Here's an unusual recording by jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer, the late, great, Miles Davis (a jazz musician of extraordinary talent), taken from "Sketches of Spain", an album from an arrangement by Gil Evans. It's the adagio movement from "Concerto de Aranjuez". Miles Davis - Concierto de Aranjuez: Adagio (Official Audio) (youtube.com)
Saturday's death of Kris Kristofferson sees the passing of a very special man. To talk about his music career or even his acting career misses so much. He came from an established military family but having graduated from his US university went to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. While there he started writing and saw his future as an author. At the same time he started singing folk music. At one point he was part of the Larry Parnes stable (Billy Fury, Marty Wilde etc.) but nothing took off. He returned to the US and followed his (family) chosen path and joined the military. He entered as a Lieutenant and ended up a Captain, spending most of his time in West Germany. On returning to the USA he was disowned by his family when he chose to seek a career as a folk/country singer. Though based in Nashville he spent half his time earning money flying helicopters to oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico, returning to Nashville where he mostly did any job given to him in the recording studios (listen to Beat the Devil as it more or less describes both his life then and his outlook on life). Writing songs and recording them on cassettes he tried to get people to listen to them. Eventually Johnny Cash listened and recorded Sunday Morning Comin' Down (again a description of an artist alone and on the breadline). Other recordings of his songs followed and in 1970 he was offered a recording contract by a sub-label of Columbia called Monument and recorded an album of his songs called Kristofferson. It wasn't a success but in 1971 the posthumous hit of 'Me and Bobbie McGee' by Janis Joplin (often considered the Bobbie McGee of the song) was a hit and the LP was reissued as 'Me and Bobbie McGee'. It became a hit and if you haven't got it I'd recommend it to you. He actually appeared at the 1971 Isle of Wight Festival where he opened his set with 'Blame it on the Stones' (he also had this as track no.1 on the LP, which I think a big mistake) which the crowd booed. Americans seldom understand irony but this time it was the Festival crowd who were dumb. In the early '70s at the age of 35+ he was suddenly the biggest thing in Country and the next Bob Dylan. He went on to write loads more songs, put out plenty of LPs and then surprisingly became a film star (without losing his credibility). He never eclipsed his first LP but he was always interesting, always liberal in his views and always a fine songwriter. Other artists loved his songs and my favourite cover is Gladys Knight and the Pips version of Help Me Make It Through the Night. www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX66ZtKnmYU#:~:text=From%20the%201972%20Soul%20album,%20"Standing%20Ovation" (Kristofferson didn't write the spoken intro). What I liked about his songs was that they were by a mature man who had lived a life and sung with a grown up voice (unlike most of the music by overgrown teenagers I was listening to). My favourite song of his is Casey's Last Ride: a song about a man facing loneliness (maybe in an unhappy marriage) though in the song he meets with a former lover. The song betrays his having experienced life in England...Underground, Golden Crown, Pint of Bitter . He also seems close to Joycian influence with 'here's a kiss to make a body smile'. Kris Kristofferson - Casey's Last Ride (youtube.com) John Denver did a good version and as many would prefer a female singing the sensitive parts Emmylou Harris's version is a fine one. A bigger man than many people will realise. And he stumbled as he's leaving and he wonders if the reason was the beer that's in his belly or the tear that's in his eye.
The Appointment A really beautiful Italian song from around the 1970's, sung by the lovely Ornella Vanoni, Ornella Vanoni - L'Appuntamento (youtube.com) .................... Also, the same song, this time sung by Andrea Bocelli from a concert in Las Vegas, 2006. Andrea Bocelli - L'appuntamento (Live From Lake Las Vegas Resort, USA / 2006) (youtube.com) ....................
