Dedication to The Great Oscar Peterson 3

Another one of my favorite ballad. "Alice In Wonderland" performed by Oscar Peterson in live in Japan 1983.

Enjoy~

R.I.P. Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson - Alice In Wonderland

Dedication to The Great Oscar Peterson 2

One of the Jazz Standards - "There Is No Greater Love" performed by Oscar Peterson, Niels Hennings, and Ray Brown.

Enjoy!

Oscar Peterson - There Is No Greater Love

Dedication to The Great Oscar Peterson

I'll have to stop in the middle of the "Awesome Jazz" series, and go into a series of dedication to my musical hero Oscar Peterson.

The great Oscar Peterson has passed away yesterday, Dec 23, 2007, aged 82.
He was considered one of the greatest piano player + musician of all time. And he is truly a legendary Jazz musician.

I'll dedicate his own song that he dedicated to his passed away Jazz musician friends to him.

R.I.P. Oscar Peterson

Oscar Peterson - Requiem

Awesome Jazz 3

This video was featured on youtube's front page earlier, and I think that this is one of the most capturing video ever! I gave all my concentration and attention to this energetic music I was listening to and just got captured fully during the 8:46 minutes.

This is totally "love". Not in the sense described in Bible, but uhh, in terms of music! hahaha. Father and son playing together. The father is Ron Artis, and the son is Ron Artis Jr. The bass player and the drummer is also part of the Artis family. Victor Artis on bass and Stevon Artis on drums.

Very touching that the father teaches their kids how to "release [their] emotions through dynamics and phrasing." - Ron Artis

Ron Artis is also an artist who paints. For more information about him or the Artis family, check it up on youtube by clicking on the video below =)

Enjoy!

Art...is Father & Son


Man! A family full of great musicians! What immense fun it is to spend some quality time with the family and just jam for hours! A great way to spend time with family, everyone is totally communicating!

P.S. I like their creative title, all their projects/productions or shows are named "Art...is ____"

Awesome Jazz 2

This song is "Take Five" performed by Dave Brubeck's band back in 1961.

The song is called "Take Five" because it is in 5/4 time instead of the usual 4/4 time (for all the musicians if you know what I mean). And it is a "3 + 2" 5/4 time. So you count 3 beats then 2 beats; one two three, one two, one two three, one two, etc.

Just a little background for more appreciation of the song =)
Enjoy!

Dave Brubeck - Take Five


P.S. Btw, Dave Brubeck is not the drummer. He's the pianist.

Awesome Jazz

Haven't featured my hero for a long time now~ Here he is, playing one of my favourite song that is also one of his original composition.

Enjoy!

Oscar Peterson - Nighttime


This concert is "A Night In Vienna" and it's out on DVD for those of you who are interested and would like to get it =)

P.S. I'm gonna havta get this someday! hahaha

Rockin' the House! 7

Ah~ yes! =) I've shown this song before. However, this is from one of their recent lives! I believe this live is called "Love Is Beautiful". And this song is one of my favorites!!!

So enjoy! =)

GLAY - Beautiful Dreamer

Rockin' the House! 6

I must say, this one is quite noisy... very hard rock.

This is B'z playing with the famous Aerosmith (American rock band) and playing Aerosmith's song "Train Kept A Rollin" at their concert in Japan for FIFA World Cup 2002.

If you like hard rock, enjoy =)

Aerosmith & B'z - Train Kept A Rollin'

Rockin' the House! 5

This is a tribute to Siam Shade! =)
They just had their reunion concert on the past Sunday for their deceased manager.

This is the 7th ending theme song for the anime Rurouni Kenshin (浪客劍心 in Chinese)

This video is not from their reunion concert, it is from their V7 Live.

Enjoy!

Siam Shade - 1/3 no Junjou na Kanjou

Rockin' the House! 4

The visual kei pioneers, X Japan! again =)
This is another song from their last live.

They're having a series of reunion concerts right now after their first concert on Oct 22, 07.

This totally rocks.

Enjoy!

X Japan - Rusty Nail


Notice Hide (the pink hair lead guitarist)'s deadly smile during his solo.

