This joke may have gone the way of "groovy"and other artifacts of my generation, but I meant "fruitcake" as in an undigestible Christmas gift that you really wish you didn't get. Well, in case you're a true blue musical masochist, or happen to be one of the ones who knew me when and want a glimpse of my current state of degeneration, then you'd better pour yourself a stiff one and click on.
One of my students, Saki Yoshida (in the video, she's the girl wearing the tie), has her own blog, which you should check out here. Now that's a dedicated language student, who blogs in the language she's studying! She also captured, for better or worse, a few choice moments of our Christmas party, my school's last one.
In one of the rare guitar-trombone duos (J.J. Johnson and Joe Pass the only other one that comes to mind), my co-culprit Mark and I torture the kids with our rendition of Pops' 'Zat You, Santa Claus? Then Saki and Yukari Koshiba rescue the day with When Christmas Comes to Town (from Polar Express) and Santa Baby. Go here for the vids. I must say, the poor visual and sound qualities (I think they filmed these on a cell phone!) do wonders for my looks and playing/singing abilities, although they detract from the wonderful female vocals and trombone!
Mark and I also did something I'd patched together, a gypsy swing thing I called "Django Bells," (a minor key Jingle Bells based on Minor Swing) and I felt pretty damned proud of myself for coming up with the name. Should have known that it was too obvious not to have been done before, and sure enough, a Nashville gypsy-swing band called The Gypsy Hombres not only had a song by the name, but had used it as the title of their Christmas album five years ago! You can listen to a bit of it here...although I have to say, in all humility, I like my version of Django Bells (since retitled to "Djangle Bells") better...although the Hombres' musicianship leaves me in the gypsy wagon dust.
Tanuki!
I really appreciate your performances and ideas. Your Django Bells is much better than the clip you gave. Keep writing this stuff and you will have a great book to perform.! Trombone Mark!
Posted by: Marin | December 22, 2006 at 02:32 PM
Holy Time Warp, Batman. Christmas party at Japanese school circa 1980: the future Tanuki, front and center, strapped to a coffee table-sized Ibanez, raised arm imploring a small audience of friends and patrons in mock pop star fashion, self-contented microsmile indicating staisfaction with the proceedings and...some prettty good playing.
19 sniggering comments on a blog entry that refurbishes and links to a mentor blog entry - that wears me down a little. But trafficking in ethereal images that demolish our Cold War notions of time and distance - cliched as it's so quickly become - to me, that's the terriifying beauty of the digital revolution.
Billie Holidays to you!
Posted by: rachjak | December 23, 2006 at 12:59 AM
Would love to have seen Tanuki circa 1980. What was his hair like?
If we could go back in time, bring back those great moments to the present and share them with new friends in new situations wouldn't that be great? Music is one way we can always bring back the past and share it with it others. That is why I play and that is why Tanuki should ALWAYS keep playing!
Have a Swingin' Christmas!
Posted by: Marin | December 23, 2006 at 08:15 AM
I think he should record another CD with kb.kb
Posted by: kb | December 25, 2006 at 04:53 PM