About Music/音楽の話
<Janet, Aging, Netflix, Apple Music, Hotel California, Waterside, Mediterranean Sundance, Larry Coryell, Paco de Lucia>
I was talking to my wife on New Year's Day last year (2021) that this year would be over immediately as well as recent years. It really happened. According to Janet's Theory, psychological time is inversely proportional to age—longer to younger people and shorter to older people.
This year, my year of being recognized as an elderly person by Japanese law, is only one-sixty-fifth of my life while one-fifth for the adorable daughter of my LA friend. The existence value of five rice grains is great, but even if one of 65 grains is gone, it won't be noticed. While she has a dazzling future from the time she was born, I spend mediocre days dealing with various declines.
There are many things I want to avoid before I die. One is dementia, which is said to be one in three in Japan when you get old. Based on my experience of suffering from cancer due to ignorance, I take all possible measures, including eating habits, into my daily life. However, I am not aiming to "live thin and long." There is no meaning unless it is "thick and long". Knee joint pain, which is the early stage of aging, has already begun, and I am diligently spinning the knee plate as a custom.
When I renewed my eyeglasses last year, I was wondering why I was being asked many times if I had been inspected by an ophthalmologist. I found the reason later when I was watching the Tokyo Paralympics. I am visually impaired. My right eye can't see an inch away and can't even recognize the face of a person one meter away, but glasses and contact lenses don't make me feel so inconvenient in daily life.
Watching movies is one of my pleasures of the weekend. I didn't go to the cinema last year for the first time since I was in my late teens and started to go to several theaters one day in Hollywood, a five-minute drive from my apartment. Now I usually watch about 300 movies a year, but I have to read subtitles on Netflix from non English-speaking countries, so I recently avoid them, even if they look interesting.
I don't watch movies every day, but there's no day when I don't listen to music. It is playing all the time while I'm awake. Last year, joining Apple Music gave me a fresh joy. The acoustic technology that incorporates Dolby Atmos is a different dimension from the high-quality sound of the past. The sound field and the outlines of all musical instruments can be clearly seen. The feeling that you can see them in space. It's fun to listen back to new discoveries that I haven't noticed before in my favorite songs that I've listened to hundreds and thousands of times. As I get older, I'm afraid of hearing loss next to knee, so my wife cleans my ears every weekend night.
Six years ago, the wife of my music master in LA told me, "You like wind instruments." Chet Baker, Freddie Hubbard, Grover Washington Jr., Sadao Watanabe, etc. I listen to them every day, but I can't play the saxophone, and the guitar has not changed as a special instrument even now and in the past.
My life would have been completely different if I hadn't listened to Eagles' One of These Nights and wouldn't be aiming for LA when I was falling out of school and spending my days only practicing guitar. The Eagles' basic composition is a genuine rock guitar band in which the drummer is the lead vocal and all four guitarists chorus.
The DJ announcement I heard while driving on the Golden State Freeway in 1976 is still memorable.
“Listen to the second single from the Eagles' new album. Here’s Hotel California♪” (first single is New Kid in Town)
As I listened to the flowing arpeggio, the night view of LA Downtown began to blur and sway. It was the first time I had tears when I listened to music.
After that, I was devoted to jazz fusion which was derived from crossover jazz at that time, and I learned from many guitarists. With that background, it's nice to have saxophone or piano as a background music, but not guitar, because I must listen to it.
This is my recent favorite guitar.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWtF_fJ48ls&list=PLfJndz0utgOPkIAoHzBCgq8dTi2TlRtQk
Nowadays, my favorite musicians are dying one after another. It has become my habit to listen to the sounds of their days every time I read about obituaries. There are many guitarists with techniques that are touted as transcendence, including Larry Coryell (died at 73 in 2017). One of his masterpieces is Waterside in the session album Fuse One. The original is Smetana's masterpiece The Moldau. The arrangement by Jeremy Wall (Spyro Gyra) transformed a classic to a fusion is excellent.
♪♪♪
From this light entry by Lenny White's drums, magnificent strings spread out at once. Coryell plays a rhythmical acoustic guitar that you can hear from the left. Right before the main melody enters, the single harmonic tone reverberates like a “please go.”
For a while, you can taste a beautiful electric piano Jorge Dalto (died at 39 in 1987). Coryell's guitar is heard from the right while Jeremy Wall's support piano is on the left. After the main tune, Coryell's magnificent performance begins. He plays a powerful rock guitar with a Stratocaster and switches to a fashionable and delicate acoustic guitar. I can't help closing my eyes every time I listen to it. Returning to the electric piano, he supports with an acoustic guitar. And it fades out with a lot of exhilaration. It's not as well known as Hotel California, but this is definitely comparable to me.
As far as twin guitars are concerned, I have to mention another one, Mediterranean Sundance. I watched three performances by Paco de Lucia (died at 66 in 2014) in LA with Al de Meola, Coryell and John McLaughlin. Among them, the most famous Live in San Francisco is recommended, played by Paco and de Meola.
(The sound is bad, but the video recorded in the album)
When I took my sponsor and his wife to San Diego for their business, this tune was on the radio and I volumed up and said, "this is my favorite and I'm practicing." After listening to this long one, they said, "Wonderful, this is totally different from the enka guitar we always listen to."
Before I finish copying this tune, I quit music completely.
