Kojo-no-Tsuki (荒城の月)

Tags

art., Hakone, Japan, Jazz, lalique, life, Tokyo, train

The title is Japanese and means Ancient Moon. This is a jazz piece by Koichi Sugii and is part of  Japanese Jazz and Salon Music from 1936-1941. It was very popular in Japan and even the Emperor HiroHito would request it be played by the Imperial guard, old 78 rpm exist out there for those who might like to hear it. Koichi Sugii (1906-1942) was a Japanese bandleader, composer, arranger, conductor, singer, accordionist and recording artist. He skilfully bridged Eastern and Western styles, combining American orchestral jazz with Japanese pop and Chinese folk music to create a sophisticated and melodic hybrid with broad appeal.

Sugii was born in Tokyo in 1906. His mother sang traditional Japanese music while accompanying herself on the samisen, a three-stringed instrument. An early familiarity with his country’s native folk songs later inspired Sugii to arrange these melodies in jazz settings.

Sugii took piano lessons from a Canadian teacher, and became an ardent admirer of Western classical traditions, jazz, and film music. In 1930, after graduating from Tokyo Imperial University, he was hired by the Osaka merchant shipping company, which assigned him to Buenos Aires. In Argentina the young business executive became fascinated by musical trends, especially the tango. Convinced his true interests were in music, Sugii returned to Japan in 1932 and found work composing and recording for a film studio. In 1935 he joined Sakurai Kiyoshi’s Sakurai y Su Orquesta, a Latin-influenced band which specialized in tangos.

Those years prior to the Second World War were years of great development in Japan and the wealth people enjoyed brought luxury products to Japanese markets and a fascination with Western habits. The brother of the Emperor had a complete Lalique Museum built after a visit in France where he and his wife had René Lalique’s house dismantled and rebuilt in their museum. If you visit Tokyo you can see it, fascinating.

This Art deco building built in 1933 is part of the The Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum. The museum is located in Minato ward, just east of Meguro Station. The Art Deco building interiors were designed by Henri Rapin and features decorative glass work by René Lalique. It was pure delight to visit it and showed how sophisticated Japanese society is and was then.

Another spectacular area is the open air museum in Hakone outside Tokyo is easily reach by train. Japanese trains are a dream, never seen anywhere anything like it. The  open air museum presents sculptures by Henri Moore, Constantin Brancusi, Barbara Hepworth, Rokusan Ogiwara, Kotaro Nakamura and Niki de Saint Phalle, 120 works in all, the green space was well thought out with trees, and shrubbery designed to bring peace and facilitate reflection for visitors, very much in the Shinto style.

There is more and another incredible find is the Lalique museum, yes more Lalique and  Le Train café restaurant, the actual train transported from France, it was in service until 2001 and was part of the Orient Express line. I was trying to imagine how do you transport a train car from Europe to Japan. You can have tea on board with all the actual dishes and linens, absolutely exquisite, very high quality. Again the train car is decorated by Lalique panels and is exquisite in terms of luxury. Reservations are a must.

 

Miss Peggy Lee

Tags

Jazz, Lyrics, Peggy Lee, Songs

The month of May marks the 100th Birthday of the wonderful singer Peggy Lee. Someone with such a beautiful voice, singing these great songs so love by the public was born in 1920 in Jamestown, North Dakota. Her maiden name was Norma Deloris Egstrom, the seventh of the eight children of Selma Amelia (née Anderson) Egstrom and Marvin Olof Egstrom, a station agent for the railroad. Her father was Swedish-American and her mother was Norwegian-American.

Lee was married four times: to guitarist and composer Dave Barbour (1943–1951), actor Brad Dexter (1953), actor Dewey Martin (1956–1958), and percussionist Jack Del Rio (1964–1965). All the marriages ended in divorce. She gave birth to her only child at age 23, a daughter Nicki Lee Foster on November 11, 1943. Her daughter died of a stroke in 2014, there are also grandchildren Holly, Micheal and David and many great grand children.

Peggy Lee was a great Jazz singer and so many of her songs stay with me, I love listening to her voice. They represent an era in my life between 1967-1980, and I associate them most with Montreal, my native town. Like so many artists of the 20th century, she embodied something that can only be remembered if you lived through that time.

Such a sophisticated and stylish Jazz Singer, songwriter, composer, and actress, a career spanning six decades. From her beginning as a vocalist on local radio to singing with Benny Goodman’s big band, Lee created a sophisticated persona, writing music for films, acting, and recording conceptual record albums combining poetry and music.

Happy memories on this Anniversary. Happy Birthday Miss Peggy Lee. 

 

Song

Is That All There Is

Artist

Peggy Lee

Album

The Jazz Story – Tea For Two

Writers

Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller

Events and Photos

Tags

Brian Burke, Canada., CCAG, Charlottetown, figurative painting, Jazz, Music, Painters

As I said before in Charlottetown we are busier than we ever have been socially. There is always something going on.

