SongTrellis
Music and Musical Know-how For You

Members
Join Now
Login

Home | How-Tos | Directory | Our Composers | The Rhythms | Play Rhythm | Rhythm Web | Tonematrix | Chord Grid | The Changes | Song Discussions | Public Ideas | SongTrellis Recommends... | Video Links | Great Performances | SongTrellis Music Editor | The Lessons | Jukebox | The Animations | Our Contributors | Latest Topics | Tunetext | Workscore Chord Entry | Chord Entry By Grid | Workscore Composer | Music Tool Lore | Harmonic Interval Palette | Harmony Projects | Search | Video Demonstrations | Playlists | What's a Songtrellis? | FAQ | Feedback

Author David Luebbert
Posted 4/2/07; 6:01:58 PM
Msg# 5192 (top msg in thread)
Prev/Next 5191/5193
Reads 931

Video Links refreshed

I've created a new way to keep track of the links listed in the Video Links section of SongTrellis.

 It's been maddening to try to point to only videos that are currently alive on YouTube, videos.google.com, and DailyMotion.com. Those services frequently get takedown notices from copyright holders to remove a video. Later some other person will post the same thing again under a different ID. It's a neverending game of copyright whack-a-mole.

The maddening part was to accurately point to the location where the mole had surfaced today. I had pretty much given up trying.

 If I deleted a link from Video Links, I'd have to add it back when I discovered a new source for it, with all of the rigamarole of trying to title it, creating a description again and figuring out the location of the link's placement in the videos list.

 Now I'm keeping an offline list of links. When a link disappears, I add the word "dead" to the end of the title, and then run a script to regenerate the online list from the offline repository, which omits dead links. I can ressurect a dead link by removing the "dead" marking from the offline list, typing in its new URL and regenerating the online list.

If you find a video link that has gone bad, let me know and I'll deaden it, hoping for its future resurrection later.

The Daily Motion site

If at all possible, I try to point to video that shows up on DailyMotion because that site is hosted in France, and is not subject to the provisions of the DMCA copyright law in the US (instant takedown on demand of the copyright holder). Music video lives for a much longer period there.

 I think that nearly everything that was filmed of John Coltrane's  performances resides there. Search for "John Coltrane" or another favorite and see what's available today.

Hint to the copyright holders: I would buy copies of each of these for my home theater if I knew where to order one. I bet many other music fanatics would do that also, putting bread in your coffers.

 Great New Video Finds

Checkout Keith Jarrett's encore at the end of a solo piano concert in Tokyo in 1984. Jarrett at his peak. He's using the same idea that he used for the encore of his Bremen concert, recorded on the "Bremen/Lausanne" solo concert album for ECM Records.

 John Coltrane playing his battle duet with drummer Elvin Jones, "Vigil", in August 1965 at the Comblain La Tour festival in Belgium. Coltrane has changed the first half of the melody since he recorded the piece in the studio six weeks earlier. McCoy Tyner joins the performance 5 minutes in and plays one his best recorded solos. Ultra-intense music making.

 A complete concert set by the Miles Davis Quintet recorded in Germany in 1967. You get to see this best of Miles' bands performing its magic.

Dexter Gordon playing Loose Walk and A Night In Tunisia in 1964. Dexter, at his most insouicant and at the absolute peak of his development as a saxophonist that year. He recorded "Our Man In Paris" and "Go", his all-time best recordings, in 1964 just as he relocated to Europe to find regular performance opportunities.

He was languishing before the move because he couldn't play in New York City nightclubs because of the evil cabaret laws that were in place then (he had had a drug conviction). A law that impoverished the U.S. by forcing the exile of one of its great artists.

I'd never before seen Dexter play when he was in finest form. I was in fourth grade when these videos were produced. I was able to help produce a concert of Dexter's in Lincoln, Nebraska that occurred on my 21st birthday, when Long Tall Dexter was starting to hit his late career peak in his late 50s.. He was magisterial then. But that was a different feeling from what  Dexter could produce as a younger man.

The Miles Davis band in 1970 (Miles, Gary Bartz, Chick Corea, Keith Jarrett, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette, and Airto) playing selections from Bitches Brew and In A Silent Way (Directions, Bitches Brew, It's About That Time, Sanctuary, Spanish Key, played without break, with a funk blues encore after an ovation).

Around 29 minutes in the video, there's a fascinating sequence where Miles wants to cue the band to stop the tempo so he can play "Sanctuary" and they don't go along with the routine. Miles plays once through "Sanctuary" with accompaniment, playing beautifully with gorgeous electric piano ideas interjected by Chick Corea, and then launches the band into "Spanish Key", by playing the tune's first phrase, thereby changing the band's entire mood and direction within the duration of a finger snap. No wonder his musicians thought Miles performed magic.

Drummer Jack DeJohnette's broad smile as he intentionally tweaks Miles and watches Miles' response is priceless.

Four songs performed by the Cannonball Adderley Quintet for a 1962 TV program hosted by Oscar Brown Jr. Cannonball and Nat, Yusef Lateef, Sam Jones, Louis Hayes and Joe Zawinul.

Sonny Rollins performance of his blues "G-Man" from a gig played in a sculpture garden in Saugerties, New York in 1986 for a Robert Mugge film, "Saxophone Colossus". It's amazing to hear what Rollins can invent given one repeated blues riff, and wonderous to hear how he changes his sound as he plays.

What a handsome man! And such musical brillance presented so dramatically.

blog comments powered by Disqus

Please join our community at SongTrellis. Our contributors welcome your comments, suggestions and requests. As soon as you join the site (or login if you are a member) a response form will appear here.




Last update: Tuesday, April 3, 2007 at 2:51 AM.