0:09

Hi, i'm Jon Tigert,

0:09

you might know me well no, you

0:14

probably don't. But this is

0:14

Desert Island Jams with Sarah

0:18

Spoon.

0:40

Hi, I'm Sarah

0:40

Spoon, and this is Desert Island

0:42

Jams, a monthly podcast where I

0:42

sit down with the chief music

0:46

nerds of the Lindy hop and blues

0:46

dance communities and talk about

0:49

the 10 songs they would take

0:49

with them on a tiny mp3 player

0:53

to a desert island. My guest

0:53

this month is Jon Tigert, and he

0:57

is based in Baltimore. Jon is a

0:57

Lindy hopper. He is a teacher,

1:03

he is a DJ, a very good DJ, he

1:03

is an emcee, a very good emcee.

1:08

He is the bandleader of the

1:08

Corner Pocket Jazz Band, he

1:11

plays drums in that. And what

1:11

you may not have known is that

1:15

he seriously considered going

1:15

into musical theater instead of

1:18

Lindy Hop, but we'll get to that

1:18

in a bit.

1:40

Officially, welcome to Desert

1:40

Island Jams.

1:42

Whoo. I'm excited.

1:44

Yeah, I really

1:44

enjoyed your playlist in a way

1:48

that I haven't with some of the

1:48

other guests, not to throw shade

1:52

on any of the other guests. But

1:52

there are a couple of songs on

1:54

here that I was like, Ah, this

1:54

is a really fucking good choice!

2:00

This was so... this

2:00

was a weird exercise to do. I

2:03

have to be honest. Because I

2:03

wanted to like cheat the system,

2:07

but also be true to the spirit

2:07

of it. So like I definitely

2:11

picked long songs so that I

2:11

would have more music on the

2:14

island.

2:15

That's fair, but I

2:15

hate to break it to you, Ryan,

2:18

our first guest had longer songs

2:18

than you.

2:22

I feel so much

2:22

better then, because it turned

2:24

out as I was going through that

2:24

I was like, No, these are just

2:27

legitimately what I want to listen to.

2:28

Yeah, a great,

2:28

great mix. Let's kick off with

2:32

the first one Jason Mraz, Dream

2:32

Life of Rand McNally. I actually

2:36

had to Google who Rand McNally

2:36

was, and it's a mapping

2:39

technology company is that like,

2:41

kind of so like when

2:41

we were young, when we when we

2:44

were in elementary school, or

2:44

primary school, we had these

2:47

like little atlases, and you'd

2:47

maybe color them in, or write in

2:52

the the names, and they were all

2:52

made by this one company named

2:55

Rand McNally. And so I don't

2:55

know if that isn't, that might

3:00

be a purely American thing. I

3:00

don't know.

3:02

And is the the

3:02

like, the map connection, you're

3:04

thinking map, desert island, or

3:04

is it because he sings about

3:08

lots of different locations in

3:08

the song? Or is it just because

3:12

it sounds like it's a teen movie

3:12

from the 2000s, or

3:16

it's a little bit more of a nostalgia pick, honestly, cuz it is an album

3:18

that I listened to when I was in

3:22

high school in the early 2000s.

3:22

And it's just, there's a lot of

3:27

just kind of like, playfulness

3:27

in it, which I really enjoy. It

3:31

really just makes me happy. And

3:31

I like how it morphs from this

3:35

Dream Life of Rand McNally

3:35

nonsense chaos song into a

3:39

really popular song that

3:39

everyone knows and then morphs

3:42

back through some like, real,

3:42

real chaotic jamming. And, I'm

3:48

particularly fond of the banter

3:48

halfway through, where he's

3:51

like, take a solo for me, and

3:51

he's like, okay, no, for you,

3:54

for me. And like they, they just

3:54

talked about who's not taking a

3:58

solo at that time. And it's

3:58

really like one of those

4:00

charming human moments in music

4:00

that I really value.

4:04

Yeah, it was super

4:04

sweet. And so I liked this being

4:06

the first one because it was

4:06

like the opening credits to your

4:10

desert island jam movie.

4:12

Oh, I like that. I

4:12

like that a lot. Also, Jason

4:16

Mraz, if you haven't given him a

4:16

chance, just to like the people

4:19

in the world. The studio

4:19

recordings are fine, but he's

4:23

one of those people that live is

4:23

such a different experience. And

4:27

so like, go listen to the like,

4:27

2001 live album, and it'll,

4:31

like, it's absolutely brilliant.

4:31

Some of the stuff in that whole

4:33

album. It's just so clever

4:33

anyway.

