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September 30, 2006

Family Bidness

Elodie Lauten is performing and presenting her piano and chamber music on Tuesday, October 3 – 8 PM at Faust Harrison Pianos, 205 West 58th Street in Manhattan.

Elodie will perform selections from her new Piano Soundtracks CD, including Variations on the Orange Cycle, a work that was included in Chamber Music America’s list of 100 best works of the 20th century. Pianist Francois Nezwazky, violinist Tom Frenkel and cellist Kurt Behnke will give the World Premiere of her new trio, The Elusive Virgin Bachelor.

The concert is free and open to the public, however, a donation of $15 is suggested. For reservations and information, call (212) 388-0202 or (516) 586-3433 or email mailto:jamesarts@worldnet.att.net

So you think all S21 regulars are Euromodernist wannabes?  This should set you straight.  Tom’s Myron’s new Violin Concerto.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

New Man on Deck

Proving I’m no pugnacious Perry White and that a bended-knee plea can produce results, Troy Collins joins the bullpen with the first in what will hopefully be a slew of reviews. You may be familiar with Troy through his...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

Brian Allen w/ Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey – Synapse

Braintone Synapse, the fifth release by Texas-based trombonist Brian Allen on his own Braintone Records, features two of today's most intuitive improvisers: tenor saxophonist Tony Malaby and drummer Tom Rainey. A studio session recorded in Brooklyn, this album demonstrates...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:53 PM | Comments (0)

I don't know this world without Derek Bailey.

Warning: What follows these first few paragraphs is quite possibly the most self-indulgent concert review I have ever written, and you are more than welcome to skip it. The reason it's here is because today, I received a copy of a newly released Derek Bailey CD, To Play: The Blemish Sessions, just out on David Sylvian's Samadhi Sound label.

The quick back story is that Sylvian -- formerly of new-wave group Japan, and more recently the creator of a long string of sublime solo albums, including collaborations with Robert Fripp and Holger Czukay -- brought Bailey into London's Moat Studios on Feburary 18, 2003 for a session slated to provide raw material for Blemish, a stark, introspective album Sylvian released the following year. A solo effort for the most part, Blemish also featured a handful of wildly ambitious collaborative efforts: "A Fire in the Forest," orchestrated by laptop soundscaper Christian Fennesz, and three songs in which Sylvian took portions of Bailey's free improvisations and scripted actual songs that adhered to their contours. The result is one of Sylvian's most deeply impressive creations.

Some time after Bailey's death on Christmas Day last year (obituary here), Sylvian arranged to release much of the guitarist's raw session on disc, including one of the performances later used on Blemish. I've only spun To Play a few times now, so my thoughts about the disc are still forming. I don't get the immediate sense that it's among the guitarist's foremost solo efforts, but then, there's no reason to expect that it should be, given that Bailey knew he was effectively supplying sounds for hire. Still, it's good to have one more late example of his playing prior to motor neurone disease robbing him of his ability to hold a pick (a condition to which he responded with his final recording, Carpal Tunnel).

And there are definitely some outstanding moments. Although I believe that at the time Bailey had yet to move to Barcelona, where he spent his final years, his frenetic strumming in "Play 4" conjures flamenco guitarist and dancer at once. The disc follows six tracks played on acoustic guitar with two final performances on electric, and it's in that last pair of cuts that the disc really comes to life for me -- Bailey was always a three-limbed guitarist. Throughout, To Play is an intimate affair that Bailey's admirers will certainly appreciate, not least for sound quality surpassing just about anything else that's emerged from the guitarist's final years.

All of that said, please don't hold Derek Bailey responsible for what follows.

My penultimate live encounter with Bailey was in the Company weekend he presented at Tonic in New York City in April 2001. On April 12, Bailey played solo, then performed with Loren Mazzacane Connors and Thurston Moore. The room was packed and I didn't stay for the trio, heading off instead to catch Lamb of God and the Haunted at CBGB. But just over a week later, Bailey mounted a Company weekend, which he discussed in a fine episodic interview compiled on the AllAboutJazz website last year.

Bailey's colleagues included a handful of European players with whom he'd been working recently -- tap dancer Will Gaines, bassist Simon Fell, then-cellist Mark Wastell and harpist Rhodri Davies (surely the only musician on the planet who has collaborated with both Bailey and Charlotte Church) -- and a clutch of downtown New Yorkers -- saxophonist John Zorn, drummer Joey Baron, pipa player Min Xiao-Fen, keyboardist Annie Gosfield and violinist Jennifer Choi.

As it happened, I was also currently reading Dave Eggers's A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. And for whatever reason, when I came home from the first concert I was seized by the perverse impulse to write a review of the Company performance in some halfwitted parody of Eggers's style. I sent the review off via the John Zorn mailing list, to which I was a hyperactive contributor at the time. The responses were overwhelmingly positive, although the post also had the inadvertent effect of attracting a most peculiar visitor to that mailing list, who proceeding to cause a stir in the weeks that followed. (If you were there, you know who I mean.)

I didn't save a copy of that review, and that has bugged me from time to time over the years. Chalk it up to the sentimental mood brought on by listening to To Play a few times today...through a bit of diligent Googling, I finally tracked down that review tonight. I'm posting it here for my own sake more than anything else -- and, as I said at the beginning, you're welcome to ignore it. I've added links to photos taken the following night by Peter Gannushkin, proprietor of Downtownmusic.net. Peter apparently didn't shoot Gaines, one of Bailey's most unusual and inimitable improvising companions, but this page on Peter Stubley's European Free Improvisation site offers brief video excerpts from Will, a VHS tape Bailey issued on his Incus label in 1995.

COMPANY IN NEW YORK - First Night

(with apologies to Dave Eggers, but much more to you, the reader)

April 18, 2001

A sizable crowd has convened for the first night of three Company evenings at Tonic in New York City. Most of the chairs are either on stage or have been pulled out to make more room. Most of the chairs that remain are taken by friends and family of the ensemble and by Tonic regulars who bypass the line at the door. It's going to be a long night of standing. I feel like a curmudgeon before it even starts. But at least, unlike last week's solo set by Bailey, tonight I can actually see the stage.

A portly gentleman, looking rumpled like Edward R. Murrow, with a beard sans mustache, gets up to speak. Before he says anything, I can tell he's British. No one wears a beard without a mustache except hippies and Brits, and the portly, rumpled gentleman is too old to be a hippy. When he opens his mouth, I'm proven correct in my assumption. His name is Roger Parry, and he's here to be master of ceremonies. He carries a small bag over his shoulder, the airline tags still attached.

The first ensemble, Roger Parry tells us, is "Simon's Group," and he introduces the players. Simon Fell [photo] takes the stage, accompanied by Min Xiao-Fen [photo], Annie Gosfield [photo] and Joey Baron [photo]. Min and Fell begin to flutter across the necks of pipa and bass respectively. They play a lot of notes. Their techniques are awesome. Min, however, seems somewhat mannered. What she is playing doesn't really connect with Fell's broad strokes and skittering lines. Baron accompanies with slow rubs across his drumheads; Fell responds with glissandoes while Min continues to scrabble up and down her fretboard, scraping her frets like a guiro. Gosfield stares at her equipment. She stares at the soundperson. She stares at the equipment, then the soundperson. No sound comes forth. By the time Fell, Min and Baron finally lock together, Gosfield is producing the sound of bowed metal. Then the piece ends. Roger Parry stands up and introduces the players again as they leave.

Next, Roger Parry introduces "Zorn's Group." Zorn [photo] comes up with Derek Bailey [photo], Mark Wastell [photo] and Jennifer Choi [photo]. Zorn has a few muted words with Roger as he takes his stool, then announces to no one in particular, "John Zorn with strings." He clicks, pops, burbles and squeals. Bailey joins in, playing Derek Bailey music. Wastell proves quickly that he may possibly be one of the most technically proficient and daring cellists on the planet. (Jon and Brian have told you that already.) Choi enters with a gigantic chord that sounds like the opening of a Bach unaccompanied partita. Her fingers fly up and down the neck of her violin. Her bowing technique is immaculate. No one is speaks the same language for a time, but it's an agreeable racket anyway.

Roger Parry gets up and announces who we have just heard. Then he ushers onto the stage the entirety of the ensemble: "Will's group." He announces the players as they come to the stage, one by one. Will Gaines is the last to come onstage. He surveys the crowd. "I left more people home in bed," he tells us. Bailey kicks off the performance by simply starting to play. The others enter, and Gaines begins to dance his impressions of the music. Zorn can barely contain himself. He mugs and laughs. Baron, too, is visibly beside himself. They are riveted with amusement as Gaines tries to conduct the ensemble, not unlike Butch Morris, except Butch Morris seldom tap dances.

Gaines jumps, points, shouts, gestures, tries to shape the chaos unfolding onstage. He largely suceeds, with a few exceptions. Bailey doesn't see him, because Bailey never looks up. Zorn has decided quickly that he is going to mess around with Gaines. Gaines holds his hands high above his head, then brings them down to silence the ensemble. Almost everything is quiet, except Bailey keeps on playing. Zorn blows a bark at Gaines.

"I liked that last note," Gaines says.

Gaines indicates that he wants Rhodri Davies, Min and Bailey to play together. Bailey obliges, never looking up. The sounds of the guitar, harp and pipa sound an agreeable accord. It's the first time anyone can hear the harp. After a moment, Baron bursts in with an eruption of flying limbs. Bailey lets a note hang in the air, transforming itself into ringing feedback. Zorn matches the feedback with his sax. Gaines looks on in appreciation, then jumps and waves as the entire ensemble comes crashing back in. It is a huge wall of noise with funny contours and edges, and it is beautiful.

Annie Gosfield is apparently playing something. Her hands are moving. So is her hair, which is large.

Gaines waves the ensemble out. Bailey obliges, not looking up. Gaines performs an animated duet with Min, who is clearly enjoying it. Zorn and Baron misbehave from the opposite end of the stage, shooting spitwads of sound in their direction. Gaines waves reproachfully, but the bad boys will not be scolded. Gaines finally remembers the old maxim: if you can't beat them, join them. He engages Baron in a drum battle. Of course, Gaines, like the fat, bald American wrestler Butterbean, isn't here to win any battles. He's only here to entertain the fans. Baron wins in the first round.

Gaines tries to play with Zorn as well. Zorn pulls his mouthpiece off of his horn, and blows raspberries back at Gaines. Is this how we show respect for our elders? Bailey, without looking up, has heard enough. Like a stern schoolmaster, he scolds the two with a resounding chord. Zorn blows raspberries back at Bailey. Everyone starts to play again, trying to look in the other direction.

But Bailey's guitar begins to feed back again. The ringing gets louder and louder, and the other instruments fight to be heard. (Davies and Gosfield appear to be fighting to be heard.) Gaines gestures for the noise to build and build, until finally jumping up in the air to bring it all to a halt. Zorn plays a rude note, and Gaines shoots him a smile. Zorn plays another rude note, and Gaines shoots him another smile. Zorn plays another rude note, and Gaines shoots him a smile.

Roger Parry stands up and introduces everyone. Everyone leaves the stage, except for Min, Wastell and Davies, and Gaines. Bailey, from the audience, has to talk Gaines off the stage. It doesn't happen quickly. Then Roger tells us who is going to play next: Min, Wastell and Davies. Gaines leaves the stage.

Min, Wastell and Davies play a trio of delicate and indelicate string sounds. The music teams with life, like a drop of pond water on a microscope slide. Min is playing a smaller pipa than the one she has used previously. It sounds dryer, lighter, and mixes well with Wastell, who bows a little brass bell stuck between the strings of his cello. Davies makes sounds with his harp that sound utterly alien to the instrument. It is delicate and beautiful. It is also hopelessly marred by some piece of electrical equipment onstage that has decided to buzz loudly throughout. Someone from the audience who I'll bet money to be Ben Watson jumps up onstage and fiddles in vain with Bailey's amp. He does it again a bit later. The musicians play on, unperturbed.

(Roger Parry seems to have forgotten to tell us whose group this was, but through reductive reasoning, it must be Mark's. "Min's group" and "Rhodri's group" will happen later.)

Next up, Roger tells us (after telling us who we just heard), is "Annie's group." Gosfield takes the stage with Zorn, Baron and Choi. It's the first all-American group of the night, and they seem to speak the language a bit more intuitively. But they've got an accent. Gosfield's sampler makes a pulsating bed of squizzy machine noises. Choi plays demonic music elegantly, flying up and down the neck of her instrument. Zorn and Baron make Zorn and Baron noises in reponse. Eventually, they fall into a romping funk pattern. Then they stop, and make more Zorn and Baron noises, which somehow fit together nicely with the machine sounds and the demon fiddler.

Roger Parry tells us who we've just heard. Then he tells us who we are about to hear. This group is made up of Bailey, Choi and Fell. Maybe it's "Jennifer's group," but Roger forgets to tell us again. Violin, guitar and bass intertwine into a lovely mesh of strings, slow, placid, maybe even bucolic. Of course, it can't last. Bailey puts an end to "placid," interjecting dissonant chords. Fell then ends the "slow," taking off like a racer across the neck of his bass. His fingers scamper up and down the length of the instrument, not just its neck. His technique is not conservatory-precise like Choi's, but it gets the job done. Choi takes the hint and starts flying herself. When the CDs are released in a year or two, this will be a highlight. It ends too soon. Roger Parry tells us who we've been listening to, and announces an intermission.

I want to go out to the lobby, but I'm too afraid of losing my prime, unobstructed view standing at the end of the bar. So I continue to stand there.

But by now, you're probably not as interested in the second half of the concert so much as you're wondering whether I will continue this inane imitation of the prose style employed by Dave Eggers in his much-hyped, bestselling memoir, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius. As if someone who's only 20-something should be writing a memoir anyway, no matter how privileged by the right or obliged by the duty of the tragic circumstances of his life may have made him feel. The answer is, no, I will not. I am far too tired from staying up too late Wednesday night even after coming home from the first Company night (the one you're reading about), getting up too early on Thursday morning to see my girlfriend off on a trip, and attending the second night of Company Thursday night, which, I promise in advance, I won't review in this particular manner. Anyway, we're talking four hours of sleep, tops. And now it's after two o'clock in the morning here in New York, and I'm beginning to see little spots dancing before my eyes. So I can't imagine that I'll be able to type much longer, and of course, I'm also worrying all the while that you will all hate this essay and will rise up together and will banish me from the Zornlist completely as a result, which would mean that I would never get to tell you about the second night of Company in New York, not to mention the third night or even the cool upcoming releases announced in the new Tzadik catalogs that were laying around at Tonic tonight. And of course, were I less sleep-deprived, I'm pretty sure that writing a concert review in the style of a trendy (but still very worthwhile) book would not have seemed like a good idea. In fact, it already doesn't seem like a good idea, but since I've written this far, I feel sort of committed to see it through, though I do plan to use some sort of shortcut very soon so I can go to bed. Otherwise, you might never get my review of the second night. Or the third night! The third night is tomorrow night. Tonight! It's already after 2 a.m., like I said before. Still, in a sense, you're getting two reviews for the price of one here, since what I am really doing in this essay is telling you about the first night of Company in New York, but I'm telling it in the style of a book that many of you might have considered reading (and in fact one Zornlist member even wrote me personally to ask about the book when I mentioned it as a "NR" the other day, but that doesn't mean that that particular person -- let's call him "Xerxes" -- anyway, Xerxes, you needn't feel that you and you alone were the cause of this post, and that after I myself am banished from the Zornlist, they'll be coming for you next). When I'm finished with the essay, then, you'll know what the concert was like, really like (and here I'm wishing that the use of rich text was condoned on the Zornlist, so that I could have italicized the word "really" just before the parenthesis), and you might also have some idea whether you might want to read the book, as well, as I myself am doing. I'm enjoying the book despite its obvious 20-something postmodern snarkiness, not to mention its whiny defense of same, both of which would render the writer completely obnoxious were he less talented than he is. And I hope it is clear that I enjoyed the concert as well.

Now. After intermission, Roger Parry got up again, and told us that we were about to hear "Min's group." The group was supposed to consist of Min (and it's odd, perhaps, that Roger called it "Min's group," since "Min" is, as I understand it, Min Xiao-Fen's family name, since her famous pipa-playing father's name is Min Ji-Qian, and everyone else's group was referred to by their proper name, like "Annie's group" and "Simon's group," so shouldn't the next group actually be "Xiao-Fen's group"? Just wondering.), Bailey, Fell and Davies. However, Davies, for some reason, never came to the stage. So "Min's group," or "Xiao-Fen's group," if you prefer, consisted of Min, Bailey and Fell. And the music they played was another highlight of the evening, with Min's skittering fingers and Fell's alligator-clipped strings proved nearly as otherworldly as Bailey's typical Baileyness.

Roger, in case you wondered, told us who we had just heard and who we were about to hear between each of the following combinations, and most of the time he remembered to tell us whose group it was as well. But not always. Anyway, these were the remaining combinations for the evening:

JOEY'S GROUP -- Baron, Zorn, Gosfield and Bailey. Their interplay was reasonably interesting, including a funky chase to the end by Zorn and Baron. But Bailey must have heard some potential in it, because he compelled the group to remain onstage for a second blow (Zorn called for a vote of the audience), which was far more interesting, and contained Gosfield's first really integrated playing of the evening. Her hardware knocked like a bad engine and clanked like a foundry.

WILL -- Gaines took the stage for a bit of old-style hoofing. After an impressive display of tap technique, he sat on a piano bench and proceeded to talk to the audience for a while longer about his storied past, performing with the likes of Ray Charles and Big Maybelle. He said that playing with Company was the biggest challenge, but that the challenge was for Bailey to keep him in line. Gaines kept tapping his feet throughout his little monologue, and it was impossible not to be moved by it.

JENNIFER CHOI & MARK WASTELL -- An incredible duo of staggering technical acumen. Choi's style is picture-perfect, Wastell's catch-as-catch-can, but the two meet in the middle for chamber music of which anyone from Webern to Lachenmann to, dare I say, Zorn would have been proud.

CHOI, WASTELL & GOSFIELD -- As above, but with a washing machine churning in the background. Wastell further distinguishes himself in my eyes by being the first cellist I've ever seen bowing the endpin of his instrument.

RHODRI'S GROUP -- The finale for the evening, consisting of Davies, Bailey, Baron, Fell and Zorn. The barrage you might expect, for the most part. Zorn, seemingly out of patience, blew smoky, Spillane-style sax. Davies abused his harp with a tamborine and a little dumbek. The grouping rocked out at the end. As Zorn packed his stuff, Bailey said, "John wants to do another one." Zorn replied, "I didn't say nothin,'" but he gamely pulls out his toys. The second blow by this group was as good as the first, and in some ways even more distinctive. Baron played a fractured, Beefheartean rhythm over which the rest of the group was content to play without falling in sync. When Baron exploded into a barrage of noise, only Bailey followed. The climax was a trio of Bailey, Fell and Baron, the last beating his drums with towels thrown over the heads.

And then, of course, Roger Parry told us who we had just heard, and invited us back tomorrow, which is, of course, last night as I type this. But that's another story.

[Postscript: Perhaps needless to say, I didn't review the second night, and ultimately didn't attend the third.]

Playlist:

Melvins - (A) Senile Animal (Ipecac)

Nine Horses - Snow Borne Sorrow (Samadhi Sound)

Derek Bailey - To Play: The Blemish Sessions (Samadhi Sound)

Dosh - The Lost Take (Anticon)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

DMG Newsletter September 29th 2006

This week’s DMG Newsletter has the latest news and reviews.

THE FALL ROLLS IN with NEW DISCS from MARK FELDMAN/JOHN TAYLOR/ANDERS JORMIN/TOM RAINEY, BILL FRISELL/RON CARTER/PAUL MOTIAN, GARY LUCAS’ GODS & MONSTERS, HILMAR JENSSON’S TYFT w/ JIM BLACK/ANDREW D’ANGELO,

JOE FONDA/RAMON LOPEZ/BRUNO ANGELINI, THE JD PARRAN SEXTET, EDDIE PREVOST/ALAN WILKINSON DUO & TRIO, JEFF ARNAL & GORDON BEEFERMAN, TWO CDs w/ GEORGE CARTWRIGHT, JORDAN McLEAN’S FIRE OF SPACE, ESTRADASPHERE,

FIVE MORE CIMP CLASSICS: DOMINIC DUVAL STRING QUARTET, TOMAS ULRICH & MICHAEL BISIO STRING DUO, MATT MARUCCI/DOUG WEBB/KEN FILIANO TRIO, SETH MEICHT QUARTET, JIMMY HALPERIN & DOMINIC DUVAL MONK DUO,

ANTHONY BROWN’S ORCHESTRA, GYORGY LIGETI, LONDON SINFONIETTA THE WONDERFUL WERGO CATALOGUE, SIX MORE FROM THE ROOM-40 LABEL: SAMARTZIS/INADA, RICHARD CHARTIER, GREG DAVIS & JEPH JERMAN , LLOYD BARRETT, JANEK SCHAEFER & SAMARTZIS/ENGLISH,

EMPTY CAGE QUARTET, RUST IONICS [ED CHANG/ADAM KRINEY/DOUG THERIAULT], THE JAPANESE INDEPENDENT MUSIC BOOK & CD, 3 from FALLOUT: PAT KILROY, ALAN TRAJAN & JAN & LORRAINE!

….AND A ‘WERGO’ LABEL RESTOCKING!!!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

Steve Reich Writes

Reich reviews some predictions he made about the future of classical music in 1970.

Thirty-six years ago, I had the nerve to write a short essay entitled “Some Optimistic Predictions about the Future of Music”. I would not write such an essay today. We really know very little about what is going on right under our nose - forget the future.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

Another Ornette Coleman review: Melody’s the key clause

This review focuses on Coleman’s supposedly unconventional sounds.

Part of the legend of saxophonist Ornette Coleman, as with many other great innovators, has to do with early rejection and ridicule.

There’s the story of one of his first employers, rhythm ‘n’ blues bandleader Pee Wee Crayton, paying him to not take solos. Of the beboppers in Los Angeles in the early 1950s telling Coleman he didn’t know the chord changes, was out of tune, couldn’t play. Of audience members in his native Forth Worth seizing his saxophone and smashing it or, according to an alternate story, throwing it in a river.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

At the Roulette in November

Upcoming shows at New York’s Roulette:

For immediate release
ROULETTE presents
20 Greene St (between Canal and Grand St)
8:30 PM Admission $15 Students $10 MEMBERS FREE
TICKETS/RSVP: 212.219.8242
Roulette 228 West Broadway New York, NY 10013
contact: press@roulette.org http://www.roulette.org/

ROULETTE IS THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE OUR MOVE INTO OUR NEW HOME: 20 GREENE
STREET in SOHO. With this new space, Roulette will be expanding activities
to include over 100 concerts, sound installations, longer runs of music
theater and other large productions such as the ³Avant Jazz ­ Still Moving²
festival and the annual ³Festival of Mixology.² For our expanded events
calendar go to: http://www.roulette.org/

Also! Please check out our new ROULETTE BLOG for excerpts of our artists¹
music, podcasts featuring interviews with the artists and Roulette TV clips,
and musical discussion: http://www.roulette.org/blog/index.php

Thursday, November 2nd
*Kato Hideki*
Tremolo of Joy
Tremolo of Joy is a hybrid band drawing together elements of the old & new.
The music is shaped around the imaginative melodies of bassist/composer Kato
Hideki. The group builds on this foundation with tools like canon (delay),
counterpoint (reverse), human loops and live electronics. The result
combines chamber music syntax with the rhythmic excitement of rock ‘n¹ roll.
With Marco Cappelli (electric guitar,) Briggan Krauss (reeds) & Calvin
Weston (drums.)

Friday, November 3rd
*Phoebe Legere*
Sisters and Brothers
Brother Africa and Sister America meet a Fine While Man
Phoebe Legere¹s new band, Sisters and Brothers, takes ancient chants and
then goes way outside, incorporating West African shamanic drumming and many
exotic percussion instruments from Africa and Native America with invented
instruments and classic French Canadian instruments. Tonight, they present
an evening-length piece in which Phoebe and Joakim perform environmentally,
combining marching, dance and trance music with video projections of
paintings and animation, texts and gesturesŠ With Scott Hornick (bass,)
Joakim (percussion, drums & samples) & Phoebe Legere (piano, accordion,
spoons, native flute, buffalo drum, sneakers & visuals.)

Saturday, November 4th
*Shoko Nagai*
Ephemeral
New York based composer/pianist Shoko Nagai’s project, Ephemeral, explores
the essence of Japanese traditional music. The work ties together Gagaku
(the oldest classical music in Japan) and the sound of Nohgaku (abstract
theater) with elements of contemporary western music, experimental
electronic music and improvisation. Her composition makes use of multiple
textures and an open sense of time to evoke another realm of time and place.
Nagai will be joined in this performance by Ned Rothenberg (shakuhachi,
clarinet, bass clarinet,) Jennifer Choi (violin,) John Lindberg (bass) and
Satoshi Takeishi (percussion, electronics.)

Sunday, November 5th
*Guy De Bièvre*
Very Slow Disco Suite
The Very Slow Disco Suite researches extreme time stretching of popular
music formats, allowing the performers to explore the music in both
horizontal and vertical realms. The V.S.D.S. sounds disco depths: musicians
play against a synthesized backdrop, each using a microcontroller that both
conducts the processing of their sonic output and, based on the sound
happening in the room, indicates which part of the score to perform. De
Bièvre is a Brussels-based composer, musician, sound designer and curator.
His work focuses on experiments that combine computers, live electronics,
acoustics and standard arrangement formats. With Peter Zummo (trombone,)
J.D. Parran (reeds) & De Bièvre (guitar & lap steel.)

Friday, November 10th
Saturday, November 11th
Sunday, November 12th
*ROULETTE & DIXON PLACE present*
**WARNING: NOT FOR BROADWAY**
Dixon Place’s popular annual festival of new musical theater and opera
works, curated by Michelle Feldman, presents first showings that re-think
compositional and theatrical structure, overturn dramaturgical convention,
defy gender/race/sexual classifications, expand the possibilities of
audience involvement, and generally redefine the musical theater genre. Each
year, over a dozen creators are selected to bring their newest, riskiest
material to the supportive, nurturing atmosphere of this downtown
festival…

Monday, November 13th
*Allan Jaffe, Earl Howard & Gerry Hemingway*
Allan Jaffe will join forces with electronic composer/saxophonist Earl
Howard and drummer Gerry Hemingway to present a concert of original
compositions and improvisations. The evening will feature a collaboration
making use of Howard¹s pioneering, interactive electronic processing
techniques on the acoustic guitar and drums, combining these instruments¹
natural sounds with his own imaginative aural perceptions. Also on the
program will be a solo guitar piece, as well as several acoustic duets and
trios.

Thursday, November 16th
*Carla Kihlstedt*
Carla Kihlstedt plays songs for violin and voice: songs of her own writing,
songs written by friends (among them, Lisa Bielawa and Jorge Liderman) and
perhaps songs written by enemies…atonal songs, one-chord songs, tuneful
songs and toneless songs. Kihlstedt is a multifaceted & unpredictable new
talent, using her violin, voice & movement simultaneously. She is active
both as a composer and a violinist and is a founding member of the Tin Hat
Trio of the art-rock band, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. With strong roots in
classical music and the technical prowess to prove it, Kihlstedt¹s
performances offer a stunning interplay of sound and staging.

Friday, November 17th
*Lisle Ellis*
Audible Means
Lisle Ellis¹s new ensemble, Audible Means, sets the extensive pallet of
sounds Ellis draws out of his custom bass, computer software and electronic
hardware. Tonight Ellis presents Audible Means in trio formation with Ellery
Eskelin (saxophone) and Erik Deutsch (keyboards.) The group will interpret
Ellis¹s original compositions that reference, skewer and abstract a variety
of genres. Rhythmic impetus and an accumulation of pulsating mood swings
reveals music that is simultaneously improvisational, detailed and rigorous.
³Truly remarkable in its beauty, intensity, and energy² (One Final Note,)
Ellis¹s work involves interests in music, visual art, computers/technology
and community.

Friday, November 18th
*Dafna Naphtali*
fusebox//
For 10 years, Dafna Naphtali has been finding ways to peacefully and
not-so-peacefully incorporate ³audio machinations² (her particular vision
for sound processing and manipulation) into both improvised and composed
music, using an arsenal of digital equipment & self-made computer programs
that compliment her 4-octave vocals. fusebox// is a continuation of
Naphtali¹s longstanding experimentation with sound processing and
improvisation, which she now explores through novel
arrangements/configurations of jazz favorites (Mingus and others) and
original compositions. With saxophonist Ras Moshe, Shayna Dulberger (bass)
and drummer/percussion TBA.

Sunday, November 19th
*Mike Skinner*
Mike Skinner¹s 8 Track Attacks use portable 8 track players from the 60s and
70s (with custom cassettes and found tapes,) quadrophonic 8 track systems,
tape loops, short wave radio, bowed percussion, space echo, electric and
effected cello (with cellist/composer Gretta Cohn) and effected vocal loops
to create dense landscapes of sound. Skinner is a composer, producer and
writer working with a wide cross section of New York’s art stars, indie
rockers, noise bands, art filmmakers, fashion designers, video artists,
transsexuals and choreographers. His work has appeared at the Venice
Biennale, PS1, Alona Kagan and Diapason Gallery. Tonight¹s performance is
commissioned by Roulette with support from the Jerome Foundation.

Thursday, November 30th
*Noa Guy*
Drops of Consciousness ­ part one
Using her still photography and pre-recorded string quartet as a point of
departure, composer/performer Noa Guy collaborates with friends in a journey
exploring the edges of audio-visual information processing. This performance
examines the emotional reaction to an image of sound and silence, of light
and darkness, of being and not being. Guy¹s award-winning works include
pieces for solo voice to symphonic orchestra as well as multimedia work and
music for film and the theatre. With Alon Leventon (sound artist,) Kim
Spiegler and Lio Spiegler (film artists.)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

Dusted Reviews

Dusted recently posted a bunch of new reviews.

Artist: The Dirty Projectors
Album: New Attitude
Label: Marriage

Artist: Wolf Eyes
Album: Human Animal
Label: Sub Pop

Artist: DJ Shadow
Album: The Outsider
Label: Island

Artist: The Necks
Album: Chemist
Label: ReR Megacorp

Artist: Nels Cline
Album: New Monastery: A View Into the Music of Andrew Hill
Label: Cryptogramophone

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

Avant Garde Project 28: Whale Songs

Don’t miss this edition of AGP.

The Avant Garde Project is a series of 20th-century classical-experimental- electroacoustic torrents digitized from LPs whose music has in most cases never been released on CD, and so is effectively inaccessible to the vast majority of music listeners today. This is wild stuff, so check it out if you’ve never heard this sort of music before. The analog rig used to extract the sound from the grooves is near state-of-the-art, producing almost none of the tracking distortion or surface noise normally associated with LPs. AGP1-23 are now available for direct download in the archive at www.avantgardeproject.org AGP24-27 are available at http://thepiratebay.org/user/loudav Ignore the seeders/leechers statistics, as they often show no seeders when in fact there are some. For the time being, a new AGP torrent is being seeded around midnight each Friday night (GMT), and is advertised on the I Hate Music Forum.

With AGP28, the Avant Garde Project has officially gone off the deep end. It is the first in an occasional series of “found” avant garde, meaning that the recordings are not avant garde compositions per se, but I have for years enjoyed listening to them in the same spirit as I listen to late 20th century music. AGP28 is also the first installment containing organized sound created by non-human animals. Culled from two LPs, it comprises an assortment of underwater recordings of humpback whales, beluga whales, narwhals, orcas, and bearded seals. The humpback whale recordings come from an LP that introduced the world to whale songs, “Songs of the Humpback Whale.” It was originally released in 1970 on CRM records to publicize the plight of whales in the late 20th century, and later re-released on Capitol Records. These transcriptions come from the original CRM release, which has a richer sound and less pressing noise than the re-release. These recordings were made by Roger Payne. More such recordings were released on a second Capitol LP, which is available on CD. The other recordings (tracks 06-14) come a Music Gallery editions LP from Canada. The songs of these other whale species are entirely different from humpback whale songs, and in many places strikingly resemble some forms of electroacoustic music. The torrent includes notes from the liners and booklets included in the two LPs, including a long account of the discovery and analysis of humpback whale songs. Equipment used for A/D conversion: Lyra Helikon phono cartridge, Linn LP12/Lingo turntable, Linn Ittok tonearm, Audioquest LeoPard tonearm cable, PS Audio PS2 preamplifier, Kimber PBJ interconnect, M-Audio Audiophile USB A/D converter.

01 - Solo humpback whale [9:33] 02 - Slowed-down humpback whale [1:06] 03 - Humpback whales [3:24] 04 - Distant humpback whales [3:58] 05 - Three humpback whales [16:33] 06 - Arctic beluga whales [4:30] 07 - St. Lawrence beluga whales [7:42] 08 - Narwhals [4:23] 09 - Bearded seal [3:20] 10 - Orca [2:49] 11 - Bearded seal [1:48] 12 - Orca [0:54] 13 - Orcas and beluga whales [9:43] 14 - Whale herd [6:52]

NOTE: To the best of my knowledge, these recordings are currently out of print. If you know otherwise, please let me know ASAP, as I do not wish any artists to be deprived of the royalties that they so richly deserve.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

Bagatellen Reviews

The latest from Bagatellen.

Brian Allen w/ Tony Malaby and Tom Rainey – Synapse - 29 Sep 06
Sun Ra - Concert for Comet Kohoutek - 26 Sep 06

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

The Friday Informer: Under the Influence

Misunderstanding just about everything.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 30, 2006 at 03:52 PM | Comments (0)

September 29, 2006

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - IX

We ended up going to three concerts yesterday and not getting back until almost 3:00AM this morning! A very good day of concerts. The first concert at 4:30pm at the Witold Lutoslawski Polish Radio Concert Studio had a very interesting line up, as I was looking forward to hearing the Murail and the new version of Derive 2 by Pierre Boulez. The concert was a little problematic however as it seemed they decorated the room like a rock concert and filmed it for television (I’m assuming for television), which introduced a number of issues. The pieces performed were:

• Tristan Murail - Winter Fragments
• Anna Zawadzka-Golosz - The Suite of Space
• Pierre Boulez - Dérive 2 (2006 version)
  

Some notes I took at the concert:

Murail - very nice piece, electronics seemed a little out of balance (loud), reverb felt a little thick, TV producer talked a little too loudly especially at very last moment of piece (people chastised him afterwards), wonderful sound world, the ring-modulated piano was a nice sound (at least, it sounded like it was ring modulated)

Zawadzka-Golosz - lots of notes but not much of an identity, reminded me of improv where people do not listen to each other, frenetic, wasn’t drawn in, realized that all the backdrops they used for the TV production killed the acoustics of the hall (didn’t notice earlier as the previous piece was amplified)

Boulez - even more notes, endless, very rhythmic and angular, I very much liked when the ideas transform between instruments in a sort of timbral exchange (i.e. violin to oboe); piece felt mechanical and constructed; reminded me of the idea I’ve had that “complex actions yield simple results” and vice versa; had a sort of minimalist drive in that a lot of things going on at the eighth and sixteenth-note level but since the timing of phrases were so angular and periodicity purposefully hidden (from the program notes), the perception of time seemed to only have one layer at the very fast tempo making it very exhausting to hear

The concert had a rock show setup: the first piece had really bright blue lights that were very distracting and reminded me of the lights on the space ship in “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, the second piece had more subdued red lighting but then I realized the backdrops had killed the acoustics, and the last piece had the same lights as the first but in bright red. The performers seemed a bit tight with all of the microphones and cameras around and I felt especially bad for the pianist as there was a camera on long arm that would move within inches of her hands or face or to above her head (at one point in the second piece it actually hit the piano as it moved). I’m sure it will be mastered for a broadcast and will sound great for that, but I was a little disappointed that hall sounded so dry live.

The repsonse to the Boulez seemed a little lukewarm as the audience clapping was moderate and not enough to call the conductor back out. Most of the audience left quickly to the metro to get to the next concert across town at the Teatr Wielki for the next concert…

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - X

The second concert yesterday was entitled “Kommander Kobayashi - Opera Saga, Series 2″ and took place at the Teatr Wielki(Grand Theater, where the Opera performs).  Being my first time inside there I found it an amazingly large building, more amazing that the performance was on the third floor where they have an extra opera room for smaller opera, a somewhat recital hall size audience but with a still very large stage!

I arrived a little early and was reading the program: it as the second part in a three-part opera project where different composers each created a small opera episode for the same characters.  The general story was a science=fiction one where a crew of people were drifting in space aboard a ship though the story did have off-ship storylines.  The program notes included the backstory from the first part though I didn’t get to read it too deeply before watching the performance. I was expecting that the opera would be pretty fun and light and while quite fun I think the two composers did manage to bring a bit of depth to the characters and the music.

The episodes performed tonight were:

• Siergiej Newski - The Destruction of Moskow Is Not a Solution
• Aleksandra Gryka - SCREAM YOU

Some notes I took at the performance:

Newski - music very nicely done, story intro a little clumsy but appreciated to get the backstory, staging a little problematic due to where I was sitting (hard to see things sometimes), very nice use of subtle electronic sounds, music writing very nice, club scene a little strange to switch to recorded electronic pop music but sure what else one would do in that situation, very controlled delicate writing

Gryka - very fun, sort of music on the edge of disintegration, well sung and performed, a little looser in feel than the Newski and had some elements of free-jazz in feel, had a more circus feel to the story than the Newski

I really enjoyed these performances and the operas as a whole very much.  It was a lot of fun and the music was done very well by each composer in their own ways. I have to say that I find that the composers really did have a good command over the extended techniques and noise sources to make them really work (are these techniques really so “extended” anymore?) and had a lot of side thoughts about how composers in Europe must have a lot to draw upon within the realm of experience with instrumental techniques and timbres that the older generations have explored. I also noted to myself that most of the music I’ve heard this festival works with a mechanism of drama, sometimes a bit much but more often done simply quite well.  It’s something I enjoy (Crumb’s music does hold a very big place in my heart) and I find drawn to at times but at the same time it is perhaps not what I myself am after.  I did note to perhaps experiment once again in that area (Explorer II is shaping up to be something of this).

I also found that one aspect of the use of instruments I was really impressed with–not having thought about it so much in a long while–is how easy it is to write and have such a wide palette of sounds and articulations in terms of notating these ideas and how intuitive it is to imagine the sounds.  I myself have been exploring a very limited set of parameters and am committed to continuing that exploration, but the idea of analyzing the qualities of music notation (one gesture can create pitch and duration, articulation are separate and modify qualities of the notes, etc.) and seeing what has been done in the computer music world (i.e. lilypond) and see about either finding or creating  a system from what comes from my analysis.

An very enjoyable performance, good music, and much to think about…

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - XI

The last concert last night was at the Koneser Vodka Distillers building, a very neat large warehouse in Praga that has been being used for performances.  It was our first time there and really enjoyed the the space. Once again, I was amazed at the audience: the concert started at 10:30PM and was again a full house, with people bringing children and even much older people in attendance.  It made me think a lot about the history of this festival and how generations of people have grown up with this. (It’s amazing to me to think that composers here have such an event happen every year…).  I’ve noticed too that most of the audience is Polish (I hear English spoken here and there but only a handful of people) and would have hoped that more people abroad would be here to attend this as I think it’s a really special and wonderful event and I have not seen anything like it elsewhere.

The theme of the concert was “Polish Songs” and touched on ideas of the relationship of old folk songs to today.  Each of the pieces/performances last night tapped into the idea in some way.  The performances were:

• Polish Songs
• Jacek Kochan - Alsamples
• Jaroslaw Siwinski - Polish Songs
• Jerzy Kornowicz - Scenes from Boundless Realms

Some notes I took at the performance:

Polish Songs - wonderfully performed old polish songs by the Ensemble of International School of Traditional Music in Lublin, performed in the dark, wonderful rhythms and changing phrase lengths, many different types of songs (themes)

*Intermission*

Kochan - reorganized with performers in center, long and felt even longer, somewhat composed free jazz with electronic amplification/processing and glitchy sounds, very loud and seemed to have balance issues in the mix, trumpet reminded me at times of “Bitches Brew” but with an experimental trumpeter at the wheel, never felt very cohesive like in the free jazz improvisations I’ve enjoyed in the past, singers came in near end but wasn’t really integrated into the piece, didn’t feel there was much listening as an ensemble and didn’t feel driven by intuition

Siwinski - tape piece, beginning was long a pulsating bass tone with some tones and some colored noise, tasteful, droney, very minimal, nice breath like noise gesture; near end got really loud and noisy as a section loops, ended with a vocal sample clip(perhaps other material derived from it?); was a bit tired at end of piece (12:50AM) and quick entry of loud part was a bit harsh; opening reminded me of Eliane Radigue but haven’t heard her stuff in a while

Kornowicz- a structured improvisation by group called Mud Cavaliers comprised of many well known Polish composers, different sections clearly demarcated, there were sections where the singers performed (were still in the dark); improvisation was very tastefully done, each performer played on their own but seemed also to be very aware of the group, some of the sections really rocked out (one had a sort of hardcore jungle beat that looped), very fun and also very musical

It was really nice to be out at this venue for the concert.  I wasn’t sure I was going to make it to the end as concert lasted until 2:00AM in the morning and I had gotten sick yesterday (still am a bit today), but I was very glad to have heard the Mud Cavaliers perform (reminded me of good times doing improvisation at BACSUG meetings with Jim and Matt). It was neat too that the singers were in the dark the whole night until the very end when the lights shown and they were somewhat revealed: performers of all ages and in normal clothes.  The idea of how folk music is still alive and is a part of the culture seemed really accented with that gesture.

After the concert we weren’t quite sure how to get back to our side of the river so we ended up walking a bit until we found a bus stop with a night bus.  Being a little chilly, we took the first bus to arrive and then got off sort of out of the way near the river.  Walking through the old town and through the city so late at night, it was amazing how quiet and still everything felt, and it reminded me of all the times I had stayed up so late into the nights when I was younger and worked away during that quiet and peaceful time…

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - XII

Tonight’s concert was the last one at the Witold Lutoslawski Polish Radio Concert Studio for this year’s festival.  The concert tonight was one of chamber ensemble music by the Polish-German Youth Ensemble.  The pieces tonight were:

• Vykintas Baltakas - Ouroboros
• Alexander Shchetynsky - Chamber Symphony
• Bernd Alois Zimmermann - Omnia tempus habent
• Joanna Woźny - Return
• Enno Poppe - Öl

Some notes I took on the pieces:

Baltakas - most of piece had a very Scelsi-esque focus on single note and deviations away from it, interesting arrangement (ensemble in middle; flute, clarinet, soprano sax, and oboe soloists as a semi-circle ring outside), nice timbral transformations of ideas between solo instruments, quiet writing not so strong with overuse of silence breaking momentum (worked somewhat at end though I thought the penultimate gesture could have ended the piece nicely), bigger writing was quite nice, Lutoslawski-esque in sense of time and similarities in material; absolutely wonderful use of accordion, especially for pianissimo held tones (first time I’ve ever heard accordion work); ensemble was not big enough to support the biggest moments though; a wonderful moment with a really nice use and framing of sustained trills in the second half of piece

Shchetynsky - either too densely written for material or not orchestrated well for ideas to come out; meandered a bit under its own weight; some ideas seemed that they may have work with a larger dynamic range and felt the ideas would have worked more effectively with an orchestra size section of  strings, not just for volume but also the group sound of strings versus solo string sound; some nice writing and material but overall form didn’t feel focused

Zimmerman - performer has a nice voice but did not perform very convincingly(perhaps nervous?); instrumental writing was very good, expressionistic and dramatic; did not like the text very much and vocal writing had some nice elements but didn’t seem framed very well; some vocal lines and gestures seemed over-used and thus lost efficacy; hard to get into as the vocal part was a prime focus of the piece and I wasn’t into it

Wozny - pretty strong piece; opening section filled with short gestures and frenetic sonorist texture seemed a bit much to start with; after opening section really started to establish a very cohesive sound world; very elegantly written, sax soloist performed very well; most of the extended effects were extremely well used but did feel some were out of context or extraneous(though only a few cases of that, much more on the side of being well used); would like to listen to this again

Poppe - generally lacked focus and scale of things felt out of proportion; had issues with orchestration (ideas masked by weight of other ideas); thick parts felt too densely written; high frequency ideas were nice ideas on their own but felt overly saturated and overused to be effective

Overall, I felt that there was a lot of really nice things going on in a few of the pieces tonight. The last piece really brought up a lot of issues on orchestration though and I started getting a lot of thoughts in my head about concerns that I generally think about in terms of electronic music.  The complex writing with many similar instruments in the same range didn’t allow for the ideas to speak very much and in the end the spectrum felt saturated with everyone masking the sound of everyone else (reminded me of thing that happen in electronic pieces with way too much reverb).  This isn’t particular to just the last piece but also a lot of pieces with very complex material.

This also reminded me of an old thought I had long ago regarding temporally complex material as well as thick harmony and the relationship of that to harmonic and inharmonic sounds and how with a gong or other inharmonic source what I found most natural was to let it ring for quite some time until the sound really “speaks”.  I think with complex material it often doesn’t ever “speak” in that it isn’t used long enough or set at the right scale of time so that the different parts that form the complexity are discernible.

Many other thoughts came to mind in tonight’s concert though I think I will begin to collect them up for a different series of writings later.

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Reich, Lindberg (the Swedish one)

"He was Reich all along," Time Out Chicago, Sept. 28, 2006. "[Steve] Reich is that rare classical composer whose influence isn't confined to his nominal genre." "Slide show," ditto. "It's about as far away from Elliott Carter and all that crap that we have to play as you can get," says Chicago Symphony trombonist Charles Vernon of the new concerto by Christian Lindberg he's premiering this week.
Physical fitness bonus: "I Heart Running."

Originally posted by MarcGeelhoed from Marc Geelhoed: Deceptively Simple, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Playing "In C"

Last night I played ringleader for about a dozen people who got together to play In C. The instrumentation was nicely eclectic: handful of string players, oboe, trumpet, sax, metal recorder, electric guitar, and percussion (a guy hitting a chair with yarn mallets). Three other pianists took an octave each on the piano while I beat out the pulse.

You read in books how the piece represents a different paradigm for performance practice, but it doesn't really set in until you play it. We were arranged in a ring, so everyone could see each other. However, the cave-like ambience of the room precluded being able to hear everyone well. As a result, little "cliques" formed. Instead of everyone playing off the group, people tended to respond mostly to the people immediately around them. Broader interactions occured occasionally, but they weren't common.

What stuck out to me was seeing how the players could be guided through the piece by their individual interest. People dropped off in places and picked up again when something seemed to grab their attention. Our performance had a very ephemeral, episodic flow. Every so often the group "clicked" and we got some intriguing interactions, but after a few moments it diffused back to murkiness. Hardly a unified narrative, but not boring either. From my vantage point, the experience was comparable to people watching on a busy street.

Though the piece is fully accepts the individuality and personality of all involved, it doesn't react well with diva personalities. Since everyone is of equal importance, you have to be okay with being another one of the unwashed. It's a self-policing system in a way. A spot in it is reserved for anyone who wants to make whatever contribution they feel up to, so long as they're willing to be co-equals. Anyone who wants to hog the spotlight will probably leave on their own, purely out of disinterest.

The followup question to this experience is whether this kind of social environment is implicit to open instrumentation pieces. Only one way to find out...

Originally from Form/Content, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Classical music buyers embrace the iPod age

Gramophone, 9/28/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

Shostakovich widow wants row to end

BBC , 9/28/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

Dangerous Curve presents

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

Which Side Are You On ?"

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

Burkhold Schlothauer

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

The compression syndrome

Via Sasha, a fascinating article on why modern pop records are, to quote the Grawemeyer Award-winning composer Harrison Birtwistle, "so effing loud." I've taken a lot of post-Oasis pop off my iPod because the contrasts in loudness are so irritating. If the machine is on shuffle play, I'll be deafened by a switch from Josquin to Justin, even when the volume is set relatively low. This practice is to music as steroids is to sports. I haven't noticed excessive decibel-boosting on classical releases, but the same syndrome may be at work in live performance: everyone knows orchestras play louder than they ever used to, and concert-hall designers are favoring super-bright acoustics.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Last-minute agenda

Tonight at Gallerie Icosahedron in New York, the much-liked Now Ensemble presents a concert of music by Nico Muhly, Judd Greenstein, Mark Dancigers, and William Brittelle — the last-named presenting the world premiere of his new work Michael Jackson, "a six-minute work written in an effort to juxtapose the brutally crucified public figure with the artistic persona created through the music he performed and (occasionally) wrote."

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

my nonprescription answer to zolpidem (Ambien)

Originally from david's waste of bandwidth..., ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

Letter from Boston: Ghosts, yearning, time, the sea, and the Globe

-1.) From H.H. Stuckenschmidt, “Arnold Schoenberg: His Life, World and Work,” translated by Humphrey Searle (New York: Schirmer Books, 1977):

” … in 1934 [Schoenberg] answered a query from Dr. Walter E. Koons of the National Broadcasting Corporation [sic] in New York, who wanted a definition for a book which he was planning, of what music meant to Schoenberg. His reply was:

‘Music is a simultaneous and a successiveness of tones and tonal-combinations, which are so organized that its impression on the ear is agreeable, and that its impression on the intelligence is comprehensible, and that these impressions have the power to influence occult parts of our soul and of our sentimental spheres and that this influence makes us live in a dreamland of fulfilled desires, or in a dreamed hell.’”

He had to ask?

* * * * *

1.) Let’s say that your tastes run to Gagaku, the world’s most ancient (and ancient-sounding) orchestral music. Or to Messiaen’s deliriously half-cracked song cycle “Harawi” (”Doundou tchil! Doundou tchil! Doundou tchil!” — one can’t help quoting). Or “Pierrot Lunaire.” Or that claustrophobic film classic “Woman of the Dunes” (dir. Hiroshi Teshigahara, 1964) …

Then lucky you if you happened to be at the First Church in Boston, 66 Marlborough Street, on a recent Sunday night (September 17) for the local premiere of Lee Hyla’s “At Suma Beach” (2003).

Something you noticed first off, and with relief, about Hyla’s “reduction/adaptation” of the Noh play “Matsukaze” was its avoidance of bogus japonaiserie, even of the most refined type. (If you crave some queasy examples of that, go and listen to Toru Takemitsu on one of his really bad days. And by the way, how widely known is it that in the early 20th century the Japanese themselves were turning out imitations of “Madame Butterfly”? Source: William P. Malm, University of Michigan.)

The piece’s instrumental setup — clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano, and percussion — has nothing particularly extreme about it per se. But any mezzo-soprano who thinks about taking it on had better be carrying extra insurance. You either sing it or you die.

Mostly sing it, that is. Also required are: speaking, half-speaking and half-singing, moaning, whispering, and even growling. The pitches are fixed most of the time, but every so often they’re let loose and encouraged to range just about wherever they like. But please to come back. Towards the close, a few choice ones go either very high or very low.

Does “At Suma Beach” have one text or two? The question arises because for some 25 minutes the piece is constantly oscillating back and forth between the Japanese and an English translation, the latter making a point of leaving the Japanese word order quite as it is thank you. An example: “So recited with reason/Still longing deepens/’Yoiyo ni/Nugite waga nuru kari-goromo.’”

It probably doesn’t matter, since there was a kind of double benefit here. (1) You got to hear the abstract beauty an unfamiliar language can yield up (such vowels, such rhythms!) and (2) you also got to hear a fair amount of informative content. The sad, eerie story did indeed get told. We always knew where we were and what the characters were thinking and feeling.
2.) It went like this. A tiny wisp of clarinet sonority gently detaches itself from the other instruments. Then comes some obliquely pictorial moon and sea music (more wisps and glints), and the singer enters: Bach specialist Pamela Dellal, whose lustrous mezzo — and its extensions — seemed primed for anything.

We’re told about the two sisters, who are now ghosts, about stifled passions of centuries past, and about the lover whom one of the sisters has willed into returning in an other than human shape. Nothing comes of it in the end except more longing and pain, the passage of time, the wind and the sea — those wisps of clarinet sonority have returned — the sea and the wind. We are where we were.

Of course Hyla’s music is informed here by what traditional Japanese music sounds like — that’s why he went to Japan for two months — but it’s informed as well by his ease and familiarity with many different kinds of music, high and low, mandarin and demotic. (On that two-month visit to Japan to gather material Hyla found that there are such things as Gagaku garage bands. Well, he would.  And by his own admission he threw quite a lot to achieve that seamless 25-minute span.)

Overall what most struck your reviewer most about “At Suma Beach” was its feeling of steady, subtle emotional momentum. Next, how shrewdly integrated the thing was, and whata fetching, varicolored “sound” piece it turned out to be without half trying. That’s how Hyla is with instruments. He can’t help himself.

Marvelous stuff. Chilling. Moving. Will we ever hear it again?

The excellent performers — please note their names! — were: the Dinosaur Annex Music Ensemble: Diane Heffner (clarinet), Cyrus Stevens (violin), Kate Vincent (viola), Michael Curry (cello), Donald Berman (piano), Robert Schulz (percussion), with Pamela Dellal (mezzo) and Scott Wheeler (conductor).

* * * * *

3.) October looms, the evenings draw in earlier, and the Boston musical scene has come to life again — flutist Fenwick Smith gave his annual virtuosic staples-plus-oddities recital at NEC, the BSO has had the carpenters in at Symphony Hall to lay down a new stage floor (mind those acoustics, lads!), the Handel and Haydn Society/English National Opera’s strongly sung, nice to look at, hip-exotic “Orfeo” came and went, and a rather dimly played all-Nikos Skalkottas concert at BU succeeded in raising doubts — not what was intended at all — about the reputation of this composer, who was cited as one of the 20th-century’s half dozen greatest by Hans Keller, the flintily brilliant UK opinion-monger, Haydn expert, string quartet coach, and BBC heavy, now deceased. (Evidently the Bis CDs of his music make a different impression, and it turns out that folklorism can indeed lie down companionably with the 12-tone method. See various rave reviews in Gramophone magazine.)  A big shock: how loud and vehement, bludgeoning home point after interpretive point (the victim: Mozart’s K. 387), the Borromeo String Quartet, once everybody’s darlings, has become. Well, look at all the touring they do. They’ve caught the disease. Richard Dyer is gone, very gone (as of Sept. 18) from the Boston Globe, and not only that, as soon as he left they — or rather, They — took the throne away. There will be no more of that, They said, speaking as one man. The question now is: who is this Jeremy Eichler person? Is there any ragtime in his soul? Will he spell even a wee bit of trouble? Let us pray.

All of which may be neither here nor there. The real event of the month — we insist — was Lee Hyla’s “At Suma Beach.”

RICHARD BUELL can be reached at rbuell@verizon.net

Originally posted by Richard Buell from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

Two More Points on the Virtual Compass

Apologies for the continued preoccupation with my compadre Herr Olewnick, but I just happened to stumble across his blog today. The appropriately titled Just Outside dates back to June of ’06 and I have to admit I’m a bit...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

Jason Moran's 'Artist in Residence' - a review... 28 September 2006...

There is a steely confidence about Jason Moran... which manifests not just in his performance on piano but in his wider conceptual ambitions... For example: the origins of the music on his new CD for Blue Note, 'Artist in Residence,' are in three recent commissions from the American art world. The Walker Art Center commission 'Milestone' was an engagement with the life and work of Adrian Piper, specifically 'The Mythic Being: I/You (Her).' To quote from her website:

'Adrian Margaret Smith Piper is a conceptual artist whose work, in a variety of media, focused on racism, racial stereotyping and xenophobia for over three decades; and now investigates the deeper spiritual and ideological pathologies that cause them.' (Quoted from here...).

The Dia Art Foundation material comes from 'The Shape, the Scent, the Feel of Things,' created in collaboration with the performance and video artist Joan Jonas who 'uses unlikely combinations of objects to create performances that are concerned with the image as metaphor. ' (Quoted from here...).

'RAIN' originated in a commission for sextet from Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Moran took a selection of all this material and condensed it down to one CD – which acts as a succession of snapshots from the larger works. Can we group these snapshots into a coherent whole, considering the obvious lack of the visual/theatrical elements? We shall see...

A significant amount of his work has been inspired by artists such as Egon Schiel, Robert Rauschenberg and Jean-Michel Basquiat. So, engaging with the art world is a logical and conscious strategy to reach out beyond the boundaries of what we can loosely still just about call 'jazz' – as problematic a word as 'art.' Moran, arguably, wants 'jazz' to be regarded as 'art' – but on its own terms, with respect for its history. This is not obeisance to the academy but negotiation... from strength. Within the boundaries of the 'jazz' tradition he is also moving backwards and forwards while incorporating currents from outside - hip hop for example and sampling techniques. These trajectories – which amount to an overall call for free artistic interchange between idioms and cultures 'high' and 'low' - are encapsulated on the first track:

'Artist in Residence' opens with what could be regarded as a manifesto (in the tradition of 'art') - 'Breakdown' – using the sampled voice of Adrian Piper as the piano shadows the vocal movement, over a strong back beat, the piano slowly edging out into rolling lines, some hammered low register chords as the drums breakdown from the hip-hop inflected rhythm and erupt into freer rolling pulses - Piper declaims: 'Breakdown the barriers,' ...'The misunderstandings...' Break down the barriers between idioms? 'Artist in Residence' proceeds to do just that... A funky start...

In contrast – 'Milestone' (echoes of Miles...) - a slow elegaic intro and the soprano voice of Alicia Hall Moran comes in – classically trained and singing with elegant grace – name-checking European cities as if in recognition of her 'orthodox' musical origins: 'London, Paris, Brussels, too' – then rolling drums rising and bass doubling behind the piano – the guitar of Marvin Sewell imitates the voice timbres and melodic movement in swooping figures as the piano expands rhapsodically. This track reminds me - glancingly - of Steve Lacy - his take on 'art songs' in partnership with his wife Irene Aebi. (Lacy also took much inspiration from artists – Paul Klee, for one). 'Milestone' is less angular than Lacy's work, but has much warmth and beauty and manages to create a space where classical voice and jazz can co-exist easily (a deliberate echo of the Morans' marital relationship?).

'Refraction 2.' Jazzy bass bounces over washing electronic soundscape followed by the piano riffing in – some stomping playing here as the Bandwagon jumps – Waits giving his percussive all towards the end. One of the tactics you notice throughout this album is the way in which often simple riffs/repeated figures are used to expand outwards to build complicated structures and movement – an ever-expanding circling dance which could stand as the overall image for this project, perhaps?. More of this later...

'Cradle Song' – out of the cradle endlessly rocking... a gentle piano sounds as scratching noises obtrude – a mirror of memory – his late mother used to make pencil notes as he practised/played... But: if you did not know what the extraneous noise is, how would you link it to the overall thrust of the piece? This is after all a private resonance – the gap between original performance and studio recreation minus the visual/explanatory dimension shows here. Yet: once you are aware of the original intention, it does add to the experience by creating a poignant image... The piano builds in a powerfully emotional rendering as the pencil scratching ceases – leaving that trace of sad memory in its absence.

'Artists ought to be writing.' Continuing the theme of breaking down the barriers – a plea for wider understanding of the artist's life –' if the artist's ideas were more accessible to the general public I think it might break down some of the barriers etc'– the speech rhythms of Adrian Piper subtly matched and interlaced with the piano's falling and rising... which comments interestingly on the words and eventually leaves them behind – is there a subtle conflict going on here? That however much one tries to explain verbally, music will always go beyond. 'All art constantly aspires towards the condition of music,' in the often-quoted words of Walter Pater. (From 'The School of Giorgione,' online source here...). Piper comes across a little overwrought, maybe – but the point she makes rather didactically ('artists should be...' Well – why should they be? Discuss...) is valid enough – perhaps - in the overall theme of breaking down barriers and Moran's use of her voice on this track is fascinating in its endeavour.

'Refraction 1' opens with slow ringing treble figures as Joan Jolas's lightly pattering, scraping and sporadic ringing percussion comments. Moran has to play through her rather than with her – coming into a lurching left hand stop-start rhythm as he fires off streams of single notes and chords. The percussion becomes busier to match the rising volume and complexity of the piano – in emotional intent rather than matched technical facility. Not sure about this track – maybe the live performance and visual dimension help this piece although Moran's playing is as ever immaculate. Break down the barriers between professional and amateur musicians, anyone?

'Arizona Landscape' – solo piano - a loping bass – from an archetypal western soundtrack – crossed with a distant murmur of boogie woogie? Echoes of: Sonny Rollins, intentional or otherwise ('I'm an old cowhand' etc)... meets John Ford – with an odd resonance of Woody Guthrie's 'Pastures of Plenty' in the tune (maybe this is unintentional). Cinematic in range, ironic in tone:

'I'm, like, a big movie fanatic. I watch a lot of movies all the time. And I'm always listening to the soundtracks in the background, behind certain scenes or just the soundtrack in general, the pieces that they choose to support a scene. ' (From an interview with Fred Jung here... ).

Moran said in another interview that one of the things he admired about Jaki Byard and two other musicians who were strong influences was their use of the whole keyboard – 'Those cats, Jaki, along with Andrew and Muhal, they use the entire piano.' (From am interview with Fred Jung here...). This panoramic wide-open keyboard skill is appropriately (given the spatial/desert theme) on display here. Moran is an exceptionally good solo player – two fisted meaty stuff.

'Rain'.

'After a regular worship service, congregations used to stay for a “ring shout”. It was a survival of primitive [sic] African dance. So, educated ministers and members placed a ban on it. The men and women arranged themselves in a ring. The music started, perhaps with a Spiritual, and the ring began to move, at first slowly, then with quickening pace. The same musical phrase was repeated over and over for hours. This produced an ecstatic state. Women screamed and fell. Men, exhausted, dropped out of the ring. (Quoted from here...).

Begins with rustling footsteps in evocation of the above-described ring shout or ring dance, then a mournful trumpet (Ralph Alessi) proceeds to state and repeat a six bar theme followed by piano, bass, eventually soft drums, ensemble slowly coming together. The tempo starts to accelerate, changing key and the drums become more involved spurring the song along with pouncing keyboard interjections. The trumpet is gradually overwhelmed by the now-rampaging piano-led ensemble, being slowly buried in the mix, as if having heaps of sound tossed over it. Slowing down again to a mainly backbeat driven section with the trumpet emerging and hiding and re-emerging to restate the theme - finally to solo over pedal driven chords moving round an insistent e flat. Possibly the ebbing and flowing of the trumpet volume is deliberate as in the original live performance he was circling the group onstage in emulation of the dance the piece was inspired by. A seamless transition as the rhythm stretches into another fiery freed-up section, that evokes the trangressive nature of the older African ritual coming through the newer framework of the adopted Christian religion – 'educated ministers placed a ban on it' - all finally reining back the volume and tempo as the rustling footsteps return ... the circle is completed. A highly accomplished ensemble piece - Abdou Mboup's contribution (on djembe, kora, talking drum) and Marvin Sewell's guitar adding to the overall colourations rather than being sharply-defined voices.

'Lift every voice' – a slow rolling beginning, the guitar vocalising a melismatic line over the gospel-style piano as they pay homage to James and John Wheldon Johnson's historic song. ( the lyrics are here...). Hammered low register piano – as emotional single note lines spin out behind the guitar's pleading urgency. Drifting almost imperceptibly into a strong swinging four four – nice guitar again from Sewell here – bluesy and vocally testifying, playing with timbres as the trio go into a repeated four bar section – some bass double-timed rippling high to low before a rather abrupt fade out stop. This track was not part of the original three commissions, but, given its historic significance, dovetails in neatly.

'He puts on his coat and leaves.' Solo piano – reflective over a left hand vamp, variations building and overlapping. Like someone building a structure before you, starting with the foundations and moving upwards and outwards until a light treble fall back collapses it and signals the end of the track - and the album - on a peaceful chord that - fancifully - puts on its coat – and leaves... An understated ending...


A creative musician has always had to be aware of his/her tradition – and be able play their way through it to discover their own ground, by omission or inclusion or a combination of both... To complicate things further, contemporary music – and what used to be called 'jazz' especially - has evolved and fragmented to the point where an often overwhelming number of streams run into it, further speeded up in recent years by the immediacy of global technology. To incorporate them with ease – and finesse– on the journeys through the territory - that's the trick. From Hip-Hop to High Art and all 'jazz' stations in between. Has Jason Moran succeeded here? By and large – yes. His ambition is no small thing – so it is not surprising that here and there it overreaches itself. But that is a minor quibble. Overall, I think that the selections from different performances, apart from acting as a valuable record, do adhere better than might be expected, because they have a couple of themes moving through that help to create an albeit fragile unity. For example, the long and troubled journey of African-American history and culture, from the ring-shouts of slavery (and before) to the modern Art commission. And on a different but linked trajectory, the urge to 'breakdown the barriers' between the walls that surround high art/the museum/the gallery and the wider public and their vernacular social musics – hip-hop, for example – with 'jazz' – at times elitist, especially since the emergence of a conscious avant-garde, at times popular/social - standing in an uneasy position in the middle. Interestingly, the album does not describe a straight line – rather it enacts (appropriately) a circular dance to widen out the musical field. Performed with a warm generosity that flows from the firm confidence of Moran's artistic conception. Compositionally, this is echoed - by taking often fairly minimal material and expanding it out... as a complex dance builds from individual footsteps... Arguably, in the specific jazz tradition of his chosen antecedents ...'Monk was my first [major influence]...' (from an interview with Fred Jung here...).
Which brings us back to history in a convenient circle dance of my own... Monk, of course, was mightily aware of his antecedents. As was another of Moran's mentors – Jackie Byard.

'He [Byard] embodied what every essential pianist should embody. He could grasp anything from stride to ragtime to some very free jazz. ' (Ibid).

This inclusiveness is the hallmark of Moran's playing and composing, the ability to incorporate sometimes conflicting material into an overall vision that looks back with respect to often forgotten and neglected origins – and forwards to new syntheses, new ideas, utilsing new technologies... Often, when 'jazz' has engaged with 'art,' the results have been forced or dry and arid. Apart fom a few small wobbles here and there – in the overall scheme, a risk worth taking – Moran avoids this significantly on this CD, his own exemplary playing helped by the tight cohesion and complementary instrumental skills of Tarus Mateen, Nasheet Waits in his core unit, the Bandwagon, and the contributions of his guests, especially Marvin Sewell's guitar and Ralph Elessi's trumpet playing on 'Rain.' Further, the decision to take this music out of its original contexts was an interesting gamble – given the quality of conception and performance on 'Artist in Residence', this has paid off handsomely...


Jason Moran – Artist in Residence.

(Jason Moran – piano; Marvin Sewell - guitar; Tarus Mateen – bass; Nasheet Waits – drums; Alicia Hall Moran – vocals; Adrian Piper – sampled voice; Joan Jonas – percussion (bells, shakers, toy car, claves); Abdou Mboup – djembe, kora, talking drum; Ralph Alessi – trumpet)

You can buy the CDhere...

Originally from wordsandmusic, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Delayed reaction.

Posting about Monday night's circus maximus at the Metropolitan Opera at this point seems so...redundant? Pointless? Self-indulgent? I mean, really, it's a sign of Peter Gelb's initial success that the first reports were hitting the wires and the web while the primary cast members were taking their second curtain calls out on the Grand Tier balcony. (A very nice touch, by the way, for Gelb and his players to acknowledge the hundreds who watched the big show out on the patio.) Still, I was there, I saw it and I have my opinions on what worked and what didn't just like everyone else, so what the hell?

I have little sympathy for critics who panned the production; let's just get that out of the way up front. As Maury D'Annato pointed out, this was the most beautiful conception to appear on the Met's stage since Herbert Wernicke's Die Frau ohne Schatten in 2001. The stage was saturated in painterly colors, subtly adjusted to underscore mood. Minimal sets were employed to masterful ends. Powerful images were revealed one after another: the Act One love duet, set in a darkened void amidst paper lanterns and a shower of petals, and Pinkerton's literal disappearance at the beginning of Act Two were two of the most striking. And the final scene left me speechless, practically unable to breathe, for a good 20 minutes. (Minghella also choreographed the most artful curtain call I've ever seen.)

Debate over the use of bunraku puppets -- in particular the one that represented Butterfly's son, Trouble -- continues to rage. I am firmly in the "pro" category here. The character, if you can call it that, is a cypher, a symbol; portraying it in so obvious a symbolic manner does no harm to this work unless you're dead set on some sort of old-fashioned verisimilitude -- and an opera that coasts so close to banality can definitely stand a bit of freedom in its visual interpretation, anyway. It's a choice, not a child...and so what? Kudos to Mark Down, Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell for creating one of the most deft portrayals on that stage.

On camera, I'll just bet that Cristina Gallardo-Domâs was spectacular, all uncertain, quivering girlishness and slightly hunched deference. At times, her mannerisms seemed to verge on nervous tics, but for the most part you could tell that she'd genuinely put a great deal of time and effort into creating the character. That just made her vocal performance all the more disappointing. I would not go so far as to suggest that it was fatally flawed, although others certainly have. As it happens, just yesterday I was discussing via e-mail my impressions of Gallardo-Domâs's singing with a very dear old friend, my original operatic enabler. In response, he pointed out something he'd written in a review of Harnoncourt's Aida that I'd commissioned for Time Out New York in 2002:

In the title role, Cristina Gallardo-Domâs is vividly dramatic. When called upon to sing softly, she has some lovely moments.... Elsewhere, however, it's painful to listen to her fling her lyric voice repeatedly against Verdi's large orchestra and choral forces. Her tone curdles, and the top of her voice wobbles alarmingly for a singer so young.

Too true, and a fair analysis of what we heard Monday night, as well. Her colleagues fared better. Marcello Giordani, slimmed and virile, was a potent Pinkerton; the top notes were thrilling, as you would expect, but what no one seemed to have commented upon was the genuinely creepy, almost feral quality that he brought to his physical bearing in the Act One love duet. Some have suggested that Giordani's Pinkerton was almost too polite and respectful, but his wolfish clutching and pawing during this scene made no mystery of the character's real motivation.

Dwayne Croft was a sturdy, sympathetic Sharpless, and Maria Zifchak's Suzuki was every bit the success that everyone else has claimed. As for what went on in the pit...well, it was wonderful to see Levine back in action at last, and it was this, more than anything else, that compelled my presence on opening night. (Seeing Salman Rushdie and Jimmy Fallon pass by within five minutes of one another during intermission was simply icing on the cake.)

But in the end, Levine's participation redoubled my intention to see this production again later in the run. His slow, deliberate interpretation may well have paid dividends in the kaleidoscopic colors and vivid textures produced by his orchestra, but at the expense of sapping momentum and urgency. Asher Fisch demonstrated a greater affinity for Puccini in a few relatively brief interludes during the New York Philharmonic's otherwise rather dire Andrea Bocelli engagement a few weeks ago than Levine managed to do all night here.

On the whole, the positive very much outweighed the negative on Monday night. And while bringing this particular production into the Met for opening night was surely far less of a risk than it was made out to be, the fact that Peter Gelb was able to command the city's attention for an evening was a major coup. This company may be sustained by the mighty force of its traditions, but it's buzzworthy productions like this one -- and, most likely, the forthcoming Bartlett Sher Barber of Seville and Zhang Yimou's The First Emperor -- that stand the best chance of bringing new energy and blood into this old house.

=====

In the two days prior to the Met opening, I caught productions at New York City Opera that were very nearly as innovative and noteworthy, even if they didn't attract a fraction of the attention. On Saturday night, Semele extended this company's winning way with Handel. True, the overall impact wasn't as striking as that of Alcina a few seasons back, but the production made its point in a not-overbearing manner. Summoning the shades of Marilyn Monroe and JFK was a playfully smart move; I also enjoyed the brief invocation of Dubya's bomber-jacketed bravado, but felt that an obvious opportunity was missed in the final scene by the absence of a chunky brunette in peacoat and beret -- stained blue dress optional.

As others stated of previous performances, the Baroque is hardly Elizabeth Futral's metier; she got by on presence, boldness and force of will, but as Sieglinde noted, she definitely sounded like a visitor on these shores. Vivica Genaux, on the other hand, simply killed, and looked stunning as well. Matthew White made less of an impression than I'd expected, Robert Breault grew stronger as the night wore on, and Sanford Sylvan claimed top honors for style and presence. Constance Hauman was vocally solid and visually daring.

The following afternoon brought the season prima of Frank Corsaro's innovative take on Korngold's gloomy, spooky Die tote Stadt. Ronald Chase's films and projections provided a novel vision of scenery, which very nearly made the notion of watching an entire stage production through a gauzy scrim palatable. George Manahan steered a heroic rendition of this rich score, but even with his orchestra covered by a hood, the two primary singers -- Dan Chamandy as Paul, Susan B. Anthony as Marietta/Marie -- had trouble cutting through the opulent din. Some of Anthony's early lines were completely inaudible; how much more rich and secure she sounded when delivering Marie's lines offstage, and amplified. Kathryn Friest Allyn and Weston Hurt, in the secondary roles of Brigitta and Frank, fared far better.

Still, overall this, too, was an effective production, especially when choral parts in the final act seemed to emanate from various points throughout the theater. Korngold's music proved more superficial in some respects than my memory of the Leinsdorf recording had maintained. But on the whole, this is an opera worth reviving from time to time, and the New York City Opera production does a good job of illustrating why that is so.

Playlist:

Vivica Genaux - Handel and Hasse Arias - Les Violons du Roy/Bernard Labadie (Virgin)

So Percussion - Amid the Noise (Cantaloupe)

Evan Ziporyn - Frog's Eye; The Ornate Zither and the Nomad Flute*; War Chant; Drill** - Anne Harley*, Evan Ziporyn**, Boston Modern Orchestra Project/Gil Rose (Cantaloupe)

Tito Schipa - Lebendige Vergangenheit (Preiser)

Titta Ruffo - The Early Recordings 1906-12 (Preiser)

Isis - In the Absence of Truth (Ipecac; due Oct. 31)

Otomo Yoshihide's New Jazz Quintet - ONJQ Live in Lisbon (Clear Feed)

Cordis - Here on Out (Playnice)

Sunn O))) - Black One (Southern Lord)

Peter Evans - More Is More (Psi)

Pissed Jeans - Shallow (Parts Unknown)

Metallica - Master of Puppets (Elektra)

Anton Bruckner - Symphony No. 5 - Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Eugen Jochum (Deutsche Grammophon)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Epitaph.

Boz Burrell would probably be appalled to hear it, but ever since I learned of the former King Crimson and Bad Company bass player's death earlier this afternoon, the song that's been stuck in my head is "Islands," the title track from King Crimson's fourth studio album. Issued in 1971, it's hardly the band's best work. But neither is it the wobbly disaster that it was so often made out to be back in the early '80s, when I was first getting to know the group's catalog.

The first King Crimson lineup -- Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, Michael Giles and Peter Sinfield, the one that recorded In the Court of the Crimson King -- had fallen apart somewhere near the end of its first American tour in 1969, a victim of youthful angst and too much success that came too quickly. McDonald and Giles announced their resignation somewhere in California. Lake stuck around long enough to record the second album, In the Wake of Poseidon -- a wan copy of the debut, for the most part -- then accepted an invitation from Keith Emerson to form a group that went on to define prog-rock excess and bloviation.

Left to their own devices, Fripp and Sinfield eventually assembled a new working band, with Fripp's old friend Gordon Haskell on bass and vocals, the tremendously gifted Mel Collins on woodwinds and mellotron, and Andy McCullough on drums. This lineup recorded Lizard, arguably King Crimson's most baroque creation, and certainly, given a phalanx of hired horns, its jazziest. But Haskell, a soul singer at heart, couldn't stomach the thought of continuing in this vein, and left the band before it could play a single gig. Fripp and Sinfield were once again back at square one. Auditions for a new singer-bassist commenced; one vocalist who failed to make the cut was Bryan Ferry, whose subsequent band Roxy Music signed with King Crimson's management.

Raymond Burrell, a relatively unseasoned scenester who didn't know how to play bass when his path crossed with Fripp's in 1971, probably wasn't the right man for the job, and he likely knew it. (His motivations for taking the gig will now forever remain his own, sadly; he was the sole former member of any King Crimson incarnation who refused to speak with biographer Sid Smith, author of the admirable 2001 biography, In the Court of King Crimson.) Burrell signed on as vocalist, and when a suitable bassist failed to materialize, Fripp took it upon himself to teach Burrell how to play the instrument.

Going by the name "Boz" only, Burrell made his live debut with King Crimson at Frankfurt's Zoom Club on April 12, 1971; Mel Collins and drummer Ian Wallace completed the band. A tape of the gig, which was recently made available for purchase in download format by Fripp's DGMLive.com website, reveals little sense of hesitation; Burrell might have been uncomfortable with some of Sinfield's toothier lyrics, such as the phantasmagorical "Cirkus," but that didn't stop him from giving it his best shot. More straightforward, grittier songs such as "Get Thy Bearings," "Pictures of a City" and the band's signature number, "21st Century Schizoid Man," seemed to present no difficulty. (Ironically, Smith's book reveals that Burrell was so disspirited by the debut that he nearly quit on the spot; walking around Frankfurt the next day, he happened into a cricket game and somehow regained his courage. The remaining three nights of the engagement, also available via DGMLive, grew stronger one by one.)

As a vocalist, Burrell possessed neither Lake's epic grandiosity nor the dusky machismo of John Wetton, his eventual replacement. His voice was light, plain and true, and no other Crimson singer before or since has sounded more convincing in blues-based material. Of course, that seldom mattered in any King Crimson before or since (although it has once again become something of an issue in the current Adrian Belew-fronted era). Similarly, Burrell's bass playing wasn't as skilled or ornate as that of anyone else who has held the position, but it was never less than solid and appropriate, a center of calm in the midst of the band's flashier players.

Much of the material that eventually turned up on Islands was played in on British dates in early 1971, which probably accounts for why the band already sounded so tight. The languid, ostinato-driven "Formentera Lady" revealed the influence of Miles Davis's modal jazz, simmering along at length until climaxing in overblown contributions from Paulina Lucas, a soprano from the Sadlers Wells Opera. The track segues into "The Sailor's Tale," an inexorable instrumental with a torrid, Sonny Sharrock-inspired guitar solo from Fripp, and a highlight of live shows from the period. "The Letters," a reworked version of the unrecorded 1969 song "Drop In," features some of Peter Sinfield's most utterly grandiose lyrics:

With quill and silver knife
She carved a poison pen
Wrote to her lover's wife
"Your husband's seed has fed my flesh."

As if a leper's face
That tainted letter graced
The wife with choke-stone throat
Ran to the day with tear-blind eyes.

How Burrell got through that one was anybody's guess; what's more, he spits a later line ("Impaled on nails of ice") with a terse fury that still provokes a chill.

The singer was most in his metier on "Ladies of the Road," the angular, lurching blues number that is this band's best-remembered contribution to the Crimson ouevre. Apart from Wetton, no Crimson singer could have delivered this kind of thing so convincingly:

Stone-headed Frisco spacer
Ate all the meat I gave her
Said would I like to taste hers
And even craved the flavour

Of course, Sinfield reverts to form with the next couplet:

"Like marron-glacéd fish bones!
Oh lady, hit the road!"

"Prelude: Song of the Gulls," an instrumental interlude, was a melody from a song by Fripp's pre-King Crimson band, Giles, Giles and Fripp, arranged for oboe and string orchestra. Quaint and pleasant, it nonetheless alludes to the guitarist's lofty ambitions. But the closing track, "Islands," is a gentle masterpiece: a simple ballad hymning the invisible threads that bind us even in isolation. Collins's rich bass flute, Sinfield's warm pedal harmonium, Keith Tippett's understated piano and Marc Charig's plainspoken cornet all contribute to this luminous meditation; Burrell's vocal delivery is ideal here.

According to Smith's book, it may actually have been Fripp's resentment of a 50/50 royalties split with Sinfield that poisoned the well for this fledgling Crimson; on tour, the guitarist became increasingly antisocial, even hostile. Added to this was the fact that for his young, inexperienced bandmates, America was a land of temptation -- and no one knew the consequences of cocaine yet. While Fripp abstained, his bandmates indulged, further egged on by their putative leader's distance. It led to a fraught atmosphere, from which glimmerings of genuine brilliance could only struggle to emerge.

For many years, the only official documentation of this band in concert was Earthbound, a live album issued in 1972. To call it desultory is to be generous; the album, recorded to cassette (!) during this Crimson's second American tour in 1972, has long struck me as deliberate sabotage on Fripp's part. True, it contains blistering versions of "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Groon," two compositions that predate this particular group. As for the rest, a truncated version of "The Sailor's Tale" offers an adequate representation of this band's own book; the title track and "Peoria," on the other hand, are relatively empty blues-based jams that suggest this version of the group specialized in lumpish groove music. Fripp's own view of this lineup seemed clear from the album title, not to mention the shoddy packaging, scappy sound and bargain-basement pricing. (Proving that diehard fans love what they love, popular demand compelled Fripp to reissue a remastered but essentially faithful Earthbound in 2005.)

Bootlegs of this band circulated all along, presumably. But in the early '90s, the floodgates opened and a different story emerged. Collins and Wallace in particular benefitted from illicit documentation of King Crimson's 1971 shows in England and America, but even Burrell was revealed to be not merely competent but frequently inspired. Even if it's patently clear that he was never an ideal fit for this band, his performances gain a heroic element for the sheer vibrance and tenacity he brought to the effort...usually. Dates from 1972, such as those featured on Earthbound, paled by comparison, but then, that tour was probably doomed to fail: this Crimson had effectively broken up in January of that year, then regrouped due to contractual obligation. Small wonder that its performances, at least as we know them on record, are less than optimal.

By the end of 1972, Fripp was working with a new band -- David Cross, John Wetton, Bill Bruford and Jamie Muir, a phenomenal combination and the group on whose achievements much of King Crimson's current renown is based. From the official record, the transition from the Islands band to the one that recorded Larks' Tongues in Aspic seems inexplicable -- as if the band had somehow, Athena-like, burst forth fully formed from Fripp's noggin.

A thaw between formerly incommunicative former bandmates began when Fripp underwent the arduous, lengthy process of extricating King Crimson's recorded legacy from the hands of the band's former management during the '90s. Bridges long burned were rebuilt; in the process, a body of live recordings was reconsidered, polished and made available for mass consumption. What's eminently clear is that the group that most benefitted from a posthumous re-evaluation was the one fronted by Burrell.

A live radio broadcast performance taped in Denver, Colorado on March 12, 1972, revealed a band that could think and act on the fly, delivering a viable set without access to the mellotrons that were so much a part of King Crimson's sonic signature. That much had been revealed on bootlegs, but an official CD issue via the King Crimson Collector's Club offered more: a previously uncirculated cover of the Pharoah Sanders tune, "The Creator Has a Master Plan." Another KCCC release, recorded in Detroit on December 13, 1971, features a version of "In the Court of the Crimson King" served up as a dirty 12-bar blues. ("I'm here, and I've been caught with my Crimson Thing in my hand!" Burrell shouts impertinently, while Fripp plays the nastiest guitar spurts of his career-to-date.) The sanctioned DGMLive release of the April 1971 Zoom Club shows demonstrated to a general audience what bootleg collectors already knew: the King Crimson of Islands was playing a bit of material that ended up in "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One" on its very first gig.

Proving that the band's fractious history isn't entirely being retroactively whitewashed, however, a DGMLive release of a concert from March 6, 1972 in Pittsburgh -- not even a full week before the abovementioned Denver show -- fully reveals the manner in which this band was largely going through the motions in 1972. Despite numerous instances of excellence, in particular Collins's contributions to "Cirkus," this performance reveals more than the normal quota of warts -- most especially the repulsive vocals Burrell and Wallace supply in "Ladies of the Road," as well as their inane between-song banter. The public release of this recording reveals that Fripp remains a realist with regard to this quartet's relative merits -- certainly in 1972, the bad came with the good. Still, even so rough a show demonstrates how quickly Burrell had become a genuinely estimable bassist.

My favorite live recording of this particular King Crimson remains unreleased, even now: the band's late show at the Academy of Music in New York City on November 24, 1971. (It's on the bootleg CD Cirkus.) As I understand it, Procol Harum was the headliner; Yes opened and King Crimson was in the middle slot. It's the most apocalyptic show I've heard from this version of the band. It's as carefully a nuanced set as the band ever presented, but its climaxes are of Last Exit intensity: Mel Collins blows with a fury reminiscent of latter-day saxophone beasts like Peter Brötzmann; Fripp answers with acetylene-torch incandescence. Peter Sinfield's gargantuan VCS-3 synthesizer swoops and bombs clinch the deal. Were I a member of Procol Harum, I don't know that I could have taken the stage at all that night.

The end of this band came at the conclusion of the 1972 American tour; Fripp went home to England and summoned the Larks' Tongues band, while Collins, Burrell and Wallace took up with British blues guitarist Alexis Korner, perhaps the polar extreme to Fripp.

The punch line, I suppose, is that Burrell, a singer who didn't originally play bass, ultimately found his greatest fame as a bassist who didn't sing, alongside Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs and Simon Kirke in Bad Company. Eventually, that band also ran its course, and Boz Burrell faded from the public record, seemingly of his own accord. Collins went on to become one of England's most highly demanded session players (if you know the Wang Chung single "Dance Hall Days," you know Collins's soprano sax at least), while Wallace would play behind Bob Dylan and Don Henley. Both have recently participated in the 21st Century Schizoid Band alongside Ian McDonald, Peter Giles and former Level 42 guitarist Jakko M. Jakszyk, playing music from the first two Crimson working groups (1969 and 1971) with a handful of latter-day additions.

Burrell's aversion to lending his voice to the ever-continuing reweaving of the King Crimson mythos is certainly lamentable. Sid Smith posted some timely words on Burrell's passing on his blog, Postcards from the Yellow Room. (The recent photo posted just above, by Mark Marnie, is borrowed from Sid's site; I hope he won't mind.) Over at DGMLive, you can download free of charge an unreleased remix of "Ladies of the Road" that was prepared for but ultimately omitted from the King Crimson box set Frame by Frame, on a page that also includes remembrances from the band's fans -- including, I notice, latter-day prog-rock bassist Fred Chalenor.

As I said at the beginning, Boz Burrell might well have been appalled to have a King Crimson song serve as his epitaph. Even so, the lines that have been passing through my head (and I'm not the only one, to judge by that DGM tribute page) are these, penned by Peter Sinfield:

Beneath the wind-turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands
'Neath heaven's sea.

R.I.P. Raymond "Boz" Burrell, August 1, 1946 - September 21, 2006

Playlist:

Genesis - Archive 1967-1975, CDs 1 & 2 (Atlantic)

Robert Plant - Pictures at Eleven (Rhino; from the Nine Lives box set, out Nov. 14)

Giacomo Puccini - Madama Butterfly - Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe Campora, Giovanni Inghilleri, Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome/Alberto Erede (Naxos); and Madama Butterfly, Act One - Renata Scotto, Renato Cioni, Alberto Rinaldi, Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Torino della RAI/Arturo Basile ("Unnatural Acts of Opera" podcast from Parterre Box)

John Adams - The Dharma at Big Sur*, My Father Knew Charles Ives - Tracy Silverman*, BBC Symphony Orchestra/John Adams (Nonesuch)

Robert Plant - The Principle of Moments (Rhino, from the Nine Lives box set, out Nov. 14)

King Crimson - Zoom Club, Frankfurt, Germany, April 12 and 13, 1971 (both DGMLive.com); Islands (Virgin); Cirkus (Scorpio; bootleg); Stanley Warner Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA, March 6, 1972 (DGMLive.com)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

David Allen at Firehouse 12

From www.improvisedcommunications.com:

Saturday, November 4th at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m.
Dave Allen Quartet
Firehouse 12
45 Crown Street in New Haven, CT
Tickets are $15 (opening set) and $10 (second set)
Tickets and info are available at http://www.firehouse12.com or (203) 785-0468
Learn more about Dave Allen at http://daveallenjazz.com
Hi-res image and music available by request

Dave Allen, guitar/composer; Loren Stillman, alto saxophone; Drew Gress, bass; Mark Ferber, drums

Media Contact for Firehouse 12:
Scott Menhinick, Improvised Communications
(617) 489-6561
scott@improvisedcommunications.com

On Saturday, November 4th, New York-based guitarist/composer Dave Allen and his quartet will celebrate their debut CD, Untold Stories (Fresh Sound New Talent), with a two-set performance at New Haven’s Firehouse 12. The CD’s nine tracks were conceived as chapters in the same novel and draw on Allen’s love of art, film and poetry.

JazzTimes reviewer David Adler called Untold Stories “a fiery and eloquent showing,” adding, “Allen brings daunting chops, full-bodied tone and melodic sensitivity to the table on this all-original debut set.” AllAboutJazz.com’s Budd Kopman wrote, “Allen has no seeming limit to his technique, but he always puts it to good musical ends. His lines are full of twists and turns, but I always hear thought and emotion, not just flying fingers…one does not have to be a guitarist to understand the musical minds at work.”

Born in Philadelphia, Allen moved to New York in 1988 to attend the Manhattan School of Music and has worked steadily as a leader and collaborator with many of the city’s most exciting young musicians ever since. Critics write, “There’s a true sensuality to the guitarist’s sound” (Jim Macnie, Village Voice) and “His personal jazz conception is an enviable combination of musical and technical mastery (David Seymour, JazzReview.com). He is currently composing music for his next CD and developing several multimedia projects. Learn more at http://www.daveallenjazz.com

About Firehouse 12:

Firehouse 12 is an award winning full-service bar, state-of-the-art recording studio and unusually intimate performance space located in New Haven’s historic Ninth Square District. Painstakingly renovated over the course of four years by owner/producer/engineer Nick Lloyd and Gray Organschi Architecture, this once-abandoned firehouse building has become a major part of New Haven’s cultural renaissance since opening its doors in April 2005. It has also quickly gained a reputation as one of the premier recording studios and creative music venues on the East Coast.

A 2006 Best Studio Design Project nominee for the prestigious Technical Excellence and Creativity (TEC) Awards (http://mixfoundation.org/tec/tecawards.html), the recording studio features world-class acoustic design by renowned acoustician John Storyk of Walters-Storyk Design Group. The striking 1200-square foot space features a Steinway concert grand piano, and doubles as an 80-seat public venue with unparalleled technical possibilities for some of the most respected names in creative music. Past performers include Han Bennink, Tim Berne, Dave Douglas, Susie Ibarra, Joe McPhee, Joe Morris, William Parker and Mario Pavone among many others.

In a June 2005 feature, New Haven Independent’s Regina DeAngelo called Firehouse 12 “a north star in the jazz firmament that might well guide music lovers to New Haven from far away.” She went on to write, “fabric-covered walls are angled to urge music to flow, not bounce, through a womb-like space. It’s almost like sitting in the hull of an instrument. Luckily, the Firehouse attracts people who bring near-religious reverence to the music, producing an exchange of energy that often fires great performances.” James Keepnews of the New Haven Advocate echoed DeAngelo’s praise, calling the venue a “remarkable new cultural outpost” and “a resounding success.” Yale University’s Associate Vice President of New Haven and State Affairs Michael Morand recently called the space “a wonderful addition to New Haven’s role as the cultural capital of Connecticut.”

Find out more at http://www.firehouse12.com

Complete Fall 2006 Concert Season:

09/22 :: Matthew Shipp
09/29 :: Carla Marciano 4tet
10/06 :: David Berkman Quartet
10/13 :: Nate Wooley and Blue Collar
10/20 :: Andrew Cyrille/Greg Osby Duo
10/27 :: Pete Robbins and Centric
11/04 :: Dave Allen Quartet
11/10 :: Stephen Haynes and Bugaboo
11/17 :: Dominique Eade/Jed Wilson Duo
12/01 :: Ben Allison Quartet
12/08 :: Wayne Escoffery Quartet
12/15 :: Gerald Cleaver & Violet Hour

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

More ReR Releases

Our earlier post missed these two ReR releases, that have come out along with the Henry Cow box and the new Hail.

PICCHIO DAL POZZO “abbiamo tutti i suoi problemi”
Amongst the cognoscenti, Picchio dal Pozzo are regarded as one of the most original, impressive and highly respected of all the experimental groups to have come out of Italy in the 1970s. They share their original label with Henry Cow’s ëConcerts’, also reissued this month, and were early invitees to the canonical ëRecommended Sampler’. This has, for years, been difficult to come by, only being previously issued as an expensive product from Japan. But now this classic is domestically available, and it too sounds great due to Bob Drake’s re-mastering skills.

IZ “E M”
“E M” is the 3rd CD from IZ, and is a densely layered and skillfully presented instrumental CD on the heavy side of rock, with elements of experimental music. Generally the songs writing is in a minimalist and sparse style that is in contrast to the thick tambor, meter changes and harmonic complexities. This approach makes every note/chord an essential statement and creates a unique sonic quality rarely heard in groups with rock instrumentation.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Springheel Jack at Glasgow University Chapel Reviewed

A recent Springheel Jack performance is reviewed.

Having made their name in the early 1990s producing hard-edged drum’n’ bass, recent albums have seen SHJ’s Ashley Wales and John Coxon collaborate with some of the most renowned free jazz players from Europe and America, including Evan Parker, Han Bennink and Matthew Ship. Here, they were joined by University organist Kevin Bower, kit drummers Tony Marsh and Mark Sanders, and Iain Sandilands, John Poulter and Stuart Semple on snare drums. Bower opened with a menacing, almost subsonic rumble, over which the snares rattled a militaristic beat.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Joe McPhee & Survival Unit II Reviewed

This McPhee reissue is reviewed.

This newly issued and re-mastered album of modern/free-jazz reedman and trumpeter Joe McPhee’s 1971 live recording was originally broadcasted at New York City’s WBAI radio station. In the liners, producer Werner X. Uehlinger describes the history behind the tapes and what ultimately led to this CD format release. And part of the significance lies within this Swiss record label’s 30th anniversary celebration. No doubt, these selections earmark a sense of vitality, emanating from jazz’ early ‘70s resurgence, following a USA-based slump, witnessed during the mid-late ‘60s. Here, McPhee and his quintet intertwine a venomous approach, often-contrasted with cyclical melodies and a soaring sense of musical spiritualism.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine Reviews

Yet more reviews from Musique Machine.

Rafael Toral - Space
Rafael Toral’s Space is mixture sci-fi sound effects, ala the first Star trek, electronic tones that rarely pick up much of a pace, and Journeys into an odd circuit board take on jazz and well space its self- literal lots of silence and slow build ups. Sound elements are allowed to hover and grow, or disappear off down a black hole, leaving the listener stranded for a few moments, until the next space cruiser comes along.

Sissy Spacek - Devils Cone and Palm
For the first half a minute of Devils cone and palm you feel like you could have dropped into the wrong record, as you greeted by strange spidery and wrong sounding funky guitar work. But this illusion doesn’t last for long ,as you first one side of your head is slammed against a wall of blazing noise and then the sound jump cuts and the other side of your head in throw against the wall. Welcome to the new sissy spacek torture work, were guitar music and structure are ripped apart and thrown back at you in an assault on all the sensors.

Rena Jones - Dirtwood
Driftwood weaves together tuneful electroinca with violin and cello music to a haunting, memorable and beautiful effect. Making enchanted and edgy beat-works to disappear off into. It never tries to be musically difficult, it just slides along smooth as silk, making wonderful chill out music, that will sooth away the days stressers and strains.

Altehes - Aletheia

Altehes debut album comes across as an earthy mix of Acoustic Neurosis & tribal downbeat folk rippling with beautiful and dark forestall undertones. This is music of the elements and their spirits. Worn by wind, born from fire, buried and resrected in black forests. Striped down and barren, but often embellished and illuminated by cello and violin. It seems detached from our time and culture, this is music of a superstitious and deeply dark religious forest dweller’s.

Laurence English - Transit
Laurence English is as far as I can determine and Australian sound artist who constructs wild imaginary landscapes of drone, electronics and a large array of field recordings.

Flim - Ohne Titel, 1916
Ohne Titel, 1916 is a emotional collection of fragile melodic patterns, played out on basic piano and keyboard with some very slight electronic treatment, there’s a real feeling of honest depth and great sorrow. Written after the death of his day old daughter Fanny, it puts across the feeling of emotional numbness and learning to coping with the passing of a loved one.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Review: Le Festival des Musiques Progressives de Montreal

A review of this recent festival, featuring a few Quebec avant-rock acts, has been posted.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Classical fans log on to digital age

You wouldn’t think it but classical fans are the early adopters of downloading.

Research commissioned by Gramophone magazine shows that classical music fans have enthusiastically joined the digital music revolution.

The survey calculates that 57% of aficionados have converted at least some of their classical CD collection to digital format, and three-quarters listen using new media such as PC, DAB digital radio, radio via the internet, digital TV and MP3 players.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Bill Frisell Interview

Bill Frisell discusses music, living in Seattle and more.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

George Lewis Book

George Lewis is apparently writing a book on the AACM. No indication of when it will be available but it should be an interesting read.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

The latest from AAJ:

27-Sep-06 Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus: At UCLA (Sunnyside Records)
27-Sep-06 Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood
Out Louder (Indirecto Records)
27-Sep-06 We Three
Three for All (Challenge Records)
26-Sep-06 World Saxophone Quartet
Political Blues (Justin Time Records)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Accounting For Taste

Could defining some new words describing music's secret ingredients lead to a deeper understanding of how music affects us?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

New Music News Wire

Unclaimed SoundExchange Royalties; 2006 Gramophone Awards Announced—with Bonus Statistical Survey Results; Hagen Named Lifetime Yaddo Member.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

My Last Nights and Day at the Proms

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

Appropriate to the Season

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 29, 2006 at 01:34 PM | Comments (0)

September 28, 2006

Chopin: the Video Game

No kidding. This is actually for real. (Via Soho the Dog)

Chopin comes into contact with Polka, a young girl who resides with her mother in the village of Tenuto. Polka is near her death, and Chopin, Polka, and her young friend Allegretto as they look for some way to make use of Polka’s great powers to help save her. 

It’s narrative musicology as RPG!

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

Mp3 Blog #29: PoMo, ReMo, NeoMo, and “Visage”

Luciano Berio:
”Visage” (1962)
For voice and tape

Available on this out-of-print compact disc featuring Berio’s three electroacoustic works featuring voice

* * * * *

I’ve never really understood Postmodernism and, although I’ve spent some time researching and learning on the subject, I don’t really care to. It may be that living in Montréal (supposedly one of the most Postmodern cities) that the little bit of a punk in me feels the need to rebel and express my own independent identity. On the other hand, I simply cannot agree with how I understand that Postmodernism dismisses grand theories and ideologies to favor of viewing one solely as a culmination of external influences. Although I am by nature skeptical, I believe that art and expression speak to and come from something far greater and more objective and universal than that which Postmodern proposes.

I’ve often found that I agree far more with Modernist philosophies; however, I obviously cannot agree with the “Zero Hour” European Post-WWII ideology that produced some of Boulez’s, Stockhausen’s, and others’ failed experiments. For me there is simply something exciting and effervescent in an artwork that seeks to create an eternally new object. Of course – as Postmodernism claims – art is bound to one’s own influences, but to primarily focus on this or deny art’s fundamental power try and find the means to supersede these mundane concerns seems, to me, a grave error.

