For The Jukebox Playing Inside of Your Head

By Robert J. Ottaviani

Whether you bop to pop, nettle with metal, poke around with folk, flock to rock, pay your dues for the blues, flip flop about hip hop, prance to dance, have a hanker-in for Hank or are a spaz about jazz-there’s something for everyone when it comes to music.

I am convinced there is not another medium that can impact you the way the gift of song can. A song can transport you back to a time and place years ago and put you right in that moment. For Rod Stewart it’s late September and he really should be back at school-he laments to “Maggie May”.

For me it’s late September and I’m in my 1968 Chevy impala with my “Maggie May”. It can give a young man enough courage to make that long walk across the high school dance floor and risk rejection at his first high school dance. Not that this happened to “ME” of course but that’s what I hear could happen. It can bring about a performance of great air guitar magnitude when we hear the right song.

A long country road in the summer becomes a runway awaiting take-off as the volume and tachometer rocket upward as well as your spirits. You put down the top in your little Miata and let the wind part your hair, or if you’re like me and don’t have a convertible you can stick your head out the window and drool like a big Irish setter.

I admit I’m an extremist, a music connoisseur, a music aficionado,a veritable music junkie. One of my favorite 80’s band, the great Kings X (insert shameless plug here) had lyrics that went as follows … “over my head I hear music in the air, over my head I hear music … over my head it’s loud and clear, it’s going to my head … music, music, I hear music.”

There’s always music playing in my head like a jukebox and a never ending pocketful of change. I have it set on shuffle. If you think music isn’t impacting ,try getting even a bad song out of your head. I can assure you it will take the better part of a day.

So what is the attraction? Why are we drawn to it’s hypnotic power that has us tapping our feet like Keith Moon pounding out a rhythm or turning a pencil around to drum like we are the second coming of Ginger Baker? I think it’s the essence of freedom. Free your mind, free your soul, set yourself free. For you see the gift of music is essentially free. It’s there for both young and old alike to share in it’s joy and rejoice in it’s beauty. It can liberate, reverberate, celebrate, gyrate, and rejuvenate and you can put it on easy pay as today’s special but I digress.

I’ve heard stories of music bringing a person to tears because of such a deep emotional connection to what they hear. Not that this happened to “ME” of course but that’s what I hear could happen. Allow yourself the opportunity to take a special trip where you can leave your worries and your wallet behind.

Punch your ticket and get on board for we all have a ticket to ride.

Robert J.Ottaviani (Bert) is a cusp born Aries the ram who has lived through summer of love in the late sixties and the hippie culture that bled into the seventies. He has a passion for music,gardening and all things nature … and laffy taffy. He is freakishly aware of music trivia to absurd levels.Most days you can find him playing his guitar or jotting down lyrics.He was so impacted from the moment he first heard the Beatles that he has Beatlemanianized his life,been to Liverpool, England and remains convinced he is the fifth Beatle. He is married to a gentle and lovely vibe of a woman with three wonderful children. He currently lives and resides in strawberry fields forever.

By Jim Calder

Last week I was fortunate enough to see two amazing musical performances and both definitely left a positive impact on my life. When I told a friend that I was planning on writing on these experiences for ProLong Magazine, she seemed puzzled and asked, how do those concerts Prolong your life?

I laughed a little and explained that our online magazine is not just about prolonging one’s life; this is just one aspect of what we are about. Then I went home and thought about it and realized that others might also be confused.

I believe that the core of ProLong Magazine’s message can be boiled down to this: none of us know exactly how long we have on this earth so we should all get the most out of the years that we have. This is done by enjoying the things that we find joy in. Matt Tucker, our writers and I believe that the keys to success are found in improving your mind, body, soul, relationships and career.

It is really quite simple if you think about it.

As I write this, it is an extremely warm night in November for Philadelphia, Pa. I am sitting on my roof deck, with a cigar in one hand and a glass of vodka and diet coke in the other hand. As you can see I am nowhere near the poster child for perfect health, and I have never claimed to be a poster nor a child.