13:50

Anyway, so the

13:50

second song I think is my

13:53

favorite on all of them the

13:53

upright bass played with the

13:55

bow, it's so good, I was

13:55

delighted.

13:58

And this is the

13:58

newest song to me on the list.

14:03

Like this, this honestly popped

14:03

up on a Spotify radio that was

14:07

built on like Nickel Creek and

14:07

Kristy Lee and I'm With Her. And

14:12

it just struck me and it's stuck

14:12

with me for like a year now and

14:15

I can't get it out of my head

14:15

and the more I listen to it, the

14:17

more I love it, and it just like

14:17

paints this beautiful story and

14:21

picture and the the message that

14:21

I've put behind it is something

14:25

that like, has helped me

14:25

persevere in a sense? The song

14:30

is about another singer so you

14:30

gotta like song within a song

14:34

it... but basically this other

14:34

singer that the song is about.

14:38

He says, 'I got a soul that I

14:38

won't sell. And I don't read

14:42

Postcards from hell, and that's

14:42

why he plays his blues so well'

14:46

and like, I got a soul that I

14:46

won't sell and don't read

14:49

Postcards from hell basically to

14:49

me is like, stick to your guns.

14:55

Don't take the shit from people.

14:55

Right? It, because It's not

15:02

about like conforming to other

15:02

things, because that's when you

15:04

lose. That's when you sell your

15:04

soul and you lose it. And if you

15:07

take in all those Postcards from

15:07

hell, which can be like Internet

15:10

comments, or just like whatever

15:10

it is in today's world, and then

15:16

this song just also struck me

15:16

because like the way it's

15:18

phrased like, I can just picture

15:18

this old singer, kind of like

15:22

old Lindy hoppers who just don't

15:22

really give you real advice.

15:25

They just tell stories. [Sarah

15:25

Laughs] And he's like, Hey, I

15:29

could just like picture this

15:29

dude walking up to this old, old

15:33

blues singer in this crowded bar

15:33

and he's like, Hey, man, you

15:35

play amazing with like, what what have you been working on? He's like, man, I got a soul

15:37

that I won't sell, an' I don't

15:41

read Postcards from hell. You

15:41

walk into the park, you're like,

15:45

what did I just learn? I thought

15:45

he was gonna teach me about

15:49

chords and, or steps. And so

15:49

it's, again, like, it reminds me

15:55

of people that I like, it

15:55

reminds me especially of Norma,

15:58

because Norma was that way.

15:58

Where you'd be like Norma, How

16:01

do you do this step? And she'd be like, 'you're not feeling it right'... Like, that doesn't

16:02

help me!

16:07

If someone was to

16:07

come up to you, and you wanted

16:10

to give similarly unhelpful

16:10

advice for advice, like, if I

16:14

was like, Jon, how, what's your

16:14

secret? How do I how do I get to

16:19

where you are?

16:22

[laughs] Well, one,

16:22

don't. No one wants to be where

16:25

I am. That's not true. But let's

16:25

see. I don't know. Look, we come

16:35

back to it after the song. Can we do?

16:36

All right, well,

16:36

then I'll put the song on and

16:39

you have a little thinky.

16:40

This is great.

16:40

That's a great question. I

21:26

should also mention that this

21:26

was a particular Desert Island

21:29

pick, I had a couple songs, and,

21:29

so like, kind of each one of

21:33

these is a different genre for

21:33

me, like category of music I

21:36

like and a reason that I'm

21:36

picking this one...a reason I'm

21:39

picking this one and it's a

21:39

theme of a lot of these is that

21:42

kind of continuous drone. So you

21:42

have that just like Dude, bah

21:46

bah, bah. It's just always

21:46

churning always going.

21:50

Yeah, it's got a

21:50

kind of timeless but new vibe.

21:54

Yeah yeah,

21:54

absolutely.

21:57

Okay, what would

21:57

your advice be?

22:01

Keep the beat and

22:01

give it away. To keep the keep

22:05

the beat is borrowed from Norma,

22:05

which I was obviously thinking

22:07

of already.

22:08

Blossom Dearie, 'I

22:08

walk a Little Faster'. Oh,

22:11

dusty, smoky loveliness. This is

22:11

what, a sunset with a coconut in

22:18

your hand looking over the water?

22:20

So this is actually

22:20

the first idea I had for the

22:27

song that was going to be mine

22:27

and Samantha's first dance at

22:30

our wedding. And I heard it in

22:30

Herrang for the first time.

22:34

Because I always find Blossom

22:34

Dearie really comforting when I

22:36

miss whatever, when I miss

22:36

something.

