July 31, 2007
Posted by on July 31, 2007 at 09:00 PM
In case you missed this earlier in the day, don't forget to tune into The Signal tonight for Land's End. No, we're not talking downscale J. Crew,* we're talking the romance of place and name.
This is how Lands End Chamber Ensemble describes the inspiration for their name:
"Lands End, in Cornwall, England, reaches out into the Atlantic Ocean into what were uncharted waters before the time of Columbus. The chamber ensemble of the same name was created to explore the boundaries of contemporary music, and to create compelling aural experiences."
Tonight you can hear performances by the ensemble featuring the work of British composer John McCabe. (Born in Liverpool, so not exactly land's end, but coastal at least.) It's from a concert recorded at the University of Calgary, which also includes the winning composition from this year's Land's End Composers Competition - Sean Clarke's Supplication.
(I'm told Laurie will also "spin the latest electro-sonic assault from XXL, along with soothing sounds from Vashti Bunyan and Rodge Glass." I'd like to see that.)
*CBC does not endorse and is not responsible for all and any fashion commentary on the Radio 2 Blog.
Posted by on July 31, 2007 at 07:00 PM
Guess that's a question Pinchas and Amanda have resolved. You can hear the proof this evening, as Pinchas Zukerman and his wife, cellist Amanda Forsyth, are featured in a program of chamber music on Canada Live. It was recorded at the National Gallery of Canada, and features music by Kodaly, plus the Quintet for Piano and Strings by Dvorak. (The pianist is rising Israeli star Benjamin Hochman.)
Also on the show: Janina Fialkowska plays a program of music from the Romantic era in a concert recorded in Almonte, Ontario.
In answer to the question though -- sure I could. As long as he understands I'm almost always right.
Posted by on July 31, 2007 at 04:00 PM
According to Team Tonic, tonight on the show "Sting tackles bossa nova." I hope Jobim is ready. But really, what an eclectic musician Sting is, what with his John Dowland excursion and all.
Other Tonic touchdowns include vocalist Diana Krall and pianist Hank Jones paying tribute to Ella Fitzgerald with Dream a Little Dream of Me. And Aaron Neville sings the Cole Porter classic In the Still of the Night.
Posted by on July 31, 2007 at 02:00 PM
What's the greatest threat to music? According to flamenco guitarist, Paco Peña, in an interview with The Guardian:
"The loss of individual musical cultures. Music is becoming standardised: it's just more of the same. When you respect your own cultural traditions, your music is more true."
He also says the best decision he ever made was to not join the Gypsy Kings...heh. (And his favorite movie is Casablanca!)
Anyway, his comment points to a kind of tug-of-war quietly going on in some quarters, between the idea of cultural specificity as essential to art, and the idea that sharing/blending of music actually links cultures together more strongly. Think the latter is much more fashionable these days, but from my perspective, both have validity. Maybe it depends on what kind of culture you come from, and what kind of music you want to play. Maybe there is room for both to co-exist. Or maybe that's just fence sitting?
p.s. Jennifer Hudson aside, I think the greatest threat to music is American Idol. Millions would disagree.
Posted by on July 31, 2007 at 11:00 AM
Those busy NYT bloggers are into the nuances of all things Tanglewood festival these days, and in this post/interview, Tanglewood director John Harbison discusses what some have labelled "geezerfest," for its emphasis on older composers. (You see, the age debate is hardly restricted to those on the podium...) But geezerfest, sheesh, how mean. Wonder what mud would be slung were they all young 'uns. Spotty callow youth fest? (Anyone want to place bets that's next year?)
Posted by on July 31, 2007 at 09:00 AM
Land's End, the place that is, has such a romantic ring, don't you think? (I've always thought that Mile End does too, although I tend to associate it with the romance of bagel.) Anyway, Land's End, both as a notion and as an actual geographical place, is the inspiration for the Lands End Chamber Ensemble. And this is how they describe their muse:
"Lands End, in Cornwall, England, reaches out into the Atlantic Ocean into what were uncharted waters before the time of Columbus. The chamber ensemble of the same name was created to explore the boundaries of contemporary music, and to create compelling aural experiences."
The Signal travels to Land's End tonight with performances from the ensemble, featuring the work of British composer John McCabe. (Born in Liverpool, so not exactly land's end, but coastal at least.) It's from a concert recorded at the University of Calgary, which also includes the winning composition from this year's Land's End Composers Competition - Sean Clarke's Supplication.
I'm told Laurie will also "spin the latest electro-sonic assault from XXL, along with soothing sounds from Vashti Bunyan and Rodge Glass." I'd like to see that.
Posted by on July 31, 2007 at 07:30 AM
Montreal-born Louis Lortie is famed for his Chopin Etudes. In 2003 he was invited to play them at Carnegie Hall, and his recording dedicated to the Chopin Etudes was called "one of the 50 best recordings by first-rate pianists," according to the BBC's Music Magazine.
So if you need one reason to tune into Here's To You today you just got it. Three more? Guest host Catherine Belyea will also have music by Corelli, Albinoni and Rachmaninov.
July 30, 2007
Posted by on July 30, 2007 at 08:29 PM
Concert highlights from this year's Montreal International Festival of New Music are featured tonight on The Signal.
Now, here's a question I asked earlier today, but one that can never be asked too many times: Would you throw a fish into a piano? No? Well John Cage would. And did. Many found it laughable. That was OK by Cage, he said he'd rather people laugh than cry. (btw, the fish appears at around 5:50 in...)
If you're curiuous about other innovative things done to and with the piano, (a.k.a. prepared piano), tonight The Signal also presents the work of Hauschka. He specializes in messing about with the piano’s conventional sound. So the strings buzz and ring and thunk and make all sorts of sounds not typically attributed to the 88's.
But wait, there's more! You can also hear Hauschka’s music remixed by artists such as Mira Calix, and Chica And The Folder.
(Wonder if there's ever been a remix of John Cage's fish...what would the results be, Splake?)
Posted by on July 30, 2007 at 06:05 PM
Years ago I interviewed guitarist Michael Occhipinti at The Rex, longstanding jazz venue (not many places you can say that about, at least, not in Canada) on their excellent side patio. We talked about his then-new Bruce Cockburn project, interpreting Cockburn's songs as jazz instrumentals.
But somehow I managed to miss his more recent Sicilian Jazz Project, Canzoni del Sud, with percussionist Alessandra Belloni. So I was pleased to have it drawn to my attention by Canada Live, who broadcast a performance of the work tonight. They describe the concert as giving "Italian folk music a jazz kick." (Shouldn't that be, a jazz "fissa?")
Also on this evening's show: guest conductor Alastair Willis leads the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra in a spirited performance of the beautiful Symphony No. 2 by Finnish composer Jan Sibelius.
Posted by on July 30, 2007 at 04:00 PM
Maybe you feel Everything Happens To Me, but not in a good way. Or perhaps you've been feeling low about how it's Funny How Time Slips Away. Well, what cannot be cured must be endured, Til the Clouds Roll By.
Really, if Tonic provided me with their entire line-up this could go on for days. Best they don't then, eh? Still, it's amazing how often Tonic broadcasts present a logical story, song title by song title.
And in case you're wondering, tonight on Tonic the above three songs are performed, respectively, by Wynton Marsalis, Al Green and Lyle Lovett, and Gene DiNovi.
Posted by on July 30, 2007 at 01:08 PM
From the legendary Winnipeg Folk Festival, an opening-night, main-stage performance by The Duhks.
This Grammy-nominated, Juno Award-winning young group from Winnipeg blend soul, gospel, North American folk, Brazilian samba, old time country string band, zydeco, and Irish dance music.
Check out home town heroes, The Duhks at The Winnipeg Folk Festival at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by on July 30, 2007 at 11:04 AM
Speaking of John Cage, as we were earlier today, Kyle Gann over on PostClassic shares a charming John Cage anecdote in a post about an upcoming book by Richard Fleming, called Evil and Silence: Philosophical Exercises, Socrates to Cage.
Posted by on July 30, 2007 at 09:00 AM
Would you throw a fish into a piano? No? Well John Cage did. Many found it laughable. That was OK by Cage, he said he'd rather people laugh than cry. (btw, the fish appears at around 5:50 in...)
If you're curious about other innovative things done to and with the piano, (a.k.a. prepared piano), tune into The Signal tonight to hear the work of Hauschka. He specializes in messing about with the piano’s conventional sound. So the strings buzz and ring and thunk and make all sorts of sounds not typically attributed to the 88's.
But wait, there's more! You can also hear Hauschka’s music remixed by artists such as Mira Calix, and Chica And The Folder.
(Wonder if there's ever been a remix of John Cage's fish...what would the results be, Splake?)
Posted by on July 30, 2007 at 07:00 AM
Soon, very soon the corn will be high as an elephant's eye. (Although I must say that the early season peaches n' cream stuff we've been getting since June is quite delightful.)
Anyway, on Here's To You this morning Shelley Solmes has a little Oklahoma fest, with excerpts from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. (Poor Jud, doesn't work out too well for him, does it. Never makes it to that late August corn. Well, that's what happens when you get liquored up and act foolish at box socials I guess.)
July 29, 2007
Posted by on July 29, 2007 at 09:00 PM
Choral music buffs take note! Tonight The Signal features contemporary choral music from around the world.
The evening includes contemporary Canadian selections, the late Harry Freedman's Keewaydin and Steve Chatman's Due North, as well as highlights recorded earlier in July at the Festival 500 in St. John's, Newfoundland. What I've heard from this festival so far has really rocked. (Sorry, couldn't resist, but I do mean it).
Tonight, the following choirs: Newfoundland's "Lady Cove", (what a totally delicious name), the Gondwana Voices from Australia, New Zealand's Tower Youth Choir and the Saskatoon Children's Choir.
Posted by on July 29, 2007 at 06:32 PM
No shortage of chamber music in the country this summer, or tonight on Canada Live.
First up, from the Lachine Music Festival, violinist Alexandre da Costa and pianist Wonny Song share the stage. Then clarinetist James Campbell and the Arthur Leblanc String Quartet perform the music of Johannes Brahms, as part of the Sainte-Pétronille Chamber Music Festival.
I'm sorry not to find a link to the Saint Pétronille festival, but not sorry to gaze longingly at this site about Saint-Petronille itself, which looks absolutely lovely...sigh, perhaps next June...
Posted by on July 29, 2007 at 04:45 PM
A plethora of great sounds this evening on R2, starting the evening with Tonic -- and music from New Orleans, big bands, Brubecks, Molly Johnson, and Amy Winehouse.
Was glad to see Amy Winehouse on that list. I know that she's on the verge of being overplayed (at least, the great Rehab song is) in just about every public space these days. But I don't know as the jazz world is so keen to embrace her, since the pop world sure has. Jazz is definitely a component of her music though.
P.S. If that previous slightly out of sync vid to the original isn't enough for you, check out this version of Rehab live, it's interesting to hear her sing without all that production (much as I love those horns) -- this is just voice and guitar.
Posted by on July 29, 2007 at 03:30 PM
Every now and then a singer comes along who almost shocks people with her potential -- and Kellylee Evans is one of those musicians. Winning second place in the prestigious Thelonious Monk competition in 2004 (in front of judges including Quincy Jones, Al Jarreau, Dee Dee Bridgewater and others of that ilk) didn't hurt her stock one bit. But since then she's gone on to focus on original material rather than jazz standards.
So, take one original up-and-coming jazz singer, and pair her with four musicians named Chet. That's right, Chet. Well, collectively that's what these four from Victoria are called. Their myspace site (see above link) claims they're an indie band, but I like this description from the folks at Fuse, who are responsible for pairing Chet and Kellylee: "Chet croon reverb-drenched songs of pure beauty."
Also from the horse's mouth: "Today on Fuse Kellylee Evans and Chet get to the heart of real soul music."
Posted by on July 29, 2007 at 02:50 PM
Tony Conjugacion, (a.k.a. Tony C.), is a singer from Hawaii who wants the whole world to hula. Really. But that's all I know. For the full story you must tune into Roots & Wings.