My business partner Matt does a much better job in the health department for me to even try, however, the competitor in me is trying to change a little. For starters, I have given up eating beef and pork and in just three months with no increase in exercise, I have dropped 15 pounds.  Imagine what I could do if I gave up alcohol, chicken, fish and turkey too.

Returning to our core message and focusing on activities and things that you love, I have always been a fan of music. It is one of the most expressive art forms that exists with the power to change the world at times. Music affects our soul, our minds, our feelings and emotions.

Working full time and co-starting a business in my free time has left me little time for fun lately. However, I am slowly learning as a co-founder of ProLong Magazine that I need to help set the example.  No matter how much work may be on my plate from my busy day job and side business.

One of my best friends Brian, called me up last Friday to let me know he was flying back home from two weeks of work training. His wife couldn’t make the Pearl Jam concert that night in Philly and wanted to know if I could make it. It was the second to last show at the Spectrum ever, before they knock it down and it was also the day that we launched ProLong Magazine. There were a million reasons to stay home that night and work on the website, but one reason to go, which happened to be the best: Lead By Example.

Official Pearl Jam band photo taken by Danny Clinch.

Sure I could have stayed home and worked a couple of extra hours on the site … or I could have gone to a concert that I could someday tell my future grandchildren about. Obviously I made the right choice. Life is full of these choices and we need to really take advantage of being able to make smart choices. I am not saying to blow off working all of the time. I believe that the key is finding the proper balance, between extremely smart work and stress relief/fun.

Sometimes we also have to choose between fun and fun. A good friend had an all weekend bachelor party down in Dewey Beach, DE this past weekend. However, months ago my wife purchased us Ray Lamontagne tickets for this past Saturday night. We danced to Ray’s song “You Are The Best Thing” as our wedding song this past summer, so this choice was relatively easy.

Here are some highlights of the two shows that I was lucky enough to be able to attend this [ast week.

Company
Pearl Jam: My best man in my wedding and one of my best friends of 14 years.
Ray Lamontagne: My wife Melissa, the love of my life.
Edge: Sorry Brian, Ray wins this one.

Annoying People In Front Of Us
Pearl Jam: Some 7-foot dude was standing a few rows in front of us in the aisle with his annoying girlfriend. He was the concert goer that we have all come across in the past. The one who insists on waving his hands in the air and acting out every lyric in a fashion that could only be taken as an insult to anyone who is deaf.
Ray Lamontagne: The couple right in front of us actually had binoculars for a small show at the Tower Theater, which is very small and the stage is very close. They also made out a few times and rested their heads on each other.
Edge: Pearl Jam

Alcohol Consumption
Pearl Jam: We got there late so only two beers each in the parking lot and then three more inside. I accidentally spilled one beer in the bathroom so a good four total.
Ray Lamontagne: Only one beer, but I was driving.
Advantage: Pearl Jam

Price of Frosty Beverages
Pearl Jam: $8.90 for a can
Ray Lamontagne: $8 a beer
Edge: Ray by $.90 a beer

Key Songs
Pearl Jam: Hearing Eddie play Jeremy and Alive again and songs of the new album.
Ray: Hearing Trouble and a different version of our wedding song.
Edge: Ray

Views of Stage
Pearl Jam: Right on the side of the stage 300 level
Ray Lamontagne: Balcony of the Tower
Edge: Ray

Atmosphere:
Pearl Jam: Rocking out hard, did not sit down once.
Ray Lamontagne: Mellow show where everyone remained seated for the whole show
Edge: Pearl Jam

Final Score: Tie
Both concerts were amazing and unique for their own great reasons. Rock on friends.

Jim Calder is the brand architect and co-founder of ProLong Magazine. Jim was born with the perfect combination of cockiness and self consciousness. He has over 10 years of publishing industry experience and lives and works in Philadelphia, Pa. He currently can be found on the greatest adventure of his life as a newlywed with his wife Melissa. Jim can be contacted via email at jim@prolongmagazine.com

By Michele Stivalo

Are you a fan of jazz music?  If so, what is it about jazz that draws your interest?  And if not, can you identify the reason?