In lines with these thoughts, I was really happy when I first read about the new art trends Remodernism and Neomodernism a few weeks ago. (I found the two Wikipedia articles when researching the Cinema of Transgression and No Wave art and music.) Both the Remodernist manifesto, co-written by ”punk” Billy Childish, and the Neomodernist manifesto claim that Modernism lost its way and criticize how Postmodernism, by focusing on the esoteric issues, wrongfully limits its audience to the specialized critic. Furthermore, in making these claims, both Remodernism and Neomodernism hope to return the personal spiritual experience to the center of art.

To finally come around to the featured composer and mp3 of this entry, although this may be a slightly flawed view, I’ve always seen Luciano Berio as the first and most important Postmodern composer. Despite this, or possibly in spite of this, I’ve always wanted to love Berio’s music. For example, I’ve tried so hard to really appreciate and enjoy “Circles,” “Coro,” “Oh King,” “Recital for Cathy,” the Chemins and Corale, “Points on a Curve to Find,” “A Ronne,” the Sequenzas but – after dozens of listens – I find that Sequenza 21 is the only one that I regularly go back to. Currently, besides “Folk Songs” (which I have studied intensely and always love to listen to) the only pieces of Berio that I still like (albeit, mostly on a Platonic level) are “Sinfonia” (only for the ground-breaking “sampling” in the third movement), “Thema (Ommagio for Joyce)” (particularly for the Bloo-bloo-bloo-bloom-bloom-oom-oom-ooming-ing-ing and how the words finally drown in sound), and the ever-disturbing “Visage.”

The Montréal composer Justin Mariner brought up a good argument once about Berio –the reason his music may “remain new” (or have aged that well) is possibly because he has had so many imitators and – while his music may have sounded revolutionary at one time – the ever-expanding line (this is my naïve addition to the argument) of "Postmodern composers" like Osvaldo Golijov, Louis Andriessen, Gorecki, John Adams, and even John Zorn have weakened Berio’s initial impact.

Despite this, I continually turn back to “Visage.” Although this work seems to take a Postmodernism approach by seeming to focus on the language’s historical development, there is some almost primordial in the drama and emotions that the work conjures up. Truthfully I’ve only listened to “Visage” twice, but each listening is firmly etched in my memory. I’m not much an expert in criticism, but if that doesn’t speak of a work’s power I don’t know what does.

Originally posted by Jacob Sudol from Jacob Sudol, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Positively Dark - two albums

Positively Dark consists of Peter Geisheker, composer, keyboards, and electronics, plus guitarist Dino Pacifici. They play a style of new age and electronica that is similar to Vangelis and Delerium. To be honest, this is not a form of music I prefer to listen to but there’s no denying they do it extremely well.

They have two available albums on their site. XIIC is loaded with pretty melodic and orchestral sounding electronic riffs. Pacifici’s guitar work offers some nice contrasts in the music. Pulse is the better of the two albums in my opinion. There’s a lot of nice keyboard work throughout. The tracks are quieter, again reminding me strongly of Vangelis and also Enya. Those who like this form of epic orchestrated electronic-based production will enjoy these two albums.

Download

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

At Long Last, a Shostakovich Premiere

James Barron, New York Times, 9/27/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Sir Malcom Arnold, 1921-2006

Houston Chronicle, 9/27/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Harry Partch, "Adapted Guitar"

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

From the First Edition

Click on the link below to see the most recent entries in the First Edition of this blog, entries published before the switchover to the Second Edition.

Originally from All I Know², ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

[no title]

Technorati Profile

Originally posted by Michael Kaulkin from About the Composer, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

An Orchestra Blooms in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn Philharmonic Orchestra announced the schedule yesterday for its usual four concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and there’s great news for contemporary music lovers, especially those who have a jones for the didgeridoo.  

The season opens on February 3 with two works by the Australian composer Peter Schulthorpe–Earth Cry and Mangrove–plus Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring.  Music director Michael Christie, now in his second season, was formerly director of the Queensland Orchestra, which explains the ‘Roo connection. 

The second concert, on March 10, pits Osvaldo Golijov’s Last Round and a new orchestration of Dreams & Prayers of Issac the Blind against Mahler’s Symphony No. 1.  My money’s on Mahler by about eight minutes.

The orchestra will be joined by the Kronos Quartet on April 21 for the premiere of Julia Wolfe’s My Beautiful Scream, plus Holst’s Planets and Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, the wellspring of the spirtualist wing of contemporary music (Part, Taverner, Gorecki, Lauridsen, Whitacre et al), an important and popular modern movement mostly ignored by the fine young cannibals who gather here but greatly admired by those of us who don’t know any better. 

And, speaking of Gorecki, his Symphony Number 3–with a first ever staging by the Ridge Theater–is the centerpiece of the final concert on May 12.  It’s matched with Paul Hindemith’s Mathis der Mahler and Mozart’s Exsultate jubilate.

The Philharmonic also does community and school concerts, and will present two genre-blending concerts, including a program with performances by Laurie Anderson,Nellie McKay, Joan Osborne and Suzanne Vega.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Sonic Beatings in Boston

Should you find yourself in the vicinity of Williams Hall at the New England Conservatory tonight at 8:30, the Callithumpian Consort is playing Alvin Lucier’s Small Waves for string quartet, piano, trombone, and feedback, an hour long investigation/hallucination of microtones, sonic beatings, and water pouring.  (Sounds like your tax dollars at work on a normal day at a CIA detention camp.)

Survivors of the water pouring and sonic beatings will then get to hear John Luther Adams’ Strange Birds Passing for 8 flutes and …And Bells Remembered for 5 percussion

Alvin Lucier will be present to explain himself.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Please Feed Ian Moss!!!!

Ian Moss is hungry.

(Scroll down the page and look to the right. You’ll see.)

Ian Moss is hungry . . . for a Sequenza21 concert!!!!

This is good news for you. You know why?

A Sequenza21 concert needn’t cost that much money. In fact, as little as $25 would be very much appreciated.

But, hey: you pay more, you get more.

By the end of this week, the concert committee will have decided on an incentives package for those of you who find it in your heart to donate $100 or more. Whichever shape the package takes, one thing is for sure: it’s going to be one sexy animal. Trust me.

You can find out more about the concert by clicking Ian’s picture.

You can donate to the concert via the PayPal link right below Ian’s picture. Donating to the Sequenza21 concert is much simpler, I can assure you, than dealing with the guilt you’ll feel for not donating.

Now go please feed Ian Moss.

 

He’s hungry.

(Growl!)

And thanks.

Originally posted by David from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Relying on Inspiration

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Aziza Mustafa Zadeh

Originally from The Crunch, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Belated return... Coltrane and Duke... and Paul Quinichette... Alice Coltrane...

My apologies, amigos. The last week has been fraught and chaotic with all manner of craziness to contend with. Three up for a fast holding action – normal posting resuming very soon – maybe even later today if the gods smile - with a review of Jason Moran's new album 'Artist in Residence' for starters...

John Coltrane recorded with Duke Ellington in 1962 . 'Big Nick' is a jaunty little tune, Coltrane sounding relaxed and happy on soprano. Duke his usual urbane self, spacy and sharp.

Coltrane made a lot of records in the fifties – one of these from 1957 is with Paul Quinichette – whom Lester Young dubbed 'Lady Q.' Coltrane ebullient here and Quinichette a more than adequate foil for some straight ahead blowing - he was a better player than his heavy influence by the Prez sometimes suggests.

And the wife. Into the mystic we shall go... 'Universal Consciousness' is one of those swirling harp and string led tracks from Alice Coltrane which theoretically should not work – but do. Strings nicely astringent...


In the Videodrome...

Some Jimmie Lunceford ...eat your heart out MTV...

and some Spike Jones – Song of the Volga Boatmen...

and Paul Whiteman... the King of Jazz(sic)...

and the REAL stuff – Count Basie...


John Coltrane/Duke Ellington
(John Coltrane (soprano saxophone); Duke Ellington (piano); Jimmy Garrison (bass); Elvin Jones (drums)
Download
Big Nick

Buy

John Coltrane/Paul Quinichette
(John Coltrane, Paul Quinichette (ts) Mal Waldron (p) Julian Euell (b) Ed Thigpen d)).

Download
Anatomy

Buy

Alice Coltrane
Personnel includes: Alice Coltrane (arranger, harp, organ); John Blair, Julius Brand, Leroy Jenkins (violin); Tulsi (tambura); Jimmy Garrison (bass); Rashied Ali, Clifford Jarvis (drums, percussion); Jack DeJohnette (drums).

Download
Universal Consciousness

Buy

Originally from wordsandmusic, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Sonic Circuits 2006

Sonic Circuits 2006 takes place next weekend in Washington DC and features Phill Niblock, Wolf Eyes, and many others.

Sonic Circuits Festival of Experimental Music seeks to expose inhabitants of Washington, DC to the outer realms of sonic endeavor. The festival will take place October 5-8, 2006 at the Warehouse Next Door. Over 30 artists from Europe, around the US, and from our own backyard will present challenging works for your ears.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Indicted for Suspected Serialism

What sort of unexpected inferences might a performer make about your music based solely on its style of notation?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Unable to Escape Schoenberg

Even when I'm reading fiction, I can't escape music: in Vikram Seth's novel, The Golden Gate, the music of Schoenberg is anathema to the protagonist.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Comfort Level

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 28, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

September 27, 2006

New Old CD from Other Minds - Ned Rorem Songs

Originally from All I Know², ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

New Feldman Book

Originally from All I Know², ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 02:29 PM | Comments (0)

Links for the week

Good readin’ at the moment:

Woebot great on Italian Prog.

SohoTheDog has 8 sentences none of us ever want to hear about classical music again (particularly no.3 - ugh).

K-Punk’s interview with Kode9 for FACT is excellent.

Limewire is suing the RIAA, alleging that the RIAA’s

goal was simple: to destroy any online music distribution service they did not own or control, or force such services to do business with them on exclusive and/or other anticompetitive terms so as to limit and ultimately control the distribution and pricing of digital music, all to the detriment of consumers.

Meanwhile, in Britain, the dinosaurs flail open a new front - this time demanding tax breaks for A&R comparable to what pharma corps get for R&D…

Hey, guess what - consumers don’t like DRM.

Nor do libraries.

And Hungarians - when they’re not protesting against their lying ex-Communist tycoon prime minister, anyway - are well organised on protesting against the RIAA too. Gotta love ‘em.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 02:01 PM | Comments (0)

Musician Deathwatch

del.icio.us/skills/obituary | About this list

This week we bid farewell to the following members of the musical community:

:: Thomas Stewart Opera singer
:: Henry Townsend Blues singer and guitarist
:: Alfred Mann Musicologist
:: Paul Vance Songwriter Oops - no, he’s alive
:: James H. Schwabacher Jr. Singer
:: Boz Burrell Rock bassist
:: Armin Jordan Opera conductor
:: Joe Glazer Composer and collector of protest songs
:: Danny Flores Rockabilly saxophonist
:: Richard Burmer Keyboardist and composer
:: Aladar Pege Bassist
:: Etta Baker Blues guitarist
:: Pat Jenkins Trumpeter with the Savoy Sultans
:: Carol Kaye Singer with the Kaye sisters
:: Malcolm Arnold Composer for films and the concert hall
:: Ira Brilliant Beethoven scholar
:: Bennie Smith Blues guitarist
:: Norman Kelly Opera singer
:: Eoin Hamilton Composer, producer, arranger and conductor
:: Adrian Secchi Composer, conductor and teacher
:: Ian Hamer Jazz trumpeter, composer and bandleader
:: Burt Goldblatt Jazz album cover designer
:: Richard Egues Flautist and songwriterRest in Peace.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - VIII

The second concert of yesterday that took place at the Academy of Music really amazed me as it started at 10:30PM and ended up lasting until 1:00AM in the morning, all with a full house! The audience looked a bit younger though and perhaps there were a number of students from the school there. The pieces that were performed yesterday were:

• Luigi Nono - Das atmende Klarsein
• Helmut Lachenmann - TemA
• Luciano Berio - Thema(Omaggio a Joyce)
• Magdalena Dlugosz - Silent Asphodels
• John Cage - Imaginary Landscape No. 4

Some notes on the pieces:

Nono - form was C-F-C-F-C-F-C-F where C = Chorus and F = Flute (bass flute), mostly very long held quiet chords in the chorus part moving to other long held chords; flute was noise and effects, then held tones, then noise and effects, then really amplified noise and effects; electronic processing was very minimal until end; audience did not feel like they were into it; I was a little tired at this point in the evening so the long piece felt long and a little too slow though the piece did get into somewhat of a rhythm and I can imagine a different experience in a different context (not late at night and tired and already after a previous concert); chords did feel somewhat mechanical and unnatural in some way; would very much like to find a recording to listen to this piece again

Lachenmann - an absolutely exceptional performance, completely drawn in, some laughing in audience at gestures, very musical piece, fascinating yet a different sound world than mine with all of the effects and noise and quick-cut gestures, performers did an absolutely excellent job, completely convincing performance

*Intermission*

Berio - an absolute classic, I had not listened to the piece in a long time and was amazed at how many moments of the piece I knew, it’s so well composed; listening to this I felt that the Lachenmann had many similarities in gestures and composition of his piece, interesting to think of tape techniques of Berio in acoustic-instrument realm of Lachenmann

Dlugosz - very nice first minute with flute and electronics, afterwards for next 20 minutes electronics became very heavy, everything lost in in a fog of sound, deep bass throughout, phasey metallic sound reminiscent of metasynth or extremely time stretched sounds, sitting too close to right side a few rows from speakers, flute and cello were playing constantly and weren’t discernible in the sound

Cage - very nicely done, great listening experience, played again as an encore; bits of laughter as to be expected (a good thing I didn’t understand any of the Polish that was spoken on the radio), not sure how many people were really listening or were just looking for comedy, wonder if Cage is taken seriously anymore as a listening experience or if people consider just comedic; thinking of Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” which is humorous but really so incredibly serious…

I think that the late night concerts at the Festival are generally a bit more on the experimental side and it certainly seemed so after going to yesterday’s concert (we hadn’t been able to attend any of the other late night concerts so far at the festival). I very much enjoyed this concert, though ending with the Cage, I felt somewhat disturbed by the audience reaction. Over the years I’ve oscillated in my enjoyment on Cage’s music, though yesterday I found myself very much drawn into the sound world (thinking of it, very similar to Berio and Lachenmann in many ways). The impression I got was that the audience experienced the piece as some sort of entertainment and not a profound audible experience, listening not so much to experience the sound but rather to find humor in what these people were doing on stage. The boisterous applause afterwards somehow felt cheap, in some way a validation of entertainment over art, but perhaps it was just a wrong impression and the audience did in fact find the piece both humorous and profound. I did wonder though how Cage is perceived today, as a person of words, or really as a person of sound…

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

"Can't he be both, like the late Earl Warren?"

A follow-up to yesterday’s crankiness.

Over at aworks, Robert, talking about Miles Davis, takes mild but justified issue with my criticism of the oft-heard pronouncement that “jazz is America’s classical music.” Let me clarify: I wasn’t trying to say one was better than the other, I just think that particular metaphor does a disservice to both. (And I wonder if jazz musicians have the same suspicions—I would imagine that at least a few of them would roll their eyes at being lumped in with the sort of classical performance that Virgil Thomson called ”silk-underwear music.”) But it’s a beaut of a coincidence that he was discussing Miles. Because Miles figures in another follow-up, to the whole “uptown-downtown” thing.

The other clichés I was trying to kill off annoy me mainly because of their shallowness, but that one is different. It annoys me because it tries to create an either/or situation where there doesn’t have to be one. I never heard “downtown” music as diametrically opposed to “uptown” music—just the opposite, in fact. I first liked Feldman—the slow pace, the way he makes the decay as important as the attack, the tight focus on short, open-ended gestures—because he sounded kind of like Webern. I first liked Carter—the virtuoso floods of notes, the floating rhythm, the unexpected juxtapositions that keep the drama of the piece in tension—because he reminded me of Zorn. And I first liked Stockhausen, because he reminded me of Miles.

Back in undergrad, one of the first Stockhausen pieces I heard was his first major work, Kreuzspiel. It’s regarded as a seminal work of pointillist serialism. Three instruments—oboe, bass clarinet, and piano—jab individual notes, widely-spaced chords, and occasional melodic fragments at each other, while three percussionists accompany with tom-toms and congas, then cymbals, then both. Listening to the first section, the short, enigmatic interjections by the winds, the sparse piano, the tom-toms a background tattoo with unexpected (serially-determined) accents… we all looked at each other (we were all pretty jazz-savvy—DePaul is a big jazz school) and said, “It’s Birth of the Cool!” Which is exactly what it sounds like. Stockhausen has claimed on more than one occasion that no one had ever heard anything like Kreuzspiel before, but of course they had (and no doubt he had, too.) But by taking away the familiar tonal harmony and the regularity of rhythm, that particular sound suddenly sounded new and shocking again. It reminded me of the excitement I felt the first time I heard Miles—not a triumphalist “this is what I’ve been looking for all my life” excitement, but an excitement that here was music that didn’t behave the way I expected it to, that showed a little more of its hand each time I listened to it, that let my experience of it change over time and place.

Hence my recoil at the uptown/downtown dichotomy. It's not even that such a manichaean view of music is telling me that I can't like both, it's that it's implying that if I do like both, that there must be something wrong with the way I listen. But one of the attributes of great music is that you can listen to it in myriad different ways and still feed your soul. No part of town has a monopoly on that.

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

In Memoriam - Sir Malcolm Arnold

Sir Malcolm Arnold died on Saturday 23rd September 2006, age 84. In tribute, here is an article published a year ago about him.

Interviewer: "Did you think as you began to write the ninth symphony that it would be the last thing you wrote?"

Sir Malcolm Arnold: "I was rather hoping it would be....(pause)...the piece is an amalgam of all my knowledge of humanity."

Interviewer: "It is a huge, bleak, finale isn't it?"

Sir Malcolm: (long pause) "....Yes...I wanted it to die away into infinity....."

These words are taken from the discussion between the conductor Andrew Penny and the composer Sir Malcolm Arnold which is included on Naxos' superb recording of his 9th Symphony. The symphony was written in a three week blaze of creativity in August 1986 as a birthday present for the composer's close friend, and carer, Anthony Day. Its composition followed five years of mental illness, and composing silence

Sir Malcolm's career started as an orchestral musician. He was Principal Trumpet for the London Philharmonic Orchestra until 1948 when he turned to full time composing. His musical output is prodigous. The published works include nine symphonies, several concertos (including works for written Benny Goodman, Julian Bream, Larry Adler and James Galway), two string quartets and much other chamber music, and the five sets of dances. But this extraordinary published opus does not include his film and TV music. 1957 for instance produced the 3rd Symphony, four other published works, and no fewer than six film scores, including the Oscar winning The Bridge on the River Kwai.

Inevitably though this phenomenal creative workload took its toll. There was a continuing battle with alcoholism, and recurring manic depressive episodes culminating in several stays in psychiatric hospitals. For seven years, including the period of composition of the 9th Symphony, Sir Malcolm was under the jurisdiction of the Court of Protection, established to protect and manage the financial affairs of those suffering from mental illness. The 83 year old Sir Malcolm now suffers from frontal-lobe dementia, and is largely housebound in Norfolk. He is tended tirelessly by Anthony Day, who welcomed me to their household to discuss a draft of this article. (The photograph above was taken at their house in 2001).

The 9th Symphony was composed in short score, and orchestrated when complete. The writing in the first movement is starkly simple and meditative, with page after page of virtually empty bars. But like late Picasso the work communicates huge emotions through a few sparse gestures. The symphony is in two halves. The first three movements form one, and include a typically Arnold scherzo. There is minimal thematic development, and considerable use of repetition and sequential structures in the first movement. In the second a motif is played on the bassoon, and is then repeated sixteen times as it is covered by different instruments.

The fourth movement, which is almost as long as the first three, forms the second half. The sombre final lento pays homage to Mahler's 9th Symphony, but then moves beyond it into an ascetic world of its own. There is very little conventional harmony in this final movement, the listener is kept waiting more than twenty minutes for the resolution of the final D major chord that ends the work. The lento dispenses with the conventions of symphonic form, and returns to elemental techniques.

Sir Malcolm Arnold's 9th Symphony is by any measure an extraordinary work. Parts look unfinished on paper. It is written entirely in two parts, and this creates the impression that the composer has forgotten how to write harmony. The writing for a large orchestra is equally extraordinary. The second trumpet plays in just twenty of the lento's three hundred and twenty-seven bars. The piccolo and trumpet are silent throught the twenty-three minutes of the last movement, only to play the final note.

When the 9th Symphony was announced the musical establishment was expecting another 'classic' Malcolm Arnold work, and they were sorely disappointed by the manuscript. Arnold's editor at Faber Music, the very experienced Donald Mitchell, was dismayed by the sparse scoring. So were other Arnold champions who were asked to pass judgement. The BBC music editor and Arnold supporter, Edwin Roxburgh, commented on its 'strange kind of simplicity.'

These negative reactions meant that the score remained in manuscript for years, despite vigorous advocacy from Sir Charles Groves and Howard Blake. Finally came publication, and excellent recordings from Naxos, Chandos and Conifer. The full score is now available from Chester Novello who bought the rights from Faber for just £500.

On paper the 9th Symphony may have looked like a bizarre mixture of juvenilia and mischief making, but in performance the work is pure magic. It has many of the unsung qualities of Shostakovich's 15th Symphony. It is a rite of passage. Not from youth to maturity. But from the mature Arnold, to a new and highly economical musical language. It is tonally accesible, but compositionally innovative. Above all it is an important work. A letter from Howard Blake to Arnold's agent Georgina Ivor sums it up beautifully:

"You've got to get this work performed, Georgina! It's not like his other works. It's very sparse and meditative, but it will work fine. It should be played! If nobody will do it, it's the sort of thing you could do in the Roundhouse and have young people all sitting on the floor meditating! You must put it on! It's a very significant work. It's from the deep inner recesses of Malcolm."

While discussing this article with me Anthony Day said Sir Malcolm (portrait by June Mendoza below) was 'heartbroken' by the poor reception accorded to the work. The story of its neglect is a graphic reminder of how difficult it is to achieve publication and acceptance for a contemporary symphony. Although technically innovative it hardly represents the extreme avant garde. It calls for large forces, but they are by no means exotic. Is one of the problems that the symphony is now considered a defunct form by the musical opinion formers?

Few contemporary composers can offer a CV to match Sir Malcolm's. Yet still the 9th Symphony specifically, and the Arnold oeuvre generally, is neglected. Is the problem the perennial one that the musical establishment cannot reconcile popularity with artistic merit? The BBC has been a staunch champions of Arnold's music in the past, but in recent years even this has waned. The last two Proms performances of his works were of film music - the Sound Barrier and St Trinian's suites. It is now more than ten years since one of his symphonies was performed at the Proms - the 2nd in 1994 to be precise. The 9th has never had a Proms performance, although it has received two broadcast performances since its composition.

In 2006 Sir Malcolm celebrates his 85th birthday. His music is a very rich seam that has still not been fully mined. Surely his 85th anniversary year is the appropriate time for the 9th Symphony, the neglected 20th century masterpiece, and his other works to be given the prominence they deserve?

Sir Malcolm Arnold resources:

* The music of Sir Malcolm is well served on CD. There are a number of recordings conducted by the composer. The nine symphonies have been recorded by Andrew Penny, Richard Hickox/Rumon Gamba, and Vernon Handley for Naxos, Chandos and Conifer respectively.

* Sir Malcolm has his own web site. This has an excellent range of resources including a listing of all current recordings. It also includes a catalogue of his published works, and links to their publishers.

* Pier Burton-Page’s 1995 biography, Philharmonic Concerto: The Life and Music of Sir Malcolm Arnold, was for some time definitive. But time, and the publication of two other lives, has now relegated it to a useful reference work. Recent years have brought two biographies which cover Sir Malcolm’s output up to, and beyond, the 9th Symphony. Paul R.W. Jackson’s slim volume The Life and Music of Sir Malcolm Arnold, The Brilliant and the Dark is strong on musical scholarship, but is too close to the subject to provide a totally objective survey. Most recent is Malcolm Arnold: Rogue Genius, co-authored by Anthony Meredith and Paul Harris. This is the most comprehensive biography, and as such should be considered the prime reference work. But be prepared for the unremittingly noir tone of the book. The detail of Sir Malcolm's struggles with his demons sometimes risks swamping the splendour of the musical output.

If you enjoyed this post take an overgrown path to Hildegard comes to Norwich via IRCAM and Darmstadt

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Everyone's a Winner

Thanks to the very useful Friday Informer at New Music Box, we are alerted to yet another angry old man (besides me, of course) who wants to know where's his MacArthur Genius Grant. Why can't we all be geniuses? Ah well, if being smart and bitter doesn't appeal to you, there's always the dumb and happy route.

Originally from Fredösphere, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

Russia marks centenary of Dmitri Shostakovich

Globe And Mail, 9/26/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

Malcolm Arnold, 84; First British Composer to Win Academy Award

Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times, 9/26/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

A Mystery Opera, Played Out on Both the Stage and the Screen

Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 9/26/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

The CUT

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Harry Partch, "Chromelodeon I & Blo-Boy"

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Echo Park Music Festival

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Jihadists 1, Mozart 0

Deutsche Oper said it will scrap planned showings of Mozart’s Idomeneo because of warnings by Berlin security officials that a scene in the current production depicting the head of the Prophet Mohammed (along with the heads of Jesus and the Buddha)  present an “incalculable security risk.'’  Actually, they said references to “world religions” but we know which one is the problem.

This is the kind of infuriating capitulation that can push otherwise rational people at least temporarily into the nuke ‘em back to the Stone Age camp. 

But, we need to remember that Death of Klinghoffer and the American premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Silver Tassie suffered similar fates in this country in the wake of 9/11.  As always, perspective depends upon whose ox is being gored.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Pedophile Composers

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Guggenheim Professors

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Interviews with Young People #1: NICO MUHLY

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Student Reviewers

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Review: Randy Nordschow at The Stone

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Review: RPO with Jon Nakamatsu

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Prof. McJeebie's Wedding Music

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Two Decisions that Every Young Composer Must Make

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Composerly Soldiers

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

ASCAP vs. BMI

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

The Professor on MySpace

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

The Not So New Technique of Sampling

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

E=mc2, and You Couldn't Just Make That Up

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Prof. McJeebie - REJECTED!

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Academic Welfare

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Prof. McJeebie Attends the BBC Proms

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Mr. The Custom TRS-80

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Listening Horizontally

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Prof. McJeebie Quoted in The Times

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Response to Prof. DeBollox

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Interviews with Young People #2: Darcy James Argue...

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Prof. McJeebie Goes Back to School

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

American Record Guide Turns 224 Years Old!

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Unpolished Melodies and Muddy Counterpoints

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Local Eatery

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Sun Ra - Concert for Comet Kohoutek

ESP 3033 What better stimulus for a Sun Ra concert that the coming of a comet? Particularly one with a projected orbital cycle of 75,000 years. Cosmic mechanics were in place for just such a confluence in December of...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Mark Applebaum

Mark Applebaum
What to say about Mark Applebaum? He's the longest-haired professor at Stanford (but he ain't Professor Longhair). He plays jazz piano duos with his dad instead of shooting hoops. He has found another use for a mousetrap (rather than a different mousetrap for the same use). And his scores are as wacky as Ferneyhough's are complex.

Oh, and he's productive: he has 9 CDs on innova at the last count.
From Podcast: ALIVE AND COMPOSING.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Playing Games With John Zorn

A review of a recent performance of Zorn’s game pieces digs into the structure of these prompted improvisations.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

David S. Ware’s BalladWare Review

Ware’s latest garners a review.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Free Albums Galore Update

Quite a bit of new material found by Free Albums Galore:

Marco Lucchi - I found an - Insoluble - Indefinite Ear
Marco Lucchi - Radure 3: Oltreumano
Marco Lucchi - Tantra à L’usage Des Anges
Explosions In The Sky - The Rescue
Bartok - 10 Easy Piano Pieces
The Unnecessary Revolution - 1st of 3
The Unnecessary Revolution - 2nd of 3

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

New on ReR

ReR Megacorp has released a couple of highly anticipated sets.

HENRY COW: LIMITED EDITION FACSIMILIE SET IN BOX (7 CDs, box)

Very sturdily boxed edition containing the new Concerts double, as well as the other four Henry Cow releases and the Henry Cow/SlappHappy release ‘Desperate Straights’ - all in facsimile original board LP-style covers, with an extra subscription-only 8cm CD of previously unreleased material, in a strictly limited edition of 200 numbered copies.

HAIL: Hello Debris

After a break of almost 15 years Susanne Lewis and Bob Drake have reconvened their classic partnership. In the meantime rock and post rock has mainly moved away from the song and its classic shapes, leaving commercial pop to straighten them out and endlessly repeat the same tropes and tricks. Hail is rare amongst bands in its adherence to the notion that what makes a song interesting is the application of imagination and skill to its arrangement, performance and recording. The plan is not to drag songs away into other domains by grafting on bits of jazz, classical or electronic vocabulary, but to make them more what they are; to concentrate and distill them. Susanne Lewis’s voice is extremely personal, never generic, Bob Drake’s signature rhythm section work always exemplary. The songs are real rather than clever, and the production constantly invents contrapuntal detail and colour. This is a virtuosic album that never shows off. For those who wish there were more good songs on the experimental side of transfigured pop.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Ipecac’s New Releases

Ipecac Recordings has a new release out today and two more on the way for next month.

Melvins - A Senile Animal
Release: Oct. 10, 2006

Isis - In The Absence of Truth
Release: Oct. 31, 2006

Isis - Clearing The Eye DVD
Release: Sep. 26, 2006

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Umbrella Music Through October 8th

Umbrella Music is hosting a number of shows in Chicago.

Wednesday, 27 September 2006

The Hideout
10:00 PM | Valentine Trio
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Jason Roebke - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
11:00 PM | Bridges Freeze Before Roads Quartet
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Guillermo Gregorio - clarinet
Jason Roebke - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
11:45 PM | Mini Set featuring: Valentine Trio Gregorio play the music of Fred Katz
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Guillermo Gregorio - clarinet
Jason Roebke - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
PLUS | DJ Sets : Josh Abrams spins
Brazilian Joints
Thursday, 28 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Jackson/Lonberg-Holm/Rosaly Trio
Keefe Jackson - reeds
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Frank Rosaly - drums
11:00 PM | Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten Quintet
Ola Kvernberg - violin
Dave Rempis - saxophones
Jeff Parker - guitar
Ingebrigt Håker-Flaten - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums

$8 requested donation
Sunday, 1 October 2006

The Hungry Brain
10:00 PM | Rempis/Håker Flaten/Rosaly Trio
Dave Rempis - saxophones
Ingebrigt Håker Flaten - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
11:00 PM | Reptet
Tobi Stone - saxes, clarinet, flute, more
Samantha Boshnack - trumpet, flugelhorn
Ben Verdier - bass
John Ewing - drums/percussion
Izaak Mills - saxes, bass clarinet, flute, more
Ben O’Shea - trombone
Wednesday, 4 October 2006

The Hideout
10:00 PM | Trio X
Joe McPhee - tenor sax & pocket trumpet
Dominic Duval - bass
Jay Rosen - drums

$10 cover
two sets
PLUS | DJ Sets : Dave Rempis spins
Alto Madness
Thursday, 5 October 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Bishop/Adasiewicz/Roebke/Sirota
Andrew Bishop - saxophone
Jason Adasiewicz - vibes
Jason Roebke - bass
Ted Sirota - drums
11:00 PM | Yuganaut
Steve Rush - piano
Tom Abbs - bass
Geoff Mann - drums

$7 requested donation
Sunday, 8 October 2006

The Hungry Brain
10:00 PM | Kyle Bruckmann’s Wrack
Kyle Bruckmann - oboe, english horn
Jason Stein - bass clarinet
Jen Clare Paulson - viola
Anton Hatwich - bass
Tim Daisy - drums

two sets

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Chicago Calling, October 25th

Chicago Calling will feature 24 hours of performances from Chicago based artists and many others.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Rudresh Mahanthappa’s Codebook Released

Pi Recordings has released this new effort from Mahanthappa.

Codebook
Rudresh Mahanthappa

Once again the outside world has provided a launching point and a system of order to draw from for Rudresh. The music on Codebook stems from ideas and concepts related to cryptography. The varied systems provided the groundwork for Rudresh to approach the DNA of the compositions from fresh and previously unexplored angles. A standard could be transformed into an entirely fresh piece, a melody conceived by encoding words or phrases, and cyclic rhythms reorganized by way of a cipher. All of this is to say that another structure of order has been applied to music, but has been done so with such care and thought that the result sounds in no way formulated. As with all of Rudresh’s music, the final product is quite surprising and intuitive. You can hear it in a track like “Play It Again Sam”, dedicated to Samuel Morse, where Rudresh opens and closes playing what could easily be Morse code. “D (Dee-Dee)” moves with a hint of a hard bop swing reoriented for a new audience. These pieces are just some examples of how the music never comes off sounding rigid or pastiche but instead as examples of a composer’s hand deftly working within a system and creating something entirely organic.

Evident throughout Codebook is Rudresh’s sense of humor. From the titles of the pieces, to song structure, to group interplay and beyond, the music on Codebook lives and breathes in a new way. The “Decider” kicks off with a line as twisted as the logic of the person who inspired the title. “Enhanced Performance” is just that. Without the help of any illegal musical substances, the group locks into a groove and never lets go. “Further and In Between” continues this muscular sound by beginning with a driving bass figure, that with the help of new drummer Dan Weiss, launches the band into one of its trademark powerful attacks. The CD’s nine tracks showcase the band’s handle of this tricky material and further emphasize why they are one of the today’s most creative and forward looking quartets.

Throughout the CD all of the hallmarks of Rudresh’s sound are present, his slightly tart tone, his complexly intertwined, but always logical, lines and his unique rhythmic sense. What is more present though, is the space in the music. Pieces such as “Play It Again Sam”, feature an openness between the individual musicians that was not as pronounced in previous recordings. The momentum of the music is now a gradual process. “Frontburner’s” duo opening is made all the more gripping by its harmonic bareness. From section to section within a single piece, there is a thoughtfulness and maturity evident in the music that speaks to the relationship between the band and the trust placed in them by Rudresh. A soulfulness permeates this music that was not as evident in the past.

Artists

* Rudresh Mahanthappa
* Vijay Iyer
* François Moutin
* Dan Weiss

artist info
Tracks

1. The Decider
2. Refresh
3. Enhanced Performance
4. Further and In Between
5. Play It Again Sam
6. Frontburner
7. D (Dee-Dee)
8. Wait It Through
9. My Sweetest

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

The Chairman Dances (1985). John Adams /like my opera/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 27, 2006 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

September 26, 2006

Speaking of Overblown Rock Orchestral Ambitions...

Emerson, Lake & Palmer, Piano Concerto, No. 1

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 26, 2006 at 02:37 PM | Comments (0)

Limewire Sues RIAA

This one ought to be interesting…

In Arista v. Lime Wire, in Manhattan federal court, Lime Wire has filed its answer and interposed counterclaims against the RIAA for antitrust violations, consumer fraud, and other misconduct. Lime Wire alleged that the RIAA’s

goal was simple: to destroy any online music distribution service they did not own or control, or force such services to do business with them on exclusive and/or other anticompetitive terms so as to limit and ultimately control the distribution and pricing of digital music, all to the detriment of consumers. (Counterclaim, paragraph 26, page 18).

….

This case is but one part of a much larger modern conspiracy to destroy all innovation that content owners cannot control and that disrupts their historical business models.(Counterclaim, paragraph 28, page 18).

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 26, 2006 at 02:36 PM | Comments (0)

Blogariddims 7: Voices from Afar

I’ll admit there wasn’t much of a plan to this when I started out. Whereas with Long Shadows I started from a particular sound world (ringing harmonics, bell-tones, thick textures), in this mix I sort of improvised and let a plan reveal itself as I went along. Basically it all came together through experiment and road testing; if it sounded like it worked, it stayed. The mix was put together using some pretty basic technology - a stack of CDs, a virtual stack of MP3s, a few ripped LPs - with the whole lot mixed in Audacity. No tempo shifts, no EQ twiddles, no pitch shifts - just careful placement and judicious fade-in/outs. Hopefully track selection and juxtaposition is enough.

Mixing avant-classical stuff is a bit unusual, and without many examples for comparison (if anyone knows where I can get a copy of Murcof’s demo mix tape from back in 2002, I think, please let me know!) I’m still feeling my way a bit. The first thing is that usual concerns such as tempo and key go out of the window. On the whole you’re not dealing with beats - and even when you are, it’s not music that was meant to be beatmatched - and you’re not usually dealing with a straightforward sense of key. So don’t worry about these things. What you do have, however, is a particularly acute sense of musical pacing and momentum. This is hard to pin down, and plenty of the pieces I wanted to include didn’t have it. Those that are here, however, do, and it’s something I tried to preserve even as I trampled across every other aspect of these compositions. What results is a kind of polyphony, with the tracks often pulling or pushing against each other, but meeting at certain points to create a form that is bigger than themselves.

One other thing. For people subscribing to these podcasts who may not have come across much contemporary classical music before: although I’ve juggled things around here to keep a constant energy and momentum running through the mix, there’s been very little compromise on track selection. What you hear on this mix is a fairly representative cross-section of contemporary classical music from the last 30-40 years. Hope you enjoy it.

Find out more about the Blogariddims project here and here.

You can get the mix directly here: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogariddims/
Or sign up for the podcast here: http://www.weareie.com/audio/blogariddims/Blogariddims.xml (see Droid’s helpful guide to podcasts for how to this).

Got it yet? OK, here are your sleevenotes…

[0:00] Nobukazu Takemura: Conical Flask
[0:45] Read Miller: Mile Zero Hotel
[1:40] Harold Budd, Ruben Garcia, Daniel Lentz: Iris

A slow building, chilled-out kind of start. I’ve not checked but I’m pretty certain Takemura’s Conical Flask is an epic work-out on a sample chord from Steve Reich’s Four Organs. What plans I did have before I started involved three different angles on Four Organs - this, the original work, and the Berkeley 1970 concert by the Steve Reich ensemble as preserved on archive.org. This has a great little segment with Reich recording sceptical audience members for a version of My Name Is, with Four Organs in soundcheck in the background. But it never really happened.

Read Miller’s Mile Zero Hotel, from the essential Cold Blue compilation, is a typical piece of his, with overlapping spoken recitations from a collection of letters sent from ‘Miriam’ on a trip around Canada. ‘Iris’, from Music for Three Pianos, sets up a couple of the strands which did end up running through the mix. There are lots of piano sounds for one, and as a conceit on my part each of Budd, Garcia and Lentz get big solo spots at some point later on.

[2:42] John Adams: Phrygian Gates
[3:17] Krzysztof Penderecki: Actions
[5:51] Brian Ferneyhough: Kurze Schatten II

The pulsating piano introduction to John Adams’s epic Phrygian Gates creeps up from around 2:40 and is the foundation for the next five or six minutes. The overlap with Actions was an experiment that came off first go. The first trombone note after the harmonic shift in the Adams just kills me: who’d have thought a Polish avant-jazz experiment would sit so well with gentle West Coast minimalism? The free jazz stylings of Actions morph nicely into the hyper-organised guitar splatter of Ferneyhough’s Kurze Schatten II. German speakers might notice a weak self-referential pun here.

[6:12] Gérard Grisey: Faux interlude, La mort de la humanité: Quatre chants pour franchir le seul
[7:25] John Cage: 103, part 2
[7:32] John Adams: Hymns and Slews: Shaker Loops
[8:12] A Produce and Ruben Garcia: Last Chance
[9:12] Krzysztof Penderecki: String Quartet no.1
[11:26] Witold Szalonek: Three Sketches, nos.1 and 2
[12:26] Boguslaw Schäffer: Quartet 2+2

A long section that slowly collapses into more and more splintered, fractured sounds. Grisey’s percussion rolls have been lurking low in the mix for a while already, and as Phrygian Gates gets increasingly agitated it is slowly overwhelmed by these and the heavy, sliding drones of Cage’s 103 and Adams’s Shaker Loops. This recording of 103, under Petr Kotik, is a controversial one, and perhaps not truly Cageian, but despite/because of this it makes a good fit alongside Adams’ loops. While Ruben Garcia provides the keyboards, three Polish sonorists pile in with scratches, squeaks, thunks, bells, whistles and a twee little piano chorale. The Szalonek is from Polskie Nagrania’s 6-disc commemoration of the Warsaw Autumn Contemporary Music Festival, an interesting artifact, but a pretty uneven selection of works of which this is one of the best. The Schäffer (no relation to Pierre) comes from a much more consistent LP (Polskie Nagrania SXL 0573) showcasing the Warsztat Muzyczny (Music Workshop) ensemble of the late 60s, who helped keep avant garde experiment alive in Poland once sonorism began to wear thin.

[11:37] György Ligeti: Etude no.1
[13:20] Henryk Górecki: Symphony no.2 ‘Copernican’, 2nd movt
[16:50] La Monte Young: The Well-Tempered Piano

Underneath all this chaos, as someone kicks a set of bells around the room, then tries to set fire to the stage (how it sounds to me…), wheezes Ligeti’s sickly, vacuum cleaner-powered pipe organ, out of which emerges the langorous music-of-the-spheres sonority of Górecki’s 2nd Symphony to round off this East European interlude. Further jangly harmonics are supplied by the non-East Euro La Monte Young.

[19:55] Harold Budd: Coyote: The White Arcades
[20:50] Olivier Messiaen: Jardin du sommeil d’amour: Turangalîla-Symphonie
[22:02] Daniel Lentz: Dancing on the Sun
[23:45] György Ligeti: Lontano
[27:45] Hans Otte: XI: Das Buch der Klänge

Harold Budd’s Coyote announces the beginning of the central third of the mix. Young’s Well-Tempered Piano is still clattering around, and is played off against a second item from the Cold Blue series, Daniel Lentz’s Dancing on the Sun. Messiaen’s langorous ‘Garden of Love’s Sleep’ and the desert terrain of Ligeti’s Lontano provide underlay, and this piano-dominated sequence is rounded off with a movement from Hans Otte’s highly recommended Buch der Klänge on ECM.

[28:50] Miro Bázlik: Simple Electronic Symphony
[29:50] Morton Feldman: Four Pianos
[30:30] Pauline Oliveros: Beautiful Soop
[30:40] Ivo Malec: Dahovi II
[33:05] Kenneth Kirschner: June 18, 1995

The central section is mostly electronica, with Feldman’s Four Pianos acting as constant through this section and the next. The Oliveros is a classic; the Malec and Bázlik are less well-known but equally worth seeking out. Kirschner is an electronic composer who releases all his music through his website via a Creative Commons license, and it’s well worth exploring.

[35:15] Laszlo Melis: Etude for Three Mirrors
[36:45] Tadeusz Baird: Voices from Afar

Hungarian minimalism plays off against Polish expressionism, and slowly pulls us out of the dark heart of the mix. Two composers the world should know much more about: the vocal-orchestral Baird comes from a 2 CD set of collected works available on import from the US; the chunky Euro-minimal Melis is from a CD by the Hungarian ensemble Group 180 (and comes backed with some excellent Rzewski recordings).

[41:00] Jaap Vink: Screen
[41:30] Jack Body: Long-ge

Long-ge, by the Composer Who Sounds Most Like He Should be a House Producer is a neat little string thing that doesn’t stick around for long, and with Jaap Vink’s jet-plane Screen from the Philips Electronic Panorama - Utrecht LP it forms a transition into the finale…

[44:30] Murcof: Ulysses: Utopía
[44:30] Arvo Pärt: Passio
[53:45] Arvo Pärt: Symphony no.2

… Which is an Arvo Pärt three-way. Murcof comes in as a second minimalism-sampling electronica counterbalance to Takemura from the start of the set. His gorgeous ‘Ulysses’ is backed by the work it so heavily samples - Pärt’s St John Passion. The two together provide the obligatory ‘palate-cleansing’ end to the mix, but with a twist as the finale to Pärt’s Second Symphony, from his less well-known, but much more interesting early period rounds things off in unexpected style.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - Music on Internet Conference - I

Today was the first of two days of the “Music On Internet: Information - Promotion - Distribution” conference, a fascinating conference discussing many interesting issues related to music today. The topics and speakers today really exhibited a real breadth and depth of knowledge and included some pretty eminent people (i.e. the president of EMI Music Poland).

Today’s discussions covered issues distribution of music on the internet and concerns and education regarding using the internet as a tool and venue for one’s music, the digitalization of music and issues regarding that (from very deep technical discussions on bitrates and quality to practical concerns on audio file formats), as well as issues on the music business and a window into the business of music on the internet.

The conference today made me think a great deal about my own music and how best to manage my own work, both for ease of access and archiving, as well as what are the ways in which to share one’s music with others. (It reminded me of an old idea I had for a software project that could archive music and would do so in lossless format and automatically create compressed versions as well as data formats for information for things like podcasts, websites, etc. I’d like to believe that software like this is already available though and open source, but if not, perhaps something to invest some time in.)

A great first day of conference papers and tomorrow the schedule looks to be just as interesting and perhaps even more focused on issues that concern content producers(composers, performing artists) and how the internet plays a part now.

Tonight, another Warsaw Autumn concert: Salvatore Sciarrino’s “Quaderno di strada”! (This whole festival has been absolutely fantastic, and I’m sure I will have much to think about and much more to write about after the festival is finished when there is time to reflect and review the concert.)

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Eight sentences about classical music I'd be happy never to read again

"Nobody actually enjoys listening to atonal music—they just want other people to think they’re a pretentious intellectual." For the record, I enjoyed listening to atonal music well before I was a pretentious intellectual. Seriously, stop telling me that I don’t like what I do like, OK? Because otherwise, I’m going to have to bring up that whole Proust thing. And I know you never got through Swann’s Way.

"Jazz is America’s classical music." The music of Adams, Babbitt, Bernstein, Billings, Brant, Cage, Carpenter, Carter, Copland, Corigliano, Crumb, Diamond, Eaton, Feldman, Fine, Flynn, Foss, Glass, Harbison, Heinrich, Imbrie, Ives, Johnston, Kirchner, Larsen, Macdowell, Moran, Nancarrow, Oliveros, Parker, Partch, Reich, Riegger, Riley, Rouse (both of ‘em), Ruggles, Seeger, Shapey, Tower, Williams, and (god help me) LaMonte Young (just to name a few) is America’s classical music. Jazz is jazz. Why is this so hard?

"Mozart and Beethoven were the popular music of their time." Mozart and Beethoven may have been more popular than, say, Hartke and Wuorinen are today, but that hardly makes them 200-year-old equivalents of Justin Timberlake. Both relied heavily on royal patronage and a state-supported musical infrastructure. Both wrote the majority of their works for an aristocratic audience. (Want to breathe new life into this meme? Try working in John Gay.)

"The atmosphere at classical concerts is intimidating." Too formal? Sure. Snobbish? On occasion. But if you find a bunch of well-dressed old people to be intimidating, a suggestion: maybe Mahler 6 isn’t the best entertainment choice for you in the first place.

"Orchestras need to do away with tuxedos because they’re stuffy and outdated." Yeah, that James Bond—what a prudish old geezer. Besides, if all enterprises rose and fell on the aesthetic quality of their uniforms, Major League Baseball would have bit the dust years ago.

"Blah blah blah uptown composers blah blah blah downtown composers." Look, I’m sure this particular dialectic felt terribly, vitally important at a certain place and time. But to all of us living in the vague and undifferentiated string of comical hick towns that New Yorkers regard the rest of the world to be, this is pretty much like listening to your grandparents debate the relative merits of Ovaltine and Postum. Think of how much wonderful music would result if all that wasted energy was applied to something constructive, like making fun of emo.

"In celebration of the [large number]th anniversary of the birth of [dead composer]." Why is it that all those people who reject formalist composition as too intellectual and schematic are perfectly happy to flood the world with concerts/broadcasts/recordings of old-timers for no other reason than a numerological coincidence? Just asking. (Today, for instance, is Shostakovich’s 100th birthday. Strike a blow for reason and listen to him tomorrow.)

"Composers today only write music for other composers." Only if they’re buying.

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Heinrich Kaminsky - an emerging composer

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Dancing about architecture

Originally from Musical Perceptions, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Dmitry Dmitryevich

Whether you think he was a Soviet hack, a secret dissident, a public dissident, or a little of all three, today is still Shostakovich's birthday, and he would have been 100 years old. Everyone go have a shot of vodka and smoke four packs of cigarattes in his honor.

Whatever you do, don't take Miles Hoffman's advice and ignore the history around his works. The music, contrary to what Daniel Barenboim has written, is not just about those politics, but the history behind it adds layers of meaning to the interpretation, and even though the exact meaning is difficult to pin down, we should still make the attempt. For as Alex Ross reminded us, "For some reason, though, music is treated as a childish realm in which fables serve as well as facts." Sort through the fables to find the facts, for the music deserves nothing less than that noble attempt.

Originally posted by MarcGeelhoed from Marc Geelhoed: Deceptively Simple, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Sir Malcolm Arnold

Originally from Iron Tongue of Midnight, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Happy Birthday, Dmitri Dmitrievich

One hundred years ago today was born one of the best composers of the Soviet Union, indeed of the 20th century, Dmitri Shostakovich. There was an excellent article on the composer on the French news from France 2 last night, with excellent pictures and an interview with Irina Shostakovich (the composer's third wife); the BBC has been all over the story, with another interview with Irina; ITAR-TASS reports that the town of Samara has renamed a street after Shostakovich; NPR had a piece on Saturday and another today. The Guardian has a great little quiz on Shostakovich, which we dare you to take. I scored 9 out of 10. Check out my Classical Music Agenda at DCist for some Shostakovich concerts to catch here in the Washington area this week.

We will be writing a lot over the next couple months about the observance of this important centenary, but today seemed like a good opportunity to look back at what we have written about DSCH at Ionarts over the past three years. We hope all our readers listened to some of his music today. I am listening to Valery Gergiev's recordings of Symphonies 4, 5, and 9 as I write this. Strangely, I do not recall reading a single blog entry devoted to Shostakovich today, but as they turn up, I will add them here.

Symphonies: First -- Temirkanov, Baltimore Symphony Second -- Jansons Fourth -- Jansons / Gergiev Seventh -- Bernstein Eighth -- Rostropovich / Wigglesworth / Gergiev Eleventh -- Slatkin, National Symphony Twelfth -- Jansons Fifteenth -- Kremerata Baltica String Quartets: Third -- Belcea Quartet Fourth -- National Gallery Quartet Eighth -- Jerusalem Quartet Ninth -- St. Petersburg Quartet Tenth -- Jerusalem Quartet Fifteenth -- Emerson Quartet (The Noise of Time) Miscellaneous: Collection of Shostakovich Recordings in Danger

Concertos and Orchestral: First Violin Concerto -- Gidon Kremer, Baltimore Symphony Festive Overture -- Baltimore Symphony Piano and Other Chamber Music: 24 Preludes and Fugues -- Keith Jarrett Second Sonata -- Alexei Lubimov Sonata for Viola and Piano -- Kremerata Baltica Piano Trio No. 1 -- Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio Piano Trio No. 2 -- Natalia Gutman and friends / Beaux Arts Trio / Amadeus Trio Duets for Violins with Piano -- Perlman/Zukerman Operas: Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk -- De Nederlandse Opera (2006) / Bolshoi (2004) / Petr Weigl film (1992) Moscow, Cheryomushki -- Opéra National de Lyon (2004) The Nose -- Mariinsky Theater

Originally from ionarts, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

The Unnecessary Revolution - two albums

The Unnecessary Revolution is an experimental rock group from Israel. Their unusual sound appears to be derived in large part from artists like Captain Beefheart, Pere Ubu, and to a lesser extent, The Residents. But there is a distinct melodic tendency originating from cabaret and Israeli folk music that separates them from the usual avant-garde habit toward chaos.

Internet Archives offer two online albums simply titled 1st of 3 and 2nd 0f 3. This implies a third album which I was unable to locate. These two albums will certainly suffice as an enjoyable listen even without the elusive 3rd.

The first album’s opening track “Aiwa 5.0″ exhibits the instrumental influence of the afore-mentioned Beefheart and Pere Ubu. It is followed by the mellower “Tunafish” which features fragile vocals that are likable in their uncertainty. Lyrics seem to be secondary to the band’s proficiency with their instruments and vocal effects. “Metazeyer ba Anamin” has a heavy Israeli influence and is an exceptional work while the last track, “Sound is a Fiction” swings in a crime jazz way a la John Zorn.

2nd of 3 is an interpretation of the music of French songwriter George Brassens. The creative arrangements and translation of the lyrics to Israeli presents a otherworldy environment that is eerily appealing. This album is more conventional in its muscial setting but just as imaginative and unpredictable. Vocals continue to be a weak point but it’s a minor issue when you realize what this group can do with a song. Both albums will appeal to anyone who likes their music a little off of the beaten path.

The albums are available from The Internet Archives as separate tracks or album zip in Ogg Vorbis format.

Download
1st of 3
2nd of 3

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

1st British composer to win Oscar dies

CBC , 9/25/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Malcolm Arnold, Prolific British Composer, Is Dead at 84

UN News Centre, 9/25/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Keith Jarrett: One Extraordinary Night, Annotated by Its Architect

Nate Chinen, New York Times, 9/24/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Outgoing critic Richard Dyer argues for classical music's staying power

Richard Dyer, Boston Globe, 9/24/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Composer Sir Malcolm Arnold dies

BBC , 9/24/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

One Pianist Is Improvising the Revival of a Lost Art

Vivien Schweitzer , New York Times, 9/25/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Chamber Music Society Opens With New Directors

Anthony Tommasini, New York Times, 9/23/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Dyer not dire

Richard Dyer bids farewell after thirty-some years as critic of the Boston Globe with an eloquent, hopeful essay on music's future: "The whole history of Western music is all there as a resource and an inspiration for the person who wants to discover it and for the composer who wants to use it. But the paramount issue remains: how to make a person want to discover it. In the final analysis that's not a question for the music business or the educator or the media, although they can help or hinder. This remains, as it has always been, the primary challenge for the creator or the interpreter, the composer who creates the message and the performer who delivers it. If the message and the performance are human, compelling, craftsmanlike, and honest, they will reach the public. `From the heart,' Beethoven wrote on the score of the Missa Solemnis, 'may it go to the heart.'"

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHOSTAKOVICH

Happy 100th Birthday to Dmitri Shostakovich! My favorite works: Symphony No.14, Op.135 Symphony No.15, Op.141 Violin Concerto No.1, Op.77 (especially the scherzo) Festive Overture, Op.96 Piano Concerto No.2, Op.102 (Mvt. II) Six Poems by Marina Tsvetaye

Originally posted by Alan Theisen from Alan Theisen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

Malcolm Arnold, 84

Malcolm Arnold died over the weekend.  He was a deeply troubled man who had a remarkably productive life against the odds.  He was, in my view, the most underrated symphonist of the post-war 20th century.

New York Times obituary.

A far more colorful obituary from Australia.

Guardian.

BBC Tributes.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

What to Wear is Boffo in La La Land

Mark Swed, who is (perhaps wisely) ignoring our attempts to stir up trouble over his incoherent Jefferson Friedman review last week, is wild about the Michael Gordon/Richard Foreman opera What to Wear which is now playing a limited run at REDCAT at the Walt Disney Concert Hall in beautiful downtown L.A..  A couple of snippets:

“What to Wear” — with dazzling, hard-hitting music by Michael Gordon and words, staging, design and equally hard-hitting and dazzling zaniness by Richard Foreman — is being called a rock opera.

It’s not. If it were, rock opera could, after the premiere of this arresting new hour of music theater at REDCAT on Wednesday night, be acknowledged as having finally come of age. 

And:

What to Wear” is scheduled for nine more performances. Ten times that number would be more like it.

Good piece in the Times this morning about the Venezuelan-American pianist Gabriela Montero who is said to be almost singlehandedly reviving the lost art of improvisation–at least in a classical framework.  Montero, who has never studied or played jazz, can apparently take any song she knows suggested at random and immediately turn it into a Bach or Mozart or Antonio Carlos Jobim improvisation, including the other night at Joe’s Pub a blistering take on Gloria Gaynor’s disco anthem “I Will Survive.”

There are some samples on her web site but I can’t get the registration thing to work.  Looks like a job for our ace webmaster Super Jeff.

And yes, Andrea, I am showing off my newfound restraint and maturity.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

Olewnick vs. Taylor, Round 93

Students of the Sweet Science of reviewing both, Brian and I have been in the Bags ring since nigh its inception. Nevertheless, I’ve noticed over the last stretch that the pool of title-hungry contenders has winnowed to nearly just...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

Spellbound radio 9/3/06 hr 2

Spellbound radio 9/3/06 hr 2
Spellbound radio 9/3/06 hr 2 - Purple Note Radio Network - Spellbound, music for theremin
From Podcast: Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Spellbound radio 9/3/06 hr 1

Spellbound radio 9/3/06 hr 1
Spellbound radio 9/3/06 hr 1 - Purple Note Radio Network - Spellbound, music for theremin
From Podcast: Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Sonomu Reviews

Four new reviews from Sonomu.

Aidan Baker, Remixes CDR Arcolepsy
Just how much of a challenge is it to remix selections from a catalogue consisting almost exclusively of drones? For in essence, drone is nothing more than texture, and texture is nothing more than a base, a primer, a background. To some at least. Aidan Baker asked a dozen kindred spirits to take on… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 14:36, 25 Sep 2006

Orgatronics, Moonfruit One Note Records
Marketed as purveying “late night ambient loungecore”, Sam Bell, a veteran Ricky Ricardo in the UK, and Rich Arthurs, a guitarist of extremely flexible fingers, express their shared love of anything with a Latin tinge on this excellent CD, just as perfect for parties as for winding down from them… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 14:11, 25 Sep 2006

David Kristian, Rhythms for a Rainy Season Apegenine Recordings
According to the press sheet which accompanied this very yellow CD, Rhythms for a Rainy Season will be the “last record by David Kristian as himself”. Perhaps someone else will play him in the future, like character actor Philip Seymour Hoffman. Actually, veteran Canadian electronics artist… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 09:15, 20 Sep 2006

Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, Melody Mountain Rune Grammofon
The second album of delicately wrought covers by 27-year-old Norwegian singer Susanna Wallumrød, whose “orchestra” consists of Morten Qvenlid of Jaga Jazzist on piano, cembalo, autoharp, vibraphone, “church organ” and sundry other keys. The frail-voiced Susanna and Morten open with a… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 09:04, 20 Sep 2006

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble DVD Reviewed

Another review of this live DVD is available.

As soon as the introductory fanfare begins, you just know this is a heavy one. Five guys on stage at that great free-jazz temple, Chicago’s now-departed original Velvet Lounge, building a noise with drums and brass and bass and moaning and even a little harmonica thrown in there just in case anyone didn’t already get the message that these Messengers are peddling: welcome to the heart of the blues. You can tell these dudes mean business, clad in the now-universal, post-Panthers, heavy North African jazz-cat chic of dashiki and fez. There’s no Marsalis-style Italian suits here, no hackneyed stance of ‘coolness’. This goes deeper than the jazz the Lincoln Centre would like to gift-wrap for you. This is the real deal; authentic jazz carrying forward the history and heritage, drawing deep on tradition without any of that insidious Ken Burns revisionism…

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

More Youtube Madness

Videos found on www.youtube.com:

Soft Machine
Anthony Braxton
Von Zamla
Magma
Can

And here’s yet another example of the Internet making the world a smaller place: Pip Pyle’s funeral.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Guardian Reviews

A strong set of reviews from the Guardian.

CD: EST, Tuesday Wonderland
**** (ACT)

CD: Colin Towns/ NDR Big Band, Frank Zappa’s Hot Licks (and Funny Smells)
***** (Provocateur/Rentadog)

CD: Bill Frisell/ Ron Carter/ Paul Motian, Bill Frisell/ Ron Carter/ Paul Motian
**** (Nonesuch)

CD: Humcrush, Hornswoggle
**** (Rune Grammofon)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Upcoming at the Bohemian National Home

The latest for this Detroit venue.

UPCOMING AT BOHEMIAN NATIONAL HOME

Wednesday, Sept 27th: Extra Golden (thrill jockey)
Extra Golden is a collaberation between Onyango Wuod Omari of the Nairobi, Kenya based Benga band Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, and Ian Eagleson and Alex Minoff of the Washington D.C. based rock band Golden. Benga music is a guitar-heavy dance music that has been popular in Kenya since the ’60s, which Minoff (also of Weird War) has spent several years investigating.
Doors at 9 pm; $5

Saturday, Setember 30th: Tara Jane O’ Neal with Warn DeFever
Tara Jane O’ Neal first came on to the scene with 90’s indie-rockers Rodan. Since then, she’s developed into a producer, a rootsy songstress and an important go-to person at Drag City Records.
Her down-tempo, introspective numers are reminiscent of her label-mate Edith Frost, but O’Neal mixes it up with some interesting ambient and instrumental numbers. Detroiter (oops I mean Livonian) Warn DeFever, of His Name is Alive, wears too many hats to say what his set will be like, but we’re sure it will be great.
Doors at 9 pm; $7

Sunday, October 1st: Frank Pahl and Dan Kahn
A night of dissin’ on George Bush. Frank Pahl and Dan Kahn bring us a couple of protest tunes, with a portion of the proceeds going to benefit Moveon.org. It will also be your last chance to check-out Pahl’s automotons in the gallery, before he takes them home.
Doors at 7pm; $5

Saturday,Oct. 7th: Joe McPhee and Trio X
Free Jazz legend Joe McPhee brings his Trio X to the Bohemian for a night of Energy Music! Since bursting onto the scene in the late ’60s, McPhee has consistently put out recordings of his big tenor sax sound in various contexts. This became easier when, in 1974, Swiss entrepreneur Werner X. Uehlinger formed the famous Hat Art label, just to keep McPhee’s discography flowing. Classic recordings like “Nation Time” and “Underground Railroad” featured high flying improvising, but also a lot of funky soul. His newer group, Trio X, features the talents of Dominic Duval and Jay Rosen, who have added their names to a list of collaborators that includes Rashid Ali, Evan Parker,Jimmy Giuffre, Pauline Oliveros and many others.
Doors @ 9pm; sliding scale $10-15

Sunday, Oct 8th: Salim Washington, Hakim Jami, Steve Richko, Sean Dobbins
A double Detroiter homecoming! Salim Washington grew up in Detroit’s eastside ghetto, learning trumpet from the leader of a local gang. Eventually, he switched to saxophone and got serious enough to get into Harvard, where he earned his PhD. He’s now an important figure on the East Coast scene: his huge, Coltrane inspired thrilled the audience when he appeared at The Bohemian last year. He also spends time teaching at Brooklyn College’s conservatory.

Double-bassist Hakim Jami has played with several generations of jazz greats, including early masters like Duke Jordan and Don Byas, as well as modernists like Giuseppi Logan, Sun Ra, Freddie Hubbard, Archie Shepp and Don Cherry. Jami was also the booking person in the first era of Detroit Art Space, where he presided with his group The Street Band. These two ex-Detroiters return to town with pianist Steve Richko and drummer Sean Dobbins.
Doors at 8 pm; sliding scale $7-15.

Tuesday, Oct. 10th: Ian MacKaye’s The Evens
As a founding member of Minor Threat and Fugazi, Ian MacKaye can lay claim to starting two of the most significant bands in punk history, as well as the clean-living “straight-edge” philosophy that birthed a whole scene itself. Even while selling hundreds of thousands of copies of each release, Fugazi would play for as little as $5 and donate half the profits to a charity. So what’s he been doing in the 21st century? Playing baritone guitar in the two-piece The Evens, with Amy Farina on drums. The results are said be an interesting, melodic departure- it’s also MacKaye’s first non-Fugazi release in about 20 years. Doors at 8:30 pm;$5.

Coming Soon:
10/15 Thollem McDonas, Jon Brummit and Rent Romus

11/16 Qbico Unite record label showcase with Muruga Booker’s Free Funk, Faruq Z Bey with The Northwoods Improvisers, Odu Afrobeat Orchestra

Bohemian National Home
3009 Tillman (22nd)
Detroit 48216
313 737 6606

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

482 Music New Releases

482 Music has a pair of new releases.

Modo Trio — The Uninvited
Inspired by the aural landscapes of rave culture, but grounded in the traditions of jazz

Fire of Space — Handbasket
Avant-garde out of traditional musics: jazz, afrobeat, eastern dance and classical

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Parent vs. Teacher

Combining one's work with one's family life can be a very tricky business, especially if it means deciding to teach your own child music.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

You broke it, you own it

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Black Angels (Images I). George Crumb /newness/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 26, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

September 25, 2006

Catching up

Been away for a week, as you may have guessed. On a sort of epilogue/prologue/transitional trip to Warsaw and Budapest, the two cities whose shadows lay over my PhD. Were meeting friends (from the UK) in Budapest, and had planned to catch a few days of the Warsaw Autumn Festival as part of the same trip. However, these plans were embarrassingly and frustratingly thwarted when WA changed its dates from those advertised when we booked our flights (last week) to those it actually is (this week). Grrr. Anyhow, this did give me a better opportunity to show Warsaw to my girl, and on re-visiting it remains the European city most powerfully burnt onto my memory. Ugly and bruising like a concrete knuckle yet unmistakable and visceral. I don’t know anywhere else quite like it, and I love it.

Budapest remains a beautiful historic town, even if it is becoming more and more Euro-phied every time I visit. One thing to say - don’t read too much into reports (such as this one) that Budapest is currently overrun with thugs and fighting some sort of pitched battle on the streets. It’s not. There is, however, a colossal energy about the place, focussing on the 24-hour rally outside Parliament, where anti-Gyurcsany protesters are organised, peaceful and bedded in for the long haul (they have an impressive infrastructure set up on the square after only a few days - even a military field kitchen has been unearthed from somewhere). More on this in a later post when a) I’ve finished (in)digesting some of the coverage in the UK press I’ve glanced over this morning, b) figured out how to download pictures from my girl’s phone, and c) translated some of the slogans on display around the square.

In the meantime, a few announcements from my inbox:

Rational Rec

RATIONAL REC IS BACK
After a well-deserved summer break, Rational Rec, the monthly inter-art social occasion returns to its
spiritual home at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club.

Rational Rec incorporates sound, music, text, performance, film into a good night out. Come along and be artistically, intellectually and alcoholically stimulated.

SEASON 2 FUNDRAISING MUSIC GALA
Tuesday 3 October
Doors open at 8pm; £5 on the door
Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club,
44 Pollard Row, London E2 6NB
(5 minutes walk from Bethnal Green tube)
www.rationalrec.org.uk

Featuring:

Helmut Lachenmann — Guero (1970) for scraping &
plucking pianist

Vinko Globokar — Corporel (1985) for body percussion

John Lely — Desk Bells (2006)

Milhaud — Scaramouche Suite (1936)

Tom Johnson — Same or Different (2004)

PERFORMERS
Roderick Chadwick — Claire Edwardes — Mark Knoop –
Kerry Yong

For more details about confirmed future Rational Rec
dates please visit www.rationalrec.org.uk

Camberwell Composers’ Collective

c3 celebrates second birthday with upcoming tour

Following their acclaimed performances at the Aldeburgh, iF and Camberwell Arts Week festivals, c3 are excited to announce their autumn series of gigs in London and Edinburgh.

The Camberwell Composers’ Collective is Mark Bowden, Emily Hall, Chris Mayo and Anna Meredith, four of the most successful young composers working in the UK today.

The tour includes an evening at the National Portrait Gallery, an appearance at the SPNM Shortlist launch party and the group’s first concert in Edinburgh at the Bongo Club as the opening event of the Edinburgh Contemporary Arts Trust’s concert season, ending at the c3 home venue – The Crypt jazz club in Camberwell.
Camberwell Composers’ Collective Autumn 2006 concerts schedule

Fri, 27 October 2006, 6.30pm
National Portrait Gallery
St Martin’s Place
London, WC2H 0HE
020 7312 2463
http://www.npg.org.uk
Free

Wed, 1 November 2006, 6.30pm
Louise T. Blouin Institute
Crown House
72 Hammersmith Road
London, W14 8TH
http://www.spnm.org.uk
Invitation only

Wed, 8 November 2006, 7.30pm
Bongo Club
37 Holyrood Road
Edinburgh EH8 8BA
0131 558 7604
http://www.thebongoclub.co.uk
£10/£5

Sat, 25 November 2006, 7.30pm
The Crypt
St Giles Church
Camberwell Church Street
London, SE5 8QU
http://www.camberwellcomposerscollective.com

c3 is very grateful for the support of the PRS Foundation and Awards for All.

Reviews for spnm’s New Notes online magazine

This month sees publication of my first offerings as a regular reviewer for the Society for the Promotion of New Music (spnm), in the online version of their magazine New Notes. If you’re a member of spnm you can read the reviews here. In summary, though - ECM’s new CD of Tigran Mansurian, Ars poetica, is a strong follow-up to 2004’s Monodia, with subtle depths; and the Colmore Consort’s first release, of David Matthews and Jonathan Dove, is a lovely thing, recommended for all admirers of English choral music.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - I

Last night was the first concert of this year’s Warsaw Autumn Festival of contemporary music. I have long wanted to attend this festival since I first heard of it years ago and I am very glad to be able to be at these concerts.

Yesterday’s concert that opened the festival was one of orchestral music at that Filharmonia Narodowa Concert Hall. It was our first time at the hall and I found it quite a lovely and beautiful building with an intimate sized hall (and perhaps the best seats I’ve ever sat in for a concert: ample leg space and very comfortable!). Our seats were on the ground floor underneath the second floor than hung over, so perhaps not the best for acoustics, but just happy to be there.

The pieces on the concert tonight were:

• György Kurtág - Stele
• Tomasz Sikorski - Music in Twilight
• Petero Eötvös - Atlantis

It was the first time I heard any of these pieces, and since I am not all too familiar with any of the composers or their works as well, I wanted to be cautious to give each of these works a fair listening and not be too quick to judge what I heard. Following are some notes I took regarding each of the pieces:

Kurtág - lovely chords at end, interesting but coarse work with temporal layers, curious piece, not sure if it’s where we’re sitting or if it’s the orchestration but earlier sections seemed dense/muddy, proportions/scale felt a little off (some sections felt too long, others felt too short), should listen to again sometime to get to know better to to know how much where we sat affected the experience of the piece

Sikorski - piano and orchestra, piano part mainly built on three types of ideas(pedal held down almost throughout): gestures that reminded me a lot of George Crumb’s piano writing, thick repeated chords, slightly less thick repeated broken chords; orchestra part was aleatoric; mostly thin/muted textures (some quite nice!); piece felt very episodic, orchestral part was a backdrop for the piano, often held single orchestral idea for a very long time while piano played on top of that; piano seemed at times unrelated altogether to the orchestra, also seemed very loud compared to orchestra and covered up the orchestra due to registration and thickness of chords (may be where we were sitting though and perhaps subtler effects were going on); the density of the parts were sustained for long periods and changes were in block-like motion

Eötvös - the piece is really loud! felt like being in a movie theater; large palette of sounds; interesting mix of synthetic sounds and the live sounds, but end of piece seemed very unrelated to rest of the music, almost tacked on; performance was very good, the baritone singer was fantastic and the boy soprano did very well; interesting orchestration with a large variety of percussion (six percussionists), a lot of brass and woodwinds, only a handful of strings, a cimbalon, and synthesizer; I think every person and instrument was microphoned and amplified; amplified instruments have a very different sound which was interesting to hear; large sense of space; hard to focus on the piece at times as it felt too loud for the hall (sort of like standing too close to a painting); ears hurt afterwards; interesting piece, but I had a strange feeling–considering I don’t know much about him or his work–that this wasn’t his best and that he’s going to write something that will be leave a deeper impression

As with a lot of music, I found the pieces to be well written, yet, perhaps searching for different things that what I am after within my own music. It was fantastic though to get to hear these pieces live and I am sure I will check these pieces and composers out again on CD (if they’re available).
Also, I found that each of the pieces incorporated aleatory in their works in different ways. It was great to hear this live and to have this experience to contemplate how it was used in each piece and comparing it to Lutoslawski’s use of aleatory, how differently they all sounded.
Regarding the audience, it was really great to see people of all ages and types there at the concert. I felt very comfortable being there, slightly dressed down, and not feeling an air of pretension. The audience seemed mindful of other people (no extraneous noise!) and also everyone seemed to have opinions on the pieces and had a sense of real interest in the music.
I enjoyed being at the concert very much yesterday and it was a wonderful way to start the festival. Today, a marathon of String Quartets by Polish Composers!

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - II

The first concert of String Quartets was really quite overwhelming.  It’s quite a lot of information to take in for one concert, but very interesting to hear so many different composers’ use of the same ensemble.

The pieces that were on the concert were:

• Grazyna Bacewicz - String Quartet No. 4
• Witold Lutoslawski - String Quartet
• Krzysztof Penderecki - String Quartet No. 2
  
• Krzysztof Penderecki - String Quartet No. 1
• Tadeusz Baird - Play for string quartet
• Zygmunt Krauze - String Quartet No. 3
• Krzysztof Meyer - String Quartet No. 12
• Andrzej Panufnik - String Quartet No. 2 “Messages”
• Pawel Szymanski - Five Pieces for String Quartet
• Andrzej Krzanowski - String Quartet No. 2

Some notes on the pieces:

Bacewicz - sweet, energetic, playful; lovely use of harmonics, fun

Lutoslawski - intense, got into it further into the piece, episodic at first, later very shaped, a projection of what develops more in his later works, ideas here that are not completely keyboard influenced (multiple times, swells, glissandi) (the keyboard thing is related to something else on my mind…),

Penderecki- more violent than intense, feels as if composed with less feeling than construction, some nice moments but somewhat random, some ideas seemed extraneously put in

*Intermission*

Penederecki - enjoyed this more than the Quartet No. 2, seemed more shaped, less frantic

Baird - alternating moments of sincere contemplation and gusto

Krauze - long homogenous chord progressions, dominated by grace-note/held-note idea, a paiting in atonal gray color

Meyer - big work but a bit too fatigued to take in at the moment, seemed a bit gray as well

*Intermission*

Panufnik - nice piece but there are others of his which I feel more connection to, some of his writing seems to work better in other mediums

Szymanski - nice collection of pieces, each with strong character, very well articulated (was very tired and falling asleep at this point, which is a real shame, and would really like to hear this piece again, as well as to learn more about the composer)

Krzanowski - Big sound, cacophonous and sonoristic, somwhere between Penderecki and Lutoslawski but more leaning towards Lutoslawski, exhausting to listen to at end of concert

Overall, I found that it was a little hard to take in some of the music as the concert progressed as it was just a lot of music.  In some ways it’s a bit unfair as these pieces all could really stand to be listened to on their own or at least with a little more space between pieces to give a chance to reset and contemplate.  It was sort of like being at a gallery and every painting was bumped up against the next one and you had to move through a fixed rate.

The two pieces which I really took notice of most were the the Lutoslawski and the Szymanski.  I’ve long enjoyed Lutoslawski’s work and now am curious to follow up to learn more about Szymanski (who I found out was sitting four seats down from us; crazy sitting here and knowing many composers are around, reminds me of being at Carnegie Hall for one of the “When Morty Met John” concerts and being in the elevator with Merce Cunningham, or when we sat behind Joan La Barbara at the Feldman “String Quartet II” performance).

Speaking of String Quartet II, I was thinking how interesting that after 3.5 hours with intermissions I felt so exhausted, while after 6 hours without intermission of the Feldman I remember feeling very energized, even though it was past midnight!  I think that alot of the pieces in this concert were really quite full with energy. Also, thinking of it, I don’t think I am used to listening to music at that volume for so long, as when I am listening at home or with headphones it generally is not at so loud a volume.

As with the first concert, there’s a lot here for me to think about, as well as just being really nice to hear really well performed modern music. (BTW: The Silesian String Quartet is an excellent group of performers!) Still thinking alot about string articulations and envelopes and how keyboards have dominated perception of music lately…

Tonight, the second half the string quartet marathon!

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - III

Yesterday’s second half the string quartet marathon ended up being a bit too much for us and plus our friend Karen was in town and we wanted to meet up with her and other friends, so we left after the second intermission.

The pieces on the second concert were:

• Eugeniusz Knapik - String Quartet
• Aleksander Lason - String Quartet No. 6
• Stanslaw Krupowicz - Farewell Variations on a Them by Mozart for amplified string quartet and tape
• Barbara Buczek - Transgressio. String Quartet No. 2
• Zbigniew Bargielski - Farwell Night for accordion and string quartet
• Krzysztof Knittel - Dorikos for string quartet and tape
• Witold Szalonek - 1+1+1+1 for 1-4 string instruments
• Tadeusz Wielecki - Hazard and Necessity for string quartet and electronic media
• Henryk Mikolaj Gorecki - String Quartet No. 1 ‘It is Already Dusk’

Some notes I took during the concert:

Knapik - beautiful string writing, overall form a bit incoherent

Lason - very beautiful serene first half, second half very energetic but took me by surprise at first, fun, even joyous; performers seemed to have gotten lost at one point, but overall enjoyed the piece very much

Krupowicz - electronic sounds seemed very dated; did not like the reverb used and there was a lot of it, piece did not feel very serious, sort of a catalogue of techniques

*Intermission*

Buczek - driven by effects, seemed hyper emotional, effects seemed frivolous (tones can often be too…)

Bargielski - a bit over dramatic, very loud cuts and gestures, little transition, red hot or ice cold, not a fan of accordian in classical setting (have yet to hear a piece with this used that really struck me)

Knittel - tape and quartet, concrete style tape, seems more composing with an idea than sound, didn’t work for me

*Intermission* (We left at this point)

Szalonek - Did not attend

Wielecki - Did not attend

Gorecki - Did not attend

I think that I found a lot of the music was very gestural, and perhaps it is just my own taste in that I prefer tones, but a number of pieces also felt very over dramatic. Looking back, I think sonorist techniques and pieces work so well with a string quartet; perhaps it is the number of performers (only four) or the limited sound palette with just string instruments and bodies to use, but I find the larger orchestral or chamber ensemble sonorist pieces more effective.

A long day of string quartets, it was as interesting to hear as it was exhausting.  I’m glad to have attended but would love to spend more time with each individually to really have a chance to get to know the pieces, which I found hard to do in this marathon setting.

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - IV

Today we woke up and headed over to hear the Ensemble Phoenix perform a number of pieces for their instrumentation (flute, piano, string bass, percussion) at the Academy of Music.  The program for today was rearranged and they swapped out a piece; the program was:

• Zbigniew Baginski - Circulations
• Gerard Grisey - Echanges
• Alex Buess - Khat
• Beat Fuhrer - Presto for Flute and Piano
• Michel Roth - Mr. Wint and Mr. Kidd

Some notes on the pieces:

Baginski - nice use of percussion, piano was mostly rhythmic chords, beautiful quiet writing, nice flute melodies, nice use of back of bow on bass strings, the more energetic writing was filled with very short gestures, a very well shaped piece, nice balance of material and contrast, performed very well, very nice piece!

Grisey- not my favorite Grisey piece, a bit spastic, lots of extended playing techniques, nicely performed though but the piece itself is not one I am much into

Buess- flute, percussion, live electronics; electronics seemed to be there to make things REALLY loud; sounded like a child first time playing flute, overblowing and playing the same three notes over and over again, percussion was frantic, did not find myself into this piece

*Intermission*

Beat Fuhrer - Presto for Flute and Piano - hyper active, rapid gestures, couldn’t hear the sound of flute but a wash of sound, reminded me of electronic blips and bleeps

Roth - constantly filled, angular and maximized off-beat rhythms, used just about every percussion instrument and effect, piano often written like percussion, very gestural

Of the pieces I found I had the most impression from the Baginski piece (I do like a lot of the music of the older Polish generation…).  I think that the rest of the music were just not my cup of tea; not to say it was badly done or badly written, but perhaps just after something different than where I have my attention to these days. It’s a very good ensemble and was glad to have attended their performance.

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Warsaw Autumn 2006 - V

Tonight’s concert was one of orchestral music at the Witold Lutoslawski Polish Radio Concert Studio.  It was our first time there and I think it may very well be one of the best halls I’ve been in.  The sound was just fantastic and of course it didn’t hurt that the orchestra that was performing were absolutely first rate (Sinfonia Varsovia).

The pieces tonight were:

• Zbigniew Penherski - Little ‘Autumn’ Symphony
• Andrzej Dobrowolski - Music for Strings, 2 Groups of Wind Instruments and 2 Loudspeakers
• Krzysztof Penderecki - Canticum Canticorum Salomonis
• Filippo Perocco - reCycle_Lacrimosa
• Michel van der Aa - Here Trilogy (second movement, Here [in circles], third movement, Here [to be found])

Notes on the pieces:

Penherski - 1st movement: one large cresc-decresc, gorgeous colors, icy, reminded me of John Luther Adams somewhat,  beautiful chords and texture; 2nd movement: minimalist and tonal, reminiscent of John Adams, didn’t have the growth that 1st movement did but maybe started too big with nowhere to go?, overall very nice piece

Dobrowolski - excellent blending of tape and orchestra(one of the few successful pieces I’ve heard with electronics and live instruments), very tight performance, antiphonal effects worked, nice use of shaped aleatoric effects, very exciting piece

Penderecki - absolutely incredible performance, the chorus was phenomenal, just a great performance of a great piece, everything worked! (I think it was a counter-tenor who was singing, incredible!)

Perocco - very nice, solemn, variety of colors and textures, distant, very tasteful

van der Aa - enjoyed the singer’s voice (Sarah Leonard), some nice orchestra parts, the electronic parts (glitchy, artifacts) were completely distracting, the parts that were manipulated recordings worked at times; handling of electronics seemed clumsy; some nice ideas and nice string writing but overall found I left disappointed (had a lot of wonderful ingredients but with a few extra that didn’t work for me); perhaps should have been programmed first?

Some excellent orchestral music performed very well.  Sonorist elements work so well with an orchestra and especially in such a nice hall.  Incredibly happy to be here tonight (and also lamenting that there is nothing in the States like the Warsaw Autumn…)

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Intimations of Immortality

Edith Cavell was born in 1865 in the vicarage of Swardeston in rural Norfolk, a few miles from where I write these words. She was an accomplished artist, and had a flair for French. After several jobs as a governess in England she was recommended for a post in Brussels in 1890.

In 1895 she returned to nurse her father through an illness, and it was this experience that led Edith to take up nursing. In 1905 she returned to Brussels and was put in charge of a pioneering training school for lay nurses on the outskirts of the city. Edith often returned to visit her mother who moved to Norwich after her husband's death. While on a visit in 1914 she heard of the German invasion of Belgium, but she returned to her hospital without hesitation.

In the autumn of 1914, two stranded British soldiers found their way to Nurse Cavell's training school. Others followed and were spirited away to neutral territory in Holland. An underground lifeline was established, masterminded by Prince and Princess De Croy at a chateau in Mons, and some two hundred soldiers were helped in their escape.

Two members of the escape team were arrested on 31 July 1915, and five days later Nurse Cavell was interned. The German military authorities, having tried in secret and sentenced Edith and four others to death, were determined to carry out the executions immediately. Despite frantic efforts to save her, by the American and Spanish ambassadors to Belgium, Edith was executed by firing squad at a rifle range just outside Brussels at dawn on 12th October 1915 after a last visit from the English Chaplain.

The Allies acclaimed Nurse Cavell as a martyr, and the stained glass window above was installed by public subscription in Swardeston Church in 1917. After the war her remains were brought to Westminster Abbey. A special train then brought her to Norwich, and a great procession followed her to the Cathedral where she was laid to rest. My photograph of her grave was taken a few days ago early on a wonderful May morning.

Now playing - Intimations of Immortality, Gerald Finzi's setting of the poem by the seventeenth-century metaphysical poet Thomas Traherne which laments the severing of the adult soul from the intuitive primal state. This year marks the fiftieth anniversary of Finzi's premature death at the age of just fifty-five. Hyperion's superb recording features tenor John Mark Ainsley and the Corydon Singers and Orchestra conducted by Matthew Best.

Additional resources* Edith Cavell website * Gerald Finzi Trust * Image credit: Header photot by Pliable, Edith Cavell from Alamo Community College Swardeston Church window from Edith Cavell website. Any copyrighted material on these pages is used in "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Childhood luggage

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Sharing is caring

How desperate should a composer be to have a piece of music performed? Meaning, how far should a composer go to promote his own music just for the purpose of self-promotion and/or the promotion of a piece of music. When should said composer pull the rip cord? And how much of that decision should be in the composer's hands?
Z. advised rigorous supervision of the rehearsal process, looking over a conductor's shoulder up to an including the point where the composer reserves the eleventh hour privilege to pull the piece from a program if it is in danger of being performed under-rehearsed. There's something ballsy and correct in that assessment; but there is also a fine line between that and pure arrogance which can brand the composer as being a dick, and not worth working with. That "arrogance," however, is likely just fear that a poor performance of a piece will reflect badly only on the composer, and again, brand said composer as a dick who writes crap and is not worth working with.
I have the benefit of singing in a church choir that not only appreciates and performs my pieces, but who also encourages me to write more for them. The other edge of the sword is that it is an amateur choir with a lot to be desired in the realms of things like tone, pitch, range, etc. Enter the conundrum of writing whatever the hell you want within the bounds of your standards vs. writing with a particular ensemble in mind and limiting yourself for the occasion. Neither of which is a sin, but can be construed as such should one be pursued unchecked by the other. It's a tough dance.
One of my pieces was sung today in service - with the president of the Episcopal Divinity School in attendance - after only a short rehearsal process. It was, to make things even, the second time the piece was performed with this choir, so the molehill of the rehearsal process wasn't magnified by the mountain of cold sightreading. Having been a church choir director, it was tough not to chastise the altos for singing slow, or the basses for being amorphous, or the sopranos for killing the money notes. But instead I was forced into a state of disciplined humbleness - using the time in rehearsal to note corrections that should be made to the piece, and putting myself under the microscope of technique and taste: "For whom am I writing?" "What purpose does the piece serve?""Is this part singable?""Is the piece successful?" It's a laboratory that's difficult to stand in, but presents an brutally honest appraisal of a piece outside of the vacuum of my ears - especially when I'm also participating in the performance of the piece. I was tempted to ditch the whole thing at every rehearsal - including this morning's - beating my breast for the sin of gluttony, for my ears were bigger than my choir's. I refrained from the drama and, surprisingly, all went pretty well.
Just to serve my narcissism a bit more, I lingered longer than usual at the coffee urn after service. To my honest surprise, I was attacked by parishioners and vestry members who expressed genuine appreciation and gratitude for the piece, with emphasis that it served to enhance the service. I suppose a little narcissism paid off.
An excerpt of today's performance of Let Thy Blood in Mercy Poured can be found at the myspace music page, along with other recordings which are detailed here. I found the text, translated by John Brownlie, in the Episcopal hymnal (#313).

Originally from Narcissistic Plate, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Klezmatic!

Originally from Musical Perceptions, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

correction: the line from berio's symphonia is "i ...

correction: the line from berio's symphonia is "i must have said this before since i say it now" which is said, of course, two times. the first time false, the second time true. "well so there is an audience!" and what would post-modernism be if it didnt address the audience directly.

It is disappointing to report from this land of berlioz and boulez that the modernist "grande homme" mentality towards art and classical music is still very strong here. classical music is much higher here, much loftier, much worse off. I heard a new piece of "contemporary" music here recently. Some violin concerto, which could have easily been written in 1940. extended tonality, passages of atonality, vaguely romantic and absolutely, fucking academic. Cadenzas et al.

Absurd.

It was built, still under that old modernist assumption that a lack of repetition forces the audience do more thinking, that its much more high-minded to minimalize the repetition of note patterns, of which only the opposite is true. it was built with the idea that there was something more to be said in a 300 year old formula and a 200 year old orchestra.... There is not.

Originally from Music in a Suburban Scene, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Mp3 Blog #27: "Joy"

Magnus Lindberg:
”Joy” (1989-90)
For large ensemble and electronics

Performed by the Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted by Peter Eöstvös

Available on this compact disc featuring four works by Magnus Lindberg

* * * * *

Ah, the joy of chromatic chords being subsumed by harmonic spectra through the addition of virtual fundamentals to the former. Ah, the joy of overlapped ostinati and other rhythmic processes that, after twenty-some hearings, I still can’t discern. Ah, the joy of an electronic part that uses samples of detuned piano strings being clipped off. Ah, the joy I take in the irony that I post this piece after my confessional letter to the piano.

I’m an unabashed fan of the Magnus Lindberg works written through “Joy” that I know. Although he studied in Paris with Gérard Grisey in the late 70’s, Magnus Lindberg’s music has a cacophonous harsh relentless energy not found in other works by other Post-Spectral composers of his generation like Philippe Hurel, Marc-André Dalbavie, and Kaija Saariaho.

Compared to some of Magnus Lindberg’s earlier works like “Ur” and “Kraft,” “Joy” was Lindberg’s most ‘tonal’ work to date – so much so that after composing it he joked that this was as far as he would go in towards tonality for if his music became any more tonal he might as well be writing for Hollywood. Strangely enough, from what I’ve heard of Lindberg’s largely expanding orchestral oeuvre since “Joy” (e.g. “Aura,” “Engines,” the Cello Concerto, “Fresco,” “Cantigas,” “Parada,” “Feria,” and “Arena”), besides making a lot of money, he seems to have done exactly what he says he wouldn’t do. With exception of “Corrente,” I can’t say I particularly like the directions Lindberg has been taking with large ensemble writing.

All that aside, what a raucous joy it is to hear “Joy” and all its glorious digitally modified string clippings/tw-aannnng-g-g--gg--g-----g--g---g-ggs.

Originally posted by Jacob Sudol from Jacob Sudol, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Bartok - 10 Easy Piano Pieces

10 Easy Pieces by Bela Bartok is actually 11 pieces. The first one is a dedication followed by ten etudes of which some are based on Hungarian folk songs and some are original compositions. Bartok stated he wrote these works to “supply piano students with easy contemporary pieces.” How easy? Well, I can play them! It is to the credit of Bartok’s genius that these pieces hold up so well as concert works on their own. The pianist is Chris Beemer.

All tracks are downloadable in 160kbps MP3.

Download

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

Harry Partch, "Adapted Viola"

From The Instruments of Harry Partch, bonus disc from the box set Delusion of the Fury (Columbia M2 30576).

Original Liner Notes:

There is a kind of mystique connected with musical geniuses that increases reverence for them in proportion to the years they have been in the grave. Certainly, the world has been treating hard-headed Harry Partch that way, waiting to shower its regard on him the minute he steps into the Great Beyond. But he's having the last laugh. Now, after fifty years in the wilderness, he's been discovered. Thanks to the kids.

Partch hasn't made it easy-not for himself, not for anyone. A faithful-and minute-avant-garde has had to take extraordinary measures up to now to appreciate the Partch musical genius. But then, Partch has taken some pretty extraordinary measures himself. He's tried to re-make music, which has not endeared him to the bulk of the music Establishment. He doesn't give a damn.

Harry Partch is the living embodiment of the religion of Doing Your Own Thing, If there is a doyen hippie, he is it, so completely that he doesn't even recognize it. He is an original Original. And because it is in his music, today's unprejudiced ears have heard him loud and clear. The young dig Partch. It doesn't shake his cool one bit. They should.

The one-of-a-kind, unique-in-this-world, far-out, beautiful works of sculptural grace that are his instruments defy description. They have to be seen as well as heard. To be able to play his own multi-tone scale, Partch had to design and build every one of them. There was no one else to do it. He has called himself "a music man seduced into carpentry." And now, at last, there is talk of reproducing every one of his instruments for the Smithsonian Institution. The whole world's catching up with Harry Partch. He still doesn't give a damn.

Harry Partch was born June 24, 1901, in Oakland, California, the third child of Presbyterian missionaries who had spent 10 years in China prior to his birth. His boyhood was spent near Tombstone, Arizona, where, despite the total lack of formal music training, he grew up surrounded by music. His mother, a woman of talent and determination, taught her children to read music and to play several instruments. Young Harry, by the time he was 6, not only knew how to play the reed organ, but also the guitar, the clarinet and the harmonica. He began to compose at 14. When the family moved to New Mexico and he received the first music lesson outside his home, he discovered in short order that he loathed formal music training as repressive and constricting. It was an antipathy that colored the rest of his life. He struck out on his own, and, in the years that followed, wrote a piano concerto, a symphonic poem, a string quartet, all in the conventional mold. To keep body and soul together, he became a proofreader, a sometime piano player, a grape picker, while he continued to compose and to search for a way to express his music. Then, at age 28, in New Orleans, he burned the whole body of his musical work of 14 years, determined to start anew, to develop for himself music that would transcend the conventions of musical composition. Its basis was the multi-tones he found in the space of the octave. It enabled him to make the first transitions ever from the human voice to the musical instrument. During the Depression, Partch traveled throughout America by rail as a hobo, writing of his experiences in his music. Although he had received a Carnegie Corporation of New York grant in 1934, it wasn't until 1943 that he received the first of the more substantial grants that made it possible for him to work and travel and to give the 1931 -34 and 1943-45 performances that started to make his work known.

To this day, the difficulties surrounding a performance of Partch's music-the complexities of training musicians to play his music on his instruments and then to transport those large and delicate objects that cannot function properly without his personal attention-inhibit managers and impresarios.

Partch now lives quietly in Encinitas, California, in what he calls his first real home since his childhood, surrounded by the bizarre and wonderful array of instruments he has built, through which he has made, according to Jacques Barzun, "the most original and powerful contribution to dramatic music on this continent."

-Eugene Paul

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

The source of Zorn's genius

In case you missed Stephen Colbert mocking John Zorn, here is the video clip. Bravo, Stephen. I actually like your composition/documentary better. Attention MacArthur committee: $500,000 to a Mr. Stephen Colbert, please.

Originally posted by Alan Theisen from Alan Theisen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Jack Wright/Michel Doneda/Tatsuya Nakatani - No Stranger to Air (Sprout)

Last year, Nate Dorward reviewed this trio’s beautifully enigmatic SOS Editions debut, and his experience matched my own. Earlier this year, I bought a bunch of Wright’s back catalog, and this newer offering was tucked away in the package....

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

EKG & Giuseppe Ielasi - Group

Formed 105 There’s a kinder, gentler side to eai, an area were tonal content is not eschewed, where soft rhythms are allowed more than a brief existence, where granularity doesn’t necessarily slide into harshness. One thinks of much of...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone - First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Quincunx QSR001 Softly strummed acoustic guitar chords, some low, plaintive moans from a clarinet that seem only tangentially related and then…Roberta Flack. Not your typical beginning to a contemporary improv disc. Oh, and the cover as you can see,...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Axoxnxs 7:00 2005 mp3

Axoxnxs 7:00 2005 mp3
This music by thereminist composer Anthony Jay Ptak. http://axoxnxs.com/

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Piano-Rag Music (1919)

Igor Stravinsky (1882-1971): Piano-Rag Music (1919)
realized Sept 2006 by Steve Layton

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine Reviews

Musique Machine has a new set of reviews.

Sudden Infant - Radiorgasm
Radiorgasm is a reissue of sudden infants dada & suffocating take on noise, original released in ltd no 323 vinyl format. Here for the first time for all to go slowly mad to, taken direct from the original master tapes. All the hall marks of sudden infants sound is already fully formed: dizzy brain melting noise, odd environmental sounds and strange ambience, gurgling, chocking and other body sounds. And all manner of other strange stuff, that is grantee to really mess you head up and no doubt utter the odd dark chuckle.

Fire In The Head - Meditate/ Mutilate
Meditate/ Mutilate seems to pull off perfectly the mix between of seething industlised noise and more sinister creepy dark ambient tones. Even when your ears are been flayed by coarse electronics and sit down and sufer pain vocal over load, ripple underneath is a sickly stream of grim ambience. Like a maggot stenched water, trickling under a site of a vast over kill.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Bagatellen Reviews

New reviews from Bagatellen:

Kommando Raumschiff Zitrone - First Time Ever I Saw Your Face - 24 Sep 06
EKG & Giuseppe Ielasi - Group - 24 Sep 06
Peter Evans - More is More - 24 Sep 06
Two from Seth Meicht - 22 Sep 06

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

RIP Malcolm Arnold

Composer Malcolm Arnold has passed on at age 84.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Destination Out Downloads

Destination Out’s recent featured downloads include Sam Rivers, Julian Priester and Don Cherry.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Orchestrators

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Handmade

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Poppy Nogood (1969). Terry Riley

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 25, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

September 24, 2006

NOT the Texas Institute of Theory!

Originally from Musical Perceptions, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:39 PM | Comments (0)

Update

Lots of new links and pages to peruse and legally leech from…

The Piano Society recently completed a make-over of their site. I am in the process of correcting the links on works that have previously been featured on this blog. You can be sure I’ll be featuring a lot more. The new site is a little tricky to navigate but once you figure it out you will find plenty of great classical piano music from Scarlatti to Rzewski (and a few new guys like Bach, Beethoven and Mozart).

Juliana Hatfield is a known entity in the world of country music and alt-country. In an attempt to come to terms with the world of online music and P2Ps, she is trying an interesting experiment. She has made available a truckload of tracks on an “honor system”. Download what you like but send her a payment of your choice for the tunes. She suggests $.99 per track but grudgingly admits some will pay less. Other artists from other medias have tried this with little success. Stephen King comes to mind. But Ms. Hatfield should be given credit for having the courage to try new ways to promote her music and I wish her well. Check it out but remember, this isn’t free music. If you like the music, support the artist as I always say.

Taylor Brook’s music is free. He (She?) offers several original compositions . Click on “Recordings”. These are well crafted contemporary chamber works. I especially like the pieces for solo guitar.

Some of the older readers might remember Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes. They play an entertaining hybrid of blues/rock and, along with Bruce Springsteen, constitute a part of the Jersey Shore sound. Check out their generous offerings of free music.

For classical music, it doesn’t get any better than the offerings at the web site for Boston’s Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. The museum offers both podcasts and individual tracks from their chamber concert series. I’ll be featuring some of the longer individual works eventually but the 45 minute podcasts are exquisite!

Finally, the official music video of the month! I bet you never heard Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G minor played like this!

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:38 PM | Comments (0)

New Feldman Book

Originally from All I Know (2), ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)

Deep Malcolm

In addition to the aforementioned movie theme, Malcolm Arnold wrote heaps of pleasant wind ensemble music which presents enough of a technical challenge that he is a favorite on student programs.

But, in the same way that people forget Gunther Schuller played on Birth of the Cool, it's a little-repeated fact that Malcolm conducted the Royal Philharmonic on Deep Purple's Concerto for Group. Apparently, when the RPO turned their noses up at the idea, it was Arnold who stood up for Jon Lord's score.

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:37 PM | Comments (0)

RIP, Malcolm

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:36 PM | Comments (0)

Peter Evans - More is More

Psi 06.08 What if Evan Parker played the trumpet? A possible answer to that captivating question comes in the personage of Peter Evans and his newly released solo venture on Psi. Evans adapts the familiar Parkerian extended techniques of...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

Avant Garde Project 27: Luciano Berio Instrumental Works

AGP has a new show featuring Luciano Berio.

