All is Calm?

"Silent night, holy night, all is calm..." Really? Calm? Have you ever seen a woman in labour? And I can't help but think that adding a bunch of stinky shepherds to the mix is going to help anything. "How silently, how silently the wondrous gift is giv'n..." Wondrous, yes. Silent, not likely!

"It came upon the midnight clear..." Well, I suppose it could have; it just doesn't say. All Matthew has to say is "Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem..." (Mt. 2:1) and Luke simply states that "while they were there, the time came for her to give birth" (Lk. 2:6). Yes, the angels appeared to the shepherds at night (Lk. 2:8) but that's the closest time-frame we've got... I guess, in all fairness, the song is talking mostly about the shepherds and the angels... but then what's the point of the song? If it's not about Jesus, why bother singing it?

It doesn't take much to find some Carols that have inaccuracies, poor theology, or just silly statements. So should we scrap them?

Just this morning I ran across this quote which attempts to answer that question:

Should we get rid of Christmas Carols?

“Only with great care. For thousands, carols will be their only link with a church. At the same time, sentimentality is perhaps the single most dangerous feature of our Church and culture—and the sentimental air is never thicker than at Christmas. The Incarnation is messy, dirty, and resonates with the crucifixion. We need a new wave of carol writing that can gradually swill out the nonsense and catch the piercing, joy-through-pain refrains of the New Testament.” - Jeremy Begbie, professor of theology, Duke Divinity School

What do you make of that?

What carols are worth keeping?

Which carols are worth ditching?

Do you know of any new Christmas/Advent songs that are worth singing?

Hearing Music Everywhere!

I ran across Charles Spearin's "The Happiness Project" a while ago (I think it was on CBC Radio 2's "the Signal"). The idea totally intrigued me: He had interviewed a whole bunch of his neighbours about what they thought it meant to be happy in life. Then he listened to the natural tonality in their conversations and turned it into music.

I know it's totally outside of most of our musical boxes, but you gotta check this out:

So?

Beauty from the Dust

So, I think the theme from this song follows up well from our theme last week: (those guitar players out there make sure to watch the whole thing as he explains how to play all of his fancy chords!)

I discovered "Gungor/The Michael Gungor Band" a few years ago and have eagerly gobbled up all of their albums. I find it rare that a "Christian band" has such a blend of creativity and ability.

In case you doubt his ability on the guitar:

And in case you are curious enough to listen to a little more:

Marvelous Music - Day 5

Oh, and I used to listen to a lot of Prog-Rock:

With these guys it's all about pushing the limits of creativity and ability. The results might be questionable but you can't deny the talent!

Marvelous Music - Day 4

Well, I can't go and showcase all of this music without hitting up some of my favourite jazz artists.

Of course, there's no shortage of astounding jazz musicians. There are everyone's favourite Canadians, Michael Buble, Diana Krall and Oscar Peterson... but everybody knows about them.

So let's start by going way back to 1961 and the Dave Brubeck Quartet. Many of you will know about them but they deserve to be heard again simply because this song (and the whole album "Take Five") literally reshaped and redefined music for the 20th Century. I honestly don't think that's overstating it.

Now, there are about a zillion amazing jazz pianists but I happen to enjoy Jacky Terrasson and it's my blog, so here's Jacky Terrasson (check out his left hand work):

But one of my favourite jazz emsembles of all time is Bill Bruford's Earthworks. They are a mindblowing progressive jazz band. I really wanted to find a video of them performing "footloose and fancy free" (I know I've seen it before) but all I could find was this:

I suppose some of you will appreciate this video more than others :)

Anyway, I've posted videos of Medeski, Martin, and Wood here before but I can't leave them out. They're a little weird but I love their groove. Here's one with them performing with the incomparable John Scofield:

And like we did yesterday, let's end things off with a little Latin American vibe. Here's the legendary Poncho Sanchez (the actual song starts at about 1:55):

Enjoy!

UPDATE:

Woah! I almost forgot about one good Canadian girl that you all need to know about: Jane Bunnett. She's the white girl.

Marvelous Music - Day 3

Today is all about Canada and acoustic guitars.

I don't know if you know this, but Canada has produced some of the best guitar players, well... EVER.

You have probably heard of at least a few of these artists but whether you know about them or not, it's always worth while taking a few minutes and listening to some amazing acoustic guitar work:

Antoine Dufour:

Don Ross:

Bruce Cockburn:

And we'll end with a little flamenco with Jesse Cook:

Marvelous Music - Day 2

Have you guys seen this commercial yet?

So while the blatant capitalist agenda (ie. tropicana wants to make $ off of this) takes a bit of the poignancy away from this I have to admit that it is brilliant P.R. and just a really cool idea.

But, of course, what slapped me in the face when I first saw this was: "Hey, just wait a second... they're playing Patrick Watson!!!"

[the song is "The Great Escape"; apparently it was also used on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy"]

Patrick Watson is a good Canadian boy who I first heard on the 2007 Juno awards here in Saskatoon:

I was pumped when I saw this because here was someone who had the audacity (& artistic integrity?) to play a whacked out psychedelic anthem (and most of it is in 7/8 time!) at a "popular" awards show.

