Monday YouTube Fix: Tom Waits

Style. Tom Waits simply oozes style out of every pour.  I don't know a single musician with more style than him.  Style is of course a difficult thing to qualify let alone quantify.  But he has it in spades.   In fact, he has so much that he is a very polarizing artist.   I think he's a genius and should thank Rex Martin for introducing me to his music back in the mid-90s.

As a side note, there is only one country in the world where I have heard Tom Waits being playing in a convenience store: +1 for Japan.

This is a live performance from the BBC program The Grey Whistle Test in 1977.

Enjoy!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrkThaBWa5c&feature=youtube_gdata_player]

Style Over Technical Facility

Kenny G is an amazing saxophone player and I say that with no sarcasm whatsoever. As a saxophone operator he is very accomplished.

But for my taste, he doesn’t push any stylistic boundaries and in terms of interpretation "plays it safe" on just about everything.

At the opposite end of that spectrum for me is singer/songwriter Tom Waits.

Every time I hear his music (even at midnight in a Tokyo 7-11 once!) he makes me think about what I'm bringing to the table musically. He gets me away from thinking about lip trills and towards thinking about storytelling.

It is no surprise that Rex Martin introduced me to the music of Tom Waits since there are few better storytellers on any instrument in the brass world.

If you primarily listen to people on your instrument with great technical facility but who don't push the boundaries of style and interpretation your musical output will reflect that.

(This post was inspired by listening to the Tom Waits album Swordfishtrombones on headphones at 30,000 feet.)