A couple o' other highlights: Music from Shubha Mudgal, a classical singer in India who is so popular she gets mobbed in the street for her autograph. And a vocal ensemble from Finland called Rajaton, performing jazzy a capella arrangements of Finnish folk songs. (Not really a surprise, what hasn't been done with a Finnish folk song? Seems like Finns enjoy exploring how far they can take their folk.) btw, if you are curious about Finnish folk music, one good starting point is the Finnish Music Information Centre.
Posted by on July 29, 2007 at 12:45 PM
André Alexis remembers the old prose poem by Gertrude Stein, called "It was black, black took."
He can even quote it "Black ink best wheel bale brown. Excellent not a hull house, not a pea soup, no bill no care, no precise no past pearl pearl goat."
Sounds like a song, no? In fact it has been set to music, by Charles Shere.
This week Skylarking separates the music from the words, to make a sound collage, a sound collage such as Gert did, God bless her pointy little pearl pearl goat.
Posted by on July 29, 2007 at 11:32 AM
Harry Manx has been called an "essential link" between the music of East and West, because he weaves blues with classical Indian ragas. And he weaves with both voice and the Veena, a 20-stringed sitar/guitar that is key to his idiosyncratic musical direction.
This week, Onstage presents a special event created by Manx, called Heaven and Earth - Harry Manx & Friends, recorded at Glenn Gould Studio. He's joined by guitarist Kevin Breit, and South Asian vocalist Samdha Joglekar.
Posted by on July 29, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Sounds like a fabulous -- and challenging -- round up of songs today on The Singer And The Song. Eleanor James sings R. Murray Schafer from his cycle of Minnelieder, plus excerpts from Osvaldo Golijov's Oceana, a work based on poems by Pablo Neruda, and influenced by Bach, Golijov's Argentinean upbringing and a mystical sense of the sea.
Here's what Mr. Golijov says about Oceana: "My aim in Oceana was the transmutation of passion into geometry."
Passion (and structure) can likely also be found in a group of pieces from South American composers Guastavino, Villa-Lobos and Ovallo, all sung by Isabel Bayrakdarian.
Posted by on July 29, 2007 at 07:00 AM
Two works by great Czech composers on this morning's Choral Concert. First, it's Dvorak's Mass in D Minor, performed in Nantes, France by the Cologne Chamber Chorus and Collegium Cartusianum under the direction of Peter Neumann. And Janacek's Glagolitic Mass, performed by the San Francisco Chorus and orchestra under the direction of Michael Tilson Thomas.
Speaking of "MTT," here's a little insight from the music director about a very early music-related memory, taken from the San Francisco Symphony website. (And providing all of us with a reason to avoid housecleaning...)
"One of my very, very first memories is of my parents' house in Los Angeles," writes Tilson Thomas. "In the late afternoon, the light would come through windows at one end of the house. There were venetian blinds and the blinds would be open so the light would come into the room in bands of light, because there was a lot of dust in the air in the San Fernando Valley in the summertime especially, and in these bands of light there were motes of dust, dancing in the light; and my first musical memory, I think, is watching those particles of dust moving, and reaching way up over my head to the keyboard of this big old upright rosewood Steinway grand that my parents had, and trying to play notes that would accompany this dance of the dust."
July 28, 2007
Posted by on July 28, 2007 at 09:00 PM
In one of these incredible synchronistic moments that keeps happening, (like the one the other day involving Tonic and Canada Live), this evening's Radio 2 roster began with Tonic playing talk show house bands, and then hours later we have The Signal's theme of house and home!
Putting aside these amazing, incredible coincidences for the moment, you may be wondering, how can house and home be a musical theme? According to the always-creative minds at The Signal, this is how:
The band Beirut does some interior decorating, Toronto's Snailhouse provides the hospitality, and Montreal duo Avia Gardner explains what to do if you lose your key. (The answer is throw away the house). And from Estonia, Veljo Tormis performs his beautiful song How Can I Recognize My Home.
Posted by on July 28, 2007 at 07:30 PM
Unlike some kinds of music I can think of (say, boy bands?) you can grow old in jazz, gracefully or otherwise. Case in point of the former, jazz icon Dave Brubeck. Tonight on Canada Live you can hear him from a live recording made at the Winnipeg Jazz Festival.
Then, it's the Knappen Street All-Stars, a quartet led by Winnipeg's own multi-instrumentalist (though best known for his eclectic and always interesting banjo playing) Daniel Koulack.
Posted by on July 28, 2007 at 05:24 PM
Talk show house bands are sometimes underrated, and almost always underheard, but not tonight on Tonic, where the talk show house band has its day.
On the talk show house band trivia beat: Did you know that Paul Schaffer's band from the Late Show with David Letterman was apaprently forced to give up its name, "The World's Most Dangerous Band," after Late Show broadcaster NBC claimed that name as their intellectual property? (Presumably after the show moved to CBS.) AND that Paul Shaffer grew up in Thunder Bay, where a street is named for him? ALSO that Paul Shaffer is working on his memoirs?
The things you learn when you are hoping to find out something more substantial about talk show house bands, eh...
Posted by on July 28, 2007 at 03:00 PM
Boos for nudity at Bayreuth, and Beyonce trips -- ah the always variegted squibs that come down the pipeline from the New York Times Arts, Briefly.
Briefly, Katharina Wagner, great-granddaughter of Richard Wagner, found her directing debut went well until the nudity. And Beyonce found a concert in Orlando, Fla, went well until she tripped and about a million people went to YouTube to watch all those illegal videos of the event.
Happy to report that the video is no longer up -- so I don't have to weigh the ethics of posting or not. Who needs to watch someone, famous or otherwise, nearly falling down? (It's not like a wardrobe malfunction, or some other essential pop-cultural viewing.) Although apparently her recovery was magnificent, so at least it has a happy ending.
Posted by on July 28, 2007 at 12:00 PM
There are few things one can say that sound as delightful as Cosi Fan Tutte, don't you think? Just trips off the tongue in such a way that one feels it is possible to speak Italian, even if one does not. (Now I'm imagining people all across the country, topping up their Saturday coffees and murmuring Cosi Fan Tutte to their loved ones. Although best be careful who you whisper it to, given the usual English translation of the phrase is: "Women are like that.")
In a segue that will startle no one still reading, yes, today Saturday Afternoon At The Opera presents a production of (drum roll) Mozart's Cosi Fan Tutte, from the Chicago Lyric Opera, starring Erin Wall, Eric Cutler, Lauren McNeese, Nathan Gunn, Nuccia Focile and Sir Thomas Allen, with Sir Andrew Davis at the podium.
Posted by on July 28, 2007 at 09:20 AM
Interesting piece in The Guardian, slugged: "Monteverdi's L'Orfeo mapped out a musical terrain that is still being followed 400 years later," writes John Eliot Gardiner.
Actually I guess that's a tad long to be called a slug, but as far as I know no blogism has been invented to describe the subject headings used in RSS feeds. Perhaps blog-ject? Anyway, if this (slug-ject?) piques your curiosity, go to Guardian Unlimited Music for the whole story.
July 27, 2007
Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 10:36 PM
Tipica Toronto is a traditional Cuban ensemble of vocals, flute, violins, cello, tres guitar, piano, bass and percussion known as a “charanga francesa.” Telmary Diaz is a young Toronto-based Cuban rapper whose star is rising rapidly.
So for trad and rap Cuban-Canadian style check out Tipica Toronto with Telmary at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 09:40 PM
The sounds of the one man/woman band are celebrated tonight on The Signal.
Bands, or no wait, "ones," include That One Guy, The Russian Futurists, Julie Feeney and Mihirangi.
Later, the Gryphon's Annalee Patipatanakoon takes on composer Jeff Ryan's Bellatrix, as she simultaneously yells, grunts, and plays violin. But can she rub her stomach and pat her head at the same time? I don't think so. Unless someone builds a little stand, a la the harmonica stand, for the violin. Say, Annalee, you might want to look into that...
Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 07:00 PM
I remember going to some Bollywood films in India many years ago and just being floored -- hadn't a clue what the songs were about, but the over-the-top dance numbers, the abrupt intermission half-way through (where everyone walked out of the theatre), the sense of occasion, of a real communal experience -- it was something. And then there was the music.
It struck me at the time that folks back home would love the music -- if it was readily available. And lo, these many years later this has come to pass. Bollywood is pretty much entered mainstream global culture, creating all kinds of spin-offs, including groups like Masala Mixers, whose style combines Bollywood hit tunes with jazz and electronics. Can't seem to find a place on the World Wide Web for Masala Mixers, but they are reviewed here at the Live Music Report.
You can hear the Masala Mixers on Canada Live tonight, along with a wealth of Cuban-Canadian music.
Continue reading "Bollywood Havana Canada Style" »
Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 04:11 PM
The folks at Tonic have decided that a heatwave is something to be celebrated -- at least musically. So they've got a couple of versions of Gershwin's Summertime for you on the show, by Joni Mitchell, and by pianist Michel Petrucciani.
If you've ever been in Montreal during the jazz festival when there's a heat wave you'll know just how hot it can be, like swimming in heat. Pianist Oliver Jones knows the summers of Montreal very well -- and you can hear him tonight too, returning to the neighbourhood where he grew up in Lights of Burgundy.
Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 02:00 PM
Not new news, but an update on a recent story via a full-length feature at the Times online about the upcoming remix of Bob Dylan's Most Likely You’ll Go Your Way (And I’ll Go Mine) by producer Mark Ronson. (The guy behind Lily Allen and Amy Winehouse's great recordings, as well as many other remixes.) This is Dylan's first sanctioning of some kind of dancefloor take one of his classics.
Ronson told the Times: "It’s the first time Bob Dylan has given anyone the original multi-tracks of his songs to do remixes. I’m a huge Dylan fan, so it’s a great honour, along with the fact that he heard it and approved it, because, as you imagine, he’d be quite picky."
Imagine so. Looking forward to hearing it in October.
Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 10:30 AM
Another day on Studio Sparks feast of all things chamber music, another special guest of note. Today it's Paul Merkelo, principal trumpet player with the Orchestre Symphonique de Montreal.
But get this -- are you sitting down? This is what Paul Merkelo is going to do. He will reveal all the sounds a trumpet can make as a chamber instrument. All of them.
Continue reading "The Trumpet, Revealed" »
Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 09:00 AM
It's been about a decade since the flood of mainstream interest in Cuban music began (largely courtesy of Ry, Wim and The BVSC). Who could have predicted it? Anyone could have predicted the eventual tapering off of interest though, and sure as shootin,' these days a lot of that music is only heard on low rotation in your nearest non-corporate coffee shop.
Meantime, Cuban music in Canada is flourishing -- more than ample compensation for not hearing Chan Chan on a daily basis. One of the newer groups (new enough that they don't seem to have a website I can link to, although check out this bio at the Lula Lounge) is Tipica Toronto, a Cuban orchestra featuring vocals, flute, violins, cello, tres, piano, bass and percussion, a configuration sometimes known as a “charanga francesa.”
They're just one of two Cuban-Canadian acts you can hear on Canada Live this evening, recorded at the hopping Salsa on St. Clair Street fest. (If you check out that link you'll see the festival literally lives up to its name... marvellous, as dancing on the streets is certainly not part of the normal course of life in uptown hogtown.)
Continue reading "Salsa On The Air" »
Posted by on July 27, 2007 at 07:42 AM
This morning on Here's To You, guest host Catherine Belyea indulges her Bohemian soul. We're not talking boho chic, we're talking the original sense of the word, with a musical excursion to old Czechoslovakia. In other words, music by Smetana, Janacek and Dvorak.
But feel to put on a flowy skirt, an embroidererd tunic and maybe an old pair of Ugg boots while you listen, if you are so moved.
July 26, 2007
Posted by on July 26, 2007 at 09:55 PM
They're a modern stone-aged...No, wait a minute, wrong century. And you won't be hearing the music of Hoyt Curtin tonight, but you will hear music from Simpsons theme song composer Danny Elfman this evening on The Signal, in a musical prelude to the release of the much-hyped Simpsons Movie.