The Avant Garde Project is a series of 20th-century classical-experimental- electroacoustic torrents digitized from LPs whose music has in most cases never been released on CD, and so is effectively inaccessible to the vast majority of music listeners today. This is wild stuff, so check it out if you’ve never heard this sort of music before. The analog rig used to extract the sound from the grooves is near state-of-the-art, producing almost none of the tracking distortion or surface noise normally associated with LPs. AGP1-23 are now available for direct download in the archive at www.avantgardeproject.org AGP24-26 are available at http://thepiratebay.org/user/loudav Ignore the seeders/leechers statistics, as they often show no seeders when in fact there are some. For the time being, a new AGP torrent is being seeded around midnight each Friday night (GMT), and is advertised on the I Hate Music Forum.

AGP27 includes all of the instrumental music by Luciano Berio in my stacks that is not available on CD. The works included come from three RCA LPs from the 1970’s. The earliest work was written in 1951 and the latest in 1973. Allelujah II and Chemins III are among Berio’s works built on other works by successively adding more material, like the layers of an onion. The nucleus for Chemins III is the solo viola work Sequenza VI. In Chemins II, Berio superimposes music for an instrumental ensemble onto the solo viola part. And in Chemins III he further adds an orchestral accompaniment. Both Sequenza VI and Chemins II are available on CD, should you wish to hear the work with the additional layers stripped away. The torrent includes a text file containing liner notes from all three LPs. CORRECTION: Track 09 in AGP 26 was mislabeled. As correctly stated in the notes, track 08 is the 1.8g transcription and track 09 is the 1.6g transcription. Sorry for the confustion. Equipment used for A/D conversion: Lyra Helikon phono cartridge, Linn LP12/Lingo turntable, Linn Ittok tonearm, Audioquest LeoPard tonearm cable, PS Audio PS2 preamplifier, Kimber PBJ interconnect, M-Audio Audiophile USB A/D converter. 08 - Concertino [9:29] 09 - Nones [6:53] 10 - Allelujah II [16:31] 11 - Chemins III [14:19] 12 - Concerto for Two Pianos [24:32] NOTE: To the best of my knowledge, these recordings are currently out of print. If you know otherwise, please let me know ASAP, as I do not wish any artists to be deprived of the royalties that they so richly deserve.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

New on Atavistic

Atavistic has a pair of new releases:

Steve Lacy - Esteem (1975)
Corbett Vs. Dempsey Gallery - EYE & EAR: Musician< ->Artist

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Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

DMG Newsletter September 22nd 2006

Better late than never, another DMG Newsletter:

NEW DISCS from NELS CLINE’S ANDREW HILL PROJECT, MYRA MELFORD’S BE BREAD BAND, THE DAVID S. WARE QUARTET BALLAD CD, FOUR NEW SATOKO FUJII ORCHESTRA CD’S (!),

ENO’S ‘77 MILLION PAINTINGS’ DVD, RODRIGO AMADO/KENT KESSLER/PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE, J A GRANELLI & MR. LUCKY (w/ BRAD SHEPIK/NATE SHAW/MIKE SARIN), JAMES FEI, ICONOCLAST,

CHARLES MINGUS’ LONG LOST UCLA ‘65 RARITY & A NEW MINGUS BIG BAND’S LIVE IN JAPAN CD, FRANK WRIGHT/ALAN SILVA/BOBBY FEW /MUHAMMAD ALI on ESP, LUC FERRARI, JOE COLLEY

ANOTHER CAPTAIN BEEFHEART LIVE DOUBLE DISC, 2 from ALLISON STATTON & SPIKE, 3 from LUDUS, FE-MAIL & CARLOS GIFFONI, TWO ERIK SATIES CD’S, THE VOICES OF DADA, 18 POPOL VUH REISSUES, SALAH RAGAB & THE CAIRO JAZZ BAND LP

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

AAJ has posted a new set of reviews.

24-Sep-06 Myra Melford Be Bread
The Image of Your Body (Cryptogramophone)

24-Sep-06 Ooioo
Taiga (Thrill Jockey)

24-Sep-06 David S. Ware
BalladWare (Thirsty Ear Recordings)

24-Sep-06 Lindsey Horner
Don’t Count on Glory (Cadence)

23-Sep-06 Nels Cline
New Monastery: A View Into The Music of Andrew Hill (Cryptogramophone)

23-Sep-06 Medeski, Scofield, Martin & Wood
Out Louder (Indirecto Records)

23-Sep-06 Territory Band-5
New Horse For The White House (Okka Disk)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

Music of Invention

A new season of Music of Invention has been announced, featuring the Cygnus Ensemble, Harry Partch Ensemble, and others.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

Dave Stewart on Pip Pyle

This has been going around via email so I don’t have a link. Dave’s writing is always great, so don’t skip this if you’re a fan.

In memoriam Pip Pyle, 1950 - 2006
by Dave Stewart

Our dear friend and colleague Pip Pyle died in Paris in the early hours of August 28th 2006 shortly after travelling home from a Hatfield and the North concert in Groningen, Holland. Phil Miller phoned to tell me the awful news. Later that day, Richard Sinclair told me the Groningen gig was the best they had played with the revised Hatfield line-up and that Pip had performed particularly well; as Richard put it, “He went out in a blaze of fire”. After the concert everyone was in good spirits and Phil and Pip (who had known each other since the age of four) went out together and stayed out till 3am. It’s a consolation to know that Pip’s career ended on a high, happy note in the company of lifelong friends.

I first met Pip when I was 21, when he was drummer in Delivery and I was organist in Egg. Our bass player lived near Pip’s flat in East Sheen, SW London, and one Saturday night, as our two bands drove home from gigs ‘oop north’, our vans happened to cross paths on the North Circular Road. Being a cheerful, hospitable lot, they gesticulated for us to come and have a cup of tea at Pip’s place, which we duly did despite it being two thirty in the morning. Later, guitarist Steve Hillage auditioned Pip for his new band Khan. My partner Barbara Gaskin was Steve’s girlfriend at the time, and she remembers Pip trying to chat her up. When he asked where she was from, she answered, “Hatfield”. Pip replied, “Oh really? I’ve always wanted to be in a band called ‘Hatfield and the North.’ ”

Pip’s chat-up lines were appalling, though most of the time they seemed to work. His favourite (which made me cringe) was “What kind of music do you like?” He wasn’t in the least interested in the answer; the question was merely a preamble to a well-rehearsed routine which went something like: “Oh, really? My favourite music is jazz. Do you know if there’s a jazz club in town? Maybe we could go there for a drink.” I always hoped one day a woman would take the wind out of Pip’s sails by responding to his cynical query: “I’m interested in the twelve-tone experimentalism of Webern and Berg, but I must say I fucking hate jazz.” Sadly, this never happened to my knowledge.

Pip liked a drink. (Understatement of the eon.) He liked to boast about how drunk he had been and how idiotically he had behaved as a result - the more idiotic the behaviour, the greater Pip’s enjoyment in recounting it. When pissed on tour he would call his wife Pam in the small hours, asking stupid questions like, “Where am I?” Drunk after a Hatfield gig in France, he blundered into a phone box and rang Pam to ask where his Ventalin inhaler was. (An asthma sufferer since boyhood, he was forever losing and panicking about the bloody thing.) Pam replied,”Have you looked in your shoulder bag?”
“Where’s my shoulder bag?”
“Haven’t you got it with you? Try looking on your shoulder where you normally put it.”
“It’s not there.”
“Try looking on the other shoulder.”
“Oh yes, there it is.” Ten minutes later he called Pam back to ask how to get out of the phone box.
Despite having a way with words (he was an accomplished lyricist and a great letter-writer) Pip mumbled badly on the phone, to the extent where when he first called to invite me to have a play, I could barely understand a word he was saying. He had a very slight drawl and used the word ‘boring’ in a way I’d not heard before, to mean irritating or disagreeable as well as tedious. Many things were ‘boring’ for Pip - slow traffic, bureacracy, delays, shaving, rules, pomposity, the inexplicable failure of others to do exactly what he wanted. He also used the interrogative ‘right?’ a lot, especially in raised-voice argument: “Yeah Phil but, right, don’t play a solo there, right - don’t play there, right - and we’ll get a good backing track, right, then you can overdub it later, right, right?” Then, after Phil had gone ahead and played a solo anyway: “Phil! I said, don’t play a solo there, right? Boring.”

But life with Pip was anything but boring. He hated the dull, routine and mundane, so if nothing entertaining was happening he would contrive to drum up (as it were) a bit of excitement, even if that meant severely disturbing the peace of others. He and his close friend Benji egged each other on; on the road they were like a mad double act, Benj playing Oliver Reed to Pip’s Keith Moon. Their chaos was generally good-natured, but it was unstoppable and all-embracing - if you weren’t in the mood you just had to get out of their way. At times the mayhem went too far and culminated in boorish and destructive behaviour which, to put it mildly, wasn’t funny. Though Pip would try to laugh it all off, it was severely embarrassing (for example) to face people who had kindly put us up after a gig and explain why their toilet had unaccountably been smashed up in the middle of the night. We could deduct money from Pip’s wages to cover damages, but it wasn’t so easy to repair peoples’ hurt feelings.

Though Pip found it amusing to project the image of an out-of-control alcoholic destructive automaton and never really moderated his behaviour and general outlook throughout his life, there was a lot more to him than that. He was (though he sometimes did his best to conceal it) an intelligent and quick-minded man. He was addicted less to the drink than to the social entertainment it afforded him; if he felt the time was right, he was able to stop drinking for long periods without lapsing, and I don’t recall ever seeing him drunk when performing.

As has been often said, he was an extraordinary, gifted, imaginative and hard-working drummer, with a steely determination to do his musical best at all times. Given a tricky passage of music, he would never take the easy way out and play something trite and simplistic - instead, he would spend a long time thinking up an innovative drum part (the composer’s mind at work). This meant that although he might occasionally over-reach himself, his drumming was never (to coin a phrase) boring. And once he had mastered the octopus-like co-ordination required to play a particular section, he would throw himself into it with unbelievable drive and commitment, dragging everyone along in his wake.

To hear an example, listen to his drumming on ‘The Bryden 2-Step, Part 1′ (the opening track on National Health’s Of Queues and Cures) - as we go into the rhythmic chordal passage at 3:09, Pip practically explodes: his ride cymbal work alone is amazing, but at the same time he’s belting out the backbeat, hitting all the accents with great precision, throwing in snare rolls and tom fills in unexpected places and generally driving the music along like an express train. I occasionally moaned at him for speeding up the tempos on stage, but his unique urgent, hustling style imparted great energy and musical interest to the pieces he played on.

As a lyricist he excelled in throwaway, slightly surreal lines and phrases, more often than not humorous but sometimes interspersing absurd wordplay with heartfelt personal observations. He and Richard Sinclair ended up co-writing some great songs more or less by accident - Richard often left a space where the lyrics were going to be and Pip would fill in the blanks when the occasion demanded more than a la-la-la. ‘Let’s Eat’, my favourite Hatfield song, is a good example of that. But I think Pip reserved his most sensitive, poetic and moving lyrics for his own songs. Take this extract from the autobiographical ‘Fitter Stoke Has A Bath’:

Bing billy bang
Desperate Dan, frying pan
Kling klong kling
Klong kling klang
Michael Miles, bogy man

Superb.

In business matters, Pip was the most proactive of the four of us - when I visited his flat he was often on the phone hustling for gigs and seemed to be on a mission for the band, which is why (taking nothing away from Phil and Richard’s massive creative contribution) I tend to think of Hatfield as his group. Musically, he led by example; he always gave 100% on stage and in the studio, even if the rest of us were falling by the wayside. Though he disliked gig post-mortems, he gave a rousing pep talk after one rather limp performance, urging us not to be put off by stage sound problems: “If a monitor’s feeding back, kick it over!” he shouted. I never forgot that. If some lyrics needed finishing for a recording date, Pip would step in and write them. If we were rehearsing a difficult piece, he would write out his own part and doggedly work at it till it was right. He wasn’t so good at getting his arse on stage - whatever time we were due on, Pip would make a point of not being ready. (”Tell them ten minutes, right!”) But if a fellow musician needed help, he would be there at the drop of a hat.

With his premature departure we have lost one of England’s best and most adventurous drummers, a good composer and songwriter, a fine lyricist and a deranged sonic experimentalist to boot, but most of all we’ve lost a good friend. (Pip may not have been faithful to his wives and girlfriends, but he was fiercely loyal to his musical colleagues.) We will miss his gleeful grin and wicked cackle, the strained, monotone drone he uttered involuntarily while playing (clearly audible on recordings when you solo his drums, a never-failing source of amusement to him and the rest of us), the sound of breaking glass announcing his arrival, the child-like, uninhibited and contagious peals of laughter which emitted from his general direction at regular intervals. A big character, a big heart and a big talent - without him the world will be a quieter and, yes, a more boring place. Right?

Dave Stewart, September 2006

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

Dancing in the Dark (1931) Arthur Schwartz-Howard Dietz /charlie parker with strings/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 24, 2006 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

September 23, 2006

[no title]

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Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:57 PM | Comments (0)

Loose Ends

Alex Ross has a moving tribute to Lorraine Hunt Lieberson in this week’s New Yorker.  “She was the most remarkable singer I ever heard,” he writes, and it’s hard to argue with that. 

Speaking of Alex, he’ll be chatting with Mason Bates, Corey Dargel, Nico Muhly, and Joanna Newsom at BargeMusic at 10 pm on October 7 as part of the New Yorker Festival.  Alas, the event seems to be sold-out.

Alan Rich in L.A. Weekly on why he didn’t hang around for Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Hollywood Bowl: 

The night had turned cold; the gin had run low; there are few works I despise more thoroughly, and for a greater number of reasons. Just the thought of this bespectacled, small-minded pedant amusing his Führer by constructing this lurid travesty, assuming the small fragments out of ancient German songbooks and twisting them into beer-hall jabberings as if to reinvent a new musical language, is offensive enough. The ugliness of this vulgar work would offend me even if the text were pure, serene and biblical; it is none of these.

Of Jefferson Friedman’s The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly, on the same program, Rich writes:

Young (32) Friedman was on hand; he plans to incorporate his shiny, charming piece into a musical triptych honoring “outsider” artists and their inspirational, shimmering artworks. This one certainly does.

Thanks to Jerry Zinser for passing the Rich item along.  The full review doesn’t seem to be up on the L.A. Weekly web site yet but it should be in a few days.  Meanwhile, read some nice words from Rich about Kyle Gann.

Congrats to Roulette, the experimental music organziation which has moved into shiny new digs at 20 Greene Street in SOHO.   With this new space, Roulette will be expanding activities to include over 100 concerts, sound installations, longer runs of music theater and other large productions such as the “Avant Jazz ­ Still Moving” festival and the annual “Festival of Mixology.” Also, check out the new Roulette Blog for excerpts of its artists’ music, podcasts featuring interviews with the artists and Roulette TV clips, and musical discussion.

Check the Workspace for some news about applying for the Rome Prize.

What I’m Listening to Now

 

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:57 PM | Comments (0)

What Makes It Seem So Exciting?

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:57 PM | Comments (0)

Two from Seth Meicht

Tenor saxophone contenders come and go as the reed continues its reign as the most recognizable jazz instrument. Producer Bob Rusch has proven particularly adept over the years at picking out new talent from the legions of practitioners. Rusch isn’t...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Zorn Bonanza

Behind the curve, as usual, but here’s a little placeholder for Bags discussion pertaining to John Zorn’s recent MacArthur windfall (& Regina Carter’s too, if’n you’re so inclined). That’s $500K parceled over 5 years to do with as he...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Jeff Harrington - New Realization - Piano Sonata #3

Jeff Harrington - New Realization - Piano Sonata #3
New large scale piano piece. http://jeffharrington.org

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

New Realization of Piano Sonata #3

I've made a brand new realization of my new piano sonata, and it's really pretty incredibly lifelike (if I do say so myself). I used an 80MB Steinway piano soundfont and wrote a custom perl script to slightly randomize the velocities of the file. The results are one of the best simulations of piano playing I've produced. Piano Sonata #3 - New Realization...

Originally posted by jeff from The Music of Jeff Harrington, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Epitaph.

Boz Burrell would probably be appalled to hear it, but ever since I learned of the former King Crimson and Bad Company bass player's death earlier this afternoon, the song that's been stuck in my head is "Islands," the title track from King Crimson's fourth studio album. Issued in 1971, it's hardly the band's best work. But neither is it the wobbly disaster that it was so often made out to be back in the early '80s, when I was first getting to know the group's catalog.

The first King Crimson lineup -- Robert Fripp, Ian McDonald, Greg Lake, Michael Giles and Peter Sinfield, the one that recorded In the Court of the Crimson King -- had fallen apart somewhere near the end of its first American tour in 1969, a victim of youthful angst and too much success that came too quickly. McDonald and Giles announced their resignation somewhere in California. Lake stuck around long enough to record the second album, In the Wake of Poseidon -- a wan copy of the debut, for the most part -- then accepted an invitation from Keith Emerson to form a group that went on to define prog-rock excess and bloviation.

Left to their own devices, Fripp and Sinfield eventually assembled a new working band, with Fripp's old friend Gordon Haskell on bass and vocals, the tremendously gifted Mel Collins on woodwinds and mellotron, and Andy McCullough on drums. This lineup recorded Lizard, arguably King Crimson's most baroque creation, and certainly, given a phalanx of hired horns, its jazziest. But Haskell, a soul singer at heart, couldn't stomach the thought of continuing in this vein, and left the band before it could play a single gig. Fripp and Sinfield were once again back at square one. Auditions for a new singer-bassist commenced; one vocalist who failed to make the cut was Bryan Ferry, whose subsequent band Roxy Music signed with King Crimson's management.

Raymond Burrell, a relatively unseasoned scenester who didn't know how to play bass when his path crossed with Fripp's in 1971, probably wasn't the right man for the job, and he likely knew it. (His motivations for taking the gig will now forever remain his own, sadly; he was the sole former member of any King Crimson incarnation who refused to speak with biographer Sid Smith, author of the admirable 2001 biography, In the Court of King Crimson.) Burrell signed on as vocalist, and when a suitable bassist failed to materialize, Fripp took it upon himself to teach Burrell how to play the instrument.

Going by the name "Boz" only, Burrell made his live debut with King Crimson at Frankfurt's Zoom Club on April 12, 1971; Mel Collins and drummer Ian Wallace completed the band. A tape of the gig, which was recently made available for purchase in download format by Fripp's DGMLive.com website, reveals little sense of hesitation; Burrell might have been uncomfortable with some of Sinfield's toothier lyrics, such as the phantasmagorical "Cirkus," but that didn't stop him from giving it his best shot. More straightforward, grittier songs such as "Get Thy Bearings," "Pictures of a City" and the band's signature number, "21st Century Schizoid Man," seemed to present no difficulty. (Ironically, Smith's book reveals that Burrell was so disspirited by the debut that he nearly quit on the spot; walking around Frankfurt the next day, he happened into a cricket game and somehow regained his courage. The remaining three nights of the engagement, also available via DGMLive, grew stronger one by one.)

As a vocalist, Burrell possessed neither Lake's epic grandiosity nor the dusky machismo of John Wetton, his eventual replacement. His voice was light, plain and true, and no other Crimson singer before or since has sounded more convincing in blues-based material. Of course, that seldom mattered in any King Crimson before or since (although it has once again become something of an issue in the current Adrian Belew-fronted era). Similarly, Burrell's bass playing wasn't as skilled or ornate as that of anyone else who has held the position, but it was never less than solid and appropriate, a center of calm in the midst of the band's flashier players.

Much of the material that eventually turned up on Islands was played in on British dates in early 1971, which probably accounts for why the band already sounded so tight. The languid, ostinato-driven "Formentera Lady" revealed the influence of Miles Davis's modal jazz, simmering along at length until climaxing in overblown contributions from Paulina Lucas, a soprano from the Sadlers Wells Opera. The track segues into "The Sailor's Tale," an inexorable instrumental with a torrid, Sonny Sharrock-inspired guitar solo from Fripp, and a highlight of live shows from the period. "The Letters," a reworked version of the unrecorded 1969 song "Drop In," features some of Peter Sinfield's most utterly grandiose lyrics:

With quill and silver knife
She carved a poison pen
Wrote to her lover's wife
"Your husband's seed has fed my flesh."

As if a leper's face
That tainted letter graced
The wife with choke-stone throat
Ran to the day with tear-blind eyes.

How Burrell got through that one was anybody's guess; what's more, he spits a later line ("Impaled on nails of ice") with a terse fury that still provokes a chill.

The singer was most in his metier on "Ladies of the Road," the angular, lurching blues number that is this band's best-remembered contribution to the Crimson ouevre. Apart from Wetton, no Crimson singer could have delivered this kind of thing so convincingly:

Stone-headed Frisco spacer
Ate all the meat I gave her
Said would I like to taste hers
And even craved the flavour

Of course, Sinfield reverts to form with the next couplet:

"Like marron-glacéd fish bones!
Oh lady, hit the road!"

"Prelude: Song of the Gulls," an instrumental interlude, was a melody from a song by Fripp's pre-King Crimson band, Giles, Giles and Fripp, arranged for oboe and string orchestra. Quaint and pleasant, it nonetheless alludes to the guitarist's lofty ambitions. But the closing track, "Islands," is a gentle masterpiece: a simple ballad hymning the invisible threads that bind us even in isolation. Collins's rich bass flute, Sinfield's warm pedal harmonium, Keith Tippett's understated piano and Marc Charig's plainspoken cornet all contribute to this luminous meditation; Burrell's vocal delivery is ideal here.

According to Smith's book, it may actually have been Fripp's resentment of a 50/50 royalties split with Sinfield that poisoned the well for this fledgling Crimson; on tour, the guitarist became increasingly antisocial, even hostile. Added to this was the fact that for his young, inexperienced bandmates, America was a land of temptation -- and no one knew the consequences of cocaine yet. While Fripp abstained, his bandmates indulged, further egged on by their putative leader's distance. It led to a fraught atmosphere, from which glimmerings of genuine brilliance could only struggle to emerge.

For many years, the only official documentation of this band in concert was Earthbound, a live album issued in 1972. To call it desultory is to be generous; the album, recorded to cassette (!) during this Crimson's second American tour in 1972, has long struck me as deliberate sabotage on Fripp's part. True, it contains blistering versions of "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Groon," two compositions that predate this particular group. As for the rest, a truncated version of "The Sailor's Tale" offers an adequate representation of this band's own book; the title track and "Peoria," on the other hand, are relatively empty blues-based jams that suggest this version of the group specialized in lumpish groove music. Fripp's own view of this lineup seemed clear from the album title, not to mention the shoddy packaging, scappy sound and bargain-basement pricing. (Proving that diehard fans love what they love, popular demand compelled Fripp to reissue a remastered but essentially faithful Earthbound in 2005.)

Bootlegs of this band circulated all along, presumably. But in the early '90s, the floodgates opened and a different story emerged. Collins and Wallace in particular benefitted from illicit documentation of King Crimson's 1971 shows in England and America, but even Burrell was revealed to be not merely competent but frequently inspired. Even if it's patently clear that he was never an ideal fit for this band, his performances gain a heroic element for the sheer vibrance and tenacity he brought to the effort...usually. Dates from 1972, such as those featured on Earthbound, paled by comparison, but then, that tour was probably doomed to fail: this Crimson had effectively broken up in January of that year, then regrouped due to contractual obligation. Small wonder that its performances, at least as we know them on record, are less than optimal.

By the end of 1972, Fripp was working with a new band -- David Cross, John Wetton, Bill Bruford and Jamie Muir, a phenomenal combination and the group on whose achievements much of King Crimson's current renown is based. From the official record, the transition from the Islands band to the one that recorded Larks' Tongues in Aspic seems inexplicable -- as if the band had somehow, Athena-like, burst forth fully formed from Fripp's noggin.

A thaw between formerly incommunicative former bandmates began when Fripp underwent the arduous, lengthy process of extricating King Crimson's recorded legacy from the hands of the band's former management during the '90s. Bridges long burned were rebuilt; in the process, a body of live recordings was reconsidered, polished and made available for mass consumption. What's eminently clear is that the group that most benefitted from a posthumous re-evaluation was the one fronted by Burrell.

A live radio broadcast performance taped in Denver, Colorado on March 12, 1972, revealed a band that could think and act on the fly, delivering a viable set without access to the mellotrons that were so much a part of King Crimson's sonic signature. That much had been revealed on bootlegs, but an official CD issue via the King Crimson Collector's Club offered more: a previously uncirculated cover of the Pharoah Sanders tune, "The Creator Has a Master Plan." Another KCCC release, recorded in Detroit on December 13, 1971, features a version of "In the Court of the Crimson King" served up as a dirty 12-bar blues. ("I'm here, and I've been caught with my Crimson Thing in my hand!" Burrell shouts impertinently, while Fripp plays the nastiest guitar spurts of his career-to-date.) The sanctioned DGMLive release of the April 1971 Zoom Club shows demonstrated to a general audience what bootleg collectors already knew: the King Crimson of Islands was playing a bit of material that ended up in "Larks' Tongues in Aspic, Part One" on its very first gig.

Proving that the band's fractious history isn't entirely being retroactively whitewashed, however, a DGMLive release of a concert from March 6, 1972 in Pittsburgh -- not even a full week before the abovementioned Denver show -- fully reveals the manner in which this band was largely going through the motions in 1972. Despite numerous instances of excellence, in particular Collins's contributions to "Cirkus," this performance reveals more than the normal quota of warts -- most especially the repulsive vocals Burrell and Wallace supply in "Ladies of the Road," as well as their inane between-song banter. The public release of this recording reveals that Fripp remains a realist with regard to this quartet's relative merits -- certainly in 1972, the bad came with the good. Still, even so rough a show demonstrates how quickly Burrell had become a genuinely estimable bassist.

My favorite live recording of this particular King Crimson remains unreleased, even now: the band's late show at the Academy of Music in New York City on November 24, 1971. (It's on the bootleg CD Cirkus.) As I understand it, Procol Harum was the headliner; Yes opened and King Crimson was in the middle slot. It's the most apocalyptic show I've heard from this version of the band. It's as carefully a nuanced set as the band ever presented, but its climaxes are of Last Exit intensity: Mel Collins blows with a fury reminiscent of latter-day saxophone beasts like Peter Brötzmann; Fripp answers with acetylene-torch incandescence. Peter Sinfield's gargantuan VCS-3 synthesizer swoops and bombs clinch the deal. Were I a member of Procol Harum, I don't know that I could have taken the stage at all that night.

The end of this band came at the conclusion of the 1972 American tour; Fripp went home to England and summoned the Larks' Tongues band, while Collins, Burrell and Wallace took up with British blues guitarist Alexis Korner, perhaps the polar extreme to Fripp.

The punch line, I suppose, is that Burrell, a singer who didn't originally play bass, ultimately found his greatest fame as a bassist who didn't sing, alongside Paul Rodgers, Mick Ralphs and Simon Kirke in Bad Company. Eventually, that band also ran its course, and Boz Burrell faded from the public record, seemingly of his own accord. Collins went on to become one of England's most highly demanded session players (if you know the Wang Chung single "Dance Hall Days," you know Collins's soprano sax at least), while Wallace would play behind Bob Dylan and Don Henley. Both have recently participated in the 21st Century Schizoid Band alongside Ian McDonald, Peter Giles and former Level 42 guitarist Jakko M. Jakszyk, playing music from the first two Crimson working groups (1969 and 1971) with a handful of latter-day additions.

Burrell's aversion to lending his voice to the ever-continuing reweaving of the King Crimson mythos is certainly lamentable. Sid Smith posted some timely words on Burrell's passing on his blog, Postcards from the Yellow Room. (The recent photo posted just above, by Mark Marnie, is borrowed from Sid's site; I hope he won't mind.) Over at DMGLive, you can download free of charge an unreleased remix of "Ladies of the Road" that was prepared for but ultimately omitted from the King Crimson box set Frame by Frame, on a page that also includes remembrances from the band's fans -- including, I notice, latter-day prog-rock bassist Fred Chalenor.

As I said at the beginning, Boz Burrell might well have been appalled to have a King Crimson song serve as his epitaph. Even so, the lines that have been passing through my head (and I'm not the only one, to judge by that DGM tribute page) are these, penned by Peter Sinfield:

Beneath the wind-turned wave
Infinite peace
Islands join hands
'Neath heaven's sea.

R.I.P. Raymond "Boz" Burrell, August 1, 1946 - September 21, 2006

Playlist:

Genesis - Archive 1967-1975, CDs 1 & 2 (Atlantic)

Robert Plant - Pictures at Eleven (Rhino; from the Nine Lives box set, out Nov. 14)

Giacomo Puccini - Madama Butterfly - Renata Tebaldi, Giuseppe Campora, Giovanni Inghilleri, Chorus and Orchestra of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, Rome/Alberto Erede (Naxos); and Madama Butterfly, Act One - Renata Scotto, Renato Cioni, Alberto Rinaldi, Orchestra Sinfonica e Coro di Torino della RAI/Arturo Basile ("Unnatural Acts of Opera" podcast from Parterre Box)

John Adams - The Dharma at Big Sur*, My Father Knew Charles Ives - Tracy Silverman*, BBC Symphony Orchestra/John Adams (Nonesuch)

Robert Plant - The Principle of Moments (Rhino, from the Nine Lives box set, out Nov. 14)

King Crimson - Zoom Club, Frankfurt, Germany, April 12 and 13, 1971 (both DGMLive.com); Islands (Virgin); Cirkus (Scorpio; bootleg); Stanley Warner Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA, March 6, 1972 (DGMLive.com)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Perfect dissonance Mothers of Invention pioneer Don Preston brings passion for experimental music

A feature has been published on Don Preston’s visit to music students and the advice he gave them.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Ornette Coleman Interview

The New York Times interviews Coleman.

THE alto saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman, one of the last of the truly imposing figures from a generation of jazz players that was full of them, seldom talks about other people’s music. People generally want to ask him about his own, and that becomes the subject he addresses. Or half-addresses: what he’s really focused on is a set of interrelated questions about music, religion and the nature of being. Sometimes he can seem indirect, or sentimental, or thoroughly confusing. Other times he sounds like one of the world’s killer aphorists.

Also, another review of Coleman’s Sound Grammar is available.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Steven Colbert on John Zorn’s Genius Grant

Lifted from Greenleaf Music. If you get both Zorn and Colbert, this is pretty funny.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Sept. 30 at 21 Grand

Oakland’s 21 Grand will be the place to be for this show:

Flossin’ (Christopher Willits, Zach Hill, Carson McWhirter)
Antimatter/Wobbly duo
Thomas Dimuzio
William Winant - Damon Smith - Josh Allen
Ettrick
BBQ

Saturday, Sep 30 2006 7:00 PM

21 Grand
416 25th St @ Broadway, Oakland

Cost : $6-10

This evening spans the spectrum from electronics to out jazz .
Performing tonight are electronic noise legends, Thomas Dimuzio and
Xopher Davidson (Antimatter) in a duo with Wobbly. On the acoustic
side, there’s the hard-hitting trio of William Winant, the
skronktastic Josh Allen, and Damon Smith on electric ergobass,
preceded by the drums and sax duo of Ettrick, bringing a new level of
brutality to jazz. Rounding out the night, is Flossin’ featuring
Christopher Willits, Zach Hill (Hella) and Carson McWhirter performing
tonight on bass. The festivities will be supplemented by a barbecue.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Alice Coltrane Feature

A piece on Ms. Coltrane shows what she has been up to and how she is living.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

S.E.M. Ensemble in New York

THis experimental classical outfit plays NYC on Monday.

S.E.M. ENSEMBLE (Monday) The alluring Spiegeltent has been host to a parade of adventurous performers and music this summer as part of the Darmstadt Classics of the Avant-Garde series. The momentum continues on Monday with Petr Kotik’s intrepid new-music S.E.M. Ensemble, which will play works including Xenakis’s “Dikhthas” and “Mikka”; Stockhausen’s “Zeitmasse”; A. Vincent Raikhel’s “go to, go by”; and Cage’s Concert for Piano and Orchestra, with Joseph Kubera as soloist. One of Mr. Kotik’s own works, “Wilsie Bridge,” is also on the lineup. At 8 p.m., Pier 17, Fulton and South Streets, Lower Manhattan, (212) 279-4200, spiegelworld.com; $10. (Schweitzer)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Cuneiform Artist News

The latest on Cuneiform Records artists.

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic Fall News

EXTREME SPIRITUALS

Extreme Spirituals is a unique and moving collaboration between Birdsongs of the Mesozoic and Atlanta-based African-American spiritual singer Oral Moses. Cuneiform will release the debut recording of this work in September 2006. Oral Moses is internationally known for his extensive repertoire of spirituals and art songs, and for his striking bass-baritone voice. Extreme Spirituals includes live and processed vocals by Moses with innovative instrumental arrangements by Birdsongs. Upcoming live performances of Extreme Spirituals include:

Sat 14 Oct: Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT (860-232-1006)
www.realartways.org 8pm, $8 advance/$12 door

Sun 15 Oct: Forsyth Chapel at historic Forest Hills Cemetery, 95 Forest Hills Ave, Boston, MA (617-524-3354)
www.foresthillstrust.org tickets@foresthillstrust 4pm, $10. Reservations recommended.

Fri 10 Nov Kennesaw State University, Marietta GA
Members of Birdsongs will also speak on 9 Nov at a conference on African-American spirituals.

1001 REAL APES

It finally happened! 1001 Real Apes, Birdsongs’ acclaimed collaboration with award-winning storyteller and Duplex Planet creator David Greenberger, was released on CD in May. Recorded in 1999 after a 3-year string of widely successful live performances, the CD’s release was much anticipated, and the band is excited that it is finally publicly available. www.duplexplanet.com

SIDE-PROJECT NEWS

Birdsongs’ pianist Erik Lindgren will be releasing his third solo CD “Classical-a-go-go” with the acoustic ensemble The Frankenstein Consort (SFZ-004). The disc includes 8 original compositions, rollicking arrangements of 4 Raymond Scott selections, Erik Satie’s transcendental “Reverie,” and an irreverent hip hop remake of the Edgar Winter Band’s 1972 chestnut “Frankenstein.” The CD concludes with Lindgren’s first serious work, “Baroque-a-go-go,” which dates back to 1973 and was conceived as a parody of progressive rock. Instrumentation consists of flute, clarinet, bassoon, acoustic piano, and percussion, with guest appearances by noted Boston-area musicians on laptop, drums, percussion, and strings. The disc will be carried by Wayside Music. www.sfzrecordings.com

Ken Field and his Revolutionary Snake Ensemble have completed tracks for a second CD, to be titled Forked Tongue. The disc will be a follow-up to the Ensemble’s award-winning debut Year of the Snake, available from Wayside Music.
www.RevolutionarySnakeEnsemble.org • www.WaysideMusic.com

Field’s original score for the Bridgman/Packer Dance piece Under the Skin will be presented at City Center in NYC on October 5th & 6th at the annual “Fall for Dance” festival, and will be released on Innova Recordings.
www.bridgmanpacker.org • www.innova.mu • www.nycitycenter.org/ffd/index.cfm

Composer & Innova Recordings’ director Philip Blackburn has been posting a series of podcast interviews with Innova artists. An interview with Field is currently featured at http://feeds.feedburner.com/AliveAndComposing

Field performed his original music with an ensemble of noted Japanese musicians during August in Kobe and Kyoto.

www.birdsongsofthemesozoic.org • info@birdsongsofthemesozoic.org

Graham Collier Fall Artist News

Plans are underway for concerts and commissions around the world to tie
in with Graham’s 70th birthday next February.

Starting the year off will be the release in January of Hoarded Dreams
on Cuneiform. A previously unreleased archive recording of a major
Collier composition from 1983, it features an all-star twenty–piece
band including Ted Curson, Tomasz Stanko, Kenny Wheeler and John
Surman. Hoarded Dreams follows last year’s highly acclaimed Workpoints
album, his first for Cuneiform.

Meanwhile Graham has almost completed his latest book, The Jazz
Composer, moving music off the paper. Several major publishers have
expressed interest in The Jazz Composer, described by Graham as ‘a
philosophical look at the jazz composer’s art’, and publication details
are expected soon.

All of Graham’s early music is now available for download from iTunes,
eMusic and other major companies. Full information, as well as some MP3
samples and the music the musicians started from, is now available on
his newly renovated website jazzcontinuum.com

contact: info@jazzcontinuum.com

http://www.jazzcontinuum.com/

Djam Karet Fall Artist News

Summer is upon us here in Southern California and it is really hot! We’ve had some time to
reflect and consider new projects for the coming year. The following are 3 all new recording
projects we plan on creating for possible release in 2007:

Djam Karet/RICHARD PINHAS COLLABORATION: We have been huge fans of this man’s
pioneering work for over 20 years. Tracks have been exchanged between us and we are
beginning work on a project that will meld the outer limits of analog synths and digital
sound processing, and what we all consider music.

NEW Djam Karet CD: Where is the DK sound going? What is the next step? There have been
lots of undercurrents and new lands explored during the last few releases that will be
brought to the forefront in the next release. What is progressive rock if it does not evolve
into the future? We are also considering filming a live performance in our studio, to help
make this a unique CD/DVD package.

NEW DK/FILM MAKERS COLLABORATION DVD: We are also starting to work on a DVD
collaboration project with numerous film makers from around the world. These are today’s
top indie art/experimental film directors who have been shaping the world of film/video for
many years. We will be sending them new DK music and they’ll have total freedom to make
whatever visual images the music inspires them to create.

Enjoy your Indian Summer, stay tuned for future updates, and watch out for the Baku!

There is also new music posted on www.DjamKaret.com - you just have to find it. MP3’s are
posted there for “The Shattering Sky” and “Voodoo Chases The Muse”. Search around, there
is much to discover. Enjoy!

http://www.djamkaret.com/

Dr. Nerve Artists News Fall 2006

Nick Didkovsky’s new CD of string quartets and electronics, entitled
Tube Mouth Bow String is ready for final production and release on Pogus
Productions. Recorded with the Sirius String Quartet, the record
features Nick’s compositions for string quartet and talkboxes, string
quartet and computer generated sound, solo electric guitar-on-the-table
and computer, and acoustic string quartet. The pieces travel into some
extreme and beautiful sonic territories. Visit http://www.pogus.com/

Nick recently returned from Boston where he visited vintage Doctor Nerve
member Steve MacLean who now teaches at Berklee School of Music. Nick
sat in on Steve’s electronic ensemble class. He also gave a concert
performance of solo electric guitar-on-the-table & software, followed by
Nick and Steve improvising together for a set. Nick’s new software
implement’s Thomas Dimuzio’s design for a “seamless loop”: the software
captures audio from the performer, then loops it in a way that the
listener cannot hear the beginning or end of the loop. As usual, written
in JMSL and JSyn (algomusic.com and softsynth.com)

“Swim This” is a new improvising trio with Gerry Hemmingway on
drums/percussion, Michael Lytle on bass clarinet, and Nick on
guitar/software. Nick recently finished mixing their premiere concert
performance given at Experimental Intermedia Foundation. Look for a
release this fall, to be announced at www.doctornerve.org

“Zinc 9 Psychedelic” is a new improvising trio with Nick on
guitar/software, Dave Ballou on trumpet/electronics, and Kevin Norton on
percussion recently finished a tour of New England, and recorded their
Rochester performance in binaural stereo, which they are considering for
release.

Nick will head for Europe in November to tour with Guigou Chenevier
(Volapuk, ex-Etron Fou drummer) in their duo Body Parts. For dates visit
http://www.doctornerve.org/nerve/pages/gigs.shtml

Bone, with Hugh Hopper on Bass, John Roulat on drums, and Nick on
guitar, will perform for the first time ever at The Stone in New York
City on Thurs, Dec 7^th , 2006! This is part of Downtown Music Gallery’s
month long celebration at The Stone, curated by the indefatigable Bruce
Gallanter.

Far Corner Fall News

Far Corner’s 2nd CD Endangered was recently mastered and off to press, and the
group is looking forward to the January, 2007 release on Cuneiform Records.
The band also recently did a show w/ the British group Ozric Tentacles in
Milwaukee, WI on July 2. Members of Far Corner recently recorded six tracks
for a new progressive rock keyboard instruction book authored by Dan Maske to
be released by Hal Leonard sometime this fall. The band has also been booked
to do an informational performance for the Milwaukee Arts Experience in
December. The group will perform and discuss their music for an audience of a
few hundred music and art high school students at the Hyatt Regency on December
10. Look for a new Far Corner web site in December as well.

Bassist William Kopecky’s dark ambient project YETI RAIN will have their ?debut
CD “Discarnate” released on Canada’s Unicorn Digital label early this ?autumn.
Sound samples are available at the YETI RAIN website: ?www.yetirain.com.

Cellist Angela Schmidt was recently hired by Hal Leonard Corp. to write a book
titled 101 Cello Tips. This instructional manual will cover all aspects of
cello playing and being a cello player, including electric cello techniques,
and playing cello in non-classical situations. Look for the book to be released
this coming winter.

Drummer Craig Walkner has been in the studio lately, most recently laying down
some pre-production work for Bascom Hill’s new album. Bascom Hill continues to
tour and expand its resume, opening up for Kenny Wayne Shepherd at the Rave in
Milwaukee and doing “mini-tours” with Margo and the Nuclear So & So’s in August
and with The Gufs in October.

For more information please visit www.far-corner .com and
www.myspace.com/farcornerband.

Hamster Theatre Fall News

Hamster Theatre is currently gearing up to play 2 shows in the Carolinas.
The first is at the New Brookland Tavern at 122 State Street in West
Columbia, S.C. on Friday, September 1st. The eight dollar cover includes
food (!). The Feeding begins at 7:00, and Green Law opens for us at 8:00. We
play at 9:00. On Sunday, Sept. 3rd, we play at the Progday festival outside
of Chapel Hill, N.C. at 3:00 pm. Please go to progday.com for more
information.

Dave Willey just dropped off Deborah Perry at the airport after recording
her singing two songs for his project “Music for the Tin Box Papers”, which
features composing contributions from Mike Johnson, Hugh Hopper, Deborah
Perry, and Jeanne Christensen as well as himself, and performances by the
aforementioned as well as Bob Drake, Dave Kerman, Beth Welch, Mark Fuller
and Farrell Lowe. Much different than Hamster Theatre, somehow more diverse!

Otherwise, the Mother Bird regurgitates ideas into the mouths of her young
as-yet-unnamed progeny, that she will collectively christen “Desert”, also
the working title of the next Hamster Theatre CD, which promises to be a
nice amalgam of the tense Romanticism we have all grown to expect from the
combo, but leavened with a dose of Sonic Youth-inspired detuned feedback
guitar. A Desert is a group of birds (or vice-versa!); what fun! Look for
this gem by January 2214!

http://www.hamstertheatre.com

booking? We have no manager, so call Dave.
303-362-5398

Hugh Hopper Fall News

August 25/26 Polysoft: Malguénac Festival, Bretagne, France
August 28 Soft Machine Legacy: Hoste Arms,Burnham Market,Norfolk, UK
Sept 5-8 Rudersdorf, Austria: HH with various improvisers
Oct 3-5 Recording at Triton,France for Songs from the Beginning
Oct 8 Soft Machine Legacy: Kendal Arts Centre, UK
Oct 15 Soft Machine Legacy: Marsden,UK
Oct 20 Brainville 3 (HH, Daevid Allen, Chris Cutler)Canterbury Festival
Oct 22/23 (TBC)Brainville 3 (HH, Daevid Allen, Chris Cutler)Tel Aviv, Israel
Nov 5 (TBC)Brainville 3 (HH, Daevid Allen, Chris Cutler):Melkweg, Amsterdam (part of Gong 40-year anniversary)
Dec 13-15 (TBC)NYC, Downtown Music Gallery’s festival at The Stone, NYC: Bone (HH, N Didkovsky, J Roulat), F Frith, C Cutler

http://www.burningshed.com/bands/bandpage.asp?id=4

Picchio dal Pozzo Fall News

Picchio dal Pozzo will release a DVD in November/December for the 30th aniversary of the band. It will contain some funny interviews of the bandmembers, pictures and some unreleasd bonus tracks.

Paolo Griguolo (guitarplayer) is setting up a solo concert based on “sounds of evironments”, to be ready for the end of the year. Possible the partecipation of Aldo Di Marco, PdP’s drummer/percussionist.

University of Errors Fall News

FALL 2006 TOUR
in support of their Cuneiform release: Jet Propelled Photographs:The Early Music of The Soft Machine (c.1966-67) Cuneiform RUNE 188

Daevid Allen - Vocal, Guitar
Josh Pollock - Guitar, samples, vocal
Warren Huegel - Drums, vocal
Michael Clare - Bass

Paris, France
October 26 and 27
Le Triton
11, Rue du Coq Français
93260 Les Lilas, France
www.letriton.com/

Clamecy, France
October 28 - Clamecy, France
Salle Polyvalente

Amsterdam, The Netherlands
November 5
Melkweg
Lijnbaansgracht 234a, 1017 PH
http://www.melkweg.nl
part of the 3 day Gong Unconvention
for info: http://www.planetgong.co.uk

New York City
Fri 11/10 10pm -11:30
Sat 11/11 9pm -10:30-
The Bowery Poetry Club
308 Bowery, New York, NY 10012
212.614.0505 http://www.bowerypoetry.com/

San Francisco, Ca.
November 17 and/or 18 -
Hemlock Tavern
131 Polk St, San Francisco, 94109 - (415) 923-0925
www.hemlocktavern.com

Further Details to be announced at http://www.universityoferrors.com

Rich Woodson Fall News

Since releasing 2000’s critically-acclaimed “Control and Resistance” Brooklyn-based composer Rich Woodson has been working on two different musical projects. One of these projects has yielded the second Ellipsis CD “The Nail That Stands Up Gets Pounded Down”, MP3s Of which can be heard at http://richwoodson.com. Rich Woodson plans on releasing his next Ellipsis record sometime before the apocalypse but regrettably cannot afford to be more specific at present. It will be called “So Quiet I Can Hear You Blink” and will feature increased density, length, speed and discontinuity but not in that order. You have been warned.

The second project, Lemonyellow, is in a more ‘pop’ular vein though could not quite be accused of actually being popular, as it were. This group – in which RW sings, plays the guitar, and writes all the words and music (LY also features keyboards, bass and Drums)- can be sampled on their myspace page which is here: http://www.myspace.com/lemonyellowmusic

Lemonyellow has been gigging in the NYC area for the past few months and intends to continue this practice All the while delivering more melody and harmonic sophistication than is probably safe for human consumption. Contact and more info can be found here: Ellipticalrich@yahoo.com, or,

http://richwoodson.com

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Scott Amendola’s Upcoming Shows

Scott’s schedule looks like this:

9/24/06 San Francisco, CA The de Young Museum Sunday Concert Series
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Drive
415.863.3330 Scott Amendola and Wil Blades
2-4pm — FREE! — All Ages
Wil Blades-Hammond B3
Scott Amendola-drums
9/28/06 Vancouver, B.C. Vancouver Centre For The Arts
Madeleine Peyroux
9/29/06 Seattle, WA The Moore Theater
Madeleine Peyroux
9pm —
9/30/06 Portland, OR Crystal Ballroom
Madeleine Peyroux
8pm —
10/ 3/06 Oakland, CA The Paramount Theater
Madeleine Peyroux
8:30pm —
10/ 4/06 Santa Barbara, CA UCSB Campbell Hall
Madeleine Peyroux
8pm —
10/ 6/06 Los Angeles,CA Royce Hall
Madeleine Peyroux
10/ 7/06 San Diego, CA 4th and B
Madeleine Peyroux
10/10/06 Denver, Colorado The Paramount Theater
Madeleine Peyroux
10/13/06 Minneapolis, MN State Theater
Madeleine Peyroux
All Ages
10/14/06 Chicago, IL The Vic Theater
Madeleine Peyroux
8:30pm —
10/16/06 Ann Arbor, MI Michigan Theater
Madeleine Peyroux
10/18/06 Toronto, Canada Danforth Music Hall
Madeleine Peyroux
9pm —
10/20/06 Montreal, Canada Outremont Theatre
Madeleine Peyroux
9pm —
10/21/06 Albany, NY Hart Theatre (The Egg)
Madeleine Peyroux
10/22/06 Burlington, VT Flynn Theater
Madeleine Peyroux
7:30pm —
10/25/06 New York City, NY Town Hall
Madeleine Peyroux
10/29/06 SAn Francisco, CA SF Jazz Festival @ Herbst Theater
Nels Clines New Monestary opening for Andrew Hill
7pm — All Ages
Nels Cline-guitars
Andrea Parkins-electric accordian
Bobby Bradford-coronet
Ben Goldberg-clarinet
Devin Hoff-contrabass
Scott Amendola-drums
11/ 6/06 Oakland, CA Yoshi´s
510 Embarcadero West
510-238-9200 Scott Amendola and Wil Blades
8 and 10pm — All Ages
Wil Blades-Hammond B3, Piano
Scott Amendola-drums, percussion, Electronics

11/14/06 San Francisco, CA Intersection for the Arts
446 Valencia St.
415-626-3311 ´plays Monk´
8pm — $12-20 sliding scale — All Ages
Ben Goldberg-clarinet
Devin Hoff-contrabass
Scott Amendola-drums

playing the music of Thelonious Monk

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

The Friday Informer: Too White and Nerdy?

Just your usual week of radical musicology, complex charts, and the opera-ready "Trapped in the Drive Thru."

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

20 preludi da la femme 100 têtes - after Max Ernst (1932-3). George Antheil

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

Neruda Songs (2005). Peter Lieberson

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 23, 2006 at 07:56 PM | Comments (0)

September 22, 2006

Been there, done that

The music I write hasn't had a lot of repetition in it—I mean taking a section of music and repeating it note-for-note. I got hooked on the whole developing-variation thing fairly early on, and for whatever reason (need for control, excessive affection for ornamentation, short attention span, take your pick), it's served my aesthetic needs rather well. Except for the small wing of my compositional library devoted to ragtime, I don't think I've ever had the occasion to notate an actual repeat sign (and even the last batch of rags were pretty through-composed). There's also the fact that repeating a section sometimes feels almost too easy (especially these days, where it's merely a matter of doing an electronic cut-and-paste), as if I'm just filling up time, or I've run out of ideas.

The piece I'm working on now, though, has a fair amount of exact repetition, for a variety of reasons. The people I'm writing it for also play in a rock band, so I've been consciously and subconsciously using elements of pop music forms. Also, some of the passages are pretty tricky from a technical standpoint, so (although it's never stopped me before) it seems a little churlish to make them do all that work for a fleeting few bars that never come back. But mostly, it's because, all musical evidence to the contrary, I persist in imagining the piece as an analogue to the sort of multi-movement suites and cycles that Schumann wrote. And Schumann is a master of repetition.

Schumann's repeats can break your heart: the end of Frauenliebe und -leben—after the singer finishes sadly admonishing her husband for dying and leaving her, the piano repeats the opening song of the cycle, where they first meet—is one of the three or four most emotionally devastating moments in all of music. (All the more amazing considering that the emotions embodied in the poetry have dated badly; the distance and loss Schumann conjures up with that simple gesture are, I'm convinced, the main reason the cycle stays in the repertoire.) In the Davidsbündlertänze for piano, the second movement magically reappears in the eighth movement, an unexpected repeat that sets up the enigmatic finale. On the other end, there's the opening movement of Faschingsschwank aus Wien, where the lyricism is always being interrupted by a boisterous beer-hall ritornello: Florestan suddenly showing up to shake Eusebius out of his reverie and drag him back to the party.

But it's the other kind of repetition, the immediate repetition of the phrase, the melody, we've just heard, that Schumann makes his own. Flip through the various pieces that make up the piano cycle Carnaval and you're struck by the sheer variety of where and when repeats turn up. Sometimes it's the opening section ("Promenade"); sometimes the closing section ("Chiarina"). Sometimes a tightly repetitive exposition will give way to a free-wheeling new structure ("Préambule"). Sometimes it's almost as if the music can't let go of the melody ("Aveu"). And sometimes it's as if, by chance, we stumble upon a sudden discovery that freezes us in our tracks ("Florestan"). Schumann, more than any other composer, realized that repetition is it's own form of expressiveness, that, in practice, there's no such thing as an exact repetition, even if the notes are identical. The fact that we've already heard the material means that we'll hear the repeat differently, whether it's finding more meaning in the music, or feeling the meaning of the music slip away into insensibility, the way a word becomes meaningless if you say it over and over. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus famously declared that we never set foot in the same river twice—but he also used to argue from that proposition to the paradoxical idea that, at the same time, everything exists and nothing exists. I don't know about you, but to me, that combination of the fullness of life and the nihilism of the abyss seems awfully Schumannesque.

This past month I found a marvelous use of repetition in music by György Kurtág, who is the closest thing to a modern Schumann that I can think of. (All my MIT keyboard harmony students started with Kurtág pieces this year; sometimes it takes extraordinary measures to get myself psyched up for the semester.) "Hommage à Schubert," from the ongoing piano collection Játékok (Games), is a short piece in two parts. The first part starts:


The second part starts:


The notes are exactly the same. But what in the first part is an out-of-tune hymn, becomes, in the second part, a delicately awkward negotiation between the hands. With an economy of means, he shifts the focus from the disembodied nature of the sound to the physical effort of its production. Not bad for a cut-and-paste. Robert would be proud—although he'd probably repeat it a few more times, just for good measure.

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)

Mozart, Venice, London

"They don't give a Figaro," Time Out Chicago, September 21-27, 2006. The Marriage of Figaro in a church, with a young cast. Bonus: "Infidel chic." Art historian Paul Hills on Eastern and Middle Eastern influences on Venetian art. Hills: “I think states which are dominated by merchants, as Venice certainly was, understand that peace is preferable to war, because war is bad for business.”

I probably come in a close second to Steve Smith when it comes to flogging, er, mentioning, the brilliance of my fellow Time Out scribblers, but I can do him one better by highlighting this article  by John Lewis from Time Out London—AKA "London," AKA "the Mothership"—about the new Gaddafi opera Gaddafi: A Living Myth at the English National Opera. Lewis is one of the magazine's jazz critics, and his article outlines the perils of relying on government financing for outsider art. (Art doesn't win.)

Playlist:

Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Vol. 3 Andras Schiff (ECM)

Bach: Violin Concertos Daniel Hope, Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Warner Classics [still going!])

Mahler: Symphony No. 5 San Francisco SO, MTT (SFS)

What Exit Mark Feldman, violin (ECM)

John Adams: Violin Concerto, etc. Chloe Hanslip, Royal Phil., Leonard Slatkin (Naxos)

Originally posted by MarcGeelhoed from Marc Geelhoed: Deceptively Simple, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

A musical global village?

Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 9/21/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

"daswirdas" plays

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Tanglewood, 1994

From time to time I'm going to be posting some of my old New York Times reviews on the site, particularly those that cover significant premieres. I haven't found a way to place them directly in my archives, so they will be popping up here on the main page; feel free to ignore them. The review below reports on one of the most deeply stirring performances I've ever heard — Reinbert de Leeuw's rendition of Messiaen's "Des canyons aux étoiles" at Tanglewood in 1994.

"A Messiaen Rarity Pays Homage to Utah's Topography and Birds"

by Alex Ross

New York Times, August 11, 1994

Reinbert de Leeuw's inspiring first summer as director of the Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music reached a pinnacle on Sunday night with the geological, astronomical and ornithological splendors of Messiaen's "Des canyons aux étoiles." This 12-part epic poem for small orchestra is not heard as often as the same composer's "Turangalîla Symphony," but it certainly ought to be. I can think of no other work from the latter half of this century that affords such an excess of sheer beauty. It leaves its audiences in a state of exhilaration and touches more than once on the sublime.

"Des canyons aux étoiles" ("From the Canyons to the Stars") was commissioned by Alice Tully 20 years ago for the American Bicentennial. Following his own infallible whimsies, Messiaen chose to pay homage to the canyons and birds of Utah. Although the state responded gratefully by naming one of its peaks Mount Messiaen, the work is less a portrait of a particular landscape than of the richness of the mind contemplating it. Against the austerity of the canyons, Messiaen unleashed an orgy of exotic instrumentation: trumpeters play with wa-wa mutes and mouthpieces alone, the solo pianist draws resonances from silently depressed clusters, the percussionists wield a sand drum and a very prominent wind machine.

What surprised many listeners in 1974, however, was not the complexity of the instrumentation but the lyric directness of much of the music behind it. Having allied himself with the postwar avant-garde through the early 1960's, Messiaen here completed a return to the grand triadic sonorities of his youth, while holding in mind the chief rhythmic and harmonic discoveries of the late 40's. "Canyons" is his supreme synthesis, his most daring leap from raw experimental materials to the mystical wonderland of his inner world. "Zion Park," the paradisiacal vision that closes the work, might be the most beautiful and powerful thing he created.

Sunday's was not a perfect performance -- even though Mr. de Leeuw's tempos were slow, the Fellows of Tanglewood Music Center still had trouble with the fiendish rhythms, and Peter Serkin's technically brilliant piano solos did not resonate as the composer wished -- but the score made its proper impact. There was magic in the mere fact of hearing it in the new Ozawa Hall, with its back wall open on the summer night. After the great A-major revelation of "Zion Park," I walked out a few feet and looked up at the stars; they seemed a silent echo of Messiaen's final shimmering chord.

With its huge chaotic vistas and intimate lyric images side by side, "Canyons" seems to sum up also the musical world view of Tanglewood's new director of contemporary music: a man who has made definitive recordings of such diverse repertory as Antheil's manic "Jazz Symphony" and Satie's glacial "Gymnopedies" (at the piano, on the Philips label). As director of the Schonberg Ensemble and other Dutch groups, Mr. de Leeuw pioneered an influential programming philosophy that mixes composers from early and late in the 20th century, European and American, orderly and anarchic, without regard to rigid ideological divisions.

His programs, however, have shown a certain bias toward more imaginative members of the current European avant-garde. Louis Andriessen's works dominated the opening weekend, and Tuesday was given over to Mauricio Kagel, the master ironist of German musical tradition.

The Argentine-born Mr. Kagel often threatens to lose himself in abstruse deconstructive schemes, but his scores are saved by a raw melodic charm and a dire wit worthy of Karl Kraus. There were wonderful moments in his "Phantasiestuck" (for flute and piano, with invisible chamber accompaniment) and Piano Trio (full of errant Romantic chromaticisms, like Franck gone mad). But the tour de force was ". . . den 24,XII.31" for baritone and chamber orchestra, a dramatization of comical or sinister newspaper clippings from the day Mr. Kagel was born. An awesomely absurd finale reports the ringing of Christmas bells all over America by electric transmission from Bethlehem. Composers through the ages have sought to transcribe bell timbres, but until Mr. Kagel no one thought to combine the usual resonant percussion with a tape of live church bells and a man shouting "Ding, dong, ding, dong!" onstage.

Next to this neo-Dadaist extravagance, American works in the festival were strikingly subdued. On Sunday afternoon, Yo-Yo Ma and the Boston Symphony under Seiji Ozawa played John Harbison's Cello Concerto, a handsomely made and dazzlingly orchestrated three-movement piece that adds to the impressive roster of new works Mr. Ma has lately been inspiring, although I felt that the whole was a bit less than the sum of the parts. (The amazing Mr. Ma returned after intermission for Strauss's "Don Quixote." In a single day, with Strauss and Messiaen, Tanglewood got to hear the two greatest wind-machine works in the literature.)

And on Monday night there was a concert devoted mostly to Northeastern composers who draw in different ways on the inexhaustible legacy in the Second Viennese School. Namely: Elliott Carter's Quintet for Piano and Winds, a 1991 work that brings no surprises in its fierce, sober argumentation; Leon Kirchner's sweetly rhapsodic Piano Trio No. 2, an adaptation of his recent cello concerto for Mr. Ma, which seems to propose, quite persuasively, that the way to go beyond Schoenberg is to go back to Zemlinsky; Mario Davidovsky's gaunt, finely detailed "Romancero" for soprano, flute, clarinet and cello, and Ralph Shapey's characteristically grim, violent "Evocation No. 2" from 1979, with its unexpectedly delicate close.

Tanglewood's student musicians dedicated themselves to this vast range of new music with unstinting commitment. A few soloists stood out: Christopher Cooper, the noble horn player in "Canyons"; Barry Dove, the indefatigable percussionist in the Shapey; Thomas Lehmkuhl, the wildly inventive baritone soloist in the Kagel. One hopes the young artists go away from the festival without institutional biases toward the opposing camps represented. Mr. de Leeuw's catholic, discriminating taste made internecine polemics temporarily irrelevant.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Which brings us to tonight's WORD....

Zorn. Did anyone else see the amazing Stephen Colbert ripping John Zorn a new one on last night's (Sept. 20) Colbert Report? Brilliant. Speaking of which, I've never encountered a more adequately titled piece of music.

Originally posted by Alan Theisen from Alan Theisen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Roll Over Beethoven: Philadelphia Orchestra Goes Digital

The Philadelphia Orchestra unveiled this morning an online music store where you can download archival recordings, commerically released CDs and, coming soon, recent Philadelphia Orchestra concerts.  Other orchestras have done the same thing but the orchestra says it is first major American ensemble to market directly to the public without a distributor. 

There are 26 pieces currently available on the site, including eight Beethoven symphonies conducted by Christoph Eschenbach over the 2005-06 season, plus Wolfgang Sawallisch’s Schubert’s Symphony No. 9 from 2005 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 from 2000.

For a limited time, you can download Beethoven’s Fifth (can’t get too many copies of that one) in a performance led by Eschenbach, recorded live in the orchestra’s home, Verizon Hall at The Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts.

Prices are $4.99 for basic MP3 files; shorter works, such as Berlioz’s Roman Carnival Overture, cost 99 cents.

Smart move by Philadelphia.  Downloading is clearly becoming the dominant form of music distribution which is good news for classical music in general because the economics of digital mean almost anybody can get into the game.   A lot more music will be available in a lot more flavors.  Take that, EMI.

Elsewhere, check out Darcy James Argue’s splendid review of Monday’s Wordless Music concert at the Good Shepherd-Faith Church.

You’ll note in the right-hand column that the Metropolis Ensemble, one of the hipper new chamber music groups around town, has joined Bridge Records as a distinguished sponsor of  S21.  The ensemble will open its second season on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 8 pm at the Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts, 172 Norfolk Street, with the New York premiere of David Schiff’s song cycle All About Love, a panoramic meditation on love and all that good stuff. Schiff, the ensemble’s composer-in-residence, is best-known for his opera Gempel The Fool.

The program also features rising vocal stars Thomas Glenn and mezzo Hai-Ting Chinn and a semi-staged performance of the Rite of Spring of the Baroque Era: Monteverdi’s musical drama Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda.

If you’re interested, we still have space for a couple of more sponsors.  For the time being, at least, any dinero we take in will be used to pay musicians for the S21 concert on November 20.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

Kronos Quartet on World Music

Longtime Kronos member David Harrington world music and string quartets.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Philadelphia Orchestra Launches Online Music Store with Free Downloads of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony

The title pretty much says it all. Another symphony opens a download store.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine Reviews

More words about music from Musique Machine.

Michael Perilstein - The Least Worst of Michael Perilstein
Who the heck is Michael Perilstein and what’s this all about?, I hear you ask, well Mr Perilstein makes bad cheesy sounding soundtracks for micro budget B movies like: Hollywood Chainsaw Hookers, Beavergate(!?) and The deadly spawn, etc. As well as releasing rather strange concept album, one which was released on the Residents label Ralph records. So really you know you’re in for an odd and different time from the outset.

Encre - Plexus II
Plexus II is a collection of slowly unfolding string patterns electronically looped together. Giving a great air of decaying splendour , much like a cobweb spun and dust deep , once grand mansion, a melancholy dream world of broken dreams and fading beauty .

Firebird - Hot Wings
Hot Wings comes across as a long lost album by a 70’s rock/ blues mixing together a feeling of The Free, Stepping Wolf, Thin Lizzy, with Jimi Hendrix funk-rock guitar edge. Even the production has really nice 70’s vibe: a wonderful, raw and under-produced quality.

Various artists/ Elliott Sharpe - Tone of Finland
Tone of Finland spreads across two disks a remixed version of Elliot Sharpe’s soundtrack for the 1991 documentary about gay artist and icon Tom of Finland, which appears on the second disk. On the first disk we get Reinterpretation and remixes of the original soundtrack by eight Finish electronic artists, including a track by Mika Vainio of Pan-sonic.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

New West Electro Acoustic Music Organization

This outfit’s fall performance schedule is below. An article provides an overview of their history and what to expect.

NWEAMO 2006 Live Performances
City: Portland, OR (one night only)
Venue: Doug Fir Lounge
• http://www.dougfirlounge.com/

Date: Sunday, Sept. 24, 2006
Time: Doors open 8 PM — Show: 9–12 PM

Artists:
• White Rainbow
• SWARMIUS
• Maxime de la Rochefoucauld • http://maximerioux.com
• Bradford Reed • http://www.pencilina.com/bradford.html
• Masonic & MarsBassMan • http://www.masonicelectronica.com/electronica.html

City: San Diego (three nights — three events)
Evening I: • Tribute to Gyorgi Ligeti
— featuring Lukas Ligeti — lecture/concert
http://lukasligeti.com/

Venue: Smith Recital Hall, SDSU
Date: Thursday, Sept. 28
Time: 8 PM

Evening II: • Inventors & Backwards Electricity

Venue: Smith Recital Hall, SDSU
Date: Friday, Sept. 29
Time: 8 PM

Artists:
• Felix Lazo & Cristian Moreles
• Maxime de la Rochefoucauld • http://maximerioux.com/
• Matt Dotson
• Bradford Reed • http://www.pencilina.com/bradford.html

Evening III: • Double Event: Art & Pulse
Venue: Smith Recital Hall, SDSU
Date: Saturday, Sept. 30 — Double Event: Inaugural Gallery & Artist Reception + Electro–Acoustic Music Concert
Time: 6:30 & 8:30 PM

• Event #1 — Art Gallery Grand Opening—Veronica Graham 6:30–8:30 PM
• Event #2 — Pulse 8:30–10:00 PM

Artists:
• Adam Raquesa
• Paula Mathusen
• Brad Decker
• Meg Schedel & Alison Rootberg
• Noah Keesecker
• SWARMIUS

Installation:
• Sasha Leitman

City: New York City (two nights — two events)
Evening I: • Africa & Europe
Venue: The Apple Store, SOHO
Date: Friday, Oct. 6
Time: 7 PM

Artists:
• Luke Dubois
• Dennis Miller
• Centrozoon
• Brian Knoth
• Lukas Ligeti

Evening II: • Africa & the Americas
Venue: The Apple Store, SOHO
Date: Saturday, Oct. 7:
Time: 6 PM

Artists:
• Noah Keesecker
• Paula Mathusen
• Brad Decker
• Meg Schedel/Alison Rootberg
• Greg Beyer
• Michael Theodore/ Tim Eriksen
• SWARMIUS

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

AAJ has published a new set of reviews.

22-Sep-06 Steve Lacy
Esteem (Atavistic)
22-Sep-06 John Butcher / Christof Kurzmann
The Big Misunderstanding Between Hertz And Megahertz (Potlatch Records)
21-Sep-06 Mark O’Leary / Steve Swallow / Pierre Favre
Awakening (Leo Records)
21-Sep-06 Sabir Mateen
Prophecies Come To Pass (577 Records)
21-Sep-06 Mark Feldman
What Exit (ECM Records)
21-Sep-06 Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau
Metheny / Mehldau (Nonesuch Records)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Band still sharing works of Sun Ra

A history of the Arkestra and a preview of their upcoming Cleveland show is available.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

MacArthur Foundation Music Fellows

In conjunction with the current John Zorn MacArthur grant here is a list of MacArthur fellows in the music category. Lots of familiar names…

Marin Alsop Orchestra Conductor
Milton Babbitt Composer
Ran Blake Composer and Pianist
Anthony Braxton Jazz Composer and Performer
Regina Carter Jazz Violinist
Ornette Coleman Jazz Performer and Composer
John C. Eaton Composer
Osvaldo Golijov Composer
John Harbison Composer and Conductor
Stephen Hough Pianist
Bernice Johnson Reagon Music Historian, Composer, and Vocalist
Ali Akbar Khan Classical Indian Music Performer
Steve Lacy Saxophonist and Jazz Composer
George E. Lewis Composer, Performer, and Music Theorist
Edgar Meyer Bassist and Composer
Conlon Nancarrow Composer
George Perle Composer and Music Theorist
Max Roach Percussionist and Jazz Composer
Reginald Robinson Ragtime Pianist and Composer
George Russell Composer and Music Theorist
Gunther Schuller Composer, Conductor, and Jazz Historian
Ralph Shapey Composer and Conductor
Bright Sheng Composer
Cecil Taylor Jazz Pianist and Composer
Ken Vandermark Jazz Composer and Performer
Marion Williams Gospel Music Performer
Charles Wuorinen Composer
John Zorn Musician and Composer

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

STIMUL: The continuous festival of different music

This festival takes place in Prague and features Supersilent, Faust, Eugene Chadbourne and many others.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Pete Robbins and Centric at Firehouse 12

From www.improvisedcommunications.com:

Friday, October 27th at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m.
Pete Robbins & Centric
Firehouse 12
45 Crown Street in New Haven, CT
Tickets are $15 (opening set) and $10 (second set)
Tickets and info are available at http://www.firehouse12.com or (203) 785-0468
Learn more about Pete Robbins at http://peterobbins.com
Music sample available at http://firehouse12.com/events.asp?id=12592
Images and music available by request

Pete Robbins, alto saxophone/composer; Sam Sadigursky, tenor and soprano saxophones; Eliot Cardinaux, Nord Electro; Thomas Morgan, bass; Dan Weiss, drums

Media Contact for Firehouse 12:
Scott Menhinick, Improvised Communications
(617) 489-6561
scott@improvisedcommunications.com

On Friday, October 27th, Brooklyn-based saxophonist/composer Pete Robbins and his band Centric will perform at New Haven’s Firehouse 12 in celebration of his new CD, Waits & Measures (Playscape Recordings). Robbins’ ensemble, which features Sam Sadigursky (tenor and soprano saxophones), Eliot Cardinaux (Nord Electro), Thomas Morgan (bass), and Dan Weiss (drums), played the Copenhagen Jazz Festival in July and will be touring the East Coast in late October and early November in support of his latest recording.

Critics write that Waits & Measures is “an intimate sort of jazz-rock hybrid” (Nate Chinen, New York Times) with compositions that “manage to sound both cerebral and funky…his sidemen’s irreverent asides keep the performances lively” (Time Out New York). In the CD’s liner notes, critic Mark F. Turner wrote, “Robbins has again impressed me with his abilities as a musician, a serious composer and an artist with a vision to create music that is progressive, yet always engaging.”

Robbins moved to New York in 2002, and quickly made his presence felt on the city’s legendary jazz scene, leading Jim Macnie of the Village Voice to write, “his unusual melodic designs and imaginative swing sensibility earned him local notice right away.” He has worked steadily as a leader over the past four years, performing in a variety of New York-area venues and touring the East Coast and beyond, and this past May earned a 2006 Chamber Music America composition grant for future projects. He has also collaborated with musicians such as Mark Dresser, Randy Peterson, Daniel Levin and Mary Halvorson. More information is available at http://www.peterobbins.com

About Firehouse 12:

Firehouse 12 is an award winning full-service bar, state-of-the-art recording studio and unusually intimate performance space located in New Haven’s historic Ninth Square District. Painstakingly renovated over the course of four years by owner/producer/engineer Nick Lloyd and Gray Organschi Architecture, this once-abandoned firehouse building has become a major part of New Haven’s cultural renaissance since opening its doors in April 2005. It has also quickly gained a reputation as one of the premier recording studios and creative music venues on the East Coast.

A 2006 Best Studio Design Project nominee for the prestigious Technical Excellence and Creativity (TEC) Awards (http://www.mixfoundation.org/tec/tecawards.html), the recording studio features world-class acoustic design by renowned acoustician John Storyk of Walters-Storyk Design Group. The striking 1200-square foot space features a Steinway concert grand piano, and doubles as an 80-seat public venue with unparalleled technical possibilities for some of the most respected names in creative music. Past performers include Han Bennink, Tim Berne, Dave Douglas, Susie Ibarra, Joe McPhee, Joe Morris, William Parker and Mario Pavone among many others.

In a June 2005 feature, New Haven Independent’s Regina DeAngelo called Firehouse 12 “a north star in the jazz firmament that might well guide music lovers to New Haven from far away.” She went on to write, “fabric-covered walls are angled to urge music to flow, not bounce, through a womb-like space. It’s almost like sitting in the hull of an instrument. Luckily, the Firehouse attracts people who bring near-religious reverence to the music, producing an exchange of energy that often fires great performances.” James Keepnews of the New Haven Advocate echoed DeAngelo’s praise, calling the venue a “remarkable new cultural outpost” and “a resounding success.” Yale University’s Associate Vice President of New Haven and State Affairs Michael Morand recently called the space “a wonderful addition to New Haven’s role as the cultural capital of Connecticut.”

Find out more at http://www.firehouse12.com

Complete Fall 2006 Concert Season:

09/22 :: Matthew Shipp
09/29 :: Carla Marciano 4tet
10/06 :: David Berkman Quartet
10/13 :: Nate Wooley and Blue Collar
10/20 :: Andrew Cyrille/Greg Osby Duo
10/27 :: Pete Robbins and Centric
11/04 :: Dave Allen Quartet
11/10 :: Stephen Haynes and Bugaboo
11/17 :: Dominique Eade/Jed Wilson Duo
12/01 :: Ben Allison Quartet
12/08 :: Wayne Escoffery Quartet
12/15 :: Gerald Cleaver & Violet Hour

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

FONT Preview

This year’s Festival of New Trumpet music is previewed.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Zappa’s Freak Out Re-released as 4 CD Set

Yep, Freak Out is now going to be MOFO and will be out in November. In related news, a Freak Out beer is being marketed. Ironically, I seem to remember Zappa saying in interviews that he didn’t like beer…

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Magic Band No More

John French posts that after 3 years, the magic Band is giving up.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Why You Should Listen to Music You Don’t Like

Here is an interesting argument for doing just that. Lately I’ve been spending way too much time in the Love / Contempt box.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Jackie-O Motherfucker 2CD Set Reviewed

A review of the latest effort from this experimental improv outfit is available.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Chris Cutler Interview

A Chris Cutler interview from 1998 has been made available.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Balancing Act: Some Thoughts On Teaching Composition

The tension between the "wipe things clean" spirit and the rich possibilities inherent in the process of musical education informs so much of how I approach my work as a composer, organizer, and teacher.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Tonality: More Relevant Than Ever

Is there a growing trend towards tonality among composers today?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Landmarks (18)

Christian Wolff: Burdocks (1970-71) for one or more groups of five or more players. Burdocks is not a through-composed score but rather a collection of ten parts or pieces from which an ensemble performance can be assembled. The individual pieces are each quite different in character from one another. In part, they summarize a body of techniques that Wolff had investigated over many years, but

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Potlatch

Over at the website of the American Music Junta Center, Dennis Báthory-Kitsz has done a survey of composers on the subject of productivity, as part of his "We Are All Mozart" project. Readers of this page know that I am not shy of terminology borrowed -- and often quite loosely -- from the dismal science, but in this case I'm rather uncertain about the importance of production in a gift

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 22, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

September 21, 2006

Acting! Genius!

The MacArthur Foundation awards have been announced for this year. Two musicians were awarded the "genius" grants: John Zorn and Regina Carter. Zorn is a musician I had never heard of before I started reading music blogs. Kyle Gann, Tim Rutherford-Johnson, and various members of Sequenza 21's Composers Forum have been educating me on both very new music and 20th century music that didn't get

Originally from Musical Perceptions, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

You've got a face for radio

I just got an offer to join BlogTalkRadio. I'll let Alan Danzis describe it: BlogTalkRadio allows bloggers/podcasters to broadcast live streaming radio shows, while accepting telephone calls from listeners and hosting show guests. (And it’s free!) In addition to broadcasting live, shows are archived forever at BlogTalkRadio.com as podcasts. I'll pass on this opportunity. I've been devoting

Originally from Musical Perceptions, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Mp3 Blog #26: The Viola in My Life...

Morton Feldman:
”Viola in My Life II” (1970)
For Viola, Flute, Clarinet, Percussion, Celesta, Violin, and Cello
Performed by Karen Phillips, Paula Robison, Arthur Bloom, Raymond DesRoches, David Tudor, Anahid Ajemian, and Seymour Barab

Another version is available on this disc compact disc featuring the Ensemble Recherche

”Rothko Chapel: I” (1971)
For Viola, Percussion, Celesta, Soprano, Alto, and Chorus
Performed by William Winant, Deborah Dietrich, Karen Rosenak, and David Abel

Available on this compact disc featuring the complete “Rothko Chapel”

* * * * *

My Dearest Piano,

You were my original love. When young, I promised to always love you first and foremost. Because of that, it pains me greatly to tell you I have a confession to make – I have fallen in love with another. Although I do promise that I will never stop loving you or fully lose my dedication to you, I cannot deny the sensual power that draws me to this other as much as, if not at times, more strongly than I am drawn to you.

Her name is the Viola. While you have the ability to express with more dynamic force than an entire orchestra, she is brittle and easily overwhelmed. While you can produce notes of equal beauty within a tessitura unsurpassed by any other instrument, she can barely sing beyond three octaves. While countless composers and performers have stretched your virtuosic prowess, she remains steady and has injured most who have tried to surpass her limits. And, furthermore, while you are grand and bear a formidable presence, she is delicate and can seduce with only one note.

I cannot explain this passion that I feel for the Viola. I am sure that to you –since she seems the exact opposite of you in every way – that you cannot understand how, after declaring my undying dedication to you, I could fall for an object so unworthy. I have struggled many long hours and sleepless nights trying to answer this very question and despite this I fear I cannot offer you an answer that will assuage your hurt questioning longing anymore than I stop loving her.

Possibly – and I say this to be honest rather than hurtful – while everything you say is destined to only exist sound as a glorious resonating decay, Viola seems to speak brittlely and more profoundly from within the very center of this dying decay that I love so much all sound and in you.

With great sympathy and affection,
Jacob Sudol

Originally posted by Jacob Sudol from Jacob Sudol, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Wikidemia

Originally from ionarts, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Marco Lucchi - several albums

Marco Lucchi is an Italian composer and multimedia artist. He creates avant-garde compositions that leans toward ambient and new age. They often incorporate other forms of media and border on the theatrical. There are three excellent online albums available, all showing different aspects of his art.

The first album is mysteriously titled I found an - Insoluble, Indefinite Ear. The 75 minute single track features Marco on electronics and his son, Dario, on french horn. It is a haunting but slow moving piece full of repetition. There’s a sample dialoque from the film Blue Velvet that sets up the title and theme. The piece is very meditative and works best with a restlful but attentive listen.

Tantra à L’usage Des Anges is a multi-media work recorded live in 1999. It is an electroacoustic work with the emphasis clearly on acoustic. Marco is on electronics, keyboard and other instruments but the performance includes a variety of musicians, dancers, and visual projections. Of course, this album provides only the audio portion but it works very well on its own. It is a beautiful new age sounding composition and very different than the previous mentioned album. Lyricism and structure blends perfectly in the opening track. Readings from the poems of Jean Michel Maulpoix are interspersed throughout and sets the tone for the performances.

Radure 3: Oltreumano is attributed to “Various Artists” but I have included it here since the work is a multimedia project curated and compiled by Lucchi. Again this is only the audio portion although you can also download a series of videos related to the performance. Asides from Lucchi, the artists involved are Aaron Ximm, Urkuma, Steve Layton, Claudio Rocchi, and Alex Young. Each track has its own magic with most of the sounds being intense and dark. Ximm’s opening track. “Dukka” is complex and mesmerizing. Layton’s “Alberti” has a gritty urban feel while “Sky and Sand” harks back to the electronic experiments of the 60s. Marco’s contributions, “Aquarium” and “The Tide”, are quite haunting. The short films that accompany “The Tide” are included but I have not viewed them. The other tracks are all excellent and add to the magical soundscapes that makes this album. The actual performance must has been incredible but we will have to make do with this superlative audio document.

Ear and Tantra are available as full album zip or separate tracks in 128kbps MP3 while Radure 3’s tracks are in varying bitrates.

Download
I Found An- Insoluble, Indefinite - ear
Tantra à L’usage Des Anges
Radure 3: Oltreumano

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Love-Hate Relationship

The main topic was about mapping musicians' musical tastes to their politics, but what caught my eye was Kyle Gann's great tip for composers: This is the stuff that lowers your standards, induces complacency, encourages mindless imitation, and generally rots your brain.

Originally from Fredösphere, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Wordless Music: Glenn Kotche, Nels Cline, Jenny Lin, Elliott Sharp @ GSF

Originally from Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

An Ensemble Possessed by the Spirit of Schoenberg

Steve Smith, New York Times, 9/20/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

Grey cells dig music lessons, scans show

Mike Oliveira, Globe And Mail, 9/20/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

An Overheard Conversation Concerning Musical Taste

Chadwick Jenkins, Pop Matters, 9/20/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

Music training boosts the brain

BBC , 9/20/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

What to Wear in LA

Michael Gordon’s new post-rock opera What To Wear opens tonight at the Redcat Theater in downtown LA.   Richard Foreman wrote the libretto and directs the stage production.

According to our sources (Michael, who “guarantees a good time will be had by all”), What to Wear is a raucous and bitingly funny work about fashion. There are 4 main characters (all called Madeline X) and 2 ducks,
a small one and a big one. There are ten singers, ten actors and 7 musicians all under the musical direction of David Rosenboom.

“What to Wear postulates a world in which military tanks and nightmare toy ducks take turns threatening  would-be fashion models, who are trying to escape reality by dressing in bizarre outfits that semi-disguise them as lost children who never found out how to be lovable,” Gordon explains, helpfully.  “They inhabit a large red room, dominated by four giant images of colorful abstract demons, suggesting that whatever one does finally wear, worse nightmares will eventually turn even the most riotous party inside out. They sing again and again, ‘I am Madeline X, beautifully dressed’. But as everyone on-stage turns less and less beautiful– something more ecstatic than beauty slowly reveals its awesome 21st century face.”

Whatever.

The Recat Theater is CalArts’ downtown center for innovative visual, performing and media arts and is located in the Walt Disney Concert Hall.   What To Wear runs through October 1

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Last Night in L.A.: Gloria Cheng and friends

Gloria Cheng opened the season of serious music-listening in her position as opener of the Piano Spheres series of concerts.  The program was oriented the program to two-musicians works, and there was a gracious lead-in to the guest appearance to be given by Thomas Ades in December, with performances of two of his early works.

Cheng began the concert with Ades’s Opus 7, “Still Sorrowing” (1992-1993), written at age 21.  This is a more restrained work than many of his, with the prepared piano dampening the middle range of the piano, creating a hollowness to support its feeling of loss.  The middle work of the second half of the concert was Ades’s Opus 8, “Life Story” (1993) in its version for soprano and piano; Angela Blue was our excellent singer last night.  The work is a setting of the Tennessee Williams poem (1956) of two strangers having had their first one-night stand; I wondered how the poem escaped the attention of composers before Ades.  Ades gives the soprano (with one minor exception the words work fine for a woman singing about a man) a yawning, boozy, blues-y melody, up to the sting in the tail of the last line.  Amazon has a great CD, at bargain price, with Ades at the piano; the CD includes seven of his early works, and clips are available.

Completing the first half of the concert were two major works for piano duet.  Cheng was joined by Robert Winter – UCLA professor, Philharmonic lecturer, interactive CD developer — for Beethoven’s four-hand version of the “Grosse Fuge”.  The two made things easy by using two pianos, which avoided developing the choreography for whose arm would be where, but I didn’t find the performance especially persuasive. 

She was then joined by Neal Stulberg — currently director of orchestral studies at UCLA and a former recipient of the Seaver/NEA Conductors Award — for a performance of “Variations on a Theme by Beethoven” by Camille Saint-Saens.  We seemed to be in a salon in Paris while this was being performed. To replace a premiere which was withdrawn because the work wasn’t ready, Cheng substituted a work written for her, two movements, rather.  Two years ago, she gave the premiere of “Seven Memorials” (2004) by Stephen Andrew Taylor, now at the University of Illinois.  This is an excellent work; the NY Times music critic called it “sparklingly tactile” in reviewing Cheng’s performance of four of the movements at Tanglewood in August.  Last night Cheng played the fifth and sixth movements; excerpts of the music are available here, from Cheng’s performance of 2004.

For the rousing conclusion, Cheng was joined on the second piano by Grant Gershon, now in his sixth year as Music Director of the Los Angeles Master Chorale.  The two gave us a work written for them, which they premiered at Getty Center, “Hallelujah Junction” (1998) by John Adams.  I am an unabashed fan of this work.  It belongs in your music collections.

A good concert!  (And the attendance was about the largest I’ve ever seen there.)

Originally posted by JerryZ from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Prof. McJeebie Quoted in The Times

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Listening Horizontally

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

eMusic to departing subscribers: We won’t forget you (not)

Harald Walker wrote me to note that eMusic seems to have changed its past policies regarding how it treats departing subscribers:

Maybe something new from eMusic. As far as I know it has been possible in the past to stop the paid subscription for a while and activate it many months later without loosing your account data, which is important if you have to download tracks again (if eMusic still has them) and if you want to keep your lists. …

At least that’s how it was in 12/2003 when I stopped for while.

As it happens, I did the exact same thing: I initially subscribed to eMusic in June 2002, cancelled my subscription in December 2004 (because I was having trouble finding enough new music worth downloading) and then resubscribed in June 2005 (just over six months later) with all my account information restored to the state it was at prior to my cancellation.

Now eMusic gives departing subscribers a 60-day grace period after they cancel service, after which it deletes all their account information; from the current message eMusic is sending upon cancellation:

Your eMusic … subscription has been cancelled and will expire at the end of your current billing cycle. Your profile data and download history will be deleted from our records in 60 days unless you reactivate your account within that timeframe.

Because eMusic provides DRM-free MP3 tracks, departing subscribers still retain all the music they downloaded prior to cancelling; at worst they’ll now lose the ability to redownload tracks from eMusic should they ever resubscribe past the 60-day window. That ability was and is a convenient way to replace any tracks a subscriber might have lost to due to a hard drive failure or accidental deletion.

(However note that such redownloading is not a true substitute for backing up your eMusic MP3 collection, because you can’t redownload tracks that have been pulled from eMusic by their labels. Again, this happened to me: I deliberately deleted some Butchies albums from my collection, regretted it later, and then found that the albums in question were no longer available on eMusic.)

eMusic’s retaining subscriber profile information indefinitely also meant that returning subscribers would find all their save for later choices intact, as well as any album and track lists that they might have published for others to view. Subscribers posting on the eMusic message boards could also come back and participate in discussions under the same nickname, as if nothing had happened in the interim.

Although this policy change is a net loss from the point of view of eMusic subscribers, I have to say that I’m sympathetic to eMusic’s position in this matter. The problem from eMusic’s point of view is that some subscribers were apparently deliberately dipping in and out of the service: They would subscribe for a few months, downloading their full quotas each month, cancel their service, resubscribe a few months later when they felt like downloading more tracks, and then repeat the whole process. If enough people did this then it would mess up eMusic’s business model, which depends on the average subscriber not downloading their full quota each month.

Thus eMusic has made what I think is a reasonable compromise: If you cancel and regret it soon thereafter, you can come back within 60 days and be treated like the prodigal son. After that time it’s hey, I don’t think I know you and you have to start afresh just as if you were an eMusic n00b.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Adam Baratz - From "Hovenweep"

Adam Baratz - From "Hovenweep"
First of four songs from the Kenneth Patchen cycle "Four Affections." http://formcontent.blogspot.com

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Adam Baratz - "The Snow is Deep on the Ground"

Adam Baratz - "The Snow is Deep on the Ground"
Second of four songs from the Kenneth Patchen cycle "Four Affections." http://formcontent.blogspot.com

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Adam Baratz - Geography of Music

Adam Baratz - Geography of Music
Fourth and final song from the Kenneth Patchen cycle "Four Affections." http://formcontent.blogspot.com

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Adam Baratz - "I'd Want Her Eyes to Fill With Wonder"

Adam Baratz - "I'd Want Her Eyes to Fill With Wonder"
Third of four songs from the Kenneth Patchen cycle "Four Affections." http://formcontent.blogspot.com

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Jeff Harrington - Piano Sonata #3

Jeff Harrington - Piano Sonata #3
New large scale piano piece. http://jeffharrington.org

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Bitter chill.

I never had a chance to sound off about last week's Celtic Frost reunion tour stop at B.B. King's on Thursday night...and wasn't sure how much I ought to say, anyway, given that thanks to a miscommunication, I only caught roughly the last half of the show. Thankfully, pretty much everything I might have wanted to say has been covered by my pal Elisabeth Vincentelli -- Time Out New York arts czar, and the most broadly cultured person I know -- over on her blog, The Determined Dilettante. Her post-concert wrap-up is vivid and detailed, and includes coverage of opening act 1349, which I missed altogether.

The fact that Celtic Frost, one of the most influential bands in modern metal, is back at all is fairly amazing. That the rejuvenated group also managed to issue one of the year's strongest metal releases, Monotheist (on Century Media), is nothing short of astonishing. The disc kicked my head in the very first time I heard it, and I'm still finding new things in it with every spin. It's less ornate and experimental than the quirky masterpieces of the band's late-'80s heyday (To Mega Therion and Into the Pandemonium), but it's unquestionably worthy of sitting beside those hallowed discs.

Monotheist presented a new sound for Celtic Frost: a massively downtuned, lurching grind, bleak and desolate. But what I wasn't prepared for when I entered the club was the physical force of that sound: It wasn't overbearingly loud by any means, but it was dense, and hit you somewhere squarely in the sternum. Elisabeth is quite right when she says that the currently in-vogue low-end posse on the Southern Lord label -- Sunn O))), Boris and the like, all of whom I admire -- has nothing on Celtic Frost circa-now. And I love the way that "Ground," the titanic dirge that serves as the album's defining moment, put her in mind of Hannibal crossing the Alps!

The ponderous disc-closer, "Synagoga Satanae," was somehow even more impressive live than it had been on CD. And more adventurous, as well -- there was actually a stretch in which the guitars completely escaped their "guitar"-ness, coughing up instead a grey buzz of between-the-channels static the likes of which you rarely hear outside the rarefied domain of electro-acoustic improv -- only here, you could headbang to it without embarassment. (Which, y'know, I did.)

Stepping back a minute, I interviewed the band's two protagonists, guitarist-vocalist Thomas Gabriel Fischer (formerly Tom G. Warrior) and bassist Martin Eric Ain, back in late spring, for a piece that ran in TONY when Monotheist was released. Both were erudite and forthcoming; otherwise, their characters couldn't have been more different. Ain sprawled on an armchair next to me in a small East Side apartment rented for a few days of press, sleep-rumpled and crunching breakfast cereal. Relaxed and easygoing, he spoke freely and at length about his political and spiritual beliefs, all of which filtered into the album (and none of which ended up in my piece).

Fischer, on the other hand, was tightly wound to an extent I'd never witnessed: what you see in the photo above is essentially what faced me across a coffee table, minus the kohl, and many of the entries on his blog confirm that this is no put-on for the press. A favorite entry, which Elisabeth also quoted, refers to the then-upcoming American dates:

Finally we will be able again to convey the dusk of our musical processions to the masses that have been deprived of sufficient morbidity for so long. They shall never forget.

Polite but intense, Fischer answered questions in clipped, exacting phrases; more than once his response was prefaced by the suggestion that the question could have been better phrased in some other way. He doesn't dispute the fact that this once-mighty band lost its way perilously during a brief, ill-advised glam phase at the end of the '80s, and he's clearly on his guard. (There was, in fact, one light moment, when Fischer paused mid-phrase to make sure his eyeliner wasn't trapped in the bathroom when the label publicist stepped in to take a quick shower.) Still, to see this important and influential band receiving its due once more is a thrill I'm glad I'm around to witness.

Celtic Frost hits Chicago on Saturday night, and Time Out Chicago music editor Antonia Simigis (who doesn't get to update Aural Fixations nearly as often as we'd like) has set the stage with a terrific article on the band -- she captures the voices of Fischer and Ain precisely as I remember them, but covers some altogether different topical terrain. Horns up!

=====

While I'm handing out accolades to my Time Out colleagues -- and really, I do feel blessed to be interacting daily with this bunch -- I'll direct you to coverage of a major event that pretty much slipped under the radar in the New York City media, since it took place way out in the wilderness of Montclair, New Jersey, under the aegis of the often stunningly adventurous Peak Performances series at Montclair State University. TONY theater editor David Cote has blogged a valuable report on The Difficulty of Crossing a Field, a new multimedia opera by Bang on a Can composer David Lang and librettist Mac Wellman, produced by Bob McGrath's Ridge Theater with video projections by Laurie Olinder and film by Bill Morrison. I was sorry to have missed this production, and I'm even sorrier now -- although, as David notes, a fuller production in New York City certainly seems likely. Nicely done.

Playlist:

Tangerine Dream - Essential (Caroline)

Isis - In the Absence of Truth (Ipecac; out Oct. 31), Clearing the Eye (Ipecac DVD; out Sept. 26) and Celestial (Escape Artist)

Mikel Rouse - The End of Cinematics (DVD-R demo)

Richard Wagner - Tristan und Isolde - Christine Brewer, Dagmar Peckova, John Treleaven, Boaz Daniel, Peter Rose, Apollo Voices, BBC Symphony Orchestra / Donald Runnicles (Warner Classics)

Christian Wolff - Ten Exercises (New World)

Keith Rowe and Toshimaru Nakamura - between (Erstwhile)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

It's All Relative

How do nonspecialists differentiate between composers and contemporary music?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

Aggregates

The term aggregate is used in two ways by musicians. The first, associated with Cage and Harrison, but probably coming from Cowell and Seeger, indicates an ensemble or complex of tones, articulated together. In Cage's music, the complex tones of the prepared piano lead directly - and explicitly so in the Concerto for Prepared Piano and Chamber Orchestra - to the use of collections, or gamuts,

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

Doctor Atomic (2005). John Adams /unreasonable expectations/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 21, 2006 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

September 20, 2006

New Piece - Piano Sonata #3

I've finished my first big piano piece since DeltaBandResonator! It's a real monster of a piece, employing new Lisztian effects, chromatic scales and lots of dissonances which seemingly create a microtonal musical environment similar to Marteau-Pilon. It also shares many of the huge pounding effects and primitivist inclinations of that last piece. While I'm still searching for a title for it, I decided not to delay putting the piece up for lack of a creative title and instead lump BlueStrider, DeltaBandResonator and this piece together as Sonatas - meaning large piano pieces. The score should be up shortly... Piano Sonata #3 - Synthesized Realization

Originally posted by jeff from The Music of Jeff Harrington, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 03:04 PM | Comments (0)

last night, mr. t's bowl 081706

it was an epic show last night. everything came off well, bruce gallego had his first show and is the agressive guitarist that we have been looking for. sean and matt sitting in for the night was a ni...

Originally from paul bailey ensemble - MySpace Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

Class Act

Last September, I reviewed a concert of the Tallahassee Symphony Orhcestra that included a performance of two movements from John Mackey's Percussion Concerto, performed by John Parks. Through the wonders of the messaging system at Classical Lounge I received this note from Mr. Mackey (quoted with his permission): I just realized how I recognized your name. You're the critic who once called one

Originally from listen., ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Mp3 Blog #26: The Viola of My Life...

Morton Feldman:
”Viola of My Life II” (1970)
For Viola, Flute, Clarinet, Percussion, Celesta, Violin, and Cello
Performed by Karen Phillips, Paula Robison, Arthur Bloom, Raymond DesRoches, David Tudor, Anahid Ajemian, and Seymour Barab

Another version is available on this disc compact disc featuring the Ensemble Recherche

”Rothko Chapel: I” (1971)
For Viola, Percussion, Celesta, Soprano, Alto, and Chorus
Performed by William Winant, Deborah Dietrich, Karen Rosenak, and David Abel

Available on this compact disc featuring the complete “Rothko Chapel”

* * * * *

My Dearest Piano,

You were my original love. When young, I promised to always love you first and foremost. Because of that, it pains me greatly to tell you I have a confession to make – I have fallen in love with another. Although I do promise that I will never stop loving you or fully lose my dedication to you, I cannot deny the sensual power that draws me to this other as much as, if not at times, more strongly than I am drawn to you.

Her name is the Viola. While you have the ability to express with more dynamic force than an entire orchestra, she is brittle and easily overwhelmed. While you can produce notes of equal beauty within a tessitura unsurpassed by any other instrument, she can barely sing beyond three octaves. While countless composers and performers have stretched your virtuosic prowess, she remains steady and has injured most who have tried to surpass her limits. And, furthermore, while you are grand and bear a formidable presence, she is delicate and can seduce with only one note.

I cannot explain this passion that I feel for the Viola. I am sure that to you –since she seems the exact opposite of you in every way – that you cannot understand how, after declaring my undying dedication to you, I could fall for an object so unworthy. I have struggled many long hours and sleepless nights trying to answer this very question and despite this I fear I cannot offer you an answer that will assuage your hurt questioning longing anymore than I stop loving her.

Possibly – and I say this to be honest rather than hurtful – while everything you say is destined to only exist sound as a glorious resonating decay, Viola seems to speak brittlely and more profoundly from within the very center of this dying decay that I love so much all sound and in you.

With great sympathy and affection,
Jacob Sudol

Originally posted by Jacob Sudol from Jacob Sudol, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Le Nozze di Barney

Mathew Barney has left the building.

Last week, several of my friends made pilgrimages to SFMOMA to take in Drawing Restraint before it closed on Sunday. Now the jury is all in, and I remain one of the very few people I know who found merit in the film but not in the [ahem, superfluous] exhibit. Scenes and sequences from the film run through my mind even months after seeing it, and I do appreciate a work of art that is able to transcend my momentary experience of it. Is Drawing Restraint 9 innovative in terms of storytelling or in its presentation of character, plot or theme? No. Is it a cinematographic wunderkind notable for its form, score, editing or effects? No. It poses as Epic Grandeur but, more simply, is a souvenir from a trip to Matthew Barney's dreamworld. Yes, I think it is helpful to consider Drawing Restraint 9 as a token gesture and not as a tour de force.

When presented as high art, the personal and private realm of dreams is sometimes unconvincing to a wide audience. We are quick to be curious and analyze (Björk in her bath of lemons, the Lilliputian door-near-the-floor through which the overclothed guests must go) but just as quick to dismiss it all as fun and fantasy. Barney's work unfolds like a dream, full of striking images that seem fraught with symbolism, but it is also a formal explication of being bound (er, drawn) together...of consummation and its consequential power to set free. It is a dream presented as a manifesto, and that's what I think is difficult for its detractors: DR9 documents Björk and Barney, two practically superhuman personas, in a very public and personal declaration of unification, and maybe that, in the form of a big-budget art film, puts some people off.

