Well, dear readers, I must write these here notes in a hurry for she of the Evil Eye will be here all too soon and I must get some semblance of a beauty sleep. As I sit here like so much fish writing these notes in a hurry I must pause to sing the praises of a composer named Claus Ogerman, whose musical language and brilliant orchestrations speak to me in quite an emotional way. My first exposure to Mr. Ogerman (sometimes spelled with one “nn’s” on his classical albums) was two-fold: One fold was an Arthur Prysock song called Maman, from the flop musical Mata Hari. The song was an anti-war song that resonated with what was going on at the time with Vietnam. It wasn’t that I thought the song was so brilliant, it was the orchestration, which I DID think was brilliant. I played that over and over again and made note of Mr. Ogerman’s name. Soon thereafter came the second fold when I discovered an album Mr. Ogerman had done with jazz pianist Bill Evans. That album was a work of genius – Evans and Ogerman doing classical music with the Evans trio. It had lots of great stuff on it, but my absolute favorite track was one Ogerman had written himself, called Elegia. I wore out several copies of that LP over the years, and I own every CD iteration of it. After that, I wanted as much Ogerman as I could get. I went back to his work with Wes Montgomery and his kitschy pop stuff from the 60s – he also did a nice orchestral cover version of Zorba. Then came his brilliant album called Gate of Dreams, one of the greatest albums of the 70s and which was a surprising huge hit. He also did work with Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sammy Davis, Jr. and arranged and conducted Barbra’s classical album. He also did an album of classical pieces with jazz guitarist Jan Akkerman that is also one of the all-time greats.
When CDs began, one of the first ones I bought was on the Mobile Fidelity label, a CD of Ogerman’s classical works and it was sheer genius and beauty. He did a couple of great albums with Michael Brecker. One day, back when I had my label Bay Cities, I managed to write him or contact him – I can’t remember how it happened, but he called me and we had a really lovely chat that resulted in him giving us an album of his to release. That became one of my favorite Bay Cities releases. If you don’t know his music, you really owe it to yourselves to discover it. Gate of Dreams is a great introduction, but the classical stuff is fantastic. There’s also a four-CD set, a kind of best of and overview that is well worth having, but which is out of print and expensive – cheapest copy I found was on Amazon at just under 150 bucks. There, I’ve said it and I’m glad.
Yesterday was a day I like to think of as Friday. I didn’t quite get eight hours of sleep, got up, was irritated to find no response from Indiegogo but happy to see that $250 of the missing money had shown up. The other 150 is still in absentia and as of this writing they STILL haven’t responded. The helper picked up the Unsung Sherman Brothers CDs and spent her entire day packing ‘em up and getting ‘em shipped. It was a very confusing thing, but I’d laid it out pretty clearly, although she did have to call a bunch of times for further clarity. I made a very small amount of Wacky Noodles for my main meal o’ the day, maybe four to five ounces of it, which kept the calorie count under 800. I did some work on the computer, had telephonic calls, chose another song (one left), and then did a three-and-a-half mile jog. The only other food I ate was a biscotti and a few sour patch gummies. Then I sat on my couch like so much fish.
Last night I watched a very peculiar motion picture from 1985 entitled Remo Williams, The Adventure Begins. It was meant to be a series like Indiana Jones but the Adventure Ended after one film. For me, it’s easy to see why, although I gather like most 80s junk it has its loyal fans who saw it when they were kids. It’s just an odd movie from start to finish. It’s a little of this and a little of that and lead actor Fred Ward is just doesn’t have star quality and it hurts the film. Joel Grey is a lot of fun as a Korean, something they could not get away with today. It just goes along from thing to thing, some of the action scenes are good, and then it’s over. The villain isn’t really a good enough villain and you never really care about anyone. The transfer, I thought, looked very good and there’s actually quite a few nice extras.
After that, I pulled out some Claus, relaxed, saw something on Facebook that irritated me and that caused me to have a telephonic conversation, and there was the other little irritant of purchasing $1700 in postage – I couldn’t believe it. I know it’s paid for (almost) by our customers but when I see the charges it just boggles my already boggled mind. Nothing to be done about it so I took a shower and washed those two irritants right down the damn drain along with the third damn irritant, a broken toilet in the main bathroom. It just happened, just like that, just out of nowhere. Working one minute and the next it won’t shut off. I called the plumber who’d been here a week ago, and he’ll come out either today or Monday. In the meantime he had me shut that water valve off so I didn’t have to listen to the damn thing running all damn night.
Today I’ll be up early and do an early jog, then the helper is coming by and we’re going to pack up a whole slew of DVDs and Blu-rays I’m getting rid of and she’ll take those to Amoeba and bring me back whatever dough we get. We’ll also pull out the theremin for the Brain and also the actual brain head for Barry Pearl to wear. Then I’ll hopefully pick up some packages, then I’m either supping out with friends or seeing Doug Haverty in some one act plays.
Tomorrow will depend on what happens this evening – that whole thing may simply reverse itself. Then next week is super busy with meetings and meals, a final work session with Kay Cole and John Boswell, and then we record her album on Saturday and Sunday.
Well, dear readers, I must take the day, I must do the things I do, I must, for example, jog, pack up DVDs and Blu-rays, get some boxes down, hopefully pick up packages and then either sup or see a play. Today’s topic of discussion: What are your favorite Sinatra albums? Let’s have loads of lovely postings, shall we, whilst I hit the road to dreamland, where I shall be relaxed and feeling beatific from the beautiful music of Claus Ogerman.