Take note, Simpsons fans, you can also hear tracks featuring Lisa Simpson's favourite instrument, the saxomophone, er, saxophone. You'll hear the sax in a short processional from Canadian composers Nonloc (a.k.a. Mark Dwinell) and Violet Archer.
On the non-Simpsons beat, The Signal also has a concert highlight from this year's Mutek Festival in Montreal, featuring Mark Templeton and Aaron Munson, and a delightful work from this year's International Rostrum of Composers called Appalachia.
Posted by on July 26, 2007 at 05:00 PM
We've got Can-Lit, why not Can-Sax? Given how many great Canadian sax players there are out there. And two of them pair up twice tonight, on both Tonic and Canada Live: saxophonist Tara Davidson and her teacher, saxophonist Mike Murley. In the former instance, it's with a rendition of No Regrets, featuring the Glenn Gould Studio Strings, in the latter it's part of a concert from Halifax's Atlantic Jazz Festival.
And if you need more proof that Tonic and Canada Live sometimes have freakishly astounding synchronicity, get this -- tonight on Canada Live you can also hear a band called the Tonic, recorded at the PEI Jazz Festival. Wow, man.
Posted by on July 26, 2007 at 02:00 PM
Can jazz be commercial? asks Fred Kaplan, over at Stereophile. You betcha,' as Dolce & Gabbana's perfume ad featuring Mingus' music proves. Without the music, the ad would have a fraction of the impact. But SHOULD jazz be commercial? That's another question, probably way too big for the likes of one lil ole blog.
Musicians, critics and other interested parties will debate the ethics of using great music to "sell soap" 'til the cows come home, but the debate won't stop it from happening. And you could make a case for the artistry of commercials too, that perhaps by these lights using music for such purposes is not so different from using the creativity of the admen/adwomen who conceived the commercial to begin with -- if there is a reciprocal financial arrangement for all concerned.
In related news -- why does everyone keep referring to Joni Mitchell's "Starbucks" album, to be released this fall, as her "comeback?" Yes, it's her first recording in a long time, but last I looked Joni wasn't considered a "has been."
Posted by on July 26, 2007 at 12:45 PM
Soundstreams Canada’s Cool Drummings Festival (great name!) took place in Toronto in late May 2007. Now CBC Concerts On Demand presents a concert from the festival featuring the world-renowned Nexus with three formidable friends: Grammy-winning American drummer Peter Erskine; Canada’s sensational electric violin improviser, Hugh Marsh; and from Trinidad - “the Paganini of the steel pan” - Liam Teague.
You’ll hear works by John Cage, Toru Takemitsu, and members of Nexus, from ragtime to a 15 minute improvisation with all the performers. And - perhaps the highlight - a rare performance by Nexus of one of their early signature pieces, John Cage’s masterpiece “Third Construction”.
Download the concert program and listen to Nexus & Friends at Cool Drummings at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by on July 26, 2007 at 10:30 AM
The Shanghai Quartet say that what they do musically "melds the delicacy of Eastern music with the power of Western repertoire, from traditional Chinese folk music to the most challenging classical works."
(They appear to prefer to go west when it comes to wine though, if violinist Yi-Wen Jiang's wine list is any indication. The TOSATSURU Daiginjo-Genshu "Tenpyo" aside.)
But I digress. The Shanghai Quartet appear today on Studio Sparks, as special guests during the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival.
I hope Eric digs deep and gets the goods on eastern bevvies.
Posted by on July 26, 2007 at 08:45 AM
How old should a music director be? Are orchestras giving preferential treatment to younger conductors?
An response to the debate sparked by the appointment of 40-year-old Alan Gilbert to the position of Music Director at the New York Phil can be found on Drew McManus's blog, Adaptistration. Yesterday he posted a survey to measure how people feel about music directors and age, as well as other aspects of the music director's role, and got more than 100 responses -- and now the results are up. Interestingly, they don't weigh in favour of the young pups.
Posted by on July 26, 2007 at 07:41 AM
Hard not to love the notion of Dvorak's Poetic Tone Pictures and Chattanooga Choo-Choo being played on the same show, as they are today on R2. Got your fare? Without a nickel to spare? Check it out on Here's To You.
p.s. You'd expect to find Glenn Miller performing Chatanooga Choo Choo on youtube, but you might not expect this version from "beautiful Lake Louise," subtitled in Portuguese, no less. Takes a while to get to the actual song, but it's worth it.
July 25, 2007
Posted by on July 25, 2007 at 08:50 PM
Here's a different kind of sidewalk sale -- Marimba Madness! Everything Must Be Hammered!
Tonight it will be, (at least musically speaking), as The Signal features virtuoso percussion performances from this year's Cool Drummings Festival, with Beverly Johnston’s performance of Fertility Rites by Christos Hatzis, and Anna-Julie Caron letting the mallets fly in a performance of Oleksa Lozowchuk's Le Rencontre.
Posted by on July 25, 2007 at 06:31 PM
Berlioz had Les Nuits d'été, (broadcast earlier today); Montrealers have Nuits d’Afrique. And so do CBC listeners...tonight on Canada Live.
The annual festival of African music is a special one, originally held at the legendary Club Balattou, now held at venues across the city. Funny, just writing that makes me nostalgic for Montreal and its summer music scene, which has always struck me as a more free-wheeling creature than that of my home-town T.O. Must go to Montreal soon...
Anyway, at least there is the Can-Live broadcast from the festival to enjoy tonight, with a concert from Moroccan-born, Quebec-based Hassan El Hadi, a singer and oud player who blends Berber rhythms with the music from Andalusia. (I heard him play Afrofest this year, with his band Maroc'N Real -- gotta love the name -- a thoroughly enjoyable show, energetic and engaging.)
The second performance is by Gabriela Mendes, who is of Cape Verdean heritage (think Cesaria Evora), and sings both original and traditional songs in Portuguese and Creole. I've only seen her via this sweet video shot in Cape Verde, but that's certainly more than enough to recommend her music.
Posted by on July 25, 2007 at 05:03 PM
Strange when you hear that a musician you think of as being youngish is actually celebrating his 75th birthday. Guess that's the time warp thing -- the first recordings you heard were done when they were a certain age, and somehow they got stuck in your mind as not keeping pace with time passing.
In this instance, it's guitarist Kenny Burrell who's celebrating his 75th, and you can hear him on Tonic tonight (along with music from Dionne Warwick, Ronald Isley and Celso Machado).
Of course if you look at the facts it's true that Kenny Burrell's first major recording session was in 1951, with Dizzy Gillespie. So yeah, guess he'd have to be more than a lad now. Happy Birthday, Kenny Burrell!
Posted by on July 25, 2007 at 02:01 PM
The CBC/McGill concert presents a flute fiesta featuring the internationally acclaimed flute section of the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal and their special guests.
From Renaissance dances to Celtic tunes, the flute is feted in all its guises in this programme of favourites. Also on the programme, music by Villa Lobos, Debussy, and an extraordinary arrangement of Ravel’s Mother Goose Suite.
To get the lowdown on the flute file and to hear the concert, go to Flutissimi at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by on July 25, 2007 at 10:30 AM
What colour is the sound of a piano trio? The The Gryphon Trio must have some thoughts about that -- today on Studio Sparks they preview a new project which incorporates the visual representation of colour in sound. Also, the Gryphons preview a new composition by Canadian composer Marjan Mozetich.
I'm curious about that sound/colour project, and any links between the two. So often when people speak of orchestration or arrangements they talk about the instruments in terms of colours. Most, I think, don't mean that literally. But what if you heard every sound as a colour? Like seeing the days of the week in colours, (Wednesday is definitely a kind of mustard/tan, btw), only far more detailed: to every sound a colour.
This particular form of synaesthesia could, I imagine, drive you batty, or be quite blissful. Interesting that there is research suggesting that a number of composers (Liszt, Scriabin and others) were in fact "synesthetes." And there are also modern day musicians like Laura Rosser who are said to have the condition. She hears D-flat as periwinkle blue. Lovely.
Posted by on July 25, 2007 at 08:40 AM
A few days ago I was taken to task for implying that if Joni Mitchell signed up to Starbucks' record label , as was rumored, I'd be a tad disappointed. Well, she did, and I am.
Read the whole story at BBC News.
Posted by on July 25, 2007 at 07:36 AM
Les Nuits d'été, they are long and sweet. Or long and sweaty, depending on your location and a/c situation. Pretty sure Berlioz didn't have much option in that department though. And didn't he live in Paris, where the citizens flee the city in August?
Regardless, let's stick with the more romantic long and sweet view, and listen to the composer's musical tribute to summer nights on Here's To You this morning. Guest host Catherine Belyea will also present music by Beethoven, Rodrigo and Estacio.
July 24, 2007
Posted by on July 24, 2007 at 09:00 PM
Now this is intriguing. The Winnipeg new chamber music series Groundswell "honours plants and other natural forms with music tied to nature from two disparate corners of the world - Canada and Bali."
The concert is called Gardens In The Air and you can hear it on The Signal tonight, along with some acrobatic guitar playing from Erik Mongrain, plus music from the self-described "salon orchestra" known as the Saint Dirt Elementary School.
You know, if there was a prize for which R2 show played the bands with the most imaginative names, The Signal would take it, no contest. Yup, the show is special in many ways -- and their brand of specialness is not as common as dirt. Sanctified or otherwise.
Posted by on July 24, 2007 at 07:00 PM
John Reischman is an eclectic cat. I think I can call him that -- check out the previous link and see if you don't think he looks like someone who could be called a cat. Anyhoo, Reischman plays both Latin jazz and trad bluegrass, the latter with his group John Reischman & the Jaybirds, featured tonight in concert on Canada Live. It's a bit of a release party for their latest CD, Stellar Jays. (Baseball Aside: hey, three wins in a row, things are looking up! Maybe not quite stellar, but getting there.)
The second concert on tonight's show, having nothing to do with any kind of Jay, is from Sara Davis Buechner featuring music by Rudolf Friml and Gershwin. Davis Buechner is a pianist and an assistant professor of piano at UBC, and she's made the piano works of Friml something of a focus -- in 2004 she released a CD of his work that got great reviews, including one from Anthony Tommasini no less.
"I can't imagine this music played with more integrity and affection," said Tommasini.
I can't imagine a nicer thing to say about someone's playing.
Posted by on July 24, 2007 at 06:16 PM
Quick jazz bulletin: There's a thorough and very nice review of Canadian trumpeter Ingrid Jensen in concert with the great pianist Benny Green, on journalist Doug Ramsey's blog, Rifftides.
You can read the whole story right here.
Posted by on July 24, 2007 at 04:28 PM
A message from Tonic came in about tonight's show, saying that it would provide us listeners an excuse to "indulge our existential angst" as host Katie Malloch features saxophonists Gene Ammons and Sonny Stitt with Why Was I Born?.
As one who never needs encouragement in the angsty direction, I thought maybe I should focus on something briskly everyday instead, say Karin Plato and Denzal Sinclaire performing Let's Take An Old-fashioned Walk, as they do on tonight's show.
Then I thought no, why exercise when you can lie around being broody? So much easier. Was relieved to find out that tonight's show will also facilitate this (lack of) course of action equally well, with Alice Russell and the Quantic Soul Orchestra's Take Your Time, Change Your Mind.
Hey, I'm all over that. At this rate I might never do a damn thing other than considering my options. But then, who says I was born to have to do anything? Where is it written? On the other hand, if it's true there's no goal, why WAS I born? Arghhhhh....
Posted by on July 24, 2007 at 01:45 PM
That Prince is smart goes without saying. The most recent move being the giveaway of his new CD in a British newspaper, The Mail on Sunday, a move which infuriated many in the music industry, but endeared him to thousands of fans, not to mention probably making him a bundle of dough. (Presumably The Mail paid him what would have taken him much longer to collect in royalties.)
