Following on from my last post, I write to complete the story of the quarantunes. After a hiatus of almost a fortnight, in which I thought I’d finished, I recommenced on 8 July with an original tune, ‘Three friends in winter’. From an album of the same name this was the only composed piece, and one that has always has a special place in my heart. When the trio launched the album in 2006 Jessica Nicholas reviewed us and wrote of this selection: ‘utterly mesmerising, evoking the same organic sense of ebb and flow as the fully-fledged improvisations, but adding a hymn-like melody and an odd-metered waltz feel that saw all three players dancing in unison.’ (Such expression and the understanding behind it, being part of the reason Jessica’s departure from ABC Jazz is to be regretted.) Anyway, lockdown was still on, and playing a tune each day had been providing a kind of musical focus that I welcomed, in the absence of live performances or any meetings with colleagues. Some listeners had even expressed sorrow or disappointment at my having wound things up. So I kicked off again. The performances were not strictly daily – I took brief breaks here and there – but I got to a second hundred pieces, and here they are. Once again, uncredited pieces are written by me.

8.vii.20 Three friends in winter
10.vii.20 Never let me go (Evans/Livingstone)
11.vii.20 Spir (Luke Howard)
12.vii.20 Theme from ‘The Mask’ (Edelman)/This masquerade (Russell)
13.vii.20 He was too good to me (Rodgers/Hart)
14.vii.20 It’s easy to remember (Rogers/Hart)
15.vii.20 My one and only (Gershwin)
16.vii.20 April
17.vii.20 Circling
18.vii.20 Blue moon (Rodgers/Hart)
19.vii.20 Smoke gets in your eyes (Kern/Harbach)
21.vii.20 Shostakovich Prelude 1 (messed with, because it’s so bloody awful)
22.vii.20 Naked (Ben Lee)
23.vii.20 ’Round midnight (Monk)
24.vii.20 Que sera sera (Livingstone/Evans)
25.vii.20 Moments of lucidity
26.vii.20 Bodylistening
27.vii.20 The book of love (Stephen Merritt)
28.vii.20 Taking a chance on love (Duke/La Touche/Fetter)
29.vii.20 The one I love belongs to somebody else (Jones/Kahn)
31.vii.20 You must believe in spring (Legrand/Demy)
1.viii.20 Love is here to stay (Gershwin)
2.viii.20 Three’s a quorum
3.vii.20 Here’s that rainy day (Van Heusen/Burke)
4.viii.20 Blackadder (Goodall)
5.viii.20 Free-ism 5
6.viii.20 That joke isn’t funny anymore (Morrissey/Marr)
7.viii.20 Hereinafter
8.viii.20 We kiss in a shadow (Rodgers/Hammerstein)
9.viii.20 Free-ism 6
10.viii.20 Almost like being love (Lerner/Loewe)
11.viii.20 Ballad in search of a title (Grabowsky)
12.viii.20 Free-ism 7
13.viii.20 Little kids holding hands
14.viii.20 Cheek to cheek (Berlin)
15.viii.20 Make someone happy (Styne/Green/Comden)
17.viii.20 I’ll see you in my dreams (Jones/Kahn)
18.viii.20 Dienda (Kirkland)
22.viii.20 Persephone at Enna
23.viii.20 The mask goes over your nose, dickhead [free]
24.viii.20 Pure imagination (Bricusse/Newley)
25.viii.20 Guess I’ll hang my tears out to dry (Styne/Cahn)
26.viii.20 You make it easy to be true (Adamson/McCarey/Warren)
27.viii.20 Free-ism 8
28.viii.20 Oh! Look at me now (Bushkin/DeVries)
30.viii.30 Strike up the band (Gershwin)
31.viii.20 Charade (Mancini)
1.ix.20 Everything comes down to poo (Fordham/Marx/Lopez)
2.ix.20 Just friends (Klenner/Lewis)
3.ix.20 Spring is here (Rodgers/Hart)
4.ix.20 Craft and art
5.ix.20 Improvisation and ‘Slane’
6.ix.20 Yours and mine
7.ix.20 You’d be so nice to come home to (Porter)
8.ix.20 The new ships
9.ix.20 untitled 253/2016
10.ix.20 Recovery
11.ix.20 Stars fell on Alabama (Perkins/Parish)
12.ix.20 This quiet life
13.ix.20 Dream a little dream of me (Andre/Schwandt/Kahn)
14.ix.20 Free-ism 9 (for Sarah)
15.ix.20 Last night when we were young (Arlen/Harburg)
16.ix,20 untitled 274/2016
17.ix.20 I should care (Stordahl/Weston/Cahn)
18.ix.20 Maybe (Strouse/Charnin)
19.ix.20 Never having known
21.ix.20 We’ll be together again (Fischer/Laine)
22.ix.20 Untitled 264/2016
23.ix.20 Everybody hurts (Stipe/Mills/Buck/Berry)
24.ix.20 Golden brown (The Stranglers)
25.ix.20 Well, I mostly hide
26.ix.20 My funny valentine (Rodgers/Hart)
27.ix.20 Opinion fear
28.ix.20 The song is you (Hammerstein/Kern)
29.ix.20 Bridge over troubled water (Simon/Garfunkel)
30.ix.20 Joy Spring (Brown)
1.x.20 Shenandoah (Traditional)
2.x.20 Sigh no more (Doyle)
3.x.20 Four words of Elizabeth Hunter: Interlude
4.x.20 Heat wave (Berlin)
5.x.20 Improvisation and ‘St Clement’
6.x.20 You have been loved (Michael)
7.x.20 Sooty’s return
8.x.20 Earth (Sleeping at last)
9.x.20 I’ve got a crush on you (Gershwin)
10.x.20 Triste (Jobim)
11.x.20 l.s.
12.x.20 Spring Yaoundé (Marsalis)
13.x.20 The look of those leaves
14.x.20 Media vita I
15.x.20 Media vita II
16.x.20 Cyclosporin (Browne)
17.x.20 Prism (Jarrett)
18.x.20 Prelude to a kiss (Ellington)
19.x.20 Giant steps (Coltrane)
20.x.20 Mr Leckett’s etiquette
21.x.20 Someone to watch over me (Gershwin)
22.x.20 From this moment on (Porter)
23.x.20 Contrapunctus XV from ‘The art of Fugue’ (Bach)

