music and the martini

2004-05-20T23:45:00.000+10:00

so i've discovered i'm dwelling in the past. i've spent so much time drowning in a martini and talking about the grand old days of jazz. my assignment, however, is about the remixing of jazz and cocktails, resulting is such physical embodiments of harmony as verve//remixed and fuji martinis...

so now it indeed is time to slap that bass and keep this rhythm busy: time to discuss the verve//remixed project.

sit down. lean back. put the head phones on. take a breath in. here we go.

as previously discussed, the verve//remixed project started in 2002, when 12 talented and super-popular modern djs of the amazing variety were allowed into the verve vaults. what resulted was pure music euphoria. the following year came volume 2: more musical euphoria. coinciding with each release was verve//unmixed, the original unmixed versions of the original jazz songs. but why on earth would one want to remix old jazz songs? verve//remixed producers dahlia ambach caplin and jason olaine explain:

so in what other compositions can jazz influences be found? can other samples and snips of jazz be found in every-day chart music? is it possible, just as an idea, for someone who hates jazz (the horror, the horror) to really like verve//remixed without realising that it's jazz based? essentially, do you think that the idea of remixing and sampling makes an original song (jazz or no jazz) lose its soul?

i recommend it. lock your doors, dim the lights. pour yourself a drink, sit, lay, stand, jump, hop (if jumping or hopping i suggest against red wine). turn on verve//remixed. listen. dance if you want. sing if you want. listen to it in your living room. your bed room. your shower (i recommend against the dancing if you're in the shower - music and the martini cannot be held liable for any damages incurred). tell me what you think.

because of remixing has jazz lost its soul? or has it been given new life?

2004-05-18T22:34:00.001+10:00

...and in an explosion of undefined coolness, david returned....

hiya! i'm back.... after a long anticipated wait.. so anyhoo...

well, i've been a very busy boy! so many assignments and all, almost no time to update poor old music and the martini.. sad state of affairs, huh? but, never fear, dear AA-comembers, martini's are never far from my mind! in the midst of a very busy social and professional schedual, i still managed to fit in a daiquiri natural at that fantastic institution, the bowery... while still a summer drink, a nice ice cold one's perfect amidst some hot hot jazz...

so anyhoo, last week i was browsing through the BORDERS cd department, and ended up leaving with not only that content feeling i always get when i get shite customer service, but also a new BILLIE HOLIDAY album! happy face. so reading the liner notes, i found that it was a compilation put together following an american public broadcasting servie show called "ken burns: jazz" and i thought, alright.... so today in the library i managed to find it, and OH MY GOD IS IT LIKE THE BEST DOCUMENTARY FOR JAZZ HISTORY EVER!! EVER EVER!!!!! so i was happy. then this evening i find the website here and OH MY GOD I JUST SENT MYSELF AN E-CARD!!!

so this site is just amazing, just as is the series, just as is the cd - actually, there's a whole heap of the cds, i just happened to pick up billie cause billie's my girl.

so i just realised that i don't really have that much interesting to say, except for this series is like hot, so hot right now. for example: my post title. strange, huh? well... as it just so happens, this series even went so far as to investigate where the name "JAZZ" comes from - apparantly, around the 1890's in jazz's birth town, new orleans, groups were calling themselves JASS ORCHESTRAS - two possibilities: jass could have refered to an obscure african word meaning 'speed it up'; or it could have refered to the jasmine perfume popular with the hookers, erm, loose women in storyville, the red-light-hot-jass district of the ol' new-o town. however, the jass band folk then realised that if you scratch off the 'j', you're left with ASS, so they changed it to JAZZ.... interesting, huh?

ah well, check the site, the doc, the cd. it's cool. jazz is cool. thank God they changed the name...

otherwise i'd be typing 'ass is cool'.

