel for the “Experiment” sound.

This is off his Double Booked release and showcases the use of Casey’s vocoder.

Buy his music
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Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010