I woke up this morning to alarm from a house to the Northeast of my neighborhood. The whoop… whoop… whoop… disturbed the dogs restless slumber so I got up to take care of them, made my coffee, and went about the usual morning routine at an early hour. I knew I wanted to write something today, but I didn’t want to write part two of “We Don’t Need No Education.”

After eating a little breakfast, drank some coffee, snuggled with my old man (Mack the Mastiff) who is six. I decided to write something about music without being too musical. After all I was listening to my music collection on my laptop softly to distract from the annoying tinnitus I suffer. Yes, I have uploaded all of my compact discs and records to a laptop. I’m a gen x problem child. I like to hold my music and read the liner notes. This newfound streaming process with commercials or a fees is not interesting to me. I want to browse my collection on random and listen away. Soooo here is what happened.

When I opened up my lap top the first song that played was You Might Die Trying by the Dave Matthews Band from their 2009 European Tour. I know, most people dislike DMB. Dave’s voice, the improvisation, the thick textures, whatever. I love DMB. Something about this odd collection of minstrels has spoken to my heart for years. Their music has been a lifeline for me. I love the DMB community for their love of life and embracing of the instantaneous. Like Jimmy Buffet there is culture of something intangible when it comes to the music.

The next tune was a movement from the Johannes Brahms Double Concerto for Violin and Cello. Brahms and I have a love/hate relationship, but as I have matured I am appreciating his work more and more. I remember picking this recording up for a dollar at a library sale. I also remembering hearing the Chicago Symphony play this in Normal, IL when I was a junior music education major, back in the 20th. They also played a Beethoven symphony, but it’s funny how I remember the Brahms over the Beethoven.

This was followed by Man on a Mission by Van Halen. This was a Sammy Hagar recording. I liked Hagar’s work with Van Halen more than David Lee Roth or Gary Cherones. No offense, but Sammy is the better musician. Cherone is accomplished in his own right, but his collaboration with Nuno Bettencourt on Extreme’s catalog is a marriage of sonic perfection. The Van Halen experiment just didn’t work.

There were several others: A clarinet ensemble, A sinfonietta from Takuo Yausa, a Hebrew Song set by Eric Whitacre, a couple of Dave Matthews tunes Crash into me and Rooftop. The first was a 1996 Dave and Tim Reynolds duet, and the latter was 2014 recording from Berkeley (Live Trax Vol. 32.) Rashawn Ross is the trumpet player with DMB, and I am so thankful to hear him play on all of these recordings… Oh yeah… I’m a super fan of DMB. I know… heard it all before… he’s an affectation of the Jam Band sector… his metaphors are feckless… blah blah blah… I still like his work.

Just remember “there are two types of music in this world.” Oh wait, Horn Concerto #1-Franz Joseph Haydn. I believe it was Louis Armstrong that is the originator of the quote. Those types are good and bad. If music speaks to you in some fashion it is good. If it doesn’t speak to you, it is bad. Regardless, music can move seamlessly between these two values. All it requires is time, a change in our perspective, a neuron connecting with another at the right time, and an open-mindedness to the infinite possibilities. Wait: Piano Sonata #9 by Mozart. Daniel Barenboim is the pianist. Anyway, never close your mind off to music.

In my collection of music I have acquired hundreds of recordings over 40+ years. Some people collect salt and pepper shakers. My wife collects mice figurines. I collect music, and books. My first cd was a Canadian Brass cd of Dixieland jazz. My second was Gustav Holst’s The Planets. They are alphabetized by genre and displayed in my home on a shelving unit I built out of recycled redwood from a barn. It contains numerous classical music recordings spanning all of history. Don’t ask me for a favorite composer. Then there are the jazz recordings (hundreds.) I love Charles Mingus and Miles Davis. I also have a soft spot for vocalists Diane Shuur and Diana Krall. Then I have about 45 years or so of Drum Corps International finals recordings. I love drum and bugle corps music. The activity keeps evolving. Then I have my broadway and film scores. Then there is my rock/pop/country/rap collection. The latter two are very small. Country music for me is about edge. Very few artists bring an edge to the genre. Johnny Cash and Lyle Lovett (Pajama Game is playing) are just a couple of artists that capture my imagination musically. The remainder of the genre is an affectation of what it could be.

Rap music is the smallest collection. I like songs, rather than albums. When I want to listen to Rap then I stream. Artists I prefer are Arrested Development, Beastie Boys, and Snoop Dog. (Elvis Costello now) When Rap music became commercially successful I was in a 10×8 practice room working on chamber music, conducting, ear training, and piano skills. I have nothing against the genre of Rap music. I appreciate its place in the continuum. There are some incredibly artistic pieces, Empire State of Mind, captured my imagination with the video. My ears are accustomed to thick textures and sounds. Popular and Rap music has ventured away from this, and I think the homogenization of production has left me reminiscing more and more with the past. Check out Rick Beato (video blogger on You Tube.) He addresses this artistic movement of production over artistic metaphor more articulately.

Ok, enough rhapsodizing…. as concert band music from the “President’s Own” Marine Band plays in the background.

It’s Saturday… It’s November… It’s cold… I’m delaying some yard work to ramble on about stuff. I don’t have much to dissent about when it comes to music. I’m okay with people liking whatever music it is that brings them passion. Life would be incredibly boring if we all liked the same things…

As Diane Shuur is singing in the background, I sign off… I have successfully accomplished a whole lot of nothing with so many words… Thanks for reading and may your November day be warmer than mine…on it goes