The Idea of Luxury 2-6-2006
Of late, I have been getting reacquainted with the essence of luxury. Luxury is often sold to the masses by way of brand names. I suppose one can posit that extravagant comfort- which brand names often claim to provide- is luxury. At the same time however, a man sitting in his fire-engine boxer shorts snacking on greasy pizza and drinking malt liquor while watching porn, is rumored to be the no.2 entry for the definition of “luxury” in the upcoming American edition of the O.E.D. It reminds me of the theatre set in high school- who paraded around in loud Les Miserables t-shirts upon returning from a Broadway class trip- using taste as a simulacra for cultivation. It was the height of kitsch.
The luxury I have been concerning myself with involves the notion of aural luxury. One would be tempted to think in terms of high-end High Fidelity equipment when aural luxury is discussed. What I am referring to is not the quality of the reproduced sound, but the way the sound itself is put together. For example, I have an old King Pleasure record that has since lost its dust sleeve and album jacket. I’ve used this record for everything from a coffee table coaster under a hot plate of nachos, to a doorstopper, and an occasional bout of Frisbee with the neighborhood dog. And despite of years of neglect, sweet bright bouncy music snaps crackles and pops out from the speakers whenever I decide to take it on the record player for a spin. Remember those guys who can dance all the way down the block with just a cheap handheld radio to one ear? You know there’s music in the air.
I find I am able to do without many necessities – let alone “luxury items” in life, but when it comes to the essentials of aural luxury: a Brazilian bossa nova chord change, a squeaking faulty brake pad on a garbage truck at five in the morning, children screaming joyfully when at play, a throaty steam engine emission, two Tibetan finger cymbals meeting in the stillness of meditation, the blue hue of prison chain gang worksongs, singing birds at a monastery, a church bell in the afternoon, the unnamed staff between Western tonalities where Armenian douduks curl, Gail Moran’s priceless laughter at the end of a brilliant Mahavishnu Orchestra explosion, there’s not much substitute for true quality living.
Of course, that’s not to say that I won’t get swept off my feet by the man who shows up at my doorstep on Valentine’s Day with four 18 inch subwoofers and a pair of Crown 1000 watt bridgeable amps.
ah, reminds me of my youth when i had a talent for building state of the art speakers for my friends. no one could afford to buy them, but being the geeky type, i designed and built some lovely boxes. my favorites where 6 feet high, 4 feet wide, and 3 feet deep. 2 sub-woofers each, 6 mid-range, and 4 tweeters. my wealthy friend (a doctor’s only child) gave me an seemingly unlimited budget ($300!) to create the most amazing speakers that i could. i did just that. he had a 500w Harmon/Kardon amplifier (late 60′s vintage) and the first song that came out of those speakers was Jimi Hendricks’ Star Spangled Banner. we broke windows with those speakers. wish i could deliver on your v-day wish. love ya, cybereena (Mary Anne)
Reading someone else put Bossa Nova among a list of “essential” things in life warms my heart. The way you have put it, since you spoke about the chord changes, means you actually know the music, as when someone begins to study Bossa quite usually the first thing that is noticeable are the chords and their changes, both can get quite complicated and unusual.
I am brazilian. It just makes me happy to see our music acknowledged.
Hi MaryAnne, you know, I used to dream about making my own speakers. Then I came across the original Infinity Reference Series, and I just figured, “why fight it?”
I’ve also been greatly impressed by B&W speakers for piano music. ClasseA turned my ears, but my dad always encouraged me to get Luxmans. For banging dance music however, nothing short of making the ceiling shake asbestos will suffice 
re: v-day wish.
Awww, thanks! I wuv u 2
d332
Hi Haine,
I consider my entry “A Certain Tenderness” (written while in Rio de Janeiro) my finest written piece of work. I wish I knew more about bossa nova, although I have distilled whatever changes I needed from my Jobim recordings, and sheet music. Astrud is one of my all time favorites. The “Samba” sequence in A Man and A Woman has always warmed me greatly.
One of the three movies I’ve ever wept involuntarily while watching is Black Orpheus.
I am actually finishing up writing a dance song, and in one of the lines of the lyrics is this sentence:
“Quiet solitude descending bossa nova guitar chords
All the world before my ears, gently folds the sun down within my heart.”
Learning from Jobim is one of the best ways to go, he is generally seen as the father of everything, even if thats not how things really went. There are a few artists I can recomend but, as a general rule, I think if you want to learn a bit more about it, listen only to brazilian musicians playing it. I dont have anything against foreign musicians playing our music, I realy enjoy it actually, but often their rhythm is wrong.