2004-05-11T23:49:00.000+10:00

so wow! awfully long time and no talk, huh? been lonely? i have... frightful amount of assignments meant i've recently neglected my poor martini-soaked weblog... but now i'm back, and ready to go (thanks to 'no doze' tablets!)

anyhoo, it seems i've got some entirely interesting conversation happening on my comments page... basically, adam left a comment firstly detailing his disdain for young michael bublé, and then asking where all these young ones (you know, bublé, norah jones, joss stone) get off by singing the songs made timeless by the greats like my girls ella fitzgerald, billie holiday, nina simone, and even ol' blue eyes frank sinatra... then swan/crane master nic chimed in with his agreeance (is that even a word?) and detailed his liking of the hottness of joss stone... then strangely-omnipresent-jean put in her two bobs and asked why then, oh why don't rock group JET get trashed for the exact same reasons? then adam showed his agreeance (there it is again!) and swan master crane remained silent, and then there were a few more comments from people wanting to go drinking... erm, researching with me... oh what a post!

so here are my absolutely valid and well informed thoughts. i like JET. i'm sad adam didn't get me tickets. sad face. however, they do get shat upon quite a bit for not 'being original'. but you know, anyone who can wear those silly hats, sell heaps of records, and be the sound of a vodafone ad are pretty cool to me... but they also credit all these old bands as their 'inspiration'....

also -

my girl billie - one of the absolute best jazz vocalists of all time.... well.... she sang many Many MANY songs that weren't her own, and actually credited none other that mr louis armstrong as a major inspiration - thus her deep, husky and sexy singing voice (in her early years. later it was more attributed to booze and cigarettes). actually - interesting story i heard. now, before billie was anybody, her mommy worked in a brothel. young billie used to go in there simply to listen to the head momma's jazz records. later she ended up working there. but the point of the story is she was absolutely inspired by the greats and their standard songbooks, and she learnt to emulate them... kind of the way jet have done... but not really. but in reference to old mate bublé, he's just singing the best of the old song books... maybe he'll end up going out there and doing his own stuff like norah, who knows. but isn't it a good thing that young people can carry on the tradition? or is tradition something best left to yesterday - could it be seen that with these greats like ella, billie, frank, louis, dizzy, that jazz had reached it's zennith, it's pinnacle, it's absolute perfect dry martini? should it be "quit while you're ahead", or is there always room for a tribute? wow - do you think that one day people will start singing 'tributes' to jet??

and just to clear up any misunderstandings from my tutorial last week - i did not write the last post while i was drunk........................

i was hung-over by that stage and in dire need of a nanny nap.

2004-05-04T23:33:00.000+10:00

firstly, a poem by odgar nash. such a brilliant man. brilliant.

so anyhoo, i'm really happy with music and the martini so far. so happy indeed that lola and my martini have started to take over my life. today, for example, all i could think about was my research. entirely in the name of research i was unable to attend my afternoon classes today, and (for research, of course) graced a few of this city's cocktail bars with my presence. and naturally, in the name of research, i was required to sample the offerings at these bars, all while taking in the surrounds and sounds. so my observations: number one: the red room is not, repeat NOT a cocktail bar. my only excuse: it was close. so anyhoo, should one venture into the depths of the university of queensland's on-campus bar, may i suggest sticking to any kind of pre-mixed, pre-bottle, essentially-made-else-where drink... further, please do not take this posting as a recommendation that the musical atmosphere of the red room is in any way endorsed by music and the martini.. lola would not be happy. so my posse and i jumped into the martini-mobile and headed straight to everyone's favourite cellar, the verve lounge...

...found at 109 edward street, beneath metro arts. there we sampled the fantastic and made-to-suit-each-drunk martinis created by chef extraordinare brett munroe.. sadly, however, the music wasn't what we were looking for, so we ventured (staggered) to the garden of eden, utopia, my table at jorge... and how worth it it was! recently jorge released 62 brand spanking new cocktails just perfect for an afternoon of truency/research. so not only was i treated to a perfectly prescribed MOLESTED MARTINI, but my ears were soothed and serenaded by the smooth voices of frank sinatra, norah jones and michael bublé... inbetween my martini and home baked bread with trio of dips i thought, is cocktail culture music like shoes? is it different for different times of the day? or is it like beautiful brown leather paul smith shoes, does it move seamlessly from day into night? this is a question i would have loved to answer, but an afternoon's research had left me, shall we say, in need of a nanny-nap, so it's something i'm going to have to look in to. who knows? maybe i'll have to go out into the field again for more research. damn.

