As a fan of a wide variety of popular (and not-so-popular) music from the 1950s (and sometimes even earlier) up through the present, one of my bucket list projects for years has been to put together a list of my 100 favorite songs of all time. At some point I decided that, once I got around to figuring that out, I could put it out on a blog, for the infinitesimally small proportion of the Internet world that might be interested. So, here we are. While the Top 100 will be a major focus, I also plan to post on a variety of other musical (and occasionally non-musical) topics, in which you may or may not be interested. (If a particular posting doesn’t ring your bell, you’re only a few clicks away from a dancing cat video on YouTube.)

Saturday, April 23, 2016

Omar Sosa – AMP, 4/16/2016


Front center table
 
Our “social director”, a long-time fan of the band, put together a group of 30+, so the evening was notable not only for the music but also for the chance to catch up with some current and former Westatians whom I don’t get to see all that often. We got prime seats (the three centermost tables in the front row, plus the center table in the second row), plus some other goodies. The salmon entrée, which I’d had before, was once again very good – fortunately for me, since several other folks at my table also ordered it based on my recommendation.
 
AMP’s tag line for Sosa was “Afro-Cuban alchemist of jazz”, which is a pretty good summary, as he incorporates electronic, world music, and even hip-hop into his musical mix. The band emerged one at a time, led by Sosa, for the opening number, which was closer to free-form jazz than anything else; it sounded like it might totally fly off the tracks at any moment, but somehow managed to hold together. Most of the show was from the band’s most recent CD, ilé, although they also included some more uptempo material, including one great audience sing-along. All four members of the Quarteto AfroCubano – Sosa on keyboards, Ernesto Simpson on drums, electric bassist Childo Tomas and multi-imstrumentalist Leandro Saint-Hill – were wonderful as musicians and as showmen, and both the band and the enthusiastic audience had a great time. Given that the show was a sellout, I certainly hope that they’ll return.

Friday, April 22, 2016

Prince


 
Prince Rogers Nelson was truly one of a kind, in terms of style and vision as well as music. While he was never afraid to cross musical genres, for me he will forever be defined for doing more with funk than anyone other than James Brown, whom he cited as one of his main inspirations, along with Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix.
 
I believe the first Prince song I heard was “I Wanna Be Your Lover”, which was his first hit to cross over to the mainstream pop charts, but he made much more of an impression with “Little Red Corvette” (which I initially misheard as “Pay The Rent Collect”) and the classic “1999”. Then of course there was 1984, dominated by Purple Rain and Springsteen’s Born In The U.S.A. (Certainly the commercial edge went to the former, which topped the album sales charts for 24 weeks as opposed to Bruce’s 7.)
 
When I was listening to “Let’s Go Crazy” this morning, I paid a little more attention than usual to the spoken intro, when Prince describes the “After world” as “A world of never ending happiness | You can always see the sun, day or night”. Seems like a good thought for today.
 
Favorite songs:
Thieves In The Temple
1999
Sign ‘O’ The Times
When Doves Cry
Little Red Corvette
Alphabet St.
Let’s Go Crazy
Kiss
Purple Rain
Raspberry Beret

Owen Danoff


 
I’ve never been a fan of musical talent shows (or any other form of reality TV, for that matter). If I ever watched American Idol during its recently-concluded run, it was by accident, and I certainly haven’t gotten into Survivor or any other shows of that type.
 
I am, however, watching The Voice on NBC this spring. (OK, to be honest, I’m mostly DVRing it and watching selected portions, since it can run as much as 5 hours per week.) My sudden interest is because Owen Danoff auditioned for the show, and I had seen him perform twice (the first time being in the living room of a friend from Westat) and had been really impressed. I guess the quick take would be a folk-pop singer-songwriter – maybe think John Mayer without the bad behavior.
 
Although Danoff currently lives in New York City, he does have a lot of Washington area connections. He’s been an Artist in Residence at Strathmore (and performed at their new small club, AMP) and has won multiple Washington Area Music Awards. His father, Bill Danoff, is a well-known folk singer and songwriter; he co-wrote “Take Me Home Country Roads” and subsequently was one-fourth of the Starland Vocal Band, for whom he wrote (for better or worse) the 1976 smash hit “Afternoon Delight”. Owen’s early career has been notable as much for his award-winning songwriting as his singing; so far he’s self-released one EP and one full-length CD, both with all original material.
 
The Post ran a nice article about him a couple of days ago, mentioning at the end that he would be headlining a show at the Hamilton downtown on June 30. (Get your tickets now before they’re gone!)
 
And, of course, if you’re so inclined you can vote for him on The Voice as long as he survives.