I dont know if its done on purpose, with a “lets use it, but not all of it” mentality, but I’ve heard many big musicians playing it wrong, even Joe Pass. The most common mistake is picking a song that is 2 4 and playing it in 4 4, its a very subtle change, but it changes the flow of the music.
Another interisting thing I feel you should know,are the changes in lyrics. I am yet to hear a Bossa or Samba that keeps the same lyrics in its english “translation”. Corcovado, as a example, in english begins with “Quiet night of quiet stars/quiet chords of my guitar”, while if translated more directly, would be “A little corner, a guitar/This love, a passion”
The original lyrics wouldnt really sound well in english.
Hi Haine,
well, happily i don’t even attempt to write any bossa nova or samba music. by the time it goes through my hands, it barely has any resemblance to brazilian music, since it is not what i strove for anyway.
there’s actually a fairly visible article online about the whole brazilian explosion back in the day, in north america when musicians tried to hop on the bandwagon and “water it down” (obviously for mass consumption). when i play some traditional samba recordings for people, the rhythm is so dense and intense, that it hits them (and me) like a wall.
i would certainly welcome any recommendations you may have. (speaking of non-brazilians, i have been impressed with what i’ve heard from arto lindsay, but he does record with many brazilian musicians) and baden powell is also among my abbreviated collection.
oh an btw, that verbatim translation of corcovado is MUCH more impressive and poetic than the original. thanks!
Baden is good, you can trust him if you want to know what our music is like. Jobim respected him, so.. I figure everyone else did
There is a singer that you absolutely -cannot- miss. Elis Regina. I dont even know what to say about her to have you picture just how good she is. There is a small chance you have already listened to her if you have listened to Corcovado, as she recorded a few versions of that song. One of the songs she recorded, O bêbado e o equilibrista ( The drunken man and the equilibrist ) sounds amazing with her voice.
That song, by the way, was composed by João Bosco, which is another important composer. Hm, its time for a small list I guess. Not everything is Bossa, since not all musicians played that style exclusively.
Jọo Gilberto РHe had a fairly disntict way of playing, as if Bossa wanst different enough when it was created.
Geraldo Vandré – Nowadays he is mostly know for a song called “Para não dizer que não falei das flores” ( Do not say I didnt speak about the flowers ) which is like a hymn to rebellion that he sang at a stadium when brazilian’s military dictatorship was at its peak. He had to leave Brazil after that, but, he came back once the dictatorship was gone.
Paulinho Nogueira – Not only amazing, but he was one of Brazilians best instrumental guitar composers. Some of his pieces are a mix between styles. Two of them, in my opinion, are amazing because he used stuff from Bach and brazilian music to compose them. Bachianinha no.1 and Bachianinha no.2 . He has an album, tons e semitons ( tones and half-tones ) which has plenty of quality music for the acoustic guitar.
Toquinho – Nogueira’s longtime friend and musical partner also is worth listening to.
Hermeto Pascoal – Hermeto is albino, and nearly blind. Nonetheless, that didnt stop him from learning music on his own, without teachers.He plays just about every instrument there is, actually, he even plays things that wouldnt be usally taken as instruments. I went to see his band live once, and its just crazy
The musicians he plays with are amazingly skilled. I remember the rythmn in the songs were so broken, I couldnt figure it out in most of them.
Whats even cooler, is that later on I figured out his band was headed to a local bar, which had a stage. He played for free there, and I, I was standing right in front of his keyboard. Another guy who was in the same table as I, was holding his keyboard for him, as he was playing
.
Heitor Villa Lobos – He is a classical composer. He proved that acoustic guitars were a serious instrument, and could be used to compose classical pieces. Also, he is know to have learned music on his own, without teachers. I recomend you listen to “Trenzinho Caipira” ( it means something like.. Redneck Train, yes its a serious song, believe me )
I could go on a bit, but this small list should get you started
Remember, that just because they have played Bossa and Samba,doesnt means they played it -all- the time. Hermeto is a good example of this, as he plays just about all styles there are. By the way,if you can find a mp3 or an album with him and Elis playing Garota de Ipanema ( The Girl from Ipanema ) live at Montreal Jazz Festival, grab it -immediately-. 
Hi Haine,
Thank you so much for the recommend list. Heaven knows I would have to trudge through an amazon list….and we all know how unreliable some of those may be. I appreciate you taking the time to type out these recommendations. And I shall follow up on it. Heitor Villa Lobos, I need to get in on his pantheon of works. Something I have been meaning to do for a while.
warm regards and much gratitude,
d332