2004-05-01T02:40:00.000+10:00

so here we are again, at the meeting point of two of life's most rewarding m-words: music and martini. how exciting! at least one person thinks this blog is in the slightest bit interesting!

so, i've been doing my bit in the research dealy-o today, and i've worked out what i'm going to do.. thanks totally to jahsonic.com! there's like totally really good stuff there, and then further links to go to many other fantastic resources for music and subcultures.. so my good friend renee asked me the other day how i was going to link actual cocktails to jazz and bebop, as i had planned to do. you see, i had told her that i felt that today's was a second generation of cocktail culture, and the previous was at the same time as the height of jazz. thus, with the evolution of the music consumption, the cocktail culture also evolved. the only problem was renee (who btw is going GREAT research on bebop's influence on the beats) asked exactly what cocktail culture existed around dirty, underground blues bars? so i've now gone a little bit further back in history, and truged through some of the history of jazz and bebop (including prohibition and speakeasies) and then through to a very interesting article on nu jazz... allow me to elaborate..

welcome to the cotton club! the place that brings broadway to harlem and harlem to broadway!

ok, so in the '20's in the US, prohibition (the constitutional amendment thta forbade the consumption of alcoholic beverages - the horror, the horror) kicked in and shut down thousands of bars, clubs and cabarets across the nation. however, many a speakeasy (places of illegal drinking, dancing and entertainment - hooray!) popped up. while all the entertainment in these speakeasies was quite varied from jazz to vauderville to show tunes, they became a steady job for many a jazz muso. so harlem's most famous was the cotton club, run by gangsters, catering to a white-only audience, the entire ensemble of super-talented musos, tap dancers and singers was mixed, and led for many years by two great (black) men of jazz: duke ellington and cab calloway. so that's one major way jazz and booze became linked - the legendary speakeasy.

- my boy charlie parker

so just something quick on bebop:
"The name bebop (briefly called rebop) is an imitation of a characteristic quick two-note phrase that was played together by the lead instruments to introduce a solo or end a song" - wikipedia

so, i also read an article today called "nu jazz - progress or perversion?" by bernard chung, and i'm not quite sure if i totally agree with him. essentially, he said that anyone who produces 'nu-jazz' (which can be accepted as a style which 'combines jazz textures and instrumentation with electronic music') is basically trying to 'reinvent' jazz, and making money out of the hippness of things like 'chill-out jazz' and 'world-jazz'. the concept of 'new' types of jazz (world, chill, smooth jazz) i totally understand to be quite far-fetched, but in my understanding he totally white washes all 'nu jazz'.. but then i'm not 100% if the verve//remixed project is considered nu jazz. why not though? it has jazz textures, snippets and instrumentation combined with electronic music... so why not? if you're interested, i suggest you read the article (not long) and throw me your opinions... i'm very very interested..

i'm out, and if lola's not very much mistaken, you've still got a martini to drink...

2004-04-30T10:42:00.000+10:00

so just quickly kids, here's another one to whet your whistles...

THE INTERNATIONAL COSMOPOLITAN

+vodka
triple sec
cranberry juice
lime juice
sugar
small lime wedge

+rim your martini grande glass and chill
put all ingredients in shaker and shake shake shake
strain into glass
with skin side against cigarette lighter flame, squeeze lime wedge gently and stir gently in drink
leave as garnish in bottom of glass

the cosmo... a required element for any good night out! this one was thanks to my dear friends sammy, mikey and the crew at B@1 (Be At One), quite possibly the BEST cocktail bar in the Wandsworth burrow of London... if you're ever in Clapham Junction, do drop by!

