Taller Children

Elizabeth and the Catapult; Video; new LP

Elizabeth and the Catapult have just released a video in support of their new LP Taller Children (Verve Forecast). While the song may feature the vagaries of adults with arrested development, it’s smart, brisk pop that will likely please listeners of all ages; even the mature set, as is attested by their recent interview on NPR’s All Songs Considered (listen here).

Video: “Taller Children” (YouTube)

MP3: “Taller Children”

Planning a recital

Faculty Recital in February

I managed to get a faculty recital slot for next February 10 at 3 PM. I'll be presenting my own music and other recent music by composers whom I admire. The program and participants, a work in progress, is below.

21^st Century Music with Christian Carey

Christian Carey, composer and tenor

Jody Redhage, singing cellist

Joseph Arndt, organ

John McMurtery, flute

Ashlee Mack, piano

Works by Christian Carey, Jody Redhage, and James Romig

February 10 at 3 PM

Bristol Chapel

Westminster Choir College of Rider University

101 Walnut Lane

Princeton, NJ 08540

Christina Courtin

Wednesday: Christina Courtin at Le Poisson Rouge; new CD; MP3

Christina Courtin recently received her degree in violin from the Juilliard School; but she’s taking after Andrew Bird: singing while she fiddles and wowing audiences with crossover fare.

Courtin is performing at Le Poisson Rouge tonight. The date celebrates yesterday’s release of her self-titled CD on Nonesuch. You can download a song from the record, “Foreign Country,” on the label’s website (link below).

MP3: “Foreign Country”

Art vs. Music

David Stubbs

Fear of Music: Why People Get Rothko but don't get Stockhausen

Zero Books

David Stubbs is a wide-ranging cultural commentator; he writes about sports, film, and literature as well as music. Stubbs' book Fear of Music discusses the perception gap between modern art and modern music. Why is it that collectors will shell out millions of dollars for avant-garde visual art while avante-garde music is still so widely derided?

The old saw regarding the issue of art vs. music appreciation is that time is the deciding factor. Stubbs acknowledges the potency of this argument; as he points out, one can look at the Rothko Room for five minutes and then head off to a café, but many Stockhausen works requires hours of a listener's time. But the author also crafts a persuasive case for consumer consumption of art objects as increasing their palatability with the public. With no easy way to create coveted musical artifacts in this era of file-sharing and digital distribution, it's easy to see music being increasingly thought by the masses of as free, disposable, and even 'unnecessary.” All the while, visual artists are able to monetize their wares with, in some cases, alarming audacity. Stubbs is able to negotiate the delicate issues of the duality between visual and performing arts with deft, knowledgeable, and subtle commentary.

Fear of Music also serves as an excellent primer on music outside the mainstream. At 135 pages, the appearance of this slender volume is deceiving. Stubbs covers a tremendous amount of musical terrain, eloquently expounding on such varied subjects as post-punk, futurism, Dada, Sun Ra, free jazz, Derek Bailey, and Webern. Indeed, the book is an excellent primer for anyone looking to take a subscription to avant-garde music journal The Wire, a periodical to which Stubbs frequently contributes. Indeed, Fear of Music is apt to bring more than a few music lovers further outside the mainstream in their listening habits.

STN co-hosts Houston bill w/ Christina Carter & more

We are proud to join Sound Exchange (our favorite hometown record store) in presenting an incredible night of music featuring sets by guitarist and vocalist Christina Carter (Charalambides, Scorces), flautist Michelle Yom, and Wols (guitarist/vocalist Amye McCarther). This is some of the best music Houston has to offer and we applaud Ramon Medina for organizing and producing what's sure to be an amazing show. Doors open at 7 PM at our neighborhood's finest listening room, Avant Garden (411 Westheimer). STN will be on premises giving away classic back issues as well as STN#53, still relatively hot off the presses. We'd love to meet some fellow Houstonians, come say hello!

