Foreword by the Saker: Today I am not posting an analysis, but a recollection of an episode of my past. I hope that you, dear readers, will not mind. If you do, let me know and this will be the last one. Anyway, this is how one night I met a quite remarkable officer who later became a good friend. I first met Igor Morozov in 1991, in Moscow. I
Dear friends As you know I love Argentina which I really consider my second motherland (the only truly happy years of my youth were spent there). And today, by chance, while looking for something else, I came across three absolutely beautiful videos on YouTube which I now want to share with you. Three *completely* different musical styles, yet each one superb, and lyrical in a way so specific of the
Last month I published a short post I entitled “What I like to listen to when I miss my beloved Argentina?” featuring a beautiful Argentinian zamba interpreted by Pedro Aznar and Abel Pintos. Today I want to make something very similar and share with you the kind of music I listen to when I miss my (also beloved) Brazil: the song “Jack Soul Brazileiro” in two version: one by Lenine,
Jazz music is often famous for featuring amazing improvisations and that is absolutely fair: Jazz did re-vitalize the art of improvisation which almost disappeared with the end of the Baroque period. Good Jazz, however, is not only, or even primarily, about improvisation, but it is about melody. For one thing, the melody is often the point of departure for improvisations but, even more importantly, a good, solid and lyrical melody
We are living in scary times. And I won’t pretend I don’t feel despair – I do. But since we can’t control our future, and since our days are counted, sharing what we hold as beautiful and gives us joy is probably one of the few things which we can do which really makes sense. For me there are many such sources of joy, especially music. I love music, and
One of his most beautiful songs, and since I am currently working on a version for 2 guitars (and enjoying every second of it), I wanted to also share this with you. The Saker Original French language version: Alternative Italian language version: Thanks to this website: http://guitarejazzmanouche.com/grilles/perso/view/3019/ I found the chords: though I personally prefer to harmonize it as so: Bm7, %, Bbm6(#5), %, Am6, B7, E/Ab, %, Em/G, C#dim7,
This is good version of the song, but the video is mediocre, so you might want to listen with eyes closed or simply look away. The translation of the lyrics is my own, you can easily find much better ones elsewhere on the Internet. Enjoy! Song about the clairvoyant Cassandra For many years and even though she was besieged Troy had remained impregnable to the assailants, And if the Trojans
Two of the most beautiful voices in Brazil Lyrics and my own, very imperfect, and free translation: Nada consigo fazer Quando a saudade aperta Foge-me a inspiração Sinto a alma deserta Um vazio se faz em meu peito E de fato eu sinto Em meu peito um vazio Me faltando as tuas carícias As noites são longas E eu sinto mais frio Procuro afogar no álcool A tua lembrança Mas
This was just sent to me by a friend. I nearly died laughing when I listened to this. This E. Michael Jones guy is fantastic – love this song! I hope that it will brighten your day as it did mine. Enjoy! The Saker
One of my favorite jazz compositions ever, Blue in Green, by my favorite jazz composer, Bill Evans (Miles Davis played it on the album “Kind of Blue”, but he did not compose Blue in Green, Evans did). I consider Evans to be the greatest pianist of the 20th century (along with Alexander Scriabin). I am studying this piece right now, and I just felt like sharing it with you :-)
To thesaker.is readers: I have posed here a wrong video . The captions for the video: “On November 29th, in Kharkov women’s choir performed one of the most beautiful patriotic Russian songs “Only My Horse and I” [Только мы с конем]” Should read: “Song “Horse” being performed by Lyube and in Krasnodar in 2015. ” An Anonymous sent me a message via Moderators. Quoting: “”in reference to your post about
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[Scott] This post is a ‘thank you, guys’ note from the Saker and thesaker.is editorial team dedicated to the Russian military intelligence officers. They celebrate their professional holiday on November 5th. This song is written and performed by a military intelligence officer, now retired, and it’s dedicated to a Colonel Breslavsky Sergey Vladimirovich, a legendary military intelligence colonel who served as a commander of the 22nd Detached Spetsnaz reconnaissance
How delightful are evenings in Russia This collection was made for us by the Russian translator of my book. This year we marked, somewhat quietly, the 20th anniversary of the second (unofficial) anthem of Russia. Composed in 1996 by Alexander Dobronravov in New York City (of all places!) where he was on a long business trip recording music, this song elicits a lot of purely Russian sentimentalism, but the song
Since we are nearing the end of the year, I wanted to share with you the music of a very talented jazz group from Philadelphia, PA: Nation of Five. This is good music, filled with joy and creative vitality. Enjoy! The Saker
The (real) Europe I love so much and miss:
Dear friends, Yesterday I had to go for a long night drive and since one of you (салам БП!) was kind enough to send me some music, I discovered “DJ Russak ft. Kasach” and what I think is the title of either a recording or their group – “Heimweh” (homesickness) I had no idea was this was, but 30 seconds into the first song I was already laughing and by
Yesterday my friend AK emailed me a few YouTube links to songs by a guy calling himself “Neuromonk Theophan” (Нейромонах Феофан). I listened to it and, wow, this is truly some crazy music! Imagine a combination of old Russian medieval-style songs with what they call “drum and bass” and then add some balalaika and rural-style vocals to it. Sounds crazy? It is. Now, I will be honest, I personally am
