looking up to someone

when you are young, there a quite a few people you look up to. singers, sportsmen, sometimes even teachers. few think of close family or even parents when they are preteens or teens.

as you grow older and get a better grasp of what life is all about, of what love is all about, and about all the simple and complex things this world has to offer us. and some point, you sometimes stop to look up to anyone human. i mean there is always a lot to admire in people, but to look up to?

and then, later on, maybe after your twenties, you step down a little from the pedestal you had put yourself on, whilst never really admitting it. and you start looking up to people again; not many, but one or the other.

one of those people in my life is having a special day today. although a good 700 km away, my mother is someone who i've always admired deeply and loved inconditionally, but only in the recent years has assumed this position in my life. a person i look up to.

happy mother's day.

this is it

this post is not about michael jackson. he's been dead for over a year and a half now; coincidentally, at that time the desire to move back to germany was starting to become a concrete plan. although many people who know me are aware of my nostalgic feelings towards this country, some might think: why germany? what is it about that place you grew up?

this is it. today was it, once again, maybe stronger than ever. i left home at around 4 pm for a bike ride in the neighborhood. november and december have been freezing, in all senses, and the mild temperatures of january have caused quite a lot of flooding throughout the country, due to the large amounts of snow freezing and making rivers overflow.

there is a small little river a few hundred meters from where i live, called "wümme". that's where i went on this sunny sunday, and in this time a year, 4 pm is pretty close to sunset time.

i'll post some pictures as soon as i can (can't seem to find the cable), but this is why i love north germany; and this is why i have fallen in love with bremen.

i moved to borgfeld, a little village still belonging to the 10th biggest german city, not even two weeks ago. and already it has the potential to become what i imagine to be a place i could live for a long, long time. it just feels like home, it feels right. within 2 minutes, i was in the middle of the fields, overflown with the water that used to be snow and ice. and what i saw there made me be profoundly grateful to God, and it left me feeling as if i've returned home.

i also remembered my younger brother and think this could be a quite inspiring place for him, maybe for a future project.

the national park here in the wümme area, that's what makes borgfeld, bremen and north germany so great. i can still o visit many places from here, but i'd love this to become my permanent home, sometime.
here are just a few pics:

album 43: saviour (various artists)

those were good times - when major projects were made, and all major christian contemporary music artists would be invited to lend their talents and voices. the beginning of the 90s had a few of those projects, and i'd like to mention "the new young messiah" and "my utmost for his highest" as very good examples of making this format work.

it was a special project led by greg nelson and phil mchugh, who had made a name for themselves producing the big ccm christian singers of the 80s, sandi patti, steve green and larnelle harris. greg and phil are producers, arranjers and composers, and that's what they did on this special project, which was supposed to be their musical masterpiece. and, to me, it still is. "saviour" attempts to be a musical, and instead of everyone singing a solo or participating in a duet, this time the idea was to ask five singers to solo, duet, trio in various songs, accompanied and sometimes lead by a choir. the high quality of this album is certainly also due to the talent of larnelle harris, steve green and wintley phipps in top form, and a fantastic choir, far from being only backups to the "stars". twila paris did very well, and even wayne watson was okay.

but the songs and arrangements are at the heart of this endeavor; the choir does a great job in the opening (creation) and in the exodos (slavery and freedom), singing very profound and witty lyrics in great orchestreal, but still modern and timeless music. "the kings of the earth", featuring harris, green and phipps, and the creation of man duet pulled off grandiously by phipps as God and harris as adam ("my heart belongs to you") are the high points of the repertoire, with the song "the rose of sharom" being also beautiful.

all in all, a true masterpiece in christian music, with some really thrilling moments in between. i've sung it twice in portuguese, and it was still really great - which gives the songwriters and arrangers even more credit.

album 44: pat metheny group (pat metheny group)

this album was the very first recording by the then recently founded pat metheny group, recorded and released in 1978. young jazz guitar player pat metheny and piano master lyle mays co-founded the group and included mark egan on bass guitar and dan gottblieb on drums to form the first of not too many lineups of the group's history. and it was quite a remarkable start.

