Musical Memories: Chill Out & Laid Back
As I do not use music to "Chill Out" I found this difficult. That is not to say that I do not like relaxing music although it sometimes is in danger of sounding bland. For some reason Brazilian music always makes me feel calm. One of my guilty pleasures is that I once purchased a CD by Sergio Mendes. I found most of it very irritating but I do like Mas Que Nada (1966). I also find the music of Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos restful. This includes Popular Brasileña (1912), Amazonas (1917), Little Train of the Caipira (1930), Bachianas Brasileiras, No. 1 (1932) and 5 Preludes (1940). Another contender was Claude Debussy with pieces like Prélude à l'Après-midi d'un faune (1894) Claire de Lune (1890) and La Mer (1905). I find acoustic guitar music the most calming and I have chosen a track by John Mclaughlin from his marvelous album, My Goal's Beyond (1971). I have chosen from this Charlie Mingus' classic, Goodbye Pork Pie Hat.
John Mclaughlin Goodbye Pork Pie Hat (1971)
I may be stretching the concept of Chillout/Laid Back a bit, but I find this more relaxing than most MOR music. I did consider several songs before selecting this recording by Anne-Sophie Mutter with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Herbert Von Karajan. She was born in 1963 and was closely associated with Von Karajan in the early part of her career. He was a controversial figure, having been a leading conductor during the Third Reich and being made conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for life in 1956, but falling out with parts of the orchestra in the 1980s. Max Bruch was a German Romantic composer born in 1883 who composed 3 violin concertos and followed the work of Brahms rather than the "New Music" of Liszt and Wagner. This work is one of his most famous today along with his "Scottish Fantasy" and "Koi Neidri". There are many recordings of this violin concerto and I haven't listened to enough of them to say which is the 'best', if that concept has any meaning anyway. With most types of music, we like what we like and leave other people to their own tastes. I hope you too will share my appreciation of this interpretation of part of the concerto.
Anne-Sophie Mutter, Bruch: Violin Concerto No.1 In G Minor, Op.26 - 2. Adagio (1866)
This was written by the strange combination of a 20 year old Randy Newman and Jeannie Seely, then a secretary at Liberty Records who later became a country music star. It was the ‘B’ side to Thomas’s Time Is On My Side, later covered by the Rolling Stones. Thomas was known as the “Soul Queen of Louisiana”, but she didn’t have the commercial success of her contemporaries Aretha Franklin and Dionne Warwick. Maybe having 4 children by the age of 19 had something to do with it! I came across the song on Charlie Brooker’s ‘Black Mirror’ TV series, where this song has featured in 5 different episodes to date. I find it strangely hypnotic.
Irma Thomas, Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand) (1964):
The track I have chosen to represent the ‘Musical Memories’ theme of “chill-out or laid back music” is a solo improvisation by the jazz pianist Bill Evans (1929-1980) that he entitled Peace Piece. It is a remarkable solo piano improvisation by the jazz musician Bill Evans, captured on tape at the Reeves Sound Studio, New York City, on 15th December 1958, during a recording session for Evans’s second jazz trio album, Everybody Digs Bill Evans [Riverside Records, 291].
My choice of Peace Piece by the jazz pianist Bill Evans. I have selected this particular YouTube video as opposed to other YouTube versions of “Peace Piece” or via Spotify because it includes photographs of the performer, Bill Evans - a shy, introverted, unassuming, physically frail, bespectacled pianist, who, because he was a white musician and of a decidedly conventional appearance (Evans was nicknamed “The Minister” or was compared in outward appearance to “an accountant” by other jazz artists), stood out in the ‘all black’ jazz groups with whom he sometimes played (e.g. The Miles Davis Sextet – you can see the white Bill Evans alongside black jazz musicians, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, ‘Cannonball’ Adderley, in one of the photographs).
