I wrote this on my FB timeline today. I hope it is OK to share it here: I realized earlier that I had not done any tributes for my dear friend James Izzo, who died 11 years ago on September 1st, 2011, this year... I had planned on releasing a song I'd written for him and rearranged last year, but the time slithered past me and I am very sorry I hadn't remembered it until quite late in the day today. James was still very young -- only 34 (he was born in the same year as my younger brother) -- and very talented, a man born without hands... And yet he made electronic music, programmed and played the keys; he was also extremely sensitive and always kind to everyone around him, even when he himself was having problems, and I never once heard him complain about what he absolutely refused to consider or call his "handicap." I miss him very much. We went to see David Bowie perform in 2002 on the "Heathen" tour together, when I was living in Boulder, Colorado, for graduate school (studying Japanese literature and some Buddhism) with my (ex-)wife, and, well, actually...today, I rather spontaneously decided to cover Bowie's "Heat," ultimately adding some of the lyrics and melody from the song "Heathen" to it and retitling it "Heat[hen]"... Perhaps this was (subconsciously?) my tribute to dear James this year, who was also a Bowie fan and a talented artist in his own right. I would indeed like to dedicate it to him now... Here, then, is one of the tracks we collaborated on, from his LP "Abnormal Love." (Note: I shared the track "Blue Darkness: Orchestral Mix".) This was long before I myself had ever picked up a guitar or a synthesizer, though I did play some drums for him on the LP. The Japanese text on this piece is spoken both by me and my (now ex-)wife, who had written it as a poem in Japanese (she was then in her early twenties). Her voice sounds almost as it was at the time (in other words, without any heavy effects on it), while James made mine sound quite evil and devil-like, slowing it down and stretching it out, the tone dropped and ominous. The music and mix is entirely James's creation. I am happy to have had the opportunity to have known him and also to have left a small mark on his recorded music. Rest In Peace, my dear friend.
I was a close friend of James. I appear on some of the tracks on this LP, actually, and remember listening to the original mix of this song, which did not include James's own vocals, because he felt that it was better without them. I suggested he leave them in, and release the Jarboe-only version on a separate album (which he did -- there was an EP with some remixes on it that had the Jarboe-only version). I also covered this song on my LP "Endnote," which I put out on the last day of 2019 (edit: 2020), and I had released an original (electronic) tribute song for James that was remixed last year (but I think not currently in circulation) entitled, alternately "I Loved that Boy" and "The Boy Without Hands." I am planning on making that available again soon. Thank you for sharing James's music with us here.
one of my favourite songs of all times.
🔥
I wrote this on my FB timeline today. I hope it is OK to share it here: I realized earlier that I had not done any tributes for my dear friend James Izzo, who died 11 years ago on September 1st, 2011, this year... I had planned on releasing a song I'd written for him and rearranged last year, but the time slithered past me and I am very sorry I hadn't remembered it until quite late in the day today.
James was still very young -- only 34 (he was born in the same year as my younger brother) -- and very talented, a man born without hands... And yet he made electronic music, programmed and played the keys; he was also extremely sensitive and always kind to everyone around him, even when he himself was having problems, and I never once heard him complain about what he absolutely refused to consider or call his "handicap."
I miss him very much.
We went to see David Bowie perform in 2002 on the "Heathen" tour together, when I was living in Boulder, Colorado, for graduate school (studying Japanese literature and some Buddhism) with my (ex-)wife, and, well, actually...today, I rather spontaneously decided to cover Bowie's "Heat," ultimately adding some of the lyrics and melody from the song "Heathen" to it and retitling it "Heat[hen]"... Perhaps this was (subconsciously?) my tribute to dear James this year, who was also a Bowie fan and a talented artist in his own right. I would indeed like to dedicate it to him now...
Here, then, is one of the tracks we collaborated on, from his LP "Abnormal Love." (Note: I shared the track "Blue Darkness: Orchestral Mix".) This was long before I myself had ever picked up a guitar or a synthesizer, though I did play some drums for him on the LP. The Japanese text on this piece is spoken both by me and my (now ex-)wife, who had written it as a poem in Japanese (she was then in her early twenties). Her voice sounds almost as it was at the time (in other words, without any heavy effects on it), while James made mine sound quite evil and devil-like, slowing it down and stretching it out, the tone dropped and ominous. The music and mix is entirely James's creation. I am happy to have had the opportunity to have known him and also to have left a small mark on his recorded music.
Rest In Peace, my dear friend.
I was a close friend of James. I appear on some of the tracks on this LP, actually, and remember listening to the original mix of this song, which did not include James's own vocals, because he felt that it was better without them. I suggested he leave them in, and release the Jarboe-only version on a separate album (which he did -- there was an EP with some remixes on it that had the Jarboe-only version). I also covered this song on my LP "Endnote," which I put out on the last day of 2019 (edit: 2020), and I had released an original (electronic) tribute song for James that was remixed last year (but I think not currently in circulation) entitled, alternately "I Loved that Boy" and "The Boy Without Hands." I am planning on making that available again soon. Thank you for sharing James's music with us here.