the album opens with an over 10-minute tune featuring pat on a 12-string guitar with peculiar tuning and a long solo by lyle mays. what a way to start a debut album: no solo for the lead musician, over 10 minutes and a never-heard before guitar sound. needless to say that "san lorenzo" is a classic, and with merit. "phase dance" is the second track and most likely the most popular one on the album, with pat now playing the guitar who most uses, and the group presenting one of their key features: an apparently simple musical idea develops into a sometimes apotheotic, but almost always harmonically complex track. the album has six tracks and was produced by manfred eichner, the german jazz visionary and founder of the ecm label.

two additional interesting notes: the track "april joy" already cites "phase dance", quite funny to see in an album, and even in a debut album. and at that time, the group toured extensively with new material and only then went to the studio to record the music, and not the other way around.

happy birthday lyle

i've written about him already. my one musical hero, someone who speaks musically. and who i really feel i understand, i empathize with. let's have a quick look at his life, from my point of view:

• at age 20, lyle mays met pat metheny. living in new york and co-founding the pat metheny group, the idealist was living for music - and almost starving, literally.
• at age 23, lyle and pat joined up with eberhard weber and nana vasconcelos (by request of the great manfred eichner) to record "watercolors" in ludwigsburg, my father's home town. trully great music, beyond jazz for sure.
• at age 24, lyle and pat recorded the first pat metheny group album, self-intitled and known today as "the white album". another landmark. with lyle mays having the first solo in the groups history, a 5-minute solo even, in the tune "san lorenzo".
• at age 26, he records his (for me historic) solo in "the search", from the american garage album.
• at age 27, he puts out a duo album with pat, supported by nana: as falls wichita, so falls wichita falls is one of the best albums ever, and lyle's work on "ozark" and "september fifteenth" is legendary.
• at age 28, he collaborates with the german bassist eberhard weber and plays the piano on "maurizius".
• at age 29, he wins his first of eleven grammy awards for the group's live album "travels".
• at age 30, he presents us with his participation in the classic "first circle".
• at age 32, he records my all-time favorite album, and his first solo effort "lyle mays", with eight simple incredible tracks. that's music. no categories, just music.
• at age 33, my current age, he was recording such tunes as "last train home" and "minuano" for the album still life: talking, pmg.
• at age 34, his second album comes out, with some really great moments in street dreams.
• at age 35, he records "letter from home". 
• at age 36, he collaborates with bobby mcferrin on the album "medicine music", with the song "common threads".
• at age 41, he playes his solo on "to the end of the world" and his incredible composition "episode d'azur", both on the pmg album "we live here".
• at age 42, his musical sensitivity plays a great role in pmg's improvisational album "quartet", a great conceptual success.
• at age 43, what a fantastic job with "imaginar day" and some legendary piano work on "the heat of the day" and, most of all, "the awakening".
• at age 46, his fourth solo effort "solo" comes out - and it is precious!
• at age 48, some really great work and improvising on "speaking of now", pmg's 2002 output.
• at age 51, lyle was the mastermind behind the 68 minute long track "the way up", pmg's masterpiece.

yesterday was lyle may's 57th birthday. we miss your music, man!

smells like snow

i'd missed that feeling.

yesterday, walking through the beautifiul city center of bremen. lights everywhere, christmas in the air, the smell of mandeln and sweets, warm mixed with cold. and, most of all, the crisp air, cold. someone next to me said what i was thinking: it smells like snow.

the first snow of bremen's winter seemed to be felt in the air. and it was no surprise, but still a delight, to see the signs of that first snow when i left for school this morning.

i'd missed that feeling.

album 45: brand new day (sting)

last month i had the unique experience of attending a sting concert live. it was trully beyond words, much more than i had expected - his greatest songs in the setting of a great orchestra, some great arrangements and musical moments, and just a great performance by everyone, from his backing vocal lady (who i've been a fan of since his last winter album) over dominic miller to sting himself, in top form. and he did play one or the other tune from one of his great studio albums, the last one i cared to by (besides the winter album). "brand new day" had the idea of a brand new millenium, since it was recorded in 1999. the title song (with stevie wonder playing his harmonica) is okay, but the outstanding tracks are the opener (which is a sting tradition, always opening strong) called "a thousand years", the fantastic story and vibe in "after the rain has fallen" and the best tune on the album, "ghost story". once again, sting imerges into the worlds of the most different characters, so this album has a ten summoner's tale feel to it. "big lie, small world", "fill her up" and "tomorrow we'll see" help make the album an overall great piece of musical work.

you might want to try some of these songs out if you're not all to familiar with sting's later, post-the police, work. as always, the lyrics really give sense to the music.