Bookmarks for September 21st through September 24th [del.icio.us]
![Bookmarks for September 21st through September 24th [del.icio.us]](http://www.paulbailey.us/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a58f101f970b-800wi1-150x150.jpg)
Bookmarks from September 21st through September 24th:[del.icio.us]
- Their cut-and-paste world | Brand X | Los Angeles Times
“if you surfed L.A.’s public access airwaves in the 1990s, you might have come across a paunchy, balding man who loved dancing to John Phillips Sousa marching songs while wearing nothing but a Lone Ranger mask and an American flag Speedo. But that’s not the weird part. The titular star of “Dancing With Frank Pachowski” surrounded himself with a semicircle of elderly people who sat and watched stone-faced as he performed. “It’s absolutely brilliant,” declares Nick Prueher. Five years ago, Prueher and his pal Joe Pickett — both former writers at the Onion — created the Found Footage Festival, a traveling show of video oddities that they’ve culled from thrift stores, garage sales and garbage bins. The fourth incarnation of their show, which has its West Coast premiere at M Bar tonight and Friday, features nearly 60 videos…”
- The Seattle Phonographers Union « Amaranth Arthouse Music – “The group eventually came out. After a brief introduction the performance began. Each performer played a part in the building and decreasing soundscape through samples ranging from everyday noises to political speeches. The genius in this form of concert is the ability to shuttle the listener to wherever their imagination, following the lead of the music, takes them… I noticed midway through the gig that the outer seating wasn’t the best spot, since a speaker sitting directly behind you takes away from the stereo experience. Therefore, I took the opportunity of changing to a middle aisle seat from a couple who had left the show. It made quite a bit of difference. I checked my watch after what seemed like 20 minutes and almost 90 minutes had elapsed. The show soon came to a close. Its hard to explain the show in detail, four months later, but the collaboration and improvisation of the group really worked. I highly recommend checking these folks out.”
- Sequenza21/ » We Wuz Robbed -
On hearing that no musicians or composers were awarded the 2009 MacArthur Genius Award/Grant, Scott Unrein replies: “I had a tee-ball coach who would always say, “hey genius, put a little hustle in it.” I think that’s enough of an application to ensure I’ll be in the running next year. Good luck, suckers.”
- Calder Quartet performs at University of Maryland – washingtonpost.com -
“This has almost certainly been good for their career (earning appearances on Leno and Letterman, along with several programming awards), but on the basis of Sunday afternoon’s concert at the University of Maryland, one wonders whether it has given them a helpful context for rendering the great masters. In a thoroughly conventional program of Stravinsky, Janácek and Schubert, the Calder displayed good basic ensemble skills but a blurry, generalized musicianship, everything sounding the same”
- The Savvy Musician: Building a Career, Earning a Living, & Making a Difference -
“THE SAVVY MUSICIAN, by Dr. David Cutler, is a thorough and comprehensive book created to help you 1) build a career, 2) earn a living, and 3) make a difference. It examines critical elements often overlooked or misunderstood by musicians, such as entrepreneurship, product development, branding, marketing, networking, the new recording paradigm, personal finance, funding, relevance, and legacy. This book helps you take control of your career by discovering opportunities that are both prosperous and meaningful.”
- Coffeeloop -
Coffeeloop exists to create new experiences for a new musical era. To find the pulse of contemporary music. But what does that mean? What do you think of when you hear the words “classical music”? For most people, ideas like old and traditional come to mind. Yet the best experiences in our lives we would often describe as new, or exhilarating. “It needn’t be this way. Coffeeloop aims to bring experience back to classical music, not with fireworks or laser shows (though we don’t rule those out), but with engagement. Engagement with you, and between the audience, the critic and the performer. There is enough excitement to go ago around — in fact, the more we share, the more there is for everyone.”
minimalist jukebox part III, terry riley
last night i got hear terry riley at the getty center. the first half featured his string trio and string quartet performed by the calder quartet who are currently in residency at julliard.
i hadn’t been planning to see the concert, mostly because of all the music being performed in the festival i knew this concert wasn’t featuring the any of terry’s sting music that i was most interested in. particularly cadenza on a plain and salome dances for peace. so when my friend j. michael walker called and asked if i wanted to go, i figured it was good karma to take him up on the offer.
in terms of artistic achievement the first half of the concert (string quartet and trio) really deserves little mention. i cannot figure out two things:
- why this music was programmed?
- who’s idea was it to have the calder quartet play it?
the first half of the concert resulted in a deep retrospective to show his development through two pieces; a boulez-influenced graduate thesis (string trio 1961) to the early lamont young/doug leedy influenced composition(string quartet, 1960).
because of the lack of any program notes, i’m not sure how many people in the audience came prepared with how these pieces related to the evening.
if riley’s name hadn’t been on the program, i’m sure many in the audience wouldn’t have any idea that the music was written by the same man.
using that same fuzzy logic, i guess since the first half featured music by riley written in his 20′s it only made sense to have musicians in their 20′s play it. the result reminded me of too many undergraduate composers forums i have attended. and i assume they came pretty close to reminding terry of his student days back in berkeley.
the second half of the concert was much more enjoyable. riley performed improvisations of much of the music he is known for. one of the first improvisations featured much of the repetitive patterns intermixed with a jazz standards (i’m fuzzy on my titles), coltrane influenced voice leading, with a little stride and ragtime piano thrown in. i’m sure the intent was a musical lecture (in the best spirit) to show the influences and relationships between all of the music he loves. i know many “important” composers wouldn’t dare show their “bag of tricks” that readily in public, but it only points to greatness of an artist when he/she is willing to show you what is behind the curtain.
oh yeah, on the last encore he played a improvised version of salome dances that i’ll never forget.
thanks terry,
paul
