Slovenian music...that isn't polka?

I perked up when in my Ethnomusicology class, one of the case studies focused on the professor's mother playing Slovene polkas at home. Though I am only part Slovenian, I take it to heart as my ethnicity. In that American sort of way. My grandmother was 100%, but my cultural heritage wasn't exactly passed down in stories of the old country, standing on a chair by my grandmother while she made traditional foods in huge batches without recipes. I often wish it was.

Have you ever wondered where my images come from? Often, I take the first image I find on Google.

Case in point: type "polka" in to your image search. Voila! There this is.

So, I realized that, as a true Clevelander, I should have at least a little affinity for polka. I even know a few words. Beyond that, I am actually pretty ignorant about the motherland.

So when Leo played an example of Slovenian jazz, I was intrigued. Primoz Simoncic, the album, Pieces of Cake.

And, just as I do not claim to be any sort of expert on my own culture, I claim no real knowledge of jazz beyond Paul Ferguson's jazz and popular music course as an undergrad. Which I struggled with. Particularly differentiating bebop. Oy.

Parts of this cd were fascinating, but the overall feel was a little foreign to me. I liked the attempts to incorporate electronic elements with more traditional jazz, but the fusion fell flat at times. Synthesizers, in my humble opinion, are at their best when they're being used for nerdy, stuff-white-people-like sorts of irony a la Drew of Married to the Sea/Toothpaste for Dinner/Superpoop comics.

-Tangent-

Drew is hilarious and I've really been enjoying his videos of late. The first example has an infectious little jam that will have you humming "pitter pitter patter pit" to yourself in the shower. However, if you are creeped out by the idea of Neti pots, you should skip that video. The second example paints the synthesizer enthusiast as a mad scientist. I can see only a certain type of white person finding this video as hilarious as I do. Again, I'm referencing Stuff White People Like. The same type of people enjoy Wes Anderson movies, Stella, and Arrested Development.

Thank you for learning. With Dr. Synthesizer.

-End of Tangent- 

Back to Slovenia.

The electric jazz-fusion had some high points. Night in Tunisia was a standout track. The electric haze gave the slow sax the feeling of 3am in a dark bar, with cigarette smoke clouding the air. It was transporting and it didn't get in the way of the line. Latino? was another favorite. The question mark was apt. It started off with such a cool little piano/sax duet intro before jumping into the latin rhythms that give the track its title. Yet, even at the more upbeat, the piece still maintained its cool aura. I liked that; the tempo increased without making the piece sound frantic. John mentioned that it seemed to have Jobim-esque melody fragments, and I totally agree. Then it just fades into this bizarre cloud of electric guitar. I loved the harmonic opening for LCD, which may have been my favorite track on the album. It starts with this wonderful, bell like harmonic in the guitar, then devolves into this wonderful funk slap-bass riff. Again, without losing the slow, cool feel of the album. The lack of excessive percussion helps this quite a bit. It keeps the overall effect more intimate, more melodic, and incredibly saxophone-centric.  

In general, I liked the slower tracks the most. The ones that gave me such a vivid sense of place. I think I'm going to have to give it all a few more chances before I make any real decisions...

Have you ever had to take your time with an album? Should music be challenging and take time to take apart with multiple listenings? Or should it have immediacy? Or is it good to have some pieces hit you over the head and some worm their way into your heart?