The film reminds me of those enormous, weighty, leather-bound tomes one is likely to find on the coffee table of many a sweetly married couple. The albums are ridiculous, revealing indulgence and frivolity and (in the most interesting cases) cultural symbols and actions taken quite out of context. Sometimes the appropriations are blatant (a huppah of Tibetan flags held above a couple as they share the communion cup, for example) but rarely do we ever pull out the political correctness megaphone and criticize the absurd details of our friend's and acquaintance's "big day." After all, a wedding is about two people's blissfully narcissistic vision of themselves as a ceremony, and we tend to accept that vision whether or not it aligns with our own personal tastes. I viewed Drawing Restraint 9 as a voyeuristic peek into two people's wedding album, and I happened to like their personal tastes (from setting and location, props and costume, to cultural and ritual action) very much.

As a beautiful dream and formal ceremonial statement, and nothing more, DR9 works for me. But I can also understand why those qualities might not appeal to everyone.

Originally from in the wings, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Shostakovich: He had his dark, anguished side - but he loved women and vodka too

Ed Vulliamy , Guardian Unlimited, 9/19/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

György Kurtág: Master of the finely wrought fragment

David Murray, Financial Times, 9/19/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Wire's 100 Records That Set the World On Fire

Originally from Classical Connection, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

News Flash: Zorn is a Genius

John Zorn is officially a genuis.   The 53-year-old composer, improviser, saxophonist, provocateur, and ardent promoter of experimental music through his Tzadik recording label, was one of 25 new MacArthur Fellows named today.  Like his fellow honorees, Zorn will receive $500,000 in “no strings attached” support over the next five years.  Unlike most other awards, MacArthur winners don’t apply but are picked by a secret committee of “experts.”  One day you get phone call that says you don’t have to worry about next month’s rent. 

The award notes that Zorn is a “largely self-taught artist who, since the mid-1970s, has been at the center of what has come to be called “downtown” music, based on his residence and collaborations in lower Manhattan.”

Speaking for the S21 community (always a dangerous thing to do), let me offer a hearty “Nice going, Johnny.”

Speaking of genius, Christina Fong posted some thoughts on that very subject a few days ago.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

eMusic’s positioning: It’s just iTunes and us

Yesterday I happened to read a blog post from Paul Kedrovsky containing some sage advice for companies competing in new markets: declare victory early and often. To quote him:

… many markets are tippy — they want there to be a market leader — so you can self-servingly help things along by declaring your firm to be the chosen one.

It strikes me that that is what eMusic has been trying to do, and with some success. Of course eMusic can’t declare itself to be the overall market leader in digital music–that title being reserved for Apple–but what eMusic has done is to unilaterally declare itself to be the world’s largest digital retailer of independent music and (more important) number two behind Apple in the overall digital music market, outpacing Napster, Rhapsody, and the rest. Some interesting points about this strategy:

First, while it’s repeated uncritically by many people (including me, I’m sorry to say), eMusic’s claim to be number two is somewhat qualified. In conjunction with a press release on April 12, 2006, eMusic first claimed that

eMusic (http://www.emusic.com) is the world’s leading digital retailer of independent music, and the #2 digital music service overall, second only to iTunes in number of downloads sold.

Beginning with the next press release on April 24 this was shortened to the following statement, used in all subsequent press releases:

eMusic (http://www.emusic.com) is the world’s leading digital retailer of independent music, second only to iTunes in number of downloads sold.

Note carefully that eMusic is not currently claiming to be the #2 digital music service overall, instead they are simply claiming to have sold more music downloads than any other service except for the iTunes Store. This claim appears to be based on a market share study done by the NPD Group showing eMusic to be #2 in market share behind Apple. This study has been widely reported in the press (most notably in a USA Today story on eMusic), but details about it are hard to come by; in particular it’s not clear exactly what was measured in the study and, assuming that the study measured paid downloads, how that term was defined.

Based on other factors I’m guessing that downloads in this context refers to downloaded tracks that can be burned to CDs, and excludes so-called tethered downloads that are restricted by DRM schemes to be playable on a PC or digital music device only while a subscription is active. If so, this goes a long way to explain the results of the study, as both the iTunes Store and eMusic sell only burnable downloads, while other services like Napster and Rhapsody deal primarily in tethered downloads, with burnable downloads being an optional purchase.

Note that eMusic is not in the #2 position based on either number of subscribers or total revenue. The most recent figures I can find (quoted in a Financial Times article, among others) have eMusic at 200,000 subscribers, which would put eMusic’s yearly revenue at $25-50M, depending on the mix of subscribers on the different price plans. By contrast, as noted at Digital Audio Insider, Napster has over 600,000 subscribers and almost $100M a year in revenue. (Actually these numbers are outdated; Napster’s most recent SEC filing shows it with a revenue run rate of over $110M per year.) However most of Napster’s revenue is presumably from its Napster and Napster To Go subscription service for tethered downloads, as opposed to sales of burnable downloads.

Second, eMusic masterfully used the hype around the recent Apple announcements to advance its strategy of being Avis to Apple’s Hertz. Although eMusic launched its European service over a month ago, it waited to formally announce it until just before Apple Showtime event, at a time when the press was in a frenzy about Apple, iPods, iTunes, and digital music in general, but didn’t yet have any actual Apple-related news to report. eMusic managed to get substantial press coverage for its launch, with most stories picking up on the theme that eMusic’s offerings are compatible with iPods, and thus eMusic was a viable alternative–really the only viable alternative–to the iTunes Store for iPod users wanting a choice of digital music services. And since (as we all know) the iPod is the only digital music device worth mentioning, that means (according to the eMusic script) that eMusic is the only alternative to the iTunes Store, period.

As David Pakman was quoted as saying (in an MP3.com article), The monopoly of iTunes in Europe is over. As he didn’t say (but may have wanted to), Napster and Rhapsody are history. Zune won’t be a factor. From here on out it’s just Apple and eMusic.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Spellbound radio 8/27/06 hr 2

Spellbound radio 8/27/06 hr 2
Spellbound radio 8/27/06 hr 2 - Purple Note Radio Network - Spellbound, a brief program of
From Podcast: Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Spellbound radio 8/27/06 hr 1

Spellbound radio 8/27/06 hr 1
Spellbound radio 8/27/06 hr 1 - Purple Note Radio Network - Spellbound, music for theremin
From Podcast: Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Dreaming of Thelonious in Philadelphia...Miles Davis/John Coltrane, Bill Evans/Jim Hall, Herbie Nichols... and Thelonious Monk...

First up: some Coltrane and Miles. This is 'All Blues' taken from a (bootleg) Stockholm concert in 1960. The loping see-sawing swing of this tune is introduced on bass, the piano rippling, Cobb firm on 6/8 – then Miles stating the theme on that smoking muted sear. The beginning of this track is so archetypal, it's embedded deep in the collective jazz subconscious... Miles switches to open

Originally from wordsandmusic, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Weekend engagement.

Dr. L.P. admires her newly bedazzled digit, Sunday, Sept. 17 in Richmond, VA.

(Ring designed and created by Adel Chefridi.)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

The invisible man.

Ensemble XX. Jahrhundert at the Austrian Cultural Forum
The New York Times, September 20, 2006

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

More reviews from AAJ

20-Sep-06 Myra Melford Be Bread
The Image of Your Body (Cryptogramophone)
19-Sep-06 Nels Cline
New Monastery: A View Into The Music of Andrew Hill (Cryptogramophone)
19-Sep-06 Rahsaan Roland Kirk
Brotherman to the Fatherland (Hyena Records)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

The Stone in October

One of New York’s best venues has posted their October Calendar:

October 2006 at the Stone curated by Ayaka Nishina / Mike Patton / R. Nemo Hill (mondays)

MONDAYS in OCTOBER
R. NEMO HILL presents ACTIVE INGREDIENTS
Five Evenings of radical poetry, performance and music at the Stone.

10/1 Sunday
8 pm
..::TheAirBand::..
Jennifer Stock, Langdon C. Crawford, Laura M. Sinnott, William David Fastenow
..::TheAirBand::.. gets its name from the first instrument built for the band. The midi air guitar was designed to allow an air guitarist to actually control the music(s) he was playing. Over time controls became refined and simultaneously diversified. New gestures and sounds were added to create instruments such as; air drums, motion-synthesizer and shaky shaky. Eventually an ensemble took hold of these instruments, wrote music for them and formed..::TheAirBand::.www.theairband.com

10 pm
Spanish Force
Russell Silber, Sergio Napaletano, and Justin Marino and special guests
During the performance, each musician of Spanish Force will switch between drums, guitars, electric bass, keyboards, synthesizers, mandolin, melodica, in no particular order.

10/2 Monday
8 pm
When Poets Attack
Jane Omerod, Jee Leong Paco and Thomas Fucaloro (poets)
Reading their own work and what just might be the world premier of the duet WHEN POETS ATTACK.

10/3 Tuesday
8 pm
smop()
Brendan Adamson, Derek Muro, Kyle Hillbrand (electronics)
NYC’s electronic music trio smop() unleashes their arsenal of gadgetry, including vintage video gaming hardware both for control and synthesis of music; this performance will feature various game controllers, a live Nintendo Entertainment System and more.

10 pm
Kathleen Supové
Kathleen Supové (piano)
Kathleen Supové is one of America’s most acclaimed and versatile contemporary music pianists, known for continually redefining what it means to be a pianist/keyboardist/performance artist in today’s world. Her program will include selections from INNER CITIES by Alvin Curran and a concert theater work SUTRA SUTRA by Randall Woolf/Valeria Vasilevski. www.supove.com / myspace.com/supove

10/4 Wednesday
8 pm
Jody Redhage
Jody Redhage (cello/vocal)
Cellist/composer/vocalist Jody Redhage presents works from her upcoming CD, “All Summer in a Day,” a collection of commissions for her voice and cello. Works performed will include compositions by talented emerging composers Judd Greenstein, Paula Matthusen, and a world premiere by Anna Clyne. www.jodyredhage.com

10 pm
Daisy Press
Daisy Press (soprano) and special guests
A New York-based soprano, Daisy Press specializes in contemporary music. She will perform “Socrate” by Erik Satie and music of composers who were directly inspired by this piece.

10/5 Thursday
8 pm
Satori
Eliot Gattegno (saxophone) Richie Barshay (percussion)
The program will include improvisations on the music of Berio and Scelsi. www.eliotgattegno.com

10 pm
Views of Complexity
Second Instrumental Unit—David Fulmer, Eliot Gattegno (directors)
www.secondinstrumentalunit.com

10/6 Friday
8 and 10 pm
John Zorn’s Improv Night-A Stone Benefit
John Zorn (sax) Ayaka Nishina (piano) and many special guests
Come support The Stone. TWENTY DOLLARS

10/7 Saturday
8 and 10 pm
Matt Brewer Quartet
Mark Turner (saxophone) Aaron Parks (piano) Rodney Green (drums) Matt Brewer (bass)
www.mattbrewerbass.com

10/8 Sunday
8 pm
The Blueprint Trio
Steve Lehman (saxophone) Matt Brewer (bass) Eric Mcpherson (drums)
www.stevelehman.com / www.ericmcpherson.com

10 pm
Logan Richardson Quartet
Logan Richardson (saxophone) Matt Brewer (bass) Eric Mcpherson (drums) Mike Pinto (vibraphone)

10/9 Monday
8 pm
“I am because my little dog knows me”—texts by Gertrude Stein
Michelle Slater, Jane Omerod, Paco (poets)
PINK MELON JOY and world premier of IDENTITY A POEM—a film by Lei Chou based upon a text by Gertrude Stein starring Bill Rice and Lavinia Co-op, text read by Ulla Dydo, accordion music by Rachelle Garniez.

10/10 Tuesday
8 pm
Introducing Christopher M. Coletti
Christopher M. Coletti (trumpet, Baroque trumpet) and special guests.
The program will include works by Daniel Schnyder, Berio, Honegger, Bernstein, arrangements on music of Piazzolla and more.

10/11 Wednesday
8 pm
Lance Suzuki
Lance Suzuki (flute) Sarah Fuller (harp)
Lance Suzuki, a New York-based flutist, performs with Sarah Fuller, newly appointed Principal Harpist of the Delaware Symphony. The program will include works of Takemitsu, Hovhaness, Nishina, and more!

10 pm
Music of Aleksei Stevens
Aleksei Stevens and friends
Aleksei Stevens is a Brooklyn-based composer of experimental and electro-acoustic music. His pieces combine live instrumental performance, found/recorded sounds, real-time computer interaction, and video.

10/12 Thursday
8 and 10 pm
Red Light New Music
Natascha Diels (flute), Eileen Mack (clarinet), Matt Wright (tenor trombone), David Hanlon (piano), Amie Weiss (Violin), David Broome (piano), Ezra Seltzer (cello), Leonard Straumer (cello), John Popham (cello), Gareth Zehngut (viola). Flexible Music: Tim Ruedeman (soprano saxophone), Haruka Fujii (vibraphone), Dan Lippel (guitar), Eric Huebner (piano).
Red Light New Music, a New York-based contemporary music ensemble, kicks off its season with a double-bill: a composer portrait of Daniel Vezza (8pm) and concert of premieres (10pm) by Christopher Cerrone, A. Vincent Raikhel, Scott Wollschleger, as well as Gérard Grisey’s masterpiece Vortex Temporum, featuring the renowned new music group Flexible Music and the Red Light Ensemble conducted by Ted Hearne. www.redlightnewmusic.org

Ten Dollars for both sets.

10/13 Friday
8 pm
Introducing Victoria Bass
Victoria Bass (cello/vocal)
Victoria Bass is a New York-based cellist/vocalist/actress who specializes in contemporary music. Her program includes music by Ligeti, Bolcom, Lutoslawski, and her new arrangements of music by Handel and Bach in which she sings and plays at the same time. Victoria Bass is currently a member of The Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.

10 pm
Vicarious Consumption
Eliza Fernand (performance art) Lindsey Stormo (voice) Ayaka Nishina (piano)
The performance art of Eliza Fernand combines the reality of our time and place with an abstract and fluctuating surreality. With her costumes, performance objects, and her body; she transforms familiar materials and reference points, leaving the audience with an array of sensations to cling

to. www.elizafernand.org /www.ayakanishina.com

10/14 Saturday
8 pm
Sara Carter Solo
Sarah Carter (cello) and friends
“One of the best cellists of her generation”, Sarah Carter, is an award-winning cellist based in New York. She will perform music of Asian and Asian-American composers such as Yun, Mayzumi, Sheng, Earl Kim and more.

10 pm
Daniel Spiegel
Daniel Spiegel (piano)
An award-wining pianist, Daniel Spiegel, is equally at home as a solo performer and as a collaborative artist, and he has performed extensively in chamber and orchestral ensembles. Spiegel is also deeply committed to the performance of the music of promising young composers, as well as the music of established figures in contemporary music. His program includes the music of Ligeti, Francis, Janacek, Puts, and Dorman. Spiegel is currently a member of the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble.

10/15 Sunday
8 pm
The Attacca Quartet
Amy Schroeder (violin) Keiko Tokunaga (violin) Gillian Gallagher (viola) Andrew Yee (cello)
The program includes; Akira Nishimura String Quartet No. 3 “Avian” / Yaron Zilberman String Quartet #1 / Gyorgy Ligeti String Quartet #1 Metamorposes Nocturnes and more.

10 pm
Evan Parker Solo
Evan Parker (saxophone)
A rare solo appearance by this legend of saxophone improvisation.

10/16 Monday
8 pm
“…like him who strips at sight of the sea…”—texts by St. John Perse
Jee Leong Koh, R. Nemo Hill (poets) Beth Anne Hatton (voice) Ishmael Wallace (piano) Vita Wallace (violin)
Images a Crusoe, op.11 by Louis Durey / Scenes d’Anabase by Paul Bowles / excerpts form Exile

10/17 Tuesday
8 pm
Trevor Dunn and Shelley Burgon
Trevor Dunn (bass) Shelley Burgon (harp)

10 pm
Schemes of Omission
Trevor Dunn (bass) Shelley Burgon (harp) and special guests.

10/18 Wednesday
8 and 10 pm
Jim Thirwell’s Manorexia
Jim Thirwell (laptop) David Cossin (percussion) Felix Fan (cello) and special guests.
North American Premiere from the seminal electronic guru.

10/19 Thursday
8 and 10 pm
Dub Trio and guests
DP Holmes (guitar, keyboards) Stu Brooks (bass, keyboards) Joe Tomino (drums, melodica) and special guests.
Phenomenal live dub tactics and hardcore twists.

10/20 Friday
8 pm
Plotkin / Wyskida
James Plotkin (guitar, vocals) Tim Wyskida (drums)
Chance meeting on a dissecting table…

10 pm
Ben / Chris
Ben Weinman (guitar) Chris Pennie (drums)
World premiere duo from Dillinger Escape Plan masterminds.

10/21 Saturday
8 pm
Ikue Mori and DJ Olive
Ikue Mori (electronics) DJ Olive (turntables)

10 pm
DJ Rob Swift
DJ Rob Swift (turntables)
Special solo set from DMC champion and member of the X-ecutioners.

10/22 Sunday
8 pm
The Narrow Garden
Eyvind Kang (viola) Daphna Mor (recorders, ney) April Centrone (percussion) Doug Wieselman (clarinet)

10 pm
Dying Ground
Eyvind Kang (violin) Kato Hideki (bass) Calvin Weston (drums)

10/23 Monday
8 pm
SENTENCED—sentences from The Unnameable by Samuel Beckett
R. Nemo Hill, Michelle Slater, Thomas Fucaloro, Robert Vasquez (poets)
“the comma will come when I’ll drown for good, then the silence”

10/24 Tuesday
8 pm
Erik Friedlander plays Masada Book Two
Erik Friedlander (cello)

10 pm
Shanir Blumenkranz plays Masada Book Two
Shanir Blumenkranz (oud) Erik Friedlander (cello) Greg Cohen (bass) Satoshi Takeishi (percussion) Cyro Baptista (percussion)

10/25 Wednesday
8 pm
Pramrod Sexena
Jamie Saft and Mr. Dorgon plus special guest “performer”

10 pm
Swami Lateplate—”Doom Jazz”
Jamie Saft (piano) Bobby Previte (drums)

10/26 Thursday
8 pm
END
Charles Pierce (laptop, electronics) Colin Stetson (saxophone) Luca Fadda (trumpet)
Computer exotics.

10 pm
Elysian Fields
Jennifer Charles (voice) Oren Bloedow (guitars)

10/27 Friday
8 pm
Downriver
Gerald Menke (steel guitar) Tim Wyskida (drums) Gabe Katz (bass) Andy Hawkins (double neck and six string guitar)

10 pm
Miho Hatori
Miho Hatori (voice, guitar, percussion) Okkyung Lee (cello) Shelley Burgon (harp) Shanir Blumenkranz) Thomas Bartlett (piano)

10/28 Saturday
8 and 10 pm
Christian Marclay and Zeena Parkins
Christian Marclay (turntables) Zeena Parkins (harp) and special guests.

10/29 Sunday
2 pm
SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL EVENT
Creative Music Workshop
On Sunday, October 29th at 2 pm, the Creative Music Workshop (CMW) will hold their first concert of the 2006-2007 Season at The Stone in Manhattan. The event will feature students and faculty from this new music program. CMW was created and is led by a partnership of five professional NYC jazz musicians: Bob Bowen, Brian Drye, Mike McGinnis, Jacob Sacks, and Khabu Doug Young.

Funds are needed to endow start-up operating expenses and tuition scholarships. Admission is by suggested donation of Fifteen Dollars.

8 pm
Ocrilim
Mick Barr (guitar)
Solo compositions from Orthrelm guitar wizard.

10 pm
William Winant and White Out
Lin Culbertson (electronics) Tom Surgal (percussion) William Winant (percussion)

10/30 Monday
8 pm
The Strange Music of Erich Zann
R. Nemo Hill (poet) and Special Guest
A complete reading of the poem by R. Nemo Hill based upon a short story by H.P. Lovecraft with a musical coda TBA. “I have become a poet I suppose. How strange the gifts tormented life bestows.”

10/31 Tuesday
8 pm
VisionIntoArt (VIA) presents SOUNDS/REMIX
Paola Prestini (electronics) Milica Paranosic (electronics) Nico Muhly (electronics) Roger Bonair-Agard (spoken word) Holter Graham (text) Erik Carlson (violin) Nadia Sirota (viola) Claire Bryant (cello) Richard Mannoia (clarinets) Pablo Rieppi (percussion) Haleh Abghari (vocals)
The evening will include compositions from our newest work Sounds, recently premiered in Milan, and remixed serbian, mexican and popular works.

10 pm
SENSATIONAL
Sensational (voice, etc.)
Rare performance from the avant rap veteran of Jungle Brothers fame.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Zappa Plays Zappa in December

From www.zappa.com:

12-10 Boca Raton, FL: Mizner Amphitheater — Public on-sale 9/29 through Ticketmaster
12-11 Orlando, FL: Hard Rock Live — Public on-sale 9/29 through Tickemaster
12-12 Atlanta, GA: Tabernacle — Public on-sale 9/30 through Ticketmaster
12-13 Louisville, KY: Louisville Palace — Public on-sale 9/29 through Ticketmaster
12-14 St. Louis, MO: The Pageant — Public on-sale 9/29 through Ticketmaster
12-16 Dallas, TX: Nokia Theater — Public on-sale 9/29 through Ticketmaster
12-17 Houston, TX: Verizon Wireless Theater — Public on-sale 9/30 through Ticketmaster
12-18 New Orleans, LA: House of Blues — Public on-sale 9/30 through Ticketmaster
12-20 Vancouver, BC: Orpheum Theater (onsale TBA, will keep you posted)
12-21 Portland, OR: Roseland Theater — Public on-sale 9/29 through Ticketswest.com
12-22 Seattle, WA: Paramount Theater — Public on-sale 9/30 through Ticketmaster
12-30 Cabazon, CA: Key Club @ Morongo — Public on-sale 9/29 through Ticketmaster

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

More on the Zorn MacArthur Fellowship

It is $500,000 total, $100,000 per year for five years. Not bad. Lots of press on Zorn winning his:

New York Sun
PlaybillArts
New York Times

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Live at the Tonic: First Half of October

New York’s Tonic has the usual strong lineup:

Sun, Oct 01
8pm ErstQuake 3: Jeph Jerman, Tim Barnes & Sean Meehan plus Ami Yoshida & Christof Kurzmann plus Sachiko M & English (Bonnie Jones & Joe Foster) plus Phill Niblock & Jason Lescalleet plus Jazkamer (Lasse Marhaug & John Hegre)

Mon, Oct 02
8pm & 10pm Haino Keiji Solo

Tue, Oct 03
8pm Grouper plus Mouthus plus Yellow Swans

Wed, Oct 04
8pm Reno Bo (of the Fame. Mooney Suzuki) plus J. DiMenna plus Grand Mal plus Wild Bees (feat. members of the Adam Green Band)
8:30pm Pure Fire in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Thu, Oct 05
8pm Jupiter One plus Electric Kompany plus Fluttr Effect

Fri, Oct 06
8pm Winterpills plus Tara Jane O’Neil plus Lisa Germano
10pm The Bunker in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Sat, Oct 07
8pm Festival of New Trumpet Music: Thomas Herberer & SSH plus Flex Unger Duo plus Rob Henke & the Washington St. Players
Midnight Services
9pm Shades of Brown: Sight & Sound in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Sun, Oct 08
8pm Festival of New Trumpet Music: Ralph Alessi & the School for Improvisational Music plus David Weiss New Departure Quintet

Mon, Oct 09
8pm Tong Mama: John King, Marco Cappelli, Kato Hideki & Michael J. Schumacher
10pm Reptet

Tue, Oct 10
8pm JOAN AS POLICE WOMAN Solo
9:30pm Prabowo-Indonesian Singers plus Floricultu

Wed, Oct 11
8pm Rob Price with Ellery Eskelin, Trevor Dunn & Jim Black
9:30pm Black Helicopters plus Tall Firs plus Awesome Color
8:30pm Pure Fire in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Thu, Oct 12
8pm Masami Kawaguchi’s New Rock Syndicate plus LSD March plus Bardo Pond

Fri, Oct 13
8pm Melomane
10pm Tom Brosseau plus Nina Nastasia
10pm The Bunker in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Sat, Oct 14
8pm Doveman plus Glen Hansard
9pm Shades of Brown: Sight & Sound in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

AMN Podcast: Art Ensemble of Chicago - Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City

Today’s podcast is from the latest AEOC recording, which is a double-live set from New York.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

The Aesthetics of Survival

The ideas of George Rochberg seem a remarkable prophecy of the polystylism of today's contemporary music landscape, yet Rochberg's own music is sadly neglected and his wrtitings about music alternately provoke irrational vitriol or hyberbole.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Regina Carter and John Zorn Named 2006 MacArthur Fellows

Jazz violinist Regina Carter, 40, and saxophonist, composer, and Tzadik Records founder John Zorn, 53, are among the 25 new MacArthur Fellows named by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation this morning.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Whither concert?

Most of my colleagues seem to be using the word "show" instead of "concert" these days. Hope you can come to my show on Thursday. Doing a show next week at Red Hat. Did a show with Ensemble Modern in Cologne. I suppose it came from playing in clubs and other non-traditional concert halls (in popular music, the word "concert" dates, apparently, as very 1970's/AOR), but it's definitely crossed

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 20, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

September 19, 2006

Interoperability lost, except at eMusic

In a comment to his blog post The strange world of digital music, Nicholas Carr acknowledges the role that Apple’s proprietary DRM scheme has played in fending off competitors to the iPod, but opines that …there’s no reason that you couldn’t have a single DRM standard. Well, yes, and there’s no reason in theory that you couldn’t have a single OS standard. However DRM schemes, like operating systems, are choke points for the respective markets of digital music and IT, and in each case companies are highly motivated to pursue proprietary approaches in the hope that they’ll be the market winners and reap the benefits thereof, including in particular the ability to extract the major portion of the value in that market. Microsoft won that jackpot in IT, and so far Apple has done so in digital music.

As Paul Resnikoff puts it in his Parting Shot column Interoperability Lost,

The music industry–and in particular major labels–have long painted a vision of seamless interoperability, one that would allow flexibility and hassle-free portability. During a recent CTIA roundtable in Los Angeles, executives from Sony BMG, Warner Music, and Universal Music argued that DRM itself isn’t the problem–it’s the lack of communication between the competing systems themselves. …

But with the latest news from RealNetworks, and Microsoft before it, that vision is starting to look like a pipe dream. The reason is that each digital music retailer–whether it be Apple, Microsoft, or RealNetworks–has narrow business interests that run contrary to consumer needs. And as the battle for market share gets more intense, so do the usability restrictions related to each service. Now, each company wants to command a tight relationship with the consumer by building an insular, walled garden.

Resnikoff goes on to argue that this balkanization harms all the digital music stores, including the iTunes Store, because it causes consumer confusion and a reluctance to buy legal music downloads. He neglects to mention that Apple doesn’t care one whit about any harm to the iTunes Store, because Apple makes the vast majority of its revenue and (especially) profits on the iPod, and iPod users primarily get their music from CDs and P2P networks.

The silly situation is that (as I’ve previously written) the labels have a simple way out of the prison Apple has locked them into: stop insisting on DRM schemes, license their releases as DRM-free MP3 tracks, and thus allow any digital music store to sell into the iPod user base, removing Apple’s FairPlay DRM scheme as a choke point. It would be suicidal for Apple to try to protect its position by designing iPods to not play MP3 files; as I noted, MP3 is the one digital music format that Apple doesn’t control but can’t afford not to support.

Of course, in their obsession over controlling their customers the major labels aren’t going to do this, thus leaving it to “upstarts” like eMusic to build a digital music business that works with every device on the market today. There’s no interoperability lost in the world of independent music; it’s a paradise by comparison.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)

Moravec and More at the Contemporary Music Forum

The first Contemporary Music Forum concert of the season got under way last Sunday at the Corcoran Gallery. James Mobberly, Kaija Saariaho, Paul Lansky, and Paul Moravec were featured by Audrey Andrist (piano), Lina Bahn (violin), Tobias Werner (cello), Barry Dove (marimba), and David Jones (bass-/clarinet). Although the concert was not billed as such, it might well have been titled “Introduction to Contemporary Classical Music”… with all works easy on the novice ears, easy on our mood, and suitable even for children.

Most accessible and fun of them was the aptly named Hop, Paul Lansky’s 1993 contribution to the underdeveloped field of silly, toyful [sic!] music scored for marimba and violin. A wonderful example that decidedly modern contemporary classical music can still perform the essential (if not sole) function of all music: entertain. It did that with humor, coy sounds, and clap-along rhythms – but never by pandering. Lisa Bahn and Barry Dove (whose blues playing in the respective section might have been a little ‘too behaved’) were responsible for the warmhearted, immaculate performance.

Opening the concert was Mobberly’s Caution to the Winds, a duet for piano and tape. Recorded and sampled piano sounds (spat back out from what is now, in 2006, a CD player) engaged with Ms. Andrist’s piano playing. It reminds a little of György Kurtág’s Játékok (Games), and the computer sounds betray their 1987 vintage. But whereas the limitations of electronic sound production on a computer in the '80s (perhaps impressive at the time) were soon thereafter an acoustic embarrassment to our ears, they have by now acquired a patina of nostalgia and a humorous twang. In its race against and collaboration with the piano, it becomes a droll affair of (wo-)man vs. machine; a machine that sounds like a cross between R2-D2 and a saloon upright. That the whole thing is rich with musical ideas made it a happier affair, still.

Kaija Saariaho’s Petals, as of late available on CD (see Ionarts review) appeared between the two works as apt contrast. Modern music like Petals (with general, rather than precise instructions to ‘create sounds’, not play certain notes at certain values) often leaves more room for interpretation and alteration as part of the performance than standard repertoire. The live experience is therefore alive… always changing and somewhat unpredictable. This not only adds to the occasion of hearing the music (whether for the first or fifth time), it predestines this kind of music for live performance. Recordings can help us understand such works better – but there is a touch of the silly involved, just like it is both cute and stupid to make a recording of aleatory music.

Other Reviews: Charles T. Downey, Contemporary Music Forum (DCist, September 19)

Whether you hear grinding glaciers, gray stones, and glass pebbles in Petals or something else altogether, it is a highly evocative score. Cellist Tobias Werner – supported by the computerized alterations that shadowed him – made the most of it. An impressive performance that would have deserved to delight more ears than found their way to the Francis and Armand Hammer Auditorium.

Paul Moravec’s Tempest Fantasy (for piano trio and bass-/clarinet) was introduced by the composer himself. It would be failure on the part of the composer not to make a work of that title sound tempestuous and failure on part of the critic to find no other description for it. Alas, Mr. Moravec himself described the opening of the fifth and last movement (Fantasia) so and quoting him is my excuse for not coming up with descriptive prose more purple.

Fantasia, which might well have been titled “Prospero Prevailing,” sums up the Puliter Prize-winning Tempest Fantasy’s first four movements: a spiky-joyous and flighty characterization of Ariel; the melancholic cello that is a lamenting Prospero; the limping dance of Caliban in the third movement (Peter and the Wolf just around the corner). And Sweet Airs, exposed on ‘Ariel’s’ violin and inspired by Caliban’s speech “The Isle is Full of Noises” (III.ii.130–138). G-D-A-E (the violin’s open strings) dominate Ariel, the Prospero cello-theme is prominantly summoned in the Fantasia - but now imbued with the jazzy beat the first movement hinted at. Caliban, a “misshapen monster” (Moravec) is portrayed by David Jones’s bass clarinet. Apt, too – since the description “misshapen monster” equally applies to that absurd-looking instrument... a Three-Mile-Island love-child between a clarinet and a saxophone.

Enough critics have commented on just how splendid (if backwards looking) a work the Tempest Fantasy is (it really is an attractive combination of cogent, sometimes challenging, melodic, lyrical, wild music with fun and high spirits packed into it). I don’t think that either the third or fourth movement would be hurt if they were a tad briefer, but whenever played as impressively as on Sunday (it may be easy on the ears but seems cruelly difficult to play), it is all too easy to see why Terry Teachout has for so long been an ardent champion of Paul Moravec’s music.

Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me that, when I waked, I cried to dream again.n>

Originally from ionarts, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)

Morning Rant

Camille Saint-Saëns: overrated

Benjamin Britten: underrated


(the other half rants somewhat more artistically...)

Originally from in the wings, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Kukkiva Kunnas - two albums

Kukkiva Kunna both entertains and baffles. Their two releases are a intriquing mixture of abstract electronics, the avant-garde, noise, psychedelia, space rock, and perhaps more than a little performance art. It’s actually quite hard to categorize this music so the next best thing is to just sit back and enjoy.

Each album presents a variety of soundscapes. Grand Poodles starts in a spacey mood as sounds zoom through your headphones and a odd organ melody takes the stage. “Thousands and Thousand” is an eerie drone reminiscent of old sci-fi shows. “Amusing Solo” is the most grounded work. It is a great rocker featuring a nice guitar solo. The 14 minutes “Landscape” is essentially a field recording of a rain storm.

Ordem Progresso is even more varied and adventurous. The 14 minute “First Grain of Sand” is the masterpiece of the album. Chimes and electronics start the piece. Distorted voices fade in and out as the piece develops an other worldly quality. Percussive effects, violins, and a myriad of other sounds add to a work of controlled chaos. It is an outstanding musical experience. The rest of the tracks are almost as good with each one having their own feel. “Numerology” surprises as it is a soothing latin track with a quitar solo that teasingly threatens to upset the calm while “Please Me” is heavy meets the cha-cha. “Robert Wasn’t Listening” is another long exploration that is more ambient than the first track. “We’re Moving” may be the second best track, an industrial sounding combination of guitar and electronics. “The last track, “Absolutely Smoking Cigars”, is a nice wrapup evoking visions of Harry Partch and The Residents.

Both albums are available in separate tracks or full album zips in 192kbps MP3.

Download
Grand Poodles
Ordem Progresso

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

From the Vaults

[9/20 update: all download links now work properly]

Well, the metaphorical ones anyway. In reality we're talking more of a drawer. Composers often talk about "top drawer" works or putting their pieces away in a drawer. While we at times exaggerate our accomplishments for professional gain, I can vouch that I have a bona-fide drawer where I keep my completed scores (we composers lead such interesting lives).

I don't know why Kenneth Patchen is so neglected as a poet (...and a novelist...and a visual artist). Emily Dickinson offered a definition for real poetry, something along the lines of that it makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. This is a regular experience when I sit down to read Patchen. His writing is deeply felt in a way that makes you question the clutter in your life, whether the things with which you occupy your time get in the way of living well in the world.

His poetry was set most notably to music by John Cage (a radio play: The City Wears a Slouch Hat). Charles Mingus performed with Patchen, though I don't believe any of their sessions together were recorded (though his work with other improvisers was). There are a few other composers I know of who have worked with his texts.

A couple years ago, I joined this fine bunch by using some of Patchen's poetry for a cycle called Four Affections. There's no elaborate concept to the sequence, just an exploration of different nuances of love. The following performance features Scott Perkins singing and yours truly at the keys. The score is available on request.

I. From Hovenweep
II. "The Snow is Deep on the Ground"
III. "I'd Want Her Eyes to Fill With Wonder"
IV. Geography of Music

Originally from Form/Content, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Mr. The Custom TRS-80

Originally from Classical Pontifications with Professor Heebie McJeebie, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

A Flutist Pushing the Edge to Find a Graceful Resolution

Bernard Holland, New York Times, 9/18/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Was Shostakovich a secret Soviet dissident?

Richard S. Ginell, Los Angeles Times, 9/18/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Event

Tonight (Sept. 19) I will be appearing at a panel on "Critics and the Arts," in the distinguished company of the New Yorker's Joan Acocella, Greil Marcus, Mark Stevens, and Wendy Lesser. It's at Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College, at 7PM.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

NWEAMO Festival Comes to Soho October 6-7

Some exciting news via e-mail today from our old virtual pal Joseph Waters, godfather of NWEAMO (the New West Electro-Acoustic Music Organization).  The NWEAMO Festival is coming to New York on Friday, October 6 and Saturday, October 7 with a program called Pulse: the Influence of Africa — NWEAMO-SoHo 2006 International Festival of Electro-Acoustic Music, which will feature cross-genre works that investigate the influence of Africa on classical music. 

The NWEAMO Festival began in Portland, Oregon eight years ago and has since spread to San Diego, Mexico City, Venice (Italy) and now New York.

EAMO proposes a theme to composers around the world, and invites them to submit their take on it.  The NWEAMO board takes this as a starting point, and the original theme grows and evolves to become a unique event, that could not have been predicted at the onset. 

“This is what makes the festival so fun, despite the months of hard work it takes to bring it off — we really do not know what we will end up with and it is this sense of adventure that keeps us coming back to do this again each year,” Waters says.

The influence of Africa on the development of classical music is the core topic of this year’s cross-genre, cross-continent, cross-equatorial celebration.  Each night has a different feature and each is unique.
Both New York performances will be at The Apple Store in SoHo at 103 Prince Street.  The October 6 program, which begins at 7 pm, features works by Luke Dubois, Dennis Miller, Centrozoon, Brian Knoth and Lukas Ligeti with guest artist Mai Lingani.  This year’s festival is dedicated to Lukas’ father.

The October 7 program begins at 6 pm and includes works by Noah Keesecker, Paula Mathusen, Brad Decker, Meg Schedel/Alison Rootberg, Greg Beyer, Michael Theodore/ Tim Eriksen and SWARMIUS.

NWEAMO says its mission is to forge connections between the composers, performers and lovers of avant garde classical music and the DJs, MCs, guitar-gods, troubadours and gourmets of experimental popular music.  

“When there is no connection, both suffer,” Waters says.  “When classical music does not connect with popular culture, it becomes a music of experts, unable to reflect and contribute meaningfully in the broad marketplace of developing ideas and cultural experimentation. When popular music has no connection and communication with the classical it becomes naive and superficial, untethered to its historical roots and broad cultural underpinnings. A healthy cultural milieu celebrates both.”  

Sounds suspiciously like one of those perfect made-up quotes that you see in press releases.  Better than most, though. 

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

David Crumb

David Crumb
Not R. Not George. But David. These gorgeous sonorities come all the way from the Pacific Northwest and harmonize the world.
http://innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=203
From Podcast: ALIVE AND COMPOSING.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

John Zorn wins MacArthur Fellowship

One of the cooler prizes out there, not to mention the $300,000 - $400,000 that goes along with it.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

AMN Podcast: Nels Cline - New Monastery

Today’s podcast is from Nels Cline’s new CD of interpretations of the work of Andrew Hill.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

iPod fans ’shunning iTunes store’

An article describes how although the iTunes store is popular, a relatively small percentage of files on iPods are from the iTunes store. Consumers apparently prefer DRM-free MP3s found via eMusic, file sharing, or ripping their store-bought CDs.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Bagatellen Reviews

Bagatellen has posted a pair of reviews.

Two by Andy Biskin - 17 Sep 06
Three with some combination of Mattin, Doerner & Capece - 17 Sep 06

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

New Lustmord Release

Lustmord has released a live recording of his June 6th, 2006 concert (6/6/06, get it?)

Vaultworks
Compact Disc H-12

1. Decompression
2. Compassion
3. Congregants Requests 1
4. Lust
5. Congregants Requests 2
6. Destruction
7. Congregants Requests 3
8. Benediction
9. Conclusion

Recorded live at The Center for Inquiry, Los Angeles, June 6 2006. The first Lustmord performance in 25 years. The performance draws on material from various Lustmord albums, melded and blended into new combinations, as well as new material, and improvisation

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

New From New World Records

New World Records has release three CDs this month.

George Antheil
Composer(s): George Antheil
Cat. No.: 80647
Genre: Classical
Description: George Antheil: Piano Concerto No. 2, Serenade No. 2, and Dreams
Philadelphia Virtuosi Chamber Orchestra
Daniel Spalding, conductor
Guy Livingston, piano
A concert pianist and vanguard composer, George Antheil (1900–1959) became known as the “Bad Boy of Music.” The ultimate American in Paris, Antheil was an avant-garde provocateur of the first order who made his name composing iconoclastic compositions: the loudest and brashest classical music of his time. But this album gives us three new performances—two of them world-premiere record… more

David Tudor & Gordon Mumma
Composer(s): David Tudor, Gordon Mumma
Cat. No.: 80651
Genre: Classical
Description: David Tudor: Rainforest
Gordon Mumma: 4 Mographs, 2 sections from Gestures II, and Song Without Words
David Tudor and Gordon Mumma, keyboards and electronics
This historic recording features the first-ever release of the two earliest surviving recordings of David Tudor’s seminal work, Rainforest. Sandwiched in between are six keyboard works by Gordon Mumma in recordings featuring the composer and his close collaborator, Tudor. Together, these works constitute a fascinating and historically important document o… more

Christian Wolff
Composer(s): Christian Wolff
Cat. No.: 80658
Genre: Classical
Description: Christian Wolff: 10 Exercises
Exercises 18 (two versions), 7, 16, 8, 14b, 3, 1, 15, 10 (two versions), 11
Natacha Diels, Garrett List, Larry Polansky, Michael Riessler, Frederic Rzewski, Robyn Schulkowsky, Chiyoko Szlavnics, Christian Wolff.
This marvelous recording of these elusive works features composer-supervised performances by a hand-picked group of renowned new-music exponents.
“Your first encounter with the music of Christian Wolff leaves you with the impression you’ve just heard (or played, or read) something totally strange, … more

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Traveling the Spaceways: The Astro Black and Other Solar Myths

This free event features panels including George Lewis and Thurston Moore.

Correction: Unlike what was stated here earlier, Anthony Braxton will NOT be at this event.

Traveling the Spaceways: The Astro Black and Other Solar Myths
Symposium on Afrofuturism

Art piece reflecting Afrofuturism
Photo from hydeparkart.org
Event Details
When
11/12/2006
10:00 AM - 5:00 PM

Organization
Hyde Park Art Center

Where
5307 S Hyde Park Blvd, Chicago, Illinois 60615-5728

Fee
Free. Open to the Public.

This two day symposium (November 11th & 12th) will explore the impact Afrofuturism has made on American history and visual culture.

The Subject of Afrofuturism has grown in popularity among the academic community over the past decade. Any study of the topic recognizes Sun Ra as one of the prime originators of Afrofuturism.

The treasure trove of material on view in the Hyde Park Art Center exhibition, Pathways to Unkown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn and Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground 1954-68, motivates an international critical discussion linking contemporary cultural production to the transparent ideas in Sun Ra’s body of work.

This Symposium is a collaboration between the University of Chicago and the Hyde Park Art Center. It is co-organized by Travis Jackson, the Associate Professor of Music and Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago, Allison Peters, Director of Exhibitions at the Hyde Park Art Center, and the curators Anthony Elms, John Corbett and Terri Kapsalis.

Panel Discussions

* The Right Place and Right Time:
Several historians of Sun Ra and American culture during the 1950s and 1960s will present the facts of Sun Ra’s Chicago days and the artists with whom he had contact. This discussion will locate Sun Ra’s position in American and Chicago art history and will provide the basis for the discussions of ideas to follow. Speakers will include: George Lewis, Graham Lock, John Szwed, and Robert Campbell.
* Heading Out:
Can a higher consciousness be achieved through sound and aesthetics? This group of contemporary cultural producers will discuss the notion of technology and mental/spiritual progression inherent in Sun Ra’s philosophy and art work. The discussion will uncover the ways artists continue to explore time and (outer) space through new inventions in composition. Speakers will include: Anthony Braxton, Kodwo Echun, James L. Wolf, and Nick Cave, artist and Assistant Professor of Fashion Design at the School of the Art Insitute.
* Aesthetics of Black Postwar Chicago:
There was an air of unrelenting independence about what Saturn Records (Sun Ra’s recording label) was undertaking in the late 1950s, a sense of defiance, a quality of stark separatism and harrowingly singular vision. Like many African American artists of the time, for Sun Ra there was no distinction between the individual person and his art, fashion, or music–it all defined an identity. This panel explores the visualization of Sun Ra’s philosophy and how his visual art–graphics and design–were essential to present a unified message encouraging self-determination. Speakers include: Jackie Stewart, Anthony Elms, Claude Dangerfield, and Hamza Walker.
* The Sun Ra Diaspora: Art After Ra:
The influence of Sun Ra’s aesthetics and philosophy can be seen throughout American visual culture since the 1950s. In the realms of fashion, the media, and art, new technologies and experimentation has brought the ideas of identity exploration, re-invention and therefore cultural empowerment to new forms. Speakers include: Thurston Moore, John Corbett, Mike Kelley, and Malik Gaines.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Dave Holland Interview

The legendary bassist is interviewed.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

AMN Podcast: Myra Melford - Image of Your Body

This track is from Melford’s Be Bread ensemble and has just been released.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

The Right Choice

What makes a good teacher for a young player?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

Looking back at the future

In the twentieth century, one couldn't avoid the notion that things were moving forward, optimistically improving upon all that had gone before, even when going forward meant taking a few cautious steps backward (small is beautiful, food is better when slow, and even music can be renewed). But our present century has begun with a deep pessimism: supplies of vital resources have peaked,

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

Pendulum Music (1968/73). Steve Reich /walls of sound/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 19, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

September 18, 2006

Blame it on Boethius, or, It's all Greek to me

Originally from Narcissistic Plate, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Say what?

"Many young viewers, particularly males in their 20’s, have been stolen away by such lures as the Internet, iPods, the Xbox and opera," TV writer and producer Charlie Hauck, writing in the New York Times.

If that's true, it means that should Peter Gelb devises an Xbox game featuring Salvatore Licitra, the Met's woes should be over.

Tuesday night, the International Contemporary Ensemble opened its seven-concert Fourth ICE Fest at HotHouse, a club open to world and jazz acts normally. Eclectic and without subscribing to any particular dogma, they played Cage, Lindberg, Xenakis, Reich Andriessen and others. Cage's Credo in US alternates between the outbursts of a radio and the outbursts of live musicians. Percussionists David Schotzko and Gregory Beyer navigated the ballet (and, incidentally, this was one of Cage's works that Merce Cunningham choreographed) between their tuned instruments and paint cans with grace, and pianist Phyllis Chen omnivorously devoured the piano part.

Lindberg's early Linea d'Ombra continued the omnivores theme, with each of the four parts doggedly following the others. The bruisingly tight chords and shouted gibberish of the players keep the work teetering between violence and the bizarre humor of a mental asylum.

After a brief pause, ICE executive director and flutist was joined by percussionist Schotzko for their version of Xenakis' Dmaathen. (The original's for oboe.) Xenakis usual brutalism is absent here, for once, traded in for considerably softer-edged playing. Chase and Schotzko traded wispy phrases, that while in Xenakis' unsettled language, still fell like glitter, when they fell at all.

Reich's Different Trains opened the final portion of the concert. It was fine. The musicians didn't lose track of the recorded tracks once. Much as I admire this piece, I wish there was a way to make live performances of it more distinctive. When musicians are enslaved to a machine, spontaneity has a way of disappearing.

On Wednesday night, I skipped the Chicago Symphony playing at Millennium Park with erhu-player Betti Xiang for a night of new piano music at Ravinia. Ravinia has held a summer-long Schumann celebration, with Christopher Maltman singing Dichterliebe, among other concerts. Tonight, the nostalgic, but not not saccharine, Kinderszenen was the focus. (The work is the subject of Ravinia's One Score, One Chicago outreach program.) The festival commissioned thirteen new Kinderszenen from a wide variety of composers. What they created is an inspired new set of piano nocturnes.

Ravinia CEO and president Welz Kauffman played the first two of these, by jazz pianist Ramsey Lewis and Chicago composer Lita Grier. (Kauffman and Jake Heggie were friendly rivals in Bay Area piano competitions in their youths, by the way.) Lewis' was on the order of a jazzy Chopin, while Grier's set the tone for the evening with its strings of soft arpeggios.

Pianists Benjamin Hochberg and Tereza Lee Kirkhum took over from Kauffman after that. I guess a laundry list is the easiest way to review these pieces, none of which was longer than three minutes.

Kenneth Frazelle's Winter Traces used a left hand pattern of rising fifths that stayed just unpredictable enough to become immensely moving. I had tears in my eyes (but I'm a soft touch).

Jake Heggie's All is Calm kept the hands closely together in a songlike piece which gradually became a chiming memory.

What happend in Aaron Jay Kernis' childhood? From Playing Monster, you'd think he'd lived a life of nightmares. The blustery work, which closes in a barrage of double-forearm clusters, could almost be a lost Ligeti etude with its hard-edged rhythms.

Ana Lara turned in a Gaspard-esque work of fleeting gestures in Recuerdoes del poeta.

Josephine Lee, the conductor of the Chicago Children's Choir, wrote a pop song with Rachmaninoff inflections called Faithful.

Ricardo Lorenz, a Chicago composer who deftly weaves Latin elements into his compositions, wrote one of the more abstract works. Child Poet Perfectly Contented in Foreign Lands used dance rhythms, but didn't support them in the left hand. The unmoored result was a pleasant enigma.

Jazz flutist and composer Nicole Mitchell's lovely waltz Dream Deferred lived up to its name by shying away from climaxes as surely they approached. It would've fit in with the Harlem Renaissance, and the minute-long work held its own here.

The Merit School of Music puts its students through the academic and musical wringer, so composers like Kedgrick Pullums aren't huge surprises. But his assured Lost in the Snow, despite its echoes of Tori Amos, is the work of a young composer who has something to say, and is rapidly learning how to say it. The young man has studied piano, oboe, bassoon, clarinet, sax (alto and tenor) flute, and viola, by the way. At least he'll be able to find session work.

Ned Rorem's For Marian borrowed the simplicity and sing-song of his song "I am Rose." Something more should be expected of the major composers in these commissioning projects, I think. But I guess he should be allowed to enjoy his dotage.

Two more quiet works by Jorge Torres Saenz, of Mexico City, and Augusta Read Thomas closed things out. Saenz's starlit Angelus Novus echoed Lara's work, while Thomas' was the least note-y work of hers that I've heard. Play a note. Then pluck another note's string. Wait for the overtones to die away. The Poet Dreams was the subtlest work in a night of mostly quiet works, and if Thomas can incorporate this quietude into her orchestral works, she'll unlock some doors that need opening.

Kirkhum played most of her selections from memory, no mean feat, while Hochman wins the popularity contest for his range of colors. But Kirkhum's intuitive performance of The Poet Dreams was impressive.

Though the program stated otherwise, the two didn't split the performance of Kinderszenen that followed, as Kirkhum played all of them. Currently a student at the Manhattan School of Music, she has a few technical deficiencies (a severly limited range of dynamics, melodic playing with a tendency to die on the vine) that need ironing out, but she has the time to fix that.

If Ravinia has been thinking ahead, they're already planning to publish these works in a collection. Forget publishers' rights; no one's going to get rich off of this. The thirteen new works last a little over half an hour and give pianists a chance to show off their finely graded soft dynamics. Or give students the impetus to play that softly. And heck, I'd like to hear them all again.

Originally posted by MarcGeelhoed from Marc Geelhoed: Deceptively Simple, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Díaz Trio

Review. Tallahassee Democrat, 18 September 2006. Elsewhere, Stirling Newberry offers his perspective on Jay Greenberg, including some parallels with the current political situation.

Originally from listen., ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Sleeeeepy -- and an announcement

Originally from John Mackey's Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Quick NYC trip

The flight to NYC was pleasantly uneventful, begging the obvious question, "why don't I always fly Jet Blue?" I left on time, arrived on time, and got to watch HGTV and eat unlimited snack mix along the way. After my recent experiences with American Airlines, this was inordinately pleasant. (I hate you, American Airlines. Yes, I come back to you on occasion, but it's only to use you, because nobody else flies direct to Dallas. I'll never love you again. Still, I have needs.)

I checked into the hotel -- the Hotel Edison in Midtown. The place was perfectly fine -- clean inside, and with surprisingly pleasant staff -- and the room size was pretty amusing. It was like, open the door, BED. The room is essentially the size of the bed, and you almost have to walk sidestep to get around. It was kind of charming. I wish I'd taken a picture, just so you could see the art on the wall, circa 1982 pastels.

After a shower, I headed uptown for dinner. I stopped first at Lincoln Center, where I went to school, and where I worked for five years. The Juilliard plaza/bridge has been torn down, and I wanted to see the... well, the mess. Not much to see, granted, but from this spot, you used to see a big ol' plaza -- not the street.


(Sorry to interrupt, but I'm having coffee while I write this. The grocery was out of my usual half-and-half yesterday, so I bought organic heavy whipping cream instead. Good lord, this is delicious.)

I walked by my old apartment and saw that it looked exactly the same, although the building recently sold once again. I walked by the Eddie Bauer to see that it's now a Banana Republic (good call, because wow, it's hard to find a Banana Republic these days), and passed one of the old grocery stores to see that it's now completely vacant.

I arrived at John Corigliano's place a few minutes early. Mark was running around trying to prepare a package for FedEx before their shipping deadline that night, so John and I hung out and had some wine. This also gave me a chance to take some pictures of his studio. I'd never seen his Pulitzer before...


I had seen the Oscar before, but this time, it looked so large.


That's a little more normal. I think if I had an Oscar and a Pulitzer, I'd put them side by side, too. Or maybe I'd wear both around my neck all the time.


Why have one Grammy when you can have two? The "table of awards" is pretty awe-inspiring. Two Grammy awards, an Oscar, a Pulitzer, a Grawemeyer, a solid gold medal from Peabody, and several other glass, bronze, and gold awards. I remember when I won an ASCAP Young Composer award, I got a medal roughly the size of a quarter. It was made of aluminum or something, and it said, "Award Winner." It may as well have said "Very Special Boy."


I played John the MIDI recording of "Turning," and he was really kind with his comments, which felt great. I kind of hoped he'd like it, since all of the good parts are big ol' rip offs of his work. I wasn't surprised that his favorite parts were the horn and trombone rips. (Can you say "Circus Maximus?")

We eventually made it to dinner, which was great. The weather was perfect, so we ate outside. I had coq au vin for the first time. Yummy, yummy.


Dessert was a brownie sundae. This picture features said sundae, with John in the background, talking to composer Richard Danielpour, who happened to pass us on the street while we were eating. (Danielpour wasn't the only person to spot Corigliano on the street and stop to talk to him. People seem to recognize this Corigliano dude.)


On Thursday, I met up with Jonathan Newman for lunch. He took me to a great hot dog place. This is Newman's hot dog, bacon-wrapped with avocado and something else weird that I'm forgetting. (Mayo?) It sounded scary, but once I smelled it, I kinda wished I'd ordered the same thing.


Don't get me wrong -- my kraut dogs were perfectly delicious.


And why have fries when you can have tater tots?


Dinner that night was at a great sushi place. I LOVE sushi. This was some kind of Brazilian/sushi hybrid place. One of our rolls had eel, avocado, salmon, cream cheese, and banana. Can't quite describe how yummy this was.


The trip was pretty fast and busy, but fun. It's good to be home. The weather today is freaky-pleasant. It's crystal clear, and there's no wind whatsoever. When it's like this, the reservoir looks like glass. Here's a shot I took this morning from the deck.


This afternoon, AEJ and I are going to the USC Wind Ensemble concert. H. Bob is conducting a new Frank Ticheli piece, "Nitro." Should be a good time.

Originally from John Mackey's Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Dom Minasi - The Vampire's Revenge

Originally from Jazz Thinks, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Raymond Lull

Check out Raymond Lull's site, it's got all sorts of super metaphysical stuff on it, including some great elemental pieces using 31 ET and the BrainWave Generator. I've been wanting to find some stuff on the direct correlations between specific frequencies and the parts of the body. This is an interesting start.

Also check out this list of microtonal music to be sampled online.

Originally from Jazz Thinks, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Krzysztof Kieslowski

On writing "The Decalogue" with Krzysztof Piesiewicz:

We didn't want to adopt the tone of those who praise or condemn, handing out a reward here for the doing of Good and a punishment there for the doing of Evil. Rather, we wished to say: 'We know no more than you. But maybe it is worth investigating the unknown, if only because the very feeling of not knowing is a painful one.'

-Krzysztof Kieslowski 1990

Originally posted by Jacob Sudol from Jacob Sudol, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

The Assassin Tree

Other Articles: Anna Picard, Spare me yet another femme fatale (The Independent, September 3) Paul Driver, Opera: Dark side of the moon (The Times, September 3) Geoff Brown, So much promise, but this tree's fruits fail to nourish (The Times, August 28) Rupert Christiansen, All gong and no dinner (The Telegraph, August 29)

In my Opera Preview for the fall, I mentioned a new Scottish chamber opera by Stuart MacRae, called The Assassin Tree, recently given its Covent Garden premiere. At earlier performances in Edinburgh, Raymond Monnelle gave a very positive review (The Assassin Tree, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, August 29) in The Independent:

At last, a thoroughly successful new Scottish opera. Not that Stuart MacRae's The Assassin Tree is an opera in the normal sense: it's more a piece of music theatre, recalling Britten's church parables and some of the works of Maxwell Davies. Based on the story of the king of the wood in Frazer's The Golden Bough, it epitomises the chemistry of sexual relations in portraying the goddess Diana as a femme fatale, leading men to their deaths as each king-priest is murdered by his successor.

A major part of the success is due to the author of the text, Simon Armitage. The art of the opera librettist is not much in demand nowadays, and as a result many operas are spoilt by clumsy texts, the work of novelists and playwrights. Armitage constructs a neat pattern of action, simple and ingenious, with only four characters (the whole work lasts just over an hour). Relinquishing his usual streetwise style, he elevates the language sufficiently to suggest mythic nobility, without losing familiarity and fluency. There is hardly any true dialogue; the characters sing mainly to themselves.

Tom Service was not as kind in his review (The Assassin Tree, August 28) in The Guardian:

Scored for 15-piece ensemble - the Britten Sinfonia, conducted by Garry Walker - the music has all the intensity and focus of MacRae's recent work, with its ritualistic power and elemental energy, especially in the dissonant fanfare of the opening. The problem is that, in creating the mythical realm of Diana's grove, the human side of the story is lost. MacRae's uncompromising vocal lines are expertly negotiated by the singers, but Armitage's poetic, allusive text is scarcely audible, and the delicate symbolism of the libretto is undermined by its musical treatment. The Assassin Tree is a bold piece of music theatre, but it fails to alchemise the individual elements of its text, music, and staging into a convincing dramatic experience.

See the response by Stuart MacRae (Yes, but ..., September 13) in The Guardian. For more of the composer's point of view on his first opera, see the preview he did with Sarah Jones (Baby-faced assassin, August 20) for The Scotsman. Go to this image gallery for some photographs of the production.

Originally from ionarts, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Gaddafi: Failure or Triumph?

Other Reviews: Michael Church, Not exactly opera, but it makes the perfect PC musical (The Independent, September 8) Warwick Thompson, 'Gaddafi' Premieres at ENO, Raises Questions of Taste, Sanity (Bloomberg News, September 8) Tom Service, Gaddafi: A Living Myth (The Guardian, September 8) Peter Aspden, Clumsy rhyme ruins for me, a daft tale of Tripoli (Financial Times, September 9) Anthony Holden, Ad Libya? No, it's all in the script (The Observer, September 10) Matt Wolf, Nixon revisited in a London lineup alive with history (International Herald Tribune, September 15) Peter Conrad, Loud, lewd and nasty (The New Statesman, September 18)

I had been reading about one of the "operas" in my fall Opera Preview for a while, Gaddafi, which had its premiere at English National Opera on September 6 to considerable critical befuddlement. Charlotte Higgins put it this way (Gaddafi: a living miss, September 12) in The Guardian:

On Friday night, English National Opera launched its new season with a bold experiment: a new work that is a collaboration between the company and the hip-hop artists Asian Dub Foundation. Gaddafi: A Living Myth created an extraordinary buzz of anticipation before its opening night, more media interest than the company can ever remember for a production. Its first night was an "event": le bon ton came out in force, from celebrity architects to publishing moguls.

And the result? A naive, dumbfoundingly literal march through 20th- and 21st-century Libyan history. A piece that was extraordinarily untheatrical, about whose characters one cared nothing, whose pacing was stultifyingly unvarying and whose music struggled to sustain its two-hour length. It was saved from looking a complete turkey by some very good performances (notably Ramon Tikaram in the lead) and the virtuosity of ENO's technical team. The obvious parallel to Gaddafi - a work of music theatre on the life of a famous world leader - is John Adams's masterpiece Nixon in China, given a wonderful revival recently by ENO. In terms of sophistication, wit, imagination and emotional depth, there is, alas, no comparison.

I put the word opera in scarequotes above because the director of ENO has admitted in print that the very word "opera" might put off the young, hip audiences the company is trying to attract. It sounds like that was the correct instinct, since the piece barely qualifies for the honor. The work was uniformly vilified in the British press (see the review capsule at right), quotes from which have been circulating in English-language news services in Europe, North America, and Australia. Perhaps not surpisingly, however, the piece has been described as a "dazzling modern opera" in an article (London opera on Qadhafi hits right note, September 14) by Ana Maria Echeverria of Agence France-Presse, which has been reprinted by the Middle East Times in Egypt:

It has everything to keep spectators on the edge of their seats: images of the desert covered in oil and blood, documentary footage on war and revolution, bombs, missiles, rap music, and beautiful female bodyguards in red high heels. More of an audiovisual spectacular than an opera, Gaddafi: A Living Myth, follows step by step the enigmatic Qadhafi and his times to the hip hop beat of the British group, Asian Dub Foundation.

Though no Qadhafi admirer, The Times newspaper said that the musical at the London Coliseum theater will be the next Evita, the hit musical that was based on the life of Eva Peron, the second wife of Argentine dictator Juan Peron. With a spectacular array of musicians, actors, and ballerinas, it recounts the coup that brought Qadhafi to power in 1969, the deadly 1986 US airstrike on Tripoli, the Libyan bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair's reconciliation with Qadhafi in 2004.

The article has also appeared in the Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates), and even Aljazeera covered the work's premiere glowingly. De gustibus non est disputandum.

Originally from ionarts, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Diacritics

Ionarts joins me in the heroic quest to keep the world supplied with gratüitöüs diåcritics.  The bucktoothed nun is integral to the plot, however.  It also informs us the Met will broadcast six operas live on PBS and into select movie theaters.  Hey, that's new.

Yesterday we learned the dangerous influence of certain kinds of music, driving poor, helpless listeners into a life of drug use.  Today, we find that choral singing leads directly to homicide.

Originally from Fredösphere, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

More Musicking

From a BBC article on the social habits of music lovers:

Fans of musicals come out as the most mild-mannered group, with the lowest level of drug-taking and criminal acts.

They also drink less regularly than other music fans, and are among the most likely to do charity work.

(zing)

But followers of hip hop and dance music are more likely to have had multiple sex partners over the last five years and were among the biggest drug-takers surveyed.

"It comes out in the study that, in these types of music, fans score worse in various behaviours, such as criminality, sexual promiscuity and drug use," said Dr Adrian North, who led the research.

"It was shown that this had nothing to do with their ethnic backgrounds," he added. "The behaviour was linked purely to musical taste in its own right."

Originally from Form/Content, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

Three Familiar Pieces and One 15-Minute Drama in Sound

Bernard Holland, New York Times, 9/16/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

Tobin Stokes: Composer stoked about projects

Jeanine Soodeen, Victoria News, 9/17/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

Ok, I Lied

So this blog isn't entirely dormant. As soon as I decided to take a break, I thought of many things I should be blogging about. Go figure. It always seems to work out that way.

But I am working on a redesign. This blog used Pivot for plumbing. My photo blog uses Movable Type. So I've decided to move this one under Movable Type as well. But first I have to customize the templates and CSS files. Which is taking longer than I thought.

And it looks like I might have more time to play with it this week than last. So do stay tuned. All I Know will be reborn soon, with a new look and feel, facelift, and new plumbing.

In the meantime, try this: New Music reBlog

Originally from All I Know, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

A WTF Moment From Mark Swed

I like Mark Swed’s writing a lot and find I normally agree with his tastes but I can’t make sense out of his review of the Carl Orff/Jefferson Friedman concert at Hollywood Bowl that we hyped a little last week.  I am particularly baffled by this line: 

As in “Carmina,” there is much to like musically in “Throne,” as long as you hold your nose. The political implications in both scores are troubling. Orff was, if not a Nazi sympathizer, at least a National Socialist opportunist.

Okay, but I can’t for the life of me see a parallel in anything else in the review that would make me think Jeff Friedman is an awful person.  What exactly are the “politics” of Friedman’s The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations’ Millennium General Assembly?  Is Friedman some kind of closet skinhead?

Read Mark’s review and tell me what I’m missing.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

Two by Andy Biskin

One of the cataylsts in keeping a creative musical mind healthy is an eclectic interest in other avenues of artistic expression. In other words, all work and no play tend to make Jack Improviser a dull boy. Brooklyn-based clarinetist Andy...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

Soprano Summit - Live at Thatchers (J&M)

Ever ponder the possibility of alternate career courses for your favored musicians? A long while back we had a thread discussing just such divergent realities and recently, in the spirit of that exercise, I got to thinking: What if...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

NonPop Show 012

NonPop Show 012
Program Notes:(running time - approx. 38 minutes)1. &#8220;Invisible &#8216;Seeds&#8217; for James Tenney&#8221; - 15:35by Michael ByronMusic of Nights Without Moon or PearlCold Blue (CB0002)2. &#8220;A Tribute to James Tenney&#8221; - 15:33by Alvin LucierWind Shadows - The Barton WorkshopNew World (80628-2)3. &#8220;Spectral CANON for CONLON Nancarrow&#8221; - 3:28by James TenneyCold Blue AnthologyCold Blue (CB0008)">http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/Nonpop/~4/23574307"/>
From Podcast: NonPop.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Marino Pliakas on Tour

From Marino Pliakas:

Sept 18/06 GER-Oldenburg/ Oh-Ton, PFL-Kulturzentrum ( www.ohton.de)
STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND
Domink Blum, Hammond Organ
Marino Pliakas, E-Bass
Lucas Niggli, Drums

Sept 21/06 GER–Berlin/ Interface Festival ( www.interface-festival.de)
STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND feat. Michael Wertmueller (timp) and Lieder (vox)

RUPP-PLIAKAS-WERTMUELLER
Olaf Rupp (Ger), E-Guit
Marino Pliakas (CH), E-Bass
Michael Wertmueller (CH), Drums
Sept. 27/06 RUS- Yaroslavl/ Museum
Sept. 28/06 RUS- Moscow/ Long Arms Festival, Dom
Sept. 29/06 RUS- St.Petersburg/ club Zokol

BROETZMANN-PLIAKAS-WERTMUELLER
Peter Broetzmann (GER), Reeds
Marino Pliakas (CH), E-Bass
Michael Wertmueller (CH), Drums
Oct. 1/06 RUS- St.Petersburg/ Aposition Festival
Oct. 2/06 RUS- Moscow/ Long Arms Festival, Dom

Oct. 13/06 GER–Berlin/ Akademie der Kuenste ( www.adk.de), Studio, Hanseatenweg
NOCH 1 : SWLABR CREAM de/constructed Works by Dieter Schnebel and Michael Wertmueller
Marian Gold, Vocals (Alphaville)
Jaki Liebezeit, Schlagzeug (Can)
Ernst Surberg, Klavier, Organ (Ensemble Mosaik)
Marino Pliakas, E-Bass (Steamboat Switzerland)
Andre Bartetzki, Live-Elektronik
Michael Wertmueller, Komposition, Schlagzeug
Klangregie Georg Morawietz

Oct. 21/06 GER-Donaueschingen/ ( Donaueschinger Musiktage ):
STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND: Premiere of get out of my room, new composition by Felix Profos

Oct. 24/06 GER-Ludwigshafen / Enjoy Jazz Festival, Das Haus (www.enjoyjazz.de): STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND

Nov.4/06 CH-Bern, ISCM/IGNM Bern
Die Pilzfuge
Peter Weber, Stimme
Marino Pliakas, E-Bass
Michael Wertmueller, Drums

Nov. 11-19/06 STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND on tour in Austria/Germany/Poland/etc: tba soon!

Nov. 24 - Dec 2/06 BROETZMANN-PLIAKAS-WERTMUELLER
on tour in France/Spain/etc: tba soon!

Dec. 16/06 CH-Lucerne ISCM/IGNM Concert
STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND

Updates to check out on: www.marinopliakas.com/tourdates.html

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Sonomu Reviews

Sonomu has posted a new set of reviews.

Wu Quan, Support the Umbrella to Stand in Dust that Float Float (KwanYin)
How can anyone resist such a title? The Chinese-to-English translation machine still seems to have a few bugs in it. Wu Quan produces quite pleasant though obscure noise - sounding like radio interference or hyraulics at work - which get smudged, battered and attacked by digital insectiod stings…. [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 08:12, 18 Sep 2006

Marsten Jules, Les Fleurs (City Centre Offices)
Marsten Jules made quite a splash a year or so ago with the critically-acclaimed and popular “Herbstlaub”, a record generally described as gloriously “autumnal”. Now he changes seasons to springtime, on his way to proving that he is a man for all seasons. Perhaps his catchy electronics are a bit… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 08:03, 18 Sep 2006

Various Artists, The Condition of Muzak 2 (Expanding Records)
The second anthology of entertaining electronica published by Expanding Records, culled from their quality vinyl line released in limited runs of a mere four hundred each. This CD consists of all the A-sides from the singles, plus an exlusive Benge track (also known for his work with Si-cut.db) and… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 07:52, 18 Sep 2006

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Liberation Prophecy

Liberation Prophecy is a Louisville, KY based group with a new release.

From the quixotic toy piano opening of “Armed Ant War,” all the way to the final electric bass resolve of “Happiest Man,” the eight musical stories that compose Liberation Prophecy’s debut release, Last Exit Angel, represent a musical journey unlike any other in recent memory. Liberation Prophecy, the longtime musical lovechild of leader/saxophonist/composer Jacob Duncan, is a genre-confounding nine-piece band based in Louisville , Kentucky . With influences including, but not limited to, luminaries such as Sun Ra, Charles Mingus, Carla Bley, John Coltrane, Kurt Weill and Frank Zappa, Liberation Prophecy’s range is nothing short of astonishing, with open windows replacing any narrow sense of expected musical boundaries. Dysfunctional sambas collide with seasick circus waltzes, introspective ballads juxtapose with the primal exigency of the avant-garde, the gloom-laden asks the playfully comic for the next dance.

Last Exit Angel is an arrival, a coming-of-age premiere. From Liberation Prophecy’s modest Louisville origins in the 90’s, to its subsequent incarnation in Denton, Texas, (that lineup featuring Norah Jones on vocals) to a short-lived New York edition, and finally back to its Kentucky birthplace, Jacob Duncan’s vision for the project has never wavered, never been compromised. A list of the band’s current personnel reads like a Who’s Who of Louisville ’s musical Big Dogs: bassist Sonny Stephens, drummer Jason Tiemann, guitarist Craig Wagner, pianist Todd Hildreth, Josh Toppass on bari sax, Chris Fortner on trombone, tenor saxophonist Aaron Kinman, and Amber Estes, vocals. Norah Jones rejoins the group for a riveting guest lead vocal performance on track 3. Challenging, adventurous, surprising, shapely and free, Liberation Prophecy’s Last Exit Angel is a work of brilliance, a genuine artistic statement that never relies on its considerable reserve of virtuosity to make its points: pure beauty, sincere expression, and as many question marks as answers.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

All About Jazz has posted another set of reviews.

18-Sep-06 Tortoise
A Lazarus Taxon (Thrill Jockey)
17-Sep-06 The Ed Palermo Big Band
Take Your Clothes Off When You Dance (Cuneiform Records)
16-Sep-06 John Tchicai / Charlie Kohlhase / Garrison Fewell
Good Night Songs (Boxholder Records)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine Reviews

A new set of review from Musique Machine.

Älymystö / SadKarma - Atomgrad / Solis e.p.
You’ve got to understand people in Finland, they are dangerous. They say they buy guns to go and hunt elks but what they really are after is my colleague, Mr. Monti. Let me make myself clearer: a year or so ago, the man was sent a couple of CD’s released by Onyxia, a Finnish label. He gladly welcomed the gift but never reviewed the damn things.

Jessica Bailiff - Feels Like Home
Feels like home is the fourth album by Toledo based singer songwriter Jessica Bailiff, her other three albums have also been released by Kranky.

Wolf Eyes & John Wiese - Equinox
This third collaboration between Wolf eyes and John Wiese starts off in surprisingly calm, but still disturbed waters. For at least the first half of the track you feel like you’ve been dropped on some strange always dusk planet, shapes and objects appear from out of the half light.

KK Null - Kosmista Noisea
Kosmista Noisea is yet another exhilarating trip into electro buzzing, rhythmic and noise flecked future city scapes. It almost feel like you’ve plugged into some virtual reality consol for the ears. And if you shut your eyes you almost become one with the sleek, neo. And steel and glass city scapes.

Rita - Thousands of dead Gods
Thousands of dead Gods is purely a buzzing static storm of noise, or a huge impregnable wall of pure head melting noise, that last for near on an hour then spits you out at the end. Apparently sourced from shark noises, by the end of this you’ll feel like you’ve been inside a vast shark’s digestive system, and then shot out the other end.

Joe Lally - There To Here
Joe lally’s Debut Album There to here, comes off like the work of a more geeky, nasally and up type Lou Reed. with lots and lots of bass heavy songs, Not surprising really since Lally was the bass player in punk cult band Fugazi. It sure does have some rewarding moments along the way, though one does feel a little bass tired by the end of it all.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Fieldwork and Wally Shoup in Philly

Ars Nova in Philadelphia is presenting these shows this week.

Monday, September 18 | 8pm
FIELDWORK
with Vijay Iyer, piano; Steve Lehman, alto saxophone; and Tyshawn Sorey, drums

University of Pennsylvania’s Houston Hall | Bodek Lounge
3417 Spruce Street
Free Admission

Fieldwork is a collective trio that’s unlike anything you’ve ever heard, comprising three of the creative jazz world’s admired young players - Vijay Iyer on piano, Steve Lehman on alto saxophone, and Tyshawn Sorey on drums. They have each collaborated with some of the pioneers of creative music: Sorey with Butch Morris, Steve Coleman and Henry Threadgill; Iyer with Coleman, Morris, Roscoe Mitchell and Wadada Leo Smith; Lehman with Oliver Lake, Anthony Braxton and Dave Burrell. Within Fieldwork they impel each other into new avenues of ensemble playing, using composed rhythmic material as seeds for extended collaborative exploration. Fieldwork is a band, using the organizational model of the rock band as a basis to explore 21st-century creative music. The result resembles urban folk music from an imaginary civilization. “Your Life Flashes” (Pi Recordings), the trio’s intense, complex, spontaneous, and dark debut album (with previous Fieldwork saxophonist Aaron Stewart and drum
mer Elliot Kavee), was released in 2002 on Pi Recordings to rave reviews. Their electrifying follow-up, “Simulated Progress”, featuring Iyer, Lehman, and Kavee and mixed by noted hip-hop & rock producer Scotty Hard, was released in late 2005.

Visit http://www.arsnovaworkshop.com for more details.

—
Thursday, September 21 | 8pm
WALLY SHOUP TRIO
with Wally Shoup, alto saxophone; Reuben Radding, bass; and Toshi Makihara, drums
+ SETH MEICHT TRIO
with Seth Meicht, saxophone; Matt Engle, bass; and Lonnie Solaway, drums

The Rotunda, 4014 Walnut Street
Free Admission

Over the course of a career spanning three decades, Wally Shoup has been involved with Project W, has recorded and performed extensively with Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore, and has brushed up against many American and European improvisers including LaDonna Smith, Jack Wright, John Oswald and Dylan Van der Schyff. Largely documented on the Leo label, Shoup recently released “Immolation/Immersion” (Strange Attractors Audio House) with Wilco guitarist Nels Cline and drummer Chris Corsano (of Corsano and Flaherty).

– Support Creative Music. http://www.arsnovaworkshop.com

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

New on CIMP

CIMP has released five new CDs.

CIMP 346:
Mat Marucci (drums) - Doug Webb (stritch, soprano & tenor saxophones) Trio feat. Ken Filiano (bass)
3 The Hard Way

Marucci & Webb have been playing together for years. Even so, when they teamed up with former associate Ken Filiano no one could have guessed that the resulting quality and quantity of music would be so great. This is the first of two CDs documenting two days of the recording of Mat’s original and memorable compositions. Released in the same order they were played, this Bop/Freebop session shows that the genre need not be revisionist but freshness and creative artistic integrity can be relative to any period of music. Recorded January 9, 2006

Waltz for Therese - The Rumble - Prince of the Night - Riff for Rusch (take 1) - Eddie-like - Caught in the Webb - Vi-tality - EuroJazz - Who Do Voodoo - Yellow Lake Trail

——————————–

CIMP 347:
Dominic Duval (b) String Quartet: Ron Lawrence (viola) -
Gregor Huebner (violin) - Tomas Ulrich (cello)
Mountain Air

Dominic Duval’s String Quartet, previously known as the CT String Quartet, has been around and documented since the mid 1990s. This new edition introduces the extraordinary Gregor Huebner into the violin chair on a program which takes as its inspiration the music of Cecil Taylor’s “Mountain Air.” Extemporaneous and totally music of the day, yet easily accessible and rooted. Recorded February 13 & 14, 2006

First Movement - Son Rapport - Energies Up - No Lax Here - Questions & Answers - Next - Heart Song - One in Four - Another in Four - A Ballad in Time Saves 4 - Phrasing - Sal - Third Movement

————————————–

CIMP 348:
Dominic Duval (bass) - Jimmy Halperin (tenor saxophone) duo
Monkinus

You don’t want to approach Monk’s music unless you know what you are doing and have the technical ability. Duval and Halperin have all of that plus the ability to bring a fresh creativity to very defined compositions. To further add to the challenge, they do it duo. This long-time-in-the-making project is a rich and full listening experience. Recorded February 14 & 15, 2006

Ruby My Dear - Evidence - Crisscross - Rhythm-a-ning- Misterioso - ‘Round Midnight - Epistrophy - Brilliant Corners - Off Minor - Monk’s Mood - Blue Monk - Bye-ya - Monk’s Dream
—————————-

CIMP 349:
Michael Bisio (bass) - Tomas Ulrich (cello) duo
Pulling Strings

For years cellist Tomas Ulrich has been electrifying every group he’s been a part of and now, finally, steps out as a co-leader. Mike Bisio, the bassist’s bassist, makes up the other half. There’s no place to hide here as the two essay eight of Mike’s compositions, four of Tomas’, and one of Dom Minasi’s originals. The results of this meeting of two phenomenal players are definitely up to the potential offered and the talent noted. Recorded March 14 & 15, 2006

Blues for Melodious T. - Starstruck - As the Spirit Moves - Two Joe Sopranos - Large Muscles - Epilogue for Frank Z (take 1) - Epilogue for Frank Z (take 2) - All Soul-O - Call Waiting - Up to Tomas - Its Own Universe - Longer than Fours - Vamp On Out

——————————

CIMP 350:
Seth Meicht (tenor saxophone) Quartet wMatt Bauder - (tenor saxophone) - Matt Engle (bass) - Lonnie Solaway - (drums)
Illumine

It takes a certain confidence to add another tenor saxist to your trio, but, in Matt Bauder, Seth Meicht’s confidence is well founded. Not so much a tenor battle as an integrated and complementary pairing, this is gutsy assertive music that will satisfy all who like their music upfront and bold. Seth Meicht is a force coming on strong. Recorded March 28 & 29, 2006

Everything is Everywhere - Invisible Moments - Resonator - Blue Smiles - 44 - Dualing Diptychs - Illumine - The Enormous Room

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Umbrella Music Through September 28th

Umbrella Music in Chicago has the following shows coming up.

Wednesday, 20 September 2006

The Hideout
10:00 PM | Haaker-Flaten/Rempis/Rosaly Trio
Ingebrigt Haaker-Flaten - bass
Dave Rempis - saxophones
Frank Rosaly - drums

two sets
$6 cover
PLUS | DJ Sets : Jeff Parker spins
Choice Cuts From His Record Collection
Thursday, 21 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Falzone/Mulvenna Duo
James Falzone - clarinet
Tim Mulvenna - drums
11:00 PM | Matt Schneider Trio
Josh Berman - cornet
Matt Schneider - guitar
Nate McBride - bass

$6 requested donation
Sunday, 24 September 2006

The Hungry Brain
10:00 PM | Giallorenzo/Hatwich/Rosaly Trio
Paul Giallorenzo - piano
Anton Hatwich - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
11:00 PM | Hatwich/Rosaly Duo
Anton Hatwich - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
Wednesday, 27 September 2006

The Hideout
10:00 PM | Valentine Trio
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Jason Roebke - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
11:00 PM | Bridges Freeze Before Roads Quartet
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Guillermo Gregorio - clarinet
Jason Roebke - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
11:45 PM | Mini Set featuring: Valentine Trio Gregorio - Play the Music of Fred Katz
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Guillermo Gregorio - clarinet
Jason Roebke - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums
PLUS | DJ Sets : Josh Abrams spins
Brazilian Joints
Thursday, 28 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Jackson/Lonberg-Holm/Rosaly Trio
Keefe Jackson - reeds
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Frank Rosaly - drums
11:00 PM | Ingebrigt Haaker-Flaten Quintet
Ola Kvernberg - violin
Dave Rempis - saxophones
Jeff Parker - guitar
Ingebrigt Haaker-Flaten - bass
Frank Rosaly - drums

$8 requested donation

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

What's Next (1997). Elliott Carter /now with haiku/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 18, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

September 17, 2006

"Symptomatic of the decline and fall of everything"

Odds and ends:

A-Rod’s goal was not simply to fail at the game... but to raise deep philosophical questions about the nature of human achievement. The philosophy of "Atonal Baseball." (But let us recognize the serialist mastery of Gary Matthews, Jr.)

One of my hometown's classical radio stations is a proud sponsor of the Newport International Polo Series. Elitist, you say? If you know of a better way to get horses interested in classical music, I'd love to hear it.

A follow up to last week's rant about airline carry-on restrictions and musical instruments: witness the travails of the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band, who, fresh off of a second-place finish at the World Pipe Band Championships in Glasgow, was forced to check their equipment with an airline who promptly lost $27,000 worth of their stuff. The items included thirteen drums, in cases, which is pretty much like misplacing a hippopotamus. Terrorist threat, my eye—I rather suspect somebody in the British Home Office is still bitter over the Battle of Bannockburn. (Thanks to Jeana and Glenn Stewart, sister and brother-in-law/master piper, for the tip.)

Last, but not least: Henry Kissinger and Len Garment, art critics. (I love the Freedom of Information Act.)

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 17, 2006 at 10:48 PM | Comments (0)

Treasure trove of 20th century composers

It is funny how articles follow unplanned themes. Last week turned out to be very much French, and this week we seem to have a very welcome British theme. Lyrita was founded in 1959 as a small independent UK label specialising in British music, and many of their releases went on to become legendary. Their sessions were recorded by the Decca team during their “golden period”, and some of the early recordings used valve (tube) equipment. The LP issues delivered demonstration quality analogue sound, and the many Lyrita vinyl LPs in my collection still sound better than many of the latest CDs.

Lyrita virtually disappeared from the catalogues with the demise of the LP, but the great news is that they have just become available again, with an initial release of 37 CDs being expanded to cover the full catalogue by 2009. The new availability is the result of a distribution deal with Wyastone Estate, the company that was created out of the failed Nimbus operation.

There are some real riches in the first release as the names of the composers (including one woman) will tell you - William Alwyn, Malcolm Arnold, Arnold Bax, William Sterndale Bennett, Lennox Berkeley, Arthur Bliss, Geoffrey Bush, John Foulds, Daniel Jones, Alun Hoddinott, Gustav Holst, William Hurlstone, William Mathias, Hubert Parry, Alan Rawsthorne, Edmund Rubbra, Charles Villiers Stanford, Michael Tippett, William Walton, Grace Williams, Vaughan Williams, and William Wordsworth. What is even more exciting is that there are some unreleased digital recordings to follow the first release, including more Bush and Stanford, plus the first CD releases of some personal LP favourites including four CDs of Gerald Finzi's music.

It is invidious to pick favourites from among the first 37 CDs, but for me Norman del Mar's Rubbra Symphonies stand out, as these were the recordings that introduced me to this grossly underrated composer. And then there are William Alwyn's symphonies, and his scandalously neglected 1977 opera Miss Julie, and Sir Colin Davis conducting Tippett's Midsummer Marriage with Alberto Remedios singing the role of Mark. But the whole catalogue is a treasure trove of mid-20th century music which I urge you to explore. Follow this link for full details.

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to The Year is '72

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 17, 2006 at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)

Freiraum - two albums

Freiraum presents a music of breakbeats and electronic lounge that transcends the dance floor and becomes an exciting listening experience. The two albums can be enjoyed either as a body-moving experience or a well orchestrated sound vacation.

e-22 is high voltage dance music. “Dreamcatcher” fools us with a new age sounding groups of chords then catches fire and doesn’t let up. The title track is a riveting track helped by a simmering vocal. These two tracks pretty much set the pace for the rest of the album; pulse driven music with a brain.

The 23 minute ep Zexy is shorter but in some ways more mature. The four tracks are just as dancable but there is a wider range of musical emotion. The first track lays a funky rhythm with strings evoking the 70s blaxploitation soundscores. “Land of Confusion”, like many of Frieraum’s songs, start simply with layers of sounds and beats until it is something altogether different. “Persecution of My Pinup Girl” is my favorite track and itmoves along at a exhilarating pace. Both albums should please all fans of electronic music, dance or otherwise.

Both albums are available in 192kbps mp3.

Download

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 17, 2006 at 10:38 PM | Comments (0)

Study: One in Four Classical Lovers Like Cannabis; Opera Fans Prefer Mushrooms

Vivien Schweitzer , PlaybillArts, 9/16/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 17, 2006 at 10:33 PM | Comments (0)

La Monte Young - The Black Album

Originally from Classical Connection, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 17, 2006 at 10:32 PM | Comments (0)

ANALOG Projections '06

A festivity for Urania, Muse of Astronomy & Astrology
In the form of an electronic music concert
Presented in the Mallory Kountze Planetarium



Henry Jacobs, "Sounds for Radio"/
ANALOG arts ensemble, Prelude
Istvan B'Racz, Froggus Housatonicus
Pierre Schaeffer & Pierre Henry, Bidule en Ut
Heather Frasch, Context, Opposition, Mechanics
Henry Jacobs, "Time Compression Tests"
Peter Milligan, Not I
Coen Brothers, "Enter the Dame"
Henry Jacobs, "Monotone"
Oznog Petersen, Slideshow
Henry Jacobs, "Flooidoodle"
Pierre Henry, "Transformation"
Bernard Parmegiani, Échos/mélopée"

Henry Jacobs (1924) is a pioneering force in American electronic music, though his underground work has escaped the attention of the public at large. In the 1950's, he hosted world music radio shows, and began assembling tape collages. Much of his music uses comedy as its material. Henry was a gifted improviser, most notably creating background effects and dialogue for THX 1138.

Istvan B'Racz comments on Froggus Housatonicus:

You are listening to a thin slice/rendering of a 3 CD spatial surround project (called "Froggus Housatonicus") done in conjunction with visual artist Joy Wulke for an exhibit at the Housatonic Museum in Bridgeport, CT. It uses frog sounds that have been manipulated, sculpted, and vastly digitally altered. The more "real" sounds of water, and bamboo ritual-flute plays in stark contrast above the digital-franken-frog soundworld- yet it all seems to meld in a hyper-real fashion. The three CDs were created so that their lengths are different, and when they were put on infinite loop, the whole work would not repeat for an enormous span of time. For me, Nature is the ultimate true "minimalist": same materials, different timings, different sonic interactions, different experience.

Pierre Henry (1927) was a pupil of Pierre Schaeffer (1910-1995), the inventor of musique concrète. Their collaborative composition, Bidule en Ut , is a fugue, built off the sounds of a prepared piano.

"Transformation" is an excerpt from Henry's The Egyptian Book of the Dead. The Book of the Dead is the name given by Egyptologists to a group of mortuary spells written on sheets of papyrus covered with magical texts and accompanying illustrations called vignettes. These were placed with the dead in order to help them pass through the dangers of the underworld and attain an afterlife of bliss in the Field of Reeds.

Heather Frasch comments on Context, Opposition, Mechanics:

Context: Perceptions shift as sounds are placed into an assortment of contexts. Projecting physical interpretations into an indistinct world.

Opposition: Concrete and abstract- intrinsically distinctive sound worlds averse to fusion. Gradually lines between the two become blurred, one unfolding into the next. Formal coherence created by the interaction of their conflicting character, their independent evolution, and their momentary amalgamation.

Mechanics: Exploring mechanical timbres- their innate brute quality and their potentiality to transform into various textures. I would like to thank George Cremaschi, the bassist I've collaborated with and whose sounds are heard throughout this piece.

Peter Milligan's (2003) Not I is a text collage, comprised solely of a reading of Samuel Beckett's notoriously difficult play for an illuminated Mouth and a shadowy Auditor.

"Enter the Dame" is a scene from The Hudsucker Proxy, the fifth film by the Coen Brothers (1954/19957). It is a perfectly composed vignette, which marries sound and vision and narrative with the Coen's signature virtuosity. The 'Dame' is a reporter trying to scam information out of Norville Barnes, newly appointed President of Hudsucker Industries and complete unknown.

Francois Bayle (1932) studied with Messiaen and Stockhausen before joining Pierre Schaeffer's Group of Musical Research (GRM), which he would eventually lead. The gyroscopic disorientation of Motion-Emotion (1985) forms the centerpiece of tonight's program.

Of Slideshow, Dolf Kamper has this to say:

When I asked my friend Oznog Peterson if he wanted to contribute anything to ARTSaha! this year his answer, after a long pause, was "I've got a slideshow that's fun to watch."

"What, like pictures of your travels?" I asked.

"Well… you can learn a lot about people from pictures they take, like reading someone's wallet… It may not sound interesting but it can be just as interesting to hear an everyday story about them. That's all stories are anyway, nothing but what happens to someone, or what someone sees."

I immediately tried to imagine what Oznog's wallet might look like, then I tried to imagine what his photo album might look like. When I realized I couldn't possibly imagine either I got really excited about seeing his slideshow at ARTSaha!

Oznog is impossible to describe in one or two words. You will get a much clearer picture of who he is by watching his slideshow. I remember him telling me a story once about when he lived above a movie theater in Frankfurt. The theater only showed home movies all in video or Super8 with no sound and was mostly frequented by lonely Alzheimer's patients looking for clues. That might be where he got the idea for sending us this program – he told me after an evening of those movies he began to feel a real empathy towards the people on screen. I think Oznog was deeply intrigued by the flickering screen filled with family picnics and Christmas-tree gatherings. Eventually, he even met a girl who reviewed the movies for a local column.

Bernard Parmegiani (1927) is also a pupil of Pierre Schaeffer's. "Échos/Mélopée" is an excerpt from his 1984 composition La Creation du Monde.

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 17, 2006 at 10:31 PM | Comments (0)

Excuse Me While I Kiss the Sky

Reader Bill Westfall passes along this link to a story about a new research study that reports more than one quarter of classical music fans use cannabis and 12.3 per cent of opera buffs have tried magic mushrooms.  This, I suppose, is as opposed to the 100 per cent of Grateful Dead fans who do and have. 

The finding suggests an interesting topic:  Great Composers Who Were Stoners.  Discuss.

And speaking of discussion, get on over to the new, spiffed up Composers Forum page and weigh in on Rob Deemer’s question about how important a web presence is for an active composer’s career.

Meant to mention this a couple of days ago but the WaPo has a profile of William Friedkin, director of Sorcerer, indisputedly the worst movie ever made, who is directing Duke Bluebeard’s Castle at the Washington National Opera.

I am told by a reliable source that new Met manager Peter Gelb was once punched on the grounds of Tanglewood by Michael Steinberg, who was then the Boston Symphny’s program book annotator.  Anybody got details?  Pictures?

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 17, 2006 at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)

Three with some combination of Mattin, Doerner & Capece

Mattin/Axel Doerner Berlin absurd/1000 + 1 Tilt Three new releases that place noise front and center, compelling the listener to recalculate ideas about musical structure and putting him/her in the awkward, not to say futile position of determining some...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 17, 2006 at 10:30 PM | Comments (0)

Subscribing to confusion: The Register on eMusic, Zune, and the iPod

In the flood of press articles on Microsoft’s recent Zune announcement, I happened to take special note of one that appeared in The Register, titled The iPod’s Achilles Heel? It’s er… Reader’s Digest. The logic of the article appears to be as follows:

1. Apple doesn’t offer a subscription service for the iPod.
2. eMusic has built a successful digital music business on a subscription model.
3. Microsoft will offer a subscription service for Zune.
4. Therefore Zune will have a competitive advantage against the iPod.

Unfortunately the article’s logic breaks down when you look at it closely. Let’s start with the confusion about what the eMusic subscription model actually entails, especially compared to other subscription-based services like Napster To Go. The article refers to eMusic’s ‘Reader’s Digest’ subscription model, but doesn’t really explain the reference; I’m assuming that the article is using the phrase ‘Reader’s Digest’ subscription model as shorthand for any model where people pay fixed amounts at set periods for content of some sort (magazines, music, whatever). However an eMusic subscription is very different than a Napster To Go subscription:

• In the eMusic model the customer pays a set amount per month for the privilege of downloading and listening to a fixed number of DRM-free tracks (e.g., $9.99 per month for 40 tracks); once downloaded the customer can listen to the tracks forever, whether they continue to subscribe to eMusic or not. One analogy is to traditional book of the month clubs: The customer is paying for a fixed number of books per month, whether or not they actually read them, and any books bought are theirs to keep forever.
• In the Napster To Go model the customer pays a set amount per month for the privilege of downloading and listening to an unlimited number of DRM-protected tracks; however the tracks disappear once the subscription ends. One analogy is to having a library card: You can check out and read as many books as you wish, but you don’t own the books and have to return them at some point, in particular when you give up your card.

These models are very different, and right now it’s not clear which model Zune will be using (though we can guess, as noted below); thus the article’s name-checking eMusic in the context of Zune is premature at best.

The article also confuses what appeals to the music business (and in particular to major music labels) with what appeals to music consumers. For example, the article states:

Now every company wants to be in [the] subscriptions business–it means costs and revenue are predictable, and while the cost of acquiring a punter is higher, this can be amortized over a very long time period–possibly a lifetime. (And if you’re really lucky, you can keep billing them after they’ve died). But labels love subscriptions more than most, because it gives them a chance to monetize their dormant back catalogs. They’ve wanted to do this long before the idea acquired its most recent buzzword, Long Tail, and eMusic has become the model for low volume aggregation.

It goes without saying that any business would love to have customers send it a fixed amount of money every month without fail, especially if (like eMusic) the customers are sending that money even if they’re not actually making use of the service. But just because businesses love the subscription model doesn’t mean that customers love it as well. eMusic’s appeal to customers has very little to do with the subscription model per se; rather people are attracted to eMusic because:

• eMusic sells music that’s playable on iPods (unlike every other major music service other than the iTunes store).
• eMusic sells music that’s cheap (four or more times less expensive than Apple on a per-track basis).
• eMusic sells music that doesn’t go away if you cancel the service (unlike Napster To Go and others).
• eMusic sells music that isn’t hobbled by technical restrictions on what you can do with it (unlike all other major music services).

eMusic customers accept eMusic’s subscription model simply as part of the price of getting the above advantages. If there were another service that offered everything that eMusic does now, but on a pure a la carte basis, eMusic customers would no doubt rapidly abandon eMusic in favor of such a competitor.

Back to Zune: Will the Zune subscription service be more like eMusic, or more like Napster To Go? While Microsoft hasn’t provided complete information, it has provided some hints; in particular we know that Zune will use some sort of DRM and that Zune will offer an all you can eat unlimited download subscription service (as noted in the press release, you can … buy a Zune Pass subscription to download as many songs as you want for a flat fee). My bet is therefore that Zune Pass will simply be Microsoft’s version of Napster To Go: as much music as you want, but only as long as your Zune Pass subscription is active.

If this is the case, the logic of the article fails: the Zune Pass subscription service will be nothing like eMusic, and you can’t extrapolate from eMusic’s success to that of Zune. On the contrary, unless Microsoft’s marketing prowess can make a difference and/or Zune turns out to have truly compelling features (whether the WiFi sharing or something else as yet unannounced) we’d expect Zune’s subscription service to be about as successful as Napster To Go and similar services, which is to say not very successful at all.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

Mp3 Blog #25: ...Enigmatic Unfolding Rising

Glenn Branca:
Symphony #6 (Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven): II (1989)
For the Glenn Branca Ensemble

Available on this compact disc featuring the entire Symphony #6

Jean-Claude Risset:
”Mutations” (1969)
For digital playback

Available on the OHM: Early Gurus of Electronic Music Compilation

* * * * *

I originally meant to post these two mp3s on 9/11. These two tracks are meant to complement the part ”Falling Fragilely …the Music of Bent Sørensen and, furthermore, round off my mp3 series “Falling Fragilely and Enigmatic Unfolding Rising”. Posting the mp3s found above on Monday was also meant to provide some sort of, in the very least, illusory sense of hope on the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S.A. and 33rd anniversary of the CIA sponsored 9/11 military coup in Chili that put the dictator Augusto Pinochet in power. However, as can be expected, my life hampered this plan and I’m posting these two tracks what can be described as “better later than never.”

Both of these tracks have compositional demonstrations of what is arguably one of the most famous auditory illusions – the Shepard tone, a veritable auditory barber pole where, in the constantly rotating movement, it is nearly impossible to identify where one line ends and another begins. Although this auditory illusion can easily come across as one of the cheaper contemporary music clichés to an ear well versed in contemporary compositional techniques, I find that the dirty raw striving in Glenn Branca’s Symphony #6 (Devil Choirs at the Gates of Heaven) holds up consistently on multiple listenings.

In contrast, Jean-Claude Risset’s “Mutations” is one the original classics in the digital acousmatic age and was the first composition ever to use a Shepard tone. This short, delicate, and almost perfect work seamlessly transforms (or “mutates”) into the first Shepard Tone ever found in a musical composition – a one ten octave glissando reiterated in a ten part cannon.

Originally posted by Jacob Sudol from Jacob Sudol, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

A Woman Beheads a Man; Just Don’t Call It Opera

Anne Midgette, New York Times, 9/15/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

A Study in Volatile Mixes, Ancient and More Recent

Bernard Holland, New York Times, 9/15/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

New works flow from 'Scenes from Childhood'

Dorothy Andries, Chicago Sun-Times, 9/15/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:52 PM | Comments (0)

Tommorrow's New York Times

Okay, it looks like there's no mention of Jay Greenberg. We're safe, for now. Not that I have anything against the kid. I hope he eventually prospers. But, how many teenagers are out there, writing music? I'm sure there are a lot, although maybe not

Originally posted by Anthony Cornicello from Anthony Cornicello, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:51 PM | Comments (0)

Flash: Cio-Cio San Now Working in Times Square

If there were ever any doubt that Peter Gelb, the new director of the Metropolitan Opera, had big plans to turn the venerable company into a glitzier, more populist experience, there isn’t any more. 