22:39

I mean, she had a really long career, I didn't actually realize that she only

22:41

died comparatively recently in

22:45

2009. Whereas like when I think

22:45

of Blossom Dearie, I think like,

22:48

of 40s and 50s. But she didn't

22:48

really get going until the 50s.

22:52

And then she just kept on going

22:54

Well, and I didn't

22:54

realize for a long time that she

22:57

was also the piano player. And

22:57

like for so many years, I just

23:01

thought she was like kind of

23:01

this cutesy singer and then I

23:03

saw a video of her playing piano

23:03

it's like, ohhhhh, everything

23:08

makes so much more sense now.

23:08

And so Blossom Dearie is someone

23:11

who like, eked her way into my

23:11

heart. I had, she was she was so

23:16

smart and so talented and really

23:16

deserves a lot more attention

23:20

than she gets.

23:21

Yeah, I think it's

23:21

the cutesy voice. I think people

23:24

are like, ahh, this is like baby

23:24

jazz. And you're like, no,

23:27

there's there's a time and a

23:27

place where it really contrasts

23:30

really nicely.

23:31

Do you know what

23:31

Schoolhouse Rock is? In the UK?

23:34

By any chance? Okay, so that was

23:34

a series of, again, we're going

23:37

back to childhood. It's

23:37

educational cartoons. One of the

23:41

most famous which is obviously

23:41

an American is [sings] 'I'm just

23:44

a bill up on Capitol Hill. And

23:44

some day I'll be a law'... or

23:51

something like that. But it's

23:51

like little cartoon songs that

23:53

teach you about whatever the

23:53

alphabet, and so Blossom Dearie

23:57

did a lot of those songs that a

23:57

whole generation of now

24:02

millennial Americans watched in

24:02

school growing up. So when I

24:05

started hearing her at swing

24:05

dances, I was like, is what? Why

24:11

are people playing kids music?

24:11

So like, in my head, she was a

24:14

kids music singer. And then I

24:14

found all these recordings of

24:18

her doing this like beautiful,

24:18

elegant piano ballet stuff and

24:22

it's just fantastic. You know what I love about that?

28:34

The very last thing she does is

28:40

[sings] 'I walk a little,

28:40

faster'. And she like, speeds up

28:43

into that last 'faster' Just a

28:43

little. So it's like, oh, this

28:46

little subtle, wonderful moment.

28:48

It's a very subtle

28:48

song and there's so many layers.

28:52

So if you listen to it, you're

28:52

like, Oh, it's like a slow,

28:57

jazzy thing. And then you listen

28:57

to it again. You're like, Oh,

29:00

yeah, listen to this, but like,

29:00

but also this bit over here.

29:03

Desert Island. You

29:03

gotta get songs you can dig deep

29:07

into

29:07

Yeah. Oh, like I

29:07

would dig my toes into the sand

29:10

while listening to this for sure.

29:12

Yeah. Yeah.

29:13

And then a complete

29:13

contrast. And I really

29:17

appreciated that you followed

29:17

Blossom with this song because

29:20

the groove on this is so damn

29:20

good.

29:25

Okay, this was

29:25

probably the hardest pick,

29:28

honestly, there's so many

29:28

possibilities of what this could

29:32

have been. And this is just kind

29:32

of like the 60s 70s funk party

29:39

vibe that when I need to just

29:39

like blow it all out. And this

29:43

is like the most stereotypical

29:43

pic of all time.

29:46

I mean, it's a classic for a reason.

29:47

Yeah, it's a classic

29:47

because it's one of the literal

29:51

best and it doesn't get old.

29:53

And you said in the

29:53

notes that it was the it was the

29:57

video for it that clinched it.

29:59

Oh, Well the video

29:59

for it is a psychedelic LSD trip

30:02

nightmare. It's amazing. No. So

30:02

I was going through all of all

30:06

of the like Motown and funk and

30:06

disco hits that I wanted to

30:09

throw in. And I was doing it on

30:09

YouTube. So I was watching all

30:12

these music videos from the 70s.

30:12

And they are wild. They are

30:16

insane. The horns, the horns are so

33:52

good.

33:55

The chunkiness of

33:55

the beat and the way it like..

33:58

Yeah! Oh, I mean,

33:58

Earth Wind and Fire is like one

34:01

of the tightest bands that ever

34:01

existed.

34:06

E-ver!

34:06

so good.

