Wednesday, January 08, 2014

Finishing 2013: 37-61 (!)

I didn't keep this up to date. Obviously.
37: The Baby Dodds Story, Baby Dodds, Larry Gara
On other dances and blues rhythm (pp 10, 11):
On New Orleans dance dates we also had to play mazurkas, quadrilles, polkas, and schottisches. There were certain halls in New Orleans where you had to play all those things. Some of the Creole people went only for that music. [...] Of course we also played the blues. [...] The blues were played in New Orleans in the early days very, very slow, and not like today, but in a Spanish rhythm.
Interestingly, Dodds mentions guitars were used before the banjo (pp 13):
Of course in those days the instrumentation was different. When I first started out they had no piano. They mostly used bass viol, guitar, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and drums. The guitar carried only rhythm in the bands. [...] Later they switched to banjo. I think the first band to switch was Frankie Duson. They made the change because the banjo was a novelty.
On slang (pp 25):
Louis [Armstrong] also had a lot to do with the popularizing of jazz words. He used certain expressions on the riverboats, like "Come on, you cats," and "Look out, there, Pops," and the like. These were his own ideas. I had never heard such words as "jive" and "cat" and "scat" used in New Orleans. There was one exception, however, which you don't hear now. We used to call white musicians "alligators."
On drum technique (pp 26, 27):
On the boat I also worked out the technique of hitting the cymbal with the sticks. I worked that out around 1919. Now everybody's using it, but it came from me on the riverboat. There was a side cymbal that used to be on the drum. I took that off and then it was a straight boom, boom, boom. Of course, I still used the two cymbals on top of the bass drum. There was a regular cymbal and a Chinese cymbal. The Chinese cymbal had a different tone. We all used it in those days but Ray Bauduc's about the only one I know who uses it now.
On volume, playing softly (pp 36):
The Oliver band played for the comfort of the people. Not so they couldn't hear, or so they had to put their fingers in their ears, nothing like that. Sometimes the band played so softly you could hardly hear it, but still you knew the music was going. We played so soft that you could often hear the people's feet dancing.
Sugarfoot Rag/Dippermouth Blues (pp 69, 70):
On one number I was caught very unsettled. That was Dippermouth Blues. I was to play a solo and I forgot my part. But the band was very alert and Bill Johnson hollered "Play that thing!" That was an on-the-spot substitution for the solo part which I forgot.
Morton's 1927 Billy Goat Stomp is in Spanish rhythm (pp 74). That's the first time I see someone call out a specific recording. (And it doesn't sound Spanish to my modern ears.)
38: The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot
Very interesting.
39: The Best of Jazz: Basin Street to Harlem, 1917-1930, Humphrey Lyttelton
O.K.
40: Een barbaar in China, Adriaan van Dis
Excellent! Found it at the Palo Alto Library book sale.
41: Le squelette sous cloche, Robert van Gulik
Third language...
42: A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth, Samantha Weinberg
Very interesting.
43: The Emergence of Language: Development and Evolution, William S-Y. Wang, ed.
Readings from Scientific American. Some excellent articles. I should have taken notes, because I've forgotten most of what I read.
44: The Parrot's Lament (and other true tales of animal intrigue, intelligence, and ingenuity), Eugene Linden
I don't remember a thing. I think I liked it...
45: The Valley of Horses, Jean M. Auel
Why am I reading this tripe?
46: The Mammoth Hunters, Jean M. Auel
It just gets worse: more and more romance-novel-ish.
47: Eats, Shoots & Leaves, Lynne Truss
Finally! Yes, it's funny.
48: Overheard in New York, S. Morgan Friedman and Michael Malice
Why does this have authors listed? Anyway, it's a compilation from the website, and it's hilarious.
49: Little Birds, Anaïs Nin
Finally read some Anaïs Nin. She writes very well.
50: The Plains of Passage, Jean M. Auel
Because I'm stupid.
50: The Shelters of Stone, Jean M. Auel
Because I'm not getting any smarter.
51: Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America, Firoozeh Dumas
Funny.
52: Do Sparrows Like Bach?
Another collection of New Scientist bits. But this one's not very good, I'm afraid. Stick to the Last Word compilations. Hey: 52! One a week!
53: The Land of Painted Caves, Jean M. Auel
WTF is wrong with me? Anyway, this is the last one. They really do get progressively worse.
54: Under the Black Flag: The Romance and the Reality of Life among the Pirates, David Cordingly
Excellent!
55: The Book of Five Rings: A Graphic Novel, Musashi, Wilson, Kutsuwada, Wilson
Meh.
56: Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
Inspired by Under the Black Flag. Anyway, it's pretty good. Certainly a fun read, but also certainly a boys' book.
57: More Baths Less Talking, Nick Hornby
Another collection of columns from Believer. Yay!
58: Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, Dava Sobel
Greatest? Not sure about that, but the book is good fun. I want to pick up Galileo's Daughter now.
59: Human Sexuality: Sense & Nonsense, Herant Katchadourian
"The Portable Stanford"--so it's thin and not terribly thorough. Interesting, though.
60: The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier, Thad Carhart
Lovely!
61: Iron & Silk, Mark Salzman
Dated, but still funny and interesting.
And that was 2013: 61 books. I'm impressed with myself, even if some of them were manga.