MY FAVORITE THINGS

JOHN COLTRANE (SAXOPHONIST)

SONGWRITER: OSCAR HARMMERSTEIN II & RICHARD RODGERS

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: MY FAVORITE SINGS

LABEL: ATLANTIC RECORDS

GENRE: MODAL JAZZ

YEAR: 1961

My Favorite Things is the seventh studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane, released in 1961 on Atlantic Records, catalogue SD-1361. It was the first album to feature Coltrane playing soprano saxophone. An edited version of the title track became a hit single that gained popularity in 1961 on radio. The record became a major commercial success. In 1998, the album received the Grammy Hall of Fame award. It attained gold record status in 2018, having sold 500,000 copies.

In 2000 it was voted number 392 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums

The title track is a modal rendition of the Rodgers and Hammerstein song "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. The melody is heard numerous times throughout, but instead of playing solos over the written chord changes, both Tyner and Coltrane take extended solos over vamps of the two tonic chords, E minor and E major, played in waltz time. In the documentary The World According to John Coltrane, narrator Ed Wheeler remarks on the impact that this song's popularity had on Coltrane's career:

John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926–July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Working in the bebop and hard bop idioms early in his career, Coltrane helped pioneer the use of modes and was at the forefront of free jazz. He led at least fifty recording sessions and appeared on many albums by other musicians, including trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist Thelonious Monk. Over the course of his career, Coltrane's music took on an increasingly spiritual dimension. He remains one of the most influential saxophonists in music history. He received many posthumous awards, including canonization by the African Orthodox Church and a Pulitzer Prize in 2007. His second wife was pianist and harpista Alice Coltrane. The couple had three children: John Jr. (1964–1982), a bassist; Ravi (born 1965), a saxophonist; and Oran (born 1967), also a saxophonist.

SONG FOR MY FATHER

HORACE SILVER QUINTET

SONGWRITER: HORACE SILVR

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: IT’S GOT TO BE FUNKY

LABEL: BLUE NOTE

GENRE: JAZZ

YEAR: 1964

"Song for My Father" is a composition by Horace Silver. The original version, by Silver's quintet, was recorded on October 26, 1964. It has become a jazz standard and is probably Silver's best-known composition.

Horace Ward Martin Tavares Silver (September 2, 1928 – June 18, 2014) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, particularly in the hard bop style that he helped pioneer in the 1950s.

After playing tenor saxophone and piano at school in Connecticut, Silver got his break on piano when his trio was recruited by Stan Getz in 1950. Silver soon moved to New York City, where he developed a reputation as a composer and for his bluesy playing. Frequent sideman recordings in the mid-1950s helped further, but it was his work with the Jazz Messengers, co-led by Art Blakey, that brought both his writing and playing most attention. Their Horace Silver and the Jazz Messengers album contained Silver's first hit, "The Preacher". After leaving Blakey in 1956, Silver formed his own quintet, with what became the standard small group line-up of tenor saxophone, trumpet, piano, bass, and drums. Their public performances and frequent recordings for Blue Note Records increased Silver's popularity, even through changes of personnel. His most successful album was Song for My Father, made with two iterations of the quintet in 1963 and 1964.

Several changes occurred in the early 1970s: Silver disbanded his group to spend more time with his wife and to concentrate on composing; he included lyrics in his recordings; and his interest in spiritualism developed. The last two of these were often combined, resulting in commercially unsuccessful releases such as The United States of Mind series. Silver left Blue Note after 28 years, founded his own record label, and scaled back his touring in the 1980s, relying in part on royalties from his compositions for income. In 1993, he returned to major record labels, releasing five albums before gradually withdrawing from public view because of health problems.

As a player, Silver transitioned from bebop to hard bop by stressing melody rather than complex harmony, and combined clean and often humorous right-hand lines with darker notes and chords in a near-perpetual left-hand rumble. His compositions similarly emphasized catchy melodies, but often also contained dissonant harmonies. Many of his varied repertoire of songs, including "Doodlin'", "Peace", and "Sister Sadie", became jazz standards that are still widely played. His considerable legacy encompasses his influence on other pianists and composers, and the development of young jazz talents who appeared in his bands over the course of four decades.

(First Chorus)

This little song for my father

Does things that no other

Can do

As I sing it to you

It has a rhythm and rhyme

That will fasten his memory

In time

As his beauty shines through

For through my mind and soul

My heart will always hold

A special place for him

It's true

(Second Chorus)

We bow our heads and we pray

Every day's Father's Day

Let's review

All that he means to you

Our mother's love is real nice

But old Dad sacrificed

For us too

Let us give him his due

We're very proud to be

In his biography

We sing this song for him

And you.

THERE MUST BE A BETTER WORLD SOMEWHERE

DR JOHN

SONGWRITER: DR. POMUS

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: AFTERGLOW

LABEL: GRP

GENRE: BULES

YEAR: 1995

Malcolm John Rebennack Jr. (November 20, 1941 – June 6, 2019), better known by his stage name Dr. John, was an American singer and songwriter. His music combined blues  pop, jazz, boogie-woogie, funk, and rock and roll.

