Photo: Jim Gordon | By Katrina McFerran, The Conversation | Why Does Music Make Us Feel Things? Humans have latched onto rhythms and tunes for millennia. Does this have a purpose or is it just “evolutionary cheesecake”? Imagine a scene from the movie Jaws, with the great white shark closing in on another helpless victim. The iconic semi-tone pattern builds and your heartbeat rises with it; the suspense pulls you further to the edge of your seat.
Now picture that scene without the score. Much of the tension evaporates.
Maybe it’s a heartfelt pop ballad or a suspenseful soundtrack. If you are my age, it might be the Friends theme song, forever associated with the (largely unfulfilled) hope for sharing apartments with mates and growing old together in a blissful acceptance of one another’s limitations. Music is a powerful force to induce and pre-empt all kinds of emotions in us.
But how do so many different combinations of rhythm, harmony and melody trigger such profound reactions?
> > > > > > > > >
Read more of this study here:
https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-does-music-make-us-feel-things?
Katrina McFerran is a Professor and Head of Creative Arts and Music Therapy Research Unit and the Director of Researcher Development Unit at The University of Melbourne.
# # # # #
What is a ‘restival’? Gen Z turn to stay-at-home music experiences
By Arielle Domb, Evening Standard
Music festivals have been a staple of UK summers for decades, gracing the nation’s fields and farms with the best musical talent from Britain and beyond.
However, new data from global research company GWI has found that this may change: one in five (19 per cent) Gen Zers are either reducing the number of festivals they attend or avoiding them altogether this year.
Published in GWI’s latest Gen Z trend report, the findings mark a significant shift away from pre-Covid levels of festival interest. In 2019, almost half of Gen Z were interested in going to festivals (46 per cent), a figure that has now fallen to 39 per cent.
The study followed reports that many festivals were cancelled or postponed last year in the UK and worldwide, partly due to low ticket sales.
The shift coincides with a wider decline in interest in live music events in the UK. The report found that less than a third (29 per cent) of Gen Zers actively seek out live music events.
> > > > > > > > > >
Read more on this fascinating study here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/music/news/what-is-a-restival-gen-z-turn-to-stay-at-home-music-experiences/
# # # # #
’70s Hard Rock: Old School Music – Jim Gordon – The Man Rock & Roll Forgot
On March 13, 2023, American drummer Jim Gordon, died in prison at the age of 77. He was one of the most requested session drummers in the late 1960s and 1970s. Gordon co-wrote Layla with Eric Clapton, worked with The Everly Brothers, The Monkees, The Beach Boys, George Harrison, (All Things Must Pass), John Lennon (Imagine), The Carpenters, Traffic, Glen Campbell, (Wichita Lineman), Steely Dan, Jackson Browne, Frank Zappa and many others. A diagnosed schizophrenic, Gordon murdered his mother on June 3, 1983, by pounding her head with a hammer. He was sentenced to sixteen years-to-life in prison in 1984.
Although Jim Gordon does not have the name recognition of a top rock star, from the early ’60s through the dawn of the ’80s, he was there. He’d had beautiful women and jet-setted between London and Los Angeles, he partied like a rock star. Through hundreds of recording sessions that spawned dozens of Top 10 hits, his work as one of the most in-demand session drummers of the era spills through a stunning array of albums.
But unfortunately, this is a sad tale of a brilliant Grammy Award-winning musician who worked with some of the greatest songwriters ever, who played and added his magic to such classics as “Layla”, (he also co-wrote the piano refrain), as well as George Harrison’s three-album set and finest moment, All Things Must Pass.
Jim Gordon was known as a solidly reliable professional session drummer, who could command as much as triple the usual rate paid to session musicians.
He began his career in 1963, at the age of seventeen, backing the hit-making Everly Brothers, and went on to become one of the most sought-after recording session drummers in Los Angeles, (he was the protégé of legendary studio drummer Hal Blaine, who played on over 35 U.S. #1 hits).
John Lennon, George Harrison, The Everly Brothers, Frank Zappa, Leon Russell, Traffic, Gordon Lightfoot, Seals & Crofts, Jackson Browne, Joan Baez, Bread – Gordon laid down the beat for all of them, playing in myriad styles.
At the height of his career, Gordon was reportedly so busy as a studio musician that he would fly back to Los Angeles from Las Vegas every day to do two or three recording sessions, and then return in time to play the evening show at Caesars Palace.
During 1969 and 1970, Gordon toured as part of the backing band for the group Delaney & Bonnie, which at the time included Eric Clapton. Clapton subsequently took over the group’s rhythm section. When out on the road, Gordon became something of a liability, the exposure to vast quantities of drink and drugs brought out an extremely troubling side to his personality: at best ambitious and manipulative, at worst violent.
Gordon’s personality disorder was a major factor in the demise of Derek and the Dominos. More seriously, in 1983, it led to Gordon’s conviction for murder. On June 3, 1983, Gordon drove to the Hollywood home of his 72-year-old mother, Osa, attacked her with a hammer and then fatally stabbed her.
A diagnosed schizophrenic, it was not until his trial in 1984 that he was properly diagnosed. Due to the fact that his attorney was unable to use the insanity defense after a change in California law. Gordon was sentenced to sixteen years-to-life in prison in 1984.
So next time you hear John Lennon’s “Imagine”, Stephen Bishops “On and On”, Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” or Steely Dans‘s “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number”, listen carefully to the beat of one of the greatest drummers of all time.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/356521342704852/
Photo: Jim Gordon