About

Music’s one of the things that make life more livable.  I don’t know if it ever really starts riots or soothes the savage beasts.  I just know that I love it.

Of course, there’s some music I’d rather not hear.  There are even stories of music being used as torture or as other forms of “pyschological warfare.”

I’m not really strong on opera or most modern pop or country and western.  Yet there’s still a lot of popular music that I love: Soul, R & B, pop, hip hop, folk, rock, rap, dance, international, punk, funk and more.  Any genre can produce good work.  You never know.

Some of the best stuff can’t be classified.  So I won’t even try to (but I may give my impressions).  Some great unclassifiables include Sun Ra, Cecil Taylor, Conlon Nancarrow and Harry Partch.

I live in Detroit.  My city’s a real mother lode of great music.  So I’ll get into the Detroit thing now and then.

I sing and even play a little (doing puppet shows and in two bands).

I’ve done a lot of studies and am something of a self taught musicologist.

Primary areas of interest include: pre-1950 music (going back to the the 1890’s), African and Brazilian music, jazz and blues.

Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Thelonious Monk, Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton, Muddy Waters, Bessie Smith, John Coltrane, Mile Davis, Duke Ellington etc. all consistently amaze me.  the greats!

I love the old country music: Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, Ernest Tubb, the Carter Family, Bob Wills, Riley Puckett and so on.

Classical music always seems like a chore to listen to, part of my education.  But usually, when I actually put something on, I enjoy it, it sounds good enough.  I just need to keep it “in the loop.”

I like a lot of old pop tunes and film soundtracks.  A few of my top composers are George Gershwin, Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrman, Nino Rota, Cole Porter and Harold Arlen.

So check out my music blog here and maybe leave a comment now and then.  I’ll be listening.

April 2, 2009  (from Maurice Greenia, Jr.)

 

Further information:

http://research.udmercy.edu/find/special_collections/digital/greenia/index.php

My other blogs:

Art, radical art and cultural criticism:

http://artremedy20.wordpress.com/

Cinema, Movies and Motion Pictures:

http://picturesmove211.wordpress.com/

Adventures and Resources (my experimental “unrestricted” blog) i.e. not as narrow a focus as the others:

http://maugre22.wordpress.com/

The Most Real of All Worlds

Political, Social and Environmental studies and comments, post 2016.

https://realityworldblog.wordpress.com/

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