The New York Times reports this morning that the Met will simulcast the opening night “Madama Butterfly” gala on September 25 on the Panasonic jumbo screen in Times Square. Traffic will be closed between Broadway between 42nd and 45th Streets to make room for 650 cushioned seats and standing room for the performance, which will be blared to the large tin can that is Times Square on giant speakers.  Goodbye amplification purists; hello power chords.

The Met also plans to broadcast the performance on a large screen in the Lincoln Center Plaza. Tickets are free but you will need one.  You’ll also get a look at another Gelb innovation–the celebrity red carpet where news personality Daljit Dhaliwal will conduct Joan Rivers-style interviews with such well-known opera lovers as Goldie Hawn, Sean Connery, Al Roker, the formerly fat weather man from the Today show, and Tony Soprano.   

The news comes on the heels of last week’s announcement that the Met will begin broadcasting live performances into movie theaters across the United States, Canada and Europe.

Gelb calls these initiatives “building bridges to the broader public.”  Color me skeptical but (snarky tone aside) I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.  The folks in the family circle (myself included) are beginning to look a little long in the tooth.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:33 PM | Comments (0)

Daniel Menche - Creatures of Cadence

Crouton/Longbox crou032/lbt040 Now, there's a cover! “Creatures of Cadence” is an impressive, well-varied and imaginatively structured new release from Daniel Menche. I’m only minimally familiar with his prior work but what I’d heard, live and on disc, tended toward...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Cornelius Cardew's 'Schooltime Special' performed by the Seattle Improv Meeting

Cornelius Cardew's 'Schooltime Special' performed by the Seattle Improv Meeting
Cornelius Cardew's textural score 'Schooltime Special'. Performed by the Seattle Improv Meeting who for this meeting were: Adrian Woods, Eric Peacock, Robert j Kirkpatrick. < http://www.spiralcage.com/improvMeeting/>

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Spellbound radio 8/20/06 hr 2

Spellbound radio 8/20/06 hr 2
Spellbound radio 8/20/06 hr 2 - Purple Note Radio Network - Spellbound, music for theremin
From Podcast: Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Spellbound radio 8/20/06 hr 1

Spellbound radio 8/20/06 hr 1
Spellbound radio 8/20/06 hr 1 - Purple Note Radio Network - Spellbound, music for theremin
From Podcast: Spellbound, a brief program of music for theremin.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Jeff Harrington - Gouttes

Jeff Harrington - Gouttes
Like drops of liquids bouncing off of a shiny surface. Sixty seconds of glistening electronic beats. http://jeffharrington.org

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Jeff Harrington - Syrinx

Jeff Harrington - Syrinx
Syrinx is named after a bird's voice box and uses formant shifting synthesis to create a crunchy bird-like percussive track to accompany the ambient tunes. http://jeffharrington.org

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Will big bands ever come back? Woody Herman... Gil Evans... Thelonious Monk... Anthony Braxton

Jimmy Giuffre came to fame originally way back in the forties with his arrangement for the second Herman Herd of his composition 'Four Brothers' which had the unusual lineup of three tenor saxophones and baritone (with Herman and Sam Marowitz making up the rest of the section)– on this recording: Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Herbie Steward and Serge Chaloff (Steward was replaced later by Al Cohn). The tenor trio were all coming from the general direction of Lester Young, so there is a light and airy blend here which offers hints of later Giuffre (if anyone could have written a work titled 'Skies of America' apart from Ornette, Giuffre would have been up for the task). The rougher jazz saxophone timbres have been removed... one could not see them working so well with three tenors from the Hawkins lineage, say. Possibly one of the first sightings of the 'cool school, birthed from Lester... A true jazz classic... Interestingly, the genesis of this sound was a little earlier than the Second Herd:

'In their first incarnation, the brothers were Herbie Steward, Zoot Sims, Jimmy Giuffre and Stan Getz, all playing tenor saxophones. "We had a band at Pontrelli's in the Spanish section of Los Angeles," recalls Stan. A trumpet player named Tommy De Carlo was the leader and we just had trumpet, four saxophones and rhythm. We had a few arrangements by Gene Roland and Jimmy Giuffre. Herbie doubled on alto and I transposed the third alto part to tenor.”' (From here... scroll down a ways... ).

Looks like a big band trip today... Goddoggo mentioned the Gil Evans version of 'Bilbao Song' from the 1960 album 'Out of the Cool' and in my usual eagerness to please (and find inspiration!) I had a rummage round – I have the bugger somewhere but since the recent house move much is still buried. Synchronicity came to the rescue as ever – managed to acquire it ( a tip of the bop beret to the Busconductor... ). Evans offers a dark-hued reading of the Brecht/Weill song. Cymbals and bass plus percussion figures lead it in as the orchestra hold long skirling notes up to a strident chord – then the bass brings in the melody over light swishing -like a rattlesnake- with some heavy double stops. A light backbeat then orchestra stab and a splash of 'arranger's piano' and some more bass before the ensemble take up the theme in a staggering gait, strange extended phrases – a hint of drunken dancehall tango, evocative maybe of the beat-up venue celebrated in the song:

“No paint was on the door,
The grass grew through the floor
Of Tony's Two By Four
On the Bil - ba - o shore”. (English Lyrics: Johnny Mercer).

Sounds like I place I used to know down in the west of Ireland...

A sudden biting crescendo - then silence... An oddly uncentred rendition conjuring in my mind dream-like, hazy recollections of 'Tony's Two By Four,' sketched lightly from the Evans palette with just the occasional surge of power and sonority to add a larger smear of colour...

Not strictly a big band but just one of my favourite aggregations - Monk at Town Hall, 1959. Here's 'Friday the Thirteenth,' played by a tentet and led in by the guv'nor's piano, a strange tune that evokes some awful mental treadmill or Kafkaesque nightmare as it trudges remorselessly through the repeating four chord descending sequence, with just a hint of macabre humour lurking. Hall Overton's arrangement handles his forces well, one section given the theme as another shadows the chords down the treadmill. Phil Woods comes up for the unforgiving task of improvising over this sequence – and is well up to the mark. Monk next, playing some nice rhythmic tricks. As ever. Charles Rouse the redoubtable, safely home, a few familiar licks to get there. Donald Byrd – lyrical and edging in thoughtfully before essaying some double timing to lay his authority on the piece (maybe time for some Donald Byrd soon...) - followed briefly by Monk at one point behind him - ending with the theme statement to lead into the band's restatement of same, doubled on bass at the finish. This is taken from one of my favourite records – it must have been a joyous night...

Anthony Braxton put together a large ensemble he called the 'Creative Orchestra' in 1976 – a track from this offered, Piece Five. A squalling bouncing introduction - then the rhythm drops out as a jaunty sectional counterpoint ensues – returning and on a flourish of drums announcing a sturdy walking bass. Kenny Wheeler solos first – high notes and histrionics, far from his usual trademark plangency. Big band trumpet writ large. Jerky horns and pounding ensembles then Abrams solos – rippling and bright over bass and drums, building through some percussive stomping figures. Ensemble return over a repeated pedal, some fascinating section work – low brass and trumpets set against each other without the rhythm section – the lines becoming denser, more dissonant. The piano repeats an insistent two bar riff as Braxton shimmies in, the contrabass clarinet taking a solo of awkward but appealing grace. Braxton the revolutionary has always returned to the tradition for his own homages. One forgets sometimes he was doing it so long ago... In the lineage of big band sectional experimentation that we started with – check out the the strange sax/woodwind section and the depth of the brass section – bass trombone/tuba – a hint of Gil Evans' sonorities... Braxton at this time in the seventies recorded as a sideman with a couple of larger congregations such as the Global Unity Orchestra and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra...

In the Videodrome
Pepper Adams in the UK with some Brits... here...

Some of the MJQ

Get happy with Bud Powell – if only he could have done regularly...


Woody Herman and the Herd
(Stan Fishelson, Bernie Glow, Marky Markowitz, Shorty Rogers, Ernie Royal (tp) Bob Swift, Earl Swope, Ollie Wilson (tb) Woody Herman (cl, as, vo) Sam Marowitz (as) Stan Getz, Zoot Sims, Herbie Steward (ts) Serge Chaloff (bars) Fred Otis (p) Gene Sargent (g) Walter Yoder (b) Don Lamond (d) ).
Download
Four Brothers

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Gil Evans
(John Coles, Phil Sunkel (tp), Jimmy Knepper, Keg Johnson (tb), Tony Studd (btb), Bill Barber (tu), Ray Beckenstein (as, fl, pic), Bob Tricarico (bas, fl, pic), Budd Johnson (ts, ss), Ray Crawford (g), Ron Carter (b), Elvin Jones, Charlie Persip (dm, perc), Gil Evans (p, arr, cond)).
Download
Bilbao Song


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Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Monk - piano. Donald Byrd - trumpet. Eddie Bert - trombone. Phil Woods - alto. Charlie Rouse - tenor. Pepper Adams - baritone. Robert Northern - french-horn. Jay McAllister - tuba. Sam Jones - bass. Art Taylor - drums. Hall Overton - arranger.
Download
Friday the thirteenth

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Anthony Braxton Creative Orchestra
(There seems to be a little confusion over personnel on some tracks so I have given the overall lineup taken from the Braxton discography here...).

Anthony Braxton (as, cbcl, cl)
Seldon Powell (as, cl, fl)
Bruce Johnstone (bs, bcl)
Ronald Bridgewater (ts, cl)
Roscoe Mitchell (ss, bsx, fl, as) on #2-4
Kenny Wheeler, Cecil Bridgewater, Jon Faddis (tpt)
Leo Smith (tpt) on #2-4, 6; conductor on #1, 3, 5
George Lewis, Garrett List (tb)
Earl McIntyre (btb) on #1, 6
Jack Jeffers (btb) on # 2-5
Jonathan Dorn (tuba)
Muhal Richard Abrams (p) on #1, 2, 4, 5; conductor on #6
Richard Teitelbaum (syn) on #2
Frederick Rzewski (p, b-d) on #2-4
Dave Holland (b, clo)
Warren Smith (d, tmp, b-d, sn-d, bmba, chm) on #1-5
Barry Altschul (perc, gongs, sn-d, bells, chm) on #2-4
Philip Wilson (d, perc, marching cymbals) on #2-4
Karl Berger (glck, vib, xyl, chm) on #3-5
Download
Piece Five

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Originally from wordsandmusic, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Daniel Wolf Article, Premiere of L'Ecume des Temps and More

Frankfurt-based Californian composer/experimentalist Daniel Wolf has written an incredibly nice article about my music and philosophy of music distribution at his blog Renewable Music yesterday. He makes specific mention of one of my favorite recent pieces, my Horn Trio. Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Score Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Horn Part Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Violin Part Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Piano Part The super guitar and violin duo, Duo46 will finally be premiering my piece L'Ecume des Temp at Cincinnati, Ohio - Madison House Concert Series : Nov 16. I've also recently transcribed the piece for Duo Ahlert und Schwab for Mandolin and Guitar. They've been performing Cassotis all summer long and it will be a part of their new program, "Nowhere Left to Go." L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - New Realization - MP3 L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Study Score L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Guitar Part L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Violin Part Three piano preludes of mine, #6, #7, and #8 will receive their New York premiere November 20 by the superb pianist, Daniel Beliavsky at the Sequenza21 Concert. Prelude 6 Acrobat Score Prelude 7 Acrobat Score Prelude 8 Acrobat Score Piano Prelude 6 Piano Prelude 7 Piano Prelude 8 An electronic piece of 60 seconds duration of mine, 'Kali Yuga' has been selected by Vox Novus for performance at their New York concert this year, New York Minutes. More info as it's available... I can't put 'Kali Yuga' online until after the premiere, but here are two 60 second electronic pieces I made but didn't submit. They're both a little poppier than is usual for me, but some interesting transformations and timbres are involved. Gouttes is drops of liquids bouncing off of a shiny surface. Syrinx is named after a bird's voice box and uses formant shifting synthesis to create a crunchy bird-like percussive track to accompany the ambient slow tunes. Gouttes Syrinx I'm finishing up a piano piece, which seemingly came out of the blue from materials left over from my recent Piano and Amplified Harpsichord (or electronic harpsichord), Marteau-pilon Épouvantable-Implacable. I'll probably finish it this weekend. My first big piano piece since DeltaBandResonator....

Originally posted by jeff from The Music of Jeff Harrington, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

What is "experimental" music?

margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: justify;">This website is called the Hollow Tree Experimental Music Report. I haven't ever said what I mean by 'Experimental Music' though. The reason is that I've never really been sure what I meant by the term. I've used a kind of “I know it when I hear it” method to decide for myself what experimental music is. >

In browsing the internet for material for this website, though, I've found evidence that the term is a controversial one. Some people have a very specific idea of what experimental music is, others not so much and still others believe the term itself to be a canard.

So, I took it upon myself to figure it out once and for all: What is experimental music?

I think I've figured out an answer to the question, but it is not a simple answer that can be verbalized in one or two paragraphs. The answer, in order to be delivered accurately, must involve a discussion of the meaning of words, the nature of music and the story of humanity as culturemaker. Many examples must be provided, references must be cited and a lot of quiet, unrestrained pondering must be allowed.

What follows is a short, introductory (and perhaps a little convoluted) sketch of an essay. I will continue to expand on it over time. Your comments are deeply appreciated, if you have any. I also would enjoy any pointers to websites, books etc. that deal with this subject. As you will see in reading this essay, my definition of “experimental music” involves a blend of consensus definition with strict denotation. The latter is easy enough, but I am still collecting data on the former.

Also, you may want to read a couple of things that lead me to thinking about this subject:

A short essay by David Toub

The Wikipedia Experimental Music article and the very informative discussion page for that article.

--

“Experimental music” is a term that has a wide use. Because of this wide use, an actual definition of the term is difficult. “Experimental music” may have a very specific meaning in the world of musical academia, but in the larger, more kinetic non-academic world, the term seems to take on a new connotation with each utterance. And as “experimental music” gathers meaning rapidly, an actual definition of the term in popular usage becomes difficult, perhaps even impossible.

As an enormous a task as it might be, I'd like to make an attempt at putting at least part of this term's meaning into words. I do not intend to write a once-and-final definition for “experimental music” or even to sketch out a provisional definition. Instead, I would like to look into what people mean when they talk about “experimental music,” because I believe that in reality much of the music so-named belongs to an interesting, and mostly unrecognized genre of popular music.

I also believe that the term itself, “experimental music,” is not the most appropriate description of this genre of music. The word “experimental” may be a legacy from early eras of popular music, when the “experimental” genre was rather new, and had few examples of itself to offer. It is a fact that, in academic music theory, “experimental” is a legitimate term that refers to a very specific type of music. While the methods of both academic and popular experimental music may be very different, their sounds are reminiscent of one another, as each make detours from tradition and listenability. Because of the surface resemblances between popular and academic experimental music, it is possible that the name transferred from the one to the other by those processes of language osmosis that occur as the result of the imprecision of day-to-day conversational speech.

Furthermore, many of the first popular “experimental” musicians did actually have ties to academic music, and may have even used truly experimental methods in creating a sort of music that they labeled “experimental.” However, since then a large number of musicians have produced music that they have either themselves labeled “experimental” or that has acquired the label for some other reason. Most of this music is not experimental in any strict understanding of the word. Much of this music, though, does have characteristics that tie it together and may be the basis for defining a genre. This genre, if it can be described, may be worthy of a different name.

But, before we digress too far, let's look at the term “experimental” itself and be sure that we understand just exactly what we are talking about.

EXPERIMENTAL

I won't provide the reader, or myself, with the convenience of a dictionary-quoted definition here. It is assumed that the reader has a decent physical or internet dictionary at hand. In understanding the precise meanings of words, etymology is always the most powerful tool. Please be especially aware that the word “experimental” stems from the Indo-European “per-” just the same as the word “peril.” “Per-” is defined as to try, or to risk. The addition of the prefix “ex-,” however, changes the sense of the word. “Ex-” is a complex prefix, meaning anything from “beyond” to “without,” but its essentially meaning can be understood as “out.” “Exper-” then might mean “to try out,” though it might also be understood as “thoroughly test.” In fact the word “expert,” meaning a person with much training and knowledge, is very similar to the word stem “exper-,” and the Latin “experimentum” means a trial or a test.

So, here we see that the word “experimental” has a meaning that relates to tests and trials and also bears a close relationship to concepts of expertise and formal inquiry. Understood in these terms, “experimental” is a word of the laboratory and scientific method.

There are other senses of the word, though. “Exper-” is also a stem of “experience.” Experience, a common result of experimentation, is the source of empirical knowledge. And, of course, “empiricism” is practically and antonym to “science.” This understanding lends a new, contradictory sense to the word “experimental.” We are now confronted with a word that is involved in the acquisition of both scientific and decidedly nonscientific knowledge.

How is it that both science and its antithesis, empiricism, rely on experimentation for their information? Can they really be mutually exclusive if they derive from the same process? The contradiction is dissolved if we consider that science is systematic and collaborative, while empiricism is more or less haphazard and generally individualistic.

For example, Galileo demonstrated that spheres of different masses, dropped from the same height, fall to the earth at exactly the same time. This experiment has been repeated to the point that its results are generally accepted and the experiment no longer need be done. Certain principles of physics have thereby been proven, entered into the annals of science and may be accepted as true and believable by any person, without that individual having to perform the experiment on their own.

For contrast, let's imagine a savage from an imaginary land where there is no knowledge of science, and empiricism is the only means of understanding the world. Imagine that we show this savage two spheres of greatly differing size and mass, hold the spheres over the edge of a high tower at equal distances from the ground below, and ask the savage which ball will fall faster. Because he is an empiricist he may be inclined to say that the larger ball will arrive at the ground before the smaller one.

When the experiment is performed, and the savage sees that he has guessed wrong, it is likely that he will be amazed and will desire to share his new knowledge with his brothers and sisters in his imaginary land who also rely on solely on empirical means for their knowledge of the world. In order to convey the wonder of the revelation, let us imagine that he presents the information exactly as it had been presented to himself, as an experiment, and with the question “Which ball will fall faster?”

Being empiricists, his tribal relatives, each and every one, will be just exactly as inclined to choose the larger ball as was our original hypothetical savage. This is the individualistic nature of empiricism, each individual must experience a fact for themselves. There can be no collaborative sharing of proven information in empiricism, which means that empiricism is not systematic, but haphazard, relying on the eccentricities of individuals.

In both science and empiricism, experimentation is a process toward knowing a fact. Experimentation, however, can be collective and systematic, as in science, or personal and informal, as in empiricism. As experimentation can fork into two different ways of knowing, so too does the word “experimental” fork into two different senses of meaning, one formal and the other informal.

Now that we have taken a look at the word “experimental,” we have learned something more about words themselves. Just like “experimental,” language itself has two lives, one formal, precise and slow to change and the other informal, rough and quickly evolving. And, just like science and empiricism, words can have both a true and accredited meaning, along with additional meanings that vary between individuals and upon each new utterance.

In popular music the word “experimental” has been used to describe many works of music. Each use of the term has added a point to a mosaic which over the course of time might hopefully describe a pattern. Hopefully this pattern might serve to define, by way of example, what people mean when the use the word “experimental” to describe music. If so, it would be possible to finally write a simple definition of this often used, but only minimally meaningful term.

< -z> (Saturday, September 16 2006)

Originally from The Hollow Tree Experimental Music Report, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Sonomu Reviews

Some new reviews from Sonomu.

Various Artists, Nordic Lounge Weekend (Dealers of Nordic Music)
Your guide to young, hip (and monied) Stockholm, complete with illustrated fifty-page booklet featuring the snazziest bars, clubs, restaurants, boutiques and hotels in Sweden´s capitol. Nordic Lounge Weekend is a discriminating selection of what we would have called “acid” or “future jazz” a… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 08:05, 15 Sep 2006

Mind Over MIDI, Monopoly (Beatservice)
Monopoly is the fifth full-length for Norway´s Mind Over MIDI. However, since an individual is listed in the credits as having “compiled” the record, it would seem to be a collection of material of unmentioned original provenance, or perhaps a few older vinyl cuts mixed with new material. What… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 07:56, 15 Sep 2006

Wang Fan, Five Primary Elements (KwanYin/Adopin)
Ever wonder what background music God chose to play in the Garden of Eden? I mean, once he set the lovers up in their cozy, safe surroundings and urged them to get on with the business of procreating, he must have supplied them with some mood music. This record is probably as close as we´ll ever… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 07:46, 15 Sep 2006

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Meridian Arts Ensemble Plays the Music of Applebaum, Jacobs & Revueltas at Symphony Space in New York, October 9th

The MAE is scheduled to play NYC early next month.

The Meridian Arts Ensemble presents newly commissioned works by Mark Applebaum and Ed Jacobs, and works written by Latin American composers, at Symphony Space, Monday, October 9, 7:00 p.m. The program will feature special guest, Mark Applebaum performing, with the Ensemble, his work, “Magnetic North,” on the Mouseketier Electro-acoustic, a “sound-sculpture” with live electronics.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

emd.pl/records

emd.pl/records has been around for a while and offers a strong catalog of improv and creative music offerings.

005 - Xavier Charles, Robert Piotrowicz “///”

004 - Robert Piotrowicz “Rurokura and the Final Warn”

003 - Artur Nowak “Guitar Granulizer”

002 - Various Artists “Alt+F4″

001 - The Hub “Live at Gugalander”

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

The Music Gallery Presents X Avant

X Avant is a festival taking place in Toronto Spetember 21-24.

Festival passes cost $50 and individual concerts can be attended for $15. Tickets and passes can be purchased at Penguin Music, Rotate This, Soundscapes and online. More information is available here.

Here’s the X Avant lineup:

* September 21 Joe McPhee and Deep Dark United @ The Music Gallery
* September 22 OM, Toca Loca, Gordon Beeferman/Jeff Arnal Duo and Istvan Kantor @ The Music Gallery
* September 23 Tony Conrad with Anne Bourne, Barnyard Drama and Telephone, 20 Questions And Other Guessing Games @ The Music Gallery
* September 23 Jan Jelinek, Naw, Akumu with Anne Bourne, VJ Nokami and Ether.Mann @ The Drake Underground
* September 24 Duo Diorama @ The Music Gallery
* September 24 Dirty Projectors and Blip @ Sneaky Dee’s

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Who is Sam Rivers?

An article does a decent job trying to answer that question.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Bagatellen Reviews

New reviews from Bagatellen.

Daniel Menche - Creatures of Cadence - 15 Sep 06
John Blum Astrogeny Quartet - 12 Sep 06

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

At the Roulette in October

New York’s Roulette has a full schedule for October:

ROULETTE presents
20 Greene St (between Canal and Grand St)
8:30 PM Admission $15 Students $10 MEMBERS FREE
TICKETS/RSVP: 212.219.8242
Roulette 228 West Broadway New York, NY 10013
contact: press@roulette.org http://www.roulette.org/

ROULETTE IS THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE OUR MOVE INTO OUR NEW HOME: 20 GREENE
STREET in SOHO. With this new space, Roulette will be expanding activities
to include over 100 concerts, sound installations, longer runs of music
theater and other large productions such as the ³Avant Jazz ­ Still Moving²
festival and the annual ³Festival of Mixology.² For our expanded events
calendar go to: http://www.roulette.org/

Also! Please check out our new ROULETTE BLOG for excerpts of our artists¹
music, podcasts featuring interviews with the artists and Roulette TV clips,
and musical discussion: http://www.roulette.org/blog/index.php

10/1: Miguel Frasconi
10/5: Mark Howell & Rick Brown — Inconvenient Music
10/6: Gordon Beeferman & Jeff Arnal
10/7: Kenta Nagai
10/8: Ricardo Arias & Alessandro Bosetti: Vice Versa
10/9: Alessandro Bosetti, Nate Wooley
10/10: Evan Parker & Ned Rothenberg Duo
10/11: Alain Kirili, Joe McPhee & Clifton Hyde
10/13: Janus (Amanda Baker, Bridget Kibbey & Beth Meyers)
10/14: Zanana: Monique Buzzarté & Kristin Norderval
10/15: Odd Appetite: Ha-Yang Kim & Nathan Davis
10/16: Matt Bauder with Matana Roberts, Loren Dempster & Reuben Radding
10/19: Dan Joseph & Loren Dempster
10/20: Miya Masaoka
10/21: Amy Knoles with Michael Sakamoto
10/22: Ross Feller
10/26: Julia Heywayd
10/27: Julia Heyward
10/28: Yael Acher

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Jazz Listings in New York

This weekend’s jazz events in New York.

CLEAN FEED FESTIVAL The jazz avant-garde has always been a multinational affair. Its early explorers sought inspiration from European as well as African and Far Eastern sources; its audience base stretches across borders, as does its economic infrastructure. So it should not be altogether shocking that one of the most vibrant record companies on the scene is based in Lisbon. What the ascent of Clean Feed Records illustrates is just how fluid the global exchange has become. Established in 2001, the label counted 40 stylishly designed titles in its catalog within four years, as well as a physical space in Lisbon — Trem Azul, Portuguese for Blue Train — that doubles as a record shop and performance loft. Next week Clean Feed will present a minifestival, not in Portugal but in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where many of the artists on its roster reside. Each night at Barbès will feature three bands in roughly hourlong sets. Tuesday’s program begins with Transit, a quartet led by the drummer Jeff Arnal, and goes on to feature groups led by the bassist Ken Filiano, with Tony Malaby and Michaël Attias on saxophones; and the saxophonist Steve Lehman, with John Hebert on bass and Gerald Cleaver on drums. On Wednesday Mr. Attias, who often books Clean Feed artists in a weekly series at Barbès, will perform with a sextet before ceding the spotlight to the trombonist Joe Fiedler and the trumpeter Dennis Gonzáles. Thursday appears to be the most lyrical evening of the run, with chamberlike ensembles led by the accordionist Will Holshouser; the saxophonist Rodrigo Amado, on loan from Lisbon; and the guitarist Joe Morris (above). (Tuesday through Thursday at 7:30, 9:30 and 10:30 p.m., Barbès, 376 Ninth Street, at Sixth Avenue, 718-965-9177, barbesbrooklyn.com; cover, $10 per set, or $25 for the night.)

HORACEE ARNOLD QUARTET/TRINITY (Tonight) The New York chapter of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians presents one of its sporadic concerts, featuring a quartet led by the drummer Horacee Arnold, with Marcus Strickland on saxophones, Orrin Evans on piano and Buster Williams on bass; and Trinity, a collective consisting of the saxophonist Patience Higgins, the Hammond B-3 organist Lonnie Gasparini, the percussionist Thurman Baker and the poet Mikhail Horowitz. At 8, Community Church of New York, 40 East 35th Street, Manhattan, (212) 683-4988, aacm-newyork.com; $25.

OMER AVITAL GROUP (Wednesday) The bassist Omer Avital has a new live album, “The Ancient Art of Giving,” on Smalls Records, which delivers the compact jolt of his chamberlike compositions. For this one-night stand at Smalls, he leads a group including the trumpeter Avishai Cohen, the tenor and soprano saxophonist Joel Frahm, the pianist Jason Lindner and the drummer Johnathan Blake. At 10:30 p.m. and midnight, Smalls, 183 West 10th Street, West Village, (212) 675-7369, fatcatjazz.com; cover, $20.

THE BAD PLUS/JASON MORAN AND THE BANDWAGON (Through Sunday) Two trios, both plumbing the territory between melodic abstraction and gut-level groove, both featuring an erudite pianist and both involving a turbulent and unconventional drummer. This may turn out to be the most thought-provoking double bill to come under a mainstream banner this fall. At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; cover, $30 at tables, $20 at the bar, with a $5 minimum.

BILLY BANG (Tonight and tomorrow night) As a violinist and composer, Mr. Bang favors astringency and formal tension, qualities that come naturally to the musicians he has assembled here: the trumpeter Ted Daniels, the saxophonist and flutist James Spaulding, the pianist Andrew Bemkey, the bassist Todd Nicholson and the drummer Newman Taylor Baker. At 8 and 10, Sweet Rhythm, 88 Seventh Avenue South, at Bleecker Street, West Village, (212) 255-3626, sweetrhythmny.com; cover, $25, with a $10 minimum.

TIM BERNE’S HARD CELL (Tonight) With his recent album “Feign” (Screwgun), the alto saxophonist and composer Tim Berne advanced a volatile yet groove-oriented approach to experimental chamber music. Here he reconvenes Hard Cell, the fine ensemble from that album: David Torn on guitar and electronics, Craig Taborn on keyboards and Tom Rainey on drums. At 10, 55 Bar, 55 Christopher Street, West Village, (212) 929-9883, 55bar.com; cover, $10.

JOHN COLTRANE 80TH-BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION (Wednesday and Thursday) Countless tenor saxophonists have adapted John Coltrane’s sound and style over the years, but few have personalized it more effectively than Joe Lovano, who headlines here with the pianist Steve Kuhn, who briefly worked with Coltrane, and the serious-minded rhythm section of Lonnie Plaxico, bassist, and Andrew Cyrille, drummer. At 9 and 11 p.m., Birdland, 315 West 44th Street, Clinton, (212) 581-3080, birdlandjazz.com; cover, $40, with a $10 minimum.

? COLTRANE FESTIVAL (Through tomorrow) John Coltrane would have turned 80 this month, and Jazz at Lincoln Center has decided to open its new season with a celebration of his music. At the Rose Theater Wynton Marsalis is leading the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in a concert featuring arrangements of Coltrane themes. In the Allen Room the vocalist Kevin Mahogany and the saxophonist Todd Williams will pay tribute to Coltrane’s album with the baritone Johnny Hartman, with Eric Reed on piano, Reginald Veal on bass and Herlin Riley on drums. The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra performs at 8 p.m., and Kevin Mahogany performs at 7:30 and 9:30, at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, 60th Street and Broadway, (212) 721-6500, jalc.org; $37.50 to $127.50 for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra; $67.50 for Kevin Mahogany.

MARK DRESSER AND RAZ MESINAI (Thursday) Mr. Dresser is a bassist with a full range of experimental techniques; Mr. Mesinai is a composer with a broad palette of electronic devices. Their duo performance should be a study in texture, but not without a sense of pulse. At 8:30 p.m., Roulette at Location One, 20 Greene Street, at Grand Street, SoHo, (212) 219-8242, roulette.org; $15.

? FESTIVAL OF NEW TRUMPET MUSIC (Through Thursday) This laudably expansive survey of contemporary trumpeters, organized by Dave Douglas, begins its fourth season this weekend, and one of its most promising events happens early. Tomorrow night at Merkin Concert Hall, Mr. Douglas and another trumpeter, Roy Campbell, revisit the music of Don Cherry, notably including the 1966 album “Symphony for Improvisers.” Next week the action moves to the Jazz Standard, with a parade of players including Avishai Cohen, Jeremy Pelt and Keyon Harrold (on Tuesday); Taylor Ho Bynum and Stephen Haynes (Wednesday); and Ingrid Jensen and Lina Allemano (Thursday). Tomorrow at 8:30 p.m., Merkin Concert Hall, 129 West 67th Street, (212) 501-3330, kaufman-center.org; $35 ($30 in advance). The festival continues on Tuesday at the Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street, Manhattan, (212) 576-2232, jazzstandard.net; cover, $25. For a full festival schedule, visit fontmusic.org.

GAME PIECE FOR STRING INSTRUMENTS (Tomorrow) Suzanne Fiol, the artistic director of the Issue Project Room on the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, conducts this experimental happening for more than a dozen improvisers, including Miya Masaoka on koto, Jane Scarpantoni on cello and Lucian Buscemi on bass. At 8 p.m., Issue Project Room, 400 Carroll Street, between Bond and Nevins Streets, Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, (718) 330-0313, issueprojectroom.org; cover, $10.

GLENN KOTCHE AND NELS CLINE/JENNY LIN (Monday) Mr. Kotche, who plays drums with the rock band Wilco, has an engrossing new solo percussion album (“Mobile,” on Nonesuch) that reinforces his new-music credentials. Mr. Cline, Wilco’s lead guitarist, also has a new album (“New Monastery,” on Cryptogramophone), which thoughtfully investigates the compositions of the jazz pianist Andrew Hill. Performing as a duo here, Mr. Kotche and Mr. Cline are likely to incorporate extended techniques and artful atonality; it makes a certain sense that they will follow a piano recital by Jenny Lin, with a repertory including Ligeti, Shostakovich and Elliott Sharp, who will join her on electronics. At 7:30 p.m., Good Shepherd-Faith Presbyterian Church, 152 West 66th Street, Lincoln Center, (212) 877-0685, wordlessmusic.org; $19.99.

NED ROTHENBERG (Tonight) Mr. Rothenberg is a saxophonist, clarinetist, flutist and composer with a penchant for insistent frictions, as he demonstrates on a strong new album, “The Fell Clutch” (Animul). Tonight he celebrates his 50th birthday with a roll call of more than a dozen fellow experimentalists, including the saxophonists John Zorn and Marty Ehrlich, the guitarist Marc Ribot and the bassists Jerome Harris and Stomu Takeishi. On Tuesday Mr. Rothenberg leads a smaller coterie: Mark Dresser on bass, Kazu Uchihashi on guitar and Susie Ibarra on drums. Tonight at 8, Issue Project Room, 400 Carroll Street, between Bond and Nevins Streets, Brooklyn, (718) 330-0313, issueprojectroom.org; sold out. Tuesday at 8 p.m., Tonic, 107 Norfolk Street, near Delancey Street, Lower East Side, (212) 358-7501; cover, $10.

? MCCOY TYNER TRIO WITH PHAROAH SANDERS (Tuesday through Thursday) The pianist McCoy Tyner and the tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders are indelibly associated with the 1960’s output of John Coltrane, though each enjoyed a productive period as a solo artist in the 70’s and beyond. They combine their searching energies here in a quartet with Charnett Moffett on bass and Eric Kamau Gravatt on drums. (Through Sept. 24.) At 8 and 10:30 p.m., Blue Note, 131 West Third Street, West Village, (212) 475-8592, bluenote.net; cover, $45 at tables, $30 at the bar, with a $5 minimum.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

A jazz revolution wrapped in orange and black

One of several review of a new book on the history of Impulse Records, this one gives a broad perspective.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

NEW CD FROM JD PARRAN AND MARK DEUTSCH COMING NOV. 7TH

From www.improvisedcommunications.com:

Media Contact:
Scott Menhinick, Improvised Communications
(617) 489-6561
scott@improvisedcommunications.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 15, 2006

NEW CD FROM JD PARRAN AND MARK DEUTSCH COMING NOV. 7TH
NEW YORK, NY — Y’All of New York, Inc. is proud to announce the November 7th release of Omegathorp: Living City (Y’All 008), a new CD documenting a September 2002 Merkin Hall performance co-led by multi-reedist/composer JD Parran and string player/composer Mark Deutsch. Thomas Buckner (voice), David Darling (cello, electronics, and electro-vocals), Joseph Kubera (piano) and Kevin Norton (percussion) round out the ensemble on Omegathorp: Living City, which features Parran’s four-part title composition (a setting of poetry by the late Glenn Spearman), as well as Deutsch’s “Kwama Okura” and an improvised piece inspired by the ensemble’s unusual instrumentation.

Parran (heard here on alto clarinet, E-flat contrabass clarinet, soprano saxophone and bamboo flute) has appeared on more than 50 recordings over the last three decades, including collaborations with The Band, Anthony Braxton, Don Byron, Anthony Davis, Julius Hemphill, New Winds, Yoko Ono, Alan Silva and Stevie Wonder among many others. He is also a veteran educator who lectures at City University of New York (CUNY) and teaches clarinet and saxophone at Harlem School for the Arts. In addition to his teaching and performing careers, he has been commissioned as a composer by organizations such as the National Endowment for the Arts, Meet the Composer, the New York State Council on the Arts, the Jerome Foundation and the Helen W. Buckner Foundation.

A professional musician since the age of 12, Deutsch (heard here on Bazantar and sitar) is a classically trained bassist with extensive experience performing in orchestral and jazz ensembles as well as a wide variety of global folk traditions. He has a degree in Classical Contrabass Performance from the St. Louis Conservatory of Music and has studied privately with Ustad Imrat Khan (surbahar and sitar), Henry Loew (classical bass) and Tito Sompa (Congolese percussion). In 1999, he was awarded a patent for an instrument he invented called the Bazantar, a five-string acoustic bass fitted with an additional 29 sympathetic strings and four drone strings that is tuned in the tradition of North Indian music. He has recently collaborated with film composer David Julyan (Insomnia and Memento), the Chicago-based experimental rock band Tortoise, virtuoso erhu player Yang Ying and creative improvisers Roy Campbell, Hamid Drake and William Parker.

Find out more about Mark Deutsch and the Bazantar at:
http://www.bazantar.com/about.html

Learn more about Y’All of New York at:
http://www.yallnewyork.org

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Destination Out Downloads

Destination Out has features (and downloads) on Ronald Shannon Jackson, Chris McGregor, and Dewey Redman.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Vancouver New Music Festival Does Three Days of Cage

The Vancouver New Music Festival will be presenting three days dedicated to the music of John Cage, with concerts and a film showing.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Avant Garde Project 26: Luciano Berio Vocal Music

AGP 26 is out, featuring vocal music of Luciano Berio.

AGP26 is a particularly happy outcome of a request by an AGP patron. Luciano Berio has long been one of my favorite composers, but I had jumped to the conclusion that so many of his works were available on CD that I could not assemble a torrent from out-of-print works. Only when a Berio AGP installment was specifically requested did I look closely enough to realize that I actually had two torrents of unavailable Berio in my stacks–one devoted to vocal music and another (for next week) devoted to instrumental music.

We’re starting with Berio’s vocal music because he had a special gift for writing for voices. Even if vocal music from the late 20th century is not normally your thing, I strongly encourage you to check out this torrent. The works included come from two LP releases from the 1970’s, one on RCA and one on Decca. The earliest work was written in 1952 and the latest in 1974. Tracks 01, 02, 05, and 06 are the original versions of works that were later modified for incorporation into Berio’s “Opera”, while track 03 is the original chamber version of what became the second movement of his “Sinfonia”. The torrent includes a text file containing liner notes from the LPs from which these recordings were transcribed.

There was more tracking distortion than I would have liked during the transcription of the last movement of “Cries of London”, most of which I was able to eliminate by increasing the stylus tracking force from 1.6 to 1.8g. However, the upshot of doing this is a somewhat heavier and less airy sound. My feeling is that the slight loss of detail is a fair trade for less distortion, so the first version of that last movement (track 08) is the 1.8g transcription. To enable listeners to make the final choice for themselves, I have also included the 1.6g transcription as track 09 of the torrent. You may be interested in comparing these two tracks by way of experiencing the imperfections sometimes associated with the inner grooves of LPs, when the stylus covers less groove area per second, and so tracking can be compromised during loud and/or complex passages.

Equipment used for A/D conversion: Lyra Helikon phono cartridge, Linn LP12/Lingo turntable, Linn Ittok tonearm, Audioquest LeoPard tonearm cable, PS Audio PS2 preamplifier, Kimber PBJ interconnect, M-Audio Audiophile USB A/D converter.

01 - Agnus [6:08]
02 - Air [5:47]
03 - O King [4:40]
04 - El mar la mar [5:35]
05 - Melodrama [15:36]
06 - E vo [4:44]
07 - Cries of London 1-6 [11:05]
08 - Cries of London 7 [3:50]
09 - Cries of London 7, 1.8g [3:50]

NOTE: To the best of my knowledge, these recordings are currently out of print. If you know otherwise, please let me know ASAP, as I do not wish any artists to be deprived of the royalties that they so richly deserve.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Sax player Coleman still shaping vibrant jazz

Mainstream media is picking up on Ornette Coleman’s latest release even though it is on his own label. A piece from Reuters:

The recipient of such prestigious awards as the MacArthur “Genius” Grant in 1994 and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 2004, Coleman has been grooving to a different beat since the late ’50s, when he trailblazed the free jazz movement in reaction to the confines of bebop. Not to be confused with freewheeling avant blowing that he helped spawn, his “shape of jazz to come” formed a delicate balance of reflection and turbulence, structure and license…

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

DMG Newsletter September 15th 2006

This week’s DMG Newsletter is out.

HAPPY 50th BIRTHDAY TO NED ROTHENBERG!
NED’S BIG BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION TONIGHT AT THE ISSUE PROJECT ROOM IS SOLD OUT!

SPLENDID SEPTEMBER DISCS from THE NEW ORNETTE COLEMAN QUARTET, THREE from ATAVISTIC: STEVE LACY QUINTET, JON CORBETT Vs. JIM DEMPSEY [V.A. With PETER BROTZMANN/IKUE MORI/SUN RA] & CHRISTOPH GALLIO/URS VOERKEL/PETER K FREY, PERE UBU,

THREE from CUNEIFORM: MICROSCOPIC SEXTET REISSUE, BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC & NeBeLNeST, MAX NAGL’S TRIBUTE to ROBERT WYATT, CLUB D’ ELF [w/ DAVE TRONZO, JOHN MEDESKI, BILLY MARTIN, MAT MANERI & DJ LOGIC], LEE SCRATCH PERRY, NEW SIGNAL TO NOISE,

TOMASZ STANKO QUARTET, GIACINTO SCELSI//FRANCES-MARIE UITTI/MUNICH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, ETHEL [STRING QUARTET], TERRY RILEY//ICTUS ENSEMBLE,

A BUNCH from pfMENTUM: JEFF KAISER & TOM McNALLEY, STEUART LIEBIG & THE MENTONES & THE CHOIR BOYS, ELLEN BURR & BRASSUM, OMER AVITAL with MARK TURNER/AVISHAI E COHEN/AARON GOLDBERG /ALI JACKSON, RYAN TEAGUE, HELENA ESPVALL, ERIK AMLEE, PLUS…

HISTORIC DISCS from BLUE NOTE: JACKIE McLEAN’S ‘DEMON’S DANCE’, BOBBY HUTCHERSON’S ‘HAPPENINGS’, FREDDIE HUBBARD’S ‘HERE TO STAY’ HORACE SILVER QUINTET’S ‘SILVER’S SERENADE’ & DONALD BYRD’S ‘OFF TOP THE RACES’,

ARTHUR RUSSELL, SANDY BULL, LES FLEURS DE PAVOT, AMIGOS DE MARIA, ILOUS & DECUYPER, DAWNWIND, JAKI WHITREN & GHANA SOUNDZ VOLUMES 1 & 2

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

New CD from BROETZMANN-PLIAKAS-WERTMUELLER

From Marino Pliakas:

BROETZMANN-PLIAKAS-WERTMUELLER

Peter Broetzmann (D), reeds (Broetzmann Chicago Tentett, Machine Gun, Die Like a Dog, Globe Unit Orchestra etc.: http://www.shef.ac.uk/misc/rec/ps/efi/mbrotzm.html)
Michael Wertmueller (CH), drums (William Parker Trio, Alboth!, 16-17, W2, etc; http://www.michaelwertmueller.com)
Marino Pliakas (CH/GR), ebass (steamboat switzerland, sludge 2000 etc.: http://www.marinopliakas.com)

Peter Broetzmann (Germany, reeds) - the living legend of the European new jazz.
He has exemplified European improvised music for over 40 years and participated in countless international collaborations. A founder of European Free Jazz movement, his work includes collaborations and recordings with Last Exit (with Bill Laswell, Sonny Sharrock and Ronald Shannon Jackson), Evan Parker, Misha Mengelberg, and Borah Bergman. Recent projects include Die Like a Dog (with William Parker, Hamid Drake and Toshinori Kondo), his homage to Albert Ayler, the Chicago-based Broetzmann Tentet and many more. His first album Machine Gun released in 1968 still represents the reference for the musicians and critics. Considering his 40-years-career and more than 100 albums, but also many current projects, Broetzmann is still one of the most influential figures of the new music.

In this new trio his associates are bassist Marino Pliakas (Switzerland) and drummer Michael Wertmueller (Switzerland/Germany). Broetzmann-Pliakas-Wertmueller toured since fall 2004 in USA, CAN, Germany, Norway, Finland, Netherlands, Portugal, Italy, Poland, Austria, Slovenia, Switzerland, Egypt. Festivals: Seattle Earshot Jazz Festival, Winnipeg send+receive, Tampere Jazz Happening, AudioArt Krakow, Angelica Festival Bologna, Moers Festival, Lisbon Jazzfestival etc.

Wertmueller and Broetzmann toured for years as a duo and in various contexts: Broetzmann’s Chicago Tentett, very successful record of the two together with William Parker (www.intonemusic.com/nothung) etc. Wertmueller and Pliakas worked together on various occasions (touring together in various bands on festivals all over Europe e.g. SKIF-Festival St.Petersburg/Russia, Kaunas Jazzfestival/Lithuania, RingRing Festival Belgrade/Serbia, Nozart Festival Cologne/Germany, Xperipheria Budapest/Hungary, Long Arms Festival Moscow/Russia, Cross-linX festival Enschede and Utrecht/Netherlands, Festival Victoriaville/Canada etc. together with Peter Broetzmann, Caspar Broetzmann, Stephan Wittwer, John Cale, Holger Csukay, KK.Null and others; cooperation with Pliakas’ avant trio STEAMBOAT SWITZERLAND). Both of them toured the whole world with their various bands (MW: William Parker Trio, Alboth!, 16-17, W2; MP: steamboat switzerland, sludge 2000 etc.).

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Newsbits: September 15th, 2006

Swindleeeee!!!!! has an analysis of whether or not eMusic fits into the “Long Tail” media hyptothesis. Kayo Dot has an upcoming show. One month from today, Birdsongs of the Mesozoic play the Boston area. The NOW Ensemble plays chamber music in New York on September 28th. On October 3rd, Northwestern University will hold an evening of Steve Reich music honoring the composer’s 70th birthday.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

People in Hungary Resist the RIAA

An open letter from a group in Hungary describes a grass-roots movement to prevent the RIAA’s blackmail-lawsuits in that country.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

The Friday Informer: Yesterday Was "World Hearing Voices" Day

Though we may only have ears for the music, it's still being filtered through the drugs, the critics, the culture, and own our personal computers.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

This Week's Music From Other Minds Program

MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS 79 - September 15 - TWO OBSCURE - Barraqué and Markevitch
Listen Again
KALW FM 91.7 San Francisco - Friday nights at 11pm

Originally from MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS - KALW 91.7 San Francisco, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Putting it online

Here's a small list of contemporary composers who are putting a substantial number of their scores online. Many composers have samples of scores online, I've only listed those with complete scores for free downloading. Please let me know of more addresses to add (djwolf AT online DOT de). Dennis Báthory-Kitsz David Feldman (Postscript) Daniel Goode John Greschak Jeff Harrington Larry

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

The Future of Sheet Music Publishing

As a student, I received a lot of advice about publishing sheet music. Funny thing was, none of those teachers giving me advice, all of it traditional (i.e. write your scores on ozalids, use sizes of paper other than letter or legal, do not photocopy, write a good cover letter), were conventionally published themselves. Already by the early 1980's, things had clearly changed in the music

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

aworks ordered list :: current listening focus /form factor is the message/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 17, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

September 15, 2006

London Sinfonietta - Warp Works & Twentieth Century Masters

This gets released on Monday - 19-track, 2CD set from the 2003 Warp/London Sinfonietta concerts. Woo!

Here’s a review from Timout Chicago which, to my ears, gets the Sinfonietta/Alarm Will Sound thing the wrong way though - AWS’s versions of Aphex Twin seem much better than the Sinfonietta’s versions as I remember them. But at least now with a proper recording available of the latter, I can put that properly to the test.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Don't fear if you hear a foreign sound to your ear

The latest chapter of Greg Sandow’s online book-in-progress is up, and he brings up (among other things) Brahms—specifically, how Brahms and his generation were the first composers laboring under the weight of a pre-existing canon of great music (Bach and Beethoven, mainly). Along the way, he makes an interesting comparison:Later, when Brahms encountered Robert Schumann (a composer who embodied,

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Rant

Over at La scena musicale, Norman Lebrecht has posted a column of unusual inanity.* See, there's been an outcry among musicians in the UK over new, stringent prohibitions on carry-on items for plane travel, since it means that musical instruments now have to be checked into the plane's hold. So plenty of players have opted for trains, boats, or just plain staying home, rather than entrusting their axe to the airline industry. You selfish, awful, privileged people! Canon Lebrecht has words for you.

The ones who are affected are the international premier class of violin and cello soloists and a handful of jazz musicians whose instruments are insured for upwards of half a million pounds or are so personal to the players that they cannot be replaced.

This elite – we are speaking of no more than 200 or 300 artists – have found a way around the restrictions by taking Eurostar to Paris or Brussels and catching an onward connection. Inconvenient, true, and a terrible waste of time and money but surely preferable to a breach in the security firewall that protects everyone else who flies.

First of all, just how much of a "security firewall" do we need for musical instruments anyway? It seems to me that any instrument out there can be inspected and x-rayed to a point that would satisfy even Dick Cheney. Is that special treatment for musicians? Sure is, because it's a special situation—musicians rely on their own particular instrument to an extent that's unparalleled in any other industry. If the airlines lost my laptop, I'd raise hell—but at least I'd have my data backed up. How do you back up a viola?

Besides, Norman, we're speaking of quite a few more than 300 people here. All performing musicians have to travel, and frequently by plane. And just because a non-famous musician's instrument isn't insured for a gazillion pounds doesn't mean that its loss would be any less catastrophic. What if you're an entry-level orchestral musician traveling to an audition? A young chamber group on tour? Are you going to entrust your instrument to an airline under the disconcertingly large probablility that it could get damaged or lost? I'd sure sweat over a $20,000 violin if I only made $30,000 a year.

I remember a few years back when an up-and-coming opera singer here in Boston had a fire at her apartment. Not only did she lose her music, she lost all her recital gowns—a staggering financial blow for someone trying to get career traction. How is that different from Cut-Rate Air redirecting her garment bag to Vladivostok? News for you, Norm: the big stars might be getting inconvenienced, but the future stars are getting screwed. Get a clue.

*Correction: this line originally referred to the column with the phrase "absolutely breathtaking stupidity." Upon reflection, I thought that to be a bit of a cheap shot—while I did consider the column stupid, at no time was my breathing adversely affected. Hence the change.

Originally from Soho the Dog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

I must have said it before if i say it now

....that I fucking love berio's Symphonia. The energetic movements that frame the work leave me speachless, literally. i have no idea what to write right now.

Alex Ross mentioned in his lecture that this work, particularly the collage-music middle movement, is a great example of post-modernism in music. That post-modern tendency towards quotation for reference and disorientation- and the playfulness of it, is pomo-infused, but it is more than pomo, and at the same time, beyond definition. By the way, there is a waiter here in nantes who looks amazingly similar to the new yorker-lecturer himself. i can only say this with a small degree of certainty since i have met alex ross.

but Berio puts my poor spam songs to shame. Oh my poor, languishing spam songs. they sit there in the states, neglected, unfinished and unperformed. I really want to hear the first one performed before i die. Just the part about penis enlargement patches, thats all, thats all. its not much to ask of a soprano, right?

Originally from Music in a Suburban Scene, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

Ma, Montero and that noisy music

"Long and winding road," Time Out Chicago, Sept. 14-20, 2006. Yo-Yo Ma, the Chicago Symphony, and the Art Institute team up to spread the Silk Road gospel. Wait until it's free online, or buy it now.
Review of Gabriela's Bach and Beyond CD. Also, Molly Sheridan reviews the 2-CD compilation of the London Sinfonietta playing Warp artists. "Woo," as the kids say at the end of each Sinfonietta track.
Bonus: The Crackberry treatment for BlackBerry addicts at Renovo Spa for Men. The hand model in the accompanying picture has some ruggedly handsome hands, I say.

Originally posted by MarcGeelhoed from Marc Geelhoed: Deceptively Simple, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:54 PM | Comments (0)

An Elephant's Eye

Via ArtsJournal:

* I'm glad I never got one of those lousy MacArthur Genius Grants.  Glad, I tell you!  MacArthur geniuses are losers!

 It took you 10 years to complete "Almanac of the Dead." Did you feel an obligation to make it very ambitious because of the award? "No, it already wanted to be the way that it was. That's why it was so wonderful that the MacArthur came along. When the MacArthur ran out and the novel wasn't done, I felt pressure, but it wasn't pressure because I had won the MacArthur. It was pressure because I had finished the MacArthur and I still didn't have the novel completed."

Any downside to winning the award? "My ex-husband decided to come back after me to try to get some of my MacArthur fellowship money."

* Your musical tastes predict your tastes in illegal drugs.  The corn may be as high as an elephant's eye, but fans of Oklahoma! aren't.

* We find the answer to that variation of the chicken-and-egg question.  It's the celebrity-and-narcissist question.  The answer:  narcissists turn themselves into celebrities, not vice versa.  Meanwhile, we can be thankful for small graces:

Musicians — who have the highest skill level — are the least narcissistic celebrity group, while reality television stars — the least talented or skilled group — are the most narcissistic.

So, there's no talent to being a reality TV star?!  I'm dumbfounded!  Furthermore, Dance Fever!

Originally from Fredösphere, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

CPO's new music director reaches out to adopted community

Bob Clark, Calgary Herald, 9/14/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

"Grimes, Grimes, Grimes, Grimes..."

Video of Jon Vickers's devastating performance as the sadistic fisherman. (Via Steve Smith. Available on a VAI DVD, "Jon Vickers: Four Operatic Portraits.")

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

sequenza 21 revamp

Originally from david's waste of bandwidth..., ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

Welcome to Sequenza21 3.0

Okay, we’re back and ready to ramble.  What we have here now is a web site that looks great but you don’t want to look in the closets.  The original Sequenza21 was just a collection of static html pages, S21 2.0 was the addition of dynamic pages using Blogger software to create separate blogs for the main page, the Composers Forum, the Calendar, and the CD Reviews.

S21 3.0 is the same four blogs recreated in Wordpress.  I’ll be sending out today new user names and passwords to those of you who currently have access to the old pages.  The new WP posting interface is similar and you’ll quickly figure it out.

I’ll be sprucing up the place over the next few days, moving some of the old furniture over from the old place.  Everything that was here is still here; you may just have to use the search function to find it.

Back with more later.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

Let’s Hear it for Jeff Harrington

Daniel Wolf, who hangs around these parts from time to time, has written a terrific piece about our resident tech adviser Jeff Harrington who, in addition to knowing how to do a 301 redirect, is also a composer of some talent. Daniel applauds Jeff for being the first composer to put all of his bets on the web rather than the traditional ways composers try to get their works heard.

Daniel also has some nice things to say about Jeff’s work. Check it out.

And while we’re praising Jeff, now might be a good time to thank him for all he does to keep S21 up and running as our official, if unpaid, webmaster.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21/, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

"Blow Your Harmonica, Son!"

I’ve been meaning to pen a little paean to one Otis “Lightnin’ Slim” Hicks, King of the Swamp Blues, for a while. I considered scribbling up a Record of the Week, but most of Slim’s work is the province...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Daniel Wolf Article, Premiere of L'Ecume des Temps and More

Frankfurt-based Californian composer/experimentalist Daniel Wolf has written an incredibly nice article about my music and philosophy of music distribution at his blog Renewable Music yesterday. He makes specific mention of one of my favorite recent pieces, my Horn Trio. Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano Score Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Horn Part Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Violin Part Trio for Horn, Violin and Piano - Piano Part The super guitar and violin duo, Duo46 will finally be premiering my piece L'Ecume des Temp at Cincinnati, Ohio - Madison House Concert Series : Nov 16. I've also recently transcribed the piece for Duo Ahlert und Schwab for Mandolin and Guitar. They've been performing Cassotis all summer long and it will be a part of their new program, "Nowhere Left to Go." L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - New Realization - MP3 L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Study Score L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Guitar Part L'Ecume des Temps for Guitar and Violin - Violin Part Three piano preludes of mine, #6, #7, and #8 will receive their New York premiere November 20 by the superb pianist, Daniel Beliavsky at the Sequenza21 Concert. Prelude 6 Acrobat Score Prelude 7 Acrobat Score Prelude 8 Acrobat Score Piano Prelude 6 Piano Prelude 7 Piano Prelude 8 An electronic piece of 60 seconds duration of mine, 'Kali Yuga' has been selected by Vox Novus for performance at their New York concert this year, New York Minutes. More info as it's available... I can't put 'Kali Yuga' online until after the premiere, but here are two 60 second electronic pieces I made but didn't submit. They're both a little poppier than is usual for me, but some interesting transformations and timbres are involved. Gouttes is drops of liquids bouncing off of a shiny surface. Syrinx is named after a bird's voice box and uses formant shifting synthesis to create a cruncy bird-like percussive track to accompany the ambient slow tunes. Gouttes Syrinx I'm finishing up a piano piece, which seemingly came out of the blue from materials left over from my recent Piano and Amplified Harpsichord (or electronic harpsichord), Marteau-pilon Épouvantable-Implacable. I'll probably finish it this weekend. My first big piano piece since DeltaBandResonator.

Originally posted by jeff from The Music of Jeff Harrington, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Cecil Taylor + 2: Mark Feldman & Sylvie Courvoisier Oct. 12 in New York

Taylor’s upcoming show with this pair is previewed.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

Today bunch from All About Jazz:

15-Sep-06 Satoko Fujii Orchestra NY
Undulation (NatSat Music)
15-Sep-06 Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble
The Messenger (Delmark Records)
15-Sep-06 Junk Box
Fragment (Libra Records)
14-Sep-06 McGill / Manring / Stevens
What We Do (Free Electric Sound)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Nels Cline and Glen Kotche at University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky hosts this duo next weekend.

The University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center for the Arts (SCFA) will welcome home one of UK’s most famous percussion students – Glenn Kotche this month. Kotche will be joined by Wilco guitarist Nels Cline as the opening concert in the Turning the Corner Series. Kotche/Cline takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 23, at the SCFA Recital Hall.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Gary Lucas Update

Gary Lucas (Magic Band, Fast-n-Bulbous) has updated his blog with info about his next release, and much more.

Hey, I just signed (inked, in Variety-speak) with Mighty Quinn Records here for release of my new Gods and Monsters album “Coming Clean” in the US, Canada and Japan! Deal was a longtime coming, and lucky for me I have a big friend and fan in Jerry Roche (and also Meg Griffin, programming visionary of Sirius Satellite Radio who steered me to Jerry)–Jerry is the guy behind the label, a music lover, jazz reissue honcho at Mosaic, and industry vet who’s been a fan of my work for years, has seen me play live numerous times, and is way way gung ho on my band, my little avant-punk supergroup known as Gods and Monsters–and that’s the kind of enthusiasm you need these days!!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

High Zero Festival

The festival takes place in Baltimore starting today.

Don’t Miss the 8th Annual High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music! (Sponsored in part by Electric Possible)

This week Baltimore will experience the 8th Annual High Zero Festival of Experimental Improvised Music, Thursday September 14th-Sunday September 17th at The Theatre Project, 45 West Preston Street in Baltimore. See http://www.highzero.org for full details, schedules, tickets and directions. Advance tickets: *410.752.8558. *

The festival is by far one of the largest, wildest, and most inspired events dedicated to experimental and improvised music (read “the avant-garde”) in the United States, and is also a very special expression of the home-grown weirdness that makes Baltimore special. There is really nothing else like it.

Consisting of all-new collaborations between individual performers from a broad range of subcultures, the goal of the festival is to actually
create ³new music² in the literal sense of “music no one has heard before.” Four packed days of concerts at the Theatre Project are paralleled by riotous street performances, site specific mysteries, gallery sound installations, and workshops around the city.

If you haven’t heard much experimental or avant-garde music, this is the place to find out about it. If you have, you probably already know all about it, as it is one of the major events nationally. Don’t miss this great event! Electric Possible is a proud sponsor.

Some links:

Performers
http://www.highzero.org/2006_site/performers/

Schedules
http://www.highzero.org/2006_site/schedules/

Site-Specific High Jinx
http://www.highzero.org/2006_site/highjinx/

Gallery Sound Installations at MICA
http://www.highzero.org/2006_site/schedules/index.html#soundinstallations

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Time Off

The magic of music is that, while it exists in time, it has the ability to bend time. So why do so many concerts list the duration of each of the works on the program?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Ives and Mahler

Someone will someday write the definitive book on Ives and Mahler, the two major landscape artists among composers. For the moment, and very tentatively, let me note one major difference between the two. Mahler's landscapes are always heard from a single, optimal vantage point, the vantage of a cool and detached listener. In Ives, the vantage point can also be dynamic: in his most complex

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 15, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

September 14, 2006

jazz french horn

I'm listening to this album by Jim Rattigan, which I picked up at Ray's Jazz a while ago. The idea of playing jazz on my chosen instrument been a small obsession of mine since, at an impressionable age, I was given an LP by the New York horn player, composer and leader Tom Varner. Until then, I'd had no idea that this was even possible, assuming instead that jazz was a party to which I was not invited, and envying the trombonists and trumpet players in the school big band. Even after this revelation, I was too timid to actually do very much until I went to college, where I attended a jazz course and far too few of Keith Tippett's improvisation classes.

The French horn has never been a common instrument in jazz, mainly because its size and shape, which produce its characteristic rich timbre, mean that most playing is done further up the harmonic series than other brass instruments. As Tom Varner notes,

the French horn is so slippery. For the first two or three years, I had trouble trying to play a line which might be pretty easy to play on the trumpet or saxophone, but on the French horn it sounds like shit. It sort of takes extra to get that flexibility that you need on the horn, just because it’s so much bigger and the overtones are so close.

Nonetheless, there is a distinguished roster of jazz horn players, starting in the 'fifties, when composers started to use the instrument to fill out the middle register of ensembles and big bands. The third-stream composer Gunther Schuller was one of three to play on The Birth of the Cool; Julius Watkins featured on later Miles/Gil Evans projects, as well as playing with Charles Mingus, Freddie Hubbard, John Coltrane (the Africa sessions), and the Jazz Composer's Orchestra.

In the US, while Varner has earned most critical plaudits (including placings in several Downbeat critics' polls), the field also includes the prolific Mark Taylor, Vincent Chancey and John Clark. I'm told by my uncle John Benson that Branford Marsalis paid tribute to Africa/Brass at the recent Chicago Jazz Fest with a 'wonderful' band including four horns. In the UK, as well as Rattigan, LPO principal Richard Bissill is a mean arranger and improviser, though one who seems to operate less in the jazz mainstream. (If memory serves, Rattigan contributes a solo to Bissill's arrangement of 'Caravan' on the novelty horn-fest CD The London Horn Sound.) Pianist Gwilym Simcock also plays horn (see Acoustic Triangle's latest, passim). British-born Martin Mayes has made a career in Italy, performing with Instabile Orchestra and Cecil Taylor as well as investigating the acoustic properties of the instrument in free-improv settings. (Cruelly, I press-ganged him into playing his first Mahler in years at Dartington when we were short two players for the Second Symphony.) Pip Eastop is also an improvising horn player, mainly in a free-improv sense, but interestingly seems to have turned to the trumpet in order to learn to play jazz.

Returning to Jim Rattigan's Jazz French Horn, what I like about this disc is that Rattigan still sounds like a horn player; there's that real, rounded warmth to his tone. Hear him cool as a cucumber on Steve Swallow's 'Eiderdown', or cooking on 'Black Narcissus' (note the use of 'hand-stopping', or muting the sound by covering the bell with the hand). And he takes 'Autumn Leaves' on Wagner Tuba, which has to be a first.

Those interested in jazz french horn should consult Harlan Feinstein's impressive resource on the subject, and if there are any more players out there, it would be great to hear from you. The reason, finally, for this post is that I start the Jazz Workshop class at Morley College next week, finally scratching that itch. I'll let you know how I get on.

Originally posted by Robert Witts from Musicircus, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Pleåsure Nøise: Kaija Saariaho's Cello Works

K. Saariaho, Cello Works, A. Descharmes

The latest CD with the music of Kaija Saariaho features her complete works for cello, ranging from the 1988 Petals (on the Contemporary Music Forum concert next Sunday at the Corcoran) to the 2000 Sept Papillons. The best of modern classical music appeals immediately (on some level) while offering enough complexity and novelty to intrigue on any number of hearings. The litmus test to figure out if a new work meets this standard is successfully passed if the idea of giving the recording another, second or third, spin is not met with a cringe. Even when there is other music eagerly awaiting to be listened to. I’ve listened four times to the Saariaho disc – and duty was not the compelling force.

Categorization in contemporary classical music will more likely confuse than illuminate. But it is tempting to distinguish between the very different approaches of composers like Golijov, whose ambitious ethno-flavored classical popsicles have plenty of appeal (Ramírez and Sierra are less successful exemplars of that craft), and the explorative Romantics who dare to be authentic 21st-century composers (Benjamin C. S. Boyle, Nicholas Maw, Ned Rorem, Kaija Saariaho, David Del Tredici might be counted among those) without getting stuck in the trappings of austere academia (Milton Babbitt, Brian Ferneyhough, Lee Hoiby… name your favorites). Any of these, no matter the quality, will compare favorably to the type of schlock that masquerades as “classical music” and flows from the – miraculously unembarrassed – pens of Karl Jenkins, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Paul McCartney, John Rutter, Roger Waters… no better than an off-Broadway musical soundtrack, most of it.

The best approach to this heap of contemporary classical music is akin to the “Sister Wendy Museum touring method”: glance at it all but only stop at what intrigues (not necessarily pleases) you. Then spend time with that particular work, enter into a dialogue with it. Learn about the many different appeals of contemporary music. Like in painting or photography, it is often not the subject per se that is the attraction, not necessarily melody or harmony or even rhythms, but light and shade, texture, structure, vague evocations, games with time and sound (or silence) itself.

Modern music succeeds as an art for the public to the extent that the listener, not just the composer, his fellow composers, and that odd subset of the human species, musicologists, can follow these themes. One might go so far as to pin-point success in composition being a work that appeals through its aims, experiments, mood, and expression thereof: appeals because it employs a language that communicates its intent. If the intent is appeal itself, its success is at best that of a consumer product, not art. If the work is all intent, but unable to communicate, the composer ends up with something still-born, enjoyable only to him. Like a scientist who marvels at his latest creation – a flying, egg-laying, and fire-resistant hamster – may be proud studying his project’s superior genetic code but conveniently ignores the minor snag that these critters are invariably dead before hatching.

Dead, flying hamsters are admittedly a long way from Kaija Saariaho’s cello works. Take the excursion as a way of saying that this recording is no such chimera; that it contains music of the kind that makes you listen up, willingly joining for the journey, even if you can’t necessarily discern where the journey goes. Elsewhere I have described the impression as "grinding through stone, ageless sounds, crumpled paper, blown glass sculptures (some of them broken)." It isn’t important that beauty, in any conventional sense, is in short supply. (“Beauty,” as my favorite Celibidache quote goes, “is not the goal itself; it is the lure.”) Nor is it of consequence if you go away from “Près” (1992) noting the diligently coy development of “a trill between the cello’s B-flat and its 4th natural harmonic” or merely a curious “uh-huu.” Comprehension of underlying theory and techniques can help you appreciate modern music – but for the music’s ‘success’ it is not necessary that you do. Watch some of Fellini’s films and see if understanding necessitates enjoyment.

Join Saariaho’s Petals by not expecting anything in particular, and allow yourself to be enveloped and poked by strange, strangely familiar sounds of Alexis Descharmes’s cello receiving imaginative use and abuse, conventional manipulations like sul ponticello and sul tasto, which are then (optionally) modified by the electronic-musician/technician from IRCAM, David Poissonnier. Jérémie Fèvre adds his flute to Mirrors (1997) and Nicolas Baldeyrou his bass clarinet to Oi Kuu (1990).

æon AECD 0637

Originally from ionarts, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

Romica Puceanu - several albums

Romica Puceanu was a Romanian singer who became in the 60s and 70s, as Dr. Garfias’ web site puts it, “the unrivaled interpreter of the cintec de pahar, that form of urban Romanian Gypsy song, a combination of Turkish and Romanian elements in a unique Gypsy setting.” She was seldom heard outside of Romania due to the restriction the regime of that era placed on its artists. Here are three excellent recordings of this expressive vocalist.

Cintece Lautaresti is a mid 60s vinyl recording with the Brothers Gore, a Romanian folk music ensemble. Puceana’s voice is like fine silk and is accompanied nicely by the brothers’ accordian and violin. It is a good recording marred by some scratchiness inevitable in these old LPs. The MP3 bitrate is 96kbps.

Cine Nu Stie ce-i Doru is from the 70s and show Romica Puceanu at her best. If you are to download only one of these three albums make it this one. The marvelous accompianments are from violinist Florea Cioaca on violin and accordianist Bebe Serban. It is available in 128kbps MP3.

Romica Puceanu accompanied by Orchestra Ion Albesteanu is a later recording from the 80s of the singer with a slightly larger ensemble. It is very good but I prefer the intimacy of the other two recordings. It is available in 96kbps MP3.

Download

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

Just Another Medieval Quartet Crossing Over

Winter Miller, New York Times, 9/13/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Kronos Quartet revives post-9/11 world solidarity

Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/13/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

In a time of turmoil, Kronos listens outward for healing

Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 9/13/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Relearning After Having a Bad Teacher

Read my latest Chatter by clicking on the link below Relearning After Having a Bad Teacher Cheers!...

Originally from Belinda Reynolds - MySpace Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Karajan pigeon action

Mitchell Agoos recalls the time he protested one of Herbert von Karajan's first American appearances by releasing pigeons from the balcony of Carnegie Hall. (Via Matthew Guerrieri.) Richard Osborne, describing the episode in his Karajan biography, said that only three pigeons took flight, and that two others were found suffocated in a briefcase. The two-time Nazi surely deserved some kind of protest, but was it necessary to kill pigeons in the process? Those were the days, in any case.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Ned Rothenberg

Ned Rothenberg
Thursday, October 10th - Ned Rothenberg / Evan Parker Duo. See Roulette October 2006 Events page for details.
From Podcast: Roulette's Home of Experimental Music.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

'Diatribes' review reposted

Remember that half-assed review of electrojazz-combo Diatribe's "Interconnexions" that I posted last month? Well, now you can read it again... twice!

First there's the nicely done repost at Pop Occulture. I also invite you to look at the rest of the Pop Occulture website. It's an extremely well done publication, and I think that in a lot of ways it is an inidication of the kind of media we'll be consuming in years to come. (I'm not in a state of mind to elaborate on that statement right now, sorry. Maybe soon.)

Second, Diatribe's electronicist & soundist d'Incise has reposted the 'review' on his own site.

I always love having my stuff reposted. There's a problem though... whenever I find a repost of something I've written, all the typos and bad style stick out like it was all bolded in bright red. And I can't fix the mistakes!

I think I'm doing a pretty good job, though. A lot of you don't know this, but I'm writing all these blog posts while working a McDonald's drive-through in Daytona. One day I'll post the picture of myself at my laptop wearing my visor and headset. Sorry, we don't supersize anymore. Damn you, Morgan Spurlock!

-z

Originally from The Hollow Tree Experimental Music Report, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Barbeque dog.

I held out for as long as I could. The riches now available on YouTube are truly, truly staggering, as absolutely everyone knows...which means that I never felt compelled to embed a video on this blog, because anyone can go to the site and dig up all manner of unimaginable treasures.

I resisted posting, for example, the incredible footage of Jon Vickers agonizing through the final delirium of Peter Grimes, not to mention the rather delectable homemade video someone produced for what is quite possibly the utter nadir of western pop music to date, "My Humps" by Black Eyed Peas. (Hang in there for the piano break -- it's so worth it. Mute it if you have to, won't make any difference.)

But on Wednesday, the fine folks at Destination Out celebrated Ronald Shannon Jackson's 1983 masterpiece, Barbeque Dog, in the process uncovering an old discography I spent long months compiling and had no idea was still to be found on the Interweb. Sadly, as I commented there, despite my having compiled this third and last version of the discography in 1998, it's still essentially up to date apart from a handful of Knitting Factory-released reissues and archival live dates.

In reponse to the original post, commentator Peter Breslin noted that a 1979 Saturday Night Live performance by Ornette Coleman's Prime Time -- with Charlie Ellerbee, Bern Nix, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Denardo Coleman and RSJ -- had been posted to YouTube. It's an amazing clip, as much for the fact that this aired on national television as for the performance itself. Poking around just a little bit more led me to another clip uploaded by the same user: a performance by the avant-punk-splatter-metal supergroup Last Exit, a band I'd never actually seen in action. My conception of the group was completely overturned; I'd always imagined a fairly stolid presence, but these guys were AC/DC onstage.

Exploring further still, I found this tiny, indescribable gem -- and found myself unable to keep it to myself...

EDIT: It seems that YouTube and TypePad aren't embedded with one another any more, so to speak. So I can only urge you to follow this link, to witness a collaboration even Ronald Shannon Jackson couldn't have imagined.

P.S. Unlikely as it might seem, my efforts to find a way to embed the video I wanted to share somehow also led me to discover that former Texas governor Ann Richards passed away yesterday. This flamboyant yet utterly down-to-earth woman, who gained national acclaim by proclaiming that George H.W. Bush had been born "with a silver foot in his mouth" at the 1988 Democratic National Convention, was also my last point of pride in my more-or-less home state. Unless Kinky Friedman wins the current gubernatorial race, I guess I'm at long last officially a New Yorker, no longer an estranged Texan.

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

KARL E. H. SEIGFRIED: Criminal Mastermind

A new release from this Chicago bassist.

KARL E. H. SEIGFRIED
CRIMINAL MASTERMIND
Imaginary Chicago Records 002
________________________________________________________

Bassist Karl E. H. Seigfried is a rising star on the Chicago jazz scene today. He has performed duets with Bobby McFerrin, Henry Grimes, Fred Hopkins, & Peter Kowald. He has played in ensembles led by Roscoe Mitchell, George Lewis, & Bertram Turetzky. He has led groups featuring Jeff Parker, Nicole Mitchell, & Ernest Dawkins. Now, for the first time, he steps forward on his own with an album of solo bass music. The ten tracks run from Delta blues to Gregorian plainchant to open soundscapes to hip hop intensity to speaking in tongues to a séance with the spirit of Charles Mingus. Featured is a tribute to Malachi Favors, written on the passing of the Art Ensemble of Chicago bassist (the last three tracks of the cd make up “The Malachi Favors Suite”).

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Mars Volta Redux

A few articles on a group that I can’t quite figure out if I like or not.

Punknews.org
Earvolution
New York Daily News

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Naxos and eMusic Introduce MPkey Downloadable Classical Music Collections

Here’s an interesting idea for people not ready to download classical music directly. Naxos sells a box in a brick and mortar store that contains not a CD but a card with a code on it. The buyer goes home and uses the code to download the purchases tracks from eMusic. Not a long term strategy but perhaps useful in getting folks up and running with online music purchases.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Keys to the Future: Festival of Contemporary Solo Piano Music

This festival hits New York in November.

Tuesday, November 7, 8PM
Lisa Moore, Blair McMillen, Joseph Rubenstein, pianists

Solitude (1978) (Moore) Leo Ornstein (1892-2002)
Le jeu des contraires (1989) (Moore) Henri Dutilleux (b. 1906)
24 Variations on a Bach Chorale (2002) (McMillen) Fred Hersch (b. 1955)
8 short works (1980s) (Rubenstein) Howard Skempton (b. 1947)**
Let Down (1997) (Rubenstein) Radiohead/Christopher O’Riley
Ode to “Ode to Joy” (1997) (Moore) Bruce Stark (b. 1956)**

Wednesday, November 8, 8PM
Tatjana Rankovich, Joseph Rubenstein, Lora Tchekoratova, pianists

Music for Piano (1997) (Rankovich) Franghiz Ali-Zadeh (b. 1947)
Éphémeres (4 selections) (2003) (Rankovich) Philippe Hersant (b. 1948)**
Brin (1990) (Rankovich) Luciano Berio (1925-2003)
Fifth Romance (1984) (Rankovich) Joseph Fennimore (b. 1940)*
Alina (1976) (Rubenstein) Arvo Pärt (b. 1935)
Five Preludes (2003) (Rubenstein) Bruce Stark (b. 1956)**
Exit Music for a Film (1998) (Rubenstein) Radiohead/Christopher O’Riley
Nocturne No. 5 (1996) (Tchekoratova) Lowell Liebermann (b. 1961)
Rain Tree Sketch II (1992) (Tchekoratova) Toru Takemitsu (1930-1996)
New Work (2006) (Tchekoratova) Phil Kline (b. 1953)*

Thursday, November 9, 8PM
Tatjana Rankovich, Joseph Rubenstein, Polly Ferman, pianists

Winged (1995) (Rankovich) Bruce Stark (b. 1956)**
Toccata (2001) (Rankovich) Pierre Jalbert (b. 1968)***
Ballade (2000) (Rankovich) Sarah K. Snider (b. 1973)***
Waltz (1997) (Rubenstein) Ricky Ian Gordon (b. 1956)
Elegiac Cycle (3 selections) (1999) (Rubenstein) Brad Mehldau (b. 1970)
Romance No. 1 (2006) (Rubenstein) Joseph Rubenstein (b. 1969)*
Adios Nonino (1959, arr. 1975) (Ferman) Astor Piazzolla (1921-1992)
Milonga Sureña (1979) (Ferman) Juan José Ramos (1930-1995)
Milonga (from Aquel Buenos Aires) (1971) (Ferman) Pedro Saenz (1915-1995)
Paris Desde Aqui (2001) (Ferman) Daniel Binelli (b. 1946)
Levante (2004) (Ferman) Osvaldo Golijov (b. 1960)

*World premiere **United States premiere ***New York premiere

KEYS TO THE FUTURE 2006
Tuesday through Thursday, November 7, 8, and 9

Greenwich House’s Renee Weiler Concert Hall
46 Barrow Street, just west of 7th Ave.

All concerts begins at 8PM.

Tickets are available at the door only.
General Admission: $15 per concert
Seniors/Students: $10 per concert

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Andrew Cyrille/Greg Osby Duo at Firehouse 12

From www.improvisedcommunications.com:

Friday, October 20th at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m.
Andrew Cyrille/Greg Osby Duo
Firehouse 12
45 Crown Street in New Haven, CT
Tickets are $15 (opening set) and $10 (second set)
Tickets and info are available at http://www.firehouse12.com or (203) 785-0468
Details available at http://www.firehouse12.com/events.asp?id=12148
Images are available by request

Andrew Cyrille, drums; Greg Osby, saxophones

Media Contact for Firehouse 12:
Scott Menhinick, Improvised Communications
(617) 489-6561
scott@improvisedcommunications.com

On Friday, October 20th, New Haven’s Firehouse 12 will present a two-set performance by two of the most respected names in improvised music, drummer Andrew Cyrille and saxophonist Greg Osby. The longtime duo will play music from their new recording, Low Blue Flame (Tum Records), which features a mix of original compositions by each musician, as well as their interpretation of Thelonious Monk’s “Work.”

“Andrew Cyrille’s lyricism, compositional skills and immersion in different idioms have been indispensable in expanding his instrument’s role,” writes DownBeat’s Aaron Cohen. The All Music Guide’s Chris Kelsey adds, “Few free-jazz drummers play with a tenth of Cyrille’s grace and authority.” In the late 1950’s and early ’60s, Cyrille performed with legendary musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Roland Kirk, and Mary Lou Williams, but it was his 11-year association with the iconic Cecil Taylor, beginning in 1964, that helped establish his international reputation as one of the world’s premier drummers. He has since recorded 25 titles as a leader/co-leader and worked with the gamut of creative music’s most notable musicians, including extended collaborations with Muhal Richard Abrams, Walt Dickerson, and his group Trio 3 with Oliver Lake and Reggie Workman. More information is available at http://www.geocities.com/BourbonStreet/9273/

Greg Osby is known as “one of the most potent, complete and important saxophonists in jazz” (Peter Margasak, JazzTimes). The St. Louis native, and graduate of Howard University and the Berklee School of Music, moved to New York in 1983, and quickly established himself as a sideman with jazz giants such as Jaki Byard, Jack DeJohnette, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Andrew Hill and Jim Hall. He began recording as a leader in 1987, and since 1990 has recorded 13 titles for the seminal Blue Note label, including his latest, 2005’s Channel 3. He has also continued to work as a sideman/co-leader with musicians such as Uri Caine, Joe Lovano and Sam Rivers among many others. More information is available at http://www.gregosby.com/

About Firehouse 12:

Firehouse 12 is an award winning full-service bar, state-of-the-art recording studio and unusually intimate performance space located in New Haven’s historic Ninth Square District. Painstakingly renovated over the course of four years by owner/producer/engineer Nick Lloyd and Gray Organschi Architecture, this once-abandoned firehouse building has become a major part of New Haven’s cultural renaissance since opening its doors in April 2005. It has also quickly gained a reputation as one of the premier recording studios and creative music venues on the East Coast.

A 2006 Best Studio Design Project nominee for the prestigious Technical Excellence and Creativity (TEC) Awards (http://www.mixfoundation.org/tec/tecawards.html), the recording studio features world-class acoustic design by renowned acoustician John Storyk of Walters-Storyk Design Group. The striking 1200-square foot space features a Steinway concert grand piano, and doubles as an 80-seat public venue with unparalleled technical possibilities for some of the most respected names in creative music. Past performers include Han Bennink, Tim Berne, Dave Douglas, Susie Ibarra, Joe McPhee, Joe Morris, William Parker and Mario Pavone among many others.

In a June 2005 feature, New Haven Independent’s Regina DeAngelo called Firehouse 12 “a north star in the jazz firmament that might well guide music lovers to New Haven from far away.” She went on to write, “fabric-covered walls are angled to urge music to flow, not bounce, through a womb-like space. It’s almost like sitting in the hull of an instrument. Luckily, the Firehouse attracts people who bring near-religious reverence to the music, producing an exchange of energy that often fires great performances.” James Keepnews of the New Haven Advocate echoed DeAngelo’s praise, calling the venue a “remarkable new cultural outpost” and “a resounding success.” Yale University’s Associate Vice President of New Haven and State Affairs Michael Morand recently called the space “a wonderful addition to New Haven’s role as the cultural capital of Connecticut.”

Find out more at http://www.firehouse12.com

Complete Fall 2006 Concert Season:

09/22 :: Matthew Shipp
09/29 :: Carla Marciano 4tet
10/06 :: David Berkman Quartet
10/13 :: Nate Wooley and Blue Collar
10/20 :: Andrew Cyrille/Greg Osby Duo
10/27 :: Pete Robbins and Centric
11/04 :: Dave Allen Quartet
11/10 :: Stephen Haynes and Bugaboo
11/17 :: Dominique Eade/Jed Wilson Duo
12/01 :: Ben Allison Quartet
12/08 :: Wayne Escoffery Quartet
12/15 :: Gerald Cleaver & Violet Hour

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Rhys Chatham Coverage

Newspapers in Detroit and New York are covering Chatham’s current tour.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Dave Holland Interview

Holland is interviewed about his history, band and new release.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Bennie Maupin Interview

An interview with Bennie Maupin has been posted.

For forty years, Bennie Maupin has played with the giants of jazz, starting with Roy Haynes, Horace Silver, Lee Morgan, McCoy Tyner, and Marion Brown. A call from Miles Davis put Maupin in the line up that recorded his most earth shaking albums including Bitches Brew (Columbia/Legacy, 1969), Big Fun (Columbia/Legacy, 1974) and On the Corner (Columbia/Legacy, 1972)…

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Buzz

Why is it so difficult to get people interested in new music? Is our own professional weltschmerz so overpowering that even we can't really get that giddy about it anymore?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Composers & Productivity: The Embodiment of Discomfort

Composers are writing less and less, being fussy, appearing to be artistic cowards. But are they? Haven't we created an environment where Mozart is cheap and Birtwistle is expensive?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

This Week's Music From Other Minds Program

MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS 78 - September 8 - QUIET - Lang and Fink
Listen Again
KALW FM 91.7 San Francisco - Friday nights at 11pm

Originally from MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS - KALW 91.7 San Francisco, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Revolutions

Well, today, I've finished 45 trips around the sun. If anything at all has been learned in these 45 years, it's dwarfed by the extent of everything still to be learned. The possibility of surprise and change to come, despite my present and abundant ignorance, is as good a reason as it gets to keep working. Is there any old saying more misleading than nihil novi sub sole ("there's nothing new

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

The Dharma at Big Sur (2003). John Adams /premiere recording/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Under Pressure

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

I am Sitting in an Airport

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Love and Cow Bells

The Metropolis Ensemble is one of the hipper new chamber music groups around town, will open its second season on Thursday, October 19, 2006 at 8 pm at the Angel Orensanz Foundation Center for the Arts, 172 Norfolk Street, with the New York premiere of Da

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 14, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

September 13, 2006

Bravura

Jeff Harrington was probably the first new music composer to stake his career online, a brave and pioneering move. (The first musician I heard talk about the internet as a resource was Ron Kuivila, who, back in 1993, kept going on about making music with "mosaic sites" -- with reference to that early browser -- as an extension of the networked music making of groups like The League of Automatic

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 09:08 PM | Comments (0)

Current listening

Blogariddims 6: Collide/Coalesce. This came out yesterday, and of all the mixes we’ve had so far, I guess this one works best for this date. Ian SoundsLike who put it together is also the first one of us to actually put the date of release into his ident - I don’t know if this was a deliberate move, but it added anew dimension to something I’ve been listening to regularly for the last few weeks. It’s a beautiful piece of work. SoundsLike has been posting his ‘texturematched’ mixes to Dissensus for while now - there are at least three others that I can recall - and while they’re all wonderful things, I think this is the best so far. The historical range is a little narrower than some mixes (one earlier one includes Vivaldi and Mozart), which helps tie it together, but more to the point I think the overall flow of this mix works best - it doesn’t feel like an hour long, yet it doesn’t sit still for long at any point, it’s such a dense piece of work. The corner tracks that shape its skeleton - Björk and Robert Wyatt, Suicide, Rachel’s over Stockhausen, Arthur Russell, Reich over Can, are strong enough to fit over and among almost anything, but SoundsLike has a real knack for picking out surprising connections between tracks and across the whole mix. The whole thing - incorporating Krautrock, British electronica and industrial, American jazz and avant-garde, Tanzanian tribal song, and lots more, emerges with the sound of a sort of freeform global folk-funk, which sounds like an exciting place to put your ears. Sign up now.

The Lisps - The Vain, The Modest, and The Dead. Debut EP from Sammy Tunis and César Alvarez’s band (César also plays things and stuff with Corey Dargel if you’re wondering where you’ve seen his name mentioned on the blog before). Five mostly cute, indie-ish songs that at first appear catchily straightforward, but actually get stranger the more you listen to them, as they aren’t quite how you remember them, the playing just slightly not what you thought it was, and the arrangements disarmingly detailed and off-kilter. The EP’s lead track, ‘Pepper Spray’ is downloadable from the Lisps’ site, but the EP is well worth buying on top of this for the other tracks, which include a frantic live number ‘Chaos’ that includes the best pocket summary of chaos theory I know of - ‘That’s just the way snowflakes work / They’re never exactly the same / But they’re never anything but snowflakes’.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Off with its head: eMusic and the Long Tail

I’ve been meaning for a while to comment on the Guardian article A musical tail of hits and misses, which attempts to address the question of whether the much-discussed Long Tail effect actually operates in the real world of digital music services (most notably the iTunes Music Store). Recently David Harrell posted an interesting article eMusic and the Long Tail that renewed my interest in this topic and prompted me to get off my rear end and post this.

One of the interesting things about eMusic is how it illustrates how the reality of Long Tail marketing differs from the ideal theory. As presented in Chris Anderson’s original Wired article and in subsequent discussions, the theoretical treatment of the Long Tail makes two simplifying assumptions (whether explicitly or implicitly):

• The cost of offering items for sale is negligible, and does not vary from item to item.
• Consumers vary in their tastes (i.e., in which items they might be inclined to purchase), but not in other relevant ways.

Together these assumptions and others lead to the conclusion that in order to maximize revenue and profits retailers should offer as many items as possible, from the most popular to the most obscure, and should find ways to induce consumers of the most popular items to purchase additional less-popular items that might also be of interest (drive demand down the Long Tail). As Anderson puts it, in contrast to MP3.com (only Long Tail) or Movielink (Offering only hits is no better),

… the success of Netflix, Amazon, and the commercial music services shows that you need both ends of the curve. Their huge libraries of less-mainstream fare set them apart, but hits still matter in attracting consumers in the first place.

However in the real world the ideal assumptions above do not necessarily hold, and the ways in which they break are directly relevant to eMusic.

First, the cost to offer items for sale is not necessarily negligible and may vary significantly from item to item, perhaps in systematic ways. For example, in the case of eMusic and other services there are both upfront and ongoing administrative costs to offer a particular label’s releases for sale: Label agreements need to be negotiated and re-negotiated as appropriate, each label’s sales need to be tracked over time and licenses paid as needed, and so on. More importantly, the major labels impose a major cost in the form of requiring that DRM measures be put in place for their releases.

Together these real-world costs mean that eMusic does not in fact offer as many releases as it could (or, according to Anderson, should), and in effect truncates both the head and the tail of the full spectrum of releases: At the tail end of the spectrum there are releases that eMusic could in theory license but in fact is not motivated to do so based on the potential benefits in sales vs. the costs of licensing the material and dealing with the labels or artists. As David Pakman noted in an interview with MP3.com:

Together Europe and the US put us at about a million and a half [independent label] tracks. Then you go to the rest of the world and, you know, there are millions more tracks. … Are there a few more million tracks out there that we should get over time? Yeah. But they’re not as essential.

And of course at the head end of the spectrum eMusic (unlike most digital music services) avoids the cost of DRM simply by not offering major label releases. Again it’s a simple cost/benefit analysis: The cost to eMusic of not having major label releases available for sale is outweighed by the benefit of being able to sell to users of the dominant digital music device, namely Apple’s iPod.

Second, real world consumers differ in ways beyond their taste, ways that are quite relevant to retailers like eMusic. In particular, people who are primarily interested in downloading chart hits are qualitatively very different than people who are primarily interested in indie music and in non-mainstream genres like jazz, blues, and classical music. The former group is dominated by teenagers and twenty-somethings who make up the bulk of people downloading music for free using P2P networks, while the latter group skews much older and is both more willing and more able to pay for legal music downloads. As David Pakman has commented regarding eMusic customers (in the same MP3.com interview referenced above):

They’re a much more pleasant consumer to deal with because they are far less fickle. They are interested in value but they’re not starving for dollars. They have credit cards that are valid and don’t max out all the time and they can afford to buy both a $400 hardware device and spend, you know, 100 bucks a year on music. So, we like that consumer a lot better.

By forgoing sales of major label hits and thus chopping off the head of the overall spectrum of music releases, eMusic has in effect changed the composition of its customer base in a way that is financially beneficial to it, leading to lower rates of credit card fraud, higher subscriber retention rates, higher overall revenue per customer, and so on.

Having said that, eMusic does in fact have its own equivalent of hits. The Decemberists, the Gin Blossoms, and other eMusic Top 10 artists mentioned in the Guardian article are certainly not mainstream acts, but within the context of independent label music they are well known quantities. (I’m sure David Harrell wouldn’t mind at all if the Layaways had a significant fraction of their popularity.) In his post David notes that (depending on genre) roughly half to two thirds of eMusic albums have tracks downloaded in a given month; according to the Guardian article 70% of eMusic’s catalogue sells more than once every quarter. This is reasonable evidence of the Long Tail at work, but (as David notes) doesn’t come up to the expectations raised by Chris Anderson and other Long Tail evangelists.

I suspect that in many respects eMusic is hit driven as well, it’s just that the hits are in the context of particular non-mainstream genres. Certainly from my own perspective I disproportionately download albums from eMusic based on their promotion on the eMusic front page, by the columnists for eMusic Magazine, and in the various eMusic Dozens lists. By contrast I rarely use the so-and-so also likes recommendations on individual album pages, and have never downloaded anything based on what my supposed eMusic neighbors are listening to.

Thus I’d conclude that eMusic is far from being an examplar of the Long Tail model, at least in its pure form. Instead it’s something less trendy but (in my opinion) more interesting: a good example of a traditional specialty retailing strategy adapted to the realities of today’s music business and executed well.

A final note: I had some fun finding the image for this post. A special prize (well, not really, but it sounds good) goes to the reader who can identify the connection of this image to alternative music (but not, unfortunately, alternative music available on eMusic).

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

In the Water

For five years I've been swimming.

As a graduate student at Mills College, I took to the water almost daily as an escape from my studies, though ironically, in the pool I found yet another facet of music. Counting laps and measuring the breath between strokes is its own kind of musical activity and may explain why so many musicians swim, even if we lack the polished form and grace of a true athlete. What really impresses me about swimming--as a metaphor for life and learning--is that it can only be learned by jumping in and doing it. One does not learn to swim by sitting with a notebook on one knee, plotting structures and designs, or by discussing the merits of form and function over a cup of coffee. To swim...one simply has to swim.

Sometimes when I speak of just jumping in and doing things (for example, I often have an artistic idea whose realization requires the use of technology in which I am relatively inexperienced) my enthusiasm elicits skepticism. The "norm" is to acquire knowledge through years of study and training--experience derives from a method--and throwing oneself into something completely new and seeing what the hell might happen upsets the logic of that revered, formal approach. But I wonder, which is more true to the definition of experience, that is: to try? A classical pianist playing with all sorts of audio and visual new media? Why not? Twenty years ago I practiced Bach Inventions, and if you had asked me then if my "practice" would evolve to include a video camera, a polished piece of ebony and a box of matches, yes, I would have thought you were crazy. But now I see such actions as the continuing swim: I jumped in, discovered a natural ability in the water, and just keep logging the miles.

All this just to say [gleefully] that 2& will be Artists-in-Residence at Stanford University this fall term, from September 25 - Dec 8. The residency is [wow!] in the Experimental Media Arts department, though I definitely hope to collaborate with people in the CCRMA as well. You see [sigh of relief] I am still a pianist at heart. At Stanford 2& plans to present our installation piece (see below) as well as engage in many other surprising activities.

And furthermore...

2& will present the performance installation Audible Memory (Triptych #1) at California College of Arts in October. We will likely place the installation component of the piece just beyond the main entrance of the San Francisco campus, and from Monday through Friday (October 16-20) visitors will have the opportunity to view and interact with our work. At the end of the week (Saturday October 21) we will perform live on the Echo de Pensées series, using material culled from the installation. Audible Memory examines the complexity of "remembering" sound (and in particular, spoken text) from coolly technological as well as somewhat nostalgic perspectives. Audio, collected, remembered and transformed, provides the basis for a musical structure. Here's a peek at something of the Visual...

(and people wonder why I had practically ceased writing In the Wings)

Originally from in the wings, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

Another Robot Compser

Here are three nice posts from Boing Boing:  vintage Italian pulp and Instructions for making a glowing pickle and a new spacecraft with an old name.

Also, from ArtsJournal, an article on the Pope's attitude toward worship music and software that writes music in the style of any composer from history.

Originally from Fredösphere, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

John Zorn Opens His Book of Angels

Ben Ratliff, New York Times, 9/12/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Adès/Marwood, Wigmore Hall, London

David Murray, Financial Times, 9/12/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

UK orchestra 'pioneers' podcasts

BBC , 9/12/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Benchmark

As of today, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century is exactly 250,000 words long. I placed a mousie toy on top of the manuscript to keep the kitties from losing interest and wandering away. My editor and I are looking for a similar device that will work on human beings. It's a big day: I've met the goal I set for myself twenty months ago, when, having finished a rough draft, I ran it through Word Count and discovered to my horror that I had produced 390,000 words. As you can see in a picture taken on that dark night, Penelope was frightened as well:

Midway through the editing process, I started making a record of how much I'd cut on any given day. The doleful document reproduced below is a souvenir of my progress. As you can see from a couple of figures at the very top, one of the chapters — the one devoted to Stravinsky — initially ran to 37,700 words, which is just hilarious. Kids, if you're writing a book, don't tell yourself blithely that "all this can be trimmed down later." Still, it was a necessary process, and I'm sure I'll find use someday for the section about English folksong-collecting and the five-paragraph analysis of Billy Budd and so on. Now I have to streamline the notes, incorporate massively helpful suggestions from a team of readers, reread and rewrite as necessary, continue cutting as necessary, and run the remainder of the gantlet, until, at long last, it's over.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

The Proms goes post-minimalist

If I understand this announcement correctly, next year's Last Night at the Proms will feature Daniel Bernard Roumain's Concerto for Laptop and Orchestra, or possibly one of Mason Bates's recent works mixing orchestral and laptop-generated electronic timbres. I may be mistaken.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

The Hitch-hiker

The Hitch-hiker is a lean, mean proto-noir filmed when the genre was just starting its initial artistic downswing. It’s a progenitor to such later (and inferior) exploitation fare as The Sadist (1963) and The Hitcher (1986). Director Ida Lupino,...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

John Blum Astrogeny Quartet

Eremite 49 Eremite is prone to prolonged hiatuses, but the wait between releases is always worth it. Proof of this truism is once again evident with this ‘new’ disc from Brooklyn-based pianist John Blum, one that features faces both...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Thumbing a Ride to Damnation

The Hitch-hiker is a lean, mean proto-noir filmed when the genre was just starting its initial artistic downswing. It’s a progenitor to such later (and inferior) exploitation fare as The Sadist (1963) and The Hitcher (1986). Director Ida Lupino,...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Guitar army.

Rhys Chatham at Issue Project Room
The New York Times, September 13, 2006

You can hear a recording of Rhys Chatham's Guitar Trio on his MySpace page. It provides a sense of the piece's architecture, but absolutely no clue as to how loud, dense and vibrant the music is in a live setting. Metal chairs vibrated throughout the gig, and numerous times my friend Karissa and I wondered if the wooden floor at Issue was actually going to survive the pulsations this band kicked up.

I'm happy to see that Times photographer Hiroyuki Ito snapped an image that included guitarists Alan Licht and David Daniell (L-R behind Chatham in the foreground) -- two vital, inventive players who are also incredibly proactive facilitators of creative musical expression in New York City and points beyond.

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

Start spreading the news.

David Cote, Time Out New York's stylish, perceptive theater editor and critic (and a regular face on the New York 1 network), has joined the culture blogosphere with Histriomastix. I've always wished that I attended more live theater, and David has a knack for making me feel even more guilty about the lack. Welcome to the web, David!

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine Reviews

Reviews of the bizarre from Musique Machine.

Richard Chartier & Taylor Deupree - Specification. Fifteen
Specification. Fifteen grows in shape and form slowly from silence, slowly the shape and definition the drones and electronics become clear, but never too defined. This is the real definition of ambient music, at normal stereo volume it just paints the rooms tone in soothing pastel colours, like autumnal first light just lighting the room.

Mono - You Are There
Mono are a rather unique entity in that they hail from Japan yet play a form of metalized orchestral post rock. This unique status has garnered them with much attention over their short five year career. Their debut was released on John Zorns Tzadik label (A shock decision for a label more used to releasing the cream of the worlds avant-garde and Jazz music) Steve Albini produced their last album and takes the reigns again for this album the evocatively titled You are there.