34:08

I was really

34:08

surprised to see the next track,

34:11

'All the Wasted Time' by Jason

34:11

Robert Brown and the cast of

34:15

Parade the Musical. I know

34:15

nothing about musical theater

34:21

and I had no idea you were a

34:21

musical theater nerd. [Jon

34:25

laughs and groans] So tell us

34:25

about your hidden love.

34:29

So I got into

34:29

musical theater when I was about

34:33

14 or 15. And that's actually

34:33

what led me to auditioning for

34:37

music schools. So I studied

34:37

opera, actually in university

34:41

I did not know that!

34:42

Yeah. So if I were

34:42

following my my college studies,

34:46

I would be off doing young

34:46

artists programs, like

34:50

internships with opera programs.

34:50

I didn't do that. I wanted to

34:54

get into musical theater. So I

34:54

basically took the classical

34:58

music route and then took a

34:58

bunch of dance theater classes

35:00

as well. All while learning

35:00

Lindy Hop at the same time I

35:05

feel like any other musical

35:05

theater people are gonna like

35:07

really roll their eyes at those pick

35:09

why?

35:10

Um, Jason Robert

35:10

Brown is is kind of like the

35:16

kind of like the Coldplay of the

35:16

2000's /90's musical theater

35:21

world for like,

35:23

is this a Lavender

35:23

Coffin but musical theater?

35:25

Jason Robert Brown,

35:25

like, it's kind of one of those

35:27

like this is what everybody

35:27

would say is like their favorite

35:31

song when they discovered the

35:31

bigger world of musical theater.

35:34

So yeah, Lavender Coffin's a

35:34

good a good parallel. Parade is

35:38

his like, least popular musical

35:38

that he did.

35:41

Okay, so this makes

35:41

it a cooler bad choice? Cooler,

35:44

less cool choice?

35:45

It's a cooler bad

35:45

choice. But again, this comes

35:48

from like, it's been a part of

35:48

my vocabulary for a long time.

35:52

Did you look up anything about

35:52

the show at all for like the

35:54

premise at all?

35:55

I had a look at the

35:55

plot outline. Wikipedia is my

35:58

friend. That's a very particular

35:58

song..

36:01

It is!

36:01

From a very

36:01

particular plot... so I'm in

36:04

intrigued as to why this one??

36:06

So Okay, there's

36:06

great therapeutic joy in singing

36:14

as loud as you can, in a way

36:14

that feels good, in the same way

36:18

like there's great like physical

36:18

joy and like a good swing out,

36:21

you know? So this is a song that

36:21

I will put on an on a road trip

36:25

and just like yell along with,

36:25

which has certain merits. I

36:29

know, contextually it's a weird

36:29

choice.

36:32

I mean, surely you

36:32

can yell slash sing along to so

36:36

many other songs out in that

36:36

canon!

36:40

Musically, this one

36:40

gets me man. I like the

36:44

harmonies. I like the movement

36:44

of it. And as a I was born and

36:47

raised in the south, so the

36:47

wife, Lucille, I have a deep

36:51

affection for her, like deep,

36:51

rich Southern aristocrat accent.

36:56

And I find that a little

36:56

comforting, I guess.

36:59

It's cool.

37:00

I don't know. I just

37:00

liked this song. It's moving.

37:02

It's sweeping. It makes me want

37:02

to sing along to it. I like the

37:06

harmony of two voices together.

37:06

It's something we don't get a

37:10

lot in jazz. And it has a lot of

37:10

power. Just two voices and what

37:14

they can do together. So when

37:14

that you have, you know, do you

37:17

have Leo Franks, first part and

37:17

then you have the wife, Lucille

37:20

part and then the third part they come together and when they come together, and especially

37:22

when it modulates up the key

37:24

like it's hard not to get swept

37:24

up in that. It's a real power

37:28

grab and, urgh!

37:30

I'm gonna play it,

37:30

if you want to sing along. I'm

37:32

not gonna stop you.

37:34

Probably not

42:17

Next up we have a

42:17

spot of choral music.

42:22

Eric Whitacre is

42:22

kind of like the Lavender Coffin

42:25

of choral music. But again, this

42:25

is a lesser popular choice of

42:30

his. He's a modern composer and

42:30

he does a lot with acapella

42:34

choir in a way that's really

42:34

interesting and kind of

42:38

modernist and creates these like

42:38

vast kind of pictures. There's a

42:42

moment in the middle of this,

42:42

and the text from this is from

42:45

an E Cummings poem. And I'm

42:45

gonna preface this a little bit

42:50

because there is some like

42:50

religious music that comes up,

42:54

because this this is vaguely

42:54

religious. And then later on, I

42:57

know there's another one. I

42:57

don't subscribe to those

43:00

religions. But I'm not gonna

43:00

leave all that great art aside.

