Baby reacts with same vigor to “Hey Jude” and “Piano Concerto in A major”

The baby definitely seems to react to high quality musical experiences, by which I mean any loud noises. My husband, a self-proclaimed "audiophile" , which breaks down the the root words "phile = unhealthy obsession" and "audio = excessively loud noise generated by excessively expensive equipment", insisits on playing his CDs on high volumes so he can enjoy the absolute absense of any distortion, at least to the music. This week he brought out the Paul McCartney, and our baby definitely had a reaction. Was she was dancing in the womb or banging on the womb yelling "turn that *&%@# off" ? I guess we'll never know.

The benefit of an audiophile husband is that I have a really nice stereo system in my home office. In a throw-away-electronics culture, I really appreciate his choice in speakers; they are almost 20 years old, but they are professional quality and are actually going *up* in value. And they sound really good. Not that I'm very picky since my previous sound system had to survive through my 9 years of pursing various degrees and avoiding a real salary, so at the end of its life it had some charming habits like ejecting CDs at random times.

So I thought I'd put on a piano concerto in my stereo at high volume and see how the baby would react. Again, more kicking. Again, was she was dancing or protesting?

Dancing, definitely dancing. Our baby is becoming cultured in the womb!

Mozart is filth

Alert reader Alex noticed my little barb at Mozart in the previous post, so I feel obliged to elaborate.

In today’s society nothing is sacred. You can poke fun at the president of the United States. In fact it’s hard not to poke fun at the President of the United States. Even religion isn’t safe from ridicule. One of the top grossing movies at the box office right now asserts that Jesus messed around with Mary Magdalene. What has happened to modern society? Is nothing sacred?

Yes, there is one man, more revered than them all. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. You can’t criticize Mozart without sounding like an uneducated fool.

In college, criticizing Mozart struck me as the ultimate rebellion. See, I was a rebel without a cause, in the sense that I was looking desperately for a cause to rebel. Most college kids rebel by drinking themselves into oblivion every weekend at the frat houses, but if that’s what 84% of college students do, aren’t you just another Greek-letter-wearing lemming? Or you could rebel by hanging out with the Goth kids, by strictly following their formula for clothing and musical preferences. Even if you are a geek who thinks that playing and singing along to the musical Oklahoma is great fun, you can find several friends that also think this is a great time. You can trust me on this.

But when sitting in my Musical Appreciation course, I suddenly had an epiphany. What person in their right mind would assert that Mozart sucks? It had to be perfectly unique!

But out of curiosity I just googled “Mozart sucks” and came up with about 490,000 hits. Sigh. What’s a girl to rebel against these days?

But for old times sake, I can’t help but taking a little jab at Mozart. Many people will tell you that playing Mozart is good for your baby. But do you really want your baby to listen to this filth?

Program notes for Mozart’s Don Giovanni by Dr. Beth Fleming:
“The opera centers on Don Giovanni, the seducer of 2,000 women, who murders the father of one of his victims in a street fight.”

Is this the kind of wholesome family values you want to project to your child in the womb?

Well you might say, “How much Italian can a fetus understand?”

Well my pithy reply is “How much English can a fetus understand? Why would you probably revile me for playing some hip-hop song for my baby about street fights and picking up women, while it’s OK if it’s in Italian?”

To be fair, Don Giovanni is swallowed by the gates of hell in the end of the opera, so at least there’s a wholesome moral to the story. You can never start too young with all the fire and brimstone, right?

The babies in the above pictures are listening to Mozart. Do they look delighted and enlightened? I rest my case.

Keter Betts

I think I solved my mystery from the previous post! I'm 99% sure the performance I was watching was "Norman Granz Jazz in Montreux- Ella and Basie" . If so, Keter Betts is my mystery bassist.

Near the end of Ella's career, Keter Betts joined her band and stayed on for 24 years. Keter met Ella through her ex-husband, Ray Brown, who happens to be another influential bassist, in fact "the most influential bassist of the second half of the 20th century" according to an article I read from the BBC. But I'll leave Ray Brown for another day and another post.

The thing that struck me about Betts is that he just seemed to be really connecting with Ella and Basie as they played, and enjoying the heck out of it. There's nothing more fun to watch than a musician who just looks like he or she is having a good time performing.

From Obituary in the Washington Post.

Isn't that a winning grin? Not to over-generalize but it seems like bassists are always trying to look cool and disseffected. Would it really hurt us to crack a smile? As far as my own stage presence, I tend to have an intense look, but unfortunitely not in a brooding and smoldering way, but more in a "I must concentrate or I'll get off key" look.

Another thing I took from learning about Keter was this great quote about playing the bass from an interview :

"There's two ways to play it. You could play into the instrument, you could play outside the instrument...Art Tatum would sit down at an old out-of-tune piano and make it sound like it was a brand new Steinway almost. Because he's playing out of the instrument instead of playing into it....You see, you [first] hear a sound in your mind....."

To me, that seems to describe the zen of playing bass or any other instrument, to be able to hear something in your mind and play it out on the instrument. I tend to read music or copy patterns and play "into" the instrument. It seems like truly gifted musicians play "outside the instrument" and aren't confined by the instrument. Instead they use the bass as a instrument to play out their inner song.