Again, one traditional piece. Thirty-five originals. Thirty-eight standards, including five Rodgers and Harts and five Gershwins. Eight pop tunes, which is twice as many as last time: finally something by The Smiths, a George Michael, some R.E.M., Simon and Garfunkel, and The Stranglers’ ‘Golden brown’, thought of because I was making a crème caramel and the instructions told me to work the sugar and water till they turned that way. Seven from the jazz repertoire, including Coltrane’s ‘Giant steps’, a piece I almost never play and have only once played in public, when a particular saxophonist who couldn’t play it himself called it on a gig half way up the Sofitel. Three written by colleagues – Allan Browne, Paul Grabowsky and Luke Howard. Two selections taken from TV programs, and five from motion pictures. And one classical item to wind things up. This one I rehearsed and rehearsed, and while in the end it wasn’t absolutely perfect I felt I gave it what I could. I was determined to finish things on my birthday, with a hundredth item, so time was limited.

I’ll go again with ‘sharing is caring’. To have music in common is to attest to our humanity. To see things imperfectly, amorphously, but with no imprecision of feeling. Your sense isn’t my sense, but both shake the heart. And if we feel like it we can talk about it. And smile. Behind our masks.

All selections are public and have stayed on Facey so if you’re interested and haven’t checked any of them out you can. The new Facebook is ugly and dumb and whereas you used to be able to go a page and scroll down with year and month options these have been removed, for reasons best known only to the blockheads who make the Facey rules. Still, scrolling is so 21st…

10/xi/2020

So I have now completed a run of a hundred very nearly daily pieces, filmed for public viewing on Facebook, that I wound up entitling ‘quarantunes’. As noted in the previous post, way back on St Patrick’s Day I played ‘Danny Boy’ and the response was so lovely that it struck me (once again) what people get from music, and how helpful it can be in times of privation. We were stuck at home in lockdown, all the good stuff was shut, there were no gigs; it seemed to me that I could maybe just put a little good feeling out there with a daily piece. So I continued.

