DanaBrown

Stampin down as a rebellious filmmaker on the San Francisco block. Working on various little projects-- commercial & narrative, whatever pays the bills, whatever i find engaging.. Music is key, it informs my work a whole hell of a lot. Let me start by going back some years to introduce the vocal burgundys of an old friend of mine, Francis Nugent. This is the guy that taught me to listen, listen a lot, and listen critically. We got in the habit of researching any musician we found interesting. We'd seek out the details of their lives. You'll find this enormously enriching, multifarious as it is. I guarantee the experience to be joyous, sad... and heartbreaking. It will be moving. Moving like a mack truck swerving past conifers on the lost highway of your last profound daydream. Delving in (e.g. biography's, autobiography's, concert art, obscure recordings, testimonials) will help you as a storyteller. Hugely. In 2002, I moved in with this young man with a liberal Houston upbringing and immediately fell in love w/ texas and the songwriters that characterize this pared down, honest tradition. Think Iron & Wine. Townes Van Zandt. Jerry Jeff Walker. Robert Earl Keen & Ray Wiley Hubbard. Rent the film 'Guy Terrifico' and you'll know what I'm talking about. Country, ('The Band' brand) that's one side of me. I like to drink and listen to it loudly, often. Brett will tell you that.

On a more pensive, melancholic, spiritual note, I've always reached the divinity tip with Jazz & its attendant clairˈvoyance. There's something to say about jazz drummers, they are a royally underappreciated bunch. Restraint, and timing. Got to keep the rhythm, or fall off, like Joe Morello in the brilliant Take Five by Dave Brubeck which used quintuple time. Improvisation, I listen for it on my bike rides. It's wildly communicative. It is direct, straight resplendent in the imperfections. It is a language for musicians. Often misunderstood. But there's standards. And a Cape Town gale couldn't knock those greats.

Jazz, hit me with that and some blues and rock and roll- This is another side.

Big into hip hop. No doubt. It's what I've tried to do with fonix & blondehat. Rest in peace pimp c. Gotta throw props to the original pistols: Pac & Big. Talib & Mos. Q-tip. Eligh, Scarub and The Grouch. Slug. Melly Mel. Pharcyde. Camp Lo. De La Soul. And then there's the production side of rap. The beat makers, field recorders, samplers, vinyl freaks, folks who know how to draw bass & drum patterns. Someone like DJ Premier. Shadow. Andre and Big Boi. Stuff produced on the Quannum label.

Or Mad Lib. The Rza. Golly. Don't get me started.

Adrenaline in my veins; following are some random remarks about music, you might relate:

Blues, Ahmet style.
Vedder and the Ten Album.
Miles and his 'what's not there' phrasing.
Johnny Hartman singing Lush Life.
kung-fu, chess and wu-tang.
The Shins - Sleeping Lessons [The RAC Mix]
Bill Evans and the beauty.
circus tunes.
The magnetic fields - not bad.
Andrew Bird - not bad eiduh.
Pat Metheny, a mug of tea, when traveling.
Billie Holiday, one that haunts.
Cobain and his vulnerable side.
The film 'Be Here To Love Me'
Thievery Corporation & their love for Foro, and Brazil.
I'm always humming a Jobim melody.
His Passirim album.
Beautiful.
Sufjan Stevens:
let's see you write a song for every state.
Once, the film.
Tool, Trent Reznor, CKY.
I think I'll raise my kids on sam cooke.
Leo Kottke on the neck of a 12-string.
Muttering wit under his breath.
Iron & Wine, their music videos.
A music video called 'chinese translation'
by M.Ward.
Louis Prima for dancing.
Freddie Hubbard. Chops.
South African house hop.
Brazilian folk.
The song Sunny.
The song Little Wing.
Sarah Vaughn. Vocal control of a marsh warbler.
Alicia Keys. Watch Idlewild. Hotter than the hinges hanging off the gates of hell.
Drive-By Truckers and their whole duality of the southern thang thing.
Mafikizolo, Blk Sonshine, Vusi Mahlasela, Abdullah Ibrahim, Freshly Ground, Hugh Masakela.
Joplin and a bottle of southern comfort.
Mood Indigo - Charles Mingus.
http://www.myspace.com/bartdavenport
Dylan
and his poem to Woody Guthrie.
D'angelo. That guy has got jazz and soul sense.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMUedRUJ_HA
Todd Snider b/c he's genius.
And I'd like us to be pals.
I sing his songs All the time in the shower.
He tells great stories.
Edith Piaf. Oh man.

The marriage of Charlie Schultz' and Vince Guaraldi.
god Damn that one worked.
peanuts is an art film.
Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin, bloody gershwin.
Janes Addiction and the way THAT music makes you feel.
Santa Cruz, all the redwoods and The Devil Makes Three.
Hot Buttered Rum & meeting Gina, some kind of nature-virtuoso.
Toumani Diabate. Great while cooking chanterelles.
Or curry, for that matter.
E-40, hyphy. go dumb.
Blk Sonshine - got to hear their song 'born in a taxi'.
Fantastic.
TOWNES VAN ZANDT: haunting & downright plain & true. A modern mystic. The man was forced to undergo shock treatment. It killed any memory of his childhood. He knows Loneliness and he knows how to write a song. That's frank.
Earl Hines, Roy Ayers - all about it.
Van's voice, in a Dublin pub. Highly multi-talented.
Danko on the bass.
Snoop Dogg's 'sensual seduction' video.
Sean Hayes.
"Rattlesnake on the dance floor."
A Christian McBride situation featuring Keevan Labowitz.
Krystle Warren playing for tips in New York Subways.
Coltrane and Monk. Hot Damn.
Shirley Horn, let her set the mood.
maybe not. She can be over the top.
Michael Franks: Am I gay for liking this?
'Popsicle Toes': boy, what was he thinking?
Awful.
Not awful - Thelonious Monk.
Cal Tjader, hear vibes.
Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan- "Nothing Without You" .
The Shout Out Louds- "Normandie" Swedish!
?uestlove's blogs and photojournals for okayplayer.
http://www.npr.org/templates/topics/topic.php?topicId=1105&ps=bb1
Sean Penn jamming in a southern easy for the film Sweet & Lowdown..
Jill Scott's little spoken word interludes.
Lauryn.
Sizzla: media hyping the homophobia thing way out of proportion.
thot rastafari.
Honeycut live at The Bottom of The Hill.
Jack Johnson and how he scores his 16 mm surf films.
BACHATA.
Whiskeytown- the song called Easy Hearts...
Yo.

I'm just gettin warmed up son.

HOLLA