Hot Take/ Musical Confession Thread!

TenderLovingKiller® said:
Yeah, I was like this for the most part as a teen/young adult, outside Medeski Martin & Wood and Godspeed You! Black Emperor I didn’t mess with instrumentals at all. I didn’t even enjoy live jam bands stuff by Phish or Grateful Dead (I preferred there studio albums) because of the noodley nature of those long jams. In my thirties this began to change and over time I have grown to being more drawn to instrumentals I even appreciate the instrumentation on vocal tracks that I hadn’t in the past. Vocal jazz is still a bridge too far though but who knows maybe it will be my favorite when I hit my fifties.
Click to expand...

I think a lot of my enjoyment of music comes from vocal melodies and harmonies.
 
Twentytwo said:
I don't like Townes Van Zandt either, I need to have my street cred country card pulled apparently.
Click to expand...
Lee Newman said:
Since @Twentytwo has been candid with not digging Waylon. I thought I should throw one out for you guys: I find Chet Baker to be boring. Like I get that Buble is the contemporary version, but I’d much rather listen to ol bubbles.
Click to expand...
Holy guacamole, this was a 1-2 punch to the dick!

Chet Baker + Townes are my mfn BOIZ. Townes is frankly the only country I consistently enjoy so far actually, I keep waiting for other albums to click but I really have to convince myself, where as Townes has written some of my favorite songs period.

And Chet Baker Sings has gotta be one of my top 5 most spun records I own, with Chet Baker Sings: It Could Happen To You is probably also in the top 10.
 
Also I'm so biased towards loving Vocal Jazz as its really the entry point that helped me transition into instrumental jazz. Both are credited to me playing Fallout 3 as a teenager and falling in love with their in game radio which was flooded with all the great vocal jazz standards. After vocal jazz I started discovering the big band/swing versions of all my favorite vocal standards and eventually graduated to hearing all the be-bop legends strip those performances down to the studs and well, the rest is history. Now my record collection is mostly instrumental jazz
 
Ghost said:
Also I'm so biased towards loving Vocal Jazz as its really the entry point that helped me transition into instrumental jazz. Both are credited to me playing Fallout 3 as a teenager and falling in love with their in game radio which was flooded with all the great vocal jazz standards. After vocal jazz I started discovering the big band/swing versions of all my favorite vocal standards and eventually graduated to hearing all the be-bop legends strip those performances down to the studs and well, the rest is history. Now my record collection is mostly instrumental jazz
Click to expand...

That makes sense. For me, groups like Medeski, Martin, and Wood were a good intro along with Headhunters era Herbie Hancock, or even Rockit
 
Last edited:
TenderLovingKiller® said:
Well this is fantastic but this here has much more fusion/avant garde vibe than tradition vocal jazz. If Blossom Deary or Dinah Washington or Chet Baker fronted anything remotely as funky as this I would feel much different on the subject.
Click to expand...

But then Nina Simone or Billie Holiday or Ella Fitzgerald could front pretty much anything and it’d be essential.
 
Lee Newman said:
Since @Twentytwo has been candid with not digging Waylon. I thought I should throw one out for you guys: I find Chet Baker to be boring. Like I get that Buble is the contemporary version, but I’d much rather listen to ol bubbles.
Click to expand...


I do not particularly gravitate towards vocal jazz, but I like Chet. I think why I like him is first the tone of his voice is very unsusal. The second part is the drama he makes by singing so simply but with subtle volume changes, Bending the pitch or the faintest hint of vibrato at the end of a note.

Usually my go to vocal jazz is Ella. The pure joy in the way she sings. I’m not one that is usually impressed by sheer virtuosity, but she really uses he ability to express an emotion. She kind of reminds me of the way Julian Cannonball Adderley plays the alto.

Those other vocalists that people mentioned are great too, but everyone is forgetting about Cassandra Wilson. I know she fall more on the blyes/folk tradition of jazz, but she is good.
 
Joe Mac said:
I’m completely the opposite.

That said other than some of the really ubiquitous great classical I find instrumental music pretty boring. The worst of it is tortuous.
Click to expand...
I’m not criticizing you in any way, but your take on instrumental music baffling considering you are such a music lover. I just consider instrumental music the same thing, but without the very specific meaning that words convey. The best vocalists of any genre do much what instrumentalists do by using dynamics timbre, volume, pitch to imbue often simple poetry with more emotional weight.
 
Dtknuckles said:
I’m not criticizing you in any way, but your take on instrumental music baffling considering you are such a music lover. I just consider instrumental music the same thing, but without the very specific meaning that words convey. The best vocalists of any genre do much what instrumentalists do by using dynamics timbre, volume, pitch to imbue often simple poetry with more emotional weight.
Click to expand...
I can understand both sides of the argument. In and of itself, despite genre, instrumental music is by its very nature more abstract. Vocal music adds a nuance that instruments cannot convey in meaning allowing for more connection and more objective understanding of what a piece is supposed to mean. For example, just listening to Elliott Smith's XO without vocals, one might think it was conveying picnics and good times. Once you add his lyrics, it becomes clear that it is soul crushingly emotional and not sunny at all.
 
Dtknuckles said:
I’m not criticizing you in any way, but your take on instrumental music baffling considering you are such a music lover. I just consider instrumental music the same thing, but without the very specific meaning that words convey. The best vocalists of any genre do much what instrumentalists do by using dynamics timbre, volume, pitch to imbue often simple poetry with more emotional weight.
Click to expand...

You really are and as usual it’s as condescending as hell. It’s all about what makes us happy or sad or feel emotion. We’re all different .
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top