mismatched songs/instruments

Subject: RE: mismatched songs/instruments
From: GUEST,Chip2447
Date: 10 Sep 01 - 02:47 AM

once saw a highland piper who had arranged Iron butterflys "INNA GODA DA VIDA" for the pipes. That's just wrong on so many levels.
Scotland the brave on cello is interesting, as is the beer barrel polka played as a Jamican steel drum solo.

Subject: RE: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Art Thieme
Date: 09 Sep 01 - 11:14 PM

When I still could, I used to do a banjo medley of "Tammy", "Sweet Sue", "Yes, Sir, She's My Baby", "The Bells Of St. Mary's", "San Antonio Rose" ----- and then I'd end with a rousing version of the Greek song "Miserlou" as learned from our own (on occasion) -- Frank Hamilton. Some would think these were ALL mismatched with 1960s-Pete Seeger style banjo pickin'--but what the hell---it was just for fun. Folks seemed to enjoy it.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Martin S
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 07:51 AM

How about the 3 Tenors singing anything by Lloyd Webber or Lennon and McCartney? WHy do opera singers do this. It clearly doesn't work.

Subject: RE: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 07:04 AM

Battlefield did Bad Moon Rising including a bagpipe solo. Sounded good to me though...

DtG

Subject: RE: mismatched songs/instruments
From: GUEST,dougboywonder
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 05:41 AM

This is hardly folk-related but try to find a recording by "The vandals" called "Play that Country Tuba, White Boy". Believe me you won't regret it....

Subject: RE: mismatched songs/instruments
From: CharlieA
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 05:32 AM

Have to disagree with the flute one - playing it myself u can get some v wierd & cool sound effects if u kno what to do. what is mismached is "i will survive" on the accordian - very odd - a friend of mine once played it for us in a pub. much hilarity ensued! Cxxx

Subject: RE: mismatched songs/instruments
From: JudeL
Date: 07 Sep 01 - 04:44 AM

A friend with a very raspy sawmill voice once sang Blessed Quietness and accompanied himself on the banjo - it wasn't just strange it was almost surreal. Why he chose to do it on banjo we don't know since he's one of these amazing people that seem able to play almost any instrument he gets hold of (and he does have quite a few).
Jude

Subject: RE: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 06 Sep 01 - 08:44 PM

Still haven't had time to mess about with the bugger!

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: LR Mole
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 11:33 AM

Geoff t. D.:you bought a cannon? The 1812 Overture seems like it would be a natural.
Did a bombarde jacket come with it?

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Homeless
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 11:18 AM

I was once messing around with Fur Elise on a 5-string banjo, just because it seemed like it would be annoying. Unfortunately, the banjo didn't sound all that different from harpsichord, and actually sounded pretty nice.

But what I've always wanted to hear is Flight of the Bumblebee done on bagpipes.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 10:04 AM

Pomp and Circumstance on five kazoos and a conga drum. Also, hard rock on a flute.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: GUEST,Roger the skiffler
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 09:32 AM

I've never knowingly heard a bombarde (lucky me!) but I imagine it to resemble a brass bass? If so, Geoff, listen to the souzaphone player in the Dirty Dozen Brazz Band, he has a very light,bouncy touch, not like the typical oompah grunting. I know it's jazz, but...
RtS ("Feet don't fail me now")

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: John P
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 09:28 AM

It sounded good, by the way.

JP

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: John P
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 07:43 AM

I once heard Alan Stivell play "Summertime" on the bombarde.