昨年(2021)の正月、「今年もあっという間におわるんだろうな」とワイフと話していたら、ほんとにそうなった。Janetの法則によれば、心理的時間は年齢に反比例し、年少者にはより長く、年長者にはより短く感じられる。
今年、日本の法令によって高齢者と認定される私の１年は人生の65分の1でしかなく、ワイフと共に愛してやまないLAの友人の娘にとっては5分の1。米粒５個のひと粒の存在価値は大きいが、65個のひと粒は無くなっても気づかない。彼女には生まれたときから眩い未来が待っている一方で、当方は術後の後遺症に加えて様々な衰えに対処しながら凡庸な日々を過ごしている。
死ぬ前に回避したいことは多々ある。ひとつが日本で３人にひとりはなると言われている認知症。無知ゆえに癌に罹患した経験から、食生活を含めて可能な対策はすべて日常にとり入れている。かといって、「細く長く生きること」を目指しているわけではない、「太く長く」でなければ意味がない。老化の初期である膝関節痛が始まったので、膝皿回しをこまめにやっている。
昨年眼鏡を新調したとき、「専門の眼科医に診てもらったことはないか」と何度も訊かれたのを不思議に思っていたら、東京パラリンピックを観ていて自分が視覚障害者であることを知った。右目は１インチ先は見えず、１メートル離れている人の顔も認識できないが、眼鏡やコンタクトレンズのおかげで日常生活に不自由はそれほど感じない。
映画鑑賞は週末の楽しみのひとつ。10代の終わり、車で5分のHollywoodでハシゴするようになって以来初めて昨年は映画館に行かなかった。年間300本ほど観るが、Netflixでは英語圏以外は字幕を読まなくてはならず、最近はおもしろそうでも敬遠するようになった。
映画は毎日ではないが、音楽を聴かない日は一日としてない。起きている間、ずっと音楽を流している。昨年は、Apple Music に加入したおかげで久々に新鮮な喜びを味わうことができた。Dolby Atmos を取り入れた音響技術は、これまでの高音質とは次元が違う。音場やすべての楽器の音の輪郭がくっきりと見える。空間のなかに見える感覚。何百回、何千回も聴いてきたお気に入りの楽曲にこれまで気づかなかった新しい発見があり、聴き返すのが楽しい。老化が進むと膝の次に来る聴覚の衰えが怖いので、毎週末の夜、ワイフに耳掃除をやってもらっている。
６年前、LAで音楽の師匠の奥さんに「菅（かん）が好きね」と言われた。Chet Baker、Freddie Hubbard、Grover Washinton Jr.、渡辺貞夫など、確かに毎日聴いているが、saxphoneは演奏できず、今も昔もguitarが特別な楽器であることに変わりはない。
進学校で落ちこぼれて日々練習に明け暮れていたとき、Eaglesの One of These Nights を聴くことがなかったらLAを目指すこともなく、私の人生はまったく違ったものになっただろう。その基本編成は、drumerが lead vocal で、guitar４本全員がcorusをつけるという、生粋の rock guitar band である。
1976年、Golden State Freeway を走りながら聴いたDJのannouncementは今も耳に残る。
“Eaglesの new album からの second single を聴いてください、Hotel California♪”（first single は New Kid in Town）
流れてきたarpeggioを聴いていると、downdownの夜景が霞んで揺れ出した。音楽を聴いて涙が流れたのは、初めてだった。
その後、当時 crossover jazz から派生した jazz fusion に傾倒し、多くの guitarists に勉強させてもらった。そんな背景があるので、saxphoneやpianoはずっと流れていても心地いいが、guittarには耳を傾けてしまうから、ながら状態には合わない。
最近のお気に入りなguitarはこれ。
https://youtu.be/S-aK4vACG5U?list=PLfJndz0utgOPkIAoHzBCgq8dTi2TlRtQk
昨今、好きなmusiciansが次々と亡くなっていく。訃報を知るたびに彼らの在りし日の音に耳を傾けるのも習慣になった。超絶と謳われる技術を持ったguitaristsは多数いて、Larry Coryell (died at 73 in 2017)もそのひとり。
なかでも傑作が、Fuse Oneというsession album にある Waterside。原曲は、Smetana の名曲 The Moldau。classic を fusion にしたJeremy Wall (Spyro Gyra）の arrangement が秀逸。
♪トトツ♪
Lenny White のdrumsのこの軽妙な入りから壮麗なstringsがひろがって一気に引き込まれる。それに合わせて左から聴こえてくる軽快な acoustic guitar がCoryell 。主旋律が入る直前に “please go” てな感じで単音の harmonics を響かせる。しばらくは、Jorge Dalto (died at 39 in 1987) の美しい electric piano を味わう。左はJeremy Wall の support piano に代わり、Coryell は右から聴こえてくる。主旋律が終わると、Coryellの名演開始。Stratocasterで powerful rock guitar を弾きまくると、おしゃれで繊細な acoustic guitar にswitch。聴くたびに目を閉じずにはいられなくなる。Electric piano に戻ると、 acoustic guitar で supportする。そして爽快感いっぱいに fade out。Hotel California ほど認知されてはいないが、私のなかでは匹敵する楽曲である。
Twin guitars に限定すれば、もう一曲、Mediterranean Sundance に言及しないわけにはいかない。多々ある version のなかでも、一番有名な Live in San Francisco。 Paco de Lucia (died at 66 in 2014) と Al de Meola、Coryell、John McLaughlinと別々に共演した３つの live をLAで観たが、やっぱり Paco とde Meola が良かった。
（音は悪いがalbum 収録の映像）
恩人のご夫妻を San Diego まで送る車のなかでradioから流れてきたとき、音量をあげて、「これ、お気に入りで練習しているんです」と言うと、長い曲が終わった後、「素晴らしい、いつも聴いている演歌のギターと全然違うね」とおふたりが仰ったことを想い出す。
この曲を最後までコピーすることなく、私は音楽をやめた。
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