legends – The Life and Times of Ben Weinberg

mickjagger — 72 years old and still going. Amazing.

For more than 50 years, The Rolling Stones have been the mainstays and stewards of the Rock n’ Roll universe. Founded in 1962, this English band transformed the music world, sold hundreds of millions copies of their albums, and have sold out countless arenas, stadiums, and concert halls. The original grouping of Mick Jagger (vocals), Keith Richards (guitar), Brian Jones (guitar), Bill Wyman (bass), Charlie Watts (drums), and Ian Stewart (piano) together help lead the emergence of Rock n’ Roll as the pre-eminent form of Western music during the 1960’s and 1970’s. Legendary and famous albums such as Let It Bleed (1969), Sticky Fingers (1971), and Exile on Main Street (1972) helped cement their legacy as ranking among the greatest live acts in Rock n’ Roll history.

When people ask me: Beatles or Stones? I simply reply, why do we have to choose between them? Why not appreciate both of these groups and appreciate how similar and how different they are. Both bands helped to represent the countercultural movement that took place in the 1960’s in both the United Kingdom and the United States. They represented the youth of the generation and the hopes for a better, freer, and more open world where you could listen, dance, and have some fun as you listen to their tunes.

While The Beatles aired on the side of creativity, experimenting with new genres, and sticking to the studio to express their musical talents, The Rolling Stones were and still are brash, bold, and loud. As a group, the blues and R&B genres heavily influenced them during their early years. Taking their cues from legends such as Chuck Berry, Lil’ Richard, and Buddy Holly, the Rolling Stones would not become the massive success they have been over the pasty fifty years without those blues pioneers who came before them.

Due to front man Mick Jagger’s exuberance, high energy, and eccentric dance moves, the Rolling Stones also gained a reputation for being an amazing live act that sold out stadiums and arenas around the world. It also helps that long-standing guitar legend Keith Richards has stayed by Jagger’s side all this time to play alongside him and the rest of the band.

With the talented support and musical stylings of the late, great Brian Jones, and Charlie Watts, the Rolling Stones have stuck together through many ups and downs over their long history. While many rock acts from The Beatles to The Eagles to The Doors have broken up due to untimely deaths, heated feuds between members, and egos clashing, The Rolling Stones have been an exception to the rule and have produced high-quality music and toured extensively without losing who they are and what they represent to the world.

While The Rolling Stones have gained all the money and fame, they still care about the fans. This band always gives their best effort regardless if they are playing in Rio de Janeiro or London. It’s a testament to their popularity where they have been able to play in all six continents of the world without skipping a beat. Their global reach was on display recently when they played a huge outdoor concert in their first trip to Havana, Cuba.

Over 500,000 people attended to see the Stones live in the flesh. Perhaps, most notable, the concert was free for all attendees so everyone could attend who wanted to without paying a high price. During the Castro years, bands like The Rolling Stones had their music bootlegged and spread throughout the Cuban isle even when the Castro government officially outlawed it. Mick Jagger declared the occasion to be “A new time” for Cuba signaling that the free expression of live music was going to continue and expand.

Whenever I listen to The Rolling Stones, their songs always lift my spirits up and instantly put me in a good mood. Tunes like “Jumping Jack Flash”, “Wild Horses”, “Start Me Up”, “Brown Sugar”, and “Satisfaction” will never go out of style and hopefully inspire future generations to pick up the guitar and sing into the microphone. Whenever I hear one of their songs, I still get the urge to dance and sing along.

Even though this is a retrospective post for a musical group that is still active and going strong, I think after fifty years of being legends of Rock n’ Roll, it is a good occasion to reflect on their wide-ranging impact on the world. To this day, I regret to inform my readers that I still have to yet to see The Rolling Stones live in concert. My hope is to make it happen before the band calls it quits for good. Given that Mick, Keith, Charlie, and Ronnie show no signs of slowing down even though they’re septuagenarians, I keep my hopes up that I’ll be rocking out to them in a live setting soon enough. Until then, let us all hope that they make it to their 60^th anniversary as a band in 2022.