43:06

It's fucking

43:06

beautiful!

43:08

There's a moment in

43:08

the middle of this, where you'll

43:11

hear the The Sopranos and altos

43:11

just have this [sings] 'wings'.

43:15

And they'll hold this. And it's

43:15

almost like this high droning

43:19

moment. And then just this swell

43:19

of tenor and baritone voice and

43:23

tenor underneath, coming in. And

43:23

it's like, it's like swimming in

43:28

sound.

43:29

It's around the two

43:29

minute 30, yeah?

43:31

yeah. And there's

43:31

something just so glorious about

43:36

that moment of just feeling like

43:36

you, you are the meat of the

43:40

sound sandwich. Like when people

43:40

talk about music that sweeps you

43:43

up, two minutes and 30 seconds

43:43

into this is what they mean,

43:48

I got your note and

43:48

I was like, prepared for some

43:50

big thing. And instead,

43:52

No, it's so small,

43:53

incredibly subtle,

43:53

and layering and textural. And I

43:57

was like, I have no idea what

43:57

I'm listening to. But it's

44:00

really pretty,

44:01

it's really lovely.

44:01

There's another moment just

44:04

after that where actually you

44:04

have, and this is something you

44:06

kind of have to like look at in the score, but you have essentially the top voices all

44:08

coming down. And you have the

44:11

bottom voices all coming up. And

44:11

then just on the word 'hue' of

44:15

'human', Everybody in the choir

44:15

sings the exact same note on the

44:22

word 'human' in this kind of

44:22

like unifying, really beautiful,

44:26

like painted idea of because

44:26

you've just come from this

44:29

really like ridiculously large

44:29

chord that shouldn't exist that

44:33

for some reason, Eric Whitacre

44:33

made sound good. And it just

44:35

kind of blends down into this

44:35

one note and you're like,

44:37

[sounds cutsey] ah, everybody's

44:37

the same. We're all humans

44:41

anyway. That's my..

44:42

[laughs]

44:44

although on a desert

44:44

island, who cares? I'm the only

44:46

one! but like famously among the 20

51:38

people who care, two versions of

51:42

this. And part of it is Eric

51:42

Whitacre talked about how the

51:46

ending section was actually

51:46

originally totally different.

51:49

And it was because he was debuting it with two other songs. He was like, Oh, I can

51:51

tie them together and I can put

51:54

this, this ending and it, he

51:54

actually, like wrote a blog post

51:57

about it and put it up. He was like, Hey, here's the new version. Don't do the old

51:59

version. It's unnecessarily

52:02

hard. It's needlessly busy. And

52:02

I don't like it. Please don't do

52:06

it anymore. So I really had to

52:06

make sure to find the recording

52:10

that had the new slash old

52:10

ending, and it's much better.

52:16

Next on the list is

52:16

'Dazed and Confused' by Led

52:18

Zeppelin, which is scorchingly

52:18

excellent.

52:22

So my aunt gave me

52:22

the Count Basie and Frank

52:26

Sinatra 'Live at the Sands' CD.

52:26

She was like, my first jazz

52:30

album. I loved it. But at the

52:30

same time, my dad was driving me

52:35

to school in the morning, and he

52:35

was really contributing to my

52:39

classic rock education. So with

52:39

dad, we listened to a lot of The

52:42

Doors, a lot of The Kinks. And

52:42

for some reason, like 12/13 year

52:46

old me, latched on to Led

52:46

Zeppelin, hard. And then later

52:51

in life, I became a drummer and

52:51

rediscovered my love for Led

52:54

Zeppelin through John Bonham's

52:54

drumming, because I understood

52:56

it so much better. So this could

52:56

have really been any long, live

53:01

Led Zeppelin recording.

53:02

This one's really

53:02

energetic, yeah, recorded in

53:05

'69. But they only formed in,

53:05

what, 68 so this is still when

53:09

everything is super fresh for them

53:11

Fresh. And

53:11

especially this, you hear a lot

53:14

of that, like Delta Blues

53:14

influence that they pulled from,

53:16

which is super nice. And again,

53:16

a theme of like my, I realized

53:21

this now as listening to it, a

53:21

theme of one of the things that

53:25

I'm, I'm getting at is like,

53:25

kind of a drone with layers on

53:30

top. And so this, that baseline,

53:30

and then just building all the

53:34

layers on top is kind of like

53:34

you know, the last time you had

53:37

the one voice and then you build

53:37

the layers under.

53:40

Well, now I know you're I mean, obviously you're going to be Bonham, but would

53:42

you be Plant or Page?