CJ Borosque - They
They is a grating and burning, tone shifting beast of a noise release, Surprisingly coming from a females firey mind, giving prove positive that women can conjure up just tortures and dense take on noise as their male counterparts.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

The latest reviews from All About Jazz.

13-Sep-06 Gordon Grdina / Gary Peacock / Paul Motian
Think Like the Waves ( Songlines Recordings)

13-Sep-06 Rogue Art
Out of Chicago: Maghostut Trio, Roscoe Mitchell Trio, Hamid Drake ( Rogue Art)

13-Sep-06 Trio 3
Time Being ( Intakt Records)

12-Sep-06 Pat Metheny / Brad Mehldau
Metheny Mehldau ( Nonesuch Records)

12-Sep-06 Modo Trio with Jamie Saft
The Uninvited ( 482 Music)

12-Sep-06 John Hollenbeck Jazz Bigband Graz featuring Theo Bleckmann
Joys & Desires ( Intuition)

12-Sep-06 Chris Potter
Underground ( Sunnyside Records)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

A Most Prolific Composer Opens His Book of Angels

John Zorn’s recent Masada performance in New York are reviewed.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

LEO RECORDS: New Releases 2006/09

Leo Records has released a bath of new recordings including a 4CD set of Anthony Braxton.

CD GY 026/027 The Sun Ra Arkestra - Springtime In Chicago
CD LR 468/471 Anthony Braxton - 4 Compositions ( Ulrichsberg ) 2005 Phonomanie Viii
CD LR 472 The George Burt / Raymond Macdonald Sextet Featuring Keith Tippet - Boohoo Fever
CD LR 473 Lauren Newton - Soundsongs ( Solo Voice )

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

New Music News Wire

United States Artists Launches Fellowship Program; Schwantner Signs With Schott Helicon; Can Orchestras Find New Reasons To Record?; Rufus Reid Wins $20,000 Sackler Prize; Reich Named Praemium Imperiale Laureate; Davidson Institute Announces 2006 Fellowships

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

The World Upside Down

NPR has cancelled their two remaining syndicated programs devoted to classical music: Performance Today and SymphonyCast, but I'm not terribly shocked.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

Stoic Hands Rehearsing Ernestly

Rehearsing is fascinating, and often more engaging than "real" performing. Here's raw video footage of Edward Gorey rehearsing the puppets of Le Theatricule Stoique.

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

Sorceress of the New Piano

Evans Chan's new documentary Sorceress of the New Piano,about the wildly adventuresome pianist Margaret Leng Tan, will have its New York premiere at Pioneer Two Boots Theater, East 3rd Street (off Avenue A), on Saturday and Sunday, September 23 and 24, 2

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 13, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

September 12, 2006

Links for the week

Dial “M” on those recently rediscovered Bach manuscripts, and what resonance they can have for all musicians today;

The newly discovered Bach manuscripts are snapshots of a unique moment of a unique individual, but they also resonate with an experience universal to those who devote their lives to music in any capacity.

Kyle Gann is magnificently back on his soapbox - plus additional comment. From a European perspective it’s not always easy to follow Kyle’s characterisations (re. the perceived conflict between liberal/leftist politics and post-serialist New Complexity - this position is a tricky one to maintain, sure, but you can be damn sure it’s absolutely intentional, and besides, it’s from such apparent contradictions that much of such music derives its vitality and force), but they always make compelling and thought-provoking reading.

WFMU has a collection of rare, seminal German synth music from 1979-1983 available for download.

And in the news, UK musicians are set to lobby parliament over the recent strict tightening of hand luggage restrictions which currently require instruments such as Stephen Isserlis’s 1730 Stradivarius cello to travel at the tender mercies of the chuckers baggage handlers and the luggage hold.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:48 PM | Comments (0)

Stereophile article on Naxos’ MPkey strategy

Stereophile just published an online article Naxos: Classical in the Key of MP3 with more information on the MPkey collections from Naxos and eMusic. Along with providing a complete list of the MPkey collections to be released, it has some insight into the marketing strategy behind MPkey:

On examining iTunes track lists for Naxos CDs, Naxos discovered that most downloaders buy The Very Best of Mozart and assorted wedding samplers rather than recordings of hardcore repertoire …. MPkey’s first 12 titles are thus geared toward the downloading neophyte rather than the classical aficionado.

In other words, MPkey represents classical music as a lifestyle product, as opposed to putting it on a pedestal (highest achievements of Western civilization, precious relics of solitary genius, etc., etc.). In fact, Jim Sturgeon, CEO of Naxos of America, seemingly goes out of his way to (literally!) rub the noses of Stereophile readers in this fact:

[Sturgeon] has already discussed including Naxos’ lullabies collection in gift packages of disposable diapers, and delivering floral bouquets along with MPkey collections of Music for Mother’s Day, Music for Lovemaking, and Christmas Music You Love.

MPkey can provide added value to an existing product, he exults. The card doesn’t even have to come in a CD box. You could find an MPkey card inside a Christmas card. You can get a gift of flowers that die along with music that lives. You can throw away the diaper and the shit, but keep the music.

As the article concludes, The mind boggles–or at least the minds of classical aficionados do so. But really, I think this is exactly the right strategy not just for Naxos but for classical music in general: If such music becomes part of people’s everyday lives then it will have a hope of attracting more devoted listeners; otherwise it will be confined to an ever shrinking coterie of aging aficionados.

In fact, I think Naxos should consider adopting the same strategy with contemporary classical music. There are lots of post-minimalist and similar works that work quite well as lifestyle music for relatively casual listening and in my opinion would be natural fits for themed MPkey collections. (For example, recently I’ve been listening to the album Cover of works by Belinda Reynolds in exactly this way.) Given that Naxos has an active program of recording contemporary works I’m sure that they have a number of existing releases that could be mined for suitable material. If they need additional ideas for new releases they can also select from such sources as Kyle Gann’s PostClassic Radio playlist, which contains lots of accessible works in this general vein. In my opinion it would be a great way to bring some excellent music to new listeners who would appreciate it.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

eMusic Europe officially launches

Well, it’s old news to us, but according to Reuters eMusic is officially launching its Europe service; it appears that eMusic is trying to take advantage of the hype around Apple’s announcements today to try to position itself as the dominant iTunes alternative in the minds of the mainstream media.

Some interesting new tidbits from the article:

EMusic will be the first service to launch in all 25 European Union member nations, going head-to-head with iTunes in big markets such as Germany and Britain and bringing the first legal downloading to smaller ones including Malta and Hungary. …

… eMusic is also planning to launch local-language download services in Germany, France, Italy and Spain in 2007. …

EMusic worked with Dutch author society Buma/Stemra to create the first pan-European licensing agreement, enabling it to launch in 25 countries simultaneously.

Under the deal, eMusic will track country-by-country sales and pay publishing royalties to Buma/Stemra, which will then distribute them to author societies in other EU nations.

Maybe it’s just the way it’s phrased, but I found this statement amusing as well:

[David Pakman] said eMusic continues to hold talks with [the four major labels], but until they agree to distribute in the MP3 format, it will not carry their songs.

In other words, Hey major labels, you’ll adapt to our business model, we don’t need to adapt to yours!

There’s also (finally) an official eMusic press release on the European launch with more information, including a list of eMusic’s marketing partners in Europe.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

The Unanswerable Question

Each week my seminar students have a different writing project for the blog, usually sparked by a question as well as a description. Week One's musical autobiography had the question, "Who am I as a musician?" The CD review of last week were supposed to answer "What do I value in music?" This week's question was quite perplexing to them: How do I debate about music? But I found this to be

Originally from Musical Perceptions, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Calling Young Composers

Wow, I can hardly believe that Making Score is entering its seventh season. It has been a real odyssey.

In 1999 I met with Barry Goldberg, Executive Director of the New York Youth Symphony, to discuss the possibility of doing a workshop with orchestra members interested in composing. The idea developed into a full-blown program for young musicians, age 22 and under, who wish to explore the compositional process. For the past few years, my good friend Lisa Bielawa has been a wonderful cohort, helping the program to expand and mature. Jordan Stokes been an excellent and steadfast Program Manager.

The program consists of 10 seminars held throughout the season. We discuss compositional structure, form, harmony, rhythm, philosophy, and the many issues involved in putting musical ideas down on paper. At the end of the year, members of the Youth Symphony perform music by the program participants on a final concert at the Thalia Theatre (Symphony Space). All students are on scholarship; they pay only for materials + an application fee. The sessions are held at ASCAP, across the street from Lincoln Center.

The deadline for this season's applications is October 2. Application forms can be found here.

At each session, a guest speaker illuminates aspects of composition and instrumentation, and talks about their experience as it relates to the creative process. Our guests this year will include: Carol Wincenc, Midori, David del Tredici, Susie Ibarra, Samuel Adler, DJ Spooky aka that subliminal kid, Steve Mackey, and Chen Yi. I'm grateful to our wonderful past guests, who comprise an impressive list:

Michel van der Aa
Mark Adamo
Eve Beglarian
Greg Beyer
Lisa Bielawa
Michael Boriskin
Gerard Bouwhuis
Gerald Cleaver
John Corigliano
Jon Deak
Wayne DuMaine
Mariano Fernández
Michael Gordon
Wycliffe Gordon
John Harbison
Wiek Hijmans
Fred Ho
Heleen Hulst
Billy Hunter
Vijay Iyer
Jennifer Koh
David Lang
Tania León
Lukas Ligeti
Michael Lowenstern
Rudresh Mahanthappa
Jonathan Hart Makwaia
James Markey
Meredith Monk
Valerie Naranjo
Susan Narucki
Paul Neubauer
William Purvis
Steve Reich
Alex Ross
Daniel Bernard Roumain
Christopher Rouse
Mischa Santora
Keren Schweitzer
Fred Sherry
Samuel Z. Solomon
Stephen Sondheim
Andy Statman
Kathleen Supové
Julieta Szewach
Christopher Taylor
Craig Taborn
Karen Tanaka
Michael Torke
Michi Wiancko
Peter Wilson
Julia Wolfe
Ellen Taaffe Zwilich

Because I don't teach privately or at a University, Making Score is my primary outlet for working with young composers. The big secret is that it's a great learning experience for me. I'm heartened to see that many of our alums have gone on to make their mark on the contemporary music scene here in New York and elsewhere. Go! Go!

To download an application form, please click here. Spread the word!

Originally from inspirations, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:45 PM | Comments (0)

A New York symphony

Chitra Ramaswamy, Scotland On Sunday, 9/10/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Sunday afternoon fin-de-siècle playlist (with sexy)

— Claude Vivier, Siddhartha (CBC)
— Glass, Symphony No. 8 (Orange Mountain)
— Chris Theofanidis, The Here and Now (Telarc)
— Joanna Newsom, Ys (Drag City)
— Georg Friedrich Haas, Natures mortes (courtesy of publisher)
— Paul Lansky, idle chatter cycle (various labels)
— Justin Timberlake, FutureSex/LoveSounds (Jive)
— Dieter Schnebel, N. N. (col legno)
— Stockhausen, Samstag (DG)
— Sir Granville Bantock, Sappho (Hyperion)

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

Update on the “Hang” Percussion Instrument

Last year I posted a little item about my discovery of this wonderful instrument. Since then, that post has become increasingly popular, and so it seems appropriate to offer some updated information. The site of the people in Switzerland who make the hang is currently down, as is the site of the Canadian distributor whom I’d linked to in my previous post.

The long and the short of it is that hang drums will not be available again until next April, and then it can only be purchased in person, which means a trip to Bern, Switzerland. More details can be found among the more recent comments to this blog post. There is a comment at the bottom, dated today, from the creators of the Hang:

After a busy summer, with lots of visitors from all over the world, we are closing our doors for our yearly spell of Research and Development. During this time we will be looking at new ways of working with the metal and its music.

Hanghaus will remain closed to the public throughout the winter. During this period we will not be receiving visitors or selling instruments.

Please contact us in April of 2007, at which time we hope to be in a position to show you the results of our winter’s work.

Felix Rohner and Sabina Schärer

Hangbuilders

Also, I’ve been advised of a Yahoo group dedicated to the hang, and there is now an entry in Wikipedia. (Many thanks to Saggio for writing me with this updated information.)

Originally posted by Michael Kaulkin from About the Composer, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

Nine Lives of Newk

This is probably old hat by now, but I’m finally parceling some time to post some momentous news from Sonny Rollins’ website. Concurrent with his 76th birthday and the release of his new disc, Sonny, Please, Rollins has unveiled...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Herve Boghossian/John Tilbury/Mark Wastell - Archi.Texture Vol. 1

Cathnor Cath001 The first release from our own Richard Pinnell’s Cathnor label (and, caveat emptor, I know Richard and, for that matter Tilbury and Wastell as well), presents us with something of a problem. Three tracks—first, a solo performance...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Will Guthrie - body and limbs still look to light

Cathnor CATH002 Will Guthrie’s “body and limbs still look to light” does indeed have a more luminous character than the listener might have expected given the rather brutal nature of recent work such as “Spear” or his fine collaboration...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Lest we forget...

Originally from wordsandmusic, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Missing.

(Associated Press photograph from 2002.)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Umbrella Music Through September 20th

Umbrella Music is putting on the usual bunch of shows in Chicago.

Wednesday, 13 September 2006

The Hideout
10:00 PM | (((POWERHOUSE SOUND)))
Ken Vandermark - reeds
Jeff Parker - guitar & electronics
Nate McBride - bass & electronics
John Herndon - drums

two sets
$6 cover
PLUS | DJ Sets : Fred Lonberg-Holm spins
Rockin’ Bows
Thursday, 14 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Josh Abrams Group
Fred Lonberg-Holm, Tomeka Reid - cello
Ben Vida, Jeff Parker - guitar
Nate McBride, Josh Abrams - bass

$7 requested donation
two sets
Friday, 15 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Vandermark Five
Ken Vandermark - reeds
Dave Rempis - saxophones
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Kent Kessler - bass
Tim Daisy - drums

$10 requested donation
two sets
Saturday, 16 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Vandermark Five
Ken Vandermark - reeds
Dave Rempis - saxophones
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Kent Kessler - bass
Tim Daisy - drums

$10 requested donation
two sets
Sunday, 17 September 2006

The Hungry Brain
10:00 PM | An evening with members of ICE
David Reminick - saxophones
Peter Evans - trumpet

of the International Contemporary Ensemble

two sets
Wednesday, 20 September 2006

The Hideout
10:00 PM | Haaker-Flaten/Rempis/Rosaly Trio
Ingebrigt Haaker-Flaten - bass
Dave Rempis - saxophones
Frank Rosaly - drums

two sets
$6 cover
PLUS | DJ Sets : Jeff Parker spins
Choice Cuts From His Record Collection

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

More Innova Releases Reviewed

The Rambler reviews new Innova releases.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

The Squid’s Ear Reviews

More words of wisdom from our friends at The Squid’s Ear

Mark Nauseef / Ikue Mori / Sylvie Courvoisier - Leo Records

Eric la Casa Eric la Casa - air.ratio
(Sirr.Records)

Espers Espers - Espers II
(Drag City)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

New on 577 Records

577 Records has a new release out.

PROPHECIES COME TO PASS
Sabir Mateen’s Shapes, Textures and Sound Ensemble

Sabir Mateen: Tenor and Alto Saxophones, Flute, Bb and Alto Clarinets
Matt Lavelle: Trumpet, Pocket Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Cornet
Steve Swell: Trombone
Matthew Heyner: Bass
Michael T.A. Thompson: Drums and Percussion

All music by Sabir Mateen
Recorded at Zebulon, Brooklyn, New York
Date: September 22nd 2005
Release: June 2006
Total CD time 72:41

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

This Heat’s Out of Cold Storage Reviewed

A long review of this seminal boxed set is available.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Upcoming at the Bohemian National Home

The latest to expect from this Detroit venue.

UPCOMING AT BOHEMIAN NATIONAL HOME

Sunday September 17: Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Army with THTX
Since the late 60’s Rhys Chatam has been an important figure in minimalism and the New York downtown scene in general. In his youth, Chatham studied with LaMont Young, Tony Conrad and Morton Subotnick; one of his early jobs was as a piano tuner for Glenn Gould and Young. He was among the first to take “art music” into rock clubs and alternative spaces; his music itself also mixes freely between the two. His work is the root of the lineage that is better known through some of the luminaries that played in his groups, like Glenn Branca and members of Sonic Youth, Band of Susans, Swans etc. Rhys Chatham Guitar Army has included up to 100 guitarist playing layers of alternate tunings; however, I think this evening will be slightly smaller scale. The evening starts with Detroit based THTX, which melds psych and prog rock into a vehicle for both songwriting and free improvising.
Doors at 8 pm; sliding scale $10-15

Monday, Sept. 18th: Joe Lally, Antelope (dischord records)
Its DC punk rock night. Joe Lally, bassist for iconoclastic, DIY trailblazers Fugazi, is on tour with percussionist Justin Moyer to support the release of “There to Here”, his first full-length solo release. He’s joined by Dischord label-mates Antelope. Doors at 9 pm; $5.

Tuesday, Sept 19th:Howling Hex
Neil Michael Hagerty made his name as half of Royal Trux. His new band, Howling Hex, is metamorphsizing group of collaborators that has put out several small pressing releases that vary widley in sound; violin, accordian and banjo all figured in to 2005’s “You Can’t Beat Tomorrow.”
Doors at 9 pm; $5

9/20 Tatsuya Nakatani- solo performance and collaboration w/ Detroiters
Percussion virtuoso Tatsuya Nakatani returns to the Bohemian, following his recent performance with the Bossa Nova group Yukijurushi. This time out, he’ll display the immense skills that have earned him an important place amongst peers like Peter Kowald, Peter Brotzmann, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell, Sabir Mateen, Ken Vandermark, the Billy Bang Quintet featuring Frank Lowe, Assif Tsahar, Le Quan Ninh, Mat Maneri, and William Parker. Doors at 7:30 pm; music at 8:00 pm. Sliding scale donation $5-10.

Coming Soon:
9/21 Kayo Dot (Tzadik) with Larval
9/22 Art Show: Barb Loomis and Frank Pahl
9/27 Extra Golden (Extra Golden is a collaberation between Onyango Wuod Omari of the Nairobi, Kenya based benga band Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, and Ian Eagleson and Alex Minoff of the Washington D.C. based rock band Golden.)
9/30 Tara Jane O’ Neal with Warn DeFever
10/7 Joe McPhee and Trio X
10/8 Salim Washington, Hakim Jami, Claude Black, Sean Dobbins
10/15 Thollem McDonas, Jon Brummit and Rent Romus
Also in October: MOVIE NIGHT- MY NAME IS ALBERT AYLER

11/16 Qbico Unite record label showcase with Muruga Booker Global Village Ceremonial Band,
Faruq Z Bey with The Northwoods Improvisers, Odu Afrobeat Orchestra

UPCOMING AT SLOW’S BAR BQ’S FREE MONDAY JAZZ AND INSTRUMENTAL SERIES
All shows start at aproximately 9 pm.

Monday, Sept. 11th: Colton Weatherston
It’s been a little while since we’ve had guitarist Colton Weatherston at Slows; he’s been spending most of his time with the ever more popular Hot Club of Detroit, which has a new release on Mack Ave. Records. This combo is likely to have piano and perhaps another guest as well.

Monday, Sept 18th: Gypsy Strings of Detroit
Swinging jazz from the era of Django and Stephan. Two guitars augmented by occasional double-bass or clarinet.

Monday, Sept 25th: Conjunto Escobar
This Afro-Cuban combo is driven by lots of percussion and group vocals, with guitar adding the accompaniment and melodic solos.

Monday, October 9th: Kyle Bruckmann’s WRACK
A nice out of town line-up hits Slows.Bruckmann’s quintet Wrack performs original compositions drawing equally from the traditions of contemporary jazz and classical modernism, cultivating an “ability to combine turned-up flame with clear-headed attention to texture and space” (Jason Bivins, Dusted Magazine). As a member of the Bay Area new music collective sfSound and of Gene Coleman’s Chicago-based Ensemble Noamnesia, he has performed works by composers including Berio, Braxton, Cage, Cardew, Crumb, Goldstein, Ives, Penderecki, Sciarrino, Stockhausen, Webern, Xenakis, and Yoshihide.
Kyle Bruckmann- oboe, english horn, Jason Stein-bass clarinet, Jen Clare Paulson- viola,Anton Hatwich-bass, Tim Daisy-percussion.

Bohemian National Home
3009 Tillman (22nd)
Detroit 48216
313 737 6606

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Rob Mazurek / São Paulo Underground in Philly

Mazurek and friends play Philadelphia tomorrow night.

Ars Nova Workshop presents:

Wednesday, September 13 | 8pm
São Paulo Underground
with
Mauricio Takara, drums/percussion/electronics; Richard Ribeiro, drums/percussion; Gulherme Granado, samplers/percuscion/voice; and Rob Mazurek, cornet/electronics

Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Avenue
$10 General Admission

Spawned from the pink sulfur skies of São Paulo, Brazil, SPU is the combined work of artists Rob Mazurek (Mandarin Movie, Isotope 217, Chicago Underground, Exploding Star Orchestra) and Mauricio Takara (Hurtmold, M. Takara).

Mauricio Takara has been a leader within the Brazilian music scene for many years, collaborating with a vast range of local and worldly artists such as Otto, Damo Suzuki, Cidadao Instigado, Nana Vasconcelos, Thomas Rohrer and Nacao Zumbi. He has released two solo records under the name M. Takara as well as with his ensemble Hurtmold (including a split with Chicago’s The Eternals). He’s currently working on a J.T. Meirelles remix record (60’s Brazilian samba-jazz saxophonist) with the group Instituto.

Rob Mazurek is an abstract sound composer, improviser, cornetist, computerist, pianist, painter and multi-media artist. A prime mover in the vibrant Chicago scene (and now also the São Paulo scene) his contributions have bridged two musical worlds — fringe-jazz and fringe-rock. He made numerous extracurricular appearances, lending his cornet to Tortoise’s TNT, Gastr del Sol’s Camoufleur, Stereolab’s Cobra and Phases Group, and Sam Prekop’s solo debut, among many others. It was out of this musical cross-fertilization that facilitated the exceptional contributions of his ensembles, Isotope 217 and Chicago Underground.

Listen:
http://aesthetics-usa.com/artists/spu/bio.html

This concert is made possible with the support of the Community Education Center (CEC).

http://www.arsnovaworkshop.com
Support Creative Music.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Dusted Reviews

Dusted has a new set of reviews:

Artist: Acid Mothers Temple & The Pink Ladies Blues
Album: Featuring the Sun Love and the Heavy Metal Thunder
Label: Fractal
Review date: Sep. 10, 2006

Artist: Pauline Oliveros
Album: The Roots of the Movement
Label: Hatology
Review date: Sep. 10, 2006

Artist: Tim Hodgkinson
Album: Sketch of Now
Label: Mode
Review date: Sep. 4, 2006

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Marc Ribot at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

As part of the London Jazz Festival, Ribot will be playing with Henry Grimes and Spiritual Unity.

Marc Ribot at the Queen Elizabeth Hall

Friday 10 November 2006, Spiritual Unity featuring Marc Ribot and special guest Henry Grimes will perform at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as one of the concerts of London Jazz Festival 2006.

Jazz Festival audiences will be able to witness Ribot in various guises, the first of which is Spiritual Unity, featuring the recently re-discovered bassist Henry Grimes. Henry Grimes was a member of Albert Ayler and Cecil Taylor’s band, before disappearing from the jazz scene in the late-1960s. He resurfaced and came to Ribot’s attention and the two decided to form this project dedicated to the spirit of Albert Ayler’s brand of hardcore free jazz. This show is sure tests the limits of extreme musical expression.

Next day, Saturday 11 November 2006 at the Purcell Room you can see My Name is Albert Ayler, a screening of Kasper Collin’s documentary film about saxophonist and iconoclast Albert Ayler, inspiration for Marc Ribot’s Spiritual Unity project. The film is introduced and accompanied by Ayler’s bassist Henry Grimes, in conversation with journalist and broadcaster Kevin LeGendre.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Bagatellen Reviews

The latest reviews from Bagatellen:

Will Guthrie - body and limbs still look to light - 11 Sep 06
Herve Boghossian/John Tilbury/Mark Wastell - Archi.Texture Vol. 1 - 11 Sep 06
Buck Hill - Relax - 08 Sep 06

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Relearning After Having a Bad Teacher

How do we undo negative experiences with teachers so that children can still be receptive and willing to try again?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Landmarks (17)

Charles E. Ives, Symphony Nr. 4 (ca. 1910-16, revised ca. 1921-25). Had long known the Fourth from recordings, the first complete recording, under Stokowski, was only a suggestion of what the piece might be, and the quad recording under Serebrier made a great advance, especially in finding a path through the second movement, as dense a landscape as Ives would ever compose, and one in which not

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Fermata

Fundamentalists and materialists have this in common: both are unable to sustain a poetic wonder and humility in the living world. -- Mary Catherine Bateson (found here)

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Memory and Allegory

Among the works of art which have been made to commemorate the events of September 11, 2001, I suspect that none will be the subject of more serious discussion than the large painting by Graydon Parrish, The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy: September 11, 2001, in the New Britain (Connecticut) Museum of Art. (For images with more detail, scroll down this page). Parrish is an artist with prodigious

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Intermission Riff

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

The Curse of the Saxophone Quartet

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Hello S21 World

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Framing Opera

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Bang for the buck

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Rhys Chatham Returns

Originally from Sequenza21/Composers Forum, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

Well, That Was Fun

On the advice of technical counsel (the startled, somewhat irate, yet oddly lovable, Jeff Harrington) I have returned the new Sequenza21 pages to a "test environment" for further refinement before causing something catostrophic to happen. I'm glad so man

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 12, 2006 at 01:41 PM | Comments (0)

September 11, 2006

More Innova releases reviewed

Yoav Gal and Yael Kanarek: Bit by bit, cell by cell [info]

Taking his cue from the hyperlinked, hyperreal digital landscapes of Yael Kanarek’s WorldofAwe, Yoav Gal constructs 11 sonic typographies from an old Atari 800XL, the voice of soprano Sarah Rivkins, and some alert sounds borrowed from Apple. Repeating layers of samples are deposited on top of one another until out of the cumulative weight are forced verdant valleys and hard mountain ranges. The texture is at once enveloping water and resistant granite. Intended originally for choreography – a sample video is included on this enhanced CD – it is effective, music of physical effect demanding a physical response.

Gal’s compositional technique borrows much from medieval polyphony: vocal samples stretched inside the Atari across an inhuman tessitura create possibilities for refined mensural canons, as well as a curious human-nonhuman chorus effect that can be melody, accompaniment and sonic environment all at once.

It is in this world that the Traveller of WoA finds herself in pursuit of an elusive treasure. Her journal narrates her experiences in this mysterious world; she also uses it to set down letters to an anonymous and absent lover. WoA is set in a hinterland that is both sunset and sunrise; and this is also how she comes to sign the letters. It soon becomes apparent that dusk/dawn is not the only duality that has been obliterated, as voice becomes sound, organic becomes digital, Traveller becomes landscape. It is no longer clear in this hexadecimal hallucination who these letters are from, or who they are to. In the end, as the Traveller gives herself up, bit by bit, cell by cell, to the rapture of digital oblivion, she perhaps discovers that after all, she is also the treasure she has been searching for.

It’s fairly high-concept stuff – and you can include the low-tech approach in that equation – but perfectly accessible and often quite beautiful for it.

Harry Partch: Enclosure 7 [info]

This DVD, the culminating part of Philip Blackburn’s series of Partch releases for Innova, is something special. It features Stephen Pouliot’s classic 1972 documentary on Partch, The Dreamer that Remains, a remastered 1971 film of Partch’s magnum opus Delusion of the Fury (with excellent sound), a 40-minute slideshow accompanying the ‘bonus album’ of Partch describing his instruments (a recording that accompanied some of the original boxsets of Delusion of the Fury), extracts from a 1960 performance of Revelation in the Courthouse Park, and a Dreamer outtake in which Partch rants against insensitive reviewers, makes some rose petal jam, and does a strange little dance. If you have any real interest in American music, unusual music, instrument manufacture, music theatre, the hobo lifstyle or jam recipes there is no good reason why you shouldn’t buy this DVD.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

The collected wit and wisdom of eMusic’s David Pakman

I’ve added a new page to the Swindleeeee!!!!! site, “Pakman speaks“, with links to published interviews and other comments by David Pakman, President and CEO of eMusic. Thanks to Google I unearthed some interesting and lesser known items, including in particular an audio interview with Pakman very soon after he came to eMusic. I’ll keep this updated as new Pakman-related articles get published.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

“This is Money” gives eMusic (and iTMS) its highest rating

This is Money, a UK web site by the publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper, recently published an article The Best Music Download Sites, in which they rated the iTunes Music Store, Napster, MySpace, SpiralFrog, PlayLouder (a UK-specific service), the online sites for Virgin and HMV, and band and label sites in general. eMusic received the highest rating (5 stars), along with the iTunes Music Store. The article references the new eMusic UK pricing, mentions iPod compatibility (but not the use of the MP3 format and the lack of DRM restrictions), characterizes eMusic as being for fans of indierock, modern classical and jazz, and delivers the overall verdict Excellent site for the true collector.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

New stuff

Well, what have I composed this summer? I just finished a set of songs (bass voice, piano and string quartet) called Rhyme and Reason. The title matches the poems - I used three nursery rhymes, well, two nursery rhymes and a counting-out rhyme. Counting-out rhymes are those things that children do to choose teams or such - you know, like eeny, meeny, miney, mo and so on. There are many, many variations of these rhymes and they go back hundreds of years. The one I chose was used in Connecticut in the early 19th century -

Onery, uery, ickery, see,
Huckabone, crackabone, tilleebonee,
Ram pang, muskidan, Striddledum, straddledum, twentyone.


Basically nonsense words - but quite enjoyable to set.

The second song is based on a lesser-known nursery rhyme called "There was a Man of Double Deed", very unusual text -

There was a man of double deed
Sowed his garden full of seed.
When the seed began to grow,
‘Twas like a garden full of snow;
When the snow began to melt,
‘Twas like a ship without a belt;
When the ship began to sail,
‘Twas like a bird without a tail;
When the bird began to fly,
‘Twas like an eagle in the sky.
When the sky began to roar,
‘Twas like a lion at the door;
When the door began to crack,
‘Twas like a stick across my back;
When my back began to smart,
‘Twas like a penknife in my heart;
When my heart began to bleed,
‘Twas death and death and death indeed.


and the third is a light-hearted song (to help alleviate the above song)

Where are you going to, my pretty maid?
I’m going a-milking, sir, she said,
Sir, she said, sir, she said,
I’m going a-milking, sir, she said.

May I go with you, my pretty maid?
You’re kindly welcome sir, she said.

Say, will you marry me, my pretty maid?
Yes, if you please, kind sir, she said.

What is your father, my pretty maid?
My father’s a farmer, sir, she said.

What is your fortune, my pretty maid?
My face is my fortune, sir, she said.

Then I can’t marry you, my pretty maid.
Nobody asked you, sir, she said.

Which seems to have been taken from an earlier folksong, but it isn't certain. The songs restricted my choice of musical material - the rhythmic patterns of the poems, the constant rhyming - to a basic song-refrain style, but with slight pulling and stretching of the repeats, so as to keep interest.

Originally from Reflection Field, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

Steve Reich

Steve Reich's 70th is coming up (october three), so I thought I would start a bit early. Here is a video ofDrummingwhich was recorded with Professor Steven Schick and his ensemble.

Originally from Reflection Field, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 02:07 PM | Comments (0)

Mugged by music

Jerry Sequenza21 recently reported that David Salvage was robbed at gunpoint in Brooklyn, and asks whether anyone else has been mugged recently. Well yes actually, and it wasn't by a gangster with a gun, it was by a new recording. I've had a lot of close encounters with The Art of Fugue over the years. They started with Karl Münchinger's full-on version with the Stuttgarter Kammerorchester (naughty, but still very nice), and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields recording of the edition prepared by Neville Marriner and Andrew Davis. Staying with strings more recent versions from the Emerson Quartet and the viol consort Phantasm have also provided new perspectives. Favourite keyboard versions have included Evgeni Koroliov on the piano (with the following endorsement from György Ligeti no less: '... but if I am allowed only one musical work on my desert island, then I should choose Koroliov's Bach, because forsaken, starving and dying of thirst, I would listen to it right up to my last breath', and André Issoir on the organ of Grenzig de Saint-Cyprien in Perigord.

That's a pretty formidable list of interpretations, can a newcomer really add anything.Well yes - I’ve just been mugged, and knocked clean off my feet, by a new recording that arrived in the post a few days ago. And what makes the mugging all the more remarkable is that the performers are hardly household names. The Art of Fugue is a daunting challenge for any performers. Shortly after Johann Sebastian Bach’s death his son Karl Philip found a bundle of manuscripts containing fugues and cannons. The scores had no title other than the single word 'Contrapunctus', and no directions for instrumentation or tempi, and it appears that Bach passed away while writing the final fugue in the score. This is the ultimate abstract music, and it was probably commissioned by the Society of Musical Sciences of Leipzig.

Before any performance can take place solutions to the missing instrumentation and the incomplete final group of fugues need to be found. In an outstanding collabaration the musicologist and composer Jacques Chailley arrived at an inspired solution arranging the fugues in a binary progression, while the renown trumpeter Pascal Vigneron (above) undertook a new instrumentation using Chailley’s ordering and structure. Chailley postulates that Bach used Pythagorean mathematics to create the two hundreds and eighty-seven different versions (and inversions) of the main re-la-fe motif that make up The Art of Fugue. His analysis concludes that Bach planned to write six groups of four fugues, with each group of four comprising two pairs of rectus and invertus. But of the twenty-four planned fugues only twenty exist, and the last is incomplete.

Pascal Vigneron’s instrumentation is quite remarkable. It uses the organ as the central element, but extends the sonorities using just woodwind and brass. The instruments are used in three groupings; the organ alone, organ and woodwinds, and organ and brass, following Chailley’s groupings of the fugues into three ‘families’. The instrumentalists are drawn from the Ensemble de Cuivres Pascal Vigneron and L’Orchestre de Chambre du Marais, with Pascal Vigneron on trumpet, and with the organ parts shared by Jean Galard and Vigneron.


But let’s cut to the chase. This isn’t a dry, academic exercise in musicology. This is a living, visceral performance which literally mugs the listener with its sonorities and fresh perspective. The recording was made in La cathédrale de St Bernard de Comminges (above) in south-west France which dates from the 12th centurt, and the brass and wind choirs produce a wonderfully burnished sound as they extend the range of the great organ cathedral which dates from 1550 and has three manuals. Great performances can make Bach sound like contemporary music, and this one certainly does just that. But it also points back to the Renaissance. I first heard this magnificent recording on BBC Radio 3, and for a moment thought I was listening to a Gabrielli brass canzona until the appearance of the fateful re-la-fa motif. The mathematical symmetry of the twenty-four fugues is retained by using two double fugues played on positive organs for ‘Contrapunctus’ 21 and 22, with the final fugue concluding with the Choral ‘Von Deinen Thron Tret Ich Hier Mit’.(In front of your throne I will appear) played by trumpet and organ.

It is only July. But this The Art of Fugue must surely be a frontrunner for the best new release of 2006. It is not just a triumph of scholarship and musicianship. The recording from the little known Quantum label is also a technical triumph, and the beautifully realised gatefold packaging, with its colour photography of La Cathedrale de St Bernard de Comminges is living evidence of why, for this music lover at least, the MP3 file will never replace the CD.

Bach wrote on the final page of the manuscript of The Art of Fugue ‘... und einen andern Grundplan’, which translates as ‘... and under another plan’. Perhaps, at last, Pascal Vigneron and Jacques Chailley have revealed that plan. Jacques Chailley died in 1999 age 88.

Now settle down for a virtual mugging with more than four minutes of MP3 files from this outstanding new version of The Art Of Fugue:

Contrapunctus XIII Rectus (2' 06") -

Contrapunctus XV Rectus (2' 34") -

* Pascal Vigneron's website
* Festival de Comminges
* La Cathédrale de Comminges
* I bought my copy from Amazon Marketplace reseller Avatar Music, the double CD cost £14.93 ($28) plus delivery, it arrived in three days, as have other orders from this source.

Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to Mortal defeat for the mob in Paris and Gentlemen, old Bach is here....

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

Musical preferences

Dave Munger has set up an online experiment on musical preference over at Cognitive Daily. Go take the test, so he has a good assortment of music junkies as well as psychology junkies. I'll post an update when he publishes the results.

Originally from Musical Perceptions, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 02:06 PM | Comments (0)

Satie - Pianoless Vexations

While most of the offerings on Free Albums Galore are complete albums, I will often present a lengthy single work, usually in the realm of classical music or modern compositions. Erik Satie’s Pianoless Vexations is such a piece…all 8 hours of it.

Satie’s Vexations is an unique piece for piano consisting of a simple motif repeated 840 times. The work was found on a single page in his notebook after the composer’s death. Some scholars wonder if Satie ever meant it to be taken seriously at all. The composition was first performed by John Cage and other pianists in 1963 with the performance lasting over 19 hours. You can read a fascinating essay on Vexations here.

Ubuweb has made available an 8 hour performance called Pianoless Vexations. As the title implies, the instruments used includes anything but piano although there is a harpichord and even a toy piano. The 2006 concert was performed at the Sculpture Center in New York. 24 musicians and groups took turns in periods of approximately 20 minutes repeating Satie’s musical theme.

While it would be difficult, perhaps even unadvisable, to listen to the entire recording from beginning to end, each separate segment has its virtues. The interest is maintained in how each artist interpret the phrase and sets it in motion through the time allotted. Laptop composer Randy Nordshow starts the performance and plays only the first note of the piece concentrating on the various effects of a single sonority. Violinist Amy Granat takes a similar approach on track 9. Guitarist Jay Sanders (track 2) is more loyal to the motif but adds variation through a chordal underpinning of each note. A recorder trio manages to convey an early medieval sound while The Bruce Arnold Jazz Trio (track 5) sets the theme in the bass as the two other musicians add improvisational color. Alan Licht and Angela Jaeger (track 6) plays it pretty straight with voice and guitar. Perhaps the most interesting interpretation is by the bluegrass group, The String Messengers (track 7). Other performances worth noting include Margaret Leng Tan on toy piano (track 17), Trudy Chan on harpichord (track 19), and Stephin Merritt and Ethan Cohn (track 23) on marimbas unintentionally accompanied by a crying baby.

Whether this is a bizarre oddity or an unique masterpiece is best left to the scholars with too much time on their hands. Pianoless Vexations is certainly a work that will interest those listeners who wish to hear creative artists placing their own mark on a vexing compositon.

The tracks are available in 192kbps MP3.

Download

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 02:00 PM | Comments (0)

Sound Art @ Washington Square Park

Originally from Darcy James Argue's Secret Society, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

Is the audience even listening?

Jessica Werb, Globe And Mail, 9/8/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

Dear Dmitri Shostakovich...

Nigel Andrews, Financial Times, 9/8/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

Composer, 14, confronts age-old test of prodigies

Richard Dyer, Boston Globe, 9/8/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

Ake Hodell - Purgatory / Electric Buddha

Originally from Classical Connection, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

Day Two

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:59 PM | Comments (0)

ARTSaha keeps you plugged in

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

Agenda

With clear skies prevailing, downtown New Yorkers should check out a Sound Art concert in Washington Square Park today at 3PM. The impressive lineup includes sampling virtuoso Carl Stone, dissonant-chromatic rock band Jerseyband, the hypnotically inventive composer-vocalist Joan La Barbara, the crack young percussion ensemble So Percussion, electronic composers Luke DuBois and Daedelus, and Princeton professor Paul Lansky, one of the reigning geniuses of electronic music.

Update: Steve Smith has a report on the event, and Darcy James Argue has a photojournal. I caught an early portion of the proceedings, enjoying the combination of experimental sound and summer sun on a patch of grass nearby. Lansky's Ride, with speaking voices and nature murmurs bubbling up from a molten flow of electronic sound, was mesmerizing. Read to the end of Steve's post for news of another sound-art event — in a Starbucks, of all places. I also recommend an upcoming S.E.M. Ensemble concert at the Spiegeltent downtown, although I won't be able to attend, because it's opening night at the Met.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

New Dates for Our Upcoming Concert Season!

That exclamation point. The one at the end of the title: New Dates for Our Upcoming Concert Season(!)That's what makes you want to come to our concerts isn't it? Isn't it?? (You can tell me...)It's no...

Originally from Alarm Will Sound - MySpace Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

New York Times Featurette

While your at it, check out this AWS feature in the Saturday New York Times:http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/10/arts/music/10kozi.html?ref=musicYou might need to register, but it's free. Give it a read,...

Originally from Alarm Will Sound - MySpace Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:58 PM | Comments (0)

the concert

Originally from david's waste of bandwidth..., ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:56 PM | Comments (0)

Buck Hill - Relax

Severn 39 Ask a Minneapolis passerby about Buck Hill and you will likely receive directions to a popular ski resort located just south of the city. Pose the same question at a venerable Washington, D.C. jazz club like Blues...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Burkhard Stangl/Dieb13 - eh (Erstwhile)

There are moments in life when what was once familiar can appear startlingly strange. Perhaps it is the way the light falls on an ordinary object, casting its features in a dense curtain of shadow that obscures its ordinary...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Carei Thomas

Carei Thomas
Carei Thomas is no ordinary jazz guy; creative musician, galactic thinker, and mentor-poet-word man. If the AACM hadn't existed he would have had to invent it. Hear Pinnacles at: http://innova.mu/artist1.asp?skuID=223
From Podcast: ALIVE AND COMPOSING.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Think of three... Alice Coltrane, Jimmy Giuffre... Dave Douglas...

Think of three...

Some more Alice Coltrane, sans harp, on the piano this time from the same album: 'Ptah the El-Daoud.' 'Mantra.' Commencing on low rumblings as the horns fire off some moody squawks before the groove that dominates the track starts to pick up – the iron string that all the hearts reverberate to here, to misquote Emerson. The horns weave across each other as Alice crunches out some biting chords. Ron Carter keeps the groove going and Ben Riley holds the backline with some punching drumming. Sanders emerges, building into some long squalling phrases. Coltrane' piano splatters colour. Henderson takes over – proceeding to growling, throaty timbral manoevres – playing more freely than one usually associates with him. Going into higher register, an edge of John C here being invoked. Chirrupping rasps to finally fall away. Over hammered low register piano and bowed bass the drums drop back and the groove flattens to deep thrumming. Piano building over the bass drone in scuttling deep runs, slowly emerging into the light as the drums return, some almost bluesy trickling scampers through the high register. To theme, with the horns back up front, before dark muttering over drone finale. The blues go east. In comparison to 'The Blue Nile' on my last post, with its bright shimmering textures, there is a more sombre tone to 'Mantra,' a whiff of John Coltrane's more anguished spiritual wanderings...

Jimmy Giuffre stands at the beginning of my fascination for 'modern' jazz as opposed to the traditional/New Orleans stuff that originally attracted me to the music. I've written about this elsewhere with regard to the impact that 'Jazz on a Summer's Day' had on me when young. - It introduced me to Thelonious Monk, for starters. Yet it is also the plaintive bluesy haunting of 'Train and the River' that I carry with me from that movie. Here is Guiffre five years later in 1962 – much later on in terms of conceptual advancemant – playing 'The Five Ways',' taken from the third album that this lineup made. In at the beginning of the free jazz torrent that was to sweep through the sixties, Guiffre was nevertheless doomed to be sidelined for many years. Critically, he was seen as arid, overtly academic, possibly because there is more of a European feel to this music than his trios with their folk/blues resonances. 'Train and the river' this is not...

'Free Fall was such radical music, no one, literally no one, was ready for it and the group disbanded shortly thereafter on a night when they made only 35 cents apiece for a set. ' (Taken from Thom Jurek, All Music Guide, here...

Yet... There is a fearless searching edge to this music – a logical progression from his long-term interest in counterpoint, to seek more linear freedoms? 'The Five Ways' consists of five different themes in a ten minute suite which are vehicles for improvisation. Opening with Bley sounding almost Cecil Taylor-ish. Rippling away behind Giuffre's minimal clarinet as Steve Swallow comments, playing a high almost bluesy repeated riff. Progressing section by section... an interesting examination of the balance between composition and improvisation that skirts abstraction but has enough timbral and idiomatic reference points – mainly from Bley and Peacock - to keep a hold in jazz. Space is a large and determining factor here as well. Chamber music of a high intensity – with episodes that have a jaunty if fragmentary lilt... I wonder if his choice of main instrument at this time was significant in his being sidelined so radically – the clarinet was never popular in modern jazz. I wonder what the reception – and sound – would have been if he had used one of his other horns. Interesting that Giuffre is another Texan – like Ornette... Don't fence me in, as they say...

(I have some air shots somewhere on cassette with the re-formed trio that made this album somewhere which I must dig out... ).

Interesting overview of Jimmy Giuffre with reference to this album here...

Dave Douglas typifies the modern musician who moves easily and skilfully across the old genre demarcation lines. Luckily, his ventures have not plunged him in to the career obscurities that Giuffre and Alice Coltrane endured. If Giuffre tried to accommodate 'European' techniques into his music, so does Douglas – albeit in this instance from the popular end of the spectrum. His deployment of strings on 'Bilbao Song' from the album 'Convergences' evokes the era of Weimar cabaret when this song was written by the old firm of Brecht and Weill (for a show ironically called 'Happy End' – in 1929...). A bustling scrabbling intro with the trumpet-led ensemble before the violin states the theme, shadowed by trumpet and cello. An episodic piece that drifts in and out of rhythm, stops and starts, leading to a duo section between Douglas and Friedlander of trumpet smears and cello scrapes then... a sedate re-statement of theme as the trumpet pops and snaps and whooshs. The strings slowly swoon to each other over a simple repeated bass before the violin returns to lead the piece to a close. A hint of Dada's disruptive absurdity in places, crossed with Brechtian alienation – and a sympathetic tenderness that binds it overall.

On a semi-facetious note, I gather that 'Bilbao Song' has been recorded, not just by the usual suspects (Ute Lemper, Lottie Lenya) but by such disparate characters as Chet Atkins (Brecht goes Country, anyone?) and Andie Williams (Crooners against Capitalism? - Probably not...).

Alice Coltrane has belatedly received some recognition, as has Giuffre. Douglas is a critical favourite in his many ventures and in company with others – notably John Zorn. Two from the sidelines and one from straight down the middle(ish)... such is the nature of the music...

In the Videodrome...

The train and the river...

and a fragment of Dave Douglas...

Alice Coltrane
Download
Mantra

Buy

Jimmy Giuffre

Download
The Five Ways

Buy

Dave Douglas

Download
Bilbao Song

Buy

Originally from wordsandmusic, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

The great outdoors.

Although I had to leave early for an evening assignment, I managed to catch the first few hours of Jen Stock's ambitious, impressive Sound Art happening in Washington Square Park yesterday. Three movements of Carl Stone's typically delicious Acid Bop, a skittering, juddering blast of jazz timbres gone all wacky, got things off to a lively start. The invaluable vocalist-composer Joan La Barbara warmed up with some involved glossolalia, then presented her Urban Tropics Revisited, a surround-sound piece that briefly transformed a bright, breezy New York afternoon into a humid day in Miami, parrots included. Paul Lansky's hypnotic Ride surrounded the audience with gorgeous, sweeping timbres -- something like a Steve Reich vibraphone chorale surfing a Robert Fripp soundscape, with dense, chattering spoken asides. Sadly, I had to leave as the natty Los Angeles laptopper Daedalus was launching a set with a deeply funky backbeat, and missed everyone else.

Darcy James Argue circled the periphery, shooting photos. Morton Subotnick leaned against a wall nearby; Raphael Mostel moved from one seat to another. Ian Moss, of Capital M renown, was on hand to help out. Intensely creative jazz pianist-composer Ursel Schlicht pedalled up and stood listening for a spell. Other naggingly familiar faces I couldn't quite place. A small but attentive core audience sat in plastic chairs or on the ground; I stood in the back, unable to keep still given that all three of the big pieces I heard had strong rhythmic components. Curious onlookers smiled, pointed, shook their heads, snapped photos or just kept walking.

As usual, the crowd participation and general environment provided unanticipated bonuses. One of three young women who walked behind me during La Barbara's introductory workout said to her friends, "We could do that!" A few minutes later, two men stopped for just a moment; "I love New York," one said to the other. A cantankerous gentleman plopped down on the pavement during Urban Tropics Revisited, shouting his own improvised rejoinders at the top of his lungs. (He could also be heard raving about comic books and Bin Laden, or so it seemed, during the Lansky piece.) I couldn't tell if the cicadas that swelled in song during one part of Ride were part of Lansky's mix, but they were unquestionably part of the music, as was a distant acrobatic troupe whose drumming got its audience clapping loudly in rhythm from time to time.

All good fun; congratulations to Ms. Stock, who plans to create more such events. And on that note, I'll share notice of another free-of-charge event coming up on Tuesday in SoHo, via a press release I received from the remarkable Japanese-American sound collagist Aki Onda:

Outside/Inside : A Day of Field Recordings & Feedback
at Starbucks Salon (76 Greene Street. Bet. Spring & Broome Streets)
Tuesday, September 12
12 pm -10 pm
76 Greene st (between Spring and Broome)
curated by apestaartje & gen art

12 -2:30 pm  Phonographers Meeting +- (Ben Owen, Sawako & Civyiu Kkliu)
2:30-5 pm   Koen Holtkamp
5-7:30 pm  Aki Onda
7:30-10 pm   Greg Davis

Outside/Inside focuses on various sound artists and musicians who utilize enviromental recordings as a main element in their compositions and improvisations. The day will feature long form live performances by four diverse artists/groups including NY Phonographers Meeting +- (feat Ben Owen, Sawako & Civyiu Kkliu), Koen Holtkamp (Apestaartje, Mountains), Aki Onda (Softl, Improvised Music from Japan) & Greg Davis (Kranky, Carpark) + a few special guests.

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Vote for Pedro.

Ethan Iverson reflects on the results of his "Great Jazz Records 1973-1990" invitational. Pat Donaher provides a nicely executed (and beautifully titled) summary of the results -- don't skip out before his comments at the very end. I'm thrilled to see all this activity -- and revisiting so many of my yesteryear favorites has definitely been an enjoyable experience.

Proving that this topic is far from exhausted, Braxton scholar and cinematographer Jason Guthartz (of Restructures fame) has posted his own seriously heavy avant-leaning list in the comments area of Post No Bills, a newish daily blog by Peter Margasak, an excellent, wide-ranging writer and Chicago Reader contributor whose work I've admired for years. Prior to the blog explosion, Margasak was one of those rugged pioneers in the zine world; his Butt Rag made an impression nationwide. My working vacation in Morocco this past June was a richer experience for Peter's presence, not least because of his guidance at the CD shops.

"Jaco Lives," a pseudonymous commentator whose post appears directly below Guthartz's, reminds me of yet another classic record from the period under scrutiny that I forgot, primarily because I still don't own a copy despite years of searching: Larks, They Crazy, by the evocative composer, pianist and bandleader Robin Holcomb, issued in 1989 on the Sound Aspects label -- another valuable catalog seemingly gone with the wind. (I blogged about a live performance of this music this past March at the Stone here -- scroll down.)

Every time I've ever asked an artist who recorded for label owner Pedro de Freitas -- among them Butch Morris, Marty Ehrlich, Bobby Previte, Gerry Hemingway -- when a record made for Sound Aspects might resurface, the answer has always been a resounding shrug.

Morris's groundbreaking Current Trends in Racism in Modern America (1985) and his ineffably beautiful Homeing (1987) belong on any list of significant '80s creative-music releases. Nine Below Zero (1986), by the unlikely but effective trio of Morris, Previte and Wayne Horvitz, is also an outstanding record that I don't own. That same trio, augmented by Bill Frisell and Doug Wieselman, recorded another valuable disc devoted to Holcomb's tunes, Todos Santos (1989). Ehrlich, Hemingway and Previte made early statements under this aegis; Steve Lacy and Anthony Braxton also issued important LPs on the label.

Honestly, nothing I've ever heard from this short-lived imprint doesn't deserve consideration. Mr. De Freitas, where the hell are you?

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Double duty.

New York City Opera - La bohème
The Shanghai Quartet at Bargemusic
The New York Times, September 11, 2006

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Recycled x-ray film as recording media

Originally from The Hollow Tree Experimental Music Report, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

New Rob Reddy Release

From www.improvisedcommunications.com:

Media Contact for Rob Reddy:
Scott Menhinick, Improvised Communications
(617) 489-6561
scott@improvisedcommunications.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 7, 2006

ROB REDDY LAUNCHES LABEL WITH NEW SEXTET RELEASE
BROOKLYN, NY — On October 24th, veteran saxophonist/composer Rob Reddy will launch his Reddy Music label with A Hundred Jumping Devils (Reddy Music RED-001), the debut release from his new sextet, Rob Reddy’s Gift Horse. Featuring Mark Taylor (French horn), Charles Burnham (violin), Brandon Ross (acoustic and electric guitars), Dom Richards (double bass) and Mino Cinelu (percussion), the group explores a hauntingly eclectic mix of Reddy originals inspired by hymns, processionals, threnodies, ballads, sambas and more.

“By turns somber and spritely, abstract and anchored, soloistic and symphonic, the reedist-composer’s fifth album demonstrates his impressively broad yet highly personal perspective, his exemplary writing skills and instrumental prowess,” writes award-winning journalist Howard Mandel in the liner notes. “One might be reminded of Ornette Coleman’s loose unisons, Henry Threadgill’s circusy spins, Frank Zappa’s angularities (during ‘Procession,’ for instance), headstrong early jazz or the Master Musicians of Joujouka meeting Weather Report (on ‘Hundred Devils’ itself, where Reddy takes up the soprano sax, perhaps in honor but not imitation of Wayne Shorter). Such references only go so far, each of Reddy’s pieces, whether expansive at 11 minutes or brief at one, being distinctly original…you will recognize this as serious (but never didactic) work, freshly conceived and brilliantly realized by fully engaged collaborators, because it sounds so good, unusual and true.”

Based in New York for the past 20 years, Reddy was in the first graduating class at the city’s New School jazz program following studies with Dave Liebman and Makanda Ken McIntyre. He began his professional career with the Reggie Workman Ensemble and Ronald Shannon Jackson’s Decoding Society before forming his own trio in 1989 featuring Workman and drummer Pheeroan akLaff. He has since recorded as a leader with a variety of ensembles for the Songlines, Koch Jazz and Knitting Factory labels. As a composer, Reddy has received grants and commissions from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust, the American Music Center, American Composers Forum, the Jerome Foundation, the New York State Council on the Arts, and Meet The Composer. More information is available at http://www.reddymusic.com

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

New on Tzadik

Tzadik has a pair of new releases for this month.

Billy Martin
Starlings

Evan Parker
Time Lapse

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Charming Hostess Update

From Charming Hostess:

Friday 8 September
8 PM
with Fred Frith, Yuka Honda and eRikm
(AMAZING, NOT-TO-BE-MISSED PEOPLE)
Mills College Concert Hall
5000 MacArthur Blvd
Oakland

Thursday 14 September
6:30 PM
Talking and singing about Walter Benjamin
Magnes Museum
2911 Russell Street
Berkeley

Check us out in the SF Chronicle:
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/09/07/NSGK1K6VMA1.DTL

Or read the travel blog, next week:
http://charminghostess.us/blog/

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

New on Eremite Records

Eremite has a pair of new releases.

AVAILABLE 12 SEPTEMBER 2006
John Blum Astrogeny Quartet

The Khan Jamal Creative Arts Ensemble
Drumdance to the Motherland

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Chris Comer Radio Interviews

Chris Comer’s site is featuring freely downloadable interviews of musicians of all stripes, including Marilyn Crispell, Fred Frith, a Derek Bailey tribute, and much more.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Asko Ensemble & Schönberg Ensemble - Upcoming Concerts

The Asko Ensemble & Schönberg Ensemble are featuring the works of Kagel, Goebbels, Messiaen and others over the next few weeks.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine Reviews

A new set of reviews from Musique Machine.

Daniel Menche - Jugularis

We very much take for granted our hearts and all the criss cross of network of veins that pump blood around our bodies, every second and every breath is decided by your blood flow. This is what Daniel Menche investigates on Jugularis, the rhythm and its many textures of pumping blood. It’s like you’ve been shrunk down, then injected into a body.You travel along, the many by ways of it’s arterially systems.

Leo Abrahams - Scene Memory
The title of Scene memory is very apt for this collection of guitar mood pieces, which dips into drifting and often melancholy sound scapes, literal linking a memory of a scene or event to one’s mind. Leo Abrahams has worked with Brian Eno among others, and this clearly has the air and quality of some of eno’s work, But Abrahams has managed to cast his own beautiful and poignant light upon these tracks .

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Unruly Music at University of Milwaukee Wisconsin

UWM is starting an Unruly Music Series:

Unruly Music: The Modern Italian Violin
[Music] 7:30 p.m. Recital Hall.
Virtuoso performer Graeme Jennings presents an evening of contemporary Italian violin music. Works by Luciano Berio (Sequenza VIII, 1977), Franco Donatoni (Argot, 1979 and Ciglio, 1989), Salvatore Sciarrino (6 Capricci, 1976), Stefano Scodanibbio (My New Address, 1988), and Bruno Maderna (Widmung, 1967) combine the lyrical Italianate heritage of the instrument with Modernist sonic exploration. Jennings, born in Australia and based in San Francisco, was a member of the Arditti Quartet from 1994 to 2005 and is currently active as a recitalist. This is the debut concert of Unruly Music, our new contemporary music series, directed by Christopher Burns.
For more information call (414) 229-4308.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Classical Connection Downloads

Classical Connection has posted new downloads of rare OOP classical recordings.

Ake Hodell - Purgatory / Electric Buddha
This extremely rare 1972 disc from multiple-discipline artist Ake Hodell contains four of his Luc Ferrari-esque electro-acoustic compositions. Enjoy.

Michael Levinas - Les Rires Du Gilles, etc.
This 1989 Michael Levinas album contains several of his compositions. Each of the pieces is a terrifying nightmare. Many thanks to Jordan for sending me this. Liner notes included.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

New From Utech Records

Utech Records has announced a new release.

SEPTEMBER
James Plotkin > Kurtlanmak/Damascus > Utech Records > 001
James Plotkin began his musical career as the guitarist for metal band OLD with vocalist Alan Dubin. The two would cross paths again under the guise of Khanate. In the interim Plotkin would become involved in projects ranging from guitar bent soundscape and grind to free improvisation. His body of work spans format and label, recording for Avant, Hydra Head, Asphodel, Earache, Southern Lord and Archive among others. Whether writing, performing, or producing, his output has been invariably unique and extreme.

Kurtlanmak/Damascus is no exception. Recorded live in New York and Buenos Aires respectively the tracks show a side of James Plotkin rarely seen. That of the solo artist. Plotkin utilizes two distinct setups for each performance and channels the sound of acoustic instrumentation through the hum of electronic sorcery. Released on Utech Records [022] as Kurtlanmak in the fall of last year, the limited cdr was sold at dates on the Khanate “It’s Cold When Birds Fall From the Sky” tour. The music on this edition has been remastered and the packaging expanded. “Damascus” is added here as a bonus track and is previously unreleased.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

Lots of new and happening reviews at All About Jazz.

09-Sep-06 Francois Carrier
Happening Leo Records
09-Sep-06 Pharoah Sanders, Don Cherry
Pharoah Sanders and Don Cherry: Elevation and Where Is Brooklyn?
09-Sep-06 Instinctual Eye
Born In Brooklyn Barking Hoop
09-Sep-06 Multiple Artists
More Moore: Osiris & Kamosc
09-Sep-06 Multiple Artists
Clean Feed: Idle Wild, No Photograph Available, Singing to a Bee, The Other Side of This Clean Feed Records
08-Sep-06 McWain, Balgochian & Cook
Vigil (Fuller Street Music)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Nine Lives of Sonny Rollins

Sonny Rollins celebrates his birthday by providing a video collage of his career.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Roulette Concerts 9/21 - 9/30

New York’s Roulette has a busy 10 days at the end of the month:

ROULETTE presents
20 Greene St (between Canal and Grand St)
8:30 PM Admission $15 Students $10 MEMBERS FREE
TICKETS/RSVP: 212.219.8242
Roulette 228 West Broadway New York, NY 10013
contact: press@roulette.org http://www.roulette.org/

ROULETTE IS THRILLED TO ANNOUNCE OUR MOVE INTO OUR NEW HOME: 20 GREENE
STREET in SOHO. With this new space, Roulette will be expanding activities
to include over 100 concerts, sound installations, longer runs of music
theater and other large productions such as the ³Avant Jazz ­ Still Moving²
festival and the annual ³Festival of Mixology.² For our expanded events
calendar go to: http://www.roulette.org/

Also! Please check out our new ROULETTE BLOG for excerpts of our artists¹
music, podcasts featuring interviews with the artists and Roulette TV clips,
and musical discussion: http://www.roulette.org/blog/index.php

21: MARK DRESSER & RAZ MESINAI
FRI SEPT 22: PEEESSEYE
SAT SEPT 23: WALLY SHOUP
WED SEPT 27: LILY MAASE
THURS SEPT 28: THE ULLMANN/SWELL 4
FRI SEPT 29: SHELLEY HIRSH & SIMON HO
SAT SEPT 30: KENNY WOLLESEN’S WOLLESONIC

Thursday, September 21st
*Mark Dresser & Raz Mesinai*
Bassist/composer Mark Dresser & composer/electronicist Raz Mesinai team up
to tear wide open the first night of Roulette¹s season. Mesinai’s music
combines modern composition, freeform electronics and ancient shamanic and
trance traditions, drawing on his background in the hip-hop and dub scenes
and in traditional Middle Eastern musics. Of Dresser¹s playing, The New
Yorker writes, ³You’ve got to pity Dresser’s poor bass — you wouldn’t treat
a dog the way he manhandles his instrument. But the gnarled tones and
vicious swing he tortures out of it are worth the abuse. In Dresser’s
slanted compositions, the jazz tradition is only so much grist for the
millŠ” Tonight Dresser and Mesinai perform new compositions for double bass
and electronics using everything from processed overtones, layered harmonics
and artificial room tones to vibrating goatskinsŠ

Mark Dresser has performed and recorded over one hundred CDs with some of
the strongest personalities in contemporary music and jazz including Ray
Anderson, Tim Berne, Jane Ira Bloom, Tom Cora, Marilyn Crispell, Diamanda
Galas and John Zorn. He was nominated for a 2003 Grammy for the performance
of Osvaldo Golijov’s CD, Yiddishbbuk (EMI). He has given lecture
demonstrations at the Julliard School, Princeton, New England Conservatory,
National Superior Conservatory of Paris, Conservatory of Amsterdam, UCSD and
many others. He has been on faculty at New School University, Hampshire
College, and was a 2004 Lecturer in the Council of Humanities and Department
of Music at Princeton University. He is professor of music at UCSD.

Raz Mesinai was born in Jerusalem in 1973. His first two decades were spent
in frequent transit between Jerusalem and New York City, where he became
immersed both in the worlds of traditional Middle Eastern music and the dub
and hip-hop scenes of the eighties and early nineties in New York City. He
became involved in the avant-garde, downtown music scene of New York City,
performing, improvising, and leading his own ensembles on percussion, piano
and sampler. Mesinai’s electronic and electro-acoustic music exists at the
crossroads of composition, sound design and modern studio production. His
acclaimed recordings under the moniker Badawi, and as one half of the
seminal duo Sub Dub (with John Ward), are difficult to classify, but have
been called hybrid electronica/dub/percussion/avant-garde compositions.
Since 1999, Mesinai has been releasing music under his own name as well,
including three releases on John Zorn’s Tzadik label.

Friday, September 22nd
*Peeesseye: Jaime Fennelly, Chris Forsyth & Fritz Welch*
Peeesseye is a collaborative project developed in 2002 in Brooklyn by Jamie
Fennelly, Chris Forsyth and Fritz Welch that performs music/noise/sound
work. Peeesseye explores the boundaries of instruments and the acoustical
space they inhabit. The group¹s collective compositions and improvisations
use analogue electronics, oscillators, vocals, guitars, and percussion
instruments. Since 2002, Peeesseye has toured the U.S. four times and Europe
once and has released four CDs. Recent venues include Tonic, Harvestworks
and the Improvised and Otherwise Festival.

Peeesseye and its many offshoots (ŒPhantom Limb & Bison¹ and ŒPee in My Face
With Surgery¹) have been slinging mud and clawing at the foundations of the
experimental noise underground for a number of years now. The group has been
busy in collaborations with Tetuzi Akiyama and Stephen O¹Malley and has
releases on Evolving Ear, ArchiveCD, Utech and Chocolate Monk.

Peeesseye¹s unclassifiable music has been variously characterized by certain
sage voices as ³coming off like a punk rock AMM² (Edwin Pouncey, The Wire),
³a deep black/bleak folk ritual, with the good sense to not call itself by
some Œadjective folk¹ genre name,² (Blastitude) and like ³a slightly more
western canon focused Sun City Girls² (Volcanic Tongue).

Their newest CD, Commuting Between the Surface & the Underworld (Evolving
Ear) continues Peeesseye¹s pattern of ignoring virtually all patterns but
those that spring forth from the swarm of earthquakes in their collective
brain. Recorded following an unamplified tour of US noise venues, this
record brings vocals, a more pronounced rhythmic pulse and a wide array of
acoustic instruments to the foreground alongside the waves of electronic
density that have characterized past releases. The resulting record is a
perverse twist on spaced rock and post-noise ritual — mayhem in the
mansion, shivers in the shack.

More at www.evolvingear.com

Saturday, September 23rd
*Wally Shoup*
with Reuben Radding, Brent Arnold & Toshi Makihara
³One of the alto saxophone¹s harshest poets,² (The Boston Phoenix) Wally
Shoup plays unfettered, emotion-laden alto sax and has been involved in
freely improvised music since the 70s. He has maintained a life-long
allegiance to the beauty and demands of uncompromising free playing.

His work combines the grit of free jazz and blues with an ear towards
lyrical abstraction, all at the service of creating coherent music in the
moment. Since 1985, he has been a central member of the Seattle improvised
music scene and has been involved in organizing the Seattle Improvised Music
Festival since 1987. He has worked with a wide array of musicians, including
Thurston Moore, Davey Williams, La Donna Smith and Paul Flaherty.

Tonight his quartet presents music that is a lively, often intense blend of
free jazz, contemporary string music, and zen-like percussion. Albert
Ayler’s ghost, particularly his forays with string players, will hover in
the air. Wally has worked and recorded with each of tonight¹s musicians.
Releases include Confluxus (with Brent Arnold and Toshi Makihara, on Leo
Records) and Fusillades and Lamentations (with Reuben Radding on Leo
Records.) As a collective, the quartet creates a high degree of cohesion and
uncanny telepathic interplay, resulting in the type of free-wheeling
improvisation that sounds composed, almost idiomatic, yet remains very fluid
and unpredictable.

Wednesday, September 27th
*Lily Maase*
re:Disconnect
Guitarist, composer, and mixed media artist Lily Maase teams up with laptop
artist extraordinaire Christian Pincock to present re:Disconnect, her latest
experiment in sonic architecture. re:Disconnect is part chamber performance,
part multimedia installation, part long-form work for improvising musicians
in double quintet. Listeners will find themselves immersed in music from all
directions as Maase and Pincock use a room-wide laptop installation to blur
the line between performer and audience, form and improvisation, texture and
the indistinct.

The performance will feature Maase on guitar, Pincock on laptop and
trombone, Shane Endsley on trumpet, Mike Maher on trumpet and voice, Evan
Smith and Montreal-based Adam Kinner on saxophones, Zach Brock on amplified
five-string violin, Matt Wigton and Jay Foote on bass, and Fred Kennedy and
Jason Nazary on drums.

Maase¹s music is a fusion of rock and the avant-garde. All About Jazz
describes her work as being ³as much about artistic vision as about a groove
you can feel. At times soft and plaintive, the music can change gears and
grow into a powerful wall of soundŠextremely emotionally and cerebrally
rewarding.” The Weekly Alibi has praised her ³killer technique² and
³fearless sense of fun.²

Check out: www.lilymaase.com.

Thursday, September 28th
*The Ullmann/Swell 4*
The Ullmann/Swell 4 is Gebhard Ullmann (winds,) trombonist Steve Swell,
bassist Hill Greene & legendary drummer Barry Altschul. This emotional and
intense quartet has toured the U.S. and Canada and recorded their first CD,
Desert Songs and Other Landscapes, for the CIMP label in 2004.
In October and November of 2006 The Ullmann/Swell 4 will be performing in
Europe for the first time. The road-tested results that define their
absorbing compositions verify the group¹s deep commitment to the idea that a
music based on earnest communication proves most compelling.

Trombonist Steve Swell makes music in the avant tradition, using composition
as a jumping off point for free wheeling, intelligent improvisations. Swell
has played with everyone from Lionel Hampton to William Parker to Elliot
Sharp to Anthony Braxton. Jay Collins of OneFinalNote.com calls him ³a major
talent who is finally gaining recognition for his no-nonsense playing and
compositional approaches.² Swell has 20 recordings as a leader or co-leader
and is a featured artist on more than seventy other releases. Strongly
identified with the “downtown scene”, Swell also has a developed style in
the more so-called “traditional avant-garde” arena. He currently is
co-leading projects such as ³Space, Time, Swing” with Perry Robinson, and
plays with William Parker’s “Little Huey Creative Music Orchestra.” His CD,
Suite For Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers was ranked number 2 in the
2004 Cadence Readers Poll. Steve also is a Teaching Artist in the NYC public
school system working with special-ed kids.

Gebhard Ullman has recorded more than 20 CDs as a leader/co-leader. He has
received several awards for his work including the Julius Hemphill
Composition Award, the Deutsche Phonoakademie Award, one of the first SWF
(German radio) jazz awards and several awards from the city of Berlin. He
and his music have toured Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, the US,
Southeast Asia, Canada and Mexico. Since 1993, Ullmann is a recording artist
for Soul Note and commutes between New York and Berlin. His releases for
Soul Note, Leo Records, Songlines and Between the Lines have been widely
critically acclaimed on both sides of the Atlantic ocean.

Hill Greene has performed and/or recorded with Jimmy Scott, serving as his
Musical Director and with Cecil Taylor where he was Concert Master for his
group Phtongos. He has also worked with Gloria Lynne, The Inkspots, Rashied
Ali, Leroy Jenkins, Greg Osby, Kenny Barron, Village Vanguard Orchestra,
Oscar Brown Jr. and The Jazz Expressions.

Barry Altschul is widely regarded as one of the most prominent
percussionists in improvised music. In the early 70s, Altschul was the
drummer for Circle. Altschul’s drumming with that band was stylistically
all-encompassing — in his own words, “from ragtime to no time” — thanks to
his background in traditional jazz styles, which gave him a solid grounding
on which to build his free playing. From his days with Circle to his more
recent work as a leader of his own ensembles, Altschul has demonstrated a
notable consistency, especially in the way he inevitably manages to generate
an enormous momentum without overpowering the ensemble. Altschul was a
member of the Jazz Composer’s Guild and the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra
Association from 1964-68. In Œ72, Altschul recorded the classic album,
Conference of the Birds, with Anthony Braxton and saxophonist Sam Rivers.
Around this time, he also made records with Paul Bley, bassist Alan Silva,
and pianist Andrew Hill, among others. In the 80s, Altschul made records of
his own for Soul Note and continued his sideman work. Altschul’s 1985 album,
That’s Nice, shows him to be an exciting and good-humored bandleader in a
more modern vein.

Friday, September 29th
*Shelley Hirsch & Simon Ho*
Shelley Hirsch (voice) and Simon Ho (keyboards) have composed an evocative &
playful suite of pieces, filled with sonic pictures, kooky autobiographical
tales & beautiful orchestrations. Their collaborative work will be performed
by an extraordinary ensemble of musicians, who bring the written music to
life Š and augment it with their unique talents as improvisers. With
Stephanie Griffin (viola), David Hofstra (bass, tuba), David Simons
(percussion, Theremin) & Tomas Ulrich (cello.)

*Name the group after you hear the music and win 2 CDS!!!*

Shelley Hirsch has been called ³enormously inventive, scathingly satiric and
virtuosic…a brilliant overwhelming presence on stage² by the New York
Times. She is a vocalist, composer and performance artist whose work for
stage, concert, record, film, television and radio incorporates extended
vocal techniques, real and imaginary language, international music styles,
stream of consciousness, electronics, characterizations, movement and mixed
media. Her work has been presented on 5 continents and at music venues
throughout the U.S. Hirsch is the recipient of a NYFA Fellowship for
Emergent Forms, an NEA New Forms Interarts grant and of commissions from the
Mary Flagler Cary Charitable Trust (music for theater), NYSCA (electronic
music) and New Radio and Performing Arts.

Composer Simon Hostettler (a.k.a. Simon Ho) is a musician who defies all
stylistic restrictions, experimenting over many years with a wide variety of
styles. He has made a name for himself in Switzerland and abroad as a
freelance composer for the stage, free theatre groups and contemporary
compositions.

Saturday, September 30th
*Kenny Wollesen*
WOLLESONIC
WOLLESONIC is an acousto-electro multi-instrumental vibrational outfit of
skilled musicians adept at spontaneity and sonics, featuring Kenny Wollesen
(percussion), On Davis (guitar) and many special guests. Their performance
tonight will be accompanied by multiple super 8 projections and rotorific
projections. Wollesen is renowned as an artist of astonishing versatility,
skill and ingenuity. During the 90s he performed on over 30 recordings. He
has recorded and toured with all kinds of musicians, from Tom Waits
(w/William S. Burroughs,) to Sean Lennon, to Ron Sexsmith. A founding member
of the New Klezmer Trio, Wollesen is all over NYC’s downtown jazz and
avant-garde scene, touring with Bill Frisell & Myra Melford, recording for
Tzadik and improvising at major venues throughout the city.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Paul Dunmall Site

Veteran Euro free-jazz player Paul Dunmall has a web site with tons of information.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Jazz Listings In New York

Lots of good stuff going on in New York this weekend and the New York Times provides the scoop.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Avant Garde Project 25 is Out

Download and check out AGP 25.

AGP25 continues our month of requests by AGP patrons with a collection
of works by Bruno Maderna, an Italian composer who died in the prime of
his composing life, in 1973. Maderna was also a celebrated conductor,
and his music features particularly beautiful instrumental combinations
and a strong lyrical sense. Most of Maderna’s major works are available
on CD, but I was able to find a few out-of-print ones in my stacks.

Track 01 comes from a 2LP memorial tribute to Maderna released by
BVHAAST. The two oboe concertos from this set are available on CD from
the BVHAAST CD Store. Track 02 comes from a Wergo compilation of
performances by Severino Gazzelloni, a flute virtuoso who was
particularly devoted to contemporary music and premiered many new
works. Track 03 is from one LP in a series on Time Records, organized
by the composer Earle Brown in the early 1960s. Both tracks 02 and 03
are conducted by the composer. Tracks 04 and 05 are two versions of a
solo viola work by Maderna that can either be played from beginning to
end (closed form) or begun in the middle and reshuffled (open form).
There are CD recordings of this short work available, but none in which
the closed form and open form are juxtaposed.

The torrent includes a text file containing liner notes from the three
LPs from which these recordings were transcribed.

01 - Juilliard Serenade [14:22]
02 - Hyperion III [25:16]
03 - Serenata #2 [11:41]
04 - Viola, open form [6:25]
05 - Viola, closed form [7:14]

Check it out at:

http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3521245

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

New Music at New College in Sarasota Florida

I’ve always thought of Florida as a cultural wasteland of sorts but now I’m forced to change my mind:

The schedule is varied, ranging from the stylings of masters György Ligeti, Charles Wuorinen and John Zorn to Sarasota’s Francis Schwartz, and New College students and faculty. Mezzo-soprano Jacqueline Bobak, horn player Lydia Van Dreel, violinist Daniel Jordan and pianist Jonathan Spivey are among the stars….

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

DMG Newsletter, September 8, 2006

The latest DMG Newsletter apparently doesn’t view well in Firefox but does in Internet Explorer. Go figure.

SPECIAL CONTEMPORARY COMPOSER ISSUE!
BRIAN FERNEYHOUGH… ROBERT ASHLEY… GORDON MUMMA & DAVID TUDOR… GEORGE ANTHEIL… CHRISTIAN WOLFF… HENRY GWIAZDA… ETHEL STRING QUARTET… GIOVANNI FUSCO… MARK APPLEBAUM… PHILL NIBLOCK…
…and HARRY PARTCH DVD!

TWO NEW TZADIKs: EVAN PARKER! BILLY MARTIN!

DEREK BAILEY - LAST STUDIO SESSION!

JOHN BLUM QT With WILLIAM PARKER/DENIS CHARLES!
KHAN JAMAL CREATIVE ARTS ENSEMBLE!

GEORGE CARTWRIGHT With DAVEY WILLIAMS!
CHRIS STROUTH With GEORGE CARTWRIGHT!

RANDY WESTON And His AFRICAN RHYTHM TRIO!
CHRISTIAN McBRIDE With CHARLIE HUNTER/JENNY SCHEINMAN!

CORY COMBS TRIO With JOHN HOLLENBECK!
MARY LA ROSE With JEFF LEDERER/MARK FELDMAN/STEVE SWELL/MIKE FORMANEK/JAMEY HADDAD!

JUDY DUNAWAY!
OOIOO!

MASAYUKI TAKAYANAGI NEW DIRECTION UNIT Ð ECLIPSE [SHINSHOKU] ON CD FINALLY!
HAINO KEIJI!
TOSHIAKI ISHIZUKA!
KOSOKUYA!

MERZBOW 50 CD Box Set!

A PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED BEEFHEART LIVE RECORDING…PLUS 5 REMASTERED EDITIONS!!!

…AND A BIG SALE ON THE OUT-OF-PRINT CD REISSUE EDITIONS OF THE FRENCH ‘AMERICA’ LABEL CLASSICS OF EARLY’70s AVANT-JAZZ!!!

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Mars Volta Review

The new Mars Volta release is drooled over in a review.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Oliver Lake in Pittsburgh Tomorrow

Lake is performing at a small benefit.

Wole Soyinka, the first black African to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature, and avant-garde jazz great Oliver Lake team up for City of Asylum/Pittsburgh’s Jazz-Poetry Concert 2006, a free event taking place on the street on Sampsonia Way on the North Side from 5 to 7 p.m. Soyinka, who won the Nobel in 1986, has been a longtime critic of corruption in his native Nigeria. Lake will be joined by fellow World Saxophone Quartet member Bruce Williams. Huang Xiang will perform his poetry in duets with Lake. At 10 p.m., Lake and Williams will be joined by Dwayne Dolphin, Roger Humphries and others for a late-night jazz jam at Club Cafe on the South Side. The $20 ticket benefits City of Asylum/Pittsburgh, which provides emergency sanctuary to exiled writers under threat of extreme persecution or death in their home countries.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Rhys Chatham in Philly Tonight

You still have a chance to make plans for this show.

Ars Nova Workshop presents:

Friday, September 8 | 8pm
RHYS CHATHAM’S ESSENTIALIST

Community Education Center, 3500 Lancaster Avenue
$12 General Admission

What do you do when you’ve already done it all?

Rhys Chatham is one of the most versatile and significant figures in all of modern music, and if you don’t know the name, you’ve heard the reverberations of his influence. And it would seem that he’s done it all. A classically-trained prodigy, Chatham was protegee to the world-renowned pianist Glenn Gould, and a student under composers Morton Subotnick and La Monte Young. In 1971, at the age of 19, he founded the profoundly influential music program at The Kitchen in New York City, which launched the careers of a generation of avant luminaries, including Laurie Anderson and Brian Eno.

In 1975 Chatham had an epiphany at a concert by the Ramones. His mission: to alter the DNA of rock by splicing the overtone-drenched minimalism of John Cale and Tony Conrad with the elemental fury of punk. The amalgamation was inspired, and it energized the downtown New York scene throughout the late 1970s and early 1980s, making Chatham a founding father of the notorious No Wave movement. Chatham’s influence spread even further as former students and ensemble members, including Glenn Branca and Sonic Youth, injected his raucous, ecstatic sound into the rock mainstream. In 1982, he even took to the road with Fab Five Freddy, marking hip-hop’s first excursion into the heartland.

Throughout the 1980s, Chatham’s ensemble continued to grow in size and scope until it became an enormous amplified orchestra. His 1989 masterpiece, “An Angel Moves Too Fast to See”, scored for 100 electric guitars, bass and drums, is one of the most extraordinary works in the minimalist canon and cemented Chatham’s reputation as a monolithic figure astride both rock and classical musics.

Since 1989, Chatham has received the patronage of Europe’s most prominent institutions and municipalities, and his symphonies have been staged dozens of times around the globe. Most recently, the city of Paris commissioned from Chatham an epic piece for 400 guitars, which was presented at the largest church in France. Witnessed by tens of thousands of jubilant fans — and glimpsed by hundreds of thousands more on television — the event created a national sensation.

So, what do you do when you’ve already done it all? You get back to basics. You jam econo; you Get in the Van. You get down to . . . Essentials.

In September 2006, that’s what Rhys Chatham will do. He’s leaving his home in Paris and he’s going to Georgia, USA, deep in the heart of the Dirty South. He’s renting a van and hitting the road.

Rhys Chatham has started a heavy metal band.

This concert is made possible with the support of the Community Education Center (CEC).

More details:
http://rhyschatham.com/news/index.html
http://pitchforkmedia.com/article/news/38288/Rhys_Chathams_Essentialist_Tours_U_S_
http://www.arsnovaworkshop.com

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Sonomu Reviews

A new set of reviews from Sonomu:

M. Bentley, This World (The Foundry)
I dare opine that This World may very well be M. Bentley´s finest recorded achievement to date, despite the fact that his recording career stretches back to the mid-1990s. The Foundry is his own creation, originally intended to publish his poetry; eventually it became a cassette label and finally,… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 07:40, 11 Sep 2006

Once11, Smile Hunter (The Agriculture)
The smile hunter lands his prey. At least as far as this reviewer is concerned. Once11 (Ignacio Platas) is one of the three irrepressible former members of We™, who in hindsight increasingly emerge as The Beatles of illbient. He now lives in Barcelona and while the Latin spirit has cast certain… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 07:26, 11 Sep 2006

Janko, December (self-released CDR)
To judge from his painting and photography - and you can do that for yourself by visiting his website - Janko Bartelink has an affinity for the Dutch landscape. He also composes and records music privately, where his predilection for natural phenomena also comprise the main focal. This, his… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 11:14, 06 Sep 2006

Jacob Kirkegaard, 4 Rooms (Touch)
In a single word, creepy. Jacob Kirkegaard is a bonafide scientist whose latest soundwork investigates the invisible properties of four spaces abandoned by human beings in Chernobyl in the Ukraine. Where were you when the worst nuclear accident ever occurred on 26 April 1986 in the former… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 10:31, 06 Sep 2006

Dronæment, Ezoterick Muzick (CDR Afe)
Dronæment is a “brand name” which in my estimation always stands for thoughtful ambient albums usually offered for retail in highly original and well-designed packaging. Ezoterick Musick is no disappointment on either count; the music is wonderfully executed, and the CDR comes in a sturdy, colouful… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 10:19, 06 Sep 2006

Objekt4, Her Face Among the Shadows (Ravenheart)
Rendered in two burst of creativity in 2004 and 2006, as soon as the Her Face Among the Shadows starts, we enter into a laboratory of Frankensteininan proportions, right out of some 1930s horror film from Universal Studios. All around us, vials bubble and machinery clanks as weird experiments in… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 10:13, 06 Sep 2006

Marshall Watson, Math and Othert Word Problems (Highpoint Lowlife)
The sophomore effort of young Marshall Watson, who very much wears his influences on his sleeve - a dab of German electronic dub, minimal beat techno, a whiff of ambient synthesizer. It is very amiable fare, and you can´t help but feel lighthearted when you play it, but you also can´t help… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 10:04, 06 Sep 2006

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Alarm Will Sound Article and Tour

An article focuses on the Alarm Will Sound ensemble, their music and upcoming dates.

ALARM WILL SOUND is the very model of a modern music chamber band. Its 20 players are young, energetic and virtuosic, and six of them are also composers. The musicians, directed by Alan Pierson, hop from one instrument to another or take on vocal lines, as if all of that were simply natural. And their repertory, drawn from the large body of works written for chamber orchestra over the last century or so, includes lots of surprises: arrangements of music by Frank Zappa, transcriptions of electronica by Aphex Twin and lately arrangements of rhythmically quirky 14th-century works.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

The latest set of All About Jazz reviews includes the first review of Ornette Coleman’s latest release.

11-Sep-06 Gordon Grdina / Gary Peacock / Paul Motian
Think Like The Waves ( Songlines Recordings)
11-Sep-06 Jason Moran
Artist in Residence ( Blue Note Records)
10-Sep-06 Ornette Coleman
Sound Grammar ( Sound Grammar)
10-Sep-06 Toots Thielemans
One More For The Road ( Verve Music Group)
10-Sep-06 Tomasz Stanko Quartet
Lontano ( ECM Records)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

New Material on Free Albums Galore

Free Albums Galore offer links to a bunch of new (and free) stuff.

Satie - Pianoless Vexations
Genre: Classical, Avant-Garde, Improvisation

While most of the offerings on Free Albums Galore are complete albums, I will often present a lengthy single work, usually in the realm of classical music or modern compositions. Erik Satie’s Pianoless Vexations is such a piece…all 8 hours of it.

Satie’s Vexations is an unique piece for piano consisting of a simple motif repeated 840 times. The work was found on a single page in his notebook after the composer’s death. Some scholars wonder if Satie ever meant it to be taken seriously at all. The composition was first performed by John Cage and other pianists in 1963 with the performance lasting over 19 hours. You can read a fascinating essay on Vexations here.

Ubuweb has made available an 8 hour performance called Pianoless Vexations. As the title implies, the instruments used includes anything but piano although there is a harpichord and even a toy piano. The 2006 concert was performed at the Sculpture Center in New York. 24 musicians and groups took turns in periods of approximately 20 minutes repeating Satie’s musical theme.

While it would be difficult, perhaps even unadvisable, to listen to the entire recording from beginning to end, each separate segment has its virtues. The interest is maintained in how each artist interpret the phrase and sets it in motion through the time allotted. Laptop composer Randy Nordshow starts the performance and plays only the first note of the piece concentrating on the various effects of a single sonority. Violinist Amy Granat takes a similar approach on track 9. Guitarist Jay Sanders (track 2) is more loyal to the motif but adds variation through a chordal underpinning of each note. A recorder trio manages to convey an early medieval sound while The Bruce Arnold Jazz Trio (track 5) sets the theme in the bass as the two other musicians add improvisational color. Alan Licht and Angela Jaeger (track 6) plays it pretty straight with voice and guitar. Perhaps the most interesting interpretation is by the bluegrass group, The String Messengers (track 7). Other performances worth noting include Margaret Leng Tan on toy piano (track 17), Trudy Chan on harpichord (track 19), and Stephin Merritt and Ethan Cohn (track 23) on marimbas unintentionally accompanied by a crying baby.

Whether this is a bizarre oddity or an unique masterpiece is best left to the scholars with too much time on their hands. Pianoless Vexations is certainly a work that will interest those listeners who wish to hear creative artists placing their own mark on a vexing compositon.

The tracks are available in 192kbps MP3.

Roomful of Emptiness - Roomful of Emptiness
Genre: Jazz

Roomful of Emptiness is an “solo jazz-guitar project” by Matti Paalanen. While guitar is his primary interest it appears he plays all or most of the instruments on this album. He cites Pat Metheny, John Laughlin and Al DiMeola as his primary influences and it shows. On this self-titled album, Paalenen’s laid-back style puts the emphasis on jazz in his particular form of jazz-rock fusion. His playing is full of imaginative flowing lines and well structured improvisation. “Royal Flush” may be the best song on the album with its complex melody and rhythms. “Morning” and “Anxious” are close seconds. This album should please any fan of jazz fusion or mellow jazz grooves.

The album is available by separate tracks or full album zip in 192kbps MP3.

Downliners Sekt - Statement of Purpose
Genre: Electronica

Downliners Sekt isn’t your ordinary down-tempo trip-hop electronic fare. The first track, “Benz” sets a pattern that is oppressive and menacing but still drags you in. “Disable” appears to liven up with a nice dance tempo until the voice sample emerges; comments on the dangers of chemical terrorism. The album continues with a light-at-the-end-of-tunnel effect yet always keeping you from that light. This would be a depressing recording if Downliner Sekt wasn’t so good. In fact “Weather Underground” in an outstanding track with a marvelous vocal by Emma Louise Yohanan wrapped in a fantasy of electronic sounds. The industrial “L.R.A.V” is almost as good and is an enjoyable example of sensory overload. “Manvantera” is both trancelike and nightmarish. The last three tracks are a bit anti-climatic considering what has gone on before but still exceptional. There is a masterful use of musical tension and release that keeps you wondering what will come next. The entire album is a worthwhile download but, at the very least, download and marvel at the incredible track, “Weather Underground”.

The album is availabe in 320kbps MP3 through either separate tracks or album zip.

Various Artists - Protest Records Volumes 1-5
Genre: Rock, Other, Electronica, Hip-Hop, Pop, Folk

The netlabel Protest Records has been around for a while and fairly well publicized. In the current global environment it has become appropriate to take a look at it again.

As its statement says, Protest Records “”exists for musicians, poets and artists to express LOVE + LIBERTY in the face of greed, sexism, racism, hate-crime and war”. The stances taken are best expressed as liberal, against the current American administrative, and in some cases, radical or anarchic.You don’t have to agree with their political viewpoints in order to appreciate the both the courage and the artistry of the musical statements by these diverse and talented musicians.

There are five albums available. The site states ten but volumes 6-10 are either incomplete or non-existant. As would be expected. it is a mixed bag. Some tracks really makes you take notice while others are as effective as hanging chads. Of course, I’m going to concentrate on the good stuff. There are a number of known names involved, including The Beastie Boys, Sonic Youth, DJ Spooky, and Cat Power. While their contributions are worthy of their status it is the lesser known musicians that appears to take bigger risks. on the first volume, Steven Taylor parodies the Iraq War in the style of 60s folksingers. Avant-garde guitarist Eugene Chadbourne offered a witty departure from his usual thing on “New New New War War War”. The second volume starts with a poignant “Pictures of Adolf” by Jim O’Rourke and Glenn Kotche. It was recorded in 1971 but fits well into our current era. ” Soylent Gringo’s “Let’s Start a War” is one of my favorite tracks and is as clever as the band’s name. MC Frontalot offers just one of many good hip-hop numbers on the series. With a total of 50 tracks, it is probably best to let you find your own favorite but I sure there will be something for everyone.

The five albums are available as separate tracks in MP3 at varying bitrates.

tlon - From Elsewhere To Nowhere
Genre: Ambient, Electronica

Jean-Sébastien Roux records under the name of tlon for the Autoplate netlabel. His music consists of electronic soundscapes which takes on a metaphysical nature. Roux’s liner notes discusses philosophical questions (What is our purpose? Where are we going?) that defies any definitive answer. Perhaps Roux believes the answer is best expressed with sound rather than words.

Whether From Elsewhere to Nowhere succeeds philosophically is best left to the listener. Musically it is a haunting and beautiful conceptual work. Roux manipulates organic sounds and string samples into his delicate electronic environment. It is very meditative but can also be listened to for its complex layers. “In The Shadows of the Unexpected” is the most accessible piece with its mellow beat 0ver organ chords and what may be water sounds. The sensations of “Do We belong here” are almost claustrophobic. My favorite track is “Escaping The Land” due to the psychedelic layers of sounds. This is one of the better electronic / ambient albums on the internet.

It is available in 192kbps MP3 from either Autoplate or Internet Archive (from the link below).

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

The Friday Informer: What do you get when...?

This week, bloggers celebrate that a woman can read a teleprompter all by herself (go, Katie!), rejoice over photographic proof that TomKat has truly procreated (nice job, Katie!), and lament that the Village Voice really is out to destroy itself (goodbye and good luck, Christgau). But meanwhile, in new music land...

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Surface, not veneer

Years ago, in an exhibition in California, a couple of small drawings by Don Weygandt stood out. They were just still lives, maybe even bowls of fruit, but they were so well composed that the relationship between his delicate lines and the space around them quickly erased the images from my mind, but those lines and that articulated space have remained with me ever since. Weygandt later explained

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Red China Blues (1972). Miles Davis

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Daniel Variations (2006). Steve Reich

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

The Second Hurricane (1936-8). Aaron Copland /solidarity?/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Reich@70: Let the Celebrations Begin

Steve Reich turns 70 on October 3 and already the party has begun. Yesterday, he was awarded Japan's Praemium Imperiale award for music. The other winners of the 18th annual awards were Japan's Yayoi Kusama for painting, France's Christian Boltanski for

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

Naxos Dreaming

If you happen to be around my local Barnes & Noble at Lincoln Triangle (which is what the real estate developers call the area around Lincoln Center these days), around 7 pm on Monday, you'll want to stop in and visit with José Serebrier, his wife Carole

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 11, 2006 at 01:55 PM | Comments (0)

September 08, 2006

New music matures in vaults for eleven years

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Morning in America

"Sing one for the Gipper," Time Out Chicago, Sept. 7-13, 2006. Chicago composer Eric Reda's written an opera about Ronald Reagan. How many Reagan puns can you come up with?

Also, I neglected to mention Grant Park Music Festival director James Palermo's two-part series on the role of critics in Chicago. And today, he digs in again about the reviews of the Grant Park Symphony's latest CD, a collection of new American orchestral works. Disregarding what he writes about me, the post intrigues from the point of view of administrators reading reviews.

Originally posted by MarcGeelhoed from Marc Geelhoed: Deceptively Simple, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Two Endings

Near the end of a thoughful piece on Jay Greenberg, Mark Swed, writing in the Los Angeles Times, makes this observation: I leave you with this. At the age when Greenberg began his Fifth Symphony, John Cage was so entranced by the piano music of Edvard Grieg that he wanted to devote his life to learning every romantic note of it. And near the end of his thoughtful post on Greenberg and the

Originally from listen., ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

The Superstitious Ghost

Thanks to the help of a group of talented people, I have a recording of The Superstitious Ghost, my setting of a poem by Arthur Guiterman.  In my next post I'll give more complete credit to those who helped me; today I'll simply say a big "thank you" to pianist Tom Strode, singers Lorna Hildebrandt, Kara Alfano, Karl Schmidt, and Paul Max Tipton, and sound engineer Victor Minetola.

The Superstitious Ghost is downloadable as a 6.7 megabyte mp3 file.

The Superstitious Ghost

I'm such a quiet little ghost,
Demure and inoffensive,
The other spirits say I'm most
Absurdly apprehensive.

Through all the merry hours of night
I'm uniformly cheerful;
I love the dark; but in the light
I own I'm rather fearful.

Each dawn I cower down in bed,
In every brightness seeing
That weird uncanny form of dread:
An awful Human Being!

Of course I'm told they can't exist,
That nature would not let them:
But Willy Spook, the Humanist,
Declares that he has met them!

He says they do not glide like us,
But walk in eerie paces;
They're solid, not diaphanous,
With arms!  and legs!  and faces!

And some are beggars, some are kings,
Some have, and some are wanting,
They squander time in doing things,
Instead of simply haunting.

They talk of "art," the horrid crew,
And things they call "ambitions."
Oh yes, I know as well as you
They're only superstitions.

But should the dreadful day arrive
When, starting up, I see one,
I'm sure 'twill scare me quite alive;
And then, O then, I'll be one!

Originally from Fredösphere, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:39 PM | Comments (0)

Metropolitan Opera to offer podcasts, live simulcasts

CBC , 9/7/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

COLD STORAGE PROJECT continues

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Barge of the future

On October 7, in the gently rocking confines of BargeMusic (not pictured), I will host Composers on the Edge, a "conversation with music" at the New Yorker Festival. The concept is to round up some inventive young artists who are airing out the definition of what it means to be a composer in this frazzled day and age. The panel includes Mason Bates, who divides his time between composing and DJ'ing; Corey Dargel, whose work hovers on the border between art song and art rock; Nico Muhly, who is steeped in Renaissance polyphony, minimalism, and Björk; and Joanna Newsom, a harpist-songwriter whose outlook was affected by encounters with twentieth-century repertory at Mills College. I fear that Prof. Heebie McJeebie might have a heart attack if he ever hears about the manifest aesthetic impurity of these young people's efforts, but most others it ought to be a lively evening — more like a concert with intermittent talk than a panel discussion. Tickets go on sale at noon today.

Update: As of 2:30PM, it's sold out.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Post-hiatus miscellany

1) In the Kooky Klassical department, a man on the David Letterman show plays Mozart's Symphony No. 40 by rollerblading past rows of wine bottles. (Courtesy of Pierre Ruhe.) 2) Charles Downey at ionarts has put together an excellent fall opera preview, with emphasis on novel repertory and premieres. I'd suggest adding John Adams's The Flowering Tree in Vienna. 3) Steve Smith disintegrates Paul McCartney's new "classical" album in Time Out NY: "An hour of singing boys is something only Michael Jackson could love." 4) Various new blogs have been added to the Music Blogs list.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Are you fucking kidding me?

Check out the line-up for this free show at Washington Square Park (NYC) this Saturday (9/9/06):Carl StonePaul LanskyJerseybandJoan LaBarbaraSo PercussionDaedelusLuke DuBoisUmmmm... what?! Are you kid...

Originally from Alarm Will Sound - MySpace Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

StudyScores.com

So here’s StudyScores.com.

The idea is that, while Amazon.com and SheetMusicPlus may each have a pretty good selection, it’s pretty hard to find anything at either site unless you already know what you want. You have to sift through all the easy piano stuff and ColdPlay anthologies, etc.

StudyScores.com is organized around finding scores by composer, genre or time period. It’s basically Amazon’s catalog, so it’s somewhat limited, and there’s crazy stuff like putting the Mozart Requiem in the “Opera” bucket, and Sondheim’s Into the Woods under “Orchestra“, but it’s the cleanest I’ve seen so far as far as browsing scores online.

There are also sections for other books on music as well as accessories, like metronomes, etc. Pretty handy, actually. On Amazon, if I wanted, say, books on the Kodály Method, I’d have to sift through a lot of CDs and other search results. Here, you just search Kodály under “Books on Music” et voilà.

Lots of dirt-cheap Dover scores. Check it out.

Originally posted by Michael Kaulkin from About the Composer, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:36 PM | Comments (0)

The Bi-Coastal Jefferson Friedman

Jefferson Friedman, one of our favorites among the young turks out there, has a couple of nice gigs coming up next week. On the 13th, 15th and 16th, the Chiara Quartet will be playing his sublime String Quartet No. 2 at Miller Theater, with choreography

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Levinas - Les Rires Du Gilles, etc.

