Great Day For Music
Posted at 6:00 AM on January 18, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(43 Comments)
It's Martin Luther King Jr. Day - our only national observance about non-violent opposition to injustice.
Some businesses and government agencies have the day off, though many children are in school - a contradiction you may find appropriate if you believe that adults need to get a day off before they believe that something is important, and that the true path to civil rights requires equal education for all.
As holidays go, MLK Day does have the advantage of great music. I'll bring out our copy of Mahalia Jackson at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1958 - always transcendent. And, like everything else, it's on You Tube.
Imagine getting up early on a rainy morning in July to hear this!
Martin Luther King Jr. said a voice like Mahalia Jackson's comes along "once in a millenium."
Who is the best singer you've ever heard?
Comments (43)
Nobody famous but rather a woman in Henderson NC with a Mahalia Jackson like voice, only stronger and cleaner; younger and without the depth and life-edge of Ms Jackson but purer, richer, and, of course, live. A teacher who would sing at training sessions we did there. Goose bumps every moment.
when we got our first "hi fi stereo" - a huge console thing with a record player and a radio - in probably 1960, we got a Mahalia Jackson record and played it a lot. living in a small, south central MN town i had no idea what was going on. didn't know about segregation, racism, and think as i might i remember NO discussion in school or with my friends. this is a shameful embarrassment to me still. we did love Mahalia's voice - so powerful. but we did not understand or even know about the struggle.
what do you who teach do on this day? something special? community service? march? history? show films of Dr. King's sermons? listen to the music of the times?
Good Morning All,
There are so many good singers. If I had to pick one, I think Ray Charles would be it. Mahalia Jackson is also one of my top favorites and Ella Fitzgerald has to be one of the all time greats. I think Ann Hills has a very beautiful voice and maybe Tom Waits should get a vote as having an "amazing" singing style.
I grew up in St. Louis and I was seven when my folks took me to the Muny - Municipal Opera, a great outdoor musical/theater venue, for the first time. I don't know if they still do, but you used to be able to sit for free WAY WAY in the back. Basically couldn't see squat, but you could hear. Anyway, the first time my folks took me, we sat on blankets in the back for the Sound of Music. I remember laying there (since you couldn't see anyway), listening to the voice of the woman who played Maria and thinking how wonderful to have such a neat voice. Her voice just kinda soared up into the air. I have no idea who the actress was, but I always remember that night and hearing her voice come up the hill!
Impossible to come up with the "one" voice for me-given the huge variety of styles and ranges. I can't even pick a favorite operatic bass (although Sam Ramey is right up there)-but then I here Paul Robeson singing Old Man River, and that has to be the one-Too hard of a question, Mr. Dale.
I was home with mumps during Dr. King's funeral, I had no clue of what was going on-my question, what must it have been to be a parent during those years?
Barbara-In my son's daycare-5 years ago and maybe to this day, don't know-the kindergartner's did a play about Rosa Parks. He still thinks racism is bizarre. No school in St Paul today, but I don't think it is a coincidence that they are doing their service project for Kids Against Hunger this week.
Speaking of singers, it was a tragic weekend for me. My wife gave her heart to another man. I got Peter Mayer's CD "Million Year Mind" on Friday and could not wait to play it for her. I don't think I better play the John Gorka and Bill Staines I ordered or I will be number four on her list. Better secure my #2 position for now.
Great video Dale! Gave me goosebumps. I was wondering if you could play I Do Remember That's Why I Believe by Sweet Honey In the Rock? That song always gives me the chills and it would be a great selection for today.
Greetings! That's a tough question -- it's so hard to choose. I would choose Sarah Brightman. We went to her concert several years ago at Excel -- amazing. My husband totally loves her voice. Have a great day everyone!
Hmm...if I narrow it down to memorable voices I have heard live...Bonnie Raitt (she's just fun in concert anyway), Manus Lunny (he was on tour with Andy Stewart - Manus' voice can be absolutely haunting), James Earl Jones (he wasn't singing - but I'd listen to him read the phone book), and for pure passion behind his words, Billy Bragg.