53:46

Ah, I, I would be a

53:46

Plant person.

53:49

Okay.

53:50

I was a plant person

53:50

initially, but my dad's the

53:53

guitar player in the family.

53:54

Okay, for those of you who are listening who don't know, Page was responsible for

53:56

the music and Plant was

54:00

responsible for lyrics most

54:00

times.

54:03

For those of you who don't know,

1:00:48

someone had never

1:00:48

heard classical music before,

1:00:52

and the word 'classical' meant

1:00:52

nothing to them, how would you

1:00:56

describe the Firebird Suite to

1:00:56

them?

1:00:58

Uhhhh... It's the

1:00:58

biggest band you can imagine

1:01:08

playing glorious music that will

1:01:08

sweep you up. And you'll feel,

1:01:15

you'll physically feel if it, if

1:01:15

you're there. And it should,

1:01:19

like, should literally shake you

1:01:19

to your core. Yeah. I think that

1:01:29

that's all, like it... It's also

1:01:29

not electric. So the part we're

1:01:34

going to listen to in Firebird

1:01:34

is, is you have to imagine that

1:01:40

you just lost everything,

1:01:40

everything is gone, everything

1:01:45

is destroyed, you can't move,

1:01:45

there's nothing. And then you're

1:01:51

just laying in darkness and

1:01:51

descending and leaving

1:01:55

consciousness in the earth. And

1:01:55

then what you hear to bring you

1:02:00

back into the light into to to

1:02:00

life is this one incredible

1:02:07

French horn solo that starts it.

1:02:07

And it made me fall in love with

1:02:12

this instrument. And then that

1:02:12

horn is like the one beacon of

1:02:17

life that brings this entire 150

1:02:17

person orchestra back into this

1:02:25

giant groundswell of rebirth and

1:02:25

rejuvenation and gloriousity.

1:02:32

Gloriousity. That's a word that

1:02:32

I invented right now. Classical

1:02:35

music people will be like, why

1:02:35

did you pick Firebird? or Why

1:02:38

didn't you pick Rite of Spring?

1:02:38

It's technically better and more

1:02:41

interesting. Yeah, sure,

1:02:41

whatever. I don't care. This.

1:02:44

This moves me more. Also, this

1:02:44

is a ballet, which is a nice

1:02:50

touch. Because as dancers like

1:02:50

it, it does convey movement.

1:02:54

Like when you have that kind of

1:02:54

groundswell of the horns that

1:02:59

starts to build toward that big

1:02:59

finale, it makes you want to

1:03:03

move with it, which I think is

1:03:03

something I find really valuable

1:03:06

in music. Music that invokes a

1:03:06

physical movement.

1:03:09

Yeah. And if you can't move, you can feel like your stomach moving for you. ,

1:03:13

Yeah, yeah. Okay,

1:03:13

you were talking about your

1:03:18

movie soundtrack. This just hit

1:03:18

me. This Firebird, is,

1:03:24

especially the part we're gonna

1:03:24

listen to. This is like day

1:03:26

three on the island. It's been

1:03:26

raining, you haven't eaten yet

1:03:29

you haven't found freshwater.

1:03:29

And you're like, just ready to

1:03:33

give up and just walk into the

1:03:33

ocean. And then you're like,

1:03:38

hitting these rocks together and

1:03:38

you're pissed and just don't

1:03:41

know what to do anymore. And you're crying and you're screaming, and then you start a

1:03:43

fire. And that spark is the

1:03:48

French horn as it comes in. And

1:03:48

then it grows. And as this fire

1:03:53

grows, the orchestra swells and

1:03:53

then you have this glorious sign

1:03:58

of life on on your dead island

1:03:58

of this glorious fire that can

1:04:03

sustain you and that's what this

1:04:03

orchestra is.

1:09:20

It's just amazing Stravinsky

1:09:20

is... mmm... maybe the greatest

1:09:28

musical mind of the species.

1:09:32

Are you sure about that?

1:09:34

No!

1:09:35

Who would be

1:09:35

contender? Who if it was gonna

1:09:37

be like the Battle of the

1:09:37

musically minded of the species?

1:09:42

Who are his contenders?

1:09:43

[sighs] I mean,

1:09:43

Beethoven is obviously the

1:09:48

favorite here in terms of my

1:09:48

greatest musical minds of all

1:09:51

time. This is a real tangent on the show,

1:09:53

but Beethoven isn't

1:09:53

on your list?