Continue reading "The Prince Of Turning Tides" »
Posted by on July 24, 2007 at 10:40 AM
The relationship between teacher and student is always interesting, particularly in music. Sometimes wonderful, sometimes fraught. Well do I recall the exasperated sighs of the second flutist of the WSO as I regularly showed up for lessons after having consumed what we called in Winnipeg "jam busters." (Think sugar, jelly, sticky kid fingers...and a flute).
OK, so I suspect the relationship between pianist Louis Lortie and one of his talented young students - Montreal's Jean-Philippe Sylvestre -- operates at a slightly more sophisticated level. You can hear for yourself -- today they talk about passing along musical wisdom on Studio Sparks. It's part of S-sparks' ongoing celebration of chamber music during the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival.
I did practice pretty hard though. Most weeks.
Posted by on July 24, 2007 at 09:00 AM
"Debussy left behind piano music in the form of black marks printed on a page. He also left behind a little of himself: piano rolls of Debussy playing Debussy. So elegantly conceived is the first part of this legacy that we sometimes wish the second part did not exist."
Bernard Holland wrote the above in the NYTimes, in the wake of a new CD of some "refurbished" recordings of Debussy playing Debussy, courtesy of piano rolls.
Is it possible, hearing some of the mad tempos he took pieces at, to decide that the composer got his own work "wrong?" And given they were recorded more or less as audio "snapshots," (in 1913), were they truly representative of his intentions? Do I have the answers to any of these questions? Are you kidding? Neither does Holland, actually, but his exploration of the issues is fascinating.
Addendum: As always I should point out you do not have to pay to access NYT articles, merely sign up for free, then you're away to the races. Or at least to the Debussy piano rolls.
Posted by on July 24, 2007 at 07:31 AM
Le Tombeau de Couperin, Ravel's piano suite dedicated to the memory of fallen friends (written between 1914 and 1917) is the centrepiece of today's Here's To You. Guest host Catherine Belyea will also bring listeners Symphony No. 2 by Alan Hovhaness, Camille Saint-Saens' Cello Concerto in A minor, and of course, the proverbial more.
Interesting that the Ravel has inspired any number of video versions, including this one with an "arial shot" of actress/pianist Pamela Ross' hands...stunning.
July 23, 2007
Posted by on July 23, 2007 at 06:55 PM
Tom Wilson (of Junkhouse and Blackie and The Rodeo Kings fame) has been running a café/folk club in Rosebud Alberta, which looks about as perfect a spot for an intimate folk/roots concert as you can imagine. Tonight Canada Live broadcasts from the Rosebud, featuring Tom's own music, veteran blues man Tim Williams, and 18-year-old singer-songwriter Lindsay Ell.
And the second concert of the evening is from Toronto trumpeter Guido Basso, performing with Calgary quintet, Verismo, in the Monday night jazz series at the University of Calgary. If for some reason you miss the broadcast, (because you're making travel arrangements to Rosebud or some such) you can also hear the concert on this very website, as part of Concerts On Demand.
Posted by on July 23, 2007 at 04:14 PM
Nothing as enticing (in a song) as forbidden love, and tonight Tonic has some thoughts on that very subject from Canadian blues singer Divine Brown and singer/pianist John Legend.
Plus, if you didn’t get enough mambo on the weekend, (and who ever really gets enough mambo), you can hear more tonight from "the King of the Mambo," (or "El Rey del Mambo," as those of us with a vocabulary in Spanish entirely based on musicians' honorifics or foodstuffs would say), Perez Prado.
Another highlight -- Michael McDonald's take on the Motown classic Stop, Look, Listen. On the other hand, you could just Walk On By. (Sorry, just a little "in joke" for those faithfully reading the "what's coming up on Tonic" posts.)
Posted by on July 23, 2007 at 01:30 PM
The equation of age and worth, or age and marketability is certainly not restricted to the fashion, cosmetics and media industries...as the debate sparked by the supposed youthfulness of recently appointed NY Phil music director Alan Gilbert proves.
Drew McManus, on his blog Adaptistration, weighs in with a post called Does It Really Matter How Old The Conductor Is?
McManus' p.o.v. in a nutshell?: "The thinly veiled message being pushed is simple: young=good, old=bad."
Of course, the classical music industry could take a leaf out of Dove's "pro-aging" campaign, making the equation of age = a different kind of beauty, in this case the beauty of experience and knowledge. (Or maybe just start showing older conductors in the buff?)
Posted by on July 23, 2007 at 11:00 AM
The largest chamber music festival in the world, (the Ottawa International Chamber Music Festival), is on right now, and Studio Sparks celebrates with some special guests.
Today it's Ottawa’s own Angela Hewitt, performing works by Rameau, Beethoven and Schumann. Hewitt also previews her year long Bach world tour, launching in August. Actually, technically it's more than a year, it's 14-months long. And in those 14 months the tour will cover some 25 countries on six continents. (I hope she has a vacation planned for month 15!)
Posted by on July 23, 2007 at 07:58 AM
I've often wondered what the rest of that faun's day was like. What happened in the early morning? How did the faun feel about the midnight hour?
Anyway, I gather that the poem that Claude Debussy's Prelude a L'apres-midi d'un faun is based on makes the afternoon seem, well, fairly stimulating. In a dreamy kind of way. So who knows, maybe the rest of the faun's day wasn't so interesting by comparison.
Here's To You plays Debussy's take on the life and times of a faun this morning -- in fact, it's a prelude filled show, with preludes by Richard Wagner and Frederic Chopin as well.
Posted by on July 23, 2007 at 07:39 AM
Just a note to Tom Allen fans. If you woke up to your radio this morning you already know that Tom is on the air. But in case you're one of those people who reads email and surfs before anything else (not that I'd know a thing about that kind of person of course) here's a heads up...Tom is in the Music & Co. chair this week.
Posted by on July 23, 2007 at 07:03 AM
If you missed The Signal last night you’ll be happy to know that both the complete Oskar Morawetz Memorial Concert is available at Concerts On Demand as is the world premiere of Gary Kulesha’s Symphony No. 3
July 22, 2007
Posted by on July 22, 2007 at 09:02 PM
The Canadian composer Oskar Morawetz passed away in June, and tonight The Signal broadcasts a memorial concert in his honour. Fittingly, it features his famous Memorial To Martin Luther King.
Also on the show, two other King memorials - from Luciano Beriano and Nina Simone. As well, music by two of Morawetz's former students, and the premiere of Gary Kulesha's Third Symphony.
Posted by on July 22, 2007 at 06:48 PM
Now I heard some of the music from the Festival 500 (it's a biennial choir festival) on Studio Sparks not long ago, and I also happened to hear one of the choirs live. And I have this to say about that: if you like choral music, check out the broadcast on Canada Live tonight -- interesting, diverse choirs, singing on The Rock. (Well, someplace in St. John's, anyway.) The featured choirs on the broadcast are the New Zealand Youth Choir called TOWER, Gondwana Voices from Australia, and The Saskatoon Children’s Choir.
Posted by on July 22, 2007 at 03:30 PM
Sandro Perri is a composer, producer and musician known for both his work with bands like Great Lakes Swimmers, and for his own experimental, slow-burn drones and phaser-rock rhythms.
Andre Ethier says he was "born forty years too late," that in his heart of hearts he comes from "a time where simplicity in music-making was favoured over the new tradition of loops and layers and editing."
Seems an unlikely combo, no? Well, according to Fuse, together the two musicians create a "jammin' on the back porch' mood." They oughta know, having recorded these performers playing in CBC Ottawa's own Studio 40, for broadcast today.
Posted by on July 22, 2007 at 11:50 AM
What does it look like when a big band goes for a drink? Dave McMurdo knows. What do they sound like when performing a tribute to Phil Nimmons? Ditto. Hear for yourself on OnStage today, when McMurdo's Jazz Orchestra plays Nimmons ‘n' More. (As 'n' more than Phil Nimmons' Nimmons 'n' Nine.)
Guest soloists include Quinsin Nachoff, Dave McMurdo, Chase Sanborn.
Posted by on July 22, 2007 at 11:00 AM
The Singer And The Song, as per usual, features an intriguing mix of songs: Songs from Debussy, Delage, Ibert and Ravel, plus Greek folksongs, Japanese Haiku, (in song, presumably), AND some songs of Don Quixote and Sheherazade, inspired by the Thousand and One Nights. Deep breath. Now sing. Or just listen.
Posted by on July 22, 2007 at 08:44 AM
Today on Symphony Hall, three compositions by Bach - Wedding Cantata, Concerto for harpsichord in D Minor, BWV 1052, and Cantata 51 “Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen.” (Plus excerpts from Tafelmusik “The Thames Revisited,” featuring guest soloist and conductor Richard Egarr.)
Not long ago I was at a performance by Katenen Dioubaté, a Guinean-Canadian singer, and much was made of how she sings at baptisms, weddings and the like, as though this was something only belonging to oral cultures. Obviously not true! Funny how universal that use of music is...weddings, parties, anything.
Posted by on July 22, 2007 at 06:30 AM
Good morning, early blog readers. You must be here because you're wondering what the highlight on Choral Concert is this morning.
Here goes: Gloria by Francis Poulenc, performed by the Lausanne Sinfonietta and the Lausanne Vocal Ensemble, with Michel Corboz conducting.
Happy listening!
July 21, 2007
Posted by on July 21, 2007 at 08:54 PM
"If you come in, make sure you can get back out," is a lyric (or possibly a slight paraphrase of a lyric) I remember from a song Shirley Horn used to sing, called The Great City.
Just quoting (or maybe misquoting) that one line doesn't do the the mood the song evoked justice though, a mood that reflected the intensity of a city, of lonely, struggling lives.
Cities as source of musical inspiration have another turn tonight on The Signal, with music from composer Richard Danielpour, as well as performers like Meredith Monk and Beck.
Also, music inspired by Mexico City via Cuba with Camerata Romeu, the Cuban women's ensemble who perform Metro Chabacano, a composition written in honour of the opening of a subway stop.
(Wonder if there's a Toronto composer already working on a dirge for a certain subway stop here in hogtown?)
Posted by on July 21, 2007 at 06:35 PM
Canada Live continues to make its way across the country, broadcasting concerts from many of the great Canadian music festivals. I've not been to the Regina jazz fest, where tonight's first concert originates, but I have heard Dione Taylor live, and let me assure you, she has a mighty fine set of pipes.
Next up it's a Regina native, based in NYC, pianist Jon Ballantyne who won a Juno in 2007 for his recording, Avenue Standard.
And behind Door Number 3, a short set from virtuoso acoustic guitarist Ken Hamm. Mr. Hamm I've also heard live any number of times in the past, at folk festivals, playing bluesy, slidey guitar. I like what a review in the Manitoba Blues Society newsletter had to say about Hamm's playing: "I swear I saw sparks as he moved up and down the neck of the guitar."
Posted by on July 21, 2007 at 04:19 PM
Tim has an eclectic bunch of music on today's Tonic -- a tribute to the boogie-woogie with music from Doug Riley, Michael Kaeshammer and Fats Waller. Also tunes "inspired by childrens books and fast fingers from Hawaii."
Really. Very curious about that. Hard to imagine kid lit inspiring jazz. And I am a fan of the genre. Let's see, Do Nothin' Til You Hear From Aslan?
Fast Hawaiian fingers, on the other hand, that seems an easy enough source of inspiration. But whose fingers are/were they? Will have to tune in to find out.
Also on this eve's show: tunes from Blossom Dearie, Colleen Allen and Joe Sample.
Posted by on July 21, 2007 at 02:05 PM
There have been ongoing rumors that Starbucks is planning to sign Prince to their Hear Music label. But New Music Express reports that BBC 6 reports that no, looks more like Joni Mitchell. About now you may be asking yourself why the CBC R2 blog feels the need to report on NME reporting on BBC.
I guess because this bloggerista finds the news a source of mild disappointment. Even though it's not a first -- Ms. Mitchell has been involved with the coffee over-achievers before, after all. (She did one of those artists picks things.)
