Glen Lee
12/01/2008
MUS 25
Instructor Mauleon
Journal Entry #2
My experience in the media center for the last half of this semester was probably the best one. I listened to Antonio Carlos Jobim, “ACJ Songbook,” “Music of the Andes,” Carlos Santana’s Greatest Hits, and even saw his video playing at concerts while he was young. I enjoyed the Final Mix as well and some random Tex-Mex tracks. I really enjoyed listening to the elegance and relaxation songs by Jobim in his ACJ Songbook. There were artists in there that I totally fell in love with.
My all time favorite song was the “The Girl from Ipanema” by Jobim. I love it so much, I downloaded the song that same day I fell in love with it and I am listening to it as I type this journal entry. Although I do not understand what he’s saying because it sounds as if it is in Spanish, it just sounds so elegant and relaxing. It makes me feel like I’m in a ballroom lounge with beautiful women. And when the girl comes into the song, her voice is astounding, beautiful and elegant as well. It sounds very simple and easy going. This is the kind of music I would listen to all the time if I could. I need to stop listening to rap, hip-hop and all the other music that talks about nonsense. These elegant tracks are part of my life now since I took this course and I’m more than happy.
Carlos Santana was absolutely amazing. I had no idea he played in Woodstock and I was amazed when I was watching his video in class and the media center. He really knows how to play that guitar! I’ve always wanted to learn how to play when I was a child and I’m still learning. I believe Santana is left handed but learned right hand? I’m not quite sure. To see how he was playing the notes on the frets and strumming was amazing. He is very skilled and I can see how he has become such a huge hit internationally. I loved how he switched from a fast song then made a transition to a nice, slow, mellow song that sounded elegant as well. As I said before, I am definitely in
love with elegant music and Jobim and Santana surely proved that they have it in them.
The Music of the Andes was very unique and quite strange to me. However, I did listen to the whole album and I was amazed on how the call and response was. You would hear the sounds of the instruments and vocals from the tribes. It was hard to understand but I thought it was transcending. It definitely made you feel somewhat in a trance. The Tex-Mex music was quite funny to me. It made me feel like I was at Ocean Taqueria and it made me feel very hungry for Mexican food for some odd reason. I love Mexican food by the way! I thought that the Mexican music was very sweet sounding and it has it’s richness and comedy to it and hearing “LaCucaracha” was hilarious because when I found out that it was about a cockroach who smoked marijuana, I was laughing quite hard. It’s very unique how Tex-Mex artists can come up with these kinds of songs with satirical meaning.
Overall, I enjoyed all the music I’ve listened to in this class and in the media center. I enjoyed all the unique videos like the Capoeira video that I saw in class as well. I thought it was so cool that I even did my presentation on it. This class was amazing and I’ve learned a lot about the Latin and Caribbean music, theories, and people. This has definitely made me have a broader scope on life and on how people emigrated from one country to another and brought their music over and it carried on for generations and generations. Jobim and Santana were definitely my all time favorite artists while in the media center, there is no doubt about that. I heard “The Girl from Ipanema” before but I never knew who it was from and the title of it and thanks to this class, now I know. I always thought of Santana as an artist that played hits on the radio but I never knew he performed at Woodstock in 1969! That proves that I still do not know much about the music industry although I was a great pianist as a child. I will try to learn more as I grow older and have more experience.