JP

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Geoff the Duck
Date: 10 Aug 01 - 06:42 AM

It is one of my ambitions to one day record an LP entitled Something to Annoy Almost Everyone! Clasics for 5-string Banjo include the first few bars of Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven - you don't need more to get the point across, Deep Purple's Smoke on the Water ditto. For a major musical tour-de-force, Duelling Banjo and Kazoo (clawhammer) was deliberately arranged to piss-off Bluegrass players. Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze (clawhamer) was inspired by the fact that he had done Bob Dylan stuff - I also experimented with Voodoo Child but decided that one was enough, it did have interesting possibilities though!
I personally enjoy the William Tell Overture in clawhammer style.
Returnng to the original thrust of the thread - I have just returned from a holiday in Brittany, where we bought a Bombard, and am looking for sugestions for a repertoire - Obviously Silent Night and Brahms Lullaby are a tad inappropriate for the instrument, does anyone have other good ideas???
Quack!
Geoff the Duck!

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: DonMeixner
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 11:30 PM

Anything played on a Bowed Psaltry

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: rangeroger
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 10:07 PM

Gloredhel, we had Those Darned Accordians at Strawberry Music Festival a few years back.They put on one hell of a show.

I'll see if I can get a copy of their CD when I'm at the Strawberry office in 2 weeks.

rr

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: RangerSteve
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 08:14 PM

Gloredhel- Alice Coltrane played jazz harp, and there's another, no the one that Matt Woodbury mentioned, but I can't remember her name. I'll PM you when I find the CD, it's upstairs and I'm too lazy to go up and look right now. Also, there's an out of print record on the Yazoo label called "string Ragtime". It has a piece called "Spaghetti Rag" played on harp. Believe me, it's a humorous piece that works, but then, I believe it was written specifically for the harp.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: GUEST,Denise:^)
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 08:02 PM

Counting the human voice as an instrument:

1)Pat Boone's cover of 'Ain't that A Shame' really IS a shame, and

2)I once was trapped in a car on a Michigan-to-Maine road trip with a big-time Carpenters fan (he'd never let on before!)--did you know that they did a cover of 'Dead Man's Curve?' 52-part harmony; precise, clipped vocals, and all...it was enough to MAKE you want to drive off a cliff...

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Matt Woodbury/Mimosa
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 05:53 PM

Gloredhel,

You're probably thinking of Deborah Henson Conant. I don't know her website right off, but she gets the pedal harpists all twisted up.

I find that humorous songs work well with my harp, especially if I can manage them very seriously. Big hits lately have been "The Lonely Shepherd", "Blood on the Saddle", and "Friggin' in the Riggin" (done as a sing-a-long on the chorus.

I think it's an issue of emphasizing the incongruity of most peopl's image of the harp.

Matt/Mimosa

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Gloredhel
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 05:39 PM

Has anyone ever heard of a gal who plays jazz harp? I know it exists, but I've never heard it. As a harpist, I have trouble imagining this.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Gloredhel
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 05:36 PM

I don't know if you've ever heard a harp accompany a humorous song, but it's absolutely terrible. Few instruments kill laughter more quickly. After six years of playing it, I've realized it's too bloody dignified. Must get a guitar.... By the way, a friend once loaned me a CD called "Those Darned Accordions", because she kew how much it would annoy my dad. It was recorded by an accordion band of about ten or twelve people, whith quite a wide range of songs from classical music to jazz, folk, and pop. If anyone ever comes accross it, let me know.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Burke
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 04:59 PM

Amazing Grace on the organ. For that matter, any folk hymn & lots of standard hymns on the organ.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Don Firth
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 12:15 PM

At the end of a concert, usually as an encore, Carlos Montoya would sometimes do a Flamenco-style rendition of St. Louis Blues. Weird, but kinda funny.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: jmdornan
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 11:35 AM

Beethoven's 9th on bagpipes... I just b don't see screeching cat anywhere on the score... The bagpipers where very good though, despite the bad choice.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Justa Picker
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 11:30 AM

As much as I love the guy and his music, I question David Bromberg's use of alto saxaphone in some of his full band bluegrass arrangements. I find the sax in these songs completely out of context to the other "voices" in the band, and very irritating aurally.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 11:15 AM

Geoff does a pretty mean 'Purple Haze' on the 5 string banjo!

