Crossing West Point

The title doesn't say much, but West Point is a peninsula in Seattle with a lighthouse, right on the cape of the Magnolia district. As I did today, when I go around the point from the south beach to the north, I think of this as a kind of passage. I try to go into the water for a swim at or before the middle right where the lighthouse is. It's as if I were somehow undergoing a baptism to purify myself for passage to that other side (a symbolism like the Jordan).

Once I'm on the north side, off in the distance I can see Golden Gardens park NE of there. Often when I'm at Golden Gardens I look across and see the lighthouse at West Point. But how here's the lighthouse nearer and solider than ever. The walk along the north shore contains a lot of flashbacks, mainly because I've been through there so many times.

 Celebrating Easter with my fine chocolate cigar, I'm hearing this great Joe Reisman and his orchestra's version of Come Saturday Morning. The only thing that can compete with this is the original Sandpiper's version of it. It could be that the easy-listening sound of this is the only thing that delayed my eventual discovery of the great sound of the vector of classical to romantic music (Mozart, Beethovern, Dvorak etc.). Is Apple Music great or what?

Another one the Sandpipers did that put them on my radar is I'll Remember You. These are available to those who have Apple Music. I heard this arrangement originally on an easy-listening station format that has long-since been replaced by the jaded music that followed.

A great source of the easy-listening sound is the music of the Jobim sound of Bossa Nova, such as "Meditation". There is a version I heard of it on KYTN FM95 around 1977-78 that I never heard anywhere else, which I'm dying to locate. It sounds like a small trio with a guitar, string bass, vibraphone and percussion. But there are innumerable versions of that song that don't come even close.

Apple music has a great lineup worth getting signed up for that if your are an apple user, provided that they don't try to slim down their format to the jaded top40 sound of "computer rock" (auto tuning) like the FM radio market has already done.

As a musician I intend to continue to arrange and compose such that I don't outlive the most enriching sounds of music. For singing purposes, I find barbershop the most concentrated source of satisfying harmonization. Anyone who likes to harmonize: don't overlook this great resource.