Composers From The United States

"A kiss on the hand may be quite Continental, But diamonds are a girl's best friend."

"In its post-World War II heyday, bebop was known as much for its precarious lifestyle as for musical daring. Generated in no small part by the aura surrounding the mythic, self-destructive Charlie Parker, drug addiction became an occupational hazard among aspiring jazz players. But amid this chronicle of disaster, Clifford Brown presented a shining alternative. The most brilliant young trumpeter of his generation, he was completely drug-free, a model both as musician and man – disciplined and good-natured. Thus it seemed a particularly cruel trick of fate that, in 1956, he died in a car accident, aged just 25. Though he had only been recording for four years, Brown left a considerable legacy on disc. He enlivened every session with his bright sound, impeccable facility and, above all, the sense that everything he played was driven by delight, an insatiable urge to say something new in each solo. Sheer fluency is perhaps his most striking quality, carried along by a rich tone, and an attack as crisp, intelligent and varied as the buoyant logic that informed his improvisations."

"What makes jazz ‘jazz’ today? Improvisation, blues and swing, passionate individuality – the music may hark back to its classic qualities, but today’s scene has splintered into a plethora of postmodern fragments, from which every player has to construct a distinctive voice. No one has met this challenge with more imagination than trumpeter Dave Douglas. In fact, he has mixed feelings about what he calls ‘this beast called jazz’: though he’s always wanted to play it, he wants to incorporate all the other aspects of music and life that compel him, too. In 2003 he celebrated his 40th birthday with a concert given by ten different groups he has led, including the Tiny Bell trio, with guitar and drums (inspired by Balkan music); Charms of the Night Sky (a chamber group with accordion); a sextet devoted to works by neglected jazz masters; and a quintet with cello and violin whose repertoire includes Douglas originals, Webern and Stravinsky. What unites all these ensembles is Douglas’s virtuoso ability, and his protean skills as a composer."

"When I was growing up people would always say, and it was meant in the kindest possible way, ‘You’re really good for a girl,’ because there weren’t a lot of girls or women playing. Out of this small pond of people, it was surprising to them. In my opinion, you’d have to be pretty unworldly to make a comment like that anymore. Nobody had the success that Alison Krauss had. So, when that happened, I think it started to make it difficult for people to look at women in bluegrass as some kind of exceptional thing. Here was a woman who really blew out the boundaries for the music and really expanded the potential for the music and brought in new listeners."

"Even though [Hanneman] was at the heart of the [Slayer's] creative force musically and lyrically, he shed away from the public eye mostly and usually avoided interviews, leaving the talking to Kerry King of Tom Araya."

"In the Big Rock Candy Mountains All the cops have wooden legs And the bulldogs all have rubber teeth And the hens lay soft-boiled eggs."

"I'm a Yankee Doodle dandy, A Yankee Doodle do or die; A real live nephew of my Uncle Sam's Born on the Fourth of July."

"We will welcome to our numbers the loyal, true and brave, Shouting the battle cry of freedom! And although he may be poor, he shall never be a slave, Shouting the battle cry of freedom!"

"I'm no cranky hanky panky, I'm a dead square honest Yankee And I'm mighty proud of that old flag that flies for Uncle Sam Though I don't believe in raving, ev'ry time I see it waving There's a chill runs up my back that makes me glad I'm what I am."

"I'm a-goin' to stay where you sleep all day Where they hung the Turk that invented work In the Big Rock Candy Mountains."

"One can hardly skim a music magazine without seeing mention made of Mr Rudess. He has achieved fame as a keyboard virtuoso, a feat that seems almost impossible in a post-punk world.Yet the man’s skills are undeniable. He studied classical piano at Julliard at the age of nine before becoming enamoured of the synthesizer as a teenager. His first solo album earned him a Best New Talent award in a Keyboard magazine poll before he joined up with the Dixie Dregs and Dream Theater, with whom he still plays."

"It’s fun to watch these guys live and see their virtually identical soloing styles. Jeff Hanneman, with atonal runs going up and down the neck, finished with a whammy bar dump! Kerry King, with atonal runs going up and down the neck, finished with a whammy bar dump! These guys were made to be in a band together – because they would sound terrible in any other band."

"In the Big Rock Candy Mountains There's a land that's fair and bright Where the handouts grow on bushes And you sleep out every night Where the boxcars all are empty And the sun shines every day On the birds and the bees and the cigarette trees The lemonade springs where the bluebird sings In the Big Rock Candy Mountains."

