Three Octogenarians: Tribute to Stephen Sondheim, Ornette Coleman, and Tony Bennett



"                            Less Is More
                             Content Dictates Form
                             God Is in the Details

all in the service of 
                             
                             Clarity

without which nothing else matters.                            "  




Direct.
Affecting.
Truthful.
Eminently rational.

Stephen Sondheim renders clarity the noblest of virtues.

In a March 2011 conversation with Frank Rich, Sondheim held a room of 400 in rapt attention for over an hour-and-a-half, without any particular desire to gossip, brag, or command respect, and instead............with clarity:  about undiminishable human discernment; about his significance in American cultural history; and about the unity of witnessing and creating, giving and receiving.

There were scholars in the assembly who may have known as much as Sondheim about theater, history, literature, film, music, dance, and painting, though Sondheim's depth of reference is formidable (see Wikipedia page below).

But brilliance of Sondheim's order explodes exclusivity --- reveals universal clarity of purpose --- and unleashes common, uncommon potential.

In this, there is certain paradox. 
Magnificent paradox.

Consider Sondheim, the near-adopted son of Oscar Hammerstein II, making such personal music unprecedented in musical theater.

Consider this artist who writes for a specific character and dramatic situation - whose music arises from context; 
yet who has left some of the most ubiquitous anthems from an American composer.

Consider the 81 year-old legend writing this cranky letter, actually devoid of crankiness, and sharp, logical, forward-looking.

Consider the same person who uses much of his memoir to critique his own work, and here (2:03), to help a singer uncover the meaning abounding in each untucked note/lyric.

Isn't it rich?

In immersion is the universe.

That explains, too, Sondheim's delight in puzzles, and cooking shows, and mystery writing.
He has clearly chosen to be a composer, but first he is alive.

"The choice may have been mistaken/
The choosing was not."

And god, those improbable notes he chooses for "the choosing was not" (0:50).
Improbable, and so appropriate
in their bite.

Thank you, Mr. Sondheim!!!






Whoever deems themselves a songwriter should read at least the preface to Finishing the HatVolume II comes out in November.



"Anything you do/
Let it come from you/
Then it will be new."


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Please get to know this unbelievably gentle, humane, profound man named 
ORNETTE COLEMAN.



- The eponymous album:



- OC with author Greg Tate (more with Tate next time): http://www.mediafire.com/?cc9l62onxq33chc


- "[Chord] changes and harmony usually follow a certain direction, but when you get free of that direction, the only thing you have left is the true elements of music, which is why you have changes and harmony [in the first place]. I'm trying to get back to where everybody started."  Full interview available, thanks to Ethan Iverson.


- OC blowing the minds of a Grammy audience (I'll take this over any famous philosopher): 


It is really very, very real to be here tonight, in relationship to life and death and I’m sure they both love each other.

I really don’t have any present thoughts about why I’m standing here other than trying to figure out something to say that could be useful to someone that believes.

One of the things I am experiencing is very important and that is: You don’t have to die to kill and you don’t have to kill to die. And above all, nothing exists that is not in the form of life because life is eternal with or without people so we are grateful for life to be here at this very moment.

For myself, I’d rather be human than to be dead. And I would also die to be human. So you can’t die, you can’t die to be neither one, regardless of what you say or think so that’s why I believe that music itself is eternal in relationship to sound, meaning, intelligence…all the things that have to have something to do with being alive because you were born and because someone else made it possible for you to be here, which we call our parents etc. etc.

For me, the most eternal thing is that I would like to live until I learn what it is and what it isn’t…that is, how do we kill death since it kills everything?

And it’s hard to realize that being in the human form is not as easy as wondering what is going to happen to you even if you do know what it is and it doesn’t depend on if you know what is going to happen to you.

No one can know anything that life creates since no one is life itself. And it’s obvious, at least I believe, it’s obvious the one reason why we as human beings get there and do things that seem to be valuable to us in relationship to intelligence… uh, what is it called…creativity and love and all the things that have to do with waking up every morning believing it’s going to be a better day today or tomorrow and yet at the same time death, life, sadness, anger, fear, all of those things are present at the same time as we are living and breathing.

It is really, really eternal, this that we are constantly being created as human beings to know that exists and it’s really, really unbelievable to know that nothing that’s alive can die unless it’s been killed. So what we should try to realize is to remove that part of what it is so that whatever we are, life is all there is and I thank you very much.
 "


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God bless Ornette Coleman!!!!

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"Anybody who thinks that war is romantic obviously hasn't gone through one."



Maybe it was this great Clint Eastwood documentary (  http://www.amazon.com/Tony-Bennett-Music-Two-Disc-Special/dp/B000WOQKM6/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313991592&sr=8-2 ). Somewhere, Tony Bennett said something outstanding about singing love songs. 

He said he sings them not only as touchstones to romance, but as testaments to love, love, in place of discord.


Bennett will continue to bring that love as he prepares (on Duets II) to release a track with Lady Gaga, whose smash hit entitled "Bad Romance" - featuring un-loving, mechanistic, quasi-nympho aberrance - has become the most-watched YouTube video of all time. 

Gaga will sound great on "Lady Is a Tramp" because she is a dynamite singer, and tramp. Less stellar is her willing sabotage of her overall musical creativity and energy. Take Sinatra (and if you think Sinatra wasn't of Gagaesque proportions, think again). Sinatra had his gimmicks, he had his mafioso goons watching out for him and preening his way to the top. But Sinatra never let anyone lose sight of the song. http://swift.fm/#!/song/frank-sinatra-arlene-francis-interviews-frank-sinatra/102186/ 

On the other hand, Gaga wearing new costumes and wigs to inspire her "little monsters" to "express themselves" is a lot like the Koch Brothers using Fox News to cement the Tea Party's "grassroots activism." Both phenomena may have been "born that way," but they should have faded as soon as obscenely disproportionate influence and wealth entered the picture : influence and wealth out of joint with the value dictated by long-term perspective or knowledge of the field.



Besides Gaga's outsize personality, John Mayer makes some perceptive comments about Bennett in the Duets II promo video ( 2:59-3:15, http://www.amazon.com/gp/mpd/permalink/mHJ9ABX5YD2QT/ref=ent_fb_link ), but I can't imagine him or anyone else on the album except Aretha coming close to Tony's:
1) tremendously loose relationship to the beat (always knowing where it is);
2) considerable spontaneity and flexibility with small amounts of musical material;
3) respect and space for instrumentalists;
4) invocation of silence, in stage presence, choice of music, and instrumentation;
5) artistic license, preceding a producer's;
6) adaptation of the voice to fit the music, as opposed to the inverse, limiting relationship.

Along the lines of Sondheim's Times letter, none of these standards is about being "classy," or a "throwback," or a "vestige of a bygone era." There are plenty of washed-up Vegas acts who prove the worth of those terms.

It's about being a three-dimensional, emotionally naked musician, or as Sondheim says of Bernadette Peters, a "singer with a capital 'S.' " 


                                   Same arrangement - different delivery. Live on 8/13/11.




I should probably take another page from the eighty-five year-old,
and just wax enthusiastic about everyone.

Hats off to you, Anthony Benedetto!!!