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Perhaps the wait is almost over

Waiting for someone to come out of somewhere

wait One of my sisters sent me this clip of a song called Wait for the Lord. It’s in the Taizé style, which is to say that the message is repeated. One can become impatient with that, but I think that repetition is its power.

Wait for the Lord
Whose day is near
Wait for the Lord
Keep watch, take heart

And it’s sometimes an impatient wait. O Come, O Come Emmanuel – Tarja.

One of the lesser-known Beatles songs, from Rubber Soul, is Wait.

It’s been a long time
Now I’m coming back home
I’ve been away now
Oh how I’ve been alone
Wait ’til I come back to your side
We’ll forget the tears we’ve cried

Perhaps the best cover version of a Rolling Stones song is I Am Waiting by Ollabelle. The group features Amy Helm, the daughter of the late vocalist of the Band, Levon Helm.

You can’t hold out, you can’t hold out, oh yeah, oh yeah
Waiting for someone to come out of somewhere
Waiting for someone to come out of somewhere
See it come along, don’t know where it’s from
Oh, yes, you will find out
Happens all the time, censored from our mind
You’ll find out.

Norah Jones sang Christmas Don’t Be Late on CBS Saturday Morning recently. Not much like Simon, Theodore, Alvin, and Dave Seville.

Tommy Pett

And of course, The Waiting by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers:

The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you see one more card
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart

This, not incidentally, is the first song on Unconventional Advent (A Think Christian playlist) on Spotify.

I’ve said it before. I do think the waiting IS the hardest part.

It might be waiting for Christmas: the presents, the festivities, family gatherings. Or it may be that you’re waiting for it to be over: the pain, the sense of loss, family gatherings.

Perhaps it’s the end of 2021, which might have been better than 2020, but not as good as you had hoped.

Here’s hoping that what you are waiting for, whatever that might be, comes your way.

A dozen Christmas songs (or more)

Chestnuts roasting

A dozen Christmas songs I had not linked to yet this season. These are among my favorites.

Wexford Carol – Alison Krauss and Yo-Yo Ma. Alison is one of my wife’s favorite artists. She’s one of her K Girls, along with Diana Krall, and they reside next to each other in the file cabinet. Naturally, the artists are in alphabetical order

Merry Christmas, Baby – Charles Brown. I was not really familiar with him, to be honest until I heard Bonnie Raitt had him and the unrelated Ruth Brown on a live album that I own.

Merry Xmas (War Is Over) – John and Yoko and The Harlem Community Choir. Always makes me sad, because John’s assassination was in December.

River – Joni Mitchell. I’m still mystified that my late friend Donna, who was a music buff and a Joni obsessive, failed to hear Jingle Bells as the motif of this song.

The Christmas Song – Nat King Cole. Likely my mother’s favorite singer. Whatever happened to all of her old 78s she owned?

The year the US entered WWII

Getting Ready for Christmas Day – Paul Simon. I was always taken that the sermon was from 1941, the year Paul was born. Simon is sampling!

This Christmas – Donny Hathaway. I miss Donny, though I have none of his albums, except the ones he did with Roberta Flack.

Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) – Darlene Love. I could have picked several songs from that Phil Spector Christmas album. But this song is the best of a great bunch.

The Mistletoe And Me – Isaac Hayes. From one of those Stax/Volt boxed sets. This deserves radio play!

Christmas Wrapping – The Waitresses. I have this on 12″ vinyl, but it’s seldom made my annual lists simply because it slips my mind.

What Christmas Means To Me – Stevie Wonder. One of my Top 5 favorite pop Christmas songs. I have it on both a Stevie album and a Motown compilation.

We Three Kings – Patti Smith. This is from A Very Special Christmas 3 in 1997. David Lose calls the rendition an unlikely Christmas carol, in a good way.

Wait, there’s more!

Here are a few from Sharp Little Pencil:

Snowman – Barenaked Ladies

Christmas Calling (Jolly Jones) – Norah Jones

What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve? -Ledisi

Plus

Kelly’s Daily Dose of Christmas

St. Olaf 2021 Christmas Festival – Almost two hours of song and orchestral accompaniment

Ken Levine: The Obscure Sounds of the Season

Coverville 1383: The 2021 Christmas Cover Show

1st RECORDING OF Blue Christmas – Doye O’Dell (1948)

Chuck Miller: The worst Christmas songs of all time

Normal-ish: Proctors, ASO, choir

No buffoon bassoon

Proctors In the past month, I had several days that I considered normal-ish. Familiar, though with a twist.