But it just seems slightly grating when artists like Mitchell, who are practically defined by their individuality, make these kinds of corporate liaisons for their new music. And this particular corporate tie seems to imply so much about a kind of lifestyle, one that's really not about getting a cuppa good joe, let alone writing a good song.
If the rumor is true it raises another issue though. Does this mean Brits can keep getting Prince recordings for free with their Sunday paper?
P.S. Idolator gets the credit for my subject line, btw.
Posted by on July 21, 2007 at 12:00 PM
Much has been made over the age and youthful appearance of Alan Gilbert, recently named conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Well, if you want facts, Alex Ross, New Yorker writer and blogger at The Rest Is Noise, has them. Turns out Mr. Gilbert isn't such a pup after all. As Ross points out, "the bias toward elder-statesman directors at the erstwhile Big Five orchestras is a quite recent phenomenon."
Posted by on July 21, 2007 at 10:55 AM
Shostakovich fans take note -- Rick Phillips goes all Shostakovich, all the time. Well, today's Sound Advice does, at any rate. Tune in to hear the third movement of Symphony No.6, and concertos, songs and waltzes.
Posted by on July 21, 2007 at 08:30 AM
Stuart salutes reality TV -- or perhaps does whatever the opposite of a salute is -- by coming up with shows based on his chaotic life. Shows with names like Office Makeover or Where is Your Stuff? (My own show would be called So You Think You Can File.)
And on another subject entirely...according to Stuart, cherries are the last truly seasonal fruit -- they’re just about the only summer fruit you almost never see in stores in January. And so he salutes them. (A lot of saluting on today's show.) We don't know if that involves some kind of fancy bow, a full-military dress parade or what. But if you tune into the Vinyl Cafe you can find out.
Music-wise you can hear the Bar Mitzvah Brothers, and a new spin-off group of theirs called Habitat, plus new discs from Vinyl Cafe alumni Danny Michel and Rae Spoon.
July 20, 2007
Posted by on July 20, 2007 at 09:00 PM
Toronto’s 19th annual Afrofest took place at Queen’s Park and CBC Radio was there to record on July 7th. Afrofest is the largest annual African music and cultural event in Canada. It's is a multi-disciplinary event with concerts, dance, theatre, food, a marketplace and activities for kids - but it’s the music that is really the heart of the festival.
In this concert you’ll hear music from Hajamadagascar and the Groovy People - MADAGASCAR, Zale Seck- SENEGAL, Source with Abdoulaye Diabate- MALI, Katenen Dioubate - GUINEA and Ruth Mathiang and friends - SUDAN.
Afrofest 2007 at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by on July 20, 2007 at 08:38 PM
The city has its own kind of music -- if you believe music can be created without intent. The rhythms of voices and traffic, the snatches of conversations, radios played in passing cars, the streetcar bell, a child aimlessly singing...
Tonight on The Signal Pat Carrabré gears up for tomorrow's urban theme, with favourite songs featuring street sounds, from Beirut, The Books, and Evelyn Glennie.
Plus some music not from the city, but from Brantford, Ontario -- the chamber pop of Ohbijou. Also something new from Caribou, and Tuvan throat singers Chirgilchin.
Posted by on July 20, 2007 at 06:30 PM
A week or so ago I heard Jian Ghomeshi, over on CBC Radio 1's "Q," talking to someone at the Winnipeg Folk Festival about their elephant ears. No, it wasn't a reality TV judge moment, it was just a Winnipeger waxing rhapsodic about the glories of the food at the fest -- particularly the deep fried variety.
This put me in mind of the glories of the food at Afrofest. No elephant ears, but so much good African, Carribean and related foods -- it's incredible. So good that foodie bloggers like Save Your Fork There's Pie even blog about it.
Ditto on the music front. (The good factor, I mean.) And tonight Canada Live is all about Afrofest. Concerts include Ruth Mathiang, who grew up singing and composing in her native Sudan, came to Canada to attend university. In 2002 she released her a collection of gospel and peace songs on her first CD entitled My Cry, Peace.
Then Katenen Dioubate brings the rich heritage of griot - singing storytellers of Guinea. And in concert 3 it’s Hajamdagascar and The Groovy People, a project that gathered musicians from Africa and African diasporas.
Posted by on July 20, 2007 at 04:00 PM
A singer I haven't thought of in ages, Lorez Alexandria, is being played on Tonic tonight, singing Get Me To The Church On Time. I guess I stopped listening to her because I only have a couple of her LPs, and I'm very bad about playing my old vinyl. (This dates back to the era when rats ate my turntable, but that's another story.)
Anyway, Lorez, who passed away in 2001, was a gospel and church choir singer before she sang jazz, and I always loved that aspect of her singing. Glad to hear that Katie's playing her music.
Katie's also playing Brazilian-Canadian Paulo Ramos singing Rio Montreal, and Denzal Sinclaire with The Meaning Of The Blues. And you know what? Given the show is two hours long I'm pretty sure there'll be a few other tracks too.
Posted by on July 20, 2007 at 02:00 PM
Among the many sober reflections following the suicide of tenor Jerry Hadley earlier this week, Lee Rosenbaum, in a post (shockingly) called Did Reviews Kill Jerry Hadley on her blog CultureGrrl, suggests that journalists/critics might want to reconsider the spirit in which they offer their reviews.
Good point. As a sometime-critic myself, I know that there is a lot of potential power in them there words. The power to steer someone towards or away from someone's music, from someone's creative soul.
Same time, honesty is a must if the role of a critic is to have any validity at all. But I like that Rosenbaum emphasizes that it is the spirit in which the criticism is offered that matters. This is a delicate notion, but I know what she means. It's easy to be cruel, much harder to critique thoughtfully -- and perhaps even in such a way that someone might actually benefit from hearing the criticism.
Posted by on July 20, 2007 at 10:50 AM
Exciting news for those who enjoyed watching the Met broadcasts at cinemas, and for those who can't get to those movie theatres, but wish they could.
In a recently inked deal, "the Metropolitan Opera and EMI Classics will release DVDs of five of the Met’s high-definition transmissions to movie theaters." This according to the New York Times Arts Briefly, and I believe them.
And here's what the newshounds at the NYT say will be the first DVD releases:
The releases will consist of five performances from next season’s schedule of eight productions. They are Humperdinck’s “Hansel and Gretel” (Jan. 1), Verdi’s “Macbeth” (Jan. 12), Puccini’s “Manon Lescaut” (Feb. 16), Britten’s “Peter Grimes” (March 15) and Puccini’s “Bohème” (April 5).
Posted by on July 20, 2007 at 10:30 AM
And here I thought Arcade Fire was just tooling around Europe having a fab time. Not so, according to the Times online.
It's understandable that becoming Canada's greatest export as quickly as they have must have its travails, of course. (Maybe the White Stripes should drop by to introduce them to the daycare circuit?)
Posted by on July 20, 2007 at 06:12 AM
This just in from the: "unlikely to work but good on them for trying" department.
Canadian hair salons are being asked to pay for the right to play music in their businesses, says SOCAN, the umbrella group for Canadian music composers.
Somehow I find it hard to believe that in between the pressures of making endless small talk and convincing clientele that their new cuts look fabulous, hairdressers will also get it together to pay for music.
Apparently dentists were targeted last year though, so who knows, maybe there's precedence -- if dentists are paying up perhaps the same will be true for hair salons. Just hope it doesn't mean an end to those free bang trims.
You can read the whole story at CBC | Arts News.
July 19, 2007
Posted by on July 19, 2007 at 09:32 PM
I have a feeling that fans of The Signal probably already read Carl Wilson's Zoilus blog, but just in case you haven't encountered it yet, you may want to check out his thoughts on new music/improvising cellist Erik Friedlander, who is playing a show tomorrow in (sorry!) Toronto.
Friedlander's newest recording is called Block Ice & Propane, (love that), which refers to memories of family camping trips.
Much more positive than the title that leapt into my mind: Bunjee Cord Wounds and Black Flies...
Posted by on July 19, 2007 at 08:19 PM
How's this for a teaser: Tonight on The Signal Laurie recounts the challenges of catching escaped domesticated rodents, using the music of Alvin Curran as a backdrop.
Perhaps this is the moment to share my childhood trauma over the day my hamster Cinnamon escaped. No? OK, I'll leave the domesticated rodents stories to Laurie and Alvin.
Somehow Laurie manages to move from rodents to the comforts of bedtime storytelling and the sound of music boxes. And broadcasts a concert recording of the Bergmann Piano Duo performing Balinese and Sundanese music at Glenn Gould Studio. All in a night at The Signal.
Posted by on July 19, 2007 at 06:40 PM
Someone should do a photo-essay of Canadian summer music festivals, if it hasn't been done already. If you're a festival goer, you'll know what I mean, they really are incredible hives of social (oh yes, and musical) activity.
But even if radio can't capture the sheer exhilaration-meets- lunacy-meets-music of a festival in pictures, it can, obviously, capture some of that energy in sound. Fer'instance tonight on Canada Live you can hear two concerts from the Vancouver Folk Music Festival.
First by famed labour organizer and folk singer Utah Phillips, who modestly calls himself the “Golden Voice of the Great Southwest.” And then The Be Good Tanyas, who do a mix of folk, country, old-time Americana, with their own original songs.
Speaking of, happened to be plowing through the dvds of Weeds the other night, and was pleased to find a Be Good Tanyas song on one episode. Funny, just can't seem to remember which episode it was though, man.
Posted by on July 19, 2007 at 04:06 PM
Walk on by. Go ahead, just try and read that phrase without hearing the melody to the Burt Bacharach song, I dare you. See? Impossible. And now that you've probably got the song stuck in your cranium too, you could try listening to Tonic this evening to try and work through your "walk on by issues." Maybe that's a possible cure, just listen again and again. There's a theory.
Anyway, whether or not the theory has any validity to it, what is true is that tonight Katie plays the group Jazz Jamaica performing their version of the tune (I'm not going to name again in the hopes it will not continue to stay stuck all evening).
Other tracks Tonic will play on this evening's show: vocalist Jennifer Scott singing the Joel S. Herron tune I'm A Fool To Want You, and Etta James paying tribute to Billie Holiday with This Bitter Earth.
Posted by on July 19, 2007 at 01:30 PM
With the passing of Beverly Sills and Régine Crespin only two of the great generation of sopranos born in the 1920s -- Joan Sutherland and Leontyne Price (both now 80) -- are still with us.
Ivan Hewett, a writer with the Telegraph UK, asks: where is their like on today's stages?
Funny how much we want heroes, isn't it. Whether they come in the form of opera singers, or political leaders, or baseball players. (Frank Thomas and Vernon Wells -- that means you! Wake up!) Whoops, digression alert.
Posted by on July 19, 2007 at 11:13 AM
This Soviet-era cartoon called Ballerina On A Boat is really worth looking at -- for the beautiful colours, the sly humor, and the great, whimsical score by Alfred Schnittke.
And iffen you want more info on Schnittke, I'd suggest you go to the Bad Plus blog, Do The Math, Ethan Iverson of The Bad + is a big Schnittke fan.
Posted by on July 19, 2007 at 09:00 AM
Who hasn't imagined being something they are not? My other lives include being a psychiatrist, a horse trainer, and arranging for big bands that no longer exist. So I like to find out about the lives of people who actually are shrinks/horse trainer/arrangers...in real life.
And for the fantasy string-quartet players among us -- here's your chance to get some good inside info.
The Banff International String Quartet in August is a biggie, featuring some of the world's best young string quartets. And CBC Radio 2 online is providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into what it takes to get those fiddles to Banff, with a diary by members of both the Afiara and Tokai String Quartets.
It starts online now, and takes us to the competition itself at the end of August. Bonus, a photo gallery following preparations for the competition.
Posted by on July 19, 2007 at 07:36 AM
From the "ideas that seemed good at the time" beat:
The double-keyboard piano.
(Note...fear not, it's free to read, but you do have to register...)
