Songs Of The 50s

Good stuff!

Funny how we never had to strain to understand the lyrics...

 

I was "of age" when the Stones, The Who, and bands of that era hit...but I played a brass instrument. While everyone else was rockin' out, I was listening to the Big Bands of the 40s as well as a lot of contemporary jazz and big band musicians, composers and singers. I was always of the mind that if you can't play without electricity, it's not real music...from my teen years and beyond.

I still rarely listen to rock music. It's mostly jazz & stuff from the 40s. And classical & symphonic. With a little bluegrass tossed in.

 

This is pretty interesting, Hal.

I've also enjoyed astronomy since I was a kid, but do not have the equipment that you own. I keep threatening to buy myself a mid-end Meade. Then I saw your train set. I still have my Marx train set I got what I was 5 or 6 years old (that would be late 1950s.) I used to set it up every Christmas.

I played trumpet...never very well. But I always enjoyed it. I played from the age of 9 well into my 30s (just for pleasure.) High school band was my social outlet (marching, pep band, symphonic, jazz, brass choir.) My first couple of years in high school, a small group of us would march the halls playing Dixieland the morning of football games. (Can't do that anymore.) I've played graduation ceremonies at D.A.R. Constitution Hall (yeh, I've been in the back where all the real musicians had been over the decades), as well as the original Feline Fine Arts Center at Wolf Trap in northern Virginia (it burned down and was rebuilt.)

I have 5 siblings. We all took music lessons. My older brother went on to a career in The Army Band (Pershing's Own.) He played trombone and Herald trumpet, and help found their jazz band (The Army Blues.) He had pics of himself with H. Humphrey, Reagan, etc. One younger brother was truly a virtuoso trombone player. He belonged to big bands when he was a teenager, and was always first chair. He made a living as a car mechanic...ended up starting his own business and retiring from it in 2018.

I keep threatening to take piano lessons in my retirement. I have a small electric piano (not a full keyboard.) I don't know why I've not got off my butt to do it. I want to learn how to read bass clef.

I love listening to the blues and jazz singers of the early 20th century. If you read about Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughan, etc, you'll see how they were very very strong women in a male-dominated industry. That's real music. That is true soul. Comes through in every note. Like you, I enjoy most anything except rock (and country), although I'll tune into rock occasionally. I've had XM radio since the early days, and had a set up at my jobs. When I would share an office, I let my office mate pick the music so I'd get exposed to (and learn about) stuff I would not have selected myself. That's how I discovered Robert Cray. And Pearl Jam.

ps: Love the pic. A band of old guys and a female drummer with the BINGO board in the background. Classic. (A.V. Senior Citizens Club?)

 

Looks like fun.

You ever listen to any Toots Theilemans? I have a chromatic kicking around here somewhere. My dad had it in WW2.

 

Very few musicians bring tears to my eyes when they play.

Toots is on the top of that list.