Th, 12/9: I went to the Proctors Theatre in nearby Schenectady. I’ve been going there to see for years to see touring musicals. Often I’ve had season tickets for the Thursday matinee because it’s the least expensive option. Indeed, I made that choice way back in the spring of 2019 for the 2019-2020 run. I saw three shows. and then…

I don’t even remember when Summer: The Donna Summer Story was supposed to take place initially, but I think it was rescheduled at least twice because of COVID. FINALLY, I got to take the bus to the old vaudeville venue. First, I was asked for my vaccine card, which I had on my phone. Then I could pick up my ticket at the will call.

As for the show itself, there were actually three women playing the disco queen at various stages of her life. One also played Donna’s mother and another Donna’s daughter. Oddly enough, this was not confusing. And all of them were very good.

I wasn’t a huge disco fan. But as I wrote about her three years ago, I had a lot of respect for Donna Summer: her look and especially her voice.

On The Radio

But as this review in the Chicago Tribune noted of the tour: “It is a very rough book.” Yeah, that was it. The show “carelessly abandon[s] most of its scenes in mid-flow for self-serving monologues. The story veers “back and forth between the personal and the professional” in an uneasy manner. The reviewer thinks those “behind-the-music-with-the-guys-in-suits stuff… so rarely works in these kinds of shows.” I’ve seen some that do work – Beautiful, for one – but this was not one of them.

This I didn’t remember: “Summer, of course, upset a lot of her gay fans with a homophobic remark at a Cleveland concert, at the height of the AIDS crisis to boot.” The story monologue disowning her previous statement was astonishingly clunky.

Ragnarok

Sa 12/11: Likewise, it was the first visit to the Albany Symphony Orchestra at the Palace Theatre, under the direction of David Alan Miller, since COVID. A church friend had tickets he could not use. Yes, proof of COVID vaccinations was needed.

The first piece was Don Juan by Richard Strauss. as the show notes suggest: Strauss “makes us see from the get-go the bravado of this libertine.”

The second and third pieces, one before the intermission and one after, were written by Christopher Rouse (1949-2019). The ASO, which Rouse visited frequently, was to record the compositions the following day.

From the composer’s notes about Heimdall’s Trumpet: his “blasts on his trumpet announce the onset of Ragnarok, the Norse equivalent of Armageddon.” He rightly notes “the title… refers properly to the finale… in a very short orchestral fortissimo outburst…” And it was so! Eric Berlin was the fine soloist.

Rouse’s bassoon concerto, with the virtuoso Peter Kolkay was a lot more fun, with Kolkay sometimes fading out, yet the orchestra’s other bassoons filling in. It was not buffoonish, though. Comedy is difficult to explain.

Finally, excerpts from The Nutcracker, not just the suite but about a third of the whole ballet.

Church

Su 12/12: Our choir has been rehearsing since October, with everyone with at least two shots. But the group, other than the section leaders, haven’t sung. That is until 11/27 when half the choir got to sing, masked. And no forte, because we’ve read that it is the volume of singing, or speaking, that has the greater chance to spread infection.

My half got to sing on 12/12. It was a little difficult because, being spread out, it was hard to hear the others in the bass section, let alone the other parts.

That said, it was GLORIOUS to be in the choir loft again. I’m not saying I got a little verklempt, but…

So normal-ish. Which is good enough for now.

Kennedy Center Honors 2021

Justino, Berry, Lorne, Bette, Joni Dec 22

The Kennedy Center Honors 2021 are back in December! “The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts is proud to celebrate the 44th Honorees for lifetime artistic achievements: operatic bass-baritone Justino Díaz, Motown founder, songwriter, producer, and director Berry Gordy, Saturday Night Live creator Lorne Michaels, legendary stage and screen icon Bette Midler, and singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.”

The program was recorded on Sunday, December 5. It will air on CBS-TV on Wednesday, December 22 at 9 pm ET.

There is occasionally one person on the list with whom I am not familiar. Can you guess which one? Justino Diaz originated the role of Francesco in the September 10, 1971 world premiere of Ginastera’s Beatrix Cenci, performed for the… now Washington National Opera), which inaugurated the Kennedy Center Opera House.

Don’t forget the Motor City

Whereas Berry Gordy I’m VERY familiar with. Not only did he establish Motown, but he is a songwriter and producer. His Songwriters Hall of Fame resume identifies just some of the songs he created or co-wrote. These include All I Could Do Was Cry -Etta James; and Lonely Teardrops plus others for Jackie Wilson even before he started the label.

Also, Shop Around – Miracles; A Do You Love Me – the Contours; Try It Baby – Marvin Gaye; You’ve Made Me So Very Happy – Brenda Holloway; I’m Livin’ in Shame – Diana Ross and the Supremes. As part of The Corporation, he co-wrote a string of hits for the Jackson 5, such as I Want You Back, ABC, The Love You Save, and I’ll Be There. Listen to a few.