There weren't too many made, but some still exist, and are even being played. This is how the instrument works, paraphrasing from the above linked long article that thoroughly explores the short life of the double piano:
Continue reading "2 Pianos, 2 Hands" »
July 18, 2007
Posted by on July 18, 2007 at 08:40 PM
Ever since I first heard Milton Nascimento singing with Wayne Shorter I've been hooked on Brazilian music. Guess that's almost like saying ever since hearing Milton I've been hooked on music though, the vast and spectacular range of Brazilian styles being what they are.
And tonight The Signal is hooked too, playing tracks from some newer, fast-rising Brazilian artists like Cibelle, as well as broadcasting a concert from Brazilian-Canadian Celso Machado, recorded at Glenn Gould Studio in Toronto.
The New York Times called Machado "inventive and unbuttoned." How pithy! How true! Come to think of it, "inventive and unbuttoned" is a pretty good description of a lot of Brazilian music in general.
And here's to the power of Brazilian music to help sustain through the hardest of hard times, which certainly many in Sao Paulo must be going through right now...
Posted by on July 18, 2007 at 06:20 PM
Is it ever jazz season! Jazz festivals and jazz bloggin' going strong. Speaking of, this blog called Visionsong takes a brave look at the idea of post-modern jazz. And on Canada Live tonight you can hear two primo concerts from the 28th annual Festival International de Jazz de Montréal.
First, pianist François Bourassa, this year’s Oscar Peterson Award winner, with his quartet and special guest New York saxophonist David Binney.
Second, sax player Yannick Rieu with a show conceived specifically for the festival, in which Rieu displays his extensive array of musical influences, ranging from acoustic to electronic.
Posted by on July 18, 2007 at 04:00 PM
Favorite tracks on Tonic tonight:
Pianist Eliane Elias with Cross Currents, Pink Martini with City of Night, and Montreal stalwart Oliver Jones on solo piano with Sweet Lorraine.
Now, since Tonic is a jazz show and since I don't have anything burning to say about any of the above artists at this point in time, I'll turn towards a continuation of the "respect to Trane" conversation, by pointing you to an interview with John Coltrane's son, Ravi, published this week to coincide with the 40th anniversary of John Coltrane's death. In it Ravi talks about his own music, and reflects on the passing of his mother, pianist and jazz harpist Alice Coltrane, earlier this year.
Posted by on July 18, 2007 at 01:05 PM
Well, you've probably heard about the M&M;'s with the brown ones removed. (Or was it the blue ones? It should have been, since blue is clearly an unnatural colour for an M&M; to be.)
And today's breaking news (on the concert-riders triva beat) is that Diana Krall gets real specific about what is and is not an acceptable vino, on a list that includes no wines from her native British Columbia.
But a rider that specifies popcorn type? Leave it to Prince to have a popcorn clause in his concert rider.
Posted by on July 18, 2007 at 10:00 AM
Further to the thank you John Coltrane conversation...came across a bit of a manifesto on writer Howard Mandel's newish blog, with this opening:
"What if there's more to jazz than you suppose? What if jazz demolishes suppositions and breaks all bounds? What if jazz - and the jazz beyond, behind, under and around jazz - could enrich your life?"
While not specific to Coltrane, definitely connected to pondering whither goest jazz. To read the whole post, go to Jazz Beyond Jazz.
Posted by on July 18, 2007 at 08:11 AM
Impossible not to feel envious of those who get to hear these performances first hand at two wonderful Canadian summer music festivals -- Banff and Mount Orford. But at least those of us tap- tapping away at our computers in towns and cities do have the radio version -- Here's To You broadcasts music from both festivals today.
Performances include Beethoven’s String Quartet No. 3 played by the Orford String Quartet, Johannes Brahms’ Piano concerto no. 2 performed by pianist Anton Kuerti and the Orchestra Metropolitan du Montreal, and The Bootlegger's Tarantella by John Estacio, performed by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
Posted by on July 18, 2007 at 07:47 AM
Just heard one of the Radio 2 promos saying that Isabel Bayrakdarian will be hosting Saturday Afternoon At The Opera this weekend. Very cool.
And of course our own Bill Richardson will become the regular host in the autumn. (As well as hosting the new Sunday show...in case you missed this news when it broke, here's the cbc.ca piece about Bill's busy weekends come autumn.)
July 17, 2007
Posted by on July 17, 2007 at 08:00 PM
What do you think a "watery sound" would be? The Signal World Headquarters sent me a missive saying that there would be all sorts of "watery sounds" on tonight's show. (From Jim Guthrie, Patrick Watson, and Caribou.) Curiouser and curiouser.
For some reason, let's just call it lateral thinking, this puts me in mind of a bike ride I had last night following a flamenco dance lesson. The flamenco dance lesson has nothing to do with this, but it gives a context that seems marginally more interesting than a mere bike ride.
Anyway, I had the chorus of the Feist song Mushaboom, stuck in my head -- a real ohrwurm to use the German, as I am not wont to do. (But it sounds so much better than the English "earworm.") OK, finally, here's the point. That "sha boom, sha boom" sound is irresistable. Why? What is it about certain combinations of consonants and vowels have that effect? Could it be that they are..."watery sounds?"
Probably not, but I really wanted to work in the shaboom thing. (Fear not, will not ramble this much in every post.)
Also on tonight's show: seaside impressions of the south of Italy, with Michael Occhipinti's concert project Canzone Del Sud.
Shaboom.
Posted by on July 17, 2007 at 07:01 PM
Tonight on Canada Live the 125th anniversary of Russian composer Igor Stravinsky's 125th birth is celebrated by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
And then, music from a different kind of "orchestra," one made up of bronze and wooden instruments from Indonesia, the Evergreen Club Contemporary Gamelan . Their concert includes the premier of a new work for gamelan and piano.
Posted by on July 17, 2007 at 04:15 PM
Tonic plays tracks from Puerto Rican singer Elvis Crespo this eve. (I wonder if Priscilla knows?) Crespo, if you're not familiar with the name, is a Latin pop singer. (As well as having been named after Mr. Presley.)
And another highlight tonight: Susannah McCorkle sings the Gershwins' They Can't Take That Away From Me.
Meantime, if you have a hankering for Fred Astaire singing the Gershwin classic from Shall We Dance, here you are. Go forth and be nostalgic, nuthin' wrong with that. And I got plenty of nuthin.' No wait a minute, that's another Gershwin link.
Posted by on July 17, 2007 at 01:30 PM
It's 40 years today since John Coltrane's untimely death.
This tribute by writer John Fordham has a wonderful opening:
"The plumbing of a saxophone seemed like too cramped a channel for the river of emotion John Coltrane sought to drive through it: he always sounded as if he were trying to expand the metalwork with the sheer force of his feelings."
The piece also polls a number of sax players, asking "where would Coltrane have gone next?" something you can't help wondering when someone so brilliant dies young.
I like to think he would have continued to transform jazz and to inspire -- and with due respect to Wynton, that it would not be quite as much a Marsalisized jazz universe as it is today.
Read the whole story at Guardian Unlimited Music
Posted by on July 17, 2007 at 10:46 AM
Some posts ago I mentioned that the comedic classical musician seemed to be akin to the dodo. Gone, done, so last century. Then a blogreader named Eugene reminded me of Igudesman and Joo, whose "Rachmaninov's Big Hands," routine was making the rounds a few months ago, so I post it for your viewing pleasure in case you missed it the first time.
I know very little about these guys, but all you really need to know about their sense of humor can be gleaned from the intro to Igudesman and Joo's website. (Once you get there click on "enter" for the full effect.")
Posted by on July 17, 2007 at 09:31 AM
Today on Here's To You: Pianist Arthur Rubenstein plays selections from Robert Schumann's Fantasiestucke, Shauna Rolston and the Calgary Philharmonic play Edward Elgar's Cello Concerto, and The Chamber Players of Canada play Eldon Rathburn's Ottawa Suite.
Eldon Rathburn is probably best known for his many, many film scores for the National Film Board, but I must admit when I see his name I think of Don Messer. Yup, that Don, the one with the fiddle and the TV show that had Canadians glued to their sets each week. (Its ratings bettered the Ed Sullivan Show AND NHL hockey in 1960.) Anyway, a very young Eldon Rathburn played piano in Don Messer's band, back in those days before television even existed, in the 1930s.
And that's your obscure Canadian music trivia bulletin for the day...
Posted by on July 17, 2007 at 07:51 AM
Last week it was our own Polaris nominations, this week the nominations for the awards they were modeled on -- the Mercury Music Prize. And this just in...The Arctic Monkeys are once again nominated for the Mercury a year after winning the award.
One of the acts they're up against is Amy Winehouse...in fact, William Hill bookmakers have Arctic Monkeys and Winehouse as joint favourites with odds of 4/1.
Go, Amy Winehouse, go! (Not that I'm an Amy Winehouse fan or anything.)
Read the whole story at BBC News | Entertainment | UK Edition
July 16, 2007
Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 08:15 PM
The Signal gets jazzy tonight, with a session from the Lina Allemano Four, and music from Tunng, Brad Mehldau, and Freeworm's Fish Orchestra. That's right, Montreal's Freeworm, aka Vincent Letellier. He's sort of a sound environmentalist (not a comment on his mental health, but on aspects of his musical approach).
Freeworm likes to sample forest sounds from Quebec and incorporate them into drum 'n'bass, jazz and hip hop. (So no, it's not like that "nature sounds to get oiled up to" CD your massage therapist puts on where you can hear the same damned bird sampled over and over again. Thankfully.)
Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 06:13 PM
Music to dance to, music to tap your toes to and music to listen to on the ever-eclectic Canada Live this eve...there are folk-songs from Quebec, Newfoundland and the Maritimes, from Les Charbonniers de l'Enfer, (an a cappella group featuring a few La Bottine Souriante alumni) and fiddler Laura Risk with soprano Meredith Hall.
Plus some tango with the aptly named Tango Tango, one of Montreal's most active ensembles specializing in tango. (They'll perform music from the trad repertoire as well as new compositions by the leader of the group, Victor Simon.)
As if that wasn't enough, you can also hear music from La Nef and Les Voix Humaines.
Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 04:00 PM
This evening on Tonic you can hear, among other songs, (including Polkadots and Moonbeams from drummer Jae Boehmer's latest CD) the Harold Arlen and Truman Capote classic, A Sleepin' Bee, performed by pianist André Previn's trio.
Now hold on a minute here. Truman Capote? How did I get this old without knowing that Capote wrote the lyrics to A Sleepin' Bee? (No, you don't have to answer that question.)
A Sleepin' Bee is one of those songs that just noodles into your head, and lies there, like a sleepin' bee, come to think of it, buzzing around your brain when it wakes up. My favorite version is by Nancy Wilson and Cannonball Adderley, from their classic album of the same name.
(And yes, I know it's not an official Wilson/Adderley website, but it's such a nice shot of the album cover!)
Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 02:00 PM
John Lennon's glasses were so distinctive that they're still used a point of reference. (Albeit sometimes as in, "you don't want those frames, they're just too John Lennon.")
But the real mccoy is on the auction block until the end of July, sparking an insane bidding war -- bids for a pair of Lennon's glasses were in the neighborhood of £750,000 when last I heard.
Suppose it's heretical (or maybe just willfully naive) to suggest the owner donate the glasses to a museum, and the bidders listen to some John Lennon instead?
Read the whole story at BBC News | Entertainment | UK Edition
Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 11:30 AM
In the usual course of procrastinating I mean reading and researching I came across KRS-One rapping live to Vivaldi and Pachebel, and felt the need to share. But rather than link to Youtube from whence it came, I thought it fairest to link the blog I found it on, hosted by Soho the Dog.
Partly because who can resist a blog hosted by Soho the Dog? Particularly as he has a double life as composer, pianist and conductor Matthew Guerrieri.
Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 09:00 AM
Live Earth, which seems to have had about as much impact as a Facebook group designed to promote freedom for sidewalks, got me thinking about music and social change. (Coming from a short line of folkies will do that to you.)