My grandfather was a baritone who believed in singing loudly. Also a memorable voice, but not one captured on a widely distributed recording. His favorite place to sing was church - lustily singing hymns about all the other Lutheran voices. I think if he had lived in 19th century Norway rather than 20th century Minnesota he might have been a klokker (sp?) - the person who leads the singing.
As for MLK - we were talking last night with our 5-year-old about the day and who he was. She remembered from her preschool days that "he was an important person, like the president." The look of confusion on her face that anyone might be treated as less than equal for any reason is testament to Dr. King and those like him. I remember talking to her about this last year and trying to explain that in Dr. King's day one of her teachers (a favorite) might not have been able to vote or do everything she could. "Why not?" she would ask. I'd try to explain. "But why not?" Why not, indeed. Thank you Dr. King and all who have fought for equality for everyone.
Any chance you can squeeze in "This Land is Your Land" - it's always struck me as a good song about how this country should be. "This land is your land, this land is my land" with no discrimination for the color of your skin, your religion, social status, economics, country of origin, political leanings, you name it. It's just ours. Warts and all.
I absolutely agree with Dale that there should be some kind of premium placed on education. Particularly spelling. As I saw on the News Q headline that "Coleman not -runing- for governor." I hope my editor wife doesn't see this...her head may explode. : )
Aaron, I agree with you. That selection from Sweet Honey in the Rock that you mentioned is a good one to hear. I think that is an especially good choice for Martin Luther King day.
It is nice to listen to the Orange Mighty Trio this morning after attending their show yesterday done with the Maggie Bergeron dance company. The show was great with some new music by the trio and very interesting dancing. Of course, as the proud father-in-law of Zack, the fiddler in the trio, I am a little biased, but I think others agreed that the show went well.
oh, Anna - i'm so glad there are parents such as you. thank you
"klokker" would make sense in terms of keeping time. Cynthia???
like Catherine, i can't name a favorite singer - there are so many, and it depends on the day or even hour.
Cly de deux: our sympathies :-)
One of my favorite musical moments on TV was a number of years ago when Luciano Pavarotti was slated to appear on the Grammies. At the last minute he decided he couldn't perform because of a sore throat, and Aretha Franklin stepped in to sub for him on Nessun Dorma. I don't know enough about opera to have an informed opinion, but to my ear she really nailed it.
Another time I happened to be changing channels when I came across Patti Labelle singing The Star-Spangled Banner at the beginning of a basketball game. It was the best rendition I've heard before or since.
Now there is a quality cover of This Land is Your Land, with a lot of soul!
Sharon Jones is fabulous! I might have to see if Ms. Jones and the Dap Kings have recorded "This Land is Your Land." Wow.
Dale,
Any chance you could play "Lift Every Voice and Sing"-the black national anthem?
I make chocolate chip cookies. When my son was small I used them to explain how boring the world is when we don't include all people.
I also have a hard time coming up with one amazing singer........
there are so many voices that srtike a chord for me and for different reasons.
Ella Fitzgerald
Sam Cooke
Bob Dylan
Tom Waits
Paul McCartney
Paul Simon
Heather Massey
Neko Case........the list goes on....
speaking of Sam Cooke, could you play A Change is Gonna Come?
Hi all,
No school today for the community college system now that I'm a fulltime student again for a semester.
But, I started the day at a 7 a.m. community Martin Luther King breakfast here in Albert Lea.
Best singer I've ever heard? I've not gotten to many concerts, but I did see that group Boston live twice before Brad Delp died. He was good.
frank sinatra, tony bennett, perry como, all made it so effortless, barbara streisand is wow, josh groban, michael buble are the newbies i like along these lines, this is the direction my brain is working in today
mlk is getting there. in this screwed up country where so many adults don't get why there is even a holiday it will take a while. but i am confident we will get there.
Good Morning RH,
The performers at the MS's final broadcast were wonderful.