And I feel vindicated, dramatic though that may sound, by the reactions my pieces have received. Likes and loves and comments were frequently offered in exchange for my efforts, and there was, I thought, a genuine feeling of togetherness generated by the music. Which may just be what it’s for. A complete list of the pieces performed follows. Uncredited items were composed by me.

17.iii.20 Danny boy (traditional)
18.iii.20 Most miraculous accident
19.iii.20 Lunch cutters’ ball
20.iii.20 How long has this been going on? (Gershwin)
21.iii.20 Repton (Parry), with improvisation
22.iii.20 Our little systems
23.iii.20 Too precious
24.iii.20 Sweethearts (Sam Anning)
25.iii.20 Affec
26.iii.20 Covert joy
27.iii.20 The ballad of the sad young men (Wolf/Landesman)
28.iii.20 La isla bonita (Madonna)
29.iii.20 Pray without ceasing
30.iii.20 Free-ism
31.iii.20 Cardigan patrol
1.iv.20 Fix you (Coldplay)/The wrong door
2.iv.20 Lu-bird
3.iv.20 When I grow too old to dream (Romberg/Hammerstein)
4.iv.20 Change and smile
5.iv.20 3/2016 (Waltz for Andra)
6.iv.20 Free-ism 2
7.iv.20 Alone together (Schwartz/Dietz)
8.iv.20 A very simple tune for Oliver’s tenth birthday
9.iv.20 Pseudepigrapha
10.iv.20 Criss Cross (Monk)
11.iv.20 In angel arms
12.iv.20 The evenings you remember
13.iv.20 On the street where you live (Lerner/Loewe)
14.iv.20 untitled 105/2016
15.iv.20 Miss Brown to you
16.iv.20 Esj’
17.iv.20 No tickle pushes on the big girl swing
18.iv.20 Charlie Chaplin et al: Smile
19.iv.20 Imaginary friends with benefits
20.iv.20 John Dankworth: Music from ‘Darling’
21.iv.20 The way you look tonight
22.iv.20 One (Andrea Keller)
23.iv.20 The unmistaken
24.iv.20 Some enchanted evening (Rodgers/Hammerstein)
25.iv.20 I’m gonna laugh you right out of my life (Coleman/McCarthy)
26.iv.20 Let’s get away from it all (Adair/Dennis)
27.iv.20 Two secrets
28.iv.20 Golden earrings (Evans, Livingstone, Young)
29.iv.20 Darling, come back to me (Grabowsky)
30.iv.20 Free-ism 3
1.v.20 Recessional
2.v.20 The place where the lost things go (from ‘Mary Poppins Returns’)
3.v.20 Sly-pie
4.v.20 Free-ism 4
5.v.20 I see the light (from ‘Tangled’)
6.v.20 Meine Augen schließ’ ich jetzt (Bach; with improvisation)
7.v.20 The little man in his nightshirt
8.v.20 Bewitched, bothered and bewildered (Rogers/Hart)
9.v.20 Where is love? (Lionel Bart)
10.v.20 Everything happens to me (Adair/Denniss)
11.v.20 Correa (Geoff Kluke)
12.v.20 Wii music from Mario Kart/At long last love (Cole Porter)
13.v.20 Must be
14.v.20 Over the rainbow (Arlen)
15.v.20 Please don’t talk about me when I’m gone (Stept/Clare)
16.v.20 Lonesome (Kina Grannis)
17.v.20 untitled 138/2016
18.v.20 As time goes by (Hupfeld)
19.v.20 Three coins in the fountain (Styne/Cahn)
20.v.20 Creative control
21.v.20 Improvisation and St Magnus’ (Jeremiah Clarke)
22.v.20 Rufus redux
23.v.20 Every day is like Sunday (Morrissey)
24.v.20 m.i.
25.v.20 Haunted heart (Schwartz/Dietz)
26.vi.20 Isn’t this a lovely day (Irving Berlin)
27.v.20 Speaking with other parents about renovations
28.v.20 What a swell party this is (Cole Porter)
29.v.20 Embraceable you (George Gershwin)
30.v.20 Lady be good (George Gershwin)
31.v.20 But not for me (George Gershwin)
1.vi.20 The piccolino (Irving Berlin)
2.vi.20 A slow tune for Kyoko
3.vi.20 All the things you are (Kern)
4.vi.20 I fall in love too easily (Styne/Cahn)
5.vi.20 He loves and she loves (Gershwin)
6.vi.20 I’ve grown accustomed to her face (Lerner/Loewe)
7.vi.20 When she said
8.vi.20 Generating
9.vi.20 Love walked in (George Gershwin)
10.vi.20 Love for sale (Cole Porter)
11.vi.20 S. S. T. T.
12.vi.20 Affair to remember (Harry Warren)
13.vi.20 Cum dederit (Vivaldi)
14.vi.20
15.vi.20 untitled 167/2016
16.vi.20 Probationary candidacy blues
17.vi.20 Blame it on my youth (Levant/Hayman)
18.vi.20 Footbridge waltz
19.vi.20 You took advantage of me (Rodgers/Hart)
20.vi.20 Australian kakistocracy (from There’ll be some changes played)
21.vi.20 I’ll never smile again (Ruth Lowe)
22.vi.20 Hearing the whole thing
23.vi.20 The fools who dream (from’La La Land’)
24.vi.20 They can’t take that away from me (George Gershwin)
25.vi.20 Barber: Molto adagio from string quartet op. 11