1:09:56

No, but he wrote a

1:09:56

beautiful vocal piece called

1:09:59

Adalaide, which could have made

1:09:59

the list. I mean, Beethoven

1:10:03

Mozart are up there Stravinsky,

1:10:03

I think, it's you... can't

1:10:06

compare them because one can't

1:10:06

exist without the other. It's

1:10:10

like saying is Shorty George or

1:10:10

Frankie Manning better, it's

1:10:12

like well, without Shorty George

1:10:12

you can't have Frankie Manning.

1:10:17

So, so certainly, like, of his

1:10:17

time, Stravinsky is I think the

1:10:24

most important and the smartest

1:10:24

and the best, there'd be a close

1:10:30

second for Debussy in that

1:10:30

range. And also, I think, next

1:10:35

on the list or two next on the

1:10:35

list is Gabriel Faur And he's

1:10:39

not nearly as prolific or as

1:10:39

brilliant, but what he did he

1:10:43

did really well,

1:10:44

I had never heard

1:10:44

of him. Who Who is he? Why, why

1:10:47

did he deserve to come on the

1:10:47

list and not Beethoven?

1:10:50

Gabriel Faur is a

1:10:50

turn of the century 1800s

1:10:54

becoming 1900s composer, he was

1:10:54

friends with Maurice Ravel. I

1:10:58

mentioned earlier Debussy,

1:10:58

there's some other French

1:11:00

composers and they were all kind

1:11:00

of playing with this idea of

1:11:04

what harmony meant? And like

1:11:04

really expanding the the realm

1:11:09

of harmony beyond just like a

1:11:09

three note chord, or a four note

1:11:13

chord, and kind of putting notes

1:11:13

and chords together that

1:11:16

shouldn't work. But really do.

1:11:16

Debussy on the other side of

1:11:20

things that, like, in their kind

1:11:20

of French friend camp was like,

1:11:24

'yeah, form that's not a thing

1:11:24

anymore. Just doesn't exist.

1:11:27

There's not a beginning and a

1:11:27

middle and an end. It just goes'

1:11:31

but I mean, like they were

1:11:31

working in kind of like what we

1:11:33

would consider like an AABA

1:11:33

structure forever. And then and

1:11:37

you know, there's other forms

1:11:37

and then Debussy was just like,

1:11:40

Nah, no thanks. And so like

1:11:40

Faur kind of falls into this

1:11:43

realm. And again, this is this

1:11:43

is really religious music. This

1:11:47

is a requiem. I need to preface

1:11:47

a little bit why I picked this

1:11:51

one.

1:11:51

What is a requiem?

1:11:53

Ah, okay, so a

1:11:53

requiem is a mass for the dead.

1:11:57

So when someone important in the

1:11:57

Catholic Church dies, you'll

1:12:02

have a requiem mass. So it's all

1:12:02

taken from the original text of

1:12:10

the, the, like Roman Catholic,

1:12:10

what they would say, and they

1:12:14

would set it to music. So it

1:12:14

would just be kind of like a big

1:12:17

concert, I guess? I'm not

1:12:17

Catholic, I've never actually

1:12:19

been to one. It's.... Think of

1:12:19

it like, a requiem was like an

1:12:23

album. Basically, it's seven

1:12:23

songs that are meant to be

1:12:27

listened to in this order. You

1:12:27

perform it all together, you

1:12:30

could do just one piece, but

1:12:30

it's super weird,

1:12:33

which of the seven,

1:12:33

are we about to listen to?

1:12:36

So we're in number

1:12:36

four, Agnus Deis, or basically

1:12:39

'strong God'. But the reason

1:12:39

it's important is for a part

1:12:42

again, in the middle, the first

1:12:42

two minutes are fine and lovely.

1:12:46

The the very first movement,

1:12:46

which we're not going to listen

1:12:48

to starts with just this one

1:12:48

giant organ hit, [sings]

1:12:53

'BAHHHM', again, one single

1:12:53

note. And then the chorus comes

1:12:56

in [sing]s 'Requiem aeternam,

1:12:56

dona..' and it's kind of like

1:12:59

this, like monk chant kind of

1:12:59

thing. And that's the intro. So

1:13:03

that's the text from the intro.