P.S. The font that this person used to sub this video made it look like some 80's subtitles.... arghhhhhh

Rockin' the House! 3

GLAY in one of their concerts playing the following two songs. 1. Blast, and 2. Peak Hateshinaku Soul Kagirina. (The subtitle had the wrong song title there)

I really like the song "Blast" as it added some Jazz elements in it along with the rocking tenor saxophone. =) (But hahahaha, the saxophonist couldn't hit the highest note that he was supposed to hit as in the song because he was posing tooooooo much. Totally uncool after he realized he couldn't reach the highest note yet posing in such a cool pose. lol )

Enjoy!

GLAY - "Blast" + "Peak Hateshinaku Soul Kagirina"


And it's time to know GLAY's line up!

Vocal - Teru
Lead Guitar - Hisashi (the one with white guitar)
Leader/Guitar - Takuro
Bass - Jiro

And their support drummer that has been playing with them for all 10+ years ---- TOSHI! (the drummer that comes in at the 2nd song)

Rockin' the House! 2

This is L'Arc~en~Ciel's live in Korea, performing their song "New World"!

For those of you wondering about the comments on the last post, THIS is Hyde, the vocalist. Does he sound like Koshi Inaba from B'z?? You be the judge!

Enjoy! =)

L'Arc~en~Ciel - New World


Here's the line up for L'Arc~en~Ciel
Vocal - Hyde
Guitar - Ken
Bass - Tetsu
Drums - Yukihiro

Rockin' the House!

B'z is a band comprised with only 2 people, Tak Matsumoto (Guitar) and Koshi Inaba (Vocal). The other musicians playing on the stage are the support musicians.

They're a very popular and influential hard rock band in Japan and they'll be the first artists of Asia to have their handprints and signatures put on Hollywood's Rock Walk.

B'z - Ai no Bakudan

Lovely Ballads 7

I think this is the first song I heard from Béla Fleck and the Flecktones instead of just listening to Victor Wooten (bass player) alone.

This song attracted me right away when I first listened to it, and my first response was "wow, this is absolutely amazing... just amazing, totally incredible". And it seems to leave you being unsatisfied if you don't listen to it again since the whole song, the sound of the song is stuck in your (well, my) head.

So, enjoy! btw.. this is just AMAZING!

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones - Lover's Leap


Just to give you guys some background, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is formed in 1988 by Béla Fleck and Victor Wooten.

Béla Fleck is the banjo player. His playing style "mixes a bluegrass and folk sound into a modern improvisational style. Fleck has received Grammy nominations for performances in the jazz, bluegrass, pop, spoken word, contemporary Christian, gospel, classical, and country categories. To date, he is the only artist to receive nominations in as many diverse categories." - Wikipedia

Victor Wooten is the bass player and he's one of the leading bass virtuosos today. He has amazing techniques on "slapping and popping" (a bass technique) and has great influences on many bass players!

Lovely Ballads 6

This is a very touching song.

Oscar Peterson - When Summer Comes


It's just too beautiful...

Lovely Ballads 5

YEESSSSSS!! Finally, the song that I wanted to show earlier is uploaded by someone on youtube recently! ^^ Although I really want to show this song in the concert version which is reallyyyy grand and cool, but this is still good! This is the PV (MTV) of this song.

Enjoy! This is one of my favourites!!

GLAY - White Road


This youtube video is not in sync.

Lovely Ballads 4

Another good ballad by L'arc! Although his highest note does not sound as perfect as Vitas' in the previous post, but those are still pretty hard to reach high notes! :P

Overall, good song!

L'Arc~en~Ciel - 瞳の住人 (Hitomi No Jyunin)

Lovely Ballads 3

Plain Beautiful.

Vitas - Dedication


A song dedicated to his mother.

Lovely Ballads 2

YES! Finally, found some left over GLAY stuff from youtube since they've removed a lot of GLAY's videos.

Here's a song I really like =)

Enjoy!

GLAY - Bokutachi no Shobu (僕達の勝敗)


P.S. Notice the description under my "About me" =)

Lovely Ballads

Ahh~ Recently Youtube has banned a lot of Music Videos that I wanted to post, so right now I'm still in search of sites that has those songs which I wanted to show you guys/gals! But anyhow, please enjoy what we still have right now! =)

L'Arc~en~Ciel - Anata

海闊天空

Beyond 海闊天空 again! But this is their 2003 live!

For those who don't understand Cantonese, this is a song about dreams and the struggle one goes through trying to achieve his/her dream!