Active as a session musician from the late 1950s until his death, he gained a following in the late 1960s after the release of his album Gris-Gris and his appearance at the Bath Festival of Blues and Progressive Music. He typically performed a lively, theatrical stage show inspired by medicine shows, Mardi Gras costumes, and voodoo ceremonies. Rebennack recorded thirty studio albums and nine live albums, as well as contributing to thousands of other musicians' recordings. In 1973 he achieved a top-10 hit single with "Right Place, Wrong Time".

The winner of six Grammy Awards, Rebennack was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by singer John Legend in March 2011. In May 2013, Rebennack received an honorary doctorate of fine arts from Tulane University.

Sometimes, I wonder just what I am fighting for

I win some battles, but I always lose the war

I keep right on stumblin' in this no man's land out there

But I know, yes, I know that there must be a better world somewhere

Flying high, some joker clips my wings

Just 'cause he gets his kicks and he's doing those kind of things

Keep on fallin' into space, either hangin' in mid-air

But I know, yes, I know that there must be a better world somewhere

Every woman I want only wants herself

Everybody I love, loves somebody else

Yeah, every woman got a license to break my heart

And every love affair is over, before it gets a chance to start

If it ain't here, maybe in the year after

Instead of tears, I'll learn all about laughter

Meanwhile, I'm stuck out here, Lord knows it just ain't fair

But I know, yes, I know that there must be a better world somewhere

Every woman I want only wants herself

Everybody I love, loves somebody else

Every woman I know got a license to break my heart

And every love affair is over before it gets a chance to start

If it ain't here, maybe in the year after

Instead of tears, I'll learn all about laughter

Meanwhile, I'm stuck out here, Lord knows it just ain't fair

But I know, yes, I know, hey, I know

That there must be a better world, there sure gotta be a better world

Lord, now there must be a better world somewhere.

STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN

HEART

SONGWRITERS: JIMMY PAGE & ROBERT PLANT.

WHERE: LED ZEPPELIN- KENNEDY CENTER HONORS HD

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: LITTLE QUEEN

LABEL: PORTRAIT RECORDS

GENRE: HARD ROCK

YEAR: 1977

Little Queen is the second studio album by American rock band Heart. It was released on May 14, 1977, by Portrait Records. The album was recorded and mixed at Kaye-Smith Studios in Seattle, Washington, from February to April 1977. On June 29, 2004, a remastered version of Little Queen was released by Epic Records and Legacy Recordings with two bonus tracks.

Heart is an American rock band formed in 1970 in Seattle, Washington by Steve Fossen (bass guitar), Roger Fisher (guitar), David Belzer (keyboards), and Jeff Johnson (drums). It evolved from an existing band, White Heart. Since 1973 the vocalists for Heart have been the sisters Ann Wilson (lead vocals, flute, guitar) (born June 19, 1950) and Nancy Wilson (vocals, guitar, mandolin) (born March 16, 1954). Over Heart's history, it has had three primary lineups.

Heart first found success when its members moved to Canada, in part to avoid the draft, then later in the United States, and ultimately worldwide. Heart rose to fame in the mid-1970s with music influenced by hard rock and heavy metal, as well as folk music. The band's popularity declined in the early 1980s, but they launched a successful comeback in 1985 which continued into the 1990s, releasing numerous hard-rock songs and ballads. Heart disbanded in 1998, then resumed performing in 2002. In the summer of 2019, Heart ended their 2016 acrimonious break-up by launching their "Love Alive" tour.

To date, Heart has sold over 35 million records worldwide, including over 22.5 million in album sales in the U.S. They have had top 10 albums on the Billboard 200 in the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2010s. Heart was ranked number 57 on VH1's "100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock". In 2006, Ann Wilson was listed as one of the "Top Heavy Metal Vocalists of All Time" by Hit Parader magazine. In 2013, Heart was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. 

There's a lady who's sure

All that glitters is gold

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

When she gets there, she knows

If the stores are all closed

With a word she can get what she came for

And she's buying a stairway to heaven

There's a sign on the wall

But she wants to be sure

'Cause you know, sometimes words have two meanings

In the tree by the brook

There's a songbird who sings

Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven

It makes me wonder

It makes me wonder

There's a feeling I get when I look to the West

And my spirit is crying for leaving

In my thoughts I have seen rings of smoke through the trees

And the voices of those who stand looking

It makes me wonder

It really makes me wonder

And it's whispered that soon

If we all call the tune

Then the piper will lead us to reason

And a new day will dawn

For those who stand long

And the forests will echo with laughter

If there's a bustle in your hedgerow

Don't be alarmed now

It's just a Spring clean for the May queen

Yes, there are two paths you can go by

But in the long run

There's still time to change the road you're on

And it makes me wonder

Your head is humming, and it won't go

In case you don't know

The piper's calling you to join him

Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow

And did you know

Your stairway lies on the whispering wind

And as we wind on down the road

Our shadows taller than our souls

There walks a lady we all know

Who shines white light and wants to show?

How everything still turns to gold

And if you listen very hard

The tune will come to you, at last

When all are one and one is all, yeah

To be a rock and not to roll

And she's buying a stairway to heaven.