The fact is that Patrick is a true musician. He is a phenomenal, classically trained pianist who in true "post-rock" fashion (like Sigur Ros and fellow Canadians, Bell Orchestre) has blended classical music and rock music together and in doing so has helped inject some much needed creativity into our bland musical landscape.

In this one he plays 3 songs from his newest album:

1) Beijing; 2) Big Bird in a Small Cage (@ 3:45); 3) Wooden Arms (@ 7:56)

Don't you just love his worn out CBC t-shirt?

You can tell that Watson has been really influenced by the classical "minimalist" movement, in particular, Philip Glass. In fact, Patrick Watson toured with Philip Glass. For those of you who don't know, Philip Glass is a classical composer/film-score composer.

Compare the piano arrangements from the beginning of Watson's "Beijing" (1st song of the above video) and this song "Glassworks" (composed by Philip Glass and performed by Branca Parlic):

While, of course, the songs are completely different you can see the stylistic similarities and how Philip Glass has influenced Watson's playing.

This is a little bit more on the "fringe" than yesterday's Charlie Winston.

So, what do you think?

Marvelous Music - Day 1

Well, over the past few weeks we've had some great discussion. I've enjoyed it a lot and I hope you have too.

But let's take a bit of a break.

This week I am going to be posting every day and introducing you to some music that you may not have heard before!

Most of this won't be "popular" music. It's not that I dislike all pop music; there are a number of well known "popular" artists that I quite enjoy listening to (like Coldplay or the Dave Matthews Band). But if I'm going to introduce you to some new music then I'm going to have to reach out to the fringes... and that's where some of the best stuff is!

Anyway, this week I'd like to introduce you to Charlie Winston.

In Europe he doesn't really need any introducing... apparently he's huge in France. I just ran into him because they play his song "In your hands" on CBC Radio 2 quite a bit (Radio 2 is the only radio station I can handle listening to. I'd rather suck on the tail-pipe of a car than listen to C-95... but that's just me :)

Anyway, Charlie is a pretty straight up Folk-Rock singer-songwriter. But he's got a pretty cool vibe to him. Check out this first video for "In your hands." First of all I think it's just a really cool song, but it's also got some interesting lyrics and the video... well, the video speaks for itself.

This next song, "Like a hobo" isn't one of my favorite Charlie Winston songs but it's grown on me. Plus, you just have to check out the hat solo at about 2:30.

So, as we check out some of this music just leave your thoughts. Music is intensely personal, so I'm not expecting everyone (or maybe even anyone) to love it all. But I encourage everyone to leave a quick comment like:

"Cool, I kinda liked that first song."

...or...

"Hmmm. Not my cup of tea."

See you tomorrow!

A little more Crowder

Hey everyone. As most of you know, me and my little family were on holidays this past week. We had a great time hanging out with family in the Radium, BC area.

I have no wonderful insights for you this week, although I hope to wrap up our ekklesia discussion very soon. But in the meantime I want to give you all a little more Crowder.

The David Crowder* Band recently released a new album, "Church Music." As usual, they have put together one of the most progressive "worship" albums out there. These guys are awesome.

They also happen to be very funny! To promo their album they posted a series of "Rockumentaries" on YouTube. Please enjoy the following responsibly:

[Sorry that the video doesn't fit properly on this blog template. Double click on the video to watch it properly on YouTube.]

MMW

Hey! Like the new look? I think it's great. Thanks to my lovely wife for doing it all for me:)

I apologize for the lack of post-age this week. It's been a really busy one. And next week I'll be in a class at Bethany for a week-long module, so I'm guessing there won't be a post next week either... but don't worry, I promise to come back. I won't ditch you like last time, I promise!

In the meantime I leave you with a clip from one of my favorite bands: Medeski, Martin, and Wood (or MMW). They are a sweet, crazy, experimental jazz trio. This clip is a trailer for their upcoming DVD.

It's a little weird and eclectic but even if you're not into this kind of stuff make sure to check out the organ solo at 2:10, and the piano vs. screwdriver at 4:40.

Please excuse (or avoid... you've been warned) the very unfortunate expletive at 5:10 :(

Music

Unfortunately I've been kind of busy and uncreative lately and that has resulted in my lack blogging.

What I've got for you today is some of my musical inspirations.  Most days, as I work in my office, I have soundtrack music playing.  I love movie scores.  It works for me as I work because they are instrumental (I always get distracted by lyrical music... I end up singing along) and evocative.

So here are just a few of my favourite composers:

Joe Hisaishi performing one of his songs from the movie "Spirited Away."

Here's Hans Zimmer performing music from "Pirates of the Caribbean."  

It's not my favourite of his compositions, but it's sweet to see Hans rocking out on the guitar!

And, of course, since I'm a big LOTR fan here's a clip of Howard Shore's score:

I hope that you enjoyed these.

What do you listen to?

Why?

And because I'm temporarily out of compelling ideas:

What should I blog about next?
Any ideas?