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: GUEST,Nick P.
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 09:46 AM

At one Cambridge folk festival I went to, (May have been last year, 2000.)Dedannan were playing & Frankie Gavin suddenly announced "And now we're going to play HEY JUDE" You could almost hear the audience collectively go- "Huuuhh??". But I'll tell you what, it worked bloody well!!

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 09:16 AM

Here's an ad for a CD by John Bullard called The Classical Banjo.

John Bullard has also written a book called The Classical Banjo.

And here are 2 more books (one by John Bullard) for sale at Elderly Instruments.

And Google came up with 332 hits on the term "classical banjo" (in quotes).

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: LR Mole
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 08:43 AM

A medley of "Ode to Joy" and Flight of the Bumblebee" on slide whistle and kazoo, titled "Flight of the Slippery Odious Atchoo". "Some Enchanted Evening" on snare drum and cymbal.The "Missa Solemnis" arranged for flocks of geese.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Kjell
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 07:29 AM

Eric a friend of mine frequently play "Bohemian Rhapsody" on his hurdy gurdy - - awful
Kjell

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Lee Shore
Date: 09 Aug 01 - 02:54 AM

Had an Aussie friend who used to get drunk and play "Ode to Joy" on the dijereedoo. At least he swore that was what he was playing.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: John P
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 11:28 PM

Dan, I heard an old guy here in Seattle playing classical music on a tenor banjo. This would have been in the mid-eighties sometime. I don't know his name. He was VERY good. I gained a new appreciation for the instrument by watching him. I think he did William Tell as well as several other recognizable classical tunes.

John

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: John P
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 11:25 PM

I work with a guy who is a cittern and bouzouki fanatic and is really into Breton music. I've been tweaking him lately by playing a Breton tune on the cittern to suck him in and then switching to bad pop hits from the 60s and 70s. So far I've hit him with "Spooky", "I'm a Believer", "Your Song", "Different Drum", and "Get Back". Oddly, they all work reasonably well.

Oh, and my wife and I have done "Joshua Fit the Battle" as a hurdy-gurdy and accordion duet a couple of times. At gigs we were getting paid for, too . . . .

John Peekstok

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 10:22 PM

I have a recording of Guy VanDuser playing "Stars and Stripes Forever" on guitar. Chet Atkins used to play it too, but I think he learned it from Guy. Incongruous, yes, but it was a real crowd-pleaser.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: kendall
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 04:39 PM

Has anyone else noticed how the background music in documentaries has changed?

I tried to watch one on forest fires in Australia a while back, but, the background "music" was so annoying, I turned it off.
Now it is happening often on the Discovery channel. Yes, I did write and give them hell.

To get back to the point, no music is appropriate for documentaries. One of the things I like about BBC programs is the lack of annoying music.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: RangerSteve
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 03:00 PM

Sinsull - oddly enough, I never learned "Lady of Spain". Possibly, my accordion instructor realized that some things should be put to rest.

I remembered something odd that worked well: a brass band whose name I don't remember played on the Prairie Home Companion back in the days when little known people could perform on the show. They played Stars & Stripes Forever, with the tuba doing the piccolo part at the end. It was perfect.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Don Firth
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 02:28 PM

Not entirely true, JohnInKansas. I once heard Jerry Walter, the banjo player with the Gateway Singers, sing Pretty Saro, accompanying himself on the banjo. This was at a party/songfest, and I don't know if he ever recorded it. It was very sad and beautiful, and one of the nicest renditions of that song I've ever heard.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 02:16 PM

A recent CD purchase that promised traditional tunes on uilleann and northumbrian pipes was rendered a lot less enjoyable than I'd hoped. The pipes were very good, but some @#$%@!! idiot had dubbed a very amateurish PIANO midi track in, presumedly to "fill in the background."

But is it really true what Willie says on his Moonlight Becomes You album, "You Just Can't Play A Sad Song On A Banjo"?