Patty Griffin on a PHC at the '07 State Fair was amazing. Went to REM with my girls in the 90's, saw Indigo Girls around that time too - unforgettable.
Where I teach, we have the day off. Tomorrow my students and I will read books about MLK and watch an excerpt of his "I Have A Dream" speech. We will also arrange pairs of chairs to depict a bus and take turns playing the roles of those allowed to sit in the front and those ordered to sit in the back and surrender those seats if necessary. We do this every year and the kids always express disbelief and sadness over those times.
TGITH - here are a couple of quotes from a couple of guys on spelling:
"It is a damn poor mind indeed which can't think of at least two ways to spell any word."
President Andrew Jackson
"...simplified spelling is all right, but, like chastity, you can carry it too far."
Mark Twain
So, TGitH, if Norm is not runing, does that mean he believes the Kensington Runestone is a hoax? That will not help him with the Viking vote, I am thinking.
Donna, thanks for that quote from Andrew Jackson. It helps me feel better about my lack of spelling skill.
Jim - you might like these too:
"A man occupied with public or other important business cannot, and need not, attend to spelling."
- Napoleon Buonaparte
"My spelling is wobbly. It's good spelling but it wobbles, and the letters get in the wrong places."
- A. A. Milne
When I was little I thought my mother was the best singer in the world (she would practice her favorite arias at the piano). Now I love Patti Lupone - saw a dvd of her doing a "Buenos Aires" from Evita and was completely won over. (She's going to be here this summer. :)
Sherilee - cool memory you described! I too saw The Sound of Music in Des Moines in my teens, and Maria was played by Jeanne Carson (star of the short lived sitcom Hey Jeannie - anyone else remember it?). I too was totally entranced.
hey, donna! let's be clear about that last quotation: it wasn't really A. A. Milne as himself, but Winnie-the-Pooh, i believe :-)
ah, marvelous voices: neil young, joni mitchell, mary traverse (heard solo at Williams Pub years ago...fab), stevie winwood, ian anderson, CSNY, edie brickell....i enjoy unusual but very on-key voices, i guess!
re recent discussion on cartoons etc...:Loved Captain Kangaroo, loved Captain 11, had first crush ever on MIghty Mouse (and still occasionally enter a room by saying, Here I come to save the day!)....
anyone else remember Go-Go Gophers? they were hysterical to me---out in the wild west, they were really indians, and always outsmarted the soldiers...one of them spoke in a crazy nonsensical language and the other one had to translate: "Him say...."
Catherine... you just made me snort coffee. Runing, Kensington.... way too funny for 9:30 in the morning. How do you get your brain to do that?!?!?
Catherine - Good one.
Kay - "Whoopee-doopee! We have 'um much fun!" Can you even imagine trying to pitch that idea today??? Go-Go Gophers was part of Underdog as well. Along with Commander McBragg ("Good heavens, Commander...what DID you do?"), Klondike Kat (forever chasing Savoir Faire, who is everywhere), and Tennessee Tuxedo voiced by Don Adams (along wtih Chumly, the unfortnately named Professor Whoopee and his 3-D BB, three-dimensional black board).
Hmm...... Kay you raise a valid point re the Pooh discrepancy. Also, looking closer at that quote from Napoleon had me wondering if I had googled a credible site because of the spelling of his last name, but then I went to Wikipedia and there they give the Italian spelling which IS Buonaparte, so now I feel better. However if any of you are skeptical about my quote sources, here's one I heard from the horse's mouth:
"Trying to make sure you spell everything right is a pain in the petute."
-Carlos
I loved Mighty Mouse too and Andy Kaufman's' record player bit.
Who remembers Sherman and Mr. Peabody?
Clever spin on Cly de_____, Barb.
My wife never believed that the world even lived before 9 am, now closer to 11 am with her lupus. So she knows nothing of the MS/RH music. Thus it is really fun to introduce her to the music I am buying. It is opening a whole new world to her. Yesterday we drove out and back to the rural church we attend. As we drove through the hoar-covered trees, she said we should be playing “Everything’s a Miracle” off of the Peter Mayer album.