Beyond - 海闊天空

Beautiful Dreamer

One of my all time favourites!!! And it's a song by my favourite J-Rock band. GLAY - Beautiful Dreamer! I tried to find the PV version which I have on my computer on youtube, but they don't have it... and this is not the best recorded version of this live in terms of camera angles and other camera shooting techniques comparing to the version I have.... but anyhow~ just wanted to show you guys/gals this awesome song! Although the quality of this has cut down at least 30% of the awesomeness! =(

But anyways, enjoy this! =)

GLAY - Beautiful Dreamer

Dreams

This is the first song I heard from Siam Shade and it is one of my favourites! =)

Do you guys/gals have any dreams? =)

Enjoy!

Siam Shade - Dreams

My Heart Draws A Dream

L'Arc~en~Ciel is another really popular J-rock band in Japan!
They have more rock songs than GLAY does, and their style, sound is totally different from GLAY which made both the bands so unique.

This is their concert in Korea playing their newest and unreleased song, "My Heart Draws A Dream".

Enjoy!

L'Arc~en~Ciel - My Heart Draws A Dream


I like it when Hyde(vocalist) looks like he needs so much effort to sing! And also, notice around 1:20-1:23 he is waiting to make interaction with the drummer and he makes it at 1:23.

Total Virtuosity 7

For the last post of the series "Total Virtuosity" (part 1), I'll end with my hero, again, other than Jesus, Oscar Peterson!!

They're playing one of my favorite song of all time - "Cakewalk" (by Oscar Peterson).

Nothing like a group of virtuosos playing together!
If this is not total virtuosity, I don't know what is. =)

On Piano - Oscar Peterson
On Bass - Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen
On Drums - Martin Drew

Enjoy!!!

Oscar Peterson Trio '85 - Cakewalk


P.S. Notice Oscar's hands around 05:52 (secs left), it looks like he's clapping them during the rests.

Stay tuned for more virtuosity in the future! =)

Total Virtuosity 6

The legendary Tenor Saxophonist -- Sonny Rollins!!

Sonny Rollins, aged 77, is still creating amazing music up to date and has currently performed at Carnegie Hall on September 18, 2007 for his 50th Anniversary for his debut at Carnegie Hall 50 years ago!

I've studied this person in Jazz history class and ALSO saw him live recently at his concert in Vancouver! Amazing huh? Being able to see the legendary person live(as in concert, live) who you, usually, might only be able to see in history texts is totally amazing!

Sonny Rollins - Tenor Madness

Total Virtuosity 5

Jaco Pastorius, a legendary bass player who died very young! The self claimed "world's greatest bass player" had a lot of impact on the sound of a lot of bass players today! And he has also opened up new ways to play the bass!

One of my favorite song - The Chicken.

Jaco Pastorius - The Chicken


The whole band together created that virtuosity!! And the steel drum player is just totally amazing.

Total Virtuosity 4

Hey y'all!!! Sorry to keep y'all waiting :P I was being lazy after I've came back from HK, but now I'm charged and ready to keep my blog going!! Here's the "series" continued...

Today's virtuoso = Lea Salonga!

My friend Joyce, very knowledgeable on musicals + other musical area, showed me who Lea Salonga is!

She's a total virtuoso who debuted and performed at the age of 19!!!! "She was [also] the first Asian to play Eponine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway" - Wikipedia

Her seriousness, virtuosity, and attitude during performances and even in rehearsals is what captured me to feature her in this blog! She's a real performer and musician... and that should be the standard of being a true musician rather than accepting "some famous, good looking people" who will sing off-tune every other 5 notes and still think they're cool who just totally disgraced the term musician or vocalist.

This is "On My Own" from Les Misérables (Broadway show).

Lea Salonga - "On My Own"

My Absence

Sorry to all my dear readers! I tried my best to update my blog yesterday! But as some of you might know, I'm out of town right now and I'll be back on Sept 14. Accessing to a computer with internet is not very convenient here, so I'll try to update my blog as much as possible before I come back. If not, then please stay tune until Sept 14 so the blog will get back into the regular schedule! Sorry for delaying the "Total Virtuosity" posts! I'm sure everyone's eager to find out more virtuosos!

Well, TTYL!

Total Virtuosity 3

After the Father of Jazz, here's another Jazz legend that contributed lots to the world of Jazz especially in the Bebop era -- Charlie Parker on Alto Saxophone!

The amazing legendary drummer Buddy Rich is also playing in this video! What a joy, 2 virtuosos in 1 video!