John

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Hollowfox
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:47 PM

The absolute worst mistake of this sort I ever heard was Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring played on my university's carillon. What were written as short notes just hung on forever, so that it sounded like somebody'd dropped the whole instrument down the stairs.
My worst bagpipe experience is hearing some @#%$ play the theme from Star Wars. At a "medieval" event. Why nobody chucked bricks at him, I'll never know.
And then my father told me about somebody he met who had a summer job playing Flight of the Bumblebee on the tuba at an amusement park. Hmmm.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: LoopySanchez
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:34 PM

The group "They Might Be Giants" recorded the Allman Brothers' instrumental classic "Jessica" on accordion for a collection of rarities and B-Sides they put together... As some others have said about examples they've cited in this thread, "the scary thing was, it sounded ok."

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: GUEST,Mad4Mud at work
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:24 PM

My husband recently recorded music for a commercial. He was asked to play the "Theme from Hawaii 5-0" on the uilleann pipes.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Whistle Stop
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:21 PM

I'm not sure I believe in such a thing as an absolute mis-match between a particular song and a particular instrument. I think you can play just about any song on just about any instrument, as long as you accept that your choice of instrument is going to change the way the song is perceived. In some cases it's just funny, like the aforementioned Rachmaminov piano concerto on accordion, or the old Martin Mull rearrangement of "Dueling Banjos" for tuba. In other cases it can add a dimension that clearly isn't there with more conventional instrumentation -- Hendrix's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" on solo electric guitar is a stunning example of that. Of course, you have to be prepared to bring a certain amount of creativity to your arrangement if you want to reap the benefits of such re-interpretation.

Sometimes unorthodox instrumentation can really surprise you. I used to have a record (vinyl) by the classical guitarist John Williams "and friends," playing baroque and classical pieces in an ensemble of two classical guitars, two marimbas, and bass (upright). I've never run into this combination before or since, but it was so beautiful it could make you weep.

I have lately been experimenting with a few solo fingerstyle guitar arrangements of old pop tunes, with some amazing results -- "Leader Of The Pack" in DADGAD tuning (with corresponding pseudo-Celtic flourishes) is one that has worked quite well. And you get the added thrill of watching the audience gradually recognize the tune, which is great fun.

Subject: Mismatched Songs/Instruments
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:14 PM

well... in the X-mas vein... those damn singing cats and dogs... are they an instrument??

And well, I'm not keen on anything played on bagpipes...

On the accordion front, our local hero, Len Wallace plays a damn fine accordion... but I bet he wishes now that he'd never covered "Takin' Care of Business" on the bloody thing...

;-)

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Don Firth
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:07 PM

Cross-posting! I guess Kendall has heard it then.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Don Firth
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:04 PM

Back in the late Fifties there was an old gentleman named Percy White living in Seattle who played classical 5-string banjo. Interesting, I thought, but I never had a chance to hear him. A friend of mine who was just learning to play the 5-string went to see Mr. White one evening, and although he didn't learn much from him ("he hates folk banjo. He calls it [n-word]-picking."), he said it was a pretty interesting couple of hours in a bizarre sort of way. "Believe me," he told me, "you've never heard the William Tell Overture until you've heard it played on the 5-string banjo!"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: GUEST,Les B
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 01:04 PM

Once a concertina player and myself, 5-string banjo, were the only two to show up on time for a loose gig. After one abortive attempt to play a tune we put our instruments back in the cases and went and had a beer until the bass, guitars and fiddles showed up.

It was a scary sound. Fiddle and banjo, yes -- concertina and banjo, run for the hills !!

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: kendall
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 12:59 PM

I once heard the William Tell overture played on a 5 string banjo. It lost something in translation.

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Kim C
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 12:54 PM

On Schickele Mix one time, I heard a version of the Magnificent Seven theme being played on the bagpipes. The scary thing was, it was not too bad...

Subject: RE: BS: mismatched songs/instruments
From: Wesley S
Date: 08 Aug 01 - 12:42 PM

Soooo Jim - were you the hammer dulcimer player or the guitarist - we won't tell.