Notes_Norton

Black Coffee - k.d.lang

Of the big-band era, the Benny Goodman orchestra was one of the best. His own personal style mixed Klezmer music with Jazz and it came out delightful. Notes ♫

This winter, we are getting a weekly gig at a beachside restaurant/bar called Archies. That was confirmed a few days ago. Hence the association to Sugar and our future income is: Sugar Sugar - The Archies (ducking for cover)

Not safe to go to the coffee shop - enter at your own peril.

I was simply remembering promos for horror films when I was a kid, "Just when you thought it was safe to go to the movies, comes a new terror" followed by the name of the next film about a creature that got too close to the nuke plant, grew to gigantic size and had an appetite for people. (Cue the theremin over a couple of diminished 7th chords). Anything with diminished chords and a theremin can't be all bad. Unless of course Kanye or Cardi rapped over the top or Yoko sang along. Notes ♫

Sunshine Of Your Love – Cream I love that Clapton started his song about Sunshine by quoting the first line of the song "Blue Moon".

Sympathy For The Devil - Rolling Stones (IMO one of their best)

The Tempest - Pyotr Tchaikovsky / Russian National Orch. - Mikhail Pletnev conducting.

All About That Bass - PMJ

You Just Don't Care - Santana

After I toured the country, almost got famous (made it as far as the opening act in concerts for major stars), and my father saw that I could make a living doing music and that I wasn't a drug addict, he was comfortable with my choice. Still, I think he would have worried less if I was working for the Post Office. I play music to have fun and make money. If I was rich, I'd still play music, and probably the same way. I thoroughly enjoy entertaining people and playing the music they want to hear. I also mix in some just for myself, and they don't mind that at all. In fact, some of them end up requesting songs we learned for our own enjoyment. I'm weird, I enjoy playing "Mustang Sally" and the other 'war horses' just as much as I do anything else. There is a dialog we have with the audience, we play music they like, we tell lame jokes, and they are part of the act. We have become close with a lot of our audience members, been out on their boats, had dinner with them, know their ups and downs, it's like they are our extended family. I took arranging and theory lessons, and I make our duo's backing tracks from scratch. I enjoy doing this (I also play sax, flute, wind synth, drums, bass, guitar, some keys, and vocals). It's a lot of fun, the songs are in our key, our arrangement and I almost always leave room for the solo hog (that's me) or my wife to play an improvised solo in the song. This led to writing aftermarket user styles for Band-in-a-Box and I've sold them to musicians in 100 different countries. I've even gotten recognized in music stores in the US and overseas as "The real Bob 'Notes' Norton". That and a dollar will buy a cup of coffee, but it feels good just the same. History: I was in school band since the 7th grade. I also got in a rock band after school. We were terrible, but so was everybody else back then. I got my first gig when I was still in Jr. High School, and it was for a school dance. There I was on the stage with my very best friends. We were having the time of our lives, playing the top40 songs of the day that we worked so hard to learn to the best of our ability. Then I looked out and that cute girl who didn't even acknowledge my existence in English class was 'making eyes' at me. And at the end of the night, they actually paid me money!!! That's when I decided that this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. And other than those two day gigs, that's what I've done. Years later I read a book, I think it was from the author Joseph Campbell, who advised "follow your bliss". That's what I'm doing and if I had to do it again, I'd still become a musician. I never got rich, but I paid off the mortgage on a decent house in a very nice area, I have no debt, and until COVID took a vacation every year either close to home or as far away as China and Australia. I'm married to a musician (we were in different bands when I met), we are happy and both enjoy entertaining (it's our second favorite thing to do). 😉 When my life is about over, if I have a chance to reflect on it, unless something radically unexpected happens between now ant then, I'll look back and be satisfied with my choices and have no regrets. I play music with my wife/best-friend, they applaud every 5 minutes and pay us money. How lucky can a guy get! Notes

Thanks for posting that. My father, a printer, and told me "get a trade" when I told him I wanted to be a musician for life. He came from poverty and the printing trade got him out of the slums. His idea of 'making it' was to work for the Post Office or the Phone Company. My father played violin, trumpet, ukulele and later in life organ (complete with pumping bass with his foot). He was a fine musician. When he wanted me to get a trade, he meant well. To him music was a sideline, he saw pro musicians in two ways, (1) poor starving artists and/or (2) drug addicts. He didn't want either for me. It was because of his advice that I wasted time getting two day-jobs in my life (while still playing music on the weekend). I was testing what it was to be normal, which I found to be terribly over-rated. Neither day job lasted all that long. (I forgive him, he did his best.) Since the OP mentioned 9-11, here is my 9-11 music story. I go to symphony concerts. At one time I played in a symphonic band, and symphonies are one of my biggest musical loves (along with the blues for the opposite side of the spectrum love and quite a bit in between). Shortly after 9-11, we had tickets for and attended a concert by the Moscow Symphony Orchestra. We weren't that far from the Cold War, and Russia was still 'the adversary'. I happen to love a lot of Russian composers, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Shostakovitch, Rimsky-Korsakov, and so on. Music isn't political to me, either I like it or I don't. It wasn't on the program, but the first number the orchestra played was "The Star Spangled Banner", we all stood up, and I don't think there was a dry eye in the concert hall. There was a long moment of silence when they got done, and then a thunderous applause. Our adversaries understood and were supporting us. People said we were in Afghanistan for 20 years, but the reason why the 9-11 attacks happened is that Reagan put US troops on Afghan soil in 1983 and the people that flew those planes were trying to get US troops that they saw as occupying forces off their soil. I am not going to argue right or wrong because there is a lot about this that I don't understand and since much of the information is classified I couldn't understand even if I tried. But like Viet Nam, we need to learn a lesson, which is NOT to put our troops on foreign soil and become involved in another nation's civil war. There is no way for us to win in that situation. That's drifting off-topic. Music is universal. When working on the cruise ships, I went to Puerto Rico and played with Salsa musicians. They knew very little English, I knew very little Spanish, but when playing music together, we were speaking the same language. Same for the Reggae band on the ship. Jamaican English may as well be a foreign language to me, for as much as I could understand, but we did much better than the Puerto Ricans, and the music was a lot of fun to play together. I've played at a few 'memory care' nursing homes, and it is a delight to see people who cannot speak anymore come out of their trance, put a smile on their faces, and sing along to the songs they grew up with. Each year (before COVID) Leilani and I play at the wheelchair division of the VA hospital 50 miles away for free. It's our way of saying "Thank you" to the vets, but to tell the truth, we get as much out of that as the wheelchair bound vets do. Every society that I can think of has made music. Even prehistoric musical instruments have been found. Music must be part of our humanity, and essential part of our humanity. I'm very glad that I didn't follow my father's well-meant advice, and have become a career musician for life. Insights and incites by Notes PS I'm not a leftist, I'm a moderate, and I think the world is overpopulated. We are changing the world with our pollution faster than the earth can recover from it. And no, music won't save us from that, but it might make living through the trying times a little more pleasant at times.

@Mark Bastable the connection was Run = Ride like the wind (the protagonist of the song is running away) Don't You Care - The Buckinghams

Ride Like The Wind - Christopher Cross The production of this cut is stellar, and the drummer is brilliant - (I started out on drums - and this guy supports the song well, without getting in the way at all.)

Jet Airliner - Paul Pena (Before Steve Miller covered it)

White Wedding - Billy Idol

Peer Gynt Suite No. 1, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" - Edvard Grieg