In 1998, I made a pilgrimage to Detroit. 2648 W Grand Blvd was the home of Hitsville, USA, and is now the home of the Motown Museum, where the Motown Sound was recorded from the late 1950s until 1972 when the label moved to Los Angeles. The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Martha and the Vandellas, the Four Tops, and most of the aforementioned artists recorded there.

In the 1970s, Gordy was involved with movies, such as Mahogany and Lady Sings the Blues, starring Diana Ross, who was nominated for an Oscar.

Live From New York

I watched Saturday Night Live, almost every episode from its beginning until 1999. Show creator Lorne Michaels was at the helm from 1975-1980, and from 1985 onward. These days I tend to catch clips from the show on YouTube rather than watch the whole thing. But it is amazing that over 45 years after it was created, it still mines relevant material.

Some of his other credits sometimes involve SNL alums. TV executive producer: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers, 30 Rock, Portlandia. Movies: Wayne’s World, Tommy Boy, Mean Girls, and MacGruber. Broadway: he produced and directed Gilda Radner – Live From New York. He also produced several TV specials.

“Michaels’ 93 Emmy® nominations are the most ever for an individual. He received the 2004 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor.”

EGT

Bette Midler is an Oscar away from an EGOT. She has three Emmy Awards®, including for her performance on the penultimate episode of The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, which I watched, plus six other nominations. Her four Grammy Grammy Awards® include Best New Artist (1973). She was considered 11 other times, including for ALBUM OF THE YEAR: The Divine Miss M, which I just played this month, and the BEST POP VOCAL PERFORMANCE, FEMALE: the single from that album, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy.

One of her two Tony awards was for Hello, Dolly! (2017). But the other was a Special Award in 1974, “for adding lustre to the Broadway season” with her dozen and a half performances of a one-woman show. Twice she was nominated for an Academy Award®: For the Boys (1991) and The Rose (1979), neither of which I saw. But I did catch Ruthless People and The First Wives; Club. And yes, I saw Beaches.

Joni

In 2021, I purchased a box set of the first four Joni Mitchell albums. I had never owned the first album, Song To A Seagull; so THAT’S where Judy Collins found Michael From Mountains. Nor the second, Clouds. The third, Ladies of the Canyon I have on vinyl; I wrote about getting castmates to listen to it. The fourth is Blue, the Top Five on many people’s lists, which I own. Even Joni admitted, “There’s hardly a dishonest note in the vocals.”

I have, in some form, For The Roses, Court and Spark (rebound album), Miles of Aisles (the pictured venue reminds me of the first time I saw her perform), The Hissing Of Summer Lawns (which I had coveted)… Actually, I own every non-compilation that is listed here through Turbulent Indigo.

Check out Joni discussing her health issues. “I’m hobbling along but I’m doing all right.” Also, Rick Beato’s What Makes This Song Great? Episode 91: Joni Mitchell’s Amelia and My Dinner With Joni Mitchell: 3 hours with an Icon.

More Christmas on the burned CD

The Bells of Christmas

Here’s the second part of the Christmas song roster that I put on a burned CD in 2006. There are other holiday compilations I’ve made. But I pulled a bunch of CDs off the Christmas section of the shelf. I had intended to pick selections from various discs, but when I found this puppy, voila!

In retrospect, I might have put the two Santa songs and the Allan Sherman cut together.

Careless Santa – Mono Puff. From a Hello Records compilation c. 1997.

The Bells of Christmas – Julie Andrews. Absolutely one of my favorite Christmas songs ever. And I have the hardest time finding it on YouTube. There’s a version of it, featuring the Young Americans, performed much faster and higher in Julie’s range I just do not like. This version has an extra minute of strings starting at 1:07. The version I love is at 17:33 of the album. Accept no substitutes.

Barefoot Santa Claus · Sonny James. This appears on some compilation someone made for me. But I may have heard it growing up – it came out in 1966 – when I used to listen to WWVA in Wheeling, WV late at night.

Star Carol · Simon and Garfunkel. From their boxed set, Old Friends. It was recorded in 1967 but was not released until 1997.

Very special

What Child Is This? · Vanessa Williams. From A Very Special Christmas 2, which came out in 1992 to support the Special Olympics.

12 Days of Christmas · Allan Sherman. Heard this growing up.

The Coventry Carol · Alison Moyet. My favorite cut from A Very Special Christmas album from 1987.

The Christmas Waltz -Frank Sinatra. I have this on the Capitol Records Frank singles box set. BTW, tomorrow would have been Sinatra’s 106th birthday.

Gabriel’s Message – Sting. Another song from the original A Very Special Christmas.

Jingle Bells -Fab Four. Not the Beatles, but a tribute band.

Silent Night · Sarah McLachlan. Her Wintersong album came out in 2006, but I don’t own it, so it must have been on another compilation.

Winter Snow · Booker T. and The MG’s. Arguably my favorite song from Stax-Volt: The Complete Singles 1959-1968.