1:13:03

That's what you open the prayer

1:13:06

with. And then Faur does this,

1:13:06

like two minutes of this kind of

1:13:11

like fugue-y thing at the

1:13:11

beginning where the little

1:13:13

voices are a layering. And then

1:13:13

he goes to this like, again,

1:13:17

swimming in sound, kind of

1:13:17

swirling mess that disintegrates

1:13:23

into nothing. And you're like,

1:13:23

'What the hell was that?', and

1:13:26

then out of nowhere, you're

1:13:26

like, 20 minutes into the piece

1:13:29

now, and you get this big organ

1:13:29

hit again. [sing] 'BAHHM!' And

1:13:33

then the choir comes back in

1:13:33

real quiet, and you're like,

1:13:37

we've gone back to the

1:13:37

beginning? What's happened? This

1:13:39

is wild, and it just blends so

1:13:39

nicely, but that callback, and

1:13:43

that silence and that drama.

1:13:43

This is what I was talking about

1:13:46

with like the Catholic Church,

1:13:46

like the Requiem is dramatic.

1:13:49

There's like fire and brimstone

1:13:49

and God and angels and like

1:13:52

store, it's wild. So this is

1:13:52

this is epic music. This middle

1:13:57

section, you'll hear it when it

1:13:57

starts to kind of like all swirl

1:14:00

together and then goes to one

1:14:00

note is really the moment the

1:14:05

piece de resistance if you will

1:20:00

Jon, I can't believe it, we're at the last song already

1:20:04

Noooooo. But it's a

1:20:04

good place to be though.

1:20:07

Where are you on the island? Talk me through your vision.

1:20:09

So the DJ rules at

1:20:09

Herrang are if you're the

1:20:13

closing DJ, you go until you

1:20:13

feel like it's done. That can be

1:20:17

any number of people, it could

1:20:17

be five people, it could be no

1:20:21

people you could sit in a room

1:20:21

and DJ and, but I started this

1:20:24

habit about three years ago.

1:20:24

Anytime I closed a room and it

1:20:30

was the last song of the night,

1:20:30

as I was always playing this

1:20:32

song, it's a very meditative

1:20:32

song. It's a very [pauses to

1:20:36

inhale] it makes you take a deep

1:20:36

breath and kind of let the air

1:20:41

and the blood fill your body

1:20:41

again after not. It's, it's

1:20:46

fantastic. And it's very simple.

1:20:46

It's very simple and it's again

1:20:50

a song you can listen to on

1:20:50

repeat and you don't know when

1:20:53

it starts and when it ends. And

1:20:53

also bonus shout out to this

1:20:57

moment, when notes are

1:20:57

constantly playing to Ed

1:21:01

Thigpen's subtle drum roll

1:21:01

behind it, that fills out and

1:21:06

then just, whoomph disappears

1:21:06

like nothing.

1:26:42

This this is celebration music

1:26:42

and it's it's beautiful, solemn

1:26:48

celebration if you will.

1:26:50

There we go that's your ten!

1:26:53

Oh god, there's so many more I wanted.

1:26:56

I know,

1:26:57

I'm, I'm happy with the final 10

1:26:59

this was so much fun.

1:27:01

This was really fun.

1:27:01

I was really excited for this.

1:27:03

This is a fun format.

1:27:12

And that's our episode. Thank you so much for listening. I had a great time

1:27:14

and if you also had a great time

1:27:17

then I encourage you to

1:27:17

subscribe and leave a review

1:27:21

those kind of things are really

1:27:21

handy to little podcasters like

1:27:24

myself, you can hear Jon playing

1:27:24

on Gretchen Midgley and the

1:27:27

Sidecar Six. If you want to find

1:27:27

Jon on social media, you can

1:27:31

find him @JonTigert on every

1:27:31

platform, that's JON TIGERT, you

1:27:38

will notice that there is no

1:27:38

midpoint advert break in this

1:27:41

podcast. So if you'd like to

1:27:41

continue for that to be a thing,

1:27:45

then please go to patreon.com

1:27:45

forward slash desert island

1:27:50

jams. You can find us on

1:27:50

Instagram. Guess what the

1:27:53

username is? Yes, correct. It's

1:27:53

Desert Island Jams. Desert

1:27:56

Island jams is produced by me,

1:27:56

Sarah Spoon. The music license

1:28:00

is kindly sponsored by

1:28:00

voicesculptor.com Sarah Azmy

1:28:05

also known as @sazmy_design on

1:28:05

Instagram is the magician who

1:28:10

whipped up the graphics.

1:28:10

Jonathan Stout produced original

1:28:14

music for our soundtrack, please

1:28:14

go to Bandcamp and buy all of

1:28:17

his things immediately. If you

1:28:17

would like a transcript for this

1:28:20

episode. FYI, all of the

1:28:20

episodes have transcript, then

1:28:23

you just need to follow the link

1:28:23

that is in the show notes.

1:28:26

Again, thank you for listening,

1:28:26

and Desert Island Jams wil

1:28:29

return next month