As I hope you've noticed, I try to avoid getting negative on this blog. One of my guiding principles in writing it has been Auden's comment on how criticism should concern itself with opening up an audience to things of which they are unaware, and thus, there shouldn't really be time left over for deriding anything, considering how much good stuff is almost entirely neglected. That being said, there is one era and/or style of music upon the terribleness of which I can't remain silent: the eighties. I'm sorry, but the scars of that horrible time are still in my psyche. On the bright side, I am forever in the debt of the relatively few great bands that kept rock alive during those dark days. The best of that small bunch, for me, were the Replacements, whose career was perhaps best summarized in a blurb written by Nick Hornby, which can be found on the cover of Jim Walsh's highly recommended 2007 book, The Replacements: All Over but the Shouting: "The Replacements were superheroes: They rescued a whole planet from '80s music." Well said.

Another group from that time deserving of recognition is the Style Council, the r&b influenced group fronted by the former leader of the Jam, Paul Weller, that were in operation from 1983-1989. I think of them as a singles band (like most of their ancestors, I suppose), and their releases had a sort of street art quality to them, tied in with particular moments and social scenes. I think my favourite among them is this one, "How She Threw It All Away" from 1988:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG80bEinXNk. By the way, Weller has remained active, and terrific, in the years since. He released his tenth solo album, Wake Up the Nation, in 2010.

I'd be remiss if I were to write about Gene Bertoncini, as I did yesterday, without doing the same about Charlie Byrd, who, as the popularizer of finger-style jazz guitar, was an influence on Bertoncini, and virtually every other jazz guitarist. He was an influence on all of jazz, in fact, because of his work in bringing Brazilian music and the Bossa Nova style into its current mainstream status. Byrd's 1962 collaboration with the saxophone giant, Stan Getz, Jazz Samba, remains a cornerstone in the field, and a must-hear for every jazz fan. Here's a link to the opening track, "Desafinado", which features tremendous solo work, by both Byrd and Getz, that proved that Bossa Nova could provide a framework for a jazz musician's abilities that would be every bit as solid and challenging as those found in standards: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGfiAzPiYG4). This cut was a pop hit at the time, by the way, reaching #15 on the Billboard charts. Those were the days.

One of the great things about going to music school is the number of events, such as concerts and workshops, that one has the opportunity to attend. One such occasion for me was a very memorable workshop with the great American jazz/classical guitarist, Gene Bertoncini. On that day, he captivated the audience with his virtuosity, his humour, and his generosity in sharing his approach and musical concept (I remember several of the top guitarists at school carefully taking notes). And I should clarify the term (jazz/classical) used above: What I mean is that, essentially, Bertoncini is a jazz player, but one who plays it on a classical guitar using classical technique. But a picture's worth a thousand words, and a video some exponent of that, so here's a link to a performance of "The Shadow of Your Smile" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCss_FtMWDQ), and here's another to his website (http://www.genebertoncini.com/). He's got nineteen other videos on his YouTube channel, many of which contain insights on his work that would be helpful to listeners, and other guitarists, of course.

In case there are, among the readers of this blog, people that have not heard Sly Stone's version of "Que Sera", le voila: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQZNkzP4kYw&feature=related. There's a lot to be enjoyed with this one, and a lot to be learned too. The first thing that strikes me is the phrasing, both by Sly and his sister Rose. For example, it's interesting how the held notes of a multi-syllabic word are always on the last syllable ("When I was just a little..."), and never is the meaning of the words contradicted for a musical effect (Stephen Sondheim would approve). Rose's tone, in both the musical and linguistic senses of the word, is impeccable, and Sly's free-form harmonizing on the choruses is another highlight worth many listens. It's everything a cover tune should be. There may be some as good, but there aren't any better.

By the way, Sly is apparently at work in the studio, which is brilliant news. More info and links to hear some recent work can be found here: http://www.slystonebook.com/.

I've been listening to a fair bit of Stravinsky recently, ever since my post on Monday regarding the Bad Plus and their Rite of Spring project, and in particular the three great early ballets (The Firebird, Petrushka, and The Rite of Spring - which were all, amazingly, composed between 1910 and 1913). The theory has been put forward several times that often a composer's most compelling music is written for the ballet. Obviously, dance itself (and the rhythms it requires) become the inspirational agent, and that certainly seems the case with this music, which is, to some listeners (including this one), the high point of Stravinsky's career. These scores, beautiful, strange and powerful throughout, are as important culturally as they are musically. They are among the defining accomplishments of modernism, as important as Picasso, and, inspired and inspiring, they retain all of their expressive power to this day. Here's a clip of the opening of Petrushka: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbWDG3LU4bc.

As I expected it would be, Jeff Tweedy's solo show at the Olympia Theatre (in Montreal) was brilliant, full to the brim of music, poetry, humour and (an under-appreciated aspect of Tweedy's art) innovative guitar-playing. Some personal highlights: "Theologians" during the first encore; "One Wing", which might be my favourite Wilco song; "Kamera", a standout on an album filled with them, their 2002 masterpiece, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. I can't remember if it was said before or after his playing "Country Disappeared", but he mentioned that a video of the song had been shot in the same theatre during Wilco's last Montreal visit, in February of 2010, so I looked it up and enjoyed it very much - so here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkK4fjUlmVs. Go see this group, or Tweedy solo, if you possibly can, and listen to their records, too. They are a band that can hold the field with any other that could be named. Don't miss out.

Off to see Jeff Tweedy tonight, which should be highly entertaining. I've seen Wilco a few times now and they always surpass expectations. They're a bit like Don Mattingly, the great Yankee first baseman, in that regard (When Yogi Berra was asked if Mattingly had surpassed expectations with a particularly great season, he said, "I'd say he's done more than that"). Baseball and humour are themes that both Wilco and Tweedy have frequently explored. Wilco's summer tours have often used minor league ball parks for venues, for example - I saw them in August of 2009 at Dutchess Stadium in Wappingers Falls, New York - and Jeff Tweedy is a very funny person. He could have been a stand-up comic, probably, but I'm glad he devoted himself to music. Here's a clip that I hadn't seen before, which shows his sense of humour and his musicianship, a cover of Bob Dylan's "Simple Twist of Fate": (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRuU_IkGUyo&feature=related). And go see Tweedy (and/or Wilco) in person if you can.