"When Johnny comes marching home again, Hurrah, hurrah, We'll give him a hearty welcome then, Hurrah, hurrah; The men will cheer, the boys will shout, The ladies, they will all turn out, And we'll all feel gay, When Johnny comes marching home."

"The speed and aggression [in Slayer's music] came from Hanneman’s love for hardcore punk such as Minor Threat, TSOL, Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, the Germs and more. This influence had an impact on [the band's] primitive sound which was the blueprint for all thrash metal bands to follow. Hanneman played and wrote music on every single Slayer album and is responsible for so many classic hits."

"I wish I was in de land ob cotton, Old times dar am not forgotten; Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land! In Dixie Land whar I was born in, Early on one frosty mornin', Look away! Look away! Look away! Dixie Land! Den I wish I was in Dixie! Hooray! Hooray! In Dixie's Land we'll take our stand, to lib an' die in Dixie. Away! away! away down South in Dixie. Away! away! away down South in Dixie."

"The Union forever, hurrah! boys, hurrah! Down with the traitors, up with the stars; While we rally round the flag, boys, we rally once again, Shouting the battle cry of freedom!"

"Let tyrants shake their iron rod, And Slav'ry clank her galling chains, We fear them not, we trust in God, New England's God forever reigns."

"Like Joni [Mitchell], Fahey explored a vast array of tunings in his career, and this embrace of new approaches provided the backbone for this whole school of playing. If you have to choose one essential Fahey tuning, look for his particular open C, tuned low to high as CGCGCE."

"My advice for creating instrumental music would depend on what kind of tune you are making. Having a strong melody is a good starting point. If you find something that sounds nice, put all of your heart and soul into it. Try to do something that makes it unique to you. Think creatively. I try to make each of my songs special in its own way. I like to have different moods and flavors in one song. I never got off on having every song sound the same, with only one type of energy. Really, anything creative and different is cool."

"Seemingly allergic to pentatonic scales and harboring an aggressively defiant swagger, Filipino-American indie hero Joey Santiago broke in with the Pixies in the late '80s. As originators of the loud/quiet/loud dynamic that would be perpetually mimicked in the '90s, Santiago and the Pixies should be considered true precursors to grunge."

"A harmonically advanced cool-toned and subtle guitarist, Jim Hall was an inspiration to many guitarists, including some (such as Bill Frisell) who sound nothing like him."

"For many listeners and admirers, Hall's burnished tone and understated approach connote the sonic equivelant of watercolors, haiku, or gentle poetic lyrics. Known as much for the notes he doesn't play, Hall is a complete original. That delicate, sensitive style, with its exquisite note choices, introspective moods, and disciplined restraint, has been his calling card and lasting legacy as generations of ostentatious technicians have come and gone through the turn of history."

"Despite protestations that he’s not into playing solos, Anastasio is, in fact, a certified guitar hero, one who succeeds at filling arenas and festival lawns with jam-band aficionados who greet Mixolydian licks with screams of glee. In the process, he has turned a whole generation of listeners onto the ecstasy that is available to those who know how to play really well and simply to wail with focused purpose."

"Music is like this portal into another world – the world of truth."

"I have one idea about this whole interpretation problem as it relates to orchestral music — too many of our conductors start with old music. What they should do is interpret the music of our time and then go backwards. They would be much better off because if you interpret a contemporary work, where the composer is still alive and have contact with the compositional mind, you will also play older music as looked at from the perspective of the composer, instead of an interpretive kind of idea. I hate the performer that says, “Did you ever hear my Beethoven?” I don’t want to hear his Beethoven! I want to hear Beethoven."

"I don’t understand any music! I feel it. I want them to feel something! I don’t want them to understand it. If I wanted them to understand exactly what I meant, I can write an essay! I’ve written a lot of speeches and essays and articles and everything else, but I don’t want that! I don’t want a particular thing; I want them to let themselves go and feel something they’ve never felt before. That’s all. That’s what a concert is — not a pleasurable experience; it is an experience of life-changing dimensions!"

"To me, the wonderful thing about music is a love affair between the performer and the composer, and between the composer and his audience. This love affair is a tripartite thing."

"Too much emphasis is placed upon the technical aspect of contemporary music and not enough on its communicative and aesthetic impact. This is where i strongly disagree with many of my colleagues. I firmly believe that a composer should have all contemporary techniques in his immediate grasp, and must be able to use these as they suit his purposes."