Originally from Classical Connection, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)

Dream Theater - Score

DREAM THEATERScoreRhino Dream Theater have only one thing in common with GG Allin, and that’s the polarized response they generate. Blind love on one side, utter revulsion on the other, and nothing in between. DT make the most pomptastic prog-metal...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)

Peeesseye Interview / Roulette

Peeesseye Interview / Roulette
Friday, September 22nd - Peeesseye. See Roulette September 2006 Events page for Details.
From Podcast: Roulette's Home of Experimental Music.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)

Shelley Hirsch Interview / Roulette

Shelley Hirsch Interview / Roulette
Friday, September 29th - Shelley Hirsch and Simon Hostettler. See Roulette September 2006 Events page for Details.
From Podcast: Roulette's Home of Experimental Music.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)

Lily Maase Interview / Roulette

Lily Maase Interview / Roulette
Wednesday, September 27th - Lily Maase with Paul Baker and Caitlin B. Kirby. See Roulette September 2006 events page for details.
From Podcast: Roulette's Home of Experimental Music.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)

Aaron Cassidy - the green is either

Aaron Cassidy - the green is either
three trios for seven players. trio one: solo ob, solo vln, percussion / trio two: solo ob; va, vc / trio three: solo vln; fl, cl (without conductor) http://www.aaroncassidy.com/

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:13 AM | Comments (0)

Colossal video.

A press release just received from Jazz Promo Services, which I'm sharing for obvious reasons:

Nine Lives of Sonny Rollins

Theodore Walter Rollins, aka Sonny, turns 76 today.  To celebrate the birthday of the Saxophone Colossus, and the first anniversary of his website, nine rare video performances are posted on www.sonnyrollins.com for one week.

Featured Video Performances:

"Paul's Pal" - Stockholm '57 with Henry Grimes, bass; Joe Harris, drums. 7:27

"Weaver of Dreams" - Amsterdam '59 with Henry Grimes, bass; Pete LaRoca, drums. 3:58

"52nd Street Theme" - Rome '62 with Don Cherry, pocket trumpet; Henry Grimes, bass; Billy Higgins, drums. 5:07

"Oleo" - Copehagen '65 with Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, bass; Alan Dawson, drums. 3:22

"Four" - Copenhagen '68 with Kenny Drew, piano; Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, bass; Tootie Heath, drums. 4:06

"Moritat" - Tokyo '81 with George Duke, piano; Stanley Clarke, bass; Al Foster, drums. 7:26

"Smoke Gets In Your Eyes" - Prague '82 with Masuo, Bobby Broom, guitar; Lincoln Goines, bass; Tommy Campbell, drums. 6:26

"My One and Only Love" - Montreal '82 with Masuo and Bobby Broom, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Jack DeJohnette, drums. 6:14

"Serenade" - Cerritos, California, April 11, 2006 with Clifton Anderson, trombone; Bobby Broom, guitar; Bob Cranshaw, bass; Kimati Dinizulu, percussion; Joe Corsello, drums. 14:04

After viewing these rare videos, visitors are invited post their birthday greetings for Sonny in his guestbook.

Nine Lives of Sonny Rollins was produced by Bret Primack, utilizing video provided by jazz video collector, Hal Miller.

[Happy birthday, Sonny. Good to see Bret Primack's keeping busy, as well. - S.]

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

Nate Wooley and Blue Collar at Firehouse 12

From www.improvisedcommunications.com:

Friday, October 13th at 8:30 and 10:00 p.m.
Nate Wooley and Blue Collar
Firehouse 12
45 Crown Street in New Haven, CT
Tickets are $15 (opening set) and $10 (second set)
Tickets and info are available at http://www.firehouse12.com or (203) 785-0468
Music sample available at http://firehouse12.com/events.asp?id=12581
Find our more about Nate Wooley at http://www.natewooley.com/
Image and music available by request

Nate Wooley, trumpet and flugelhorn; Steve Swell, trombone; Tatsuya Nakatani, percussion

Media Contact for Firehouse 12:
Scott Menhinick, Improvised Communications
(617) 489-6561
scott@improvisedcommunications.com

Experimental trumpeter Nate Wooley and his all-star improvising collective Blue Collar will perform two sets at New Haven’s Firehouse 12 on Friday, October 13th. The group, which features legendary trombonist Steve Swell and internationally acclaimed Japanese percussionist Tatsuya Nakatani, creates spontaneously improvised pieces based on extended technique and subtle interactions between the musicians. Blue Collar’s second CD, Lovely Hazel (Public Eyesore), was released in 2005 and named one of the 10 best jazz CDs of the year by Philadelphia City Paper’s Shaun Brady.

“For a youngish man,” writes AllAboutJazz.com reviewer Ty Cumbie, “Wooley has a disturbingly mature engagement with his art and enviable poise in performance. [He] teams up with two of the finest musicians to be found in any style—the peerless trombonist Steve Swell and Tatsuya Nakatani, a dazzlingly innovative percussionist—and the result is smart and winsome chaos. You won’t encounter anything further from top 40 pop, or more rewarding to your patience.”

Based in Jersey City since 2001, Wooley began playing trumpet professionally at age 13 and went on to study with Ron Miles, Art Lande, Fred Hess, and Jack Wright. His distinctive personal style blends aspects of jazz and classical trumpet playing with experimentation that defies categorization. He has appeared on five recordings in the past two years, including his 2005 solo trumpet CD, Wrong Shape to be a Story Teller (Creative Sources), which Dusted Magazine’s Jason Bivins called “a really fascinating document.” In addition to his work with Blue Collar, Wooley frequently performs with John Butcher, Anthony Braxton, Paul Lytton, John Olsen of Wolf Eyes, David Grubbs, Daniel Levin, Stephen Gauci, and the Sound/Vision Orchestra. More information is available at http://www.natewooley.com

About Firehouse 12:

Firehouse 12 is an award winning full-service bar, state-of-the-art recording studio and unusually intimate performance space located in New Haven’s historic Ninth Square District. Painstakingly renovated over the course of four years by owner/producer/engineer Nick Lloyd and Gray Organschi Architecture, this once-abandoned firehouse building has become a major part of New Haven’s cultural renaissance since opening its doors in April 2005. It has also quickly gained a reputation as one of the premier recording studios and creative music venues on the East Coast.

A 2006 Best Studio Design Project nominee for the prestigious Technical Excellence and Creativity (TEC) Awards (http://mixfoundation.org/tec/tecawards.html), the recording studio features world-class acoustic design by renowned acoustician John Storyk of Walters-Storyk Design Group. The striking 1200-square foot space features a Steinway concert grand piano, and doubles as an 80-seat public venue with unparalleled technical possibilities for some of the most respected names in creative music. Past performers include Han Bennink, Tim Berne, Dave Douglas, Susie Ibarra, Joe McPhee, Joe Morris, William Parker and Mario Pavone among many others.

In a June 2005 feature, New Haven Independent’s Regina DeAngelo called Firehouse 12 “a north star in the jazz firmament that might well guide music lovers to New Haven from far away.” She went on to write, “fabric-covered walls are angled to urge music to flow, not bounce, through a womb-like space. It’s almost like sitting in the hull of an instrument. Luckily, the Firehouse attracts people who bring near-religious reverence to the music, producing an exchange of energy that often fires great performances.” James Keepnews of the New Haven Advocate echoed DeAngelo’s praise, calling the venue a “remarkable new cultural outpost” and “a resounding success.” Yale University’s Associate Vice President of New Haven and State Affairs Michael Morand recently called the space “a wonderful addition to New Haven’s role as the cultural capital of Connecticut.”

Find out more at http://www.firehouse12.com

Complete Fall 2006 Concert Season:

09/22 :: Matthew Shipp
09/29 :: Carla Marciano 4tet
10/06 :: David Berkman Quartet
10/13 :: Nate Wooley and Blue Collar
10/20 :: Andrew Cyrille/Greg Osby Duo
10/27 :: Pete Robbins and Centric
11/04 :: Dave Allen Quartet
11/10 :: Stephen Haynes and Bugaboo
11/17 :: Dominique Eade/Jed Wilson Duo
12/01 :: Ben Allison Quartet
12/08 :: Wayne Escoffery Quartet
12/15 :: Gerald Cleaver & Violet Hour

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

Newsbits: September 7th, 2006

Jeff Arnal and Gordon Beeferman has a new release out on Generate Records. An article gushes praise on Sonic Youth. The Chicago / New Orleans septet Lucky 7’s is featured. Mike Patton is the topic of a short article.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

Bagatellen Reviews

A week’s worth of reviews from Bagatellen:

Michael Keith/ John Oswald/ Roger Turner - Number Nine - 06 Sep 06
John Butcher/Christof Kurzmann - The Big Misunderstanding Between Hertz and Megahertz - 04 Sep 06
Bob Dylan - Modern Times - 03 Sep 06
Rich Perry & Harold Danko – Rhapsody - 03 Sep 06
Samartzis/Inada - h [ ], Samartzis/English - One Plus One - 03 Sep 06

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

Earshot 2006 Festival Complete Lineup

The performances for this year’s Earshot Festival are set:

Jay Thomas & East/West Double trio
Thursday, October 19 City Hall, Noon, admission free
Friday & Saturday, October 20-21 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $12 general; $10 members/discount

Wayne Horvitz w/ Gravitas
Opening: Odeon String Quartet featuring Bill Frisell
Friday, October 20 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Wynton Marsalis Quartet
Saturday, October 21 Paramount Theatre, 8pm; contact TicketMaster or the Paramount Theatre box office for tickets

Matmos
Opening: Walter Kitundu
Saturday, October 21 Triple Door, 8pm; $20 advance / $25 day of show

Garfield High School Jazz Band w/ David “Fathead” Newman
Sunday, October 22 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Manuel Valera Trio
Sunday, October 22 - Tuesday, October 24 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $12 general; $10 members/discount

Allen Toussaint
Monday, October 23 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $24 general; $22 members/discount

Matt Shipp
Opening: Gust Burns
Monday, October 23 Poncho Concert Hall, Cornish College, 8pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Rashied Ali Quintet
Tuesday, October 24 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Kayhan Kalhor & Erdal Erzincan
Tuesday, October 24 On The Boards, 8pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Larry Coryell
Wednesday, October 25 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $22 general; $20 members/discount

Roberta Picket / Billy Mintz Trio
Wednesday & Thursday, October 25-26 Tulas, 8:30pm; $12 general; $10 members/discount

Michele Rosewoman’s Quintessence
Wednesday, October 25 On The Boards, 8pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Cyrus Chestnut Trio
Thursday, October 26 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $24 general; $22 members/discount

Nguyen Le - Tiger’s Tail Quartet
Thursday, October 26 On The Boards, 8pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Brian Nova’s Seattle Showcase “Way back in the ’90s”
Friday, October 27 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Bill Anschell
Friday, October 27 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $12 general; $10 members/discount

Mavis Staples & special guests
Friday, October 27 Meany Hall, 8pm; $20–35

Toshiko Akiyoshi
Friday, October 27 Seattle Asian Art Museum, 8pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Bobby Hutcherson Quartet
Saturday, October 28 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $24 general; $22 members/discount

Dawn Clement Trio
Saturday, October 28 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $12 general; $10 members/discount

John Hollenbeck’s Claudia Quintet
Opening: Monktail Creative Music Concern’s Raymond Scott Project
Saturday, October 28 On The Boards, 8pm ;$18 general; $16 members/discount

Lionel Loueke Trio
Sunday, October 29 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Ritual Trio w/ Billy Bang
Sunday, October 29 On The Boards, 8pm; $18 general; $16 members/discount

Big Neighborhood
Sunday, October 29 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $10 general; $8 members/discount

Dempster Diving – Tribute to Stuart Dempster
Sunday, October 29 Town Hall, 2:00pm; $10-$12

Andrew Hill Quartet
Monday, October 30 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Andrew D’Angelo Trio
Opening: Bling
Monday, October 30 Cornish College, Poncho Concert Hall, 8pm; $18 general; $16 members/discount

Industrial Revelation
Monday, October 30 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Drew Gress
Tuesday, October 31 Poncho Concert Hall, Cornish College, 8pm; $18 general; $16 members/discount

Rochelle House
Tuesday, October 31 Tula’s 8:30pm; $10 general; $8 members/discount

Tom Varner New Seattle Quintet
Wednesday, November 1 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $12 general; $10 members/discount

Ted Nash Quintet w/ Roosevelt High School Band
Wednesday, November 1 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $20 general; $18 members/discount

Dr. Lonnie Smith Trio w/ Fred Wesley
Thursday, November 2 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $25 general; $24 members/discount

Victor Noriega Trio
Thursday, November 2 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $12 general; $10 members/discount

Kamikaze Ground Crew
Thursday, November 2 Nectar, 8pm; $18 general; $16 members/discount

Django Reinhardt Festival
Friday, November 3 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $24 general; $22 members/discount

George Colligan Trio
Friday & Saturday, November 3-4 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $14 general; $12 members/discount

Annette Peacock
Opening: Eric Barber Chamber Quartet
Friday, November 3 Seattle Asian Art Museum, 8pm ; $16 general; $14 members/discount

Michael Schiefel
Saturday & Sunday, November 4-5, Venue TBA, 8pm

Ana Moura
Saturday, November 4 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $24 general; $22 members/discount

NEA Jazz Master Jimmy Heath w/ Seattle Repertory Jazz Orchestra
Saturday, November 4 Nordstrom (Benaroya) Recital Hall, 7:30pm
Sunday, November 5 Kirkland Performance Center, 3pm; $24-35
Free workshop, noon, Saturday, Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center (17th & Yesler)

Marc Seales Group
Sunday, November 5 Tula’s, 8:30pm; $12 general; $10 members/discount

Jason Moran & Bandwagon
Sunday, November 5 Triple Door, 7pm & 10pm; $22 general; $20 members/discount

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

Alex Machacek’s Abstract Logix Reviewed

The new release from Alex Machacek is reviewed.

With all-universe drummer Terry Bozzio (ex-Zappa, Jeff Beck…) contributing on three tracks, Austrian guitar hero Alex Machacek’s amazingly complex compositional forays shed new light on jazz-fusion initiatives. Sure, he’s a chops-meister, but the guitarist’s Frank Zappa-like harmonic developments are engineered upon unfathomable time signatures, often surging in linear fashion. With a bassist and two other drummers appearing on selected works, Machacek navigates his grand schema with scathing licks, where melodic intervals are often designed via contiguous single note lines. Naturally, the tasks at hand place high demands on the level of musicianship, namely for his supporting cast. Therefore, Machacek’s support structure executes the sinuous discourses with razor-sharp precision.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

A few more from All About Jazz.

07-Sep-06 Jeremy Udden
Torchsongs (Fresh Sound New Talent)
07-Sep-06 Satoko Fujii Orchestra Kobe
Kobe Yee!! (Crab Apple Records)
07-Sep-06 Jim Black and Axis No Axis
Dogs of Great Indifference (Winter & Winter)
06-Sep-06 Sound In Action Trio
Gate (Atavistic)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

New Flat Earth Society

From www.improvisedcommunications.com:

A last minute addition to the iC release schedule!

Media Contact for Psyschoscout (U.S. release only):
Scott Menhinick, Improvised Communications
(617) 489-6561
scott@improvisedcommunications.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: SEPTEMBER 5, 2006

FLAT EARTH SOCIETY’S PSYCHOSCOUT COMING TO U.S. SEPT. 26TH
BRUXELLES, BELGIUM — Pyschoscout (Crammed Discs CRAM 128), the new CD from the Belgian big band Flat Earth Society (FES), will be released in America on September 26th through Ryko Distribution. Founded in 1998 by clarinetist/composer Peter Vermeersch, the group mixes whimsy and sophistication into a dynamic trademark sound that embraces influences ranging from rock to avant-garde classical to cartoon music.

American critics have called Flat Earth Society “a band capable of everything from beautiful chamber jazz miniatures to slinky crime-theme jazz noir to driving rock rhythms” (Sean Westergaard, All Music Guide) and “an unruly confluence of Carl Stalling’s ‘Merrie Melodies’, Henry Mancini’s cosmopolitan swank, and Sun Ra’s cosmic slop—all performed with the whiplash attention span of John Zorn’s Naked City” (Matthew Murphy, Pitchfork Media). Tuscon Weekly’s Jarret Keene adds, “Vermeersch seems to have absorbed every kind of recorded jazz from 1930 onward and applied it to a writing approach that fuses high classicism with raunchy postmodernism.”

Flat Earth Society’s eight-year history is just as eclectic as its sound, leading Belgium’s Knack to call them “probably the most flexible band ever.” Known primarily outside America prior to 2004, when Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantômas) released their seventh recording, FES-isms, on his California-based Ipecac Recordings label, FES has toured across Europe, recorded the soundtrack to an award-winning Dutch film (Minoes), created a commissioned tribute to Louis Armstrong (The Armstrong Mutations), premiered a big band opera (Heliogabal) and performed with special guests such as keyboardist/composer Uri Caine and legendary harmonica player, Toots Thielemans. More information is available at http://www.fes.be

Find out more about Crammed Music at:
http://www.crammed.be

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

Scene Scan: New Music in Central PA

South of the Poconos, west of Philly, and way east of the Iron City: To those more accustomed to large urban hubs, it might feel like the middle of nowhere, but music fans have a wide range of options here in Central PA.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

The Unanswered Question

How do you deal with that dreaded question you've never quite developed a pat answer for: What kind of music do you write?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

Private

Although the end-product of composing is usually* a public good** the act of composition itself is generally a private affair. Morton Feldman described his composing as a performance, and it's hard to to get around the performative aspects of many composers at work -- the speed, the preparations, the corrections, the tension between the calculated or planned and the spontaneous. But most of

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

Naxos MPkey: CD on the outside, eMusic on the inside?

Courtesy of Google News I found an interesting story in the Wall Street Journal apparently about a new Naxos initiative in partnership with eMusic. It’s behind the subscriber wall and (as a non-subscriber) I couldn’t see the full text, but I managed to get the following tidbit:

On Tuesday, classical label Naxos will unveil a dozen new albums in a line it’s calling MPkey. The albums are packaged in CD-sized boxes and will be placed on store shelves at Borders. Inside each box, however, customers will find not a CD but a card with an access code and a booklet of instructions for downloading the album from eMusic, …

Maybe someone with a WSJ subscription can tell us more, including details on pricing in particular. Otherwise we’ll have to wait til Tuesday to find out the full story. However there are a couple of points worth noting:

First, as the beginning of the article notes, this product offering is clearly aimed at people (Luddites as the story would have it) who are not yet comfortable with signing up to and using an online music service; hence the instruction booklet to walk them through the process. However this is not necessarily a simple task. It’s possible that the intent is just to download individual tracks (or perhaps the whole album as one track) through the web browser and play them in the default media player software (e.g., Windows Media Player). This might be sufficient, given that Luddites are presumably not likely to have iPods that they have to worry about transferring the tracks to.

Second, this will be an interesting test case in music pricing. Naxos has been an innovator in value pricing of music, with Naxos CDs selling well under $10 for a traditional single-CD album. On Amazon most Naxos CDs sell for $8.99, with some as low as $6.98. A typical 10-track Naxos album on eMusic sells for $2.50 or less (25 cents per track on the Basic plan), while on other digital music services like MSN Music complete Naxos albums sell for $4.95. Although in this case there’s the retailer’s margin and the physical cost of goods to be accounted for, it’s quite possible that Naxos MPKey products could be priced under $5, for example at $4.99 or even as low as $3.99 if Naxos is particularly aggressive (which I wouldn’t quite rule out). At those prices the albums will be potential impulse purchases for someone to pick up at Borders’s checkout counter.

Whatever the final story turns out to be, this is a great example of outside the box thinking by Naxos and eMusic, and definitely shows why both companies are increasing market share in their respective markets and countering the doom and gloom stories of the major labels.

UPDATE: As outlined in the Naxos press release, the product offering is basically X hours of music at a set price (3 hours for $14.99 or 6 hours for $19.99). If we assume a CD is roughly an hour of music then this corresponds to either $5 per CD for the lower priced sets or $3.33 a CD for the $19.99 sets. Thus my intuition was correct in terms of the per CD price point Naxos was aiming for (vs. their standard $8.99 CD pricing), though I didn’t anticipate the particular form the products would take.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

Tzadik (sort of) on eMusic

I happened to read a blog post by a John Zorn fan ruminating about whether to buy albums from Zorn’s Tzadik label from eMusic or elsewhere. So he asked Tzadik for guidance:

I emailed Tzadik to ask if they had a preferred way that fans buy their music. I was told their preference was definitely the purchase through our own web site. In regards to eMusic, I was told that they offer downloads as an alternative.

What Tzadik didn’t tell him is that the label deliberately makes eMusic a less palatable alternative, by not offering for download tracks that are over 15 minutes in length. (See the eMusic message board threads Tzadik tracks gone in a flash = no subscribing and Long Tzadik tracks gone.) Speculation is that Tzadik didn’t believe they were compensated adequately for long tracks sold through eMusic, and thus decided to withdraw them from the service. Tzadik does offer longer tracks through the iTunes Music Store, although on iTMS they are available only when buying the complete album. If I recall correctly Tzadik also used to offer longer tracks through Audio Lunchbox, which has a points system that enables variable pricing of tracks; however Tzadik releases now seem to have disappeared entirely from ALB.

Tzadik has a perfect right to run its business as it pleases, but I can’t help thinking that they’re missing the point of eMusic and digital downloads in general. The point of eMusic is to support music discovery through low-priced access to a wide selection of independent music, to encourage people to listen more music and (as a result) buy more music. Prior to subscribing to eMusic I never bought a Tzadik-released CD, and likely would have gone to my grave without so doing. However as a result of compiling my PostClassic Picks list (based on the playlist from Kyle Gann’s Internet radio station PostClassic Radio) I ended up buying two albums by Peter Garland. It wasn’t until I clicked the Download ALL button for the second album that I noticed that it was missing two tracks. Needless to say this did not put me in a good mood, and it rather soured me on buying further Tzadik releases.

Now my purchases didn’t represent much revenue to Tzadik, but it was incremental revenue they wouldn’t have had otherwise (at basically zero marginal cost to them), and it might have led to additional incremental revenue as I further explored the Tzadik catalog on eMusic. Instead they basically pissed off a potential buyer in an attempt to protect their CD sales. If they were that concerned about protecting the business, why’d they do a deal with eMusic in the first place?

Tzadik’s attitude contrasts with that of BIS Records, whose albums on eMusic were at one point missing tracks over 8 minutes in length–not by design but rather through the actions of their distributor IODA. The head of the label, Robert von Bahr, responded to complaints by saying I’d rather they pull the whole lot from eMusic than serving up truncated albums/work like this and noted that … you can go buy the CD/SACD, download from eMu or vomit, whatever you feel like. Do spread the word, that’s why we went to the trouble of offering this service. In other words, there are different types of customers with differing desires and differing ideas about what price they’d like to pay, and BIS is trying to offer all of them a product that serves their particular needs.

To reward BIS for this attitude, I decided just now to download one of their releases, Mats Bergstrom’s SubString Bridge, which looked interesting to me (especially given that I’m a fan of Steve Reich’s music). (Either eMusic or IODA got the title of the album wrong, as often happens with classical releases on eMusic, but that’s a post for another day.) SubString Bridge was an eMusic Editor’s Pick, however the one review I could find of the album characterizes it as uneven. But hey, at 25 cents a track why not download the whole thing and see if I agree? That sort of impulse buying of potentially interesting music is what eMusic is all about, and I wish Tzadik would wake up and realize it.

Originally posted by Frank Hecker from Swindleeeee!!!!!, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 8, 2006 at 01:12 AM | Comments (0)

September 07, 2006

John Weinzweig

I’ve just been reading up on the Canadian composer John Weinzweig, who died last month. I confess I’d never come across his name before reading his obituaries, but it turns out he was an unusual character. As well as being the ‘dean of Canadian composers’, and a founder of the Canadian League of Composers, he was also a silver medal-winning Olympian, from back in the days when ‘Arts Contests’ was an officially recognised Olympic sport.*

But perhaps the most interesting thing about Weinzweig’s long career was his time spent, from 1941 onwards, as an in-house composer for the CBC. In this capacity he wrote about 100 radio scores, most of which featured 12-tone serialism, his preferred compositional technique of the time. So pretty much any Canadian who listened to a documentary in the 1940s would have been familiar with at least some 12-tone composition. Remarkable stuff - particularly considering that this is 15 years before William Glock’s time at the BBC, and even he never asked Schoenberg to score The World at One.

*Back then - this is 1948 and earlier - not only was the definition of ’sport’ somewhat broad, but the definition of ‘arts’ was too - the contests awarded medals for mountaineering, aeronautics and town planning. And to think we quibble about the Olympic validity of synchronised swimming and beach volleyball…

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

cat hair and mp3's

just got out of cat hair ensemble reh at the cat hair clubhouse in alhambra. who would have thought that my cat allergies would come into play? i survived tonights reh, although my cat allergies limit...

Originally from paul bailey ensemble - MySpace Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Beyond borders - East-West divine orchestra

East-West music fusions are currently hot properties, and the danger of these exercises in musical bridge building is that they can come over as being more about the media coverage than the music making. But one recent east-west fusion release has returned repeatedly to my CD player, and that is a good reason for sharing it with you. Catalan viol player Jordi Savall will need little introduction, and his musical roots are in the only European country to have been part of Islam for an extended period. Du temps & de l’instant (Moments in time) is a Savall family jam session with Montserrat Figueras (Mrs Savall) vocals, and the multi-talented Arianna and Ferran Savall (the Savall children) singing and contributing harp and théorbe respectively. And just to avoid charges of nepotism the incomparable Pedro Estevan adds the percussion line.

This is one of those ‘it isn’t early music, it isn’t improvisation, it isn’t jazz, it isn’t World Music, and it doesn’t matter’ discs, and its low profile is probably because it doesn’t fit neatly into any one media friendly category. The repertoire spans medieval to contemporary, while the geography moves from Afghanistan, through Israel, to Morocco, Greece, Sarajevo, France, Spain and across to Mexico, and the performances range from instrumental (the treatment of Marin Marais’ Muzettes l-ll is a standout) through solo cuts such as Ferran Savall’s wonderful interpretation of the traditional Catalan song La Cançó del Lladre to three pure improvisation.

Du temps & de l’instant isn’t a neatly tailored package aimed at maximum media coverage. It is 72 minutes of unbridled and spontaneous music-making by a family of incomparable musicality that spans just about every culture, musical style and performance tradition – quite simply one divine CD.

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Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:37 PM | Comments (0)

Past, Present and Future: Daniel Hege

Frank Herron, Syracuse Post-Standard, 9/6/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

Another new chamber orchestra forms in Miami

Lawrence A. Johnson , Sun Sentinel, 9/6/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

Steve Reich: 'It's not a requiem'

John O'Mahony, Guardian Unlimited, 9/6/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

ASLSP - it begins

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:35 PM | Comments (0)

Michael Keith/ John Oswald/ Roger Turner - Number Nine

Emanem 4129 The current free improv directory is so crowded that it’s an exercise in futility trying to keep pace. Scores of players ply the non-idiomatic idiom in locales across the globe. The situation is so sweeping that an...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

listen, September 2006

Keith Rowe: location (day+night 6)...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

Keith Rowe: location (day+night 6)

location (day+night 6) The listen series thus far has been a matter of improvisation, on many levels. I normally don't attach too much text to the music, allowing the music the stand on its own without being associated with...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

The Blue Nile to Golden Pond...Alice Coltrane...Clifford Brown/Max Roach...Anthony Braxton/Fred Frith...Derek Bailey/George Lewis/John Zorn

Molly Bloom was enquiring about jazz harp players recently – and female jazz musicians. Alice Coltrane can fit the bill for both categories ... 'The Blue Nile' could have been a schlocky disaster... but is a shimmering, hazy, warm and spiritual track, earthed by the bass of Ron Carter. The alto flutes are more for decoration than solo power but work well enough within the overall rubric (Sanders on the left, Henderson on the right). Coltrane's swirling harp plays a bluesy swinging solo. I don't know whether I could listen to much of this in one go, as this type of playing will sound one-dimensional after a while - but here it's damn good. Warm and evocative...

No other reason than I like the tune... here's 'Jordu' played by the late Clifford Brown with his co-led quintet avec Max Roach, recorded in 1954. Burning, soulful, fast and accurate trumpet with soaring double time runs on display here - Brown was a supreme and unhurriedly elegant melodicist.. Harold Land holds his end up as ever – an underrated talent. I remember hearing him for the first time on a Curtis Counce-led session way back in my youth with Jack Sheldon in the front line – an old Contemporary EP which I wish I still had.. Bud's younger brother Richie Powell (who died in the same car crash as the trumpeter in 1956) takes a crisp solo. A round robin of fours between horns and drums before Roach displays his solo talents – some fascinating shifting bass drum rhythms here. There's an interesting MySpace site devoted to Brownie – here

More or less up to date – coming in on thumps and scrapes from Fred Frith as the Braxton saxophone snake charms, building to long reeling lines that give a resonance of Evan Parker (or should that be the other way round?), threaded through the rising noise. That eventually subsides... more conversational now, Braxton almost quizzical in response to distant deep resonations, gong-like timbres, occasional echoes of the mad iron clatter of gamelan. The saxophone becomes elegaic as the piece ends on a low electronic thrum. A fascinating mixture of jazz timbre from the saxophone and Frith's extended guitar soundworld – a wide and deep orchestrally noisy space which is broad enough to accommodate Braxton without any discomfort. Of course these areas interlap as the cross-currents of free improv and freejazz have splashed across each other down the years. This was recorded at the same festival as Braxton's appearance with Wolf Eyes at Victoriaville 2005. Over on Point of Departure, the rather good online jazz mag, they don't think much of the latter...(click here and scroll down) Word the Cat still has 'Rationed Rot' up from this session here... When I saw Hair Police the other week, whose guitar player Mike Hennessy is also a member of Wolf Eyes, I was struck by the rhythmic connections to freejazz – something many freenoise bands have in common, taking much of the energies and instrumentation of rock but often discarding the rhythms as too restrictive to allow the music to breathe. After all, when noise is invoked, it has a beautiful unpredictability – you may have some idea of what a prepared instrument like an electric guitar (for example) can do sonically – but it will always surprise you. (Which is the idea, after all... ) So you need plenty of acoustic/conceptual space to accommodate the results – and the backbeat doesn't always hack it in the Electronic Sublime...

An earlier improv session... Derek Bailey, George Lewis (the trombonist, not the New Orleans clarinettist – although – that would have been an interesting session...) and John Zorn. 'On Golden Pond.' Not sure what Hank Fonda would have made of this... Unlike some in the world of free improv, the late-lamented Bailey (who died round Christmas last year) had a mordant sense of humour. The 1983 album that this track is taken from – 'Yankees' is apparently devoted to sound pictures and improvisations on sports themes. Zorn's duck calls here set the scene over bubbling watery sounds, occasional rising and falling trombone lines that are the only reference point to 'jazz' and the astringency of Bailey's guitar. So far now from the broad idiom of 'jazz.' Yet music from three players with strong jazz roots – which Zorn is still exploring. Bailey famously turned his back on jazz to further his experiments in non-idiomatic guitar improvisations, (declaring that 'jazz' had died with Charlie Parker). George Lewis, a superb trombone player, second generation member of AACM and composer has also been very active in multi-media and electronic developments – writing the software for the Voyager interactive music program, for example. Yet all of them are linked by the improvisation ethic that came mainly out of twentieth century jazz - here used to explore sounds/noise in a wide open space, a far from serious yet fascinating excursion...

In the Videodrome

Braxton plays Coltrane here...

and... a 100 Tubas!



Alice Coltrane
(Alice Coltrane (harp); Joe Henderson, Pharaoh Sanders (alto flutes); Ron Carter (bass); Ben Riley (drums)
Download
The Blue Nile

Buy

Clifford Brown/Max Roach Quintet

(Clifford Brown (trumpet); Harold Land (tenor saxophone); Richie Powell (piano); George Borrow (bass); Max Roach (drums) ).
Download
Jordu

Buy

Anthony Braxton/Fred Frith

Download
Improvisation no 5

Buy

Derek Bailey/George Lewis/John Zorn

Download
On Golden Pond

Buy

Originally from wordsandmusic, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine Reviews

A few more reviews from Musique Machine.

Theme - Our Angles Dislocated
Theme’s second album investigates nicely defined filmatic, ambient and drone textures. Utilizing electronics, sitar, Indian pipes, piano, violin etc. Making a album of pieces that conjures up vast often half-lit landscapes and strange uncharted lands, to loose ones self in.

Xela - The Dead Sea
Using Italian horror and zombie films and their soundtracks as an influence. Along with drone , folk,electronic, rock elements, to Conceive a wonderfully eerier and water bound concept album about a zombie attack on the high seas.

Saroos - Saroos
Saroos try and mesh together electro beat scarps with a hip hop vibe and indie Emo guitar melodies. Coming out on Notwists Alien Transistor label that co released the Amazing 13 & god album with Anticon last year. Were 13 & god managed to meld these genres in a concise, well sculpted and edgy way, sadly Saroos too often miss the mark.

Indian Jewelry - Invasive Exotics
Indian Jewellery’s Debut album is a juddering, off kilter stew of careering lo-fi indie, come punked up guitars. Married to churning and grimy synthesizer work and crude electronics. Making a wonderfully shambolic and psychedelic incrusted masterpiece.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

Ground and Sky Reviews

Ground and Sky has a pair of new reviews.

Mogwai - Mr. Beast
Trio Beyond - Saudades

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

When the Saints Go Marching In

When we composers are "off the clock," so to speak, how does it benefit us to hate certain kinds of music?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

If you only buy thirty-four CDs - buy these ...

At the turn of the millennium BBC Radio 3 asked listeners to choose the greatest recording of the 20th century. The recording chosen was deservedly, but somewhat predictably, Solti's Ring cycle. The runners up were Carlos Klieber's interpretations of Beethoven's Fifth and Seventh symphonies, the Britten War Requiem conducted by the composer, and English String Music conducted by Sir John

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)

Violins Invade Indianapolis

Want to see and hear 16 different interpretations of Bright Sheng's new piece written especially for the Indianapolis Violin Competition? You can catch the performances LIVE, or recorded, beginning today at the competition's website. The competition--t

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 7, 2006 at 01:32 PM | Comments (0)

September 06, 2006

Musician Deathwatch

del.icio.us/skills/obituary | About this list

This week we bid farewell to the following members of the musical community:

:: Astrid Varnay Opera singer
:: Iain Mackintosh Folk singer
:: Buck Page ‘Last of the great singing cowboys’
:: Dewey Redman Jazz saxophonist
:: Pip Pyle Prog drummer
:: Gene Simmons Rockabilly singer and songwriter
:: Pip Pyle Prog rock drummer

Rest in Peace.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

Links for the week

MySpace to start selling downloads of unsigned acts. If this means most of the money is going to the artists, this is a really good thing. But we shall see - at 45 cents per transaction handling fee, it doesn’t look promising.

Gaddafi (warning for the office-bound - site comes with sound), ENO’s new ‘hip-opera’ has been generating a stir. Rob has a review.

And the Arctics have won the Monkey Mercury Music Prize.

Originally posted by Tim Rutherford-Johnson from The Rambler, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:53 PM | Comments (0)

Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky tandem cycle

I hear on the grapevine that BBC Radio 3 are broadcasting the complete works of both Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky over five days starting February 10 2007. Other details are sketchy. You heard it first On An Overgrown Path, more details when available. Image credit Kortland-Wilkens. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

A Schoenberg and Rossini double bill?

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Gadaffi

Last night I saw the first dress rehearsal of the most eagerly awaited show in town, Gaddafi: A Living Myth at the Coliseum. Admittedly, much of the curiosity surrounding this collaboration between English National Opera and Asian Dub Foundation involves imagining the fruit of such a strange union, and I can confidentially reveal that this is one odd show.

Neither unqualified success nor the disaster some had predicted, it's a slice of postmodern agit-prop: postmodern because it presents Gadaffi ultimately as a cypher taking on any number of Western-imposed identities, from 'mad dog of the middle east' to valued ally in the war against terror; agit-prop because it gives slightly cartoonish potted history of post-war Libya, complete with evil American oil barons, Ronald Reagan in best John Wayne form, and even a callow and lecherous Tony Blair.

Musically, ADF's hip-hop beats and soundscapes translate well to the stage; the live musicians in the pit are not over-taxed, but the sound as a whole is well integrated. There is very little actual singing, with most of the principals spitting rhymes over the beats. These lyrics range from the numbingly obvious to the witty; a recurring mantra, 'This sand is our land', is met with bafflement by a US oilman, who reassures the Libyans that 'You can keep the sand'. Ramon Tikaram (Ferdy from This Life!) gives a mesmerising performance as Gaddafi, though the other cast members are a little anonymous.

The staging by David Freeman is creative and engaging, with imaginative use of paper backcloths through which sundry revolutionaries can burst, and onto which are projected excellent visuals. The most difficult moments to swallow are when the chorus in camouflage gear break into their dance routines, when the show comes perilously close to a Mel Brooks parody of itself. The first half sags under the weight of Gaddafi's revolutionary fervour; the second, more cynical act works far better dramatically.

Politically, it's a bit of a blunt instrument, though it certainly does no harm to be reminded of who our allies in the war on terror actually are. While the injustices and brutalities of Gaddafi's rule are not overlooked, the Lockerbie bombing is left as an open question. I must defer to wiser heads than mine to discuss the ethics of the production. You can certainly question whether this is what ENO should really be doing; but it seemed to me that all concerned have just about emerged with credibility intact.

Originally posted by Robert Witts from Musicircus, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Flute, three hands

Originally from John Mackey's Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:52 PM | Comments (0)

Dom Minasi - The Vampire's Revenge

I have recently been listening to the new double-disc, large ensemble, thematic work by bonified avante guitarist, Dom Minasi. I have been periferally aware of Minasi for a while, hearing small amounts of his cd of re-interpretations of Ellington classics, but this is the first time I've really spent time with a work of his. He brings together a huge collection of NYC players in all sorts of different combinations, the larger of which are conducted 'comprovisations' (someone else's term, but I feel it applies). Many parts are very clearly composed, the musicians playing certain melody and harmony lines with a wonderfull blend of individuality in the voices and an overall sensitivity to the scope of the sound. Other areas are further out - Minasi likely gave them some ideas of what to do, but he probably didn't do it in standard notation - graphic notation (follow the sqiggly line through the page) seems more likely to me. Finally there is the level of playing that perhaps is signature to Minasi, which is the half-muted-strings-with-frenetic-tremello-picking thing, which the many guest have little trouble in matching. All through out the two discs, the players do a real job of bringing out these different energy levels so as to communicate real drama, which, tied with humour, is what this monumental piece is all about.
One of the most enjoyable things for me to hear in this recording is the expansion of sonorities and pitch movements. When you take alot of players with strong voices and throw them together into a musical-system-breaking arrangement, you end up with alot of beautiful things happening that couldn't be expressed in our 12-tone system on which we have trained our musical intellects. This music is avant garde because it reaches beyond the approaches that have the stood the test of a certain amount of time and intuitively moves past even the intent of the instrument makers into the future of our ears and percepts.
The majority of the players I am unfamiliar with but I was excited to see John Gunther on as a guest on tenor. When I was living in Colorado in high school, I was fortunate enough to have some time with John as a combo instructor and inspiration. He is a very musical player and one of the kindest musicians I've been aquainted with. He is currently teaching at CU Boulder and I ran into him at the microtonal concert we just played at Old Main Hall on the campus. The other name I know is Mathew Shipp, appearing on just one track, but lending his pianistic magic generously.
This work is really worth a listen if you have some open ears to what music can communicate. It is a very accomplished balance of so many different impressions, and is good for a little ear refreshment, or a slap in the face, depending where you are....

Originally from Jazz Thinks, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

The World in 1911, Part 2

Originally from ionarts, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:51 PM | Comments (0)

Composing During Wartime

I sit at my desk with a pencil poised on the manuscript paper, trying to sort and sift ideas. I close my eyes, attempting in vain to keep my brain focused on the music, but I feel overwhelmed by the events unfolding around me. Back in February 2003, I marched through the streets of New York City, one of a million people who demonstrated to express outrage at our militaristic U.S. foreign policy. The entire East Side of Manhattan shut down; buses, taxis, and police vehicles were rendered helplessly immobile in a sea of people waving signs and chanting for judicious restraint. Now, three and a half years after the Defense Secretary predicted a quick victory that would take “a matter of weeks, not months”, American soldiers are caught in a bloody civil war with violence on the rise. 3,500 Iraqis died just this month, more than the total number of Americans who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Our own military casualties will soon surpass that number as well. Each day, mothers and fathers – Iraqi, Afghani, and American – lose their children, and an endless war is raging, on my behalf – on our behalves as U.S. citizens.

In the wake of John F. Kennedy’s murder, Leonard Bernstein wrote "This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before…Sorrow and rage will not inflame us to seek retribution; rather they will inflame our art. Our music will never again be quite the same.” This statement, an artist’s sincere and earnest attempt to find a response to national crisis, has been used to promote the notion that creating music is powerful enough to overcome violence. For artists, the notion that creative acts are a valid and equal response to destructive ones, is an attractive idea. At times it has helped me to feel heroic simply by going about my daily business of writing, playing, and generally making music.

And yet the violent acts continue. How can I continue to scribble sixteenth notes under those circumstances? Is it possible to respond to such violence simply by making music? How deeply is this war dehumanizing us all, little by little, hour by hour?

A friend recently bolstered Bernstein’s pronouncement by pointing out that if we all played violins continually, we wouldn’t be able to kill or inflict pain (unless, I suppose if we all played violin as badly as I do…). This is true, but as the fighting goes on, that hypothesis seems more and more irrelevant. I write and play music passionately; others wage war passionately. I pick up a clarinet; someone else picks up a gun. The two acts are essentially unrelated, yet unfortunately, in the end, the guns are more plentiful. It’s not only easier to learn how to shoot than to compose, it’s also cheaper (join the army!) and it’s the path to greater glory. Making music may have been heroic to Lenny, but to most Americans the soldiers are the heroes.

Of course, the very story of Bernstein’s life is a rejection of passivity. It is only the frequent citation of this statement in times of war that irks me. For it reveals a troubling implication about the American psyche: that we profess to conquer violence while refusing to acknowledge its deeper roots in cultural conflict, poverty, imperialism, and turf battles over control of natural resources. John F. Kennedy’s assassination was no accident; nor was 9/11. Both events were part of an opposition's calculated political agenda, and both events were responses – however unjust and cruel – to U.S. policy.

If therefore, as individuals, we abhor violence, we cannot bury our heads in the sand. Protesting it cannot be left to our elected representatives. The government will always indicate that our sole role is to 'keep living our lives', continuing to be productive taxpayers, ‘stimulating the economy’; in short, during a time of war we should do what we always did, only with more conviction and sense of purpose. Those who make music play more devotedly, farmers farm with greater fervor, bankers bank even more intensely. And of course, shoppers shop with renewed vigor and determination.

Remember how, in the wake of 9/11, George W. Bush commanded us to go shopping? That would be our victory over the terrorists. “Shop!” we were fitfully instructed, as if carrying out that sacred command would prove that we hadn’t given in, that our lives hadn’t been disrupted by terrorist tactics. Dubya suggested that we answer violence thus: “Do your business around the country. Fly and enjoy America's great destination spots. Get down to Disney World in Florida. Take your families and enjoy life, the way we want it to be enjoyed.” In the meantime, the federal government would respond to the violence for us, with a brutal 'shock and awe' preemptive war. Bush’s spokesperson Ari Fleisher had an additional, slightly more sinister, piece of advice for us citizens: “Watch what you say.” Accept the collective response of war. And accept the costs, the priorities. Our government spends more more each day for the war in Iraq than we spend each year funding the arts.

What’s the difference whether we shop or make music? Either choice constitutes a pyrrhic victory if it is accompanied by political passivity. I worry that Harold Pinter uttered a great truth in describing America as “a salesman…out on its own, and its most saleable commodity is self love.” How can we be so smug as to believe that the proper response to cataclysmic events is to continue with ‘business as usual’? In a democracy, how can we be so unmotivated to excoriate the policies of our own government and the conduct of our elected representatives? Has our lexicon become so distorted by Karl Rove’s doublespeak that we actually believe that doing nothing is equivalent to taking bold action?

The question becomes not merely whether – but when and how – we should stand up and say ‘enough!' War is a confusing situation, because withdrawal seems as fraught as “staying the course.” As predicted by many analysts from the start, a civil war has now broken out in Iraq, and the situation is now far beyond our control. What remains is a hopelessly anarchic unrest, its graveness ignored by the warmongers of this administration, whose corporate and political interests benefited from the onset of hostilities. In all the hand-wringing over what to do next, it is easy to forget that the pretexts of self-defense under which we attacked Iraq have long since faded into the sunset. The only remaining excuse for continuing to occupy Iraq is to retroactively justify our misguided invasion.

I often muse over the complex and intertwined relationship between art and politics. I once brought a newly finished piano work to my very 'political' teacher Louis Andriessen. He looked at the dedication and grinned wryly.

"What's this?" He pointed to my inscription, which read, 'For Yitzhak Rabin.' It was the week after Rabin had been shot, and I felt pained by his death.

"I wanted to do something," I said solemnly, "to express something....about his death..."

"Did you know him?" he queried, amusedly.

"No..." I replied.

"Then you shouldn't use his name," he snapped. "This is silly."

At first I thought he was just being deliberate and contrarian, but now I think he was probably right (and he is Dutch, after all...). Our politics doesn't always belong in our art, at least not in that way. It's tricky.

One book that had a profound effect on me was Antonio Tabucchi’s novel ‘Sostiene Pereira’ (there’s also a movie version, with Mastroiani). The story begins as fascism creeps slowly into Portuguese pre-war politics. The protagonist Pereira is a middle-aged newspaper editor who begins to encounter violence more and more in the headlines; he finds his conscience torn, and one day he decides that he can no longer calmly go about his daily routine; he is drawn inextricably toward the only possible effective response – activism. Around the same time, in 1936, Llorca, the great Spanish poet and playwright, lost his life fighting with the Communists; his body was dumped in a ditch. Should he have balked at fighting for a cause in which he believed, and instead continued to write more and more beautiful poetry? Did he accomplish more through his ‘heroic’ death than he would have through his writing? It’s hard to know.

For who is to say that composing – or making music of any kind, for that matter – isn’t itself an act of violence? Why romanticize and tranquilize creativity? Composing, it seems to me, is largely about upheaval, about disturbing the status quo. The transfer of sensation, information, and emotion from one person to another may feel profound, even spiritual, but it is certainly not peaceful.

Artaud, in fact, was convinced that our most violent urges could be quenched and quelled by means of art. His “Théâtre de la cruauté” supposed live theatre to be the medium by which we might exorcise our antisocial instincts, returning home thereafter to properly behaved homes. In his world, art would not attempt to erase violence, but would instead serve as the catharsis by which violence could be experienced in a transformed – and physically harmless – form.

Being an artist demands a temperment that is sensitive to the joys and cruelties of the outside world. Ironically, artists sometimes seem desensitized to what goes on around them, but I believe that this remoteness – sometimes even manifesting itself in outwardly hostile behavior – can be a self-defense mechanism employed by extraordinarily vulnerable souls who decry injustice and tyranny.

In 1988, shortly before his death, Bernstein offers an eloquent – and now eerily prescient – rant against tyranny. In a New York Times essay he enumerates the dangers of fascism lurking within our own political system, especially during election years. “To call for war at the drop of a pipeline (while secretly dealing for hostages); to teach jingoistic slogans about armaments and Star Wars; to prescribe the weapons industry for the health of our doped-up credit card economy; to spend a dizzying percentage of the budget on arms at the expense of schools, hospitals, cultural pursuits, caring for the infirm and homeless – these are all forms of tyranny.”

The tyrant to whom he referred of was none other than George Bush the First.

One could argue that the ‘tyrant’ neocons have in fact taken a rather artistic approach to foreign policy, though it is played out in the theatre of war rather than the theatre of cruelty. They imagined a world as they’d like to see it, and they have been trying to fit the real world – our world – into that fantasy, inconsistencies notwithstanding. Or as the Downing Street Memo illuminated it: “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy”. Artists must likewise believe in the world that they manufacture out of thin air. When our faith wanes in the fabricated worlds of our making, the ‘vision’ is lost. So Dick Cheney, too, is a dreamer, albeit a tyrannical and authoritarian one.

At the end of his essay, Bernstein strikes a hopeful note. He writes: “I love my country – so much, in fact, that I am putting all my energies into seeing it to a better day, a more tranquil night, a shining and limitless future. And I abide by the words of that splendid liberal Thomas Jefferson that are inscribed on his monument in Washington: ‘I have sworn upon the altar of God eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man.’”

Time to write some music.

Originally from inspirations, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:50 PM | Comments (0)

BBC announces Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky week

Gramophone, 9/5/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Jim Tenney on...

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

ARTSaha: Day One

Presenting

ASLSP

A festivity for Calliope, Chief of the muses, muse of epic poetry, and mother of Orpheus

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:49 PM | Comments (0)

Magic number.

As of tonight, I have a new theory as to why John Scofield makes his best intense-guitarist faces not during his own solos, but during those of his bandmates. Granted, it's not based on a lot of empirical data, but the grimaces, startled looks and other choice expressions that played across Scofield's face as he accompanied Steve Swallow's bass guitar solo on "In 6" tonight at the Blue Note made me think that the guitarist was deeply contemplating every available option in order to find precisely the right gesture to play off whatever Swallow was offering, and it showed. It also paid off: Everything Scofield did seemed to complement his bassist's sentiments perfectly.

By contrast, Scofield's face during his own solos is more of a fixed grimace with its ends curled upward. It might be a cliche to say so, but it often seems as if the music is actually playing the guitarist rather than the other way around: Even in his liveliest tunes, Scofield projects mellow assurance.

Most of the set by Scofield's Real Jazz Trio, which is completed by drummer Bill Stewart, was devoted to new material, some of it apparently never played before tonight. The show opened with "Trio Blues," which was exactly what the name suggests: a fast, tricky 12-bar blues. Swallow hunched over in deep concentration, his face pinched and his long, spidery fingers flicking back and forth across his strings constantly. Stewart's drumming was crisp and immaculate; his left hand was hyperactive and his right foot was possessed by Roy Haynes, while the other two limbs kept precision time.

On the trio's live album, EnRoute (which was recorded at this club), Scofield rejected most of his jam-band loops and pedals. This time, he carefully introduced a few of them in tunes such as the hard-edged strut, "Green Tea." The previously mentioned "In 6" featured a gently rippling, off-kilter melody. "Strangeness in the Night" shuffled back and forth between a stolid, deliberate slow-drag march and a loosely swinging reverie that climaxed in a burst of energy akin to those of the mid-'60s Coltrane quartet; at times, Scofield's octaves and Swallow's lines were so closely aligned as to suggest one massive überguitar.

Following a tricky, effects-laden solo guitar introduction that bubbled and skipped like a scratched CD, "Down Deep" relaxed into a rustic melody that might have been borrowed from some obscure Scottish folk ballad. A burning cover of "Budo" confirmed the trio's claim to its name. After a break to downtune the guitars, Scofield's trio closed the set with "Row Pet Solo" (an anagram, maybe?), in which a lurching, dinosaur-rock opening riff gave way to a breezy melody that kept reminding me of a Funkadelic tune I've yet to recall. This closer offered Scofield's flashiest playing of the evening.

While there's no denying that Scofield's trio is an excellent band that has no problem sustaining interest and excitement, there was admittedly still a part of me that longed for a good horn player as a foil -- for example, Joe Lovano, who played with Scofield and Stewart in the guitarist's excellent early-'90s quartet. That thought wasn't entirely coincidental, since my next destination was the Village Vanguard, where the saxophonist was playing with drummer Paul Motian and guitarist Bill Frisell in a trio rightly lauded as one of jazz's elite units for more than 20 years. I'd originally planned to catch the trio's second set, but Scofield ended so punctually that I was also able to catch practically all of Motian's first set, save for the two opening tunes: "Cambodia," a new original slated for the trio's next ECM disc (due in January) and Monk's "Misterioso," I learned later.

I descended the stairs to a cacophony of noisy guitar splatter, Frisell's lines conjuring a vaguely Monkish integrity despite the chaos. As the guitarist ended, Lovano jumped in with a warm gush of free-flowing melody, the drummer prodding him gently with the most skeletal of rhythms. The head to Motian's "Jack of Clubs" suddenly emerged from the ether.

Over the years, this band has grown ever more confident even as its performances have atomized into the most tenuous of constructs. "Time and Time Again," the title track of the upcoming disc, opened with a mild flutter of saxophone, Motian's brushwork and long, glistening notes from Frisell. The leader quietly urged the guitarist through a lengthy, melancholy solo; when Lovano rejoined the group, it seemed as if he'd been missing for ages. The three players coalesced into one of Motian's patented broken-carousel melodies.

There's virtually no way to apply conventional analysis to what this trio makes of standards like "I Wish I Knew," which followed. Their performances are essentially a three-way gush of melody, colored by all manner of subtle harmonic suggestions and rhythmic implications. It's about as easy to pin their music down as it is to stop a river with cupped hands. Here, Lovano gently caressed the melody, while Frisell and Motian surrounded him with ghostly emanations.

Lovano's "Party Line," also slated for the new disc, opened with a tawny, stepwise melody, repeated two-note cells sounding like bugle calls or battle cries. Motian's freest drumming was a reminder that this veteran player has become as wily a radical as the firebrands of the '60s, yet his abstractions are always tempered with a lyricism entirely suited to this material. What's more, he can always stop on a dime and provide rock-solid swing, as he did here behind a unison statement from his bandmates.

Behind Frisell's lean rhapsody in "This Nearly Was Mine," Motian turned again to his brushes, offering not the standard librarian shush but rather the rustle of wind through dry leaves, the flutter of a moth's wings as it recklessly circles the porch light under which a last goodbye is spoken. The set ended with Motian's frequent set closer, "Drum Music" (another selection from Jack of Clubs, a 1984 quintet date). The players seemed to be pushing a melody slowly up a hill, but every so often it rolled backward on them at twice the speed. If that's a metaphor for the struggle of creativity, it's a battle this seasoned trio is well equipped to wage.

Playlist:

Dave Douglas - Meaning and Mystery (Greenleaf)

Myra Melford's Be Bread - The Image of Your Body (Cryptogramophone)

Willie Nelson - Songbird (Lost Highway; due Oct. 31)

Miles Davis - Decoy (Columbia)

Paul Motian, Bill Frisell and Joe Lovano - It Should Have Happened a Long Time Ago and I Have the Room Above Her (ECM)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Cuneiform Artists on Tour

The latest tour info from Cuneiform has been posted.

AHLEUCHATISTAS
Wednesday, October 25 -The Drunken Unicorn - 736 Ponce de Leon Avenue - Atlanta, GA with Kayo Dot
Thursday, October 26 - Ziggy’s -607 Cherokee Blvd. - Chattanooga, TN (423) 265-871 with Kayo Dot
Friday October 27 - The Muse - 835 4th Ave South - Nashville, TN (615) 251-0190 with Kayo Dot
Saturday, October 28 - The Rocket Club - 401 Haywood - Asheville, NC with Kayo Dot

BIRDSONGS OF THE MESOZOIC with Oral Moses
Saturday, October 14 - Real Artways - 56 Arbor Street - Hartford, CT (860) 232.1006 - 8 PM $8 advance/$12 door
Sunday, October 15th - Forsyth Chapel at Forest Hills Cemetery - 95 Forest Hills Avenue, Boston, MA (617) 524-0128 - 4 PM $15/$12 members
Friday, November 10 - Kennesaw State University - Marietta, GA

THE CLAUDIA QUINTET
September 8 - Debrecen Jazz Festival - Hungary
October 6-13 Mid-west Tour
October 11 - Chicago Cultural Center - Chicago, IL
October 13 - EdgeFest - Ann Arbor, MI
October 23-31 Northwest tour
October 23 - daytime workshop at Cal Arts / evening concert Club Tropical Culver City, CA
October 27 - Portland, OR
Saturday, October 28 - Earshot Fest - Seattle, WA 98103-8650

FAST ‘N’ BULBOUS
Wednesday November 15th - Pizza on the Park, 11-13 Knightsbridge, London UK- - 1st night of a 2 night residency as part of the
London Jazz Festival
Thursday November 16th - Pizza on the Park, 11-13 Knightsbridge, London UK- - 2nd night of a 2 night residency as part of the
London Jazz Festival
Friday Nov. 17th BimHuis, Amsterdam, Holland
Saturday, Nov. 18th Taktlos Festival, Bern, Switzerland
Tuesday, Nov. 21st Porgy and Bess, Vienna, Austria]
Thursday, Nov. 23rd Cankarjev Dom, Ljubljana, Slovenia

FOREVER EINSTEIN
Saturday, September 23 - East Coast Music Camp - 4819 St. Elmo Avenue - Bethesda, MD 20814 (301) 913 5757

FORGAS BAND PHENOMENA
Thursday, October 19th - Fac de Jussieu - (Universite Paris VII, Amphi 24) - Paris, France - 8.30pm

GUAPO
April 13th, 14th & 15th, 2007 - Rock In Opposition - French Event - Maison de la Musique -Cap’Découverte - 81450 LE GARRIC (Carmaux) - France

MATS/MORGAN BAND
April 13th, 14th & 15th, 2007 - Rock In Opposition - French Event - Maison de la Musique -Cap’Découverte - 81450 LE GARRIC (Carmaux) - France

THE MICROSCOPIC SEPTET (special one-time only reunion of the ENTIRE original band, in celebration of the reissue of their albums)

November 30 - World Cafe Live
December 2 - Joe’s Pub - NYC, NYC
December 6-20 (Europe) - more details as we get them

MIRIODOR
Saturday, September 16 - appearing at the first Festival des Musiques Progressives - Gesù - Centre de Créativité, 1200 De Bleury Street, Montreal (Quebec) Canada

NeBeLNeST
October 21 - Progsol Festival - Grenchen, CH-2540, Switzerland

April 13th, 14th & 15th, 2007 - Rock In Opposition - French Event - Maison de la Musique -Cap’Découverte - 81450 LE GARRIC (Carmaux) - France

RICHARD PINHAS
end of October - Venice, Italy

Japanese tour with Jerome Schmidt and Antoine Paganotti.
November 29 - Rosa - Tokyo, Japan
November 30 - Rosa - Tokyo, Japan
December 1 - Star Pine’s Cafe - Tokyo, Japan
December 2 - Star Pine’s Cafe - Tokyo, Japan
December 3 - Shangrila - Osaka, Japan
December 4 - Day Trip - Nagoya, Japan

ED PALERMO BIG BAND
Thursday, September 21 - SONAR - 407 East Saratoga St., Baltimore, MD (410) 327 8333 - $20.00/ 7:00 doors/8:00 show (early for us old folks) Purchase a ticket from Ticketmaster or Purchast a ticket from Wayside Music (no service charge!)

PRESENT
April 13th, 14th & 15th, 2007 - Rock In Opposition - French Event - Maison de la Musique -Cap’Découverte - 81450 LE GARRIC (Carmaux) - France

SOFT MACHINE LEGACY
October 10 - Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal, Cumbria, UK
October 15 - Marsden Jazz Festival, Marsden, Yorkshire, UK
November 17 - The Junction, Cambridge (benefit concert)

UNIVERS ZERO
December 1 - Alternativa Festival - Archa Theatre - Na Porici 26 - 110 00 Praha 1 - Czech Republic (221) 716 333

March 21-24, 2007 - Bajaprog, Mexicali, Mexico

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Dusted Reviews

A few more reviews from Dusted:

Artist: Art Ensemble of Chicago
Album: Non-cognitive Aspects of the City - Live at Iridium
Label: Pi Recordings

Artist: Sound In Action Trio
Album: Gate
Label: Atavistic

Artist: Frequency
Album: Frequency
Label: Thrill Jockey

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Drake / Berger / Parker Reviewed

The recent release of this trio’s Evolving Silence Vol. 2 is reviewed.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Umbrella Music Through September 15

Umbrella Music is putting a strong set of shows throughout Chicago.

Wednesday, 6 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Lucky 7s
Josh Berman - cornet
Jeb Bishop - trombone
Jeff Albert - trombone
Keefe Jackson - reeds
Jason Adasiewicz - vibes
Matt Golombisky - bass
Quin Kirchner - drums

$7 requested donation
two sets
Thursday, 7 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Nicole Mitchell’s Black Earth Strings
Nicole Mitchell - flutes
Renee Baker - viola
Tomeka Reid - cello
Josh Abrams - bass

two sets
Sunday, 10 September 2006

The Hungry Brain
10:00 PM | Andrew Bishop Trio
Andrew Bishop - saxophones
Tim Flood - bass
Gerald Cleaver - drums

two sets
Wednesday, 13 September 2006

The Hideout
10:00 PM | (((POWERHOUSE SOUND)))
Ken Vandermark - reeds
Jeff Parker - guitar & electronics
Nate McBride - bass & electronics
John Herndon - drums

two sets
$6 cover
PLUS | DJ Sets : Fred Lonberg-Holm spins
Rockin’ Bows
Thursday, 14 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Josh Abrams Group
Fred Lonberg-Holm, Tomeka Reid - cello
Ben Vida, Jeff Parker - guitar
Nate McBride, Josh Abrams - bass

$7 requested donation
two sets
Friday, 15 September 2006

Elastic
10:00 PM | Vandermark Five
Ken Vandermark - reeds
Dave Rempis - saxophones
Fred Lonberg-Holm - cello
Kent Kessler - bass
Tim Daisy - drums

$10 requested donation
two sets

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

New Point of Departure

The latest Point of Departure magazine is available.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

Nature or nurture

I'm usually content with the full battery of biographical elements I can bring to an explanation for my preference, no my passion, for new and experimental musics. However, recognizing that such a passion is a deviation from the norm is not difficult, and in the apparent loneliness of my audition I sometimes wonder if I actually hear things differently from others, and if there's a physiological

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:47 PM | Comments (0)

John Cage (born Los Angeles, 5 September 1912; died New York, 12 August 1992).

Don't forget the special online preview recording (semi-final version) of John Cage's longest Number Piece, the 121-minute Two3 (1991), for sho and conch shells this afternoon at around 4pm EDT at contemporary-classical.com I just put together a Mostly

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 6, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

September 05, 2006

Much music, but how much merit?

A heads-up for some exciting events that are happening in September while I am in France. The media event, if not the musical event, of the autumn is almost certain to be the premiere on Thursday September 7 at English National Opera of Gaddafi: A Living Myth. The work is a collaboration between the musicians of Asian Dub Foundation, director David Freeman and designer Es Devlin. It will certainly push the envelope, but the jury is out on whether it can combine media appeal with merit. It is a co-commission with Channel 4, the TV channel that reaches the peaks of artistic merit with programmes such as Big Brother, and whose next project is a documentary-style film in which George Bush is assassinated. A glimmer of hope comes from the director, David Freeman, who has something of a track record of rejuvenating operatic lost causes, most notably Philip Glass' The Making of the Representative for Planet 8. But don't take my word, make up your own mind on Gaddafi: A Living Myth by following this link.

Meanwhile merit is guaranteed at the Wigmore Hall when a three concert series combining the music of György Kurtág with Bach’s Art of Fugue starts on September 20. The artist line-up is pretty starry, with Thomas Adès, the Keller Quartet, and soprano Valdine Anderson. But it is eclipsed by the appearance of Kurtag himself playing his piano duet Játékok on November 8, and for me these three concerts are among of the musical highspots of the London autumn.

Meanwhile the obsession with anniversaries continues well past the BBC Proms with a Steve Reich fest running at the Barbican from September 28 to October 8. Reich himself (below) premieres a new piece, the Daniel Variations, with the Bang on a Can All-Stars and the BBC Symphony, London Symphony banging their way through everything from Reich’s early opuses to his experiments with video operas. All the media buzz words are there – iconoclastic, multi-media, American, cross arts, new audience, living composer, internet appeal etc etc. Now I am a great fan of Reich's music in the right quantities, and I hate to keep banging on a can. But couldn’t just some of this rehearsal time been used by the BBC Symphony to programme at least one work by Malcolm Arnold and Edmund Rubbra in this anniversary year that they share with Steve Reich? Does anyone seriously believe Reich’s 1993 digital opera The Cave has more merit than Arnold’s 1986 Ninth Symphony or Rubbra's 1972 Ninth Symphony? Or did those composers simply make the error of discarding their baseball caps as they gracefully passed the age of 70?

Finally, just to confirm that you can have too much of a good thing, the Barbican's obsession with contemporary American music at the expense of pretty well everything else continues in November with an American Pioneers series featuring, among others, John Adams as conductor and composer. Adams seems to be a permanent fixture on the podium in London at the moment - perhaps someone in New York would like to organise a British Pioneers series featuring Arnold and Rubbra?

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Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

By the power of Grayskull

There's been a small change of plans for performances this fall. Turns out that Eugene Corporon will not be doing "Turbine" in late September, as originally planned. Instead, he's moved the performance to spring -- to coincide with the recording of the work for the University of North Texas's next commercial CD! The UNT CD series is a big deal, and this is the first time they've recorded any of my music, so this is pretty exciting.

I've been asked to participate on a grant panel this fall. It's a little weird to be in the position of judging other composers anyway, but when you factor in that some of these applicants are much more famous and respected than I could ever hope to be, it's all the more daunting. The fun part is knowing that I can use this position to enact sweet revenge on any of the applicants who have ever crossed me in the past.

I'm kidding. Really.

Originally from John Mackey's Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:46 PM | Comments (0)

Squirrel in spokes floors cycling opera singer

Reuters, 9/4/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

New, virtual orchestra sounds ominous note

Marc Shulgold, Rocky Mountain News, 9/2/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

From Ming to Mozart to modern masterworks

Richard Scheinin, San Jose Mercury News, 9/3/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Even more records.

Looking over Ethan Iverson's gargantuan catalog of great jazz records issued between 1973 and 1990, I'm overwhelmed both by the sheer wealth of great music that was made during this critically neglected era, and also by the depth of passion and insight Ethan (and his bandmates) were demonstrating toward jazz at such an early stage of life. By comparison, I am a dilettante, or at least a latecomer: My interest in jazz, pre-college anyway, was limited to Spryo Gyra, my gateway drug (thanks to my junior high percussion teacher), and Louis Bellson's Thunderbird -- still a great small-band swing set, but what I'd actually wanted was a Gene Krupa record, surprisingly hard to find in not-yet-booming League City, Texas.

My passion for jazz ignited later, fueled by namechecks provided by favorite rock stars. Sting says to check out In a Silent Way, I'm there. Bill Bruford tips his hat to A Love Supreme, that's all the prodding I need. I may have those two citings reversed, but you get the idea.

I don't remember how I came to The Shape of Jazz to Come, but that's where my floodgates opened: I became an avant-garde jazz fanatic, and devoted a portentously named Sunday-night show on my college radio station, "Jazz for the Third Ear," to its dissemination in San Antonio between 1986 and 1988. (The station was KRTU-FM 91.7 at Trinity University, and the show, I was proud to discover later, actually survived my graduation, at least for a while.) My knowledge of the mainstream during that period was sorely lacking by comparison.

Ethan's list, as well as those of Darcy James Argue and David Ryshpan, summarily put paid to the notion that jazz somehow went fallow during the years in question. But they also confirm for me that one of the most powerful and personal statements in the history of the music -- one of its most towering achievements, in my opinion -- is in greater danger of slipping into the mists of obscurity than I'd ever suspected.

A performer, composer and educator born in Fort Worth, Texas and based for most of his career in Los Angeles, the late John Carter (1929-1991) spent the '80s crafting his magnum opus: "Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music," a five-suite (or five-disc, if you prefer) cycle that encompasses the whole of the African-American musical experience, from its roots in tribal Africa through slavery, rural folk and blues traditions, gospel music and the birth of jazz. It's admittedly uneven, but majestic in both scope and achievement. Pressed to think of artists who attempted to create anything of similar scope, the only names that come readily to mind are Ellington and Mingus...and Wynton Marsalis, much later.

The first disc, Dauwhe, was recorded in Los Angeles in 1982, and issued on Black Saint that year. By this point, Carter had laid down his alto saxophone to devote himself to clarinet, at a time when it was still unusual to do so -- Don Byron had yet to emerge. At Carter's side, then and always, was Bobby Bradford -- a sterling cornetist and, like Carter himself, a musician in the Ornette Coleman circle. (Bradford appears on Coleman's often-cited Science Fiction, and Carter and Bradford recorded a number of valuable Coleman-esque quartet records for Flying Dutchman in the '60s.) The rest of the band included Red Callender on tuba, flutist James Newton, reedist Charles Owens (on soprano sax, clarinet and oboe), bassist Roberto Miranda, drummer William Jeffrey and percussionist Luis Peralta.

Nowadays, Dauwhe is pretty much the only release in the cycle that turns up regularly. The rest, recorded for the Gramavision label -- indisputably one of the foremost centers of progressive-jazz activity during its lamentably brief existence -- is long out of print. (What a reversal from the period in which these discs were actually being released, when Dauwhe, on an Italian label, was the toughest one to locate!) That's a tragedy, because the next two records in the series were the stone-cold classics, and the final two are also fascinating.

Castles of Ghana was commissioned by the New York Shakespeare Festival's "New Jazz at the Public" series; Carter and Bradford recorded it in New York City in 1985; Gramavision issued it in 1986. The band that appeared here -- Marty Ehrlich on bass clarinet, Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Benny Powell on trombone, Terry Jenoure on violin and vocals, Richard Davis on bass and Andrew Cyrille on drums -- would remain more or less consistent for the remainder of the cycle, with a few significant tweaks.

While it's flip and dismissive to put it this way, if you only own one John Carter record, Castles of Ghana is it. The music pulses and throbs with a dark gravity and passion suited to its titular inspiration: the coastal castles along Ghana's coast, which were originally used for commercial trade in the 4th through 11th centuries. By the 16th century, tribal chiefs put those structures to a new purpose: they were used as holding pens for Africans who were sold into slavery.

Recorded in 1986 and issued the following year, Dance of the Love Ghosts describes the harrowing Middle Passage. Richard Davis is gone, replaced by the great Fred Hopkins, who will see the journey through to its end. Baikida Carroll is gone, as well; in his place is a an unexpected and unconventional inclusion, former Mothers of Invention keyboardist Don Preston. It's an inspired choice: Preston is a formidable player, and the way his lines occasionally bend out of correct pitch provides a suitably ungrounded element to this particular leg of the voyage. It's hard to convey in words the sheer impact of compositions such as "The Silent Drum," in which percussion group the Ashanti Drummers is added to chant pleas to the Creator, and "The Captain's Dilemma," a harrowing ballad concerning the slave-ships officers' abuse of female captives.

Rural folk music and agrarian life are the focuses of Fields, recorded in 1988 by the same band that made Dance of the Love Ghosts. Carter describes this one best in his liner notes: "The field life that was witness to the labor, grief and pain that harnessed production unseen in the world before also cradled the beginnings of national music that would grow to be respected and admired the world over." Tracks like "Ballad to Po' Ben," "Bootyreba at the Big House" and "Juba's Run" obviously cover the same territory as Wynton Marsalis's Blood on the Fields, but in a less portentous manner. The title suite, more than 20 minutes long, ranges from modernist abstraction to full-blown swing. Carter's grandchildren sing game-songs in the melancholy "Children of the Fields," and in the haunting final track, "On a Country Road," Carter blows a darkly warbling clarinet leitmotif that has been present throughout the entire cycle. Here, it accompanies the recorded voice of Uncle John, Carter's paternal great uncle and the family historian. An dirty-growling Ellingtonian episode is followed by a gritty harmonica solo from guest musician Frederick Phineas.

Carter's cycle concluded with Shadows on a Wall, recorded and issued in 1989. Here, his subject is the migration of African-Americans to the major northern cities, and the way they adapted their rural idioms to the new and different kinds of struggles with which they were now faced. Despite his historical topic, Carter's idiom remains as advanced as ever: I'm especially struck by the slow-moving chorale patterns that back a fiery Bradford solo on the opening track, "Sippi Strut." The next track, "Spats," celebrates the rise of tap dancing, with an especially delectable shuffle beat provided by Cyrille. "City Streets" digs into the blues; Jenoure's dramatic recitation on "And I Saw Them" is reminiscent of Jeanne Lee's work with Archie Shepp. "52nd Street Stomp" conjures the harried bustle of New York City, and the boisterous finale, "Hymn to Freedom," is like Mingus unhinged, all bustling war rhythms and Preston's dizzying swoops set against a gospel-organ background.

For the boldness of its ambition, the breadth of its accomplishment, the unity of its vision and the unbridled strength of each individual musician's contribution, "Roots and Folklore" demands to be recognized as one of the greatest achievements in the history of not just jazz, but American music, period. With no disrespect to Wynton Marsalis intended, this should have earned jazz's first Pulitzer Prize. It needs to be remembered, celebrated and even revived.

=====

Having expended so much verbiage on Carter, I'm afraid that I'll be giving shorter shrift to that which follows. Still, here's another handful of as-yet unmentioned records from 1973-1990 that I wouldn't want to be without (with strange omissions for 1974 and 1976 that I'll try to plug up later):

[EDIT: Eight records added in a Monday-night revision of this list are indicated by NEW.]

1973

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Fanfare for the Warriors (Atlantic, reissued by Koch Jazz and 4 Men with Beards) - The end of the Art Ensemble's first period of activity before a long lay-off, this studio set with guest Muhal Richard Abrams included strong performances of some of the band's most striking compositions to that date (Joseph Jarman's "Illistrum," Roscoe Mitchell's "Nonaah," Lester Bowie's "Barnyard Scuffel Shuffel").

1974

Apparently, I don't own a single jazz disc recorded in 1974 apart from the two that Ethan cited, Weather Report's Mysterious Traveler and Wayne Shorter's Native Dancer. Time to scour everyone else's list! (Unlike Ethan, I actually do admire the two Changes volumes by Mingus that Darcy cites, but the spinoff from that group, the George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet, exerted a far greater grip... not that you'd know it before I published the revised edition of this list.)

1975

Derek Bailey and Evan Parker - The London Concert (Incus, reissued by Psi) - Until its acrimonious dissolution, the partnership of guitarist Derek Bailey and saxophonist Evan Parker was one of the cornerstones of the European free improvisation movement. These two players were two of the most important and accomplished musicians in that scene, and their simpatico is everywhere in evidence in this important early duo encounter.

Evan Parker - Saxophone Solos (Incus, reissued by Chronoscope) - In which the world is introduced to the terrifying virtuosity and intense vision of Evan Parker's solo music, which reaches for (and often achieves) superhuman ends. Perhaps it's not jazz per se, but connections to Coltrane and Lacy are certainly evident and palpable. Later records such as Monoceros and At the Finger Palace (both 1978) have their adherents, but this one takes historical pride of place.

1976

NEW Anthony Braxton - Dortmund (Quartet) 1976 (Hat Art) - The first of my earlier omissions, and certainly the most embarassing, this is one of jazz's great live albums. Braxton is on fiery form, with trombonist George Lewis matching him note for note. The rhythm section of Dave Holland and Barry Altschul achieved much on Braxton's rightfully lauded Arista albums of this period, which sorely deserve reissue, but they never ignited with as much incandescence as can be found here...and this, unlike the rest, is actually available.

1977

Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley - Soho Suites (Incus) - It's a bit of a cheat to include this 2-CD set -- one disc recorded in 1977, the other in 1995 -- since it wasn't available at all during the period under scrutiny. (It was issued in 1997.) But like the relationship of Bailey and Parker, the guitarist's connection to percussionist Tony Oxley is one of the key bonds in European free improvisation. The two sets could hardly be more different -- the first fractious and eruptive, the second conversational and more contemplative -- but the vision that unites the two performances remains the same.

NEW Anthony Braxton - For Trio (Arista) - A grand, mysterious LP, this album comprised two recordings of the same long piece, Composition 76. One side found the leader working with Douglas Ewart and Henry Threadgill, the other with Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman. It's as if two teams of explorers were given the same destination to locate, but pursued completely different paths in order to get there.

1978

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Nice Guys (ECM) - The Art Ensemble's return to duty featured a charming "no need to be afraid of us" vibe (particularly in Bowie's jiving reggae tune, "Ja"), gorgeous recorded sound and a mellow approachability that proved seductive.

Jack DeJohnette - New Directions (ECM) - The first of two outstanding bands the drummer led in the '70s, this one featured John Abercrombie, Lester Bowie and Eddie Gomez, as well as some of DeJohnette's best compositions ("Bayou Fever," "Where or Wayne" and the gorgeous "Silver Hollow").

Cecil Taylor - 3 Phasis (New World) - One of Taylor's most interesting bands, this version of the Unit included longtime partner Jimmy Lyons on alto, Raphe Malik on trumpet, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Sirone on bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums. Jackson, whose name you'll see a lot of here, was a very different kind of drummer than Taylor usually favored, not least because he's willing to turn his sticks around and bash out a rocking backbeat from time to time. This studio recording is one continuous sweep, nearly an hour in length. Gary Giddins's excellent liner notes convey a sense of breathless anticipation that filled the control booth: Would the performance end in time to fit a single LP? Miraculously, yes. (One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye, an insane live set from the same year, is out on Hat Hut.)

1979

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Live in Berlin (West Wind) - This may or may not be a completely legitimate issue, but for me it's the strongest single live set by this band available: "Dreaming of the Masters," from Nice Guys (mentioned above), sits here alongside powerful renditions of Jarman's "As If It Were the Seasons" and Mitchell's "A Jackson in Your House." And naturally it ends with a burning "Odwalla."

Jack DeJohnette - Special Edition (ECM) - DeJohnette's other great band from the '70s, and the one he would keep going for the next decade-plus. The original lineup included the duelling saxophones of Arthur Blythe and David Murray, with Peter Warren on nimble bass and lithe cello. "Journey to the Twin Planet" freaked me out when I first heard it (on a two-dollar, two-LP ECM sampler, Music for 58 Musicians), and still does; "One for Eric" is among the best Dolphy tributes ever.

NEW Steve Kuhn/Sheila Jordan Quartet - Playground (ECM) - A child of the bop era, vocalist Sheila Jordan spent most of her prime years working daytime jobs to support her home and daughter. At the end of the '70s, she began working with droll pianist Steve Kuhn, and the results were memorable. Jordan is always more interested in being a band member than a diva in the spotlight; she listens as much as she performs. Kuhn's quirky "The Zoo" (which was also included on the abovementioned Music for 58 Musicians) remains one of my favorite jazz-vocal performances of all time, alert and vigorous, yet understated and sympathetic. "Send twenty dollars to me / So I can be free..."

Pharoah Sanders - Journey to the One (Theresa, reissued by Evidence) - The very best of Sanders's latter-day recordings, this one sprawls all over the globe, from tender standards ("After the Rain," "It's Easy to Remember") to a delicate evocation of Asian music ("Kazuko"). "You've Got to Have Freedom" recalls Sanders's paeans to positivity of the late '60s and early '70s. The leader strikes a balance between the gorgeous terror of his '60s tone and the burnished resolve of his current elder-statesman phase. Among the less-expected guests are soundscaper Mark Isham and, in his recorded debut, the very young vocalist Bobby McFerrin. What holds it all together is the core band: John Hicks, Ray Drummond and Idris Muhammad. (There's a single, unexpected bass glissando in "Greetings to Idris" that I once told Drummond was my favorite bass note, ever.)

1980

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Full Force (ECM) - Arguably the band's most accomplished studio recording, certain of its second phase. Malachi Favors's "Magg Zelma" is a towering edifice, nicely countered by Mitchell's "Care Free" and Bowie's "Charlie M." (Urban Bushmen, a live set recorded by ECM the same year and issued in 1982, isn't as strong as the Berlin set mentioned above, but the version of Bowie's "New York Is Full of Lonely People" is practically worth the price of admission all by itself.)

Derek Bailey - Aida (Incus, reissued by Dexter's Cigar) - One of Bailey's finest solo records, this one also arguably captures a turning point in his personal idiom, in which the flinty abstractions of his early years began to cede to longer conceptions that remain miraculously unified through Bailey's force of will alone. Perhaps its inspiration, the passing of a close friend and collaborator, accounts for the generous spirit heard on this disc.

Arthur Blythe - Illusions (Columbia, reissued by Koch Jazz) - Most likely recorded the previous year -- I can't pin it down, unfortunately -- this album serves as an excellent introduction to Blythe, whose keening alto and quirky compositions were once hailed (and supported by Columbia) as the future of jazz, before the young Wynton Marsalis made the scene. The disc includes six compositions that still form the backbone of Blythe's sets today; the session is usefully split between his unorthodox working band (guitarist James Blood Ulmer, cellist Abdul Wadud, tuba player Bob Stewart, drummer Bobby Battle) and his "In the Tradition" group with John Hicks, Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall -- the latter two from the great '70s band Air, to which Ethan devoted deserved space in his original list, and certainly both provocative choices for a standards band.

NEW Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound Ensemble - Snurdy McGurdy and Her Dancin' Shoes (Nessa) - Another one I can't believe I forgot, this is one of Mitchell's finest outings away from the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The gorgeous beginning of "Sing/Song" provides no warning of the roiling abstraction to come, or the relaxed swing that follows -- and that's just the first tune. Hugh Ragin, A. Spencer Barefield, Jaribu Shahid and Tani Tabbal offer brilliant support, both in the ascetic abstraction of "CYP" and the earthy funk of "Stomp and the Far East Blues." There's even a fun "cover" of Braxton's Composition 40Q with Mitchell on belching bass saxophone... notably also covered years later by James Carter!

NEW David Murray Octet - Ming (Black Saint) - The first of Murray's great octet records, this fierce session sounded like nothing else that was happening when it was released. Ragged but right, the version of Murray's "The Fast Life" that opened this set also opened the way for an avant-garde generation seasoned in the lofts to fruitfully engage with small-band swing.

Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan - Trouble in Mind (Steeplechase) - Shepp had weathered some hard, lean years by this point in his career, and maybe that's why he sounds so truthful and consistently inspired on this stripped-down set of blues standards. Parlan is never less than tasteful and supportive. (The duo's earlier gospel set from 1977, Goin' Home, is also recommendable.)

1981

Willem Breuker Kollektief - In Holland (BVHaast) - The finest single recording by one of the major figures from the Dutch jazz scene, In Holland documents the Kollektief before its oddball humor and borrowings from circus bands and salon orchestras had ossified into routine. This crack small band is frequently closer to Ellington than avant-garde jazz; suitably, it includes two of Europe's finest trumpeters in Boy Raaymakers and Andy Altenfelder.

1982

Derek Bailey, George Lewis and John Zorn - Yankees (Celluloid, reissued by Charly) - A communicative and often ribald trio session by three free improvisers who hail from dramatically different backgrounds, yet manage to forge a common tongue throughout this set.

James Newton, Anthony Davis and Abdul Wadud - I've Known Rivers (Gramavision) - The very definition of chamber jazz circa the '80s, from three deft, sensitive composer-improvisers who really listen to one another and achieve a miraculous balance.

1983

Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society - Barbeque Dog (Antilles) - Jackson channeled former mentor Ornette Coleman's harmolodics into an explosively funky profusion of color and sound that Rafi Zabor, from his then-influential perch as editor of Musician magazine, hailed as the new shape of jazz to come. Zane Massey and Henry Scott are the powerful frontline, Melvin Gibbs and Reverend Bruce Johnson complement one another on electric basses...and everywhere else, there's the insane brilliance of Vernon Reid. (Mandance, from the previous year, is very nearly as strong.)

James Blood Ulmer - Odyssey (Columbia) - Another Coleman acolyte, another direction: this one deep into the Delta. Ulmer has never sounded better than he does here, and his band -- violinist Charlie Burnham and drummer Warren Benbow -- is with him every step of the way.

1984

Peter Brötzmann - 14 Love Poems (FMP) - Those who know Peter Brötzmann only as a machine gun owe it to themselves to hear the German saxophonist as a skillful poet of sensitive miniatures. Closer in spirit to Steve Lacy than to Evan Parker (and dedicated to Kenneth Patchen), this particular solo-saxophone recital opens with a baritone-saxophone rendition of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman."

Julius Hemphill and the JAH Band - Georgia Blue (Minor Music) - This four-track live LP found Hemphill blowing long and hard alongside three Los Angeles upstarts -- twin brothers Nels and Alex Cline, and fluent electric bassist Steuart Liebig (a.k.a. Steubig) -- plus veteran percussionist Jumma Santos. You could argue that the percussionist demands more than his share of attention; otherwise, this was a balanced, hard-hitting outfit. (One of the Cline brothers, I forget which, slipped me a bootleg cassette of a somewhat later gig, after Bill Frisell was added to this lineup; the sound quality is poor, but the playing is insane.)

Pat Metheny Group - The First Circle (ECM) - From Ornette-inspired cacophony to sweeping cinematic vistas...this sometimes borders on kitsch, yet there's absolutely nothing I don't love about this record. What sets it above its immediate predecessors is Metheny's first encounter with the soaring voice, scintillating percussion and gentle guitar of Pedro Aznar.

Paul Motian Quintet - The Story of Maryam (Soul Note) - Motian's rightly hailed trio with Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell was also the nucleus of this powerful quintet; Ed Schuller provided an earthy gravity and the leader's pen is as mighty as his sticks. But it's the sweet-and-sour pairing of Lovano with the explosive tenor of Jim Pepper that makes the band's records unmissable. (Misterioso, recorded in 1986, is also well worth seeking out.)

1985

Wayne Horvitz - This New Generation (Nonesuch) - Issued in 1987 as part of the downtown flood that came in the wake of John Zorn's epochal The Big Gundown (an utterly formative record for me, but not included on this list because it's not a jazz album by any stretch of the imagination), this Wayne Horvitz disc usefully compiles tracks from two hard-to-find Dossier releases, Dinner at Eight and The President. This very nearly doesn't qualify as jazz, either, so tightly composed and arranged are the 15 brief tracks here. But they provide a terrific snapshot of one of the most prominent figures in the downtown explosion, with important contributions from Bill Frisell, Elliott Sharp, Bobby Previte and Doug Wieselman.

NEW Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet - Breakthrough (Blue Note) - Three-fifths of the band from Charles Mingus's Changes sets of 1974 -- tenor saxophonist George Adams, pianist Don Pullen and drummer Dannie Richmond -- joined by bassist Cameron Brown. Adams struck me as inside-outside (as opposed to David Murray's outside-inside), howling like a dirty bluesman; Pullen was a church pianist gone all Cecil Taylor. At the time, Richmond struck this polish-obsessed percussionist as the weak link; I've since learned better. There's a lot to be said for their earlier dates, including the two live Village Vanguard sets issued by Soul Note (one of which was cited by Pat on Cruise Ship X), but this belated major-label debut just oozes a satisfied sense of vindication suggested by its title.

Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet - Voodoo (Black Saint) - Another Horvitz project, this disc is chiefly notable for proving that John Zorn can indeed play jazz virtually straight. He's an explosive player with a tart, hard sound; I once played the disc for a deeply conservative bopper and he nodded approvingly, guessing that the horn player might be Roland Kirk. Ray Drummond provides solid support, with Bobby Previte supplying ebullient swing.

NEW Cassandra Wilson - Point of View (JMT) - One could argue that the period under consideration was a lean time for new jazz singers, but the appearance of Cassandra Wilson (who would record with then-husband Henry Threadgill's New Air two years later) served notice of a young artist who could hold her own on disc with Steve Coleman and Grachan Moncur III. A version of "Blue in Green" demonstrates Wilson's way with a standard, which came to fruition artistically and commercially with her Blue Skies disc in 1988. But it's the memorable "I Am Waiting," one of two original compositions by Wilson, that truly foreshadows this artist's potential.

1986

Steve Lacy Four - Morning Joy (Hat Hut) - A joyous live album from Lacy's then-quartet with Steve Potts (who never sounded better than here), Jean-Jacques Avenel and Oliver Johnson. Given the formality of Lacy's contemporary sextet recordings, this is essentially an unfettered blowing session balanced between Monk tunes ("Epistrophy," "Work," "In Walked Bud") and strong originals. Perhaps the best point of entry into this remarkably prolific artist's bewildering catalog.

Evan Parker Trio - Atlanta (Impetus) - A stunning live set by Parker's working trio with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton, this Georgia concert includes two long tenor-led group blows that demonstrate Parker's fearsome proficiency and the always-alert interplay of his bandmates, plus one of the saxophonist's terrifying circular-breathing soprano workouts (and a tricky if somewhat less gripping solo by Guy).

1987

Arthur Blythe - Basic Blythe (Columbia) - An overlooked gem of '80s jazz and the last truly great Blythe disc, this with-strings session snuck out so unnoticed that even as great a Blythe booster as Gary Giddins didn't know it existed until much, much later -- probably not surprising, since it followed the weak pop-fusion of Put Sunshine in It and the uneven Da-Da. The core band of John Hicks, Anthony Cox and Bobby Battle supports beautifully, the strings provide a plush but not saccharine atmosphere, and Blythe's performance of "Faceless Woman," one of his greatest-ever compositions, is simply heartbreaking.

Art Farmer - Something to Live For (Contemporary) - Simply a beautiful, life-affirming set, this disc looses Farmer's then-quintet -- Clifford Jordan, James Williams, Rufus Reid and Marvin "Smitty" Smith -- on the riches of the Billy Strayhorn songbook. The version of "Isfahan" that opened this disc was the epitome of soulful mainstream jazz for me at the time, and remains so; Farmer's playing on "Bloodcount" stands comparison to Johnny Hodges on the original version.

Steve Lacy - Momentum (RCA Novus) - As fine an introduction to Lacy's more formal, composerly output as one might want, nicely paced and well recorded. The version of "The Bath" that opens this disc is so warm and inviting that it's impossible not to get sucked in. Irene Aebi's art-song stylings, always a bone of contention for many would-be Lacy admirers, are handsomely rendered here, and Bobby Few's lush piano playing is a quirky counterpart to the leader's dry etchings.

Last Exit - Cassette Recordings '87 (Celluloid) - A strong live session from the free-jazz-punk-metal supergroup of Peter Brötzmann, Sonny Sharrock, Bill Laswell and Ronald Shannon Jackson, blowing with frightening intensity on tracks with such unpromising titles as "Sore Titties" and "My Balls/Your Chin." The band only really did one thing -- full-blown brontosaurus freebop -- but it did that one thing shockingly well, since Sharrock's lyricism and Jackson's native tunefulness countered Brötzmann's leather-lunged freakouts and Laswell's dubby plod.

Power Tools - Strange Meeting (Antilles) - A desert island disc for me, originally this was supposed to be a Julius Hemphill session, but the leader took ill. Luckily, the rest of the band -- Bill Frisell, Melvin Gibbs and Ronald Shannon Jackson -- forged ahead with the session. Gibbs and Jackson inspired Frisell's single fieriest studio date, an unstoppable torrent of fertile ideas and blazing tone. All of the performers brought tunes; you'll find an amazing version of Frisell's title track, less tango-like than usual, and Gibbs's "Howard Beach Memoirs" is shattering, draining. A perfect record.

Cecil Taylor Unit - Live in Bologna (Leo) - A grievously overlooked version of Taylor's ensemble, this is the band that followed immediately in the wake of the enormous loss of Jimmy Lyons. It's not surprising that some of the music is uncharacteristically understated. It could hardly have been more lyrical, given the presense of Carlos Ward on reeds and Leroy Jenkins on violin. William Parker begins his long, fruitful relationship with Taylor here; Thurman Barker is the versatile drummer and doubles on colorful marimba. (Buy the unedited LP edition, if you can find it.)

John Zorn, George Lewis and Bill Frisell - News for Lulu (Hat Hut) - More proof that Zorn can actually play jazz arrived with this set of elegantly reconstituted hard-bop standards. Lewis is a slippery foil, and Frisell fills the cracks as fully as he does in the Motian trio.

1988

NEW Jane Ira Bloom - Slalom (Columbia, reissued by Koch Jazz) - Even more rare than notable singers during this period were women bandleaders, yet somehow, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom managed to issue two discs on Columbia. The first one, 1987's Modern Drama, was possibly more faithful to her interest in interactive electronics, and the even earlier session Mighty Lights (on Enja, from 1982) features stellar contributions from the blue-ribbon rhythm section of Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. Still, it's this one -- with the invaluable Fred Hersch, ever Bloom's ablest partner, at the piano, and a rhythm tandem of bassist Kent McLagan and the explosive Tom Rainey behind the drums -- that I revisit most often.

Lounge Lizards - Voice of Chunk (Lagarto, reissued by Strange and Beautiful) - More than any other record saxophonist John Lurie released, this one strikes the best balance between the ironic distance of his earliest lineup (with Arto Lindsay and Anton Fier) and the relatively unmitigated ebullience of his later, West African-inspired blowing band (with Steven Bernstein and Michael Blake). Most of the band here -- Roy Nathanson, Curtis Fowlkes, Marc Ribot, Evan Lurie, Erik Sanko, E.J. Rodriguez and Dougie Bowne -- would later break off from the leader and pursue similar aims as the Jazz Passengers.

Cecil Taylor - Berlin '88 (FMP) - One of the most impressive documents ever devoted to a living musician, this copious box set documented a Taylor visit to Berlin in 1988 that included encounters with virtually everyone in the European free improvisation scene: Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Tony Oxley, Louis Moholo, Han Bennink, Günter "Baby" Sommer...the list goes on and on. Most of the encounters were bracing duos and trios, but there are also a handful of large-ensemble performances, of which Alms/Tiergarten (Spree), with Peter Brötzmann added, is the most essential. The box is long out of print and highly sought-after...and no, I don't own it. But most of its components are available individually.

1989

Marty Ehrlich Quartet - The Traveller's Tale (Enja) - One of the most strikingly versatile performers in contemporary jazz (and a major element in most of the John Carter records hymned above), Marty Ehrlich is also a compelling performer and a skillful bandleader. This session, issued in 1990, served as the template for even more valuable sessions that would follow, but it's worth considering on its own merits, as well -- not least for the telepathic connection between Ehrlich and then-musical partner Stan Strickland, as well as one of Bobby Previte's most tasteful performances on record.

Cecil Taylor - Looking (Berlin Version) (FMP) - The first recording by Taylor's last truly exceptional working band to date, the Feel Trio, with William Parker and Tony Oxley. The percussionist questioned the pianist's every move, driving Taylor to ever greater heights; the bassist provided a calm center of gravity and repose within the tumultous whirlwind that surrounded him.

1990

Joint Venture - Ways (Enja) - This collaborative band featuring trumpeter Paul Smoker, tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Phil Haynes was a model of communal music-making, with all four members contributing striking compositions. (I actually prefer Mirrors, from 1993, since it includes tunes by Eskelin where this one does not; nevertheless, I'll play by the rules.)

Bobby Previte - Empty Suits (Gramavision) - I once referred to Bobby Previte as the symphonist of the downtown set for the generous sweep of his music, but really, that's not quite right: A compelling composer and unrivaled colorist, he's Ravel with a penchant for smoky clubs and an outboard motor hitched to his back. "Across State Lines," which sets the stage here, is a tune Previte has fruitfully revisited with later bands; Allan Jaffee's guitar solo is breathtaking. The band also includes Robin Eubanks, Steve Gaboury and Jerome Harris; Marty Ehrlich, Carol Emanuel and Elliott Sharp are among the memorable guests.

Zentralquartett - Zentralquartett (Zong, reissued by Intakt) - Another impressive collaborative effort, this one from a veteran band that formed in 1973 in East Germany. Reedist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, trombonist Connie Bauer, pianist Ulrich Gumpert and percussionist Günter "Baby" Sommer are all better associated with European free improvisation, but here they temper their wild spirits into a set of tuneful, swinging original compositions inspired by bop and even gospel (via hard bop, presumably).

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

DO THE MATH: 1973-1990

Ethan Iverson of The Bad Plus blogs with a list of great post-Vietnam jazz recordings. It is long and he gives up in 1990.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

Lots of new stuff from All About Jazz.

05-Sep-06 Gary Husband
A Meeting of Spirits: Interpretations of the Music of John McLaughlin (Alternity Records)
05-Sep-06 Brotzmann / Mangelsdorff / Sommer
Pica Pica (Atavistic)
05-Sep-06 Peter Brotzmann Group
Alarm (Atavistic)
04-Sep-06 Andrew Cyrille
A Sliver of Cyrille: When We Were Kings & Time Being (Black Saint)
04-Sep-06 Steven Bernstein
Steven Bernstein: Sexotica and Millennial Territory Orchestra Volume 1 ()
04-Sep-06
Ducks and Drake: Live at Glenn Miller Cafe & Uotha ()
04-Sep-06
Gebhard Ullmann and Steve Swell: Cutitout and Remember Now ()
04-Sep-06 Tomasz Stanko Quartet
Lontano (ECM Records)
04-Sep-06 Dave Holland Quintet
Critical Mass (Sunnyside Records)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Sonomu Reviews

More reviews from Sonomu:

Near the Parenthesis, Go Out and See (Music Made by People)
A new, Toronto-based electronica label with its own fresh sound and fresh look. Since releasing its first album in June, 2004, in an attractive, oversized matchbook cover, Music Made by People has produced four albums in total, indicating that quality control is a major concern. Greater… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 16:12, 04 Sep 2006

Louis Austen, Iguana (Klein)
Perhaps the oddest species of lounge lizard yet discovered by beat science. Louis Austen is a sixty-year-old Austrian crooner who was born a little more than a generation too late and several thousand air miles too far east. He longs to have been hanging out with the Rat Pack in Vegas and Reno,… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 15:12, 04 Sep 2006

Feu Follet, Toi et le Son (CDR Einzeleinheit)
A lovely release featuring two, eighteen-minute quasi-drone works created by Tobias Fischer last October. The drone is a many-splendoured thing, and comes in so many different forms, sometimes evolving so very slowly over a long duration as to appear virtually stagnant in the listener´s ears,… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 08:10, 31 Aug 2006

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Upcoming at the Bohemian National Home

Latest concert information from this Detroit venue.

