influences

preface

every single thing i've ever heard is an influence, dave beegle once wisely said (wonderful guitarist from 'fourth estate'), but that would be a long-ass list of things to go through. instead, i (timothy) will just mention a few things i like, some recent, some not so much.

jan

timothy's birthday

arve henriksen

finnish trumpeter, vocalist, composer, father of 4 or 5... i fell in love with him a couple years ago when i heard some songs of his in a friend's car. i kept waiting for the trumpet to come in but all i kept hearing where different wood flutes or something. well it turns out he's a big admirer (and student?) of japanese shakuhachi flutes and he makes his horn sound like one... his playing is not about speed, technique, or high resister. it's about sound, texture, songs. i wanna play like him!

nov

christa's birthday

mar

guess who's birthday!

apr

a certain cousin of a certain person reading this' birthday

thelonius monk

what can you say about this crazy (in the best possible sense of that word) genius. i love his quirky sense of rhythm, his compositions, his solos... especially when playing alone! i wanna play like him too.

the bad plus

good for them, sticking it to the critics! a jazz trio with serious balls! covering pop, jazz, drum'n'bass tunes with an attitude. i read that they just consider themselves an improvisatory band, they're not trying to please the jazzers or the rockers (and i think they're not, judging by comments i've read!). what great musicians, what rock'n'roll spirit, creative reworking, and considerate arranging of others' tunes!

the oud, (label: lyra)

10 or so songs of solo oud by three different greek oud players, mostly solo but occasionally with hand percussion. so clear, so simple, so elegant. no harmonies to get in the way of the song/melody. not so over-the-top virtuosically to make you turn it off in disgust, but such wonderful playing that it makes you want to pick up an oud and get practicing! and who doesn't have an old oud or two lying around, eh?

t.s. eliot, everything

i was reading and memorizing his work, mostly the 4 quartets, short poems, and the wasteland 15 years ago. they keep creeping into my life and i hope to revisit him in a deeper way soon. not that i can claim to be really influenced by him in my lyric-writing, but i'm certainly profoundly affected by his poetry.