'Jazz Legend' Duke Ellington: Playing the Piano (Circa -1940's) — ‘Jazz Legend’ Duke Ellington: Playing the Piano (Circa -1940’s)

Edward Kennedy Ellington is rightly considered to be one of the leading figures and original titans of Jazz music. In addition to writing over 1,500 compositions, he was one of the most successful bandleaders and pianists of his time. To this day, he has stood the test of time and is one of the most influential musicians of the 20^th century as well. Along with being a major figure in Jazz, Ellington’s music also delved into other musical genres such as blues, gospel, classical music and popular film scores.

His career was one of the longest of all the Jazz legends, spanning about 50 years from the 1920s to the 1970s. He was a versatile musician and was extremely dedicated to this work. In addition to running his big band and orchestra, Ellington composed new songs, put on many world tours and also scored the music for stage musicals and films. Many of his instrumental works have become Jazz standards that the average listener should be well aware of and familiar with many of Ellington’s compositions.

His ability to be an entertainer as well as a performer helped elevate Jazz to a level where it was considered to be equal or even more influential than most other genres of music during the early 20^th century. He was the first musician to really incorporate the idea of using a big band and/or orchestra to really propel jazz/swing as being distinct forms of music with their own style and substance. Ellington came from a modest upbringing in a middle class black neighborhood in Washington D.C. and was considered by others to charismatic, compassionate and a brilliant and dedicated musician. He is as well known for his ability to entertain people as he is for his excellent piano playing.

Ellington would often refer to the music he played not as jazz but as “American” or “Negro” music and helped his orchestra’s musicians and others to develop their own jazz standards and compose for them. Some of the names for which he helped out so graciously were for Johnny Hodges’s “Jeep’s Blues”, Cootie Williams’ “Concerto for Cootie” and Juan Tizol’s “Caravan.” Many of his band members stayed with him throughout the five decades for which they were active. In addition to his band members, Ellington also worked alongside other musicians of the time such as Billy Strayhorn, Count Basie, Louie Armstrong, Coleman Hawkins, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. Some of Ellington’s best known songs include, “It Don’t Mean A Thing If It Ain’t Got That Swing”, “Mood Indigo”, “Black and Tan Fantasy”, “Sophisticated Lady” and “Satin Doll” among many others. While which song exactly made the Duke most famous is a hotly debated topic, some argue that it is “Mood Indigo” which thrust him upon the world stage and gave him global fame for the rest of his career. When Ellington was once asked, what made him inspired to write, record and play music, he replied, “My men and my race are the inspiration of my work. I try to catch the character and mood and feeling of my people.”

Location played an important role in influencing Duke Ellington’s musical contributions to society. With each song he wrote and composed, he would try to tell a story about his community, his life and his race. It is no coincidence due to the Duke’s popularity and his wide following throughout America as one of the first prominent black musicians that he was often times referred to as a “race man.” People referred to him as this because of the cultural and social impact that he had as a popular musician representing the African-American community at a time when there were few black performers and entertainers in music. This was particularly due at the time to Jim Crow laws and general intolerance, racism towards the African-American community in many parts of the United States. Duke Ellington in a way broke through the color barrier along with Louis Armstrong because of those who came before them when it came to music in America during the early 1900’s. Ellington was an instrumental musician in bringing Jazz music outside of New Orleans to towns and cities across the country especially in New York City when he hit the big time and made his home starting in 1927, at the famous “Cotton Club” in Harlem. From that and other clubs, his big band/orchestra set the bar high when it came to playing brilliant jazz, swing, classical and other forms of music. Over the course of his career, He made jazz and swing music into American music as he traveled around the world for thousands of performances in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.

There is no doubt to the average learner and student of Jazz that Duke Ellington is one of it’s most important figures in its’ history. He was the genre’s most important composer, one of its’ most highly regarded performers and band leaders who employed many talented black and white musicians believing that everyone should have the chance to play regardless of the color of their skin. Ellington’s compositions are studied and played over and over by many musicians today and his prowess at the piano is often overlooked but was also instrumental in talking about his legacy as a musician. It’s fair to say that there will only ever be one “The Duke” and those who follow his lead. His work is also very important in describing American culture and music. His legacy is still vibrant today as many young people continue to pursue the arts and perform in music groups. They strive to play jazz and other types of music because of men like the Duke himself.