I've lost focus on this blog, and my cautiousness about my online persona has stopped me blogging my opinion, for my own reasons. So for now, it's all about fiction. I'll see you in the trees.

That's the same age as Angelina Jolie, Jamie Oliver and The Fall of Saigon.

Let's let the music speak for itself. My favourite is Don't Explain.

Once I’ve got my hands on the sheet music it's time to set about listening to as many versions as I can get my ears on. For standards that’s very easy, and sources such as spotify are invaluable for all of those versions you haven't yet bought. A lot of jazz standards started life in the musicals and if you're lucky it might have come from a film or a show that you can obtain a recording of. This gives valuable insight into the original meaning of the song. My Funny Valentine is a good example of this, and seeing the film (Babes in Arms) may make you change your mind about the meaning of the lyrics.

So now to set about learning the tune. If it's a well known melody it's easy to skip over this stage quickly, but in doing so idiosyncrasies may become habit, and errors become fixed. Singing the melody straight is very valuable as it can aid understanding of the song structure and how the sections are connected. So, it's a good idea to sit down with the sheet music, original and early recordings (Sinatra and Nat King Cole are good for singing songs "straight") and listen. Jay Clayton once told me that it's a good idea to listen to the tune ten times without singing before you begin. By which stage I'm itching to start, or to be more truthful, I just can't stop humming or singing for those ten times, but I pay close attention. Instrumental versions where the musicians play the head before and after soloing are useful at this stage too because different instruments may be playing in unison and have to play it straight.

The tune's in my head now, and I've absorbed the chord structure underneath from listening. I've still got the music in front of me and now to sing along, either to recordings, acapella or using music software such as band in a box. Unfortunately I don't have enough talent to play along with my songs (and the piano is on its last legs), but while I'm thinking about the melody I really have to consider the words of the tune. I'm not one for watching talent shows but when I do I get properly peeved with all the fake emoting that goes on in the singing. You can tell when it's real and when it's fake, really. If the lyrics are sad I want to be on the verge of tears when I sing it, at least while I'm learning it. There are many songs that I've loved and not been able to sing once I gave them a shot because the waterworks start, real ones, but in time they'll be keepers. Melody learnt, lyrics understood, then it's time for the fun.

By fun I mean playing about with the timing, the phrasing, the melody, and improvising. My natural style is to sing like I would talk which means that lots of fun can be had putting the natural rhythms of speech into the musical rhythm of a melody and fitting things around each other and making it my own. Listening to singers such as Ella Fitzgerald while learning a tune can be counterproductive, as you end up absorbing too much of her phrasing and improvisation and end up copying. It's good to be inspired, but when singing jazz in particular, you don't want to go mimicking the arrangements and quirks of other singers, especially well-known ones. You want to turn a hackneyed old show tune or standard into something shiny and new. If I'm feeling adventurous, there's the options of completely changing the melody for a chorus, scatting, or changing the feel of the tune, latin to swing to waltz.

And then the excitement of singing the tune with a live band. There's nothing like it, and it never works out quite like you expect, it's sometimes a disaster, but usually a revelation, no matter what.

Unlike half the audience I went into the film blind, apart from hearing the words misogyny and torture porn bandied about. The cinematography by Anthony Dod Mantle is breathtaking from the word go, whether in lush, almost psychedelic colour or stark black and white. It is simultaneously the most beautiful, heartbreaking and repulsive film I have ever seen and I adored it.

Without spoiling, and from the official imdb entry: A grieving couple retreats to their cabin in the woods, hoping to repair their broken hearts and troubled marriage. But nature takes its course and things go from bad to worse. Understatement of the year. Utterly compelling performances by Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe, with Gainsbourg winning the Best Actress Prize at Cannes.

This is extreme cinema, completely shocking, and probably the most visually stunning thing I have ever seen. The stuff of nightmares. Be prepared.

http://angrygrayrainbows.wordpress.com/2009/07/13/appreciating-wellroundedtype2/

FAT UP yourself!

For now, my favoured topics are likely to be:

Music/Books - including brief reviews, topics on singing, jazz and soundtracks, favourite authors

Outdoors - the pleasure that can be derived from a walk in the park, the natural world and Scottish holidays

Web - my favourite links

Musings - my simple thoughts on life, learning and how I see things

Stories - the occasional short story

There was always the option of rubbing it all out and starting again, but you know, this is my place, and I like it here.