UPCOMING AT BOHEMIAN NATIONAL HOME

Thurs. Sept. 7th: Yukijurushi
Yukijurushi is a Bossa Nova instrumental and vocal trio, whose primary focus is the subtly hypnotic rhythms and haunting melodies of modern Brazilian folk forms. The group performs standard Bossa Nova, jazz standards and original songs. Drummer/vocalist Tatsuya Nakatani is a marvel to be seen. Originally from Osaka Japan, he has performed with many major figures in the jazz and improvised music scenes, including Peter Kowald, Peter Brotzmann, Steve Swell, Roy Campbell, Sabir Mateen, Ken Vandermark, the Billy Bang Quintet featuring Frank Lowe, Assif Tsahar, Le Quan Ninh, Mat Maneri, and William Parker.
Doors at 9 pm; sliding scale $5-10

Saturday, Sept. 9th: Odu Afrobeat Orchestra
Even though Odu Afrobeat Orchestra is based right here in The Bohemian, we’ve only played the home-base once- for our third gig. Now we’re bringing Detroit’s best live dance party back home.
Original Afrobeat music from Nigeria via Detroit; lead by Ade Boye Adegbenro and featuring some great names in Detroit music: Faruq Z Bey, Kenny Green, Michael Carey, John Douglas, Marko Novachcoff, Chad Gilchrist, Chris Facinni, Kevin Callaway, Mark Sawasky et al.
Doors at 10 pm; sliding scale $5-10

Sunday September 17: Rhys Chatham’s Guitar Army
Since the late 60’s Rhys Chatam has been an important figure in minimalism and the New York downtown scene in general. In his youth, Chatham studied with LaMont Young, Tony Conrad and Morton Subotnick; one of his early jobs was as a piano tuner for Glenn Gould and Young. He was among the first to take “art music” into rock clubs and alternative spaces; his music itself also mixes freely between the two. His work is the root of the lineage that is better known through some of the luminaries that played in his groups, like Glenn Branca and members of Sonic Youth, Band of Susans, Swans etc. Rhys Chatham Guitar Army has included up to 100 guitarist playing layers of alternate tunings; however, I think this evening will be slightly smaller scale. Warning: this show may be rather loud; we plan to have earplugs for those who want them.
Doors at 8 pm; sliding scale $10-15

Monday, Sept. 18th: Joe Lally, Antelope (dischord records)
Its DC punk rock night. Joe Lally, bassist for iconoclastic, DIY trailblazers Fugazi, is on tour with percussionist Justin Moyer to support the release of “There to Here”, his first full-length solo release. He’s joined by Dischord label-mates Antelope. Doors at 9 pm; $5.

Coming Soon:

9/19 Howlin’ Hex (royal trux)
9/20 Tatsuya Nakatani- solo performance and collaberation w/ Detroiters
9/21 Kayo Dot (Tzadik) with Larval
9/22 Art Show: Barb Loomis and Frank Pahl
9/27 Extra Golden (Extra Golden is a collaberation between Onyango Wuod Omari of the Nairobi, Kenya based benga band Orchestra Extra Solar Africa, and Ian Eagleson and Alex Minoff of the Washington D.C. based rock band Golden.)
9/30 Tara Jane O’ Neal with Warn DeFever

10/7 Joe McPhee and Trio X
10/8 Salim Washington, Hakim Jami, Claude Black, Sean Dobbins
10/15 Thollem McDonas, Jon Brummit and Rent Romus
Also in October: MOVIE NIGHT- MY NAME IS ALBERT AYLER

11/16 Qbico Unite record label showcase with Muruga Booker Global Village Ceremonial Band,
Faruq Z Bey with The Northwoods Improvisers, Odu Afrobeat Orchestra

Bohemian National Home
3009 Tillman (22nd)
Detroit 48216
313 737 6606

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 5, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Back in Lisbon

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:33 AM | Comments (0)

Alan Hovhaness, 'Shalimar'

And on that recital, Dolf's going to play the aforementioned Prayer of Saint Gregory, in addition to some kickass improvising on plainchants and chorales.

Old Alan would've most definitely approved:

Ghazal No. 1, Op. 36 No. 1
Komachi, Op. 240
Sonata for Piano, "Prospect Hill," Op. 346
To Hiroshige's Cat (1st Movement), Op. 366
Shalimar
Love Song Vanishing into Sounds of Crickets, Op. 327

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:33 AM | Comments (0)

John Butcher/Christof Kurzmann - The Big Misunderstanding Between Hertz and Megahertz

Potlatch P 106 Recorded in three sessions between 2002 and 2003, these misunderstandings find masters Butcher and Kurzmann scrapping, conversing and generally entwining in a series of nine duos of varying degrees of absorbency. It seems that, intentionally or...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)

Even more records.

Looking over Ethan Iverson's gargantuan catalog of great jazz records issued between 1973 and 1990, I'm overwhelmed both by the sheer wealth of great music that was made during this critically neglected era, and also by the depth of passion and insight Ethan (and his bandmates) were demonstrating toward jazz at such an early stage of life. By comparison, I am a dilettante, or at least a latecomer: My interest in jazz, pre-college anyway, was limited to Spryo Gyra, my gateway drug (thanks to my junior high percussion teacher), and Louis Bellson's Thunderbird -- still a great small-band swing set, but what I'd actually wanted was a Gene Krupa record, surprisingly hard to find in not-yet-booming League City, Texas.

My passion for jazz ignited later, fueled by namechecks provided by favorite rock stars. Sting says to check out In a Silent Way, I'm there. Bill Bruford tips his hat to A Love Supreme, that's all the prodding I need. I may have those two citings reversed, but you get the idea.

I don't remember how I came to The Shape of Jazz to Come, but that's where my floodgates opened: I became an avant-garde jazz fanatic, and devoted a portentously named Sunday-night show on my college radio station, "Jazz for the Third Ear," to its dissemination in San Antonio between 1986 and 1988. (The station was KRTU-FM 91.7 at Trinity University, and the show, I was proud to discover later, actually survived my graduation, at least for a while.) My knowledge of the mainstream during that period was sorely lacking by comparison.

Ethan's list, as well as those of Darcy James Argue and David Ryshpan, summarily put paid to the notion that jazz somehow went fallow during the years in question. But they also confirm for me that one of the most powerful and personal statements in the history of the music -- one of its most towering achievements, in my opinion -- is in greater danger of slipping into the mists of obscurity than I'd ever suspected.

A performer, composer and educator born in Fort Worth, Texas and based for most of his career in Los Angeles, the late John Carter (1929-1991) spent the '80s crafting his magnum opus: "Roots and Folklore: Episodes in the Development of American Folk Music," a five-suite (or five-disc, if you prefer) cycle that encompasses the whole of the African-American musical experience, from its roots in tribal Africa through slavery, rural folk and blues traditions, gospel music and the birth of jazz. It's admittedly uneven, but majestic in both scope and achievement. Pressed to think of artists who attempted to create anything of similar scope, the only names that come readily to mind are Ellington and Mingus...and Wynton Marsalis, much later.

The first disc, Dauwhe, was recorded in Los Angeles in 1982, and issued on Black Saint that year. By this point, Carter had laid down his alto saxophone to devote himself to clarinet, at a time when it was still unusual to do so -- Don Byron had yet to emerge. At Carter's side, then and always, was Bobby Bradford -- a sterling cornetist and, like Carter himself, a musician in the Ornette Coleman circle. (Bradford appears on Coleman's often-cited Science Fiction, and Carter and Bradford recorded a number of valuable Coleman-esque quartet records for Flying Dutchman in the '60s.) The rest of the band included Red Callender on tuba, flutist James Newton, reedist Charles Owens (on soprano sax, clarinet and oboe), bassist Roberto Miranda, drummer William Jeffrey and percussionist Luis Peralta.

Nowadays, Dauwhe is pretty much the only release in the cycle that turns up regularly. The rest, recorded for the Gramavision label -- indisputably one of the foremost centers of progressive-jazz activity during its lamentably brief existence -- is long out of print. And that's a tragedy, because the next two records in the series were the stone-cold classics, and the final two are also fascinating.

Castles of Ghana was commissioned by the New York Shakespeare Festival's "New Jazz at the Public" series; Carter and Bradford recorded it in New York City in 1985; Gramavision issued it in 1986. The band that appeared here -- Marty Ehrlich on bass clarinet, Baikida Carroll on trumpet, Benny Powell on trombone, Terry Jenoure on violin and vocals, Richard Davis on bass and Andrew Cyrille on drums -- would remain more or less consistent for the remainder of the cycle, with a few significant tweaks.

While it's flip and dismissive to put it this way, if you only own one John Carter record, Castles of Ghana is it. The music pulses and throbs with a dark gravity and passion suited to its titular inspiration: the coastal castles along Ghana's coast, which were originally used for commercial trade in the 4th through 11th centuries. By the 16th century, tribal chiefs put those structures to a new purpose: they were used as holding pens for Africans who were sold into slavery.

Recorded in 1986 and issued the following year, Dance of the Love Ghosts describes the harrowing Middle Passage. Richard Davis is gone, replaced by the great Fred Hopkins, who will see the journey through to its end. Baikida Carroll is gone, as well; in his place is a an unexpected and unconventional inclusion, former Mothers of Invention keyboardist Don Preston. It's an inspired choice: Preston is a formidable player, and the way his lines occasionally bend out of correct pitch provides a suitably ungrounded element to this particular leg of the voyage. It's hard to convey in words the sheer impact of compositions such as "The Silent Drum," in which percussion group the Ashanti Drummers is added to chant pleas to the Creator, and "The Captain's Dilemma," a harrowing ballad concerning the slave-ships officers' abuse of female captives.

Rural folk music and agrarian life are the focuses of Fields, recorded in 1988 by the same band that made Dance of the Love Ghosts. Carter describes this one best in his liner notes: "The field life that was witness to the labor, grief and pain that harnessed production unseen in the world before also cradled the beginnings of national music that would grow to be respected and admired the world over." Tracks like "Ballad to Po' Ben," "Bootyreba at the Big House" and "Juba's Run" obviously cover the same territory as Wynton Marsalis's Blood on the Fields, but in a less portentous manner. The title suite, more than 20 minutes long, ranges from modernist abstraction to full-blown swing. Carter's grandchildren sing game-songs in the melancholy "Children of the Fields," and in the haunting final track, "On a Country Road," Carter blows a darkly warbling clarinet leitmotif that has been present throughout the entire cycle. Here, it accompanies the recorded voice of Uncle John, Carter's paternal great uncle and the family historian. An dirty-growling Ellingtonian episode is followed by a gritty harmonica solo from guest musician Frederick Phineas.

Carter's cycle concluded with Shadows on a Wall, recorded and issued in 1989. Here, his subject is the migration of African-Americans to the major northern cities, and the way their rural idioms adapted to the new and different kinds of struggles with which they were now faced. Despite his historical topic, Carter's idiom remains as advanced as ever: I'm especially struck by the slow-moving chorale patterns that back a fiery Bradford solo on the opening track, "Sippi Strut." The next track, "Spats," celebrates the rise of tap dancing, with an especially delectable shuffle beat provided by Cyrille. "City Streets" digs into the blues; Jenoure's dramatic recitation on "And I Saw Them" is reminiscent of Jeanne Lee's work with Archie Shepp. "52nd Street Stomp" conjures the harried bustle of New York City, and the boisterous finale, "Hymn to Freedom," is like Mingus unhinged, all bustling war rhythms and Preston's dizzying swoops set against a gospel-organ background.

For the boldness of its ambition, the breadth of its accomplishment, the unity of its vision and the unbridled strength of every individual musician's contributions, "Roots and Folklore" demands to be recognized as one of the greatest achievements in the history of not just jazz, but American music, period. With no disrespect to Wynton Marsalis intended, this should have earned jazz's first Pulitzer Prize. It needs to be remembered, celebrated and even revived.

=====

Having expended so much verbiage on Carter, I'm afraid that I'll be giving shorter shrift to that which follows. Still, here's another handful of as-yet unmentioned records from 1973-1990 that I wouldn't want to be without (with strange omissions for 1974 and 1976 that I'll try to plug up later):]

[EDIT: Eight records added in a Monday-night revision of this list are indicated by NEW.]

1973

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Fanfare for the Warriors (Atlantic, reissued by Koch Jazz and 4 Men with Beards) - The end of the Art Ensemble's first period of activity before a long lay-off, this studio set with guest Muhal Richard Abrams included strong performances of some of the band's most striking compositions to that date (Joseph Jarman's "Illistrum," Roscoe Mitchell's "Nonaah," Lester Bowie's "Barnyard Scuffel Shuffel").

1974

Apparently, I don't own a single jazz disc recorded in 1974 apart from the two that Ethan cited, Weather Report's Mysterious Traveler and Wayne Shorter's Native Dancer. Time to scour everyone else's list! (Unlike Ethan, I do actually admire the two Changes volumes by Mingus that Darcy cites, but the spinoff from that group, the George Adams/Don Pullen Quartet, exerted a far greater grip... not that you'd know it before I published the revised edition of this list.)

1975

Derek Bailey and Evan Parker - The London Concert (Incus, reissued by Psi) - Until its acrimonious dissolution, the partnership of guitarist Derek Bailey and saxophonist Evan Parker was one of the cornerstones of the European free improvisation movement. These two players were two of the most important and accomplished musicians in that scene, and their simpatico is everywhere in evidence in this important early duo encounter.

Evan Parker - Saxophone Solos (Incus, reissued by Chronoscope) - In which the world is introduced to the terrifying virtuosity and intense vision of Evan Parker's solo music, which reaches for (and often achieves) superhuman ends. Perhaps it's not jazz per se, but connections to Coltrane and Lacy are certainly evident and palpable. Later records such as Monoceros and At the Finger Palace (both 1978) have their adherents, but this one takes historical pride of place.

1976

NEW Anthony Braxton - Dortmund (Quartet) 1976 (Hat Art) - The first of my earlier omissions, and certainly the most embarassing, this is one of jazz's great live albums. Braxton is on fiery form, with trombonist George Lewis matching him note for note. The rhythm section of Dave Holland and Barry Altschul achieved much on Braxton's rightfully lauded Arista albums of this period, which sorely deserve reissue, but they never ignited with as much incandescence as can be found here...and this, unlike the rest, is actually available.

1977

Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley - Soho Suites (Incus) - It's a bit of a cheat to include this set, half recorded in 1977, the other half in 1995; for starters, it wasn't issued until 1997, so it wasn't available at all during the period under scrutiny. But like the relationship of Bailey and Parker, the guitarist's connection to percussionist Tony Oxley is one of the key bonds in European free improvisation. The two sets could hardly be more different -- the first fractious and eruptive, the second conversational and more contemplative -- but the vision that unites the two performances remains the same.

NEW Anthony Braxton - For Trio (Arista) - A grand, mysterious LP, this record comprised two recordings of the same long piece, Composition 76. One side found the leader working with Douglas Ewart and Henry Threadgill, the other with Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman. It's as if two teams of explorers were given the same destination to locate, but pursued completely different paths in order to get there.

1978

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Nice Guys (ECM) - The Art Ensemble's return to duty featured a charming "no need to be afraid of us" vibe (particularly in Bowie's jiving reggae tune, "Ja"), gorgeous recorded sound and a mellow approachability that proved seductive.

Jack DeJohnette - New Directions (ECM) - The first of two outstanding bands the drummer led in the '70s, this one featured John Abercrombie, Lester Bowie and Eddie Gomez, as well as some of DeJohnette's best compositions ("Bayou Fever," "Where or Wayne" and the gorgeous "Silver Hollow").

Cecil Taylor - 3 Phasis (New World) - One of Taylor's most interesting bands, this version of the Unit included longtime partner Jimmy Lyons on alto, Raphe Malik on trumpet, Ramsey Ameen on violin, Sirone on bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums. Jackson, whose name you'll see a lot of here, was a very different kind of drummer than Taylor usually favored, not least because he's willing to turn his sticks around and bash out a rocking backbeat from time to time. This studio recording is one continuous sweep, nearly an hour in length. Gary Giddins's excellent liner notes convey a sense of breathless anticipation that filled the control booth: Would the performance end in time to fit a single LP? Miraculously, yes. (One Too Many Salty Swift and Not Goodbye, an insane live set from the same year, is out on Hat Hut.)

1979

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Live in Berlin (West Wind) - This may or may not be a completely legitimate issue, but for me it's the strongest single live set by this band available: "Dreaming of the Master," from Nice Guys (mentioned above), sits here alongside powerful renditions of Jarman's "As If It Were the Seasons" and Mitchell's "A Jackson in Your House." And naturally it ends with a burning "Odwalla."

Jack DeJohnette - Special Edition (ECM) - DeJohnette's other great band from the '70s, and the one he would keep going for the next decade-plus. The original lineup included the duelling saxophones of Arthur Blythe and David Murray, with Peter Warren on nimble bass and lithe cello. "Journey to the Twin Planet" freaked me out when I first heard it (on a two-dollar, two-LP ECM sampler, Music for 58 Musicians), and still does; "One for Eric" is among the best Dolphy tributes ever.

NEW Steve Kuhn/Sheila Jordan Quartet - Playground (ECM) - A child of the bop era, vocalist Sheila Jordan spent most of her prime years working daytime jobs to support her home and daughter. At the end of the '70s, she began working with droll pianist Steve Kuhn, and the results were memorable. Jordan is always more interested in being a band member than a diva in the spotlight; she listens as much as she performs. Kuhn's quirky "The Zoo" (which was also included on the abovementioned Music for 58 Musicians) remains one of my favorite jazz-vocal performances of all time, alert and vigorous, yet understated and sympathetic. "Send twenty dollars to me / So I can be free..."

Pharoah Sanders - Journey to the One (Theresa, reissued by Evidence) - The very best of Sanders's latter-day recordings, this one sprawls all over the globe, from tender standards ("After the Rain," "It's Easy to Remember") to a delicate evocation of Asian music ("Kazuko"). "You've Got to Have Freedom" recalls Sanders's paeans to positivity of the late '60s and early '70s. The leader strikes a balance between the gorgeous terror of his '60s tone and the burnished resolve of his current elder-statesman phase. Among the less-expected guests are soundscaper Mark Isham and, in his recorded debut, the very young vocalist Bobby McFerrin. What holds it all together is the core band: John Hicks, Ray Drummond and Idris Muhammad. (There's a single, unexpected bass glissando in "Greetings to Idris" that I once told Drummond was my favorite bass note, ever.)

1980

Art Ensemble of Chicago - Full Force (ECM) - Arguably the band's most accomplished studio recording, certain of its second phase. Malachi Favors's "Magg Zelma" is a towering edifice, nicely countered by Mitchell's "Care Free" and Bowie's "Charlie M." (Urban Bushmen, a live set recorded by ECM the same year and issued in 1982, isn't as strong as the Berlin set mentioned above, but the version of Bowie's "New York Is Full of Lonely People" is practically worth the price of admission all by itself.)

Derek Bailey - Aida (Incus, reissued by Dexter's Cigar) - One of Bailey's finest solo records, this one also arguably captures a turning point in his personal idiom, in which the flinty abstractions of his early years began to cede to longer conceptions that remain miraculously unified through Bailey's force of will alone. Perhaps its inspiration, the passing of a close friend and collaborator, accounts for the generous spirit heard on this disc.

Arthur Blythe - Illusions (Columbia, reissued by Koch Jazz) - Most likely recorded the previous year -- I can't pin it down, unfortunately -- this album serves as an excellent introduction to Blythe, whose keening alto and quirky compositions were once hailed (and supported by Columbia) as the future of jazz, before the young Wynton Marsalis made the scene. The disc includes six compositions that still form the backbone of Blythe's sets today; the session is usefully split between his unorthodox working band (guitarist James Blood Ulmer, cellist Abdul Wadud, tuba player Bob Stewart, drummer Bobby Battle) and his "In the Tradition" group with John Hicks, Fred Hopkins and Steve McCall -- the latter two from the great '70s band Air, to which Ethan devoted deserved space in his original list, and certainly both provocative choices for a standards band.

NEW Roscoe Mitchell and the Sound Ensemble - Snurdy McGurdy and Her Dancin' Shoes (Nessa) - Another one I can't believe I forgot, this is one of Mitchell's finest outings away from the Art Ensemble of Chicago. The gorgeous beginning of "Sing/Song" provides no warning of the roiling abstraction to come, or the relaxed swing that follows -- and that's just the first tune. Hugh Ragin, A. Spencer Barefield, Jaribu Shahid and Tani Tabbal offer brilliant support, both in the ascetic abstraction of "CYP" and the earthy funk of "Stomp and the Far East Blues." There's even a fun "cover" of Braxton's Composition 40Q with Mitchell on belching bass saxophone... notably also covered years later by James Carter!

NEW David Murray Octet - Ming (Black Saint) - The first of Murray's great octet records, this fierce session sounded like nothing else that was happening when it was released. Ragged but right, the version of Murray's "The Fast Life" that opened this set also opened the way for an avant-garde generation seasoned in the lofts to fruitfully engage with small-band swing.

Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan - Trouble in Mind (Steeplechase) - Shepp had weathered some hard, lean years by this point in his career, and maybe that's why he sounds so truthful and consistently inspired on this stripped-down set of blues standards. Parlan is never less than tasteful and supportive. (The duo's earlier gospel set from 1977, Goin' Home, is also recommendable.)

1981

Willem Breuker Kollektief - In Holland (BVHaast) - The finest single recording by one of the major figures from the Dutch jazz scene, In Holland documents the Kollektief before its oddball humor and borrowings from circus bands and salon orchestras had ossified into routine. This crack small band is frequently closer to Ellington than avant-garde jazz; suitably, it includes two of Europe's finest trumpeters in Boy Raaymakers and Andy Altenfelder.

1982

Derek Bailey, George Lewis and John Zorn - Yankees (Celluloid, reissued by Charly) - A communicative and often ribald trio session by three free improvisers who hail from dramatically different backgrounds, yet manage to forge a common tongue throughout this set.

James Newton, Anthony Davis and Abdul Wadud - I've Known Rivers (Gramavision) - The very definition of chamber jazz circa the '80s, from three deft, sensitive composer-improvisers who really listen to one another and achieve a miraculous balance.

1983

Ronald Shannon Jackson and the Decoding Society - Barbeque Dog (Antilles) - Jackson channeled former mentor Ornette Coleman's harmolodics into an explosively funky profusion of color and sound that Rafi Zabor, from his then-influential perch as editor of Musician magazine, hailed as the new shape of jazz to come. Zane Massey and Henry Scott are the powerful frontline, Melvin Gibbs and Reverend Bruce Johnson complement one another on electric basses...and everywhere else, there's the insane brilliance of Vernon Reid. (Mandance, from the previous year, is very nearly as strong.)

James Blood Ulmer - Odyssey (Columbia) - Another Coleman acolyte, another direction: this one deep into the Delta. Ulmer has never sounded better than he does here, and his band -- violinist Charlie Burnham and drummer Warren Benbow -- is with him every step of the way.

1984

Peter Brötzmann - 14 Love Poems (FMP) - Those who know Peter Brötzmann only as a machine gun owe it to themselves to hear the German saxophonist as a skillful poet of sensitive miniatures. Closer in spirit to Steve Lacy than to Evan Parker (and dedicated to Kenneth Patchen), this particular solo-saxophone recital opens with a baritone-saxophone rendition of Ornette Coleman's "Lonely Woman."

Julius Hemphill and the JAH Band - Georgia Blue (Minor Music) - This four-track live LP found Hemphill blowing long and hard alongside three Los Angeles upstarts -- twin brothers Nels and Alex Cline, and fluent electric bassist Steuart Liebig (a.k.a. Steubig) -- plus veteran percussionist Jumma Santos. You could argue that the percussionist demands more than his share of attention; otherwise, this was a balanced, hard-hitting outfit. (One of the Cline brothers, I forget which, slipped me a bootleg cassette of a somewhat later gig, after Bill Frisell was added to this lineup; the sound quality is poor, but the playing is insane.)

Pat Metheny Group - The First Circle (ECM) - From Ornette-inspired cacophony to sweeping cinematic vistas...this sometimes borders on kitsch, yet there's absolutely nothing I don't love about this record. What sets it above its immediate predecessors is Metheny's first encounter with the soaring voice, scintillating percussion and gentle guitar of Pedro Aznar.

Paul Motian Quintet - The Story of Maryam (Soul Note) - Motian's rightly hailed trio with Joe Lovano and Bill Frisell was also the nucleus of this powerful quintet; Ed Schuller provided an earthy gravity and the leader's pen is as mighty as his sticks. But it's the sweet-and-sour pairing of Lovano with the explosive tenor of Jim Pepper that makes the band's records unmissable. (Misterioso, recorded in 1986, is also well worth seeking out.)

1985

Wayne Horvitz - This New Generation (Nonesuch) - Issued in 1987 as part of the downtown flood that came in the wake of John Zorn's epochal The Big Gundown (not included on this record because it's not a jazz album by any stretch of the imagination), this Wayne Horvitz disc usefully compiles tracks from two hard-to-find Dossier releases, Dinner at Eight and The President. This very nearly doesn't qualify as jazz, either, so tightly composed and arranged are the 15 brief tracks here. But they provide a terrific snapshot of one of the most prominent figures in the downtown explosion, with important contributions from Bill Frisell, Elliott Sharp, Bobby Previte and Doug Wieselman.

NEW Don Pullen/George Adams Quartet - Breakthrough (Blue Note) - Three-fifths of the band from Charles Mingus's Changes sets of 1974 -- tenor saxophonist George Adams, pianist Don Pullen and drummer Dannie Richmond -- joined by bassist Cameron Brown. Adams struck me as inside-outside (as opposed to David Murray's outside-inside), howling like a dirty bluesman; Pullen was Cecil Taylor gone gospel. At the time, Richmond struck this polish-obsessed percussionist as the weak link; I've since learned better. There's a lot to be said for their earlier dates, including the two live Village Vanguard sets issued by Soul Note (one of which was cited by Pat on Cruise Ship X), but this belated major-label debut just oozes a satisfied sense of vindication suggested by its title.

Sonny Clark Memorial Quartet - Voodoo (Black Saint) - Another Horvitz project, this disc is chiefly notable for proving that John Zorn can indeed play jazz virtually straight. He's an explosive player with a tart, hard sound; I once played the disc for a deeply conservative bopper and he nodded approvingly, guessing that the horn player might be Roland Kirk. Ray Drummond provides solid support, with Bobby Previte supplying ebullient swing.

NEW Cassandra Wilson - Point of View (JMT) - One could argue that the period under consideration was a lean time for new jazz singers, but the appearance of Cassandra Wilson (who would record with then-husband Henry Threadgill's New Air two years later) served notice of a young artist who could hold her own on disc with Steve Coleman and Grachan Moncur III. A version of "Blue in Green" foreshadows Wilson's way with a standard, which came to fruition artistically and commercially with her Blue Skies disc in 1988. But it's "I Am Waiting," one of two original compositions by Wilson, that really suggests this artist's potential.

1986

Steve Lacy Four - Morning Joy (Hat Hut) - A joyous live album from Lacy's then-quartet with Steve Potts (who never sounded better than here), Jean-Jacques Avenel and Oliver Johnson. Given the formality of Lacy's contemporary sextet recordings, this is essentially an unfettered blowing session balanced between Monk tunes ("Epistrophy," "Work," "In Walked Bud") and strong originals. Perhaps the best point of entry into this remarkably prolific artist's bewildering catalog.

Evan Parker Trio - Atlanta (Impetus) - A stunning live set by Parker's working trio with Barry Guy and Paul Lytton, this Georgia concert includes two long tenor-led group blows that demonstrate Parker's fearsome proficiency and the always-alert interplay of his bandmates, plus one of the saxophonist's terrifying circular-breathing soprano workouts (and a tricky if somewhat less gripping solo by Guy).

1987

Arthur Blythe - Basic Blythe (Columbia) - An overlooked gem of '80s jazz and the last truly great Blythe disc, this with-strings session snuck out so unnoticed that even as great a Blythe booster as Gary Giddins didn't know it existed until much, much later -- probably not surprising, since it followed the weak pop-fusion of Put Sunshine in It and the uneven Da-Da. The core band of John Hicks, Anthony Cox and Bobby Battle supports beautifully, the strings provide a plush but not saccharine atmosphere, and Blythe's performance of "Faceless Woman," one of his greatest-ever compositions, is simply heartbreaking.

Art Farmer - Something to Live For (Contemporary) - Simply a beautiful, life-affirming set, this disc looses Farmer's then-quintet -- Clifford Jordan, James Williams, Rufus Reid and Marvin "Smitty" Smith -- on the riches of the Billy Strayhorn songbook. The version of "Isfahan" that opened this disc was the epitome of soulful mainstream jazz for me at the time, and remains so; Farmer's playing on "Bloodcount" stands comparison to Johnny Hodges on the original version.

Steve Lacy - Momentum (RCA Novus) - As fine an introduction to Lacy's more formal, composerly output as one might want, nicely paced and well recorded. The version of "The Bath" that opens this disc is so warm and inviting that it's impossible not to get sucked in. Irene Aebi's art-song stylings, always a bone of contention for many would-be LAcy admirers, are handsomely rendered here, and Bobby Few's lush piano playing is a quirky counterpart to the leader's dry etchings.

Last Exit - Cassette Recordings '87 (Celluloid) - A strong live session from the free-jazz-punk-metal supergroup of Peter Brötzmann, Sonny Sharrock, Bill Laswell and Ronald Shannon Jackson, blowing with frightening intensity on tracks with such unpromising titles as "Sore Titties" and "My Balls/Your Chin." The band only really did one thing -- full-blown brontosaurus freebop -- but it did that one thing shockingly well, since Sharrock's lyricism and Jackson's native tunefulness countered Brötzmann's leather-lunged freakouts and Laswell's dubby plod.

Power Tools - Strange Meeting (Antilles) - A desert island disc for me, originally this was supposed to be a Julius Hemphill session, but the leader took ill. Luckily, the rest of the band -- Bill Frisell, Melvin Gibbs and Ronald Shannon Jackson -- forged ahead with the session. Gibbs and Jackson inspired Frisell's single fieriest session, an unstoppable torrent of fertile ideas and blazing tone. All of the performers brought tunes; you'll find an amazing version of Frisell's title track, less tango-like than usual, and Gibbs's "Howard Beach Memoirs" is shattering, draining. A perfect record.

Cecil Taylor Unit - Live in Bologna (Leo) - A grievously overlooked version of Taylor's ensemble, this is the band that followed immediately in the wake of the enormous loss of Jimmy Lyons. It's not surprising that some of the music is uncharacteristically understated. It could hardly have been more lyrical, given the presense of Carlos Ward on reeds and Leroy Jenkins on violin. William Parker begins his long, fruitful relationship with Taylor here; Thurman Barker is the versatile drummer and doubles on colorful marimba. (Buy the unedited LP edition.)

John Zorn, George Lewis and Bill Frisell - News for Lulu (Hat Hut) - More proof that Zorn can actually play jazz arrived with this set of elegantly reconstituted hard-bop standards. Lewis is a slippery foil, and Frisell fills the cracks as fully as he does in the Motian trio.

1988

NEW Jane Ira Bloom - Slalom (Columbia, reissued by Koch Jazz) - Even more rare than notable singers during this period were women bandleaders, yet somehow, soprano saxophonist Jane Ira Bloom managed to issue two discs on Columbia. The first one, 1987's Modern Drama, was possibly more faithful to her interest in interactive electronics, and the even earlier session Mighty Lights (on Enja, from 1982) features stellar contributions from the blue-ribbon rhythm section of Charlie Haden and Ed Blackwell. Still, it's this one -- with the invaluable Fred Hersch, ever Bloom's ablest partner, at the piano, and a rhythm tandem of bassist Kent McLagan and the explosive Tom Rainey behind the drums -- that I revisit most often.

Lounge Lizards - Voice of Chunk (Lagarto, reissued by Strange and Beautiful) - More than any other record saxophonist John Lurie released, this one strikes the best balance between the ironic distance of his earliest lineup (with Arto Lindsay and Anton Fier) and his later, West African-inspired blowing band (with Steven Bernstein and Michael Blake). Most of the band here -- Roy Nathanson, Curtis Fowlkes, Marc Ribot, Evan Lurie, Erik Sanko, E.J. Rodriguez and Dougie Bowne -- would later break off from the leader and pursue similar aims as the Jazz Passengers.

Cecil Taylor - Berlin '88 (FMP) - One of the most impressive documents ever devoted to a single musician, this copious box set was devoted to a Taylor visit in 1988 that included encounters with virtually everyone in the European free improvisation scene: Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, Tony Oxley, Louis Moholo, Han Bennink, Günter "Baby" Sommer...the list goes on and on. Most of the encounters were bracing duos and trios, but there are also a handful of large-ensemble performances, of which Alms/Tiergarten (Spree), with Peter Brötzmann, is the most essential. The box is long out of print and highly sought-after...and no, I don't own it. But most of its components are available individually.

1989

Marty Ehrlich Quartet - The Traveller's Tale (Enja) - One of the most strikingly versatile performers in contemporary jazz (and a major element in most of the John Carter records hymned above), Marty Ehrlich is also a compelling performer and a skillful bandleader. This session, issued in 1990, served as the template for even more valuable sessions that would follow, but it's worth considering on its own merits, as well -- not least for the telepathic connection between Ehrlich and then-musical partner Stan Strickland, as well as one of Bobby Previte's most tasteful performances on record.

Cecil Taylor - Looking (Berlin Version) (FMP) - The first recording by Taylor's last truly exceptional working band to date, the Feel Trio, with William Parker and Tony Oxley. The percussionist questioned the pianist's every move, driving Taylor to ever greater heights; the bassist provided a calm center of gravity and repose within the tumultous whirlwind that surrounded him.

1990

Joint Venture - Ways (Enja) - This collaborative band featuring trumpeter Paul Smoker, tenor saxophonist Ellery Eskelin, bassist Drew Gress and drummer Phil Haynes was a model of communal music-making, with all four members contributing striking compositions. (I actually prefer Mirrors, from 1993, since it includes tunes by Eskelin where this one does not; nevertheless, I'll play by the rules.)

Bobby Previte - Empty Suits (Gramavision) - I once referred to Bobby Previte as the symphonist of the downtown set for the generous sweep of his music, but really, that's not quite right: A compelling composer and unrivaled colorist, he's Ravel with a penchant for smoky clubs and an outboard motor hitched to his back. "Across State Lines," which sets the stage here, is a tune Previte has fruitfully revisited with later bands; Allan Jaffee's guitar solo is breathtaking. The band also includes Robin Eubanks, Steve Gaboury and Jerome Harris; Marty Ehrlich, Carol Emanuel and Elliott Sharp are among the memorable guests.

Zentralquartett - Zentralquartett (Zong, reissued by Intakt) - Another impressive collaborative effort, this one from a veteran band that formed in 1973 in East Germany. Reedist Ernst-Ludwig Petrowsky, trombonist Connie Bauer, pianist Ulrich Gumpert and percussionist Günter "Baby" Sommer are all better associated with European free improvisation, but here they temper their wild spirits into a set of tuneful, swinging original compositions inspired by bop and even gospel (via hard bop, presumably).

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)

Song catcher.

That was the original title of my article about violinist-composer Jenny Scheinman in TONY a couple of weeks ago, on the occasion of her weekend hit at the Jazz Standard with Jason Moran and Paul Motian. As a fan of all three musicians, I had no idea how they might sound together; when I talked to her, it turned out that she didn't, either, but it seemed like a great idea. Dispatched to Bard College for a whole lotta Liszt, I didn't hear the trio dates; in his thoughtful Times review, Ben Ratliff seems to have wished that Scheinman's collaborators had loosed more of their individuality, instead of staying within the relatively strict boundaries of Scheinman's compositions.

Those tunes are precisely why I gave that article the title mentioned above; since it was jettisoned for something altogether more TONY, I'll happily reclaim it here. Scheinman has a knack for crafting melodies that seem to have been around for a long, long time, maybe forever. It's a knack that she has in common with her sometimes employer Bill Frisell, and it makes her records rich, absorbing affairs. Tonight at Joe's Pub, she took some of the as-yet unnamed tunes from her next album for a spin with another stellar band: clarinetist Don Byron, trumpeter Ron Miles, pianist "Jamo," guitarist "Moe Hawk," bassist Larry Grenadier and drummer Kenny Wollesen. Save for Byron, who will be replaced by Doug Wieselman, this is the band that will be recording the next album. (Two of the names were obviously changed because they have current or pending engagements elsewhere in town: the guitarist opens at the Vanguard tomorrow night, while the pianist, well, how hard is that one to figure out?)

The early set tonight was completely sold out, with the club as packed as I've ever seen it. Scheinman led her band through ten concise miniatures and an encore: meticulously arranged compositions reminicent of campfire songs, lullabies, parlor dances and Raymond Scott-style novelties, and even a march that might have been Shostakovich at his most ghoulish. There were very few extended solos during the night, although "Jamo" took the spotlight for a spell during the seventh tune, his rippling lines and the occasional Garner-esque roll earning applause not only after the solo, but even at one point during. Byron's rich, dark sound paired beautifully with Miles's burnished tone; "Hawk" provided twangy comping and, in one tune, industrial clangor. Grenadier's solid time and Wollesen's lanky, behind-the-beat shuffle kept things moving. Front and center was Scheinman's woodsy fiddle; she never showboated, but her occasional solos had the quality of a vocalist singing phrases. Jazzers looking for flash might have been disappointed, but lovers of strongly crafted ensemble music must certainly have been satisfied with this beautiful, colorful set.

=====

I only saw Dewey Redman perform once, in April 2005 at the Blue Note with the Arthur Blythe All-Stars. It wasn't a completely satisfying gig; neither frontman was on his best form, and guitarist James Blood Ulmer spent about half the set sitting out. The finest moments came when Ulmer locked in with organist Dr. Lonnie Smith and drummer Jeff "Tain" Watts. Redman was visibly frail, and didn't solo much. Still, I'm glad that I can at least say I spent a single evening in the company of this bold, inventive musician. Many obituaries have been posted; one of the best is this one, from The Bad Plus -- not surprising, given their collective esteem for Keith Jarrett's American quartet.

=====

I'm going to go back now and slightly tweak my list of major jazz records issued between 1973 and 1990. The more I think about it, the more I remember critical omissions...including, I'm galled to confess, a 1976 Braxton date that ranks among the best concert recordings by anyone, ever. How that happened, I'll never know. (For the sake of honesty, and to make it easier for those who've already parsed the scary list, I'll indicate the newly added ones.)

Playlist:

Ornette Coleman - Friends and Neighbors: Live at Prince Street (RCA Victor; France)

Keith Jarrett - El Juicio (The Judgement) (Atlantic; U.K.)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:31 AM | Comments (0)

Rameau Ringtones for ARTSaha! 2006

If you're coming to ANALOG's NeoPostBaroque version of Rameau's Festivities of Hebe on Thursday, you'll want to download your own Rameau Ringtone before you come. During the final chorus, "Suivez les lois", the audience can sing along and/or play this tone from the digital device of their choice.
Ringtone Formats

AMR Format
MMF Format
AAC Format
MP3 Lo-Fi
MP3 Hi-Fi

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)

Landmarks (16)

John Cage: Cheap Imitation (1969) Through a set of capricious circumstances, Cage found a way of making new music from old, in this case, from Satie's Socrate. Denied the rights to perform his two-piano, four-hands, arrangement of Socrate as accompaniment to a dance by Merce Cunningham, Cage devised a new piece that retained the rhythms and tempi of the Satie, but systematically substituted a

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)

Recollections (1970). Joe Zawinul

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)

Voiceless Essay (1985-6). John Cage

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)

Help Me Somebody/If You Make Your Bed In Heaven (1981/2006). David Bryne/Brian Eno/Roddy Schrock /our lives in the bush of disquiet/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)

The People United Will Never Be Divided

Happy Labor Day, class warriors. Lots of neat things coming up as we head into the fall season. The nice folks at OgreOgress invite you to listen to a special online preview recording (semi-final version) of John Cage's complete 121-minute Two3 (1991),

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 5, 2006 at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)

September 04, 2006

Note

Here is the biographical note on the main webpage of Aaron Cassidy:



Aaron Cassidy is a young composer currently based in Chicago, Illinois. His music is gaining increasingly widespread exposure, with performances in the United States, Mexico, Austria, the Netherlands, Croatia, England, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and Germany.

His music can be characterized by an uncompromising dedication to instability and fragmentation. The received wisdom of performance practice is continually questioned and reasserted, often with intentionally unpredictable results. His recent works have experimented largely with the interaction of a performer with his/her instrument, introducing a decoupling of component performance techniques. Fracture is prioritized in timbral, structural, and rhythmic strata in such a way that resulting aural units are themselves only the byproducts or collisions of independent (and often cyclic) musical processes. The musical score becomes, then, both the locus of processual sediment and concurrently the cause of significant deterritorialization on the part of performer and listener alike.

Recent projects have included significant research of linguistic, semantic, and spatial theories, focusing in particular on heightened states of dislocation (as in Jakobson's analysis of aphasics or Deleuze & Guattari's writings on smooth and haptic space).



It's like taking a clock apart and laying out all the parts on the table-top, then expecting us to tell the time by it, or even to know that it is a clock at all. The pieces have all the fragments of the music presented, all the gestures, the notes, the dynamics, all broken down, then presented to us on the table-top.

Originally from Reflection Field, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:22 PM | Comments (0)

tlon - From Elsewhere To Nowhere

Jean-Sébastien Roux records under the name of tlon for the Autoplate netlabel. His music consists of electronic soundscapes which takes on a metaphysical nature. Roux’s liner notes discusses philosophical questions (What is our purpose? Where are we going?) that defies any definitive answer. Perhaps Roux believes the answer is best expressed with sound rather than words.

Whether From Elsewhere to Nowhere succeeds philosophically is best left to the listener. Musically it is a haunting and beautiful conceptual work. Roux manipulates organic sounds and string samples into his delicate electronic environment. It is very meditative but can also be listened to for its complex layers. “In The Shadows of the Unexpected” is the most accessible piece with its mellow beat 0ver organ chords and what may be water sounds. The sensations of “Do We belong here” are almost claustrophobic. My favorite track is “Escaping The Land” due to the psychedelic layers of sounds. This is one of the better electronic / ambient albums on the internet.

It is available in 192kbps MP3 from either Autoplate or Internet Archive (from the link below).

Download

Originally posted by freealbums from Free Albums Galore, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)

Furtwängler and the forgotten new music

When, in November 1943, Furtwängler returned to Berlin from a concert tour abroad, he was informed that the Philharmonie Hall had been bombed during an attack on the night of November 22-23. The facade had been badly damaged, and so had the front rooms in which the irreplaceable music library had been kept. Important letters, files, documents, orginal scores - everything had been destroyed.


The concert hall itself remained intact, but the windows had been blown out, and glass, at the time, was not available. Besides, concerts could no longer be given there because high piles of rubble cut off the hall from the outside world. And before it could be cleared away, more bombs fell on the Philharmonie Hall on January 30, 1944, when the Anhalter Station, near the hall, was the target. This time the Philharmonie was completely wrecked.
From Wilhelm Furtwängler a biography by Curt Riess, 1955

Following the destruction of the Philharmonie Wilhelm Furtwängler conducted the Berlin Philharmonic in nine more concerts before the Nazi forces surrendered. Six were in the Staatsoper, and when this was damaged by bombing the last three were held in the Admiralpalast. The last concerts under Nazi rule were held on 22nd and 23rd January with a programme of Mozart’s ‘Die Zauberflote' overture, Mozart Symphony no 40 (first two movements only for reasons not given), and Brahms First Symphony.

Those final two concerts took place just four months before the collapse of Berlin. Allied forces were closing in on the stricken city, and air raids continued night and day. Remember that Hitler was not a democratically elected leader, and many of those, musicians and others, trapped in the beleagured city were not rabid Nazis. Like those in the Twin Towers, New Orleans and the London Underground history dictated that many were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. The predicament faced by the performing arts in the 21st century palls into insignificance compared with the conditions that the inhabitants, and musicians, of Berlin faced in the final months of the war.

Yet not only did the music continue, but quite remarkably the final nine concerts in those last torrid months included the first performance of one new work (by Gerhart von Westerman, and played in two successive concerts), and one Berlin Philharmonic first performance (Kurt Hessenberg’s Second Symphony).

Today Wilhelm Furtwängler's name is irrevocably linked to the Nazis. It is not the purpose of this article to cover that ground again, too many apologies have already been written. The fact is he remained in Germany as Director of the Berlin Philharmonic through the darkest hours of the Nazis. But a lot of great music was performed in the years between 1922 and 1954 when Furtwangler led the orchestra. Although his political compromises were deplorable, they should not prevent study of the music that was an integral part of the culture during those turbulent years.

Furtwängler is remembered today as an important interpreter of the Austro-Germanic repertoire, from Mozart through Beethoven to Bruckner. He is also known as a composer; the very last work he conducted with the Berlin Philharmonic in concert was his own Second Symphony on 20th September 1954. He died just three months later in December 1954.

During his thirty-two years as Director of the Berlin Philharmonic a surprising amount of 20th century music was performed under his baton. (Don’t forget his tenure at the orchestra only covered the first half of the century). Some the new music has endured. There was much Schoenberg (including the first performance of the Variations for Orchestra, op. 31 2nd version in 1928), much Pfitzner and Hindemith (the Nazi banning of his opera Mathis del Maler provoked Furtwangler’s resignation from the Berlin Opera in 1934), plus Bartok, Prokofiev and more.

But he also performed a large amount of 20th century music that has not stood the test of time. For research purposes I have taken a subjective definition of a ‘forgotten composer’ as one whose work is not performed with any regularity today. Using this definition, I researched every one of the four hundred and seventy-three concerts Furtwängler conducted with the Berlin Philharmonic. This identified forty-five 20th century works, from thirty composers who have subsequently slipped into varying degrees of obscurity.

The results of my research are given below (more details of the research are given as a footnote). The history of these composers varies. Many remained in Germany through the Nazi period and beyond. Some such as Ernst Toch (right) fled to the US when the Nazis came to power. There are very few non-Germans, but these include the Italian Alfredo Casella, who was a known Fascist sympathiser. Interestingly one fellow conductor-composer is included, the Polish-born Paul Kletzki. Some works remain in print, if not in performance. These include the two works performed in 1944 after the destruction of the Philharmonie; Gerhart von Westerman's Divertimento and Kurt Hessenberg's Second Symphony, op. 29.

Looking at frequency of performance, the name that jumps out is Max Trapp. Six of his compositions were given over a twenty-eight year period, three of these in first performances. His works were performed both during the Nazi period (1935 and 1939), and after the war in 1951. Trapp lived from 1887 to 1971, and taught in various positions in Berlin throughout his life. His works included seven symphonies, and chamber music. The only one known at all today is his Piano Concerto, and he is largely forgotten. Why?

There is no suggestion that a body of forty-five neglected masterpieces awaits discovery in Berlin archives. (But how many perished in the fall of Berlin?) But what was this music like? Furtwängler was a brilliant conductor and accomplished composer – does his programming of these composers bestow some merit on them? Or were many of them politically convenient commissions? (This argument falls on the fact that many of the performances were pre-1933). Is the comparative obscurity (I can find no information at all on two) of these composers simply typical of the casualty rate among new works? Have I misrepresented these artists who lived through such difficult times? Do any readers know more about these thirty forgotten composers?

More questions than answers, but an overgrown path that is well worth exploring. Please add further information and views using the comments (or email) feature at the foot of the article.

And here is my analysis of Furtwängler's forgotten modern music:

Max Trapp: Symphonie Nr. 11 in h-moll op. 15 (BPO first performance)
28/29 January 1923.
Symphonie Nr.IV in b-moll op. 24 (BPO first performance)
14/15 December 1930.
Sinfonische Suite op. 30 (BPO first performance)
3 & 4 December 1933.
Orchesterkonzert op. 32 (First performance)
29/30 September 1935.
Konzert Nr. II f. Orchester op. 36 (First performance)
3/5 December 1939.
Symphonie Nr. Vl op. 45 (First performance)
25/26 February 1951.
Walter Braunfels:
“Don Juan”, eine klassich-romantische Phantasmagorie op. 34 (BPO first performance)
16/17 Novembber 1924.
Vorspiel u. Prolog aus “Die Vogel.”
20/21 December 1925.
Georg Schumann: (photo right) Variationen und Gigue uber ein Thema von G. F. Handel op. 72 (BPO first performance)
22/23 February 1925.
Variationen uber “Gerstern abend war Vetter Michel “ da op. 74 (First performance)
2/3 February 1930.
Philipp Jarnach:
Morgenklangspiel op. 19 (First performance)
7/8 November 1926.
Musik mit Mozart. Symphonische Variaten f. Orch op. 25 (BPO first performance)
15/17 February 1942.
Ernst Toch:
Komodie f. Orchester op. 42 (BPO first performance)
13/14 November 1927.
Kleine Theatersuite op. 54 (BPO first performance)
8/9 February 1931.
Karl Marx:
Konzert f. 2 Violinen u. Orch. Op. 5 (BPO first performance)
30 Nov/1 December 1930.
Passacaglia ((First performance)
18/19 December 1932.
Heinrich Kaminsky:
Dorische Musik
25/26 November 1934.
Konzert f. Klavier u. Orch (BPO first performance, the composer conducted this work, Furtwangler conducted the balance of the programme )
28/29 November 1937.
Gottfried Muller:
Variationen u. Fugue uber ein deutsches Volkslied (“Morgenrot Morgenrot”) op. 2 (BPO first performance)
5/6 Feb 1933.
Konzert f. gr. Orchester op. 5 (BPO first performance)
17/19 December 1939.
Theodor Berger: (photo right)
Rondino giocoso (BPO first performance)
15/17 December 1940.
Ballade f. Orchester op. 10 (First performance)
2/4 November 1941.
Karl Holler:
Konzert f. Violincello u. Orch. Op. 26
16/18 October 1949.
Konzert f. Violincello u. Orchester op. 26 (First performance)
19/21 October 1941.
Heinz Schubert:
Praludium u. Toccata f. Streichorch (BPO first performance)
5/7 February 1939.
Hymnisces Konzert f. Orgel, Orch. Mit Sopran- und Tenor-solo (BPO first performance)
6/8 December 1942.
Bernhard Sekles: Gesichte. Fantastiche Miniaturen f. kl. Orch. Op. 29 (BPO first performance)
11/12 November 1923.
Alfredo Casella: Partita f. Klavier u. Orchester (BPO first performance)
19/20 December 1926.
Karol Rathaus: Ouverture fur grosses Orchester op. 22 (First performance)
4/5 March 1928.
Gunther Raphael: Thema, Variationen u. Rondo f. Orch. Op. 19 (BPO first performance)
24/25 March 1929.
Paul Kletzki: Orchestervariationen (BPO first performance)
19/20 January 1930.
Botho Sigwart: Melodram “Hektors Bestattung” op. 15
2/3 February 1930.
Wladimir Vogel: 2 Etuden f. Orchester (BPO first performance)
25/26 October 1931.
Paul Graener: Die Flote von Sanssouci. Suite f. Kammerorch. Op. 88 (BPO first performance)
20/21 December 1931.
Max Ettinger: Altenglische Suite op. 30 (BPO first performance)
3 & 4 April 1932.
Hugo Reichenberger: Zwei Mariensbilder
18/19 December 1932.
Max v. Schillings: Symphonischer Prolog zu “Konig Odipus” f. gr. Orch. Op. 11
15/16 October 1933.
Sigfrid Walther Muller: Heitere Musik op, 43 (BPO first performance)
14/15 January 1934.
Hans Brehme: Triptychon (BPO first performance)
26/28 November 1938.
Heinrich Zilcher (should this be Hermann Zilcher, a composer who lived from 1881 - 1948?) : Konzert f. Violine u Orch. In A-dur op. 92 (First performance)
2/4 February 1941.
Paul Hoffer: Symphonische Variatonen uber einen Bass von Bach op. 47 (BPO First performance)
1/3 March 1942.
Gerhard Frommel: Symphonie in E-dur op. 13 (First performance)
8/10 November 1942
Ernst Pepping: Symphonie Nr. II f. Orch. In f-moll (BPO first performance)
31 October/3 November 1943.
Gerhart v. Westerman: Divertimento f. gr. Orch. Op. 16 (First performance)
22/23 October 1944.
Kurt Hessenberg: (photo right) Symphonie Nr. Ll in A-dur op. 29 (BPO first performance) 11 December 1944.

Notes on the research:
1.The analysis was carried out specifically for this article using Wilhelm Furtwängler Die Programme Der Konzert Mit Dem Berliner Philharmonischen Orchester 1922-1954 published in 1965 by F.A. Brockhaus Wiesbaden.
2. I have not translated the composition titles from their original German. This is because many have never been translated, and I would prefer a more skilled linguist to undertke this important work.
3. I have added hyperlinks to web resources where available. Not surpisingly some of these are in German. Details of further resources will be gratefully received. I will be glad to share the contents of this fascinating inventory of every work Furtwangler performed with the Berlin Philharmonic with any interested researchers.
4. First performance means world premiere. BPO first performance is hopefully self-explanatory.
5. The Classical Composers Database is a very useful tool for researching the more obscure composers; but, like all of us, it is by no means infallible.Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
Now take an overgrown path to Musicians against nuclear weapons

* This article was originally published on October 5 18, 2005, and is reblogged here as part of On An Overgrown Path's second anniversary celebration of Music beyond borders. Follow this link to read the comments posted to the original article.

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)

When market forces and music collided

The dramatic cancellation of last night's Philadelphia Orchestra BBC Prom due to a fire was the first Promenade Concert to be lost for twenty-six years. In 1980 the circumstances of the cancellations were far more serious and damaging, and the story is worth retelling to underline how precarious is the livelihood of our wonderful performing musicians.

A financial crisis that had simmered at the BBC for several years flared up in February 1980 when a large package of economies were proposed to save £130m ($235). The proposal involved disbanding five orchestras, including the BBC Scottish, in a move aimed at saving £500,000 ($900,000) a year, or eight per cent of the BBC's music expenditure. On May 16 1980 the Musician's Union voted to strike against the BBC, and two weeks later the musicians of the BBC Symphony, and all other BBC musicians, stopped work. The dispute was not just about job losses, the musicians suspected a hidden agenda of a move away from contract orchestras to freelance arrangements.

The 1980 Proms season was at the centre of the dispute, and the Managing Director of BBC Radio publicly said the concerts were of 'less consequence than the music policy of the orchestras for the future'. The dispute was extraordinarily bitter, and for the first time ever in the history of the series the First Night was cancelled. The BBC broadcast a recording of the scheduled work (Elgar's The Apostles) while the BBC Symphony Orchestra played a protest concert in an alternative venue under the baton of that musician's musician par excellence Sir Colin Davis. As plans for more protest concerts gathered momentum, including one conducted by another musician with experience of the barricades, Pierre Boulez, the BBC began to back down. On July 24 a compromise solution was reached, and the BBC caved in to the Musician's Union demands and withdrew all the notices of dismissal. The BBC Scottish Symphony was thankfully saved, although long term damage was inflicted on it by limiting the number of musicians, but two other orchestras were disbanded with many job losses.

Twenty concerts were lost from the 1980 Proms season which resumed on August 7 with a programme of Ravel, Messiaen and Mahler's Fourth Symphony conducted by Sir John Pritchard. The 1980 autumn season was in full swing for the fiftieth anniversary of the BBC Symphony on 22 October which was dutifully attended by many of the BBC Governors who just months before had tried to drive a dagger through the hearts of the same BBC musicians. The dispute was settled, but it gave an early warning of the market driven management that today leaves both Radio 3 and the BBC Proms a pale shadow of their former selves.

Sources: The BBC Symphony Orchestra 1920-1988 by Nicholas Kenyon (ironically), publisher BBC (out of print), and Is the Red Light on? The story of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra by John Purser, publisher BBC Scotland (out of print).

Image credit - On An Overgrown Path. Any copyrighted material on these pages is included as "fair use", for the purpose of study, review or critical analysis only, and will be removed at the request of copyright owner(s). Report broken links, missing images and other errors to - overgrownpath at hotmail dot co dot uk
If you enjoyed this post take An Overgrown Path to BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on a roll

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:21 PM | Comments (0)

CD Reviews

Steven Winn, Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle, 9/3/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)

‘Shiraz’ on the Waterfront

Anne Midgette, New York Times, 9/2/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)

International Festival: The Really Terrible Orchestra

Rowena Smith, The Herald, 9/4/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)

In Cities Across the United States, It’s Raining Concert Halls

Daniel J. Wakin, New York Times, 9/3/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:20 PM | Comments (0)

Rich Perry & Harold Danko – Rhapsody

Steeplechase 31595 Tenor saxophone and piano make for a natural pair, particularly in the hands of old friends like Perry and Danko. This is their second Steeplechase disc as a duo and it picks up dutifully where the previous...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

Old and New Dreams (ECM)

Dewey Redman’s gone. They’re dropping off like flies this year, as I suppose they do every year, and yet I can’t help but feel a bit lonelier in the world while the first half of “Orbit of La-Ba” plays...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

Bob Dylan - Modern Times

Columbia 82876 87606 2 These days it has become de rigueur to proclaim Dylan’s genius, particularly in the mainstream media (witness the current cover of Rolling Stone for the latest example.) Since the 1997 release of Time Out of...

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

Ernest Dawkins’ New Horizons Ensemble Velvet Lounge DVD Reviewed

This new DVD earns a review.

Live At The Original Velvet Lounge: The Messenger is the second DVD in a series documenting live performances at saxophonist Fred Anderson’s renowned Chicago club. Filmed the day after Timeless, Anderson’s own trio concert recording, The Messenger features AACM saxophonist Ernest Dawkins’ flagship band, the New Horizons Ensemble, providing a full house with a liberal dose of, as Dawkins himself likes to call it, ed-ju-tainment.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

Free Music at Destination Out

Destination Out is offering free downloads of rare tracks from Muhal Richard Abrams and the Art Ensemble of Chicago.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

Composer inspires quartet’s local recording sessions

An article descibes how a string quartet goes about learning the music of maverick compser Ben Johnston.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

RIP Dewey Redman

Dewey Redman passed away two days ago at age 75.

Dewey Redman, an expansive and poetic tenor saxophonist and bandleader who had been at the aesthetic frontiers of jazz since the 1960’s, died on Saturday in Brooklyn. He was 75 and lived in Brooklyn.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

Live at the Tonic, Second Half of September

Lots going on at the Tonic this month.

Sat, Sep 16
8pm Little Annie plus Edison Woods plus Cat Martino
Midnight Pronto
9pm Shades of Brown: Sight & Sound in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Sun, Sep 17
8pm Festival of New Trumpet Music (FONT): Maurice Brown & Ambient Assault plus Jesse Selengut & Noir

Mon, Sep 18
TBA

Tue, Sep 19
8pm Ned Rothenberg, Mark Dresser, Susie Ibarra & Kazu Uchihashi
9:30pm Nico Muhly plus Doveman

Wed, Sep 20
8pm Nanang Tatang (Dan & Liz from Ida) plus The Naysayer plus Anti-Social Music & Warn Defever
8:30pm Pure Fire in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Thu, Sep 21
8:30pm Elysian Fields
10pm Jon Nelson’s Genkin Philharmonic

Fri, Sep 22
8pm Sex Mob
Midnight Big Lazy
10pm The Bunker in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Sat, Sep 23
8pm & 11:30pm Hamid Drake & William Parker plus Akron/Family
9pm Shades of Brown: Sight & Sound in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Sun, Sep 24
8pm Steve Dalachinsky Birthday Celebration with Matt Shipp, John Zorn, Loren Connors and more

Mon, Sep 25
8pm Little Theatre

Tue, Sep 26
8pm & 10pm White Out with Nels Cline

Wed, Sep 27
8pm Armen Ra plus Stone Forest Ensemble plus Nomi and her band of Gypsies
8:30pm Pure Fire in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Thu, Sep 28
8pm ErstQuake 3: Jeph Jerman & Greg Davis plus Los Glissandinos (Kai Fagaschinski & Klaus Filip) plus Bryan Eubanks & Barry Weisblat plus Michael R. Bernstein & Mike Shiflet plus Mattin & Tim Barnes

Fri, Sep 29
8pm ErstQuake 3: Sachiko M & Sean Meehan plus Scenic Railroads (Joe Panzner & Mike Shiflet) plus English (Joe Foster & Bonnie Jones) plus Burkhard Stangl & Christof Kurzmann plus Aaron Dilloway & Lasse Marhaug
10pm The Bunker in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Sat, Sep 30
8pm ErstQuake 3: Radu Malfatti & Mattin plus Kai Fagaschinski & Burkhard Stangl plus Cosmos (Sachiko M & Ami Yoshida) plus GOD (Bryan Eubanks & Leif Sundstrom) plus Aaron Dilloway Solo
9pm Shades of Brown: Sight & Sound in the ))sub((tonic lounge

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:18 PM | Comments (0)

The People United Will Never Be Divided

Happy Labor Day, class warriors. Lots of neat things coming up as we head into the fall season. Marvin Rosen will be observing the 5th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on his radio program Classical Discoveries this Wednesday morning, September 6 from 6:

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 4, 2006 at 06:17 PM | Comments (0)

September 03, 2006

Now Playing: ARTSaha! Channel

Keep tuning in for audio content from Omaha's new music festival.

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:32 PM | Comments (0)

Samartzis/Inada - h [ ], Samartzis/English - One Plus One

Two more really enjoyable, idea-laden releases, mini-discs in this case, from the increasingly impressive Room40 label. Room40 EDRM406 It’s tempting, almost unavoidable, to listen to “h [ ]” in a cinematic matter, its relatively brief episodes flashing past one’s ears....

Originally from Bagatellen, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

Come Sunday... Johnny Dodds... Bunk Johnson... Big Joe Turner and Count Basie... Earl Hines... Anthony Braxton... Brotherhood of Breath...

Another ramble (didn't he...) through the annals... to start with: Johnny Dodds leading the Beale Street Washboard Band playing 'Forty and Tight.' Dodds was one of the great early jazz players, accompanied here by his equally famous brother on washboard, Frank Melrose on piano and Herb Morand on trumpet who takes the first solo – an obscure name but accomplished and in the pocket. After Dodds (way down in the chalameau register) and the piano take a chorus each, Morand returns, brash and brassy, followed by Dodds before the double ride out in New Orleans fashion weaving around each other like a couple of dancers. Buck and wing times two... Invigorating...

From the revival... Bunk Johnson and the boys playing 'Just a little while to stay here.' Opening on Baby Dodd's imperious parade ground snares culminating with three mighty bass drum thumps to wake the dead that leads into the ensemble. A lively recreation of classic New Orleans playing, rooted in the marching bands. George Lewis, another stalwart of the revival, contributes sweet and hot clarinet, trombone ripsnorting along – the track dominated by Baby Dodds' banging resonant bass drum, which really does convey a sense of an outdoors marching band – taking the track out on snare as if disappearing round a corner into the distance...

The blues, Kansas City style – Count Basie with a small group featuring the large roar of Big Joe Turner – 'Honey Hush.' Basie plays one his typically elliptic solos – acres of space to place sparse notes, chords and runs just right... Big Joe tells it like it is, supported by riffing horns...

Earl 'Fatha' Hines recorded 'A Stanley Steamer' in 1966 with Richard Davis and Elvin Jones- proving he could cut it in the most modern company. Hines of course had been around almost from the outset but had moved through as jazz changed so rapidly within his lifetime. This is a blues, solid and swinging. Timeless jazz piano...

Sometimes I forget how good Dizzie Gillespie was... couple him to Sonny Stitt and the mercurial Stan Getz and you have classic modern jazz of the finest order. Sprung on the fluent bass of Ray Brown, Stitt opens the solo festivities – often unkindly regarded as a Bird-copier, he is a player of great originality and fluency, demonstrated here as he winds gracefully at speed through the changes of the old eponymous bebop anthem. (If Hemingway famously defined courage as 'grace under pressure,' this sort of playing could be regarded as technique under pressure - given the fast and unforgiving tempo, one needs plenty of courage to survive). Gillespie comes in slightly off-mike, then unleashes a definitive muted performance, rapid thinking and reflexes that remind of his stature, freely running long phrases across the chorus sections. Getz – that beautiful smoky tone, a ghost of Lester Young wandering through, playing here with a cooler edge than the others. Stitt returns to trade 8's with the drummer (running over him in the first mis-counted exchange) before taking another solo. Gillespie re-enters, sans mute, slightly off-mike again – trades 8 bar chunks with bass and drums before soloing again. Getz returns and trades with Levy, solos some more. Ensemble bops out. Recorded in Los Angeles, 1956, this could stand as a fitting testament to bebop a year after Parker died, 'hard bop' had entered the game and the rumblings of the avant garde were starting to get louder... The album was titled 'For Musicians Only' which hints at the origins of modern jazz as a scary obstacle course devised to keep out all but the best – and most courageous.

Anthony Braxton composes and plays difficult searching music – but he returns to the tradition frequently, as if to draw sustenance from the source(s). Here's a track from his Charlie Parker project – 'Scrapple from the Apple.' His contra-bass clarinet starts way down low, testing the capabilities of my new sub-woofer, as he rambles along to some sporadic string bass accompaniment ending in a cluster of harmonics from Fonda just before he finally hits the theme - in unison with the bass, it eerily mirrors the stringed instrument, with a sawing timbre that is frayed round the edges. Distant comping from Mengelberg, as if in the next room, shadowed by the bass which starts low and rises to insistent high plucking, like a buzzing mosquito -a seesawing slightly off-kilter dance trio. Theme again, doubled with bass, Mengelberg at one point releasing a sudden treble splash before the track just winds down... all scrappled out. What would Bird have thought, I wonder?

To end: the Blue Notes were a South African band who left in the apartheid years post-Sharpeville and the State of Emergency and came to European exile, where they cross-pollenated the scene with their own wild charging brand of jazz – African folk/township/kwela musics and hymns mashed into the wailing freedoms of the new wave and held together by the rock-solid drumming of Louis Moholo. The drummer was the only one to survive the coming years and is still playing - in one of those tragedies of exile, the white McGregor and the black Mongezi Feza, Dudu Pukwhana, Nikele Moyake (who returned to South Africa in 1965 and died a year later) and Johnny Dyani were all to die far too young. I saw McGregor leading a quartet at a gig in Aberystwyth, not long before his death (1990) and he provided a fabulous evening in the company of trumpeter Harry Becket, another lion of the scene still fortunately playing. Here is the 'small big band,' to put it clumsily, with European players swelling the S.A. musicians ranks – Evan Parker and company, assembled and called 'The Brotherhood of Breath.' This track features a sparkling and bubblingly brilliant solo from Feza, a celebration of jazz freedom while rooted in its history . The live recording quality is not great but gives a flavour of a deeply undervalued bunch of musicians who had a massive influence on the British jazz scene especially (although sentimental recall should not disguise the fact that there were resentments on the sometimes over-cliquey London scene...).


Is there any theming to these tracks? There were picked pretty much at random from what was to hand. Yet in many ways they link up- not just from the wider narrative of 'jazz' history but on other levels. Original, revival, revisiting and cross-pollenating. Offering respect to the past, laying down markers for the future... Or maybe I'm imposing some kind of story on a bunch of disparate tracks. Who cares? They are all good... Oddly enough, I was thinking that many constituents of the sixties avant garde, who were often regarded as such a mighty rupture in the holy continuum, continually paid homage to what had gone before... a fact maybe easier to see at a distance...

And in the Videodrome today...

Henry Allen Jam Session here...

and again
here...

Preservation Hall 1971

Sunny Side of the Street...


Max Roach...
Sonny Rollins





Johnny Dodds
(Johnny Dodds (clarinet); Herb Morand (trumpet); Frank Melrose (piano); Warren 'Baby' Dodds (washboard) ).

Download
Forty and Tight

Buy

Bunk Johnson
(Bunk Johnson (trumpet);George Lewis (clarinet); Jim Robinson (trombone); Larence Marrero (banjo); Alcide (Slow Drag) Pavageau (bass); Jim Little (tube, bass); Warren (Baby) Dodds (drums)).

Download
Just a little while to stay here

Buy


Count Basie/Big Joe Turner
(Count Basie (piano, organ); Big Joe Turner (vocals); Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis, Zoot Sims (tenor saxophone); Harry "Sweets" Edison (trumpet); J.J. Johnson (trombone); Irving Ashby (guitar); Ray Brown (bass); Louis Bellson (drums).

Download
Honey Hush

Buy



Earl Hines
(Earl Hines (piano); Richard Davis (bass); Elvin Jones (drums) ).

Download
A Stanley Steamer


Buy

Dizzie Gillespie/Sonny Stitt/Stan Getz
(Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet); Stan Getz (tenor saxophone); Sonny Stitt (alto saxophone); John Lewis (piano); Herb Ellis (guitar); Ray Brown (bass); Stan Levey (drums)).

Download
Bebop

Buy

Anthony Braxton
(Anthony Braxton (contra-bass clarinet); Misha Mengleberg (piano); Joe Fonda (bass)).

Download
Scrapple from the apple

Buy

The Brotherhood of Breath
(Chris McGregor (piano);Dudu Pukwana (alto saxophone); Evan Parker, Gary Windo (tenor saxophones); Harry Beckett, Marc Charig, Mongezi Feza (trumpets), Radu Malfatti, Nick Evans (trombone); Harry Miller (bass); Louis Moholo (drums) ).

Download
Tunji's Song

Buy

Originally from wordsandmusic, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

AMN Podcast: Frequency - s/t

Today’s AMN podcast is a hot new recording from an AACM-related group in Chicago.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

New Sounds on WNYC

An NPR show features Tin Hat Trio and One Ring Zero.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

tourb.us

tourb.us is a new “social netowrking” site with a twist. You upload your playlist and it tells you when your favorite artists are coming to town. I haven’t had much luck finding stuff I like on it yet but then again I haven’t tried hard yet. The nice thing about their approach is that it requires minimal effort from participants.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

Ismet Siral Creative Music Studio Istanbul 2006

This Turkish mini-fest occured in June. A review is available.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

MySpace to sell music from nearly 3 million bands

Myspace gets it. They will be offering DRM-free downloads of independent artists.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

AAJ Reviews

More words about music from All About Jazz.

03-Sep-06 Tomasz Stanko Quartet
Lontano (ECM Records)
03-Sep-06 Geoff Farina / Luther Gray / Nate McBride
Out Trios, Volume 4: Almanac (Atavistic)
02-Sep-06 The Necks
Chemist (ReR Megacorp)
02-Sep-06 Joe Lovano
02-Sep-06 Tony Malaby / Angelica Sanchez / Tom Rainey
Alive in Brooklyn, Vol. 2 (Sarama)
01-Sep-06 Jason Rigby
Translucent Space (Fresh Sound New Talent)

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

Innovation and genre

It's often overlooked, but in the common practice era, music theatre, both opera and ballet, was a major source for innovation while concert music was largely a domain for the conservation and perfection of established forms. Opera and ballet, while never dispensing altogether with conventions of their own (after all: singers must breath and dancers must land after leaping), were natural testing

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

Safe as Milk (1967). Don Van Vliet /phil dines out/

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

aworks ordered list :: music feeds of the month

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

Attention Sequenza21 Shoppers

In our continuing efforts to turn Sequenza21 into a full-service musical community (and to lift our annual income from Amazon.com above that crucial $200 a year mark), we have taken advantage of Amazon's new aStore concept and created The Sequenza21 Shop.

Originally posted by Jerry Bowles from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jodru on Sep 3, 2006 at 04:31 PM | Comments (0)

September 02, 2006

Late Night Memories and Thoughts

I was lying in bed, awake, and remembering the past… many memories from childhood, high school, college, New York, San Francisco, Paris, Krakow… images of different places, events, friends and family, time spent quietly alone…

This feeling and weight is familiar, this sense of time. It’s now past two in the morning and there is that quiet serenity that only exists between midnight and 6 AM, when most of the world has gone to sleep. This sense of quiet and all the memories reminds me of all the other times I’ve spent looking inwards and looking outwards, late into the night.

Yesterday, I had the thought to start capturing down the memories of my life, as I previously did not keep much of a journal, and perhaps in the future the memories won’t be so vivid…

Sitting here awake, I get the feeling of being connected to seemingly dormant parts of myself. For a while I’ve felt that there were aspects of my musical life that were asleep but which I didn’t know quite how to awaken, but perhaps it is simply that I have not spent much time awake in the gentle quiet of night. I remember how much I used to love to be awake at this time, how clear everything seemed, and how slowly time moved, as if there was all the time in the world…

Reconnecting with this experience, I do not know how yet I will proceed, to revisit these night-time hours more, to return to other ideas of letting time be free–as is so important to me in music–or simply to try to keep this frame of mind within the context of the schedule I have been keeping. Regardless of how things proceed, though, I think it will become very important to me to remember this experience…

Originally posted by Steven from steven yi :: music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 05:01 PM | Comments (0)

Long-Lost Model of Sydney Opera House Found and Rebuilt

Vivien Schweitzer , PlaybillArts, 9/1/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

ARTSaha! Takes Entertaining Risks With Its Programs

By Ashley Hassebroek, Omaha World-Herald, Neb.

Aug. 31--Organizers of the ArtsAHA! Festival could just rest on their laurels.

Since the Omaha-based chamber music festival, known for its envelope-pushing programs, was established two years ago, it has generated talk in contemporary music circles nationwide.

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)

Veni, vidi, vici.

Tonight, Album arrived in New York City. My feelings as I sat awaiting in Joe's Pub were a mix of paternalistic pride -- knowing that my enthusiastic coverage of the group in TONY (here and here) had played some small role in their being booked for the Celebrate México Now! festival -- and blind-date nervous anticipation, given that I'd never seen the band perform, and that the live recordings available on their website (in the Xtras section) conveyed the group's energy, but weren't of sufficient fidelity to do justice to the ingenuity of the arrangements on their studio recordings.

That sense of connectedness probably disallows me from rendering my opinion as dispassionate criticism. This once, I can live with that: I wanted Album to do well.

The players hit the stage armed with vintage implements -- a boxy Moog synthesizer, a taped-up keytar, a double-necked guitar-bass, a shimmering blue pawn-shop guitar. (My always-welcome companion, NewMusicBox managing editor Molly Sheridan, suggested that it was as if they'd found their fathers' old tools in the attic.) After a slowish start, Album hit its stride with its third and fourth tunes, "La Mas Rapida y Mas Rockera de Todos los Tiempos" and "Moog Esta Muerto; Yo Vi el Documental," and built momentum from that point onward. Augmented by an energetic Los Angeles-based sampler player and rapper whose name I unfortunately didn't catch, the group did full justice to the intricate miniatures from its second release, Microbricolages, frequently offering them in two- or three-at-a-time gulps via tight segues.

"Cowboy" and "62" (both from the band's ingenious debut disc, Eureka Sön) were high points, as was the addictive "Es Facil" from the more recent release. Audience participation grew throughout the set, and a tightly packed four-song encore was well deserved. All told, the show confirmed my high opinion of this young group from Monterrey. I just wish there had been more press on hand... still, based on this showing, I can't imagine that Album won't be back before long.

The following band, Guadalajara's sophisticated, seductive Sweet Electra, fared less well -- not because the group's sleek internationalist "acid-cabaret" music lacked interest, but because it would have benefitted immeasurably from the presence of a sweaty crowd in a packed disco. Ironically, the people who might have interacted most viscerally with the group's music were probably those who were queued outside in the spotty rain, waiting for that time of the night in which the show ends and Joe's Pub transforms into a clubby hang. The group plays again at Galapagos on Sunday night; that seems like an even less likely fit, but I haven't been out to Williamsburg in a while, so what do I know?

Playlist:

Gustav Holst - The Planets; Colin Matthews - Pluto, the Renewer; Kaija Saariaho - Asteroid 4179: Toutalis; Matthias Pintscher - Towards Osiris; Mark-Anthony Turnage - Ceres; Brett Dean - Komarov's Fall - Berlin Philharmonic / Simon Rattle (EMI Classics)

Julian Anderson - Khorovod*; The Stations of the Sun; The Crazed Moon; Alhambra Fantasy*; Diptych - BBC Symphony Orchestra*, London Sinfonietta / Oliver Knussen (Ondine)

Napalm Death - Smear Campaign (Century Media; due Sept. 19)

Giacomo Puccini - Turandot - Birgit Nilsson, Renata Tebaldi, Jussi Bjoerling, Rome Opera Orchestra and Chorus / Erich Leinsdorf (RCA Living Stereo)

Isis + Aereogramme - In the Fishtank 14 (Konkurrent; due Oct. 10)

John Coltrane - Stellar Regions (Impulse!)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

New York Musicians and Composers at MoMA

An article describes a MoMA event featuring a wide range of New York based musicians and composers.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

DMG Newsletter September 1st 2006

This week’s DMG Newsletter has the scoop on all of the new releases.

BACK-TO-SCHOOL with RARE COPIES OF THE BRAXTON HOUSE RELEASES [Like we promised last week!]

NEW DISCS from KEN VANDERMARK/TERRITORY BAND #5, JOE McPHEE /RAYMOND BONI/MIKE BISIO/DOMINIC DUVAL, 7 from CADENCE JAZZ: THE C.T. STRING QUARTET JOE McPHEE, IVO PERELMAN & DOMINIC DUVAL, STEVE GAUCI TRIO, BLAISE SIWULA/KATSUYUKILTAKURA/RYUSAKU IKEZAWA, ERNIE KRIVDA QUINTET, ERIC ZINMAN/JOHN VOIGHT /LAURENCE COOK & SETH MEICHT TRIO,

MICHIYO YAGI/INGEBRIGT HAKER-FLATION/PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE, TOMASZ STANKO QUARTET, GIACINTO SCELSI//FRANCES-MARIE UITTI, SUSANNA AND THE MAGICAL ORCHESTRA, SVALASTOG, PSI [JAIME FENNELLY/CHRIS FORSYTH /FRITZ WELCH], BARDO POND & NARITA MUNEHIRO,

PLUS HISTORIC DISCS from MILES DAVIS GROUP DVD from 1985, MAL WALDRON & JOHNNY DYANI, SONNY CLARK/GEORGE DUVIVIER/MAX ROACH, ORNETTE COLEMAN QUARTET, SONNY SHARROCK TRIO, SONIC’S RENDEZVOUS BAND BOX-SET, GRUPPO DI IMPROVVISAZIONE NUOVA CONSONANZA, FRANCO BATTIATO, LUCIO BATTISTI , IKE YARD & CHAD & JEREMY

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

Guelph Jazz Festival Preview

A nice preview of next week’s festival is available.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

Hereafterfest in Chicago this Weekend

This three-day fest features late-night performances at the Spareroom in Chicago.

Sonic Healing Ministries
Presents
Hereafterfest 2006

The Underground Of The Avant Garde
Musicians Motivated Solely By The Sensations Of Moments Of Creation

The Spareroom 2416 W. North Avenue
Suggested Donation $1,000
or pay what you can

Friday September 1
11pm Ben Boye (keyboard) and Frank Rosaly (drumset)
12midnight Josh Beatty Trio (saxophone)
1am Microcosmic Sound Orchestra

VJ-ing of filmaker Jonathan Woods

Saturday September 2
11pm Sacred Round - Joel Wanek (double bass, cello, percussion) and Jayve
Montgomery (reeds, percussion, electronics)
12 midight Nicole Mitchell (flutes), Renee Baker (violin,viola), Shirezette
(drums)
1 am Macrocosmic Sound Orchestra
VJ-ing of filmaker Jonathan Woods

Sunday September 3
11pm Cities Felicitous
Alex Wing - guitar, Joel Wanek - bass, Ben Boye - keyboards and harmonium,
Naywri Wright - drums, Dan Godston - trumpet,

12 Midnight Mystery Set
VJ-ing of filmaker Jonathan Woods

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

Jazz in New York This Weekend

More going on than worth repeating here, the New York Times has a long list of jazz events, many of the non-mainstream variety.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

International Contemporary Ensemble Reviews

A review of the International Contemporary Ensemble’s recent New York performances is available.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

Avant Garde Project 24 Released

The torrent for AGP 24 has been seeded.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

Outer Music Diary Relaunch

Outer Music Diary is a sister-site of AMN. Instead of news and links, OMD features reviews and opinions on new and old music from very experienced music listeners and reviewers. We’ve recently relaunched the site with a new design, and we encourage everyone to take a look.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

Musique Machine

Musique Machine has a new set of reviews.

Agents At Midnight - Agents at Midnight
Agents at Midnight is the First release from this Jazz/ noise duo of : Ed Chang, who bends and frays and brutalises his saxophone and Ed Howard who is in charge of electronics and Harmonica abuse. All making a captervating and brutal mix of sounds, falling in improvised jazz sates some times and at other times in skin burning noise state, sometimes both at the same time.

To Live and shave in LA - Horóscopo:Sanatorio de Molière
This is my first experience with the wonderful dense and almost airless sound of To Live and shave in La. Their sound really is audio over load of the truest form- sounds, melody, voices and singing come at all angles, quite what it all means I’m unsure, but it certainly keeps one attention and works as great delirious audio acid trip.

Two Assistant Deputy Ministers - Satisfy The Dog
Satisfy the dog seems to be the first depraved audio noise fruit of Two Assistant Deputy Ministers , All the work of it the work of Mr Jason Soddy. It’s a jerking and crashing trip into crushed audio partials, which are bonded into looped and rhythmic clusters, all with a rather morbid smile to the whole proceedings.

Wolf Eyes - Human Animal
Human animal sees Wolf eyes taking a more atmospheric and dread filled take on their sound; making an album that’s full of shadowy shades and tints of blood reds. Where their last full length release on Sub pop Burned mind, felt like a brutal and crazed audio hammer attack with slight breathers. Human Animal feels like been caught in some hellish dungeon unsure what lies in wait for you or possible awaking tied to a table unsure how you got here and all you can smell is blood and decay.

Hanno Leichtmann - Nuit Du Plomb
Nuit Du Plomb is a fine slice of ambient electronic beats scapes, full of wonky melodies and hazy ambient drifts. Original conceived as a soundtrack to a reading of German expressionist writer’s Hans Henny Jahnn novlet The Night of Lead, but don’t let this put you off this is not a deep concept album. It’s very approachable and consistent collection of tracks.

Ethan Rose - Ceiling Songs
At its best moments Ceiling songs evokes a beautiful heady melodic wonder. Leaving the listener literal press at the ceiling of ones listing space, wanting to escape into the deep blue wonder and drift into cloud patterns.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

Clean Feed Festival in New York

Clean Feed Records is putting on some shows.

CLEAN FEED FESTIVAL
For the past 5 years, Portuguese label Clean Feed seems to have had more impact on the New York Jazz scene that most homegrown labels. Its impressive roster includes some of the city’s most creative musicians and Barbès is very proud to host a festival which present some of the label’s most prominent artists. Download the festival brochure with set times and bio information here: www.cleanfeed-records.com/CF-NYPDF.pdf

Tuesday - September 19, 2006

TRANSIT - Jeff Arnal - percussion; Seth Misterka - alto saxophone; Reuben Radding - bass; Nate Wooley - trumpet

KEN FILIANO QUARTET - Ken Filiano - bass; Tony Malaby - tenor saxophone; Michael Attias - alto, baritone saxophone; Michael TA Thompson - drums

STEVE LEHMAN & Special Guests - Steve Lehman - alto, sopranino saxophone; John Hebert - bass; Gerald Cleaver - drums

Wednesday - September 20, 2006

MICHAEL ATTIAS’ CREDO - Michael Attias - saxophones; Reut Regev - trombone; Mark Taylor - french horn; Sam Bardfeld - violin; Chris Lightcap - bass; Igal Foni - drums

JOE FIEDLER TRIO - Joe Fiedler - trombone; John Hebert - bass; Mark Ferber - drums

DENNIS GONZALEZ’S BLINDING LIGHT - Dennis González - trumpets; Charlie Kohlhase - saxophones; Ken Filiano - bass; Michael T.A. Thompson - drums

Thursday - September 21, 2006

WILL HOLSHOUSER TRIO - Will Holshouser - accordion; Ron Horton - trumpet; David Phillips - bass

RODRIGO AMADO QUARTET - Rodrigo Amado - saxophones; Herb Robertson - trumpet; Adam Lane - bass; Lou Grassi - drums

JOE MORRIS QUINTET - Joe Morris - guitar; Dan Blacksberg - trombone; Michael Winograd - alto, clarinet; Daniel Levin - cello; Michael Evans - drums, percussion

Barbès
376 9th St. (corner of 6th Ave)
Park Slope, Brooklyn, NY
7:30 pm : $10 per set or $25 per evening
www.barbesbrooklyn.com
www.cleanfeed-records.com

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

This Week's Music From Other Minds Program

MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS 78 - September 8 - QUIET - Lang and Fink
Listen Again
KALW FM 91.7 San Francisco - Friday nights at 11pm

Originally from MUSIC FROM OTHER MINDS - KALW 91.7 San Francisco, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

In C (1964). Terry Riley

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1982). William Bolcom

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 2, 2006 at 04:58 PM | Comments (0)

September 01, 2006

From ANALOG Projections 2006

Henry Jacobs, "Wilder Service"

Originally from ANABlog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 10:27 PM | Comments (0)

What the Thunder Said (2006) fl., pf., vib., electronics, by Steve Layton

What the Thunder Said (2006) fl., pf., vib., electronics, by Steve Layton

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

September 2006 CMC Composer of the Month [mp3]

September 2006 CMC Composer of the Month [mp3]
'I've always thought of music composition as some sort of giant playground', says Brian Irvine. He talks to Jonathan Grimes about his Associate Composer position with the Ulster Orchestra, his own ensemble, and his upcoming work with Opera Theatre Company and Welsh National Opera.Copyright 2006 Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland.Musical excerpts heard:The Rather Unfortunate Demise of Mr WhippyTango on my old HitachiBrian Irvine EnsembleHome Sweet HomeBersudsky's MachinesBrian Irvine EnsembleMontana StrangeWings of Madness
From Podcast: Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland: Monthly Podcast.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

August 2006 CMC Composer of the Month [mp3]

August 2006 CMC Composer of the Month [mp3]
'I'm not a sound fetishist', says electro-acoustic composer Fergal Dowling, who's currently completing a work for the EAR Ensemble for performance later this year. He talks to Jonathan Grimes about his upcoming projects, his approach to composing, and his involvement with the EAR Ensemble.Copyright 2006 Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland.Excerpts used:Fun with numbers (GuitArt orchestra)Musicians of Breman (EAR Ensemble)In the mean timePresent (Chimera Ensemble)Pass
From Podcast: Contemporary Music Centre, Ireland: Monthly Podcast.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

The Friday Informer: They Call That Musimathics

Adding, subtracting, and multiplying our way to glory.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

Adam Guettel: On The Road

Composer Adam Guettel is trying to reinvent the musical theatre, and, if anyone out there can make such a thing happen, it's him.

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

Hit and Run Theorists

Composers have a certain amount of luxury when it comes to music theory. We can invent it, and we can consume it, but we don't really have to commit ourselves to a theory in the same manner that a professional theorist would. Let me be clear: theories of music are extremely useful to composers in laying out possible materials or relationships and ways of ordering or evaluating those materials or

Originally from Renewable Music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For

The Sequenza21 Concert Committee is pleased to announce the program for the inaugural Sequenza21 concert at CUNY's Elebash Hall on Monday, November 20 at 7:30pm: Galen Brown, Systems of Preference or Restraint Anthony Cornicello, The Gloved On

Originally posted by David Salvage from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 10:24 PM | Comments (0)

New music flourishes as festivals finish

The end of the BBC Proms and the other high profile European music festivals doesn’t mean we say goodbye to compelling music making. In fact there is a strong case for saying that the real music making is actually happening away from the ‘auto-pilot’ performances that typify the ‘London today, Edinburgh tomorrow’ itineraries of the big name, big ticket, touring orchestras. Two upcoming concerts

Originally from On An Overgrown Path, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Music Cognition links

Originally from Musical Perceptions, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Dear God, he's quoting Camus again

"There are no higher or lower cultures. There are cultures that are more or less true."—Albert Camus, Lyrical and Critical Essays, edited by Philip Thody, translated by Ellen Conroy Kennedy.

Originally posted by MarcGeelhoed from Marc Geelhoed: Deceptively Simple, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Cranky

Originally from John Mackey's Blog, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:44 PM | Comments (0)

Save Us From Ourselves

Another chapter in the continuing story of consumers' need to be saved from overwhelming choice.  Via ArtsJournal, it's the Denver Post describing dailyCD.com.  If I sound sarcastic, let me assure you I appreciate the service these people do, even if I prefer to go the collaborative filtering route.  What I don't care for is the suggestion (not being made, let me hasten to add, by anyone mentioned in the Denver Post article) that, deep down, people dislike too much choice; that choice is somehow bad for people.  This is an opinion that would warm the heart of Stalin himself.

It's part of a more general attitude that distrusts giving power, wealth, or even simple ease and convenience, to the people generally.  It was better when the only entertainment was bowling, because then everyone bowled together!  Central heating is bad; it was better when the family gathered around the hearth at night, because they were forced to talk to one another!

I recall one friend who speculated he would prefer pre-modern life on some tropical island.  Whether the survival rate such a life would sustain would make even his very existence likely was something he had not thought through very carefully.

There is no question that power (even in the form of choice and personal freedom) will corrupt many.  The atomization of our culture sure makes my job of recruiting church choir members a lot harder.  But we are called to develop the character to rise above such temptations to self-indulgence.  If your eye offends you, by all means, cut it out.  But if you are worried merely that your eye might offend you some time in the future, keep your knife sharpened, but sheathed.

Darn.  I went on a bit of a rant there, didn't I.

Originally from Fredösphere, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:43 PM | Comments (0)

James Tenney, 72; Experimental Composer, CalArts Professor

Mark Swed, Los Angeles Times, 8/31/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Steve Reich: Maverick in the middle of a popular phase

Peter Aspden, Financial Times, 8/31/2006

Originally from Classical Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Unbelievable

Robert Christgau has been fired from the Village Voice.

Originally posted by Alex Ross from Alex Ross: The Rest Is Noise, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Path To Goodies

Amazon.com has made available to me a new way to push my tastes on unsuspecting readers.

Introducing the AboutTheComposer.com Path to Goodies.

The nine items on the “Featured Goodies” page are hand-picked by me. Right now it’s a smattering of various Hungarian offerings, including some things I’ll bet you’ve never heard of. For example, right now I’m listening to chamber music by my old teacher János Vajda, which I highly recommend.

I’ll change the Featured Goodies from time to time.

I cannot vouch for what may show up if you browse the various categories there, which are generated by Amazon magic. I think it’s probably showing items in order of popularity, which is no good for classical music. I’m finding that, by drilling down on the “Similar Items” on the left, I can turn up some interesting things.

Have a look, browse and have fun.

Originally posted by Michael Kaulkin from About the Composer, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:42 PM | Comments (0)

Alex Shapiro, part 1 of 2

Alex Shapiro, part 1 of 2
Malibu-based composer Alex Shapiro is an enthusiastic activist for new music. She has her finger in any number of musical pies and is highly visible in improving the lot for other composers across the nation. In this first of a two part interview listen to her expand on what motivates her and how she sees the field changing.

Check our her site at < http://alexshapiro.org>
From Podcast: Measure For Measure: New Music, New Thoughts.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Alex Shapiro, part 2 of 2

Alex Shapiro, part 2 of 2
Malibu-based composer Alex Shapiro is an enthusiastic activist for new music. She has her finger in any number of musical pies and is highly visible in improving the lot for other composers across the nation. In this second of a two part interview listen to her expand on education, what motivates her and how she sees the field changing.

Check our her site at < http://alexshapiro.org>
From Podcast: Measure For Measure: New Music, New Thoughts.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Episode One

Episode One
This first show is a montage of some of the voices you will hear and issues to be discussed on the upcoming series. In addition to host Philip Blackburn, guests include (in no particular order): Alex Shapiro, Alvin Lucier, Bob Bellerue, Raven Chacon, Charles Amirkhanian, Dan Becker, Frank Garvey, Frank Oteri, Ann Le Baron, Jaron Lanier, John Killacky, Milford Graves, Peter Golub, Simone Engeln, David Rosenboom, and Steven Lavine. Music is by Mark Applebaum from "The Bible Without God" (innova.mu). Opening theme music for the series is by Kwaku Kwaakye Obeng: "Greetings" from AFRIJAZZ (innova 583)
From Podcast: Measure For Measure: New Music, New Thoughts.

Originally posted by jeff from cacophonous.org, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

No good deed...

Sometimes it's tough to keep life in proper balance. This week, I did some good, solid work, both at the writing table and away from it. But the toll was high: Burning far too many after-midnight candles, I ran myself down -- physically, mentally and spiritually -- to an untenable extent. I want to do it all, naturally, but I've got to learn to pace myself.

The cost was unacceptable in the end, so I hope to spend this weekend getting things back under control. That's not to suggest that there will be no fun involved, no music to be digested and discussed. But right now, I'm in a frame of mind to amend some of this week's posts, working backward from the most recent:

First and foremost, I apologize to the excellent cellist Darrett Adkins for misspelling his last name, here and elsewhere.

Second, I was pretty sure that I'd heard Sonny Rollins give the title of the calypso number that opened his Damrosch Park set (discussed here) as "Nice Lady," but I didn't say so, because there was a song on his 1998 album Global Warming called "Island Lady," which made me doubt my recollection when I was writing. Nate Chinen's characteristically detailed and insightful review in The New York Times confirmed that title, and revealed the others I'd omitted. The ballad dedicated to J.J. Johnson was called "J.J.," the naggingly familiar calypso I ought to have recognized was "Don't Stop the Carnival," of course, and the ballad that followed was a standard with which I remain unfamiliar, "I See Your Face Before Me." (Oh, and the drizzle-damp streets down which I trod after the show were clear and quiet, not "clear and quite" -- ouch.)

And third, I learned today from Curran Reynolds -- P.R. pro, curator of the Precious Metal series at New York City's Lit Lounge, and drummer for the fierce local metal band Wetnurse -- that Greg Drudy left Versoma prior to the Mercury Lounge show that I described here. What's more, according to a press release that I didn't receive, he wasn't the only departed member: Bassist Brad Wallace was also already gone. Their places were taken by bassist Tom Clavin (formerly of Anodyne and Disnihil) and drummer Robin Fowler (of Sino Basila). The performance was every bit as strong as I reported, but now you know who was actually responsible. Versoma, whoever they may be by then, will next appear on September 9 at Sin-é, opening for Made Out of Babies and Kayo Dot; I will be elsewhere. But apparently there's another promising Neurot/Robotic Empire CMJ showcase on the horizon. (Scroll down this page a bit for Johnny Chiba's slightly compromised report of last year's confluence of these labels.)

Not a correction but an addendum: Julie Christmas, singer for the aforementioned Made Out of Babies, and Josh Graham, of Neurosis and Red Sparowes, are prominently featured on a new CD I received and spun today, A Day of Nights by Battle of Mice. (The other players on the disc are bassist Tony Maimone and drummers Joel Hamilton and Joe Taormino...and yes, I checked.) Easily the most terrifying thing I've stuck in my ears recently -- in the complimentary sense, anyway -- the record chronicles the ugly breakup of Christmas and Graham's bicoastal relationship, more emotionally than literally for the most part. I'll probably have more to say at some point, but for now I'll just suggest that this might be the post-metal equivalent of Rumours or Shoot Out the Lights.

And another postscript: Turns out that the utterly essential utility player manning the outfield (on trumpet and keyboards) in the Cursive show I mentioned at the end of this post was Joseph Drew, a.k.a. Jodru of the Analog Arts Ensemble, producers of the vital Anablog. Drew's insightful track-by-track breakdown of Happy Hollow, the new Cursive record about which I wrote recently, can be found here, and is highly recommended.

Enough with making amends; time for some sleep. But first...

Playlist:

Josquin des Prés - Missa Pange Lingua; Missa La sol fa re mi; Praeter rerum seriem; Ave Maria; Missa L'homme armé Super voces musicales; Missa L'homme armé Sexti toni; Anonymous plainchant: "Pange lingua"; Anonymous chanson: "L'homme armé" - Tallis Scholars (Gimell)

Paul Motian Quintet - The Story of Maryam (Soul Note)

Joint Venture - Mirrors (Enja)

Zentralquartett - Zentralquartett (Zong)

Rolling Stones - Sticky Fingers (Virgin)

Ornette Coleman - Sound Grammar (Sound Grammar; due Sept. 12)

David Binney - Out of Airplanes (Mythology)

The Lounge Lizards - Voice of Chunk (Lagarto)

Philip Glass - Etoile Polaire; Dressed Like an Egg; Mad Rush - Philip Glass Ensemble (Orange Mountain Music; due Oct. 10)

Bob Dylan - Modern Times (Columbia)

Battle of Mice - A Day of Nights (Neurot)

Celtic Frost - Monotheist (Century Media)

Archie Shepp and Horace Parlan - Trouble in Mind (Steeplechase)

Originally posted by NightAfterNight from Night After Night, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Pip Pyle Obituary

The Independent has an obituary of Pip Pyle.

A stalwart of the extended Canterbury music family, Pip Pyle drummed with Gong, Hatfield and the North and National Health, three of the groups which evolved out of the original Soft Machine and Caravan. Combining elements of progressive rock, jazz and a peculiar brand of Anglo-Saxon whimsy, these bands were mainstays of the underground scene throughout the Seventies and often drew bigger audiences in continental Europe than in the UK.

Pyle subsequently played with various groups connected to the Canterbury scene, like In Cahoots and Soft Heap, as well as leading Pip Pyle’s Equip’ Out and Pip Pyle’s Bash. An early signing to Richard Branson’s Virgin Records, Hatfield and the North reunited last year with a line-up of three of its original members - Pyle, the bassist and vocalist Richard Sinclair and the guitarist Phil Miller - and Alex Maguire on keyboards. Pyle died in Paris on Monday, two days after playing a concert with Hatfield and the North in Groningen, Holland…

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Sonomu Reviews

Sonomu offers a fresh set of reviews:

Feu Follet, Toi et le Son (CDR Einzeleinheit)
A lovely release featuring two, eighteen-minute quasi-drone works created by Tobias Fischer last October. The drone is a many-splendoured thing, and comes in so many different forms, sometimes evolving so very slowly over a long duration as to appear virtually stagnant in the listener´s ears,… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 08:10, 31 Aug 2006

Tie Guan Yin Duo, Viva La Vaches (Kwan Yin)
Half an hour of machine-like oscillations morphing into more sweetly-pitched ambient which then disintegrates into corrosive noise before turning back into a pleasing ambient drift which devolves back into the realm of noise…. And so it goes on this beautifully designed effort by the Tie Guan… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 08:04, 31 Aug 2006

Vidna Obmana, The River of Appearace (2 CD Projekt)
The “Everest” to which any ambient artist should aspire. The zenith of the first generation of post-Eno, mid-nineties ambient. As the present author wrote in an article for a Swedish daily upon the release of “The River of Appearance” in 1996, “In his fine book ´Oceans of Sound´, David Toop… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 07:54, 28 Aug 2006

Mathias Grassow & Guests, Opus Posthumum (Practising Nature)
For this CDR, like his other CDR on Practising Nature, Dronament, Mathias Grassow invites a handful of friends to accompany him, including Jim Cole (harmonic singing), Kai Schröder (self-built “Veena”, an Indian string instrument, as well as electric bass and field recordings) and Klaus Wiese… [read]
Posted by Stephen Fruitman at 10:30, 17 Aug 2006

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

September Paris Transatlantic

It’s here. If you read one this today, this should be it.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Vision Festival XI Review

A little late but still welcome, All About Jazz reviews June’s Vision Festival.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Rudresh Mahanthappa Feature

Saxophonist Rudresh Mahanthappa’s new album is the focus on an article.

Originally posted by Mike from Avant Music News, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

Getting to Know You

If we don't apply a filter when it comes to what we listen to, are we wasting our valuable time?

Originally from NewMusicBox, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

aworks ordered list :: new feeds of the month

Originally from aworks :: "new" american classical music, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)

New music flourishes as festivals finish

The end of the BBC Proms and the other high profile European music festivals doesn’t mean we say goodbye to compelling music making. In fact there is a strong case for saying that the real music making is actually happening away from the ‘auto-pilot’ perf

Originally posted by Pliable from Sequenza21, ReBlogged by jeff on Sep 1, 2006 at 01:40 PM | Comments (0)