"At present...I feel that my works require a modified serial technique, but it is a very unorthodox one, and almost never strictly adhered to throughout a given work. Neither does it destroy all tonal feeling...I do not mean tonality, but I do stress a progressive direction from one "note" center to another...(twelve-tone music) seems to be overly static without providing that experience of forward or backward movement that is an essential part of our musical art."

"The accordion fun? ....Sometimes. Not all the time. I find that it can be a frustrating instrument. The coordination involved is extraordinary and sometimes that coordination doesn't happen.... The use of the left hand and at the same time getting the dynamic range, the volume, is quite difficult. Other times it is fun if you're working with other musicians and you're doin' pieces that you really enjoy. It can really be fun!"

"The difficulties, of course, if you take an orchestral work you want to try to get as much of that composition, harmonically, and contrapuntally, that you possibly can. Many times that's impossible. It depends upon the texture of the music. And there are certain solo things that simply do not lend themselves to the accordion, such as Chopin. The ballads would be next to impossible to really do successfully...The accordion is allied to organ-texture, for instance, a Bach Prelude."

"The buttons on the standard instrument are a combination of single bass notes and sets of chords - major, minor, dominant seventh, and diminished...Yes (in all keys). And you can form other chords using more than one button; you don't have to just stay with one button. So you can play the root of the chord, with a single bass note, and then the chord coupled with that. So you get a considerable amount of sonority that way."

"There are instruments known as free-bass instruments, or sometimes called the bassetti, where you have totally complete single pitches, simply like you would in the right hand, and you form your own chords. And you have a greater range in the left hand, some three to four-and-a-half octaves."

"Since the accordion has so many attributes that are conducive to chamber music, it is particularly suitable for this medium of expression. In essence, the accordion has all of the prerequisites essential to small ensemble involvement: sustaining power, dynamic sensitivity, articulated response, timbre, and texture variance, and compatibility of sound with string and wind instruments."

"The basic principles of all jazz styles are the same. Good musical taste, technical skill, and a firm grasp of the principles of chord construction and chord progression make up the sum total."

"Seventy-five percent of everything done throughout your life is the result of habit. Think of it! The way you walk, the way you eat, the clothes you wear, the places you go and...last, but not least, the way you play your accordion."

"Being a complete instrument in itself it has no equal as an entertainment medium in the home, outdoors, or wherever people gather to enjoy good fellowship. During the past 15 years or so the accordion has risen to the top of the field as a best seller in the musical instrument market. At present, it threatens to replace the piano as the medium through which Junior or little sister are initiated to the delights and sometimes pains of a musical education."

"The works and prayers of centuries Have brought us to this day... What shall be our legacy? What will our children say?... Let me know in my heart, When my days are through, America, America, I gave my best to you."

"Let martial note in triumph float And liberty extend its mighty hand A flag appears 'mid thunderous cheers, The banner of the Western land. The emblem of the brave and true Its folds protect no tyrant crew; The red and white and starry blue Is freedom's shield and hope."

"Hurrah for the flag of the free! May it wave as our standard forever, The gem of the land and the sea, The banner of the right. Let tyrants remember the day When our fathers with mighty endeavor Proclaimed as they marched to the fray That by their might and by their right It waves forever."

"Sunny Day Sweepin' the clouds away On my way to where the air is sweet Can you tell me how to get — How to get to Sesame Street?"

"I believe in little things that you can hardly see like honeycomb and spider webs and starfish in the sea. I believe in little things like icy drops of rain that melt into the morning mist when winds are warm again."

"Come and knock on our door We've been waiting for you Where the kisses are hers and hers and his Three's company, too."

"I believe in little things Like you and me And just how big Little things can be"

"You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss, A sigh is just a sigh; The fundamental things apply, As time goes by."

"Bodies working overtime, It's man against man. And all that ever matters is, baby, Who's ahead in the game. Funny, But it's always the same.Playing, Playing with the boys. Staying, Playing with the boys."

"If time has taught me anything You've got to learn to be the ball And I can't keep from laughing at it all Oh, I'm going nowI'm going all the way Sooner or later gotta love somebody I don't care how long it takes Like a shot to the heart I've got news for you I may not look so smart But I'm nobody's fool."

"Where are the dreams that we once had? This is the time to bring them back What were the promises Caught on the tips of our tongues? Do we forget or forgive? There's a whole other life Waiting to be lived when One day we're brave enough To talk with conviction of the heart."

"Does anything last forever? I don't know Maybe we're near the end. (So darlin' tell me) So darlin', oh How can we go on together? Now that we've grown apart, oh no. Well, the only way to start Is heart to heart."