Off-topic: Music

[River Phoenix]

Some of my favorites:

Jazz: Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, Lee Morgan
Rock: The Rolling Stones, The Doors, The Red Hot Chili Peppers
Vocal: Bobby Darin, Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong


I love a lot of songs from that era, but I didn't live through it.
What kinds of music do other Jack Benny fans like to listen to?

[LLeff]

What kinds of music do other Jack Benny fans like to listen to?

My favorite vocalist is Al Jolson. I listen to a very wide range of music, from Billy Murray to Bix Beiderbecke to Big Band to Be Bop to the Beatles to Annie Lennox (fooled you on that last one). I have a classical station on my car radio right now. Jazz is probably my favored genre, partially because it's so vast and can encompass such widely-varying things as the Original Dixieland Jass Band, Duke Ellington (1920s-1970s), George Gershwin, John Coltrane, and Oscar Pettiford. All depends on the mood and what's available.

[Maxwell]

Wow! Good topic!

By far my favorite form of music is jazz. I was bitten by that bug as a kid. I'm kind of like Laura in my tastes too. I listen a lot of early jazz (ODJB, Armstrong, Beiderbecke, Fletcher Henderson, Jelly Roll Morton, Duke Ellington, etc.), big band (Goodman, Shaw, Lunceford, Basie, etc., even Glenn Miller), bebop (mostly Bird and Diz), and later (Gerry Mulligan, Sonny Rollins, early/middle period Trane, Gene Harris, Stan Getz, etc.). I'm pretty fond of several jazz/jazz-oriented singers (Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Joe Williams, Jimmy Rushing, Susannah McCorkle, Kevin Mahogany, etc.)

I also love the pop music from the 'teens into maybe the '50s and '60s (Berlin, Gershwin, Kern, Arlen, etc.) and singers of that style and era (Crosby, Sinatra, Dean Martin, Tony Bennet, Nat Cole, etc.).

But then again I like early rock 'n' roll and doo-wop. I can't get enough Dion DiMucci! I'm also quite fond of the rock from the late '60s/early '70s, the time I was in high school and college (Beatles, Stones, Cream, etc.)

I took piano lessons as a kid, so I like classical, and I used to listen to the Texaco Metropolitan Opera broadcasts back then.

And I'd better not forget Motown.....

Oh, and Broadway musicals (Rogers & Hart or Hammerstein, etc.).

And I've had a crush on the late Helen Forrest for probably 40 years. I melt when I hear her sing "I Don't Want to Walk Without You." You had to start this! Now it's past my bedtime!

But before I go did I mention Patsy Cline, Roy Rogers, and Gene Autry?

[bboswell]

Currently topping my favorite list are:

James Taylor
J.S. Bach
The Swingle Singers
They Might Be Giants
Carmen Miranda
Jack Johnson
Yousef Lateef
Herbie Mann


If I may be permitted... I love to turn people on to new music... er, in this case old music... If you haven't heard the Bell Sisters in your old radio show listening, check out this song here:

http://www.bellsisters.com/audio/boo-hoo-rca.mp3

Also, if you like your jazz vocals silky-smooth, check out Rebecca Kilgore

http://www.rebeccakilgore.com/

I'm sure I'm forgetting many favorites, but oh well!

[Brad from Georgia]

Crosby and Sinatra, occasionally.

Usually I have NPR on in my office and listen to classical music.

And even at my advanced age, I recently acquired a harmonica and have taught myself two tunes, "Red River Valley" and "Amazing Grace." Next I plan to attempt "Love in Bloom."

[River Phoenix]

Cool, which leads to the other obvious question: What instruments do you play? Violin, anybody?

I play the bass (string and guitar) and the piano (pretty much I only play The Entertainer and Maple Leaf Rag).

[LLeff]

Cool, which leads to the other obvious question: What instruments do you play? Violin, anybody?

I play the organ: electric, pump, and pipe (not mouth...that was Larry Adler's bit).

[Maxwell]

Cool, which leads to the other obvious question: What instruments do you play? Violin, anybody?

I play the organ: electric, pump, and pipe (not mouth...that was Larry Adler's bit).

I used to play the piano, but strictly reading the spots on the page. That kind of fell apart when I got bifocals. The distance between the music and my eyes on my piano exactly corresponds to the distance where neither set of lenses works.

[Clyde]

My musical tastes are many....first of all, being a Floridian, I must pay homage to Jimmy Buffett ("One Particular Harbor", "He Went to Paris", "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes", "Pencil Thin Moustache", "I Have Found Me a Home", "They Don't Dance Like Carmen No More", "Who's the Blonde Stranger?", "Trip Around the Sun", "Boats to Build", on and on the list goes.) Other favorites are Frank Sinatra, Perry Como, Nat "King" Cole, Natalie Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, almost any and all big-band, Tito Puente, Desi Arnaz ("The Mambo King"....great, great stuff)....Eric Clapton.....even Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Keith Urban, Brooks and Dunn.....and here's some from way out there...."Strunz and Farah", "Acoustic Alchemy", "The YellowJackets"....and further out....Vladimir Horowitz. Two friends of ours do an act called "When Buffett Meets Sinatra" and it works!! Great stuff.
Yes, quite a long and varied list...but that's what I like!!!

[bboswell]

first of all, being a Floridian, I must pay homage to Jimmy Buffett

To take this a little further off-topic... In my profession I have had the privilege to work with several musicians on stage. A few years ago I worked with Jimmy Buffett and his stage crew. They always put on a colorful show. At the end when everything had to go back on the trucks, one gentleman asked me if I could get the "Anna cart" (I thought that's what he had said) and move it into the truck. Not knowing what an "Anna cart" was (and too proud to ask,) I started looking around for what might be called an "Anna cart." After a minute or two, the guy said, "I'll get it" said went off. The next thing I knew, he whizzed by me driving a giant morotized fiberglass BANANA! (ohhh, banana cart!) So, I could have had the privilege of driving Jimmy Buffett's "banana cart," but for my pride!

Back to the second half of the question... I play trumpet, bass, and keyboard, and MIDI is my second language. I also play the "audio mixing board!"

[Roman]

James Brown
Luther Vandross
Teddy Pendergrass
Ray Charles

[LLeff]

James Brown
Luther Vandross
Teddy Pendergrass
Ray Charles

Who sez Jack Benny fans ain't got no fonk?