Personally, I do not like the term “chill-out music”, because there is the temptation to associate the phrase with undemanding, ambient or ‘background’ music which can be safely played as an aural backdrop to a dinner party or, in its most mundane or banal form, as a soundtrack to accompany a visit to a supermarket or department store (colloquially called “elevator music”). The label ‘Chill-out Music’ has also been given to a category of music which has the main aim of ‘relaxing’ the listener – a brand of music that is essentially therapeutic. Consequently, it is possible to find in record stores, compilation albums which carry titles such as ‘Classical Chillout’, ‘Chilled Out Ambient Grooves From Ibiza’, ‘Pure Jazz Chillout’ and even ‘Chilled Out Cajun’. These ‘chill-out’ compilation albums tend to include classical pieces or popular forms of music that are characterized by slow tempos and mellow moods - a modern type of ‘easy listening’. But as the English playwright and poet William Congreve wrote back in the year 1697, "Musick hath charms to sooth a savage breast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak" and in the world of classical music there are affecting, slow-paced piano works by admired composers such as Chopin, Debussy and Erik Satie that could smooth a troubled brow. It was in this classical tradition that the jazz pianist Bill Evans followed when he created his solo piano improvisation “Peace Piece” in December 1958.
On 15th December 1958, the pianist Bill Evans and his accompanying musicians, the drummer Philly Joe Jones and bass player Sam Jones, were recording tracks for a jazz trio album called “Everybody Digs Bill Evans”. The jazz trio had prepared a wide ranging programme of musical numbers in varied tempos and rhythms, including jazz standards, popular songs, and a ‘hard bop’ composition by Sonny Rollins. Bill Evans had planned for his trio to play a gentle ballad entitled "Some Other Time" from the 1944 Leonard Bernstein musical ‘On the Town’. In preparation for the recording, Evans started to play the introduction to the song, but instead of launching into "Some Other Time", the pianist spontaneously started to improvise over the opening harmonic frame, creating an original composition which he later named "Peace Piece". According to Evans: "What happened was that I started to play the introduction, and it started to get so much of its own feeling and identity that I just figured, well, I'll keep going."
Bill Evans's "Peace Piece" was an unplanned, unrehearsed modal composition and the piece has subsequently been “hailed as one of the most beautiful and evocative solo piano improvisations ever recorded”.
Bill Evans argued that in the 17th Century, before the possibility of electrical recording, most classical music was improvisatory and the only way to ‘permanise’ a spontaneous composition was to write it down. Evans believed that jazz had resurrected the lost art of improvisation and restored the spontaneous musical creativity that had once been a feature of classical music in the 17th and 18th Century.
To hear how Bill Evans created an improvisation from the opening part of the song Some Other Time, listen to the introduction to the song performed by the Swedish singer Monica Zetterlund, accompanied by the Bill Evans Trio in a 1965 television broadcast: “Some Other Time” (Music: Leonard Bernstein; Lyrics by Betty Comden & Adolph Green). Sung by Monica Zetterlund, accompanied by The Bill Evans Trio (1965).
Bill Evans, Peace Piece (1958)
My choice is Alison Krauss and Union Station singing The Dimming of the Day a song written by Richard Thompson. I know that there are several other versions of this song including one by Linda Thompson, but Alison Krauss’s version seems to have everything – a delightful mesmerising vocal and a sublime backing by the Union Station especially the work of Jerry Douglas who I was privileged to see earlier this year when he performed with The Transatlantic Sessions in Brighton.
I first came across Alison Krauss when she recorded Raising Sand (2007) with Robert Plant and became a fan after that. There is something about her rendition of songs which makes them different and unique. The Dimming of the Day (2011) is a great song by Richard Thompson and as I often find his songs are amplified when created by other artists and this is certainly true of this version.
Alison Krauss, The Dimming of the Day (2011)
I have always loved Bob Marley, and Three Little Birds is my choice please.