Dale, you could play “Africa” off of “Million Year Mind” today.
When I despair of my job of parenting, I think of the range of music which my children own as adults, especially my son, who owns a CD of almost every kind of music. Some of the interest comes from what we played, especially my kids listening to the MS with me.
When we had to drive 11-12 hours to visit our daughter, our son would bring his ipod and play some of that music he had, which was fun for us. Thus, Anna, I met his favorite performer, Bill Bragg.
TGITH: studies show the ability to spell correlates with no other skill, which is the only skill that does. I tried to teach them to get spelling correct when it counts, at the publication step, and ways to get it right. I had one very good student who would miss 15-17 words or so on our weekly 20 word spelling tests. But she made very few errors on her essays. I asked her how and she said she always found a good speller and had the person check her work. For that I gave her an A in spelling.
How to teach about prejudice in rural white bread towns—I really do not know. It is one of those things kids learn far more at home than in school. The first day of first grade our son asked us what was wrong with Emily, the one black-skinned child in his class, whom he had played with in kindergarten, where children are never away from adults. But on the playground, outside of adult supervision, they now teased him for playing with Emily, whom they also teased. Which shows that they knew it was not acceptable behavior. Our son says that the two worst moments of his childhood was that one and finding his cat half-burned when he was 4.
i have to agree with you, clyde, re teaching at home. I grew up in an all-white neighborhood during the 60s, and as a little girl once in a fight with my younger brother called him a "nigger" without even knowing what it meant--just that it was a bad word....the whirlwind of response to that was frightening to my little self: grabbed by the arm, yelled at, and the one and only occurrence of actually having my mouth washed out with soap. it was ivory soap, humorously, i now recall; i can still smell and taste it! a lesson i never ever forgot.
i'm disturbed, though, about the cat injury reference--we need a civil rights movement for animals, too....
Sherrilee, thank you for your quick wit in interpreting Catherine's wonderful joke. i am so dull (and i am, btw, a fantastic speller)
Thanks, Dale, for the wonderful video of Mahalia Jackson. In the 1950 -1960's Mahalia came into our house every week day at about 3:50pm. via KING or KIRO tv in Seattle, WA. I believe it was a 5- minute tape the local stations used to fill time between soap operas and the locally produced kiddy shows ( eg:JP Patches, Stan Boreson's [yep, THAT Stan Boreson] Clubhouse, and Captain Puget). This was in the days of black and white tv. In the short taped segment, Mahalia sang a hymn, in her inimitable style, wearing a choir gown; sometimes there was a black background and a circle spotlight on her alone, and sometimes I think there were other choir-robed singers in the background. I was mesmerized every time. What a voice! I wonder where those video tapes are now? I hope someone had the foresight to save them.
Innocence
By Irving Layton
How does one tell
one’s fourteen-year-old daughter
that the beautiful
are the most vulnerable
and that a rage
tears at the souls
of humans
to corrupt innocence
and to smash butterflies
to see their wings
flutter in the sun
pulling weeds and flowers
from the soil;
and that all, all
go under the earth to make room for more
weeds and flowers
--some more beautiful than others?
OK, I'm embarrassed to say I don't get the Kensington Runestone joke, someone want to 'splain me?
I tend to wake up about 4am, so early is relative. Glad you all went on the journey to Alexandria with me. Finding the bad joke in bad spelling(and typos) is the habit of a lifetime.
As far as teaching at home goes, I make a conscious choice to never identify any person by race-it is not always easy and I am not saying it is "right".
We enjoy watching dvds of Bullwinkle, Underdog and other vintage stuff-so much of the institutional racism in there just yells at me, and I usually point it out as "old-fashioned"-it is so subtle, it would be easy to just absorb it.
Lest we think it is all about color, cast your minds back to Savoir Faire (who was everywhere!) in Klondike Kat. How come the habitual criminal was Quebecois?
Personally, I think it is best for kids to see the stuff and know it for the out-of-date nonsense it is.
Wow, Clyde, what a wonderful poem.