David S. Ware seeks kidney donor

Saxophonist David S. Ware is ailing and in need of a kidney donor, reports Steven Joerg who heads Ware's label, Aum Fidelity. Diagnosed with kidney failure in 1999 and on dialysis ever since, Ware has continued to perform and record, with Shakti, a new record featuring a new lineup, out this month. In late December, Ware reported that treatment was no longer working effectively, and that a transplant is his only option. Various friends and family members have offered to help, but have been rejected as donors since they do note share Ware's O blood type. Ware is seeking interested donors who are under 60 years of age and who are in generally good health without diabetes and high blood pressure. The transplant would take place at New Jersey's highly-regarded Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. If you think you can help, get in touch with Joerg at 718 854 2387 or at aum@aumfidelity.com. Ware, of course, is a towering figure of avant-garde jazz, who came to light in the '70s in the bands of Cecil Taylor and Andrew Cyrille, and who led fairly consistent quartet lineups that epitomized modern free jazz throughout the '90s and '00s, landing a major label contract with Columbia at one point but primarily recording for highly-regarded boutique labels like Aum Fidelity, DIW and Thirsty Ear.

Drum-heads open vintage drum shop in Portland

The Breeders' drummer Jose Medeles is teaming up with Scott McPherson, who's sat behind the tubs in the bands of Elliott Smith, Beck and M. Ward to open the Revival Drum Shop in Northeast Portland, Oregon. Medeles characterizes the shop as "a place to check out some great vintage and custom drums, hear timeless music spinning on our turntable, grab a coffee, hang out and talk drum," inspired by Hollywood's Professional Drum Shop,a mecca for skinsmen since 1959. Medeles refers to a photo taken at the PDS featuring "cool drums, cymbals and a couch to sit on. It had a great selection to be sure, but mainly had a cozy, drum friendly environment where all drummers could come and share their love for drumming. When I worked there, the couches had been removed but the vibe remained. I hope REVIVAL captures that spirit of camaraderie." The store will open on January 31st with guest DJs Joe Plummer (Modest Mouse), Janet Weiss (Quasi), Scott DeMay (Mike Kirkendal Band) and Karen Antunes (Mississippi Records). Chick Webb's borthday (February 10th) will be honored by a day-long marathon of Webb's recordings, and on February 13th, the shop will mount a show of drum inspired visual art by Johnny Marr (Modest Mouse), Kim and Kelley Deal (Breeders), Janet Weiss (Quasi), Wayne Coyne, Steven Drozd & Kliph Scurlock (Flaming Lips) and others. In-store performances and other events will follow.

Freddie Hubbard: 1938 - 2008

Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard passed away yesterday morning in Sherman Oaks, California at the age of 70. The jazz legend participated in numerous iconic jazz sessions in the '60s, both as a leader and as a sideman with Art Blakey, Eric Dolphy, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Andrew Hill, and countless others. His fusion recordings in the '70s vexed purists but had huge commercial appeal, and injuries and illness sidelined him through much of the '80s and '90s. He had been enjoying something of a career resurgence with a June release on Hip Bop records backed by the New Jazz Composers Octet and a Downbeat cover story penned by STN contributor Howard Mandel ... please check out Howard's blog posting here.

Phil Lesh Digs the Concerto for Orchestra

Tanglewood Moments: “Yes, THAT Phil Lesh”

If you were in the audience on Wednesday night after the Tanglewood Festival Orchestra, conducted by Oliver Knussen, gave a luminous and revelatory performance of Elliott Carter’s Concerto for Orchestra, you might have noticed an interesting fellow attendee. During the considerable applause following the concert’s conclusion, conductor Oliver Knussen gave each section of the orchestra acknowledgment in turn, pointing out the various solos that members had executed.

During the bass section’s bow, a gentleman in a light jacket popped up, vigorously applauding the double bass contingent: It was Phil Lesh, bassist for the Grateful Dead! Lesh has a classical pedigree of his own: he studied composition with Luciano Berio at Mills College. It must have been such a thrill for the string players, once they were clued in as to who was paying them homage!

Lesh’s enthusiasm was well deserved. One of the best moments in the concerto, one which can’t hope to be captured on recording, was when a solo line began at theback desk of the double basses and wended its way forward. I’ve never heard this passage, nor for that matter the whole piece, better performed. Kudos to Knussen, the TMC students, and Phil Lesh!

More about Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music at File Under ?www.sequenza21.com/carey