So I was interested to come across a list called 20 Protest Songs That Matter. Though I admit to being shocked We Shall Overcome was not included, (the folkie thing again), it's an interesting list. Plus the little intro to the piece is fun:
Continue reading "Hey Johnny, What Are You Rebelling Against?" »
Posted by on July 16, 2007 at 01:00 AM
For their 20th anniversary season, the Lafayette String Quartet commissioned R. Murray Schafer to write them a string quartet. This concert features the world premier of Schafer’s String Quartet No. 11 and includes quartets by Scubert and Haydn. If you heard it on The Signal on Sunday night and would like to hear it again, or if you missed it entirely here's your chance -- it's now available on the CBC website.
The Lafayette String Quartet at Concerts On Demand.
July 15, 2007
Posted by on July 15, 2007 at 08:43 PM
Tonight, a world premiere on The Signal! Yes folks, tune in for the first broadcast of R. Murray Schafer's String Quartet No. 11, commissioned by the Lafayette String Quartet to celebrate their 20th anniversary.
And some musical quotations: Wagner, Haydn, Claude Vivier and Elvis Presley get the po-mo treatment by Walter Boudreau, Jose Evangelista and Michael Daugherty.
Funny the fine line between musical quotes and musical theft. The notion of quoting is of course totally acceptable in some idioms, like jazz. And maybe that's because a. The songs being quoted are more often than not in the public domain and b. The quoting is blatant and c. it's frequently quite charming.
C. is true particualarly when it's a song that seems incongruous. For example the not infrequently quoted In An English Country Garden. Huh? Always wondered why jazzers quote that. But whatever the reason it's appealing. In a surreal English country garden kind of way.
Posted by on July 15, 2007 at 06:00 PM
Actually the subject heading would work much better if Jerry Granelli was called "Bill." In the bad puns department at least. But since bad punning is not something one should cultivate let's just stick to the musical excitement of this two-fer.
If you tune into Canada Live tonight you can hear Bill Frisell, who is an iconoclastic jazz guitarist, and a completely engaging live performer. (I saw him play solo in a little New York club once, and I tell ya, it was riveting.)
So you have your Bill Frisell, and to open up you have your Jerry Granelli, legendary jazz drummer. A good match for Bill in the iconoclast stakes, come to think of it.
Both performances are from Friday night, the opening night of the Atlantic Jazz Festival.
Posted by on July 15, 2007 at 03:50 PM
As you probably know, the premise of Fuse is to take to disparate bands or musicians, and put them together. Thus the name.
Today the disparates are singer-songwriter Emm Gryner, who is also a pianist, and the composer and jazz pianist D.D. Jackson.
Both tend towards the lyrical in their own styles of music, so it should be quite something to hear what they come up with in collaboration.
Posted by on July 15, 2007 at 02:45 PM
Eugene Hutz came to the United States from Ukraine after the Chernobyl meltdown -- some stories say he wandered Europe as a refugee for seven years first, others say he came with his parents and settled in Burlington, Vermont. (So you see what kind of personality Mr. Hutz is already.)
Anyway, at some point in the 1990s he arrived in New York City and met the musicians who became Gogol Bordello, who play fierce, wild music.
The band is frequently called an "art band," but in a profile on the Bonnaroo festival site I read recently (they played the festival in June and made a whole lot of new fans) Hutz takes umbrage.
"I want people to know we are not an art band, or a folkloric band, but a gypsy punk band from New York City."
Of course, that clarifies it totally. Anyway, Gogol Bordello play pretty amazing high energy stuff, and you can hear some of it today on Roots & Wings.
Posted by on July 15, 2007 at 11:45 AM
That was a cheap ploy, I know. Who wouldn't be curious about mystical-erotic trance rituals? But according to the folks at On Stage, they are indeed to be heard on today's broadcast.
Because today's show features Alessandra Belloni, acclaimed as one of the greatest percussionists in the world. And the music includes, yes, mystical-erotic trance rituals. But also love ballads and prayer songs, all inspired by the people and landscape of Southern Italy. (A nice place to experience a mystical-erotic trance ritual, I should think.)
Posted by on July 15, 2007 at 10:45 AM
I don't know if people who aren't music journalists or radio show producers realize how difficult it can be to keep up with the stacks of CDs that come into the office.
"Boo hoo," I hear you say. "Bring out the tiny violin."
OK, so no sympathy on this one, but it is an occupational hazard. Sometimes there are just too many CDs, not enough time, and the constant underlying anxiety that within some of those bubble-wrap lined envelopes lies a gem you are going to miss.
So good for Catherine Belyea, host of The Singer & The Song, for having tackled her backlog in a serious way, unearthing a stockpile of recordings of Baroque music by lesser masters--Bouteiller, Fux and Buxtehude -- as well as the better known: eg. Bach and Handel.
Posted by on July 15, 2007 at 08:45 AM
Tune into Symphony Hall today to hear the Montreal Symphony Orchestra with Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E Flat Major, “Eroica”.
That's the serious bit.
Beethoven serves another purpose in Dudley Moore's Beethoven Sonata Parody, from Moore's years with Brit comedy troupe, Beyond The Fringe.
You know, watching this and some Victor Borge stuff lately makes me wonder what's happened to the musician/comedian. Seems like they're a breed of humorists from a bygone era. True, we've had groups like Moxy Fruvous and The Arrogant Worms, but I can't think of individual musicians who do a contemporary version of what guys like Moore or Borge did.
If you can, lemme know. A good laugh is always appreciated.
July 14, 2007
Posted by on July 14, 2007 at 09:30 PM
Bjork again! At least, in Montreal. Pitchfork tells us that Bjork will be touring again in North America this fall, with at least one Canadian date.
Posted by on July 14, 2007 at 08:45 PM
There's not much that's conventional about The Signal, so if they say they're presenting "a collection of waltzes that aren't the most conventional," I'm most curious to hear what they are.
Also on tonight's show, tunes from Winnipeg's Nathan, Austria's B. Fleischmann, Japan's Rainstick Orchestra, and one from A Hawk and a Hacksaw that involves a tuba. Plus, some classical music with "a real beat." Hmm, there's a teaser...
Posted by on July 14, 2007 at 06:40 PM
The Fugitives are not criminals. Nor are thtey just your run-of-the-mill bar band. No, they describe themselves as a mix of "energetic SLAM poetry with Canadiana and folk-cabaret grooveboxing." Not sure about the grooveboxing (is this like kickboxing in old vinyl?) but the tracks on The Fugitive's myspace site sure show their SLAM poetry Canadiana folk-cabaret side.
Catch them on Canada Live tonight. No punches pulled.
Posted by on July 14, 2007 at 02:30 PM
Tonight on Tonic Basie meets Bond with a great version of From Russia With Love.
A movie that, if you believe the From Russia With Love Trivia page, was inextricably bound to President John F. Kennedy. Here goes with the salient Bond/JFK connections:
To Russia With Love was:
-chosen as the second 007 film after JFK listed the book among his top ten favorite novels of all time.
-the last motion picture JFK ever saw, on 20 November 1963, in the White House.
-its release was delayed due to the political climate after the JFK assassination.
Who knows. Anyway, the music certainly makes for a memorable Bond theme.
Also on tonight's show: Synthesizer genius Joe Zawinul makes an appearance in two groups, some Canadian spoken word beat poetry, and tracks from Doug Riley, Lori Cullen and Carlos Santana.
Posted by on July 14, 2007 at 01:18 PM
The Proms (the summer-long concert season so associated with the Royal Albert Hall in London) began yesterday. It seems to have no real counterpart in Canada, and maybe that's why I've always wondered about the grip The Proms apparently have on the psyches of a certain generation who grew up attending.
Here's one man's recollection of 40 years of Proms going that sheds more than a little light on their appeal. Check this quote out:
"The spectacle was thrilling, the sense of occasion unparalleled – the riot of red and gold, the tiers of curtained boxes rising up to the mighty dome, the foliage and fountain in the middle of the promenade, again lit by a madly incongruous brothelesque kaleidoscope of lights, which lent a louche air; somewhere in the background was the fact that boxing matches took place in this same arena. There was nothing stuffy about the Proms, a startling contrast to concerts elsewhere in London, where dinner jackets and tiaras were the norm. That was true then and it’s true now."
Posted by on July 14, 2007 at 11:07 AM
Victor Borge, Muppets, bad puns...nothing else needs saying, just viewing, should you be in the mood for some silliness.
Posted by on July 14, 2007 at 08:45 AM
There's a frog on the bump on the log on the hole in the bottom of the sea. There's a this on the that on the this on the that on the toe on the frog on the bump on the log etc. etc....
If the above immediately brings back some weird memory combination of pb & j and dust, of car sickness and a loathing for school buses, chances are you've either been a kid who grew up in the country...or you've been to camp.
Stuart Maclean is the latter, and on today's show he visits the camp he went to -- yes, the Vinyl Café comes to you from Kamp Kanawana in Quebec.
So Stuart tells the stories and the campers sing the songs and the campers play the music and there's a holllllllleeeeee, there's a holllllleeeeee...
July 13, 2007
Posted by on July 13, 2007 at 08:15 PM
A lot of people are fascinated with numbers. I don't get this myself, but then, I bailed out of math classes as soon as was allowable. But even if you're not a numbers freak yourself, you probably know someone who is. The friend who is always saying things like:
"Do you realize your phone number is my birthday backwards plus the day we met and if you invert the whole thing it represents the dimensions of my living room?"
Anyway, it being Friday the 13th, The Signal makes their show a numbers game, playing with math equations, significant house numbers, and anything else numerical. So Feist counts up to four; Bob Wiseman sings a tale of Three Men; and the Weakerthans sing about One Great City.
They also have a little fun with unusual time signatures. And I mean unusual -- Christopher O'Reilly plays a Radiohead song in 10/10, while Malcolm Forsyth composes a song in 17.
Posted by on July 13, 2007 at 05:30 PM
I remember reading about the concert that will be broadcast tonight on Canada Live when it was coming up, and thinking how lovely it would be to go the Palais Royale and hear jazz. I've heard roots and blues music there, been to functions and film fest parties, but never heard jazz -- and that's what the place was created for. (Actually at first it was a boathouse, but that was relatively short-lived.)
The Palais, if you don't know it, is a beautiful dance hall in the old Sunnyside neighborhood of Toronto, right on Lake Ontario, built in the 1920s. Ellington, Count Basie, Fats Waller, Benny Goodman and Louis Armstrong all played there -- what a history!
Anyway, it's nice to know that jazz can still be heard today at the Palais Royale. And tonight on the radio -- even though we won't get the visuals we can at least have the aural experience, with Jeff Healey's Jazz Band Ball, recorded at the Palais. Healey and his band, The Jazz Wizards, are joined by three special guests - banjoist Marty Grosz, clarinetist Dan Levinson and bass saxist Vince Giordano.
btw, the place has been totally renovated, have not yet been. But if you go to the Palais Royale website you can see some wonderful old photos of it over the years...
Posted by on July 13, 2007 at 05:00 PM
Feeling superstitious on this Friday the 13th? Tonic is. And so they showcase the Oscar Peterson Trio playing the Harold Arlen tune That Old Black Magic, Robert Palmer singing Witchcraft, and alto saxophonist David Sandborn playing a song called Spooky. Plus Queen Latifah with Screamin' Jay Hawkins' classic, I Put A Spell On You.
If you want to see a musically amazing if culturally kind of shocking (one viewer calls it "deliciously eccentric,") performance of Screamin Jay doing his signature tune, check this video out.
Posted by on July 13, 2007 at 02:34 PM
This weekend and next in NYC the Lincoln Center Festival is presenting Wagner's Ring cycle, as well as on four consecutive evenings beginning July 16th.
If you go, expect more than a few Ringnuts, the opera equivalent of Deadheads. I hear some of them showed up for the COC's production last year, and no doubt there were even a few Viking hats nodding along to Radio 2 in May when CBC broadcast the whole cycle, calling it The Ring In A Day.
Here's a funny piece about Ringnuts, or Wagnolaters, as they are also sometimes called, by Charles McGrath. The article also covers some Ring trivia, including the famous Mark Twain line -- upon seeing The Ring at Bayreuth in 1876, Twain is said to have said (now there's a mouthful) Wagner's music "isn't as bad as it sounds."
