The unsung heroes of music

This morning, I was listening to Rod Steward's rendition of Sammy Cahn and Jule Styne's 1947 classic "Time After Time" (from Stewart's album "The Great American Songbook Vol. 2". It's a beautiful version of a timeless classic that has also become a jazz standard.

While Stewart's crooning voice was certainly a nice touch to the song, what actually intrigued me today was the accompanying background instrumental music - the piano, the percussions and the saxophone.

If you have a chance to listen to this wonderful version of a real timeless classic (on auto-replay!), then just for a moment (and no disrespect meant to Rod Stewart here!), block out the singer's voice and just concentrate on the background music itself. No, you will not hear the principal melody itself; but what you will hear are the complementary harmonics. Savour the delicate notes of the piano interspersed between the verses, and feel how they mesh so well with the principal melody.

Another beautiful example of a song with beautiful background piano accompaniment - and one that I have grown to love - is Kenny G's version of Duke Ellington's "In A Sentimental Mood". Again, try blocking out the saxophone in your head, and concentrate on Randy Waldman's delicate fingers on the piano.

* * * * * * * * * *

This weblog entry is dedicated to those musicians in the background of the singers' voices - the unsung heroes whose music is "often more felt than heard" (Joe Goldberg, taken from the liner notes of Bill Evans' album "Moonbeams"), but without them, those beautiful melodies would sound so empty and lonely.

A time for freedom and solitude

Have you ever been in that stage of your life where you feel so stifled, where you feel as if you have no freedom, that day after day your life is being controlled, that your whole identity and individuality has been taken from you, and that you are no longer free to do things you want to do and go places you want to go... without having to report to others and be accountable to them - even though it's none of their concern?

A couple of words from someone close to me reminded me - once again - of how I once had some semblance of that freedom. And it made me angry at that person.

I am tired of having to report to people on what I do everyday, as if I might fall into some manhole on the road anytime. I am tired of people being overly-concerned about my welfare, and having to guide me on every God-forsaken path as if I am some helpless invalid without eyes, ears or a brain. I am tired of people who do not understand the concept of privacy, and never seem to know how to knock on doors before entering. I am tired of people misconstruing my occasional comic buffoonery for sheer idiocy, not being able to use what little brain power they have to be able to differentiate between humour and stupidity.

By all means, lend me a helping hand when I plead for it. But when the overdose of concern and attention goes beyond that line where it is neither helpful nor appreciated, kindly respect my need for individuality and leave me alone. At 32 years of age, a good set of limbs, a functioning brain and 17 years of my life spent in school, I think it is fair to assume that I will not walk off some cliff like some mindless lemming.

There - I think I have successfully earned my place in the non-gratia list of some of my beloved friends and readers. If reading it offends you so, then go play somewhere else, where you do not have to face such a spiteful brat.

My rant for the day. I think I'm done. Good night.

Mini bath and cosmetics time...

It has been 7 years since I bought my Mini, and 4 years since I had it restored and re-painted. Since I brought it back from Penang to KL in early-2005, the poor car has been sort of neglected. It had not had a proper wash, and had never been polished before.

So this weekend, I decided it was time to give it a good scrubbing and waxing. It has been so long since I last washed and polished a car on my own, I had totally forgotten how long it takes, and how much energy it saps!

It was a 4-hour labour of love for me, and the end result was simply to die for. It has been a long time since I last could see my own reflection on the car body. Makes me so proud to own a Mini.

Paralysed by dependence on IT...

The recent snag in the regional Internet access due to the earthquake in Taiwan, and the resultant gripes in the newspapers by the local bloggers about being crippled, has showed us all one thing - we are becoming too dependent on Information Technology. We become so helpless and paralysed when we lose Internet access or our mobile phones for anything more than 24 hours. And to think that only 2 decades ago, we had neither of the two technologies to survive.

I think, in the name of survival of the species (lest we become slaves to the technologies we created), just for a month and just to let our old-time survival skills kick back in, we should all return to the old ways to doing things, i.e.:

1. Use the abacus for calculations
2. Keep company accounts on hand-written ledgers
3. Learn Morse code and the use of the telegram
4. Start learning how to write again (instead of using the PC keyboard)!
5. While we're on the topic of typing, use the mechanical typewriter and carbon paper
6. Use manual SLR cameras
7. Revert to good ol' mechanical watches and pendulum clocks

I think I belong to the wrong century...

Secret Garden

During my long-delayed annual house-keeping of my room, I unearthed this 2-CD album that I bought at a discount from Popular Bookstore in Ikano Power Centre (actually, that was the only reason I bought it). It's a compilation of songs by the Norwegian group "Secret Garden".

Now, I am not normally fond of New Age music, especially the saccharine-sweet type. But the first two tracks - "Song from A Secret Garden" and "Nocturne" - really blew me away to Neverland. They really send you faraway to some secret garden in some fantasy world.

So far, it's just these two tracks that I like. I'm not too keen on "You Raise Me Up". I guess I am just not into Il Divo. And it's also partly because the tune is less dreamy than the first two afore-mentioned tracks.

It's my first day back at the office this year, and I now have these two tracks on auto-replay, as I listen to them on my earphones to try and drive myself back into work mood (which is difficult, given the dreamy nature of the music!).

Happy New Year.