May 2011
18 posts
4 tags
“I considered him evil. It was not like he was Mozart and I was Salieri. It was...”
– Harder Bop: James Carter Ruined My Life Kelly Bucheger writing on his brush with the 16 year old James Carter. A must read. 
May 30th
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WatchWatch
Pumped for Hypnotic Brass Ensemble tonight at Band on the Wall. 
May 26th
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May 25th
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Nico Muhly: Gaming One's Way Into Classical Music
Nico Muhly:  For me … playing a video game was sort of like music minus one: The actions of my hands informed, in a strange way, the things I heard. Collect a coin, and a delighted glockenspiel sounds. Move from navigating a level above ground to one below ground, and the eager French chromaticism of the score changes to a spare, beat-driven minimal texture. Hit a star, and suddenly the...
May 23rd
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“To go back to the idea of Monk’s technique: my one quibble with Kelley [is how...”
– Philadelphia Story Ethan Iverson writing another informative and probing article on Do The Math
May 22nd
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May 21st
6 tags
#Reverberations - The music of Steve Reich - Part...
The highlight of the entire weekend had to be the Sunday performance of Double Sextet. It was also a fully live version (rather than 6 players with tape) played by the fantastic Bang On A Can and eighth blackbird. To have all those wonderful musicians on stage at one time playing together was really a special moment. They really gave a mesmerising performance. The slower movement was desperately...
May 19th
23 notes
4 tags
#Reverberations - The music of Steve Reich - Part...
The Kronos Quartet. Enough said?  Perhaps not. The reputation of this ensemble proceeds them so I won’t go into the details. Having treasured their recording of Different Trains I was very keen to hear them perform live.  They did a short set at the 2pm concert on the first day which included the UK premier of Clouded Yellow by festival regular Michael Gordon. However the highlight of their...
May 15th
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Live at Birdland
New album from Brad Mehldau, Lee Konitz, Charlie Haden and Paul Motian - Live at Birdland. Released on May 16th.  Pre-release review here - 5 stars. 
May 14th
6 tags
#Reverberations - The music of Steve Reich - Part...
Saturday the 7th to Sunday the 8th of May was the weekend of Reverberations: The Influence of Steve Reich, a weekend celebrating his birthday, his music and his influence. All the great and the good of music geekery were gathered. It was the big one.  The tickets called it a “marathon weekend” and the programme director called it a banquet. Well it was both. and then some.  The day started at...
May 13th
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Steve Reich At (Nearly) 75 →
Another Reich link - this time from NPR Be sure to watch the YouTube video of ‘Mallet Quartet’
May 8th
“The three-movement piece opens with a violin drone in F, the note a phone makes...”
– Steve Reich: Steve Reich delves into memories of a tragedy with ‘WTC 9/11’ for Kronos Quartet - latimes.com
May 8th
“I say it often. Steve Reich changed the way I listen to music. I’m sure this...”
– Memories of Steve Reich - ‘I have Steve Reich in my life’ by Todd Reynolds
May 6th
Excerpt from WTC 9/11 →
Can’t wait to hear it in it’s entirety this weekend played by the Kronos Quartet at Reverberations: The Influence of Steve Reich - stay tuned. 
May 5th
May 4th
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“No matter what I’m playing, I like to spice it up”
– Monty Alexander - Jazz’s Jamaican Envoy - WSJ.com Hell yes
May 2nd
May 2nd
125 notes
Lunatics on the internet
Some gibbering fool had this to say about Chris Potter’s Lift: Live at the Village Vanguard in an Amazon review -  Like many so called Jazz performers of this era Mr. Potter has taken a simple bit of instrumental music and labeled it as Jazz.  Of course one knows Jazz like any living thing evolves, and many sounds and expressions can of course fall into this genre because with each...
May 1st