In the last 10 days we have been to the opening of the Winter Show of the Art Gallery of the Confederation Centre. A retrospective of the work and life of Brian Burke, displaying 110 paintings,  a small fraction of this life’s work from 1980 top 2016. Burke died at his home in PEI. He had lived in Lucerne, Switzerland until last year. Many of the paintings are from private collections, unseen by the public, some came from Europe. He has a style all his own and you know when you see one that this is Brian Burke.

From The Guardian (Charlottetown) eulogy:

Born in Charlottetown in 1952. “One of PEI  most significant painters, Burke pursued his long interest in expressive figurative painting with passion and commitment. Brian was an artist who inspired a generation with his body of work, and for making his way in the world as a painter and musician.

Over the years, his paintings were exhibited in private and public galleries in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. He is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. His work is in public, corporate and private collections, including the permanent collection of Confederation Centre Art Gallery, TD Trust, the Bank of Nova Scotia and the Canada Council Art Bank.

The Summer Cruises are coming to an end, we saw about 100 ships the biggest carrying 4500 passengers. In one day several ships arrived at once and upwards of 15,000 passengers got off for a 5 hour stop, roaming a 4 block radius of the downtown area of this small town of 36,000 people. Is Charlottetown becoming like Venice ( same square mileage area) Should be like the Mayor of Victoria BC on the Pacific coast call for a reduction in cruise ships and the enormous pollution they bring with them in terms of garbage and air pollution. Difficult to say, the Charlottetown Port Authority is a private concern and they make tons O’Money with the cruise ships and passengers.

According to the Tourism figures of the PEI Government, cruise ship traffic is up 60%, no wonder, we only had about 30 ships a year four years ago now it is close if not at 100 per year or in the Season (May to October). Tourism in other areas like visit to the National Parks is down, tourism by car or coach is also down, only special festivals still bring significant numbers to the Island but this is a one off and no repeat. So our elected officials cling to the cruise ships. However don’t try to get numbers on what this traffic really bring, it’s a big secret and must not be discussed. There is also the problem that after 1 September most businesses dedicated to the tourism traffic close only to re-open on 1 June. So yes we need to think seriously about where we are going with this tourism thingy.

With the artist Tyler Los-Jones and Gallery director Kevin Rice on opening night.

Then here are some city views around the neighbourhood.

Thursday Night Island Jazz at Baba’s Lounge and the 200th show. Every Thursday night of the year, jazz with a variety of musicians from local to international and only $5 bucks. Always fun night to meet friends.

 

 

By popular request

Tags

artists, Aznavour, Charlottetown, Jacques Loussier, Jazz, Leander, Max Raabe, Music, opera, PEI, Puccini, Stokowski, Verdi

For those of  you who read this blog and my not have noticed yet that in 6 weeks we are moving to Prince Edward Island, the birthplace of Canadian Confederation 1864, I have been asked what would be my choice of music to bring to a deserted Island. Now PEI is far from deserted, some 145,000 people live there year round and the Island is the size of the Netherlands.

So my choice in no specific order:

Mussorgsky Pictures at an exhibition, the arrangement of this piece by Maestro Leopold Stokowski (1882-1977). A wonderful interpretation by Stokowski who in my mind was a great maestro. This arrangement by Stokowski is very different from the usual traditional arrangement, it has more gusto and reminds me of how paintings at an exhibition can affect you with their colours and composition.

Songs of Charles Aznavour who is 91 years old, the great Armenian-French singer who to me is timeless in his interpretation of a style of French songs written as poems in music. His songs bring so many memories of a time in my life and the world the late 1950’s and 60’s.

Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester, so much of this fun, silly music of the Weimar Republic 1919-1933. Night Clubs Berlin, sophisticated and fun. Raabe has his own interpretation and style of singing typical of that era.

Jazz Music by Jacques Loussier now 81 years old, the great jazzman who has made so many wonderful arrangements of Classical like J.S.Bach set to jazz or other classical composers not to mention modern jazz. All pleasant to the ears.

Operetta Music by Franz Lehar in Hungarian and German, so light, so old world pre 1914, charming, romantic, elegant, old Budapest and old Vienna, think Stephan Zweig.

Guitar music by Andrés Segovia who interprets so beautifully music by Joaquin Rodrigo, by Torroba, Mompou, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Enrique Granados and so many others. Very relaxing music and so entertaining.

French Opera arias with Canadian Tenor Ben Heppner who had this powerful voice and beautiful diction.

Songs interpreted by Zarah Leander, 1907-1981, Swedish artist who made a career in Germany for many years including those of the Nazi Dictatorship 1933-45. She sings mostly Cabaret and Movie theme songs which were popular in Europe at the time.

Master of the Bel Canto Ryszard Karczykowski, Polish tenor, with a beautiful voice interpreting Italian Operas.

Italian Opera Arias mostly Puccini and Verdi by various great artists.

As you can see it is diverse and a mix of various styles.

I am sure that there is much more music I would enjoy and will enjoy on PEI.

I did say to friends that I could take up learning to play bagpipes since there is a school in Charlottetown. However someone said to me; The sign of a true gentleman is one who knows how to play the bagpipes but won’t.