Mystery Bassist

I was recently in Washington D.C. enjoying the American History Museum. After going through the American Presidents exhibit, we decided to split up and go off on our own. Skipping by an exhbit on the wardrobes of the First Ladies, I moved upstairs and was excited to find a whole exhibit on the First Lady of Song, Ella Fitzgerald. I spent a good 20 minutes watching a video of Ella performing with Count Bassie and a mystery bass man, while my husband continued to wander through such entertaining exhibits as the "America at War" . (Bless the cell phone era.) Unfortunitely, I couldn't wait to see the end credits since my hubby called to tell me to hurry downstairs since we were about to miss the train. (Damn the cell phone era.)

So I am left with the burning question- who was that mystery bassist?

I know I've seen him before. I'd seen a similar recording, perhaps even the same one, in the NYC museum of radio and television. (By the way, that's an awesome place to visit. They have an extensive library of old TV and you can go into a booth with headphones and watch anything in their library.)

Anyway, I remember this bassist distinctly. He has a wild beard, wilder eyes, and a goofy way of smiling with his mouth wide open while he plays. I *know* it was the same guy I saw in the NYC museum video.

To find out his name, I tried googling. Of course there are a million pictures of Ella and Count Basie together.

But I'm still not sure who my mystery bassist is. My best guess was Eddie Jones, since he played extensively with Count Basie Orchestra during the 50's and also is on the "One O'Clock Jump" alblum with Ella. When you google "Eddie Jones" you get a ton of basketball pictures, since there's a NBA star with the same name.

Update:

I finally found a picture of an Eddie Jones with a bass, thanks to darkling, but it didn't look like my mystery man. Any other ideas?

Our little Miles Davis, thwarted at 20 weeks: (Anticipating the) Birth of the (not-so) Cool

As my husband and I were eating at ABC last night, a recording the Bach cello suites came wafting through the speakers.

“Hey I used to play that. Well it didn’t sound much like that,” I commented.

I thought of my neglected cello sitting at home. As I’ve played more and more bass in the past couple years, my cello has been sitting in the corner looking beautiful but lonely.

“Do you think our baby will ever want play cello? Or bass?”

“Our baby is going to play a band instrument!” my hubby declared.

“You want our baby to be a band geek?” I teased. “Well, I guess that’s alright, as long as it’s also an orchestra instrument. Like clarinet or flute. Or sax would be OK, since then they could also play jazz.”

I do like trumpets and trombones in jazz combos, too. And if I'm going to buy symphony tickets, I'd prefer a program of Russian composers featuring a blaring brass section over a wimpy Mozart tribute any day. But I am definitely ruling out brass instruments for my child. Absolutely not. I’ve spent too much time in the back of the cello section getting my brains blasted out. There will be notrombones, trumpets, tubas, or baritones in my house, if I can help it.

I read once somewhere that Miles Davis's mom tried to get him to play violin. I really don't blame the woman.

I’m nearly 5 months pregnant, and do we names picked out yet? Uh, no. But we do have a short list of approved musical instruments.

Accessorizing my bass

Women get a lot of flack for our obsession with shoes, purses, and jewelry and other accessories, but if you guys take a long, hard look at yourselves, you are probably just as guilty when it comes to accessorizing. My husband, for instance, can never be satisfied with a standard car. Immediately it goes into the shop for a new stereo, then new wheels, then tinted windows, etc. I think if cars could be painted as cheaply and easily as fingernails, he'd be painting his cars weekly, too.

So lately I've focused my innate need to accessorize onto my upright bass. I started shopping at Gollihur music in the last year and it's a great place to shop on-line. Bob rules. He's an avid bassist himself, and the amount of detail he goes into on just choosing an endpin ball is astounding.

One of my favorite and most practical purchases at Bob's store was a bass wheel. At first my steering was rather erractic, but now that I'm catching on, it makes life so much easier. And since I'm not supposed to carry more than 25 lbs while expecting, it's definitely the *must have* accessory of the season.

Some other great bass accessories I've picked up in the last couple years: Ingles Upright bass stand, an ebony mute, a bow quiver, an Xeros endpin anchor, Swedish bass rosin.

Next, before my spending money is diverted to diapers, it's time to accessorize my electric bass. I don't have a strap, and it's not like I really need a strap since all my performances are in the comfort of my livingroom, but it just seems like something cool I should have. Just in case I feel like standing up to play some day.

Mommy (to be) Plays Bass (not necessary well)

Ok, so I'm not really a mommy yet. (I have about 5 months to go.) I'm not even that much of a bass player. But when I prop up my electric or upright against my tummy, there's a little being in there going "Wheeeee that's fun!" and enjoying the good vibrations.

But can the baby hear me practicing yet? That seems up for debate. Some sources say that the inner ear is fully developed by 18 weeks. Dr. W.P. Fifer's work has suggested that baby can respond to a mother's voice (with a reduced heart rate) as early as 25 weeks.

So I've already got out my copy of "The Best Children's Songs Ever" and played a little Polly Wolly Doodle on the piano today. And maybe I'll pluck out a little lullaby on the electric bass today. Maybe someone's listening in there.