Bob Marley,Three Little Birds (1977)
Lettice Maltravers
I have a CD of Alfred Brendel playing the complete Schubert impromptus and this one, the fourth of the eight, is by far my favourite. I have chosen Impromptu Op 90 No 4 D.899. Although written in 1827 it was not published until 30 years later because it was considered too difficult for successful marketing as a 'little piece'. Alfred Brendel's interpretation is faster and lighter than many others, and I love it.
I have little knowledge of the technicalities and complexities of music, but it makes me respond, often more emotionally than intellectually. Sometimes music generates sensitive visual images and this happens to me when I listen to this piece. The cascading arpeggios are silvery and delicate and give me mind pictures of sea and sun and schools of little silver fish darting this way and that, generating bubbles and flashes of iridescence. Perhaps others would think this piece is too fast, or too dancy to be relaxing......but the many ideas that come, and the variety in the piece (just over 7 minutes in total, please forgive) give me enormous pleasure and a feeling of peace. My shoulders come down and all the tension is carried away.
Alfred Brendel, Impromptu Op 90 No 4 D.899 (1827)
Chilling out isn’t something I often do. I can watch TV, read or go to sleep but I find it hard to just relax and do nothing – there always seems to be something that needs my attention. I certainly can’t remember the last time I used music to chill out. So choosing a chill-out/laid-back track wasn’t easy for me. Out of interest I looked up “chill-out” music on Wikipedia and found it described as “a loosely defined form of popular music characterised by slow tempos and relaxed moods. The definition….generally refers to anything that might be identified as a modern type of easy listening.”
At the mention of “easy listening” I began to get cold shivers. Probably prejudice on my part, but it’s not something I feel I “ought” to be listening to at all – especially as it’s often confused with “Elevator Music”, an American term, which I believe is used to describe music played in public places where the audience has no intention of listening to music at all.
However, forced to make a choice, I initially thought of tracks by Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix or Peter Green – all quite relaxing. But I decided that I was in danger of becoming type cast, so I settled on something completely different - a song I only discovered earlier this year. A friend recommended Nadia to me: a track released by Jeff Beck in 2001. I watched a Youtube clip of him performing this live at Ronnie Scott’s and really liked it. Then I discovered that it was actually a cover of a song written and released by Nitin Sawhney in 1999.
I knew very little about Nitin Sawhney, although I’m confident that other members of the group will be very familiar with him. Some people may have heard his appearance on Desert Island Discs in June 2019 – a really eclectic selection of music and well worth a listen. He is a British musician, producer and composer (also a former comic actor). “His work combines Asian and other worldwide influences with elements of jazz and electronica and often explores themes such as multiculturalism, politics, and spirituality.” (Wikipedia) He is certainly an important person in the music world: he has performed with many well-known artists, orchestras such as the LSE, and he has written scores for numerous films, TV programmes and video games.
The song Nadia appeared on the album Beyond Skin released in 1999. According to Songlines this was “his defining breakthrough album that helped to force the British Asian Underground into the mainstream.”
You can hear the original version of the song on Youtube but I have chosen a live version that features Nicki Wells & Ashwin Srinivasan. Nicki Wells is a singer with an amazing voice. She sings in a wide range of styles including just about every known Indian style of music from Bengali folk to Hindustani classical ragas. She is also a songwriter and composer. Ashwin Sriniivasan is an Indian classical flautist, singer, poet, film producer, music arranger/producer and, like the other performers in this clip, seemingly a person of many talents.
As I understand it the lyrics are written in a dialect of Hindi and basically consist of 3 lines: "Nadiya bair bhai/Mora saiyyan bulave/Sune nahi"
Not being conversant with Hindi I have had to rely on the internet for a translation. Roughly – and I’m sure it loses a lot in translation – one translated version of the lyrics reads: "The River ebbs and flows/My Lover calls/I do not hear”
An alternative translation reads: "Even the Rivers have turned hostile/My Lover beckons me/But you wouldn’t listen"
Interestingly the song is entitled “Nadia” which suggests a girl’s name. The Hindi word “Nadiya” translates as “River” but I learnt that it can also be a girl’s name so there is a lot more going on here than a simple translation can show.