2004-04-28T01:49:00.000+10:00

So I've now made some final tweekings to the look of MUSIC AND THE MARTINI, and I think I'm pretty damn happy with it (for now). So everyone, please meet Lola, our scintillating and steamy resident starlett and connoisseur of the great tradition of the martini. So I'd really like to thank maystar designs for the fantastic blog template...

Ok, so here's what I'm going to do. I've realised that I really need to make it quite clear what my intentions are for both this blog (which in the past two days has become like a new-born baby) and for the second essay. So here goes...

To begin with, I think I'll be doing my assignment on essay question #1: new media and/or digital media. Now I can hear you all saying "crikey, Dave, what on earth are you on about now? What do martini's have to do with new media?" well, for those of you who don't know, for my first assignment, I investigated into Brisbane's Cocktail Culture - you know, the sights sounds and flavours of places like jorge and the Press Club. So anyway, what really interested me was the idea that years and years ago in the time of Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker there was another Cocktail Culture. Now what I'm thinking is that the music and the culture of that time has and is continuing to influence the Cocktail Culture of today. "and how do you plan on proving this?" you ask.. well, ranking VERY highly on my personal cd collection are two cds:

For the uninitiated, Verve music group was and still is one of the worlds most famous and influential jazz labels, dating all the way back to 1944. Anyway, they're really cool people. Just for kicks, here is their website. Now, in 2002, the lovely people at Verve released an album called Verve//Remixed. What they did was collected 12 classics from their vaults, gave them to 12 of the worlds most popular modern dj's, had them remix the songs, and released the album. It was a smash. In case you don't recognise the cd, think a few years back on tv, there was a car ad with a really really boppy version of the classic "is you is or is you ain't my baby"... THAT WAS FROM VERVE REMIXED!

Anyway, so this album was a huge smash hit, and they even released Verve//Unmixed - all the original songs without remixing. Then last year they collaborated once again and released Verve//Remixed2 and Verve//Unmixed2 - more musical harmony. So in my experience (being a participant in the Cocktail Culture myself) I've found that jazz is very influential in the music of the CC.. so I feel I should focus a case study on the Verve//Remixed Project.. it could bring about some really interesting research. What do you all think? I would really love your input - so would Lola.

Btw: try and listen to some stuff from Verve//Remixed - it's really cool, and chances are you'll either know it from tv or something, or you could even recognise the original song, and find it in a new and exciting format..

Cheers,
David.

2004-04-27T02:27:00.000+10:00

oh my God...

so, i've just spent the last two and a bit hours re-learning html... something i haven't used since i was like 13...
but here we are now with a GREAT new look for MUSIC AND THE MARTINI... i like it

i shall make an actual formal update tomorrow in regards to my research and such, but for now i just wanted to give all you followers the recepie for the first boisson du jour: THE INDISPUTABLE BLUEBERRY MARTINI

+ blueberries
absolute
chambord
noilly prat sweet

+ coat martini grande glass with noilly prat
muddle handful blueberries
shake absolute, chambord, muddled blueberries and ice
pour, add fresh blueberries

todays cocktail provided by our fantastic friends at jorge... they're just beautiful!

2004-04-24T12:11:00.000+10:00

mmm... here's an album that will go well with an apple cinnamon martini...

"Michael Buble"...

check out his website here

i'm out, more later...

"When marimba rhythms start to play, dance with me, make me sway..."

2004-04-21T11:16:00.000+10:00

wow - here is the official site of the original bowery bar in new york city. i'm happy.

2004-04-21T09:58:00.000+10:00

hello and welcome to my first post.

music and the martini.

what does it mean? break it down: MUSIC and the MARTINI. what does it signify? suave and sophisticated? drunk and disorderly? sex and the city?

this blog aims to examine all that's fantastic about two of life's most rewarding M-words: music and martinis.