Oddly enough, my parents (who considered themselves quite progressive and tolerant) encouraged me not to play with dark-skinned kids in the Colorado trailer park where we spent 3 summers (1058-60) because "what would the neighbors think?". We kids already knew what was right, though, I suppose from some good teachers I'd had at school. And the movie South Pacific had a song that stayed with me "You've Got to Be Carefully Taught" - if by chance you have it in the library, Dale, could you play it this week?
Not to be embarassed Barbara, it was obscure.
The misspelling of running as runing in my head pronounced as rune-ing.
In Harry Potter, Hermione takes a class interpretting ancient runes, which should mean reading the Kensington Runestone would be a cinch for her,
I don't know how to get a link into a comment, so you will have to google the Kensington Runestone on your own-it is the sort of thing I gobble up with a spoon, but strangely enough, I've never seen the thing myself.
Norm, it seems, is having none of it.
Thanks, Catherine, I've only read the first HP book, and it's been a while... And here I was thinking it was because I wasn't a native Minnesotan.
This blog reminds me of the late, great cartoon The Far Side-sometimes I can follow what is going on with glee and sometimes I just scratch my head and wonder what is going on.
Barb - here is a quote for you and your immaculate spelling attribute:
"Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well."
-Thomas Jefferson to his daughter Martha
Thoughtful poem Clyde. Here's one I wrote during a summer class a few years back.
Privilege
Cousin Charles from the city
High and mighty Charlie
Would sneer and call his country kin
Unkind unheard of words.
He was above the country kin
His mama told him so
He'd earned the right to treat them low
His daddy made more dough.
Nice Donna. Applies to a few encounters from my childhood with city cousins. I once wrote a poem long lost, fortunately, about growing up in a railroad town and how the pecking order of the railroaders was reflected in their children.
This is one of my favorite poems to quote. Somehow it applies today. It is inevitable that I post this at some point, from a series of poems on WWII military training by Henry Reed. I was taught this poem by a WWII Vet. I thought of the poem as a lesson to teach the whole, the fundmental center and not just name the parts "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing."
LESSONS OF THE WAR
I. NAMING OF PARTS
To-day we have naming of parts. Yesterday,
We had daily cleaning. And to-morrow morning,
We shall have what to do after firing. But to-day,
To-day we have naming of parts. Japonica
Glistens like coral in all of the neighboring gardens,
And to-day we have naming of parts.
This is the lower sling swivel. And this
Is the upper sling swivel, whose use you will see,
When you are given your slings. And this is the piling swivel,
Which in your case you have not got. The branches
Hold in the gardens their silent, eloquent gestures,
Which in our case we have not got.
This is the safety-catch, which is always released
With an easy flick of the thumb. And please do not let me
See anyone using his finger. You can do it quite easy
If you have any strength in your thumb. The blossoms
Are fragile and motionless, never letting anyone see
Any of them using their finger.
And this you can see is the bolt. The purpose of this
Is to open the breech, as you see. We can slide it
Rapidly backwards and forwards: we call this
Easing the spring. And rapidly backwards and forwards
The early bees are assaulting and fumbling the flowers:
They call it easing the Spring.
They call it easing the Spring: it is perfectly easy
If you have any strength in your thumb: like the bolt,
And the breech, and the cocking-piece, and the point of balance,
Which in our case we have not got; and the almond-blossom
Silent in all of the gardens and the bees going backwards and forwards,
For to-day we have naming of parts.
ha, ha Donna! thanks. TJ saying that to his daughter is like my Mom telling me that a girl should never be smarter than a boy.
i may be able to spell but i can't type and my eyes don't see spellcheck very well. but who cares - huh?
Catherine and Barbara - don't feel like Lone Rangers. there's some deep stuff on this blog sometime (i come back to my all-time favorite comment "huh?" Barbara.)
Thanks for posting the Lessons of War poem, Clyde. It's gorgeous. In my mind I could hear Robert Bly speaking it.
That's right Barb - who the hell cares? You can quote me on that.
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