Operation 365 2... Blog 57

Operation 365 2 - Jefferson Jay - Words – 57 “Colorado Trail”

This is how we do it, baby. You get the book. You turn to the page. You play the piano and you sing in three languages. I played “Colorado Trail,” which I’ve never heard before. I added that in as a bonus. Could have used it as a cover another day, I suppose, but I’m feeling frisky. What can I tell ya?

I was going to name this t6rack, “Music Teacher Style” as a shout out to my man Psy and the Gangam Style-tune, but I thought that would be disrespectful to Colorado Trail.”

There a couple states I might consider disrespecting, if faced with no alternative. Colorado is not one of them. Now I got to look up who wrote this hit.

“collected and published in 1927 by Carl Sandburg in his American Songbag.” Thanks ‘Peed. That’s my pet name for Wikipedia. Songbag. I love that. Songbag. I may try that out as a musician insult… or Open Mic banter. “Our next songbag…!”

More from the ‘Peed. “Sandburg says that he learned the song from Dr. T. L. Chapman, of Duluth, Minnesota, who heard it from a badly injured cowboy being treated in his hospital. The cowboy sang it, and many others, to an audience of patients in his ward.[2]”

OK, ‘Peed. Whatever you say, Dr. T.L. Chapman wrote it. Fine.

Operation 365 2 - Jefferson Jay - Covers – 57 “Tzena, Tzena” by Issachar Miron and Jehiel Hagges

OK. So here’s another I busted out of the songbook. It is so hack, it may be classic, or it may just be hack. No matter. “Tzena, Tzena” is written in three languages, Hebrew, Arabic and English. Two of those languages I don’t know and one, Arabic, I’ve never even tried to speak before. So, I apologize in advance for the butchering of all these words in all these languages.

Quite the opposite of butchering though is the multi-cultural ideal this song represents.  Apparently the Smothers Brothers did a humorous version in the 60s. Maybe this is humorous. Who knows? Sure is an awful lot of subjectivity when it comes to that sort of thing.

Congratulations (seems as fitting a place as any to say so) to Jesse Egan, a colleague of mine at Winston’s who earned the gig as host of the talk show Tonight in San Diego. I auditioned. You may recall a few weeks back. Even in my audition, I told them the best thing about the show (they asked) was Jesse’s monologue when he hosted and I think he’ll do an excellent job. I guarantee he will improve that show immensely. Check it out at www.tonightsandiego.com if you’re so inclined. New episodes begin April 11, or so I read.

Anyway, back on task. I never heard “Tzena, Tzena” in my life and I hacked my way through it in the name of trying new things, overcoming adversity, expanding myself culturally, and all that jazz. I grabbed the book and I tried to play it. The rest is, well, simple, the rest. Tzena, Tzena!

Operation 365 2 - Jefferson Jay - Originals – 57 “Pizza” by Jefferson Jay

Who’s to say what makes a great song? Nobody? Everybody? Essentially. It is all a matter of opinion and personal preference. It is nice that way. There is no right or wrong with a song any more than there is with a sunset. They are both colorful, natural and unique. That is what makes them.

Yesterday, I discovered that a tune I’d had in my head for months was called “Walk, Don’t Run” by The Ventures. Big thanks to Tom Pearl for the wisdom there. Then I checked out a million other Ventures tunes. Oh my God! They are awesome. Blown mind big time. “Sleep Walk.” They did “Wipe Out,” “Hawaii Five-O.” Amazing stuff. This particular original tune “Pizza” was written on the spot today and was inspired largely by another Ventures jam, “Tequila” You see, The Ventures weren’t too big on overburdening songs with lyrics. Their music is brilliantly sparse, groovy and extremely interesting and soothing.

So I figured if they can have a classic with “Tequila,” basically playing some cool music and saying “Tequila,” I should at least go for it with “Pizza,” which people like a lot as well. I might even go so far as to say that youngsters and even some older-sters perhaps, prefer pizza to tequila. So with that being said and acknowledgements to Hillcrest’s Bronx Pizza, where I ate today, maybe I’ll have a surprise hit. Or maybe at least after The Ventures get a hold of it. “Pizza!”