Charlie Parker - Celebrity

Total Virtuosity 2

The Father of Jazz and also a true entertainer -- Louis Armstrong!!!!

He is the one who showed the meaning of what a true entertainer is!

Louis Armstrong - What A Wonderful World


Deep expressions! His performances makes people happy!
A legend who has brought great happiness and contributions to the world!

Total Virtuosity

Russian singer - Vitas! or known as Витас(Bumac) in Russian.

His singing will explain everything.

Vitas - Opera #2


Stay tuned for more virtuosities!

Pure Emotion?

This dude is hilarious and he's absolutely amazing!

Found him on youtube, and just like anybody else on youtube, he's doing a cover of the song called "Canon Rock" which Jerry C, the original person, took the original "Canon in D" and rearranged it and made it a rock version of Canon.

His username is mattrach and he has rearranged the solo guitar part of Jerry C's "Canon Rock" into a new version of "Canon Rock" which is titled "The NEW Canon Rock".

mattrach - "The NEW Canon Rock"

Pure Emotion 6

One of the greatest,
One of the most influential,
One of the extremely famous bands,
One of the pioneers of J-Rock -- X-Japan.

This is X-Japan's last live in 1997 before they disband due to the vocal joining a cult. There are mix emotions within each of the members and especially their leader Yoshiki, who's on piano, who never wanted the band to disband.

X-Japan - Endless Rain

Pure Emotion 5

Beyond was a famous band in Hong Kong and one of the most influential musicians ever existed in HK. They were revolutionists against HK's corrupted music industry.

The original vocalist 黃家駒 (Wong Ka Kui), who was also the main composer and lyricist for the band, has died in an accident on 1993 in Japan during the filming of a Japanese game show. His brother 黃家強 (Wong Ka Keung) then took over the lead vocalist position.

After the pass away of Beyond's main force, Beyond slowly died down and eventually disbanded in 2005.

This concert was taken place in 1996.

Beyond - 海闊天空


黃家強 (Wong Ka Keung) was crying mainly because of his passed away brother and the emotion arousing lyrics.

"The Japanese will never understand, for us and for Hong Kong, that the incident was not merely about the loss of an artist. It was about losing a music revolutionary, and an age of time." - Paul Wong (Guitarist of Beyond) on the death of 黃家駒 (Wong Ka Kui) (Wikipedia)

Pure Emotion 4

Here's another example of great musicians enjoying themselves in expressing themselves through music!! You can totally see the enjoyment Oscar is having from his facial expression. A different kind of emotion expressed through a more joyful, fast paced tune comparing to the previous post.

Oscar Peterson - You Look Good To Me

Pure Emotion 3

This is, other than Jesus, my hero Oscar Peterson!!!

Most of the great Jazz musicians you see performing on stage or just jamming with their friends are always deep into the music they're playing. Enjoying themselves and expressing themselves! And from watching Oscar Peterson, that deep emotion is shown with his facial expression as well as with each note that he's laying down under his fingers.

Oscar Peterson - Love Ballade

Pure Emotion 2

This is a band I recently found out. They started out in 1993 and disbanded in 2002 because they have reached their goal which was to be recognized by the stadium "Nippon Budokan" which is where they held their last concert.

And this is one song from their last concert.

"Ooki Na Ki No Shita De" - by SIAM SHADE

Pure Emotion

Ahh! My first post of my new blog! =) I gotta start it off with my favorite J-Rock (Japanese Rock) Band -- GLAY!!!

This song is called "However" by GLAY, and it is one of my favorite songs.

Although Teru (vocal) didn't do the best job in singing this song comparing to their other performances, this is nonetheless a great performance. He was purely emotional when singing this song. And THAT is good music and good musicianship.

GLAY - However


He cried while singing and after singing this song. And one of the reason being why he cried is because of the song's content. Just to keep it short instead of posting the translation of the lyrics of the song "However", here's a summary of what the song is about:

"Its about how he made a mistake saying goodbye to his old girlfriend(?). He wasn't strong enough to say things and it was his foolishness of youth. He goes on to say if he can, he wants to live with her forever and stuff." - superhikari1982 (youtuber)

STAY TUNED! =)

*I updated, changed to another youtube video for this one as the old one has been removed by youtube. This one has cut out Teru's talking at the beginning and his nonstop crying + wiping of tears with a black towel at the end*