I grew up in a musical family, so I started listening to jazz at a young age. My father has been a professional musician for over 40 years, so I spent much of my childhood listening to all types of great music, both recorded and live. I have great memories of spending what seemed like endless nights at my father’s gigs. He is a true entertainer.  But my father’s music was typically popular standards, the kind of music you hear at weddings and dance parties- in other words, the kind of music just about everyone likes to listen to while dancing.

It wasn’t really until high school that I started hearing more jazz music, because by this point my brother Joe (who is a year older than I) had become a jazz musician.  His friends would form 4-piece combos and perform in local coffee houses. It was something to do on a Friday night in our little Jersey town.

My wording is deliberate when I say that is when I started hearing jazz music more, because as much as I heard it prior to this, I’m not sure that I was really listening. The truth is, jazz music intimidated me. As time passed, and Joe’s coffee house combo bands became more serious gigs, I became even more intimidated. It was its own culture, and I couldn’t figure out how to become a part of it. Either that, or I just wasn’t smart enough to “understand” it.

Sometimes I would confess these fears to Joe. “I just don’t think I get it,” I would tell him. As the sister of a big band leader who has a CD with big name New York players to his credit, it wasn’t easy to admit. He’s always been one of my most trusted confidantes, so it wasn’t that I was afraid that he would judge me. Maybe I was just afraid of what everyone else would think if they found out my deep dark secret. After all, I have always been Joe’s biggest fan.

“There’s nothing to understand,” he’d tell me.  “Do you like listening to it, or not?”

That sounds easy enough, I’d think to myself, but frankly it wasn’t that easy. Did I enjoy listening to it? I’m not sure. I liked the idea of it. I liked following Joe and his friends to the basement jazz clubs in New York. I liked hanging out with the musicians at the Park Tavern after a New Jersey City University jazz concert. That was the college my brother attended. Each year they get some big name jazz artists (this fall their guest musician was James Moody).  The conversations we had were often about music, but even when they weren’t they were always interesting and thought-provoking. I liked being a part of that scene I guess.

But it was the music itself that I was never sure about. It always seemed so … complicated. Listening to popular music was always so much easier.

Yet, I never gave up on jazz, partly because I simply couldn’t, partially because I didn’t want to, but mostly because I wasn’t about to stop being my brother’s biggest fan.  I may have been intimidated, but I was also intrigued. And always impressed. Sure, jazz music takes on many forms and can be more complex than relationships at times. But overall, jazz music is an American art form. And although it only originated within the last century, it has- in my opinion- an old soul.

So, back to my original question: are you a fan of jazz music?

If you are, what draws you to it?

If you’re not, that is OK too. But if you’re like me and you’re not really sure, I recommend keeping your mind open. May I also make some great recommendations? These albums are a great way to introduce (or reintroduce) yourself to jazz, yet they feature some of the greatest jazz artists of all time (you may be familiar with most of these artists already):Far East Suite by Duke Ellington; Count Basie Swings, Joe Williams Sings; Porgy & Bess by Miles Davis; Best of Ella Fitzgerald & Louie Armstrong; and Standards & Ballads by Wynton Marsalis.  I also proudly recommend Vanity Fair by my brother, Joe Elefante.  (You can get more information about his CD at his website, joeelefante.com).

I’ll be listening to all of these cds again myself in the next few weeks.  I’d love to know your thoughts as well so please log in and leave a comment. I hope you enjoy them!

Michele Stivalo is the co-owner of two family businesses, Elefante Music Click here for website and The Performing Arts Conservatory Click here for website, in her hometown of New Providence, NJ.  She has a degree in Business Management from Rutgers University.  She enjoys spending her free time with her husband Joe and their daughter Rose, and her extended family and friends.