And here’s the breakdown. One tune was traditional, and it kicked things off. Three pieces were spontaneously improvised in their entirety. Two others featured free improvisation in relation to a written piece (C. H. H. Parry’s hymn tune ‘Repton’, and J. S. Bach’s harmonisation of ‘Meine Augen schließ’ ich jetzt’). Forty-seven pieces were composed by me, and although that’s not more than half, it’s more than from any other source. There were thirty-seven American standard songs, and you know for some years I’ve made a big thing about not playing this repertoire but I wound up really enjoying it. They’re great tunes, and I sort of know what to do with them, so they took their place in the greater scheme. Seven of these pieces were written by George Gershwin, who is a favourite with a couple of my listeners. Three of them were by Cole Porter, and two each by Rodgers and Hart, Schwartz and Dietz, Irving Berlin, and Lerner and Loewe. Four pieces were composed by colleagues: Andrea Keller, Paul Grabowsky, Sam Anning and Geoff Kluke. And there were four pop tunes, by Madonna, Morrissey, Coldplay and Kina Grannis. Just to mix things up. I played Thelonious Monk’s ‘Criss cross’, just because it’s jazz, and there were two classical selections: Vivaldi’s ‘Cum dederit’ and Samuel Barber’s ‘Molto adagio’ from his String Quartet op. 11. This last wound things up.

On two occasions there were four standards in a row. I only ever got to three originals in succession, but this happened four times.

Now there was discussion here and there about the wisdom of electing to give away one’s music, to make one’s ‘content’ free to all comers. And I understand this, I guess, but I did it anyway. I make very little money from music, and I couldn’t expect that my silence was going to generate any more, so it seemed like a friendly thing to offer some of what I have to people who might be receptive. Nor do I regret it. Music’s capacity to divert is obvious, like reading or watching a film, but its abstract nature is very much more generous in my opinion than any other art form. The listener’s capacity to participate creatively in the musical act is underrated a lot of the time, and my objective in giving these performances was ideally that people might find a moment to be away with the music, to be able for five minutes or so to focus on just it, and to use those moments in a spirit of growth or healing or what-have-you. The feeling I got from some listeners was that just this had happened. My selections aimed to be reasonably unpredictable, so you wouldn’t know what you were getting from day to day. Forty-three of the pieces were ballads, which for present purposes just means slow, so there was a definite leaning in that direction. There was also a three-day run of Gershwin, all of which were ballads. But sometimes the slow tunes are the ones that really speak.

In any case, I felt very good about putting the music out there. All the selections are remaining, and they are all public so even if you’re not my Facebook friend and you’re curious you can hear them. Some of them are on YouTube as well. And I even managed to release an album while all this nonsense was going on. Here’s to the share.

26/vi/2020