If relaxing to music is something you enjoy doing, this version has a long introduction that would be perfect to chill-out to. However, whilst still quite laid back, the music livens up and the regular song kicks in about 3 minutes into the performance. The latter half of the track has a jazz feel to it, something Nitin Sawhney incorporates into a lot of his music. I particularly like the drumming and the unusual technique of the bass player who uses the heel of her hand to slide along the strings of the bass guitar (you need a good speaker to get the full effect).
I hope you find it suitably relaxing,
Nitin Sawhney, Nicki Wells & Ashwin Srinivasan, Nadia (2012)
I found this quite a challenge. However I can offer up one of my favourite pieces of music from my student days. This is the highly regarded recording by the Borodin Quartet of Dmitri Shostakovich’s String Quartet No. 8, which I used to listen to regularly as a nightcap in my late teens and early twenties. Those were the days. I was delighted to make its acquaintance again, this time without the beer. It supposedly depicted the fire bombing of Dresden and was a memorial to its victims (but may have been something different). What’s not to enjoy?
The Borodin Quartet's recording is regarded as one of the greatest chamber music recordings of all time.They made it in 1962.The Shostakovich is coupled with a very different Russian work, Borodin's 2nd Quartet, which was later plundered for tunes for the musical Kismet. Borodin wrote it for his wife and it is relaxed and tender.
String Quartet No. 8 t gets a bit intense in the middle. In case anyone wasn’t fully relaxed by the end I thought I would offer an encore. I was pleased to discover also on YouTube another old night-time favourite from that period; Kimio Eto’s Art of the Koto; The Music of Japan. I still have the LP somewhere and it was good to see comments from people who must have bought it at about the same time as me and shared my pleasure. You might find the first track sufficiently relaxing but this offers the whole recording and it only lasts about half an hour. Personally I prefer the traditional pieces to Eto’s own compositions.
Borodin Quartet - Dmitri Shostakovic, String Quartet No. 8 (1960)
Kimio Eto, Art of the Koto; The Music of Japan (1962)
Making my selection for chill out / laid back music took me back to when I was delivering training courses to industry. One of the topics I taught was lean operations. This was originally a Japanese way of working which you may know as "just in time" and was developed and publicised by the Toyota motor company.
At the start of each day's training I would play some music to calm the participants (and myself), and Japanese music seemed an appropriate choice. The album that I played is Japanese Traditional Music which is on Spotify. This album is not on YouTube, or anywhere else that I can find.
The first track "Japan" of my chosen album "Japanese Traditional Music " is on YouTube, but has a different name Sedona and is on a different album "Yoga Meditation and Relaxation Music". So this is my selection for a chill out track:
This track also appears on other compilations such as "Massage Music" with yet another name "Massage Music". Curious. I can't find any information about the composer or performers which is frustrating, and somewhat ironic as it's my chill out choice!
PS for those wanting more information on the genre, Wikipedia has details: Japanese Traditional Music
As part of my HiFi marketing , we used to cart our latest range of boxes to far off hotel rooms and play bits of music .
It was to try to convince the staff of our dealers , who could be persuaded to give up a mid week evening, that our equipment delivered better sound than that of our competitors and to have the opportunity to explain at least some of the design aspects to help their sales efforts.
We tried hard to find pieces from all genres with pace, space, atmospherics etc ; and sometimes just a nice tune.
This piece would actually sound good on a Dansette.
Tomaso Albinoni (Remo Giazotto) - Adagio in G minor (1958)
As part of my HiFi marketing , we used to cart our latest range of boxes to far off hotel rooms and play bits of music .
It was to try to convince the staff of our dealers , who could be persuaded to give up a mid week evening, that our equipment delivered better sound than that of our competitors and to have the opportunity to explain at least some of the design aspects to help their sales efforts.
We tried hard to find pieces from all genres with pace, space, atmospherics etc ; and sometimes just a nice tune.
This piece would actually sound good on a Dansette...