Posted by on July 13, 2007 at 10:00 AM
If you find yourself shaking your head over weather forecasters "getting it wrong," again, this weekend you have another source to turn to. Sunday is St. Swithun's Day. According to legend:
St Swithun's day if thou dost rain
For forty days it will remain
St Swithun's day if thou be fair
For forty days 'twill rain na mair
To mark this meteorological prediction point, Studio Sparks guest host Bill Richardson presents a suite of music reflecting both rain and shine... featuring composers such as Brahms and Debussy, and singers including Haley Westenra and Joni Mitchell.
Posted by on July 13, 2007 at 07:50 AM
Dummy lyrics -- wherein a composer has the melody but not the words -- are something new to me, as of yesterday when I came across this thoroughly delightful "dummy lyric" Ira Gershwin apparently used for I've Got Rhythm.
"Roly-poly,
Eating solely,
Ravioli,
Better watch your diet or bust."
And then I read something about Paul McCartney singing "scrambled eggs," as a kind of dummy title for the tune Yesterday. (Some accounts follow up scrambled eggs with the lyric, "how I love your legs.")
Well, it turns out there can be danger in the dummy. Came across this quote from Stephen Sondheim in an ancient NYT article. (Note -- you do not have to pay to read the full piece -- merely sign up for free.)
"Sometimes, if I'm stuck, I do dummy lyrics or tunes, but the danger there is that you may never get time to fix them, and they end up part of the show. To this day, there are lyrics in 'Company' that I intended to polish, and then just got used to."
Just think, if Paul hadn't got it together we could have been stuck forever singing something like: "Scrambled eggs, all my troubles seem to have long legs..."
Posted by on July 13, 2007 at 07:02 AM
The peripatetic Here's To You visits Pakistan, Bali, Java, India, China, Japan and Korea today.
Selections include Leopold Godowsky, Gamelan from Java Suite, Alexander Borodin, In the Steppes of Central Asia and Tan dun with Symphony 97...and, as they say, much much more.
Speaking of Tan Dun, according to the Korea Times online, his work Elegy will be presented in Asia for the first time this summer, in August at the Great Mountains Music Festival in YongPyong, a resort in Pyeongchang County in Gangwon Province close to the border with North Korea.
July 12, 2007
Posted by on July 12, 2007 at 08:02 PM
Parisian sonic sculptress Cecille Schott a.k.a. Colleen, has used samples, loops and baroque instruments such as the viola da gamba and the spinet in her music.
Atmospheric and cool.
You can hear for yourself tonight on The Signal. And speaking of atmospheric and cool, you can also hear Dusseldorf's experimental prepared-piano-man, Hauschka tonight on the show.
Hauschka is another a.k.a., in his case, for Volker Bertelmann. Cecile, Volker, we hardly knew ya!
But seriously folks, both are very interesting musicians.
And in case you're wondering what Hauschka prepares his piano with, here's a short list, to be found on the strings or hammers: wedges of leather, felt, rubber, aluminium paper, rough films, crown cork, guitar strings.
Why rough, not smooth films...maybe it's a slippage issue?
Posted by on July 12, 2007 at 06:45 PM
Tonight Canada Live presents Hayley Sales.
This is what Krist Novoselic, former bassist of Nirvana says of Ms. Sales.
"Wow! I cry when I hear her sing!"
If you need more commendation, let it be said that Haley Sales also won "Female Vocalist of the Year" at the Vancouver Island Music Awards, and performed to standing ovations at Seattle's Northwest Folk Life festival.
The Canada Live team, who knows first hand say, "Sales' performances are inspiring and infectious; her mission is to take audiences on a journey that moves from reggae dance party one minute to a meditative, thoughtful state the next." Dance, meditate. Dance, mediate. Sounds like a code to live by.
Posted by on July 12, 2007 at 03:00 PM
Last night there were people writhing, leaping and embracing behind the skating rink at my local park. Or to be more accurate, somewhere in between the place they make the ice and the place where you sit on an ancient wooden bench swearing at your skate laces.
Plus there was a guy playing electric guitar, vaguely Bill Frisellish type stuff. It sounded absolutely perfect, wafting through the leafy trees, past the grassy slope where several teenagers were pretending not to look or listen.
It was part of a thing called Dusk Dances, and it reminded me how fortunate we are to be living in an era when so many artists have gotten out of the traditional mindset about where music and dance can be seen and heard.
John Terauds writes about an upcoming project of this kind in today's Toronto Star, The Music (in) Galleries project, "the brainchild of freelance trombonist Scott Thomson." (Aren't MOST trombonists freelance? With the exception of those few in s.o.'s? Tom Allen, where are you when we need you?)
Anyway, it pairs improvising musicians with galleries. The idea was such a success last year that the freelance trombonist is doing it again.
I'm curious to know if there is much performance in unexpected places going on in anyone else's neck of the woods? Do tell -- comments are always welcome.
Read the whole story at Toronto Star
Posted by on July 12, 2007 at 11:45 AM
Speaking of Argentinian composer Osvaldo Golijov, as I was couple posts ago, this morning The Guardian has a feature about a collaboration between Golijov and Oscar-winning director Anthony Minghella. (The English Patient, Cold Mountain, Talented Mr. Ripley etc.) They're writing an opera which Minghella will also direct at the Met in 2011/2012.
It's not the first time Minghella's been at the Met though. His version of Madam Butterfly was much buzzed about last year -- and was broadcast in Times Square!
Now that last bit is really wonderful. The Met has become very savvy in their efforts to get the music to people in a more affordable form. Their decision to simulcast opera in movie theatres for example -- they really hit that one out of the park. The estimated audience was more than 325,000 viewers! Naturally, the Met plans to do this again in their 2007/2008 season.
For more on the Golijov/Minghella collaboration, go to Guardian Unlimited Music
Posted by on July 12, 2007 at 09:45 AM
Yesterday when I blogged about Studio Sparks, I failed to mention that all week long they are featuring highlights from the Festival 500 , an international choral fest from St. John's Newfoundland. This was a mistake. I heard part of the show yesterday, and there were some fabulous choirs. So consider this a heads up to tune in today for more.
Also, earlier in the month just before the festival began, one of those choirs dropped by the CBC atrium in T'ranna, where I happened to be working in one of my other lives as a radio producer. The ensemble, the Tower New Zealand Youth Choir, sounded so great that everyone within hearing range actually left their computer screens for a few minutes to come out and listen. You know when journalists leave their computers to listen to music in the middle of the day something's going very right.
Posted by on July 12, 2007 at 07:45 AM
Getting an inside look at the process of anything can be deadly -- or fascinating, depending on who's doing the telling.
Terry Teachout blogs about the arts at About Last Night and is also, not incidentally, writing the libretto to an opera. (An adaptation of Somerset Maugham's The Letter.) In a post titled Men At Work he talks about the process of collaborating with the composer, Paul Moravec, and in it he mentions the phenom of the "dummy lyric," wherein the music is there, but the lyrics ain't...yet.
The most famous of all dummy lyrics, he says, is the one Ira Gershwin wrote for "I Got Rhythm."
"Roly-poly
Eating solely
Ravioli
Better watch your diet or bust."
Really, who could ask for anything more?
July 11, 2007
Posted by on July 11, 2007 at 08:57 PM
One day maybe we'll all be so tired of the "what is" game that we'll just be too bored to play.
What is jazz?
"Who cares," we'll yawn.
Why do people call baroque music classical?
"Can you close the door on your way out?" we'll suggest.
But for now, we're still hashing and rehashing. Still, a recent feature on Spinner.com opens up the "what is" question and turns it into an interesting profile of "classical" composer Osvaldo Golijov.
In it Golijov talks about Oceana, his new CD which includes a setting of verses by Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, among other things.
And here's a nice thought from Golijov on the biggest "what is" question of all:
"To me, music is simply the possibility of exploring in sound the range of human experience and emotion and everything," Golijov says.
Posted by on July 11, 2007 at 06:36 PM
The Festival International de Jazz de Montreal turns 28 this year, and Canada Live is celebrating with some music from this year's fest.
I don't know which particular musicians they'll be playing on the show tonight, but you know, it almost doesn't matter, given the typical energy of performances at the Montreal fest. Maybe it's something to do with the sheer mass of excited people, cross-pollinated with the cumulative weight of all that tradition --whatever the case may be, the Montreal jazz fest usually seems to inspire both musicians and audiences alike.
For a quick peek at a visual representation of that energy, check out Ojos de Brujo's blog re: their Montreal date.
Posted by on July 11, 2007 at 04:00 PM
A few weeks back I went to the Madeleine Peyroux concert at Massey Hall here in hogtown. I mostly know her from her last recording, Half The Perfect World, named for the Leonard Cohen song that Katie will play on Tonic tonight. Man, I love that album. Really gorgeous arrangements, and Peyroux can make a single word take on a world of meaning.
The concert was another matter though. Most of the time Peyroux was so "back in the weeds," as to almost be singing the song in another time zone from the band. And melody? Who needs the original, when you can dance around it all night long.
Despite that I would still say I'm a big fan. She's a wonderful singer, and she's clearly pushing her own boundaries, experimenting and testing both herself and the audience.
Think I'm not alone, either -- given that she'd played in town not all that long ago, clearly the audience is sticking with her -- the concert wasn't sold out, but it was decently attended.
p.s. Another highlight tonight from the Tonic folks: pianist Brian Brown's trio, doing Billy Joel's Just The Way You Are.
Posted by on July 11, 2007 at 12:29 PM
Funny that the band some are touting as surprise contenders for the prestigous (and lucrative) Polaris Prize made the shortlist (announced yesterday) for a recording called "The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse."
The Polaris Prize, if you're not familiar with it, is a Canadian award for "best album of the year," decided by a large panel of music critics. Happens it's mainly indie bands and the like who made the cut this year though, so the concept of "best album," seems a tad narrow in definition.
Something tells me the Besnard Lakes -- yes, that's also the name of the band -- aren't too concerned. Besides, it's hard to believe that any band will defeat the two obvious frontrunners: Arcade Fire and Feist. (In fact here's a dollar saying somehow they decide it's a tie between the two. Arcade Feist?)
The winner will be announced on Sept. 24.
For the full list of nominees, go to: CBC.ca
Posted by on July 11, 2007 at 09:45 AM
This is what Brahm's friend Elizabeth von Herzogenberg said about his Sonata in A., op 100: "The whole sonata is a caress."
My, oh my.
You can decide if Liz's interpretation is accurate for yourself today on Studio Sparks.
And I'm happy to note that although the concerto was written for violin and piano, this version is a transcription for clarinet, played by clarinetist Joaquin Valdepeñas and pianist Patricia Parr (from a concert earlier this season at the Glenn Gould Studio).
Now if only someone would do a transcription for clarinet and ukulele.
Posted by on July 11, 2007 at 08:19 AM
The perpetual debate over what music really should be considered jazz, particularly when it comes to the programming at jazz festivals, continues to rage (or at the very least simmer).
If you haven't noticed raging or simmering, that's only because you've probably found more productive ways to spend your time than reading the natterings of discontented jazz musicians. (Though if anyone did watch The Singing Bee last night I'd really appreciate a review...)
Anyway, in light of the jazz gnashing I found it interesting to see that in a recent concert announcement, the music of B-3/pianist Denis Keldie was described as "including material from Robert Johnson, John Coltrane, the Yiddish labour movement, Newfoundland, Marvin Gaye, and much more."
And was vastly amused when another of the nattering classes responded to this announcement by asking "What 'MORE' could there be?
I'm thinking throat singing, what about you?
P.S. If you're in T.O., you can hear for yourself tonight -- Denis Keldie is at The Courthouse...
Posted by on July 11, 2007 at 07:44 AM
The Art of Time Ensemble’s artistic director Andrew Burashko asked Sarah Slean to chose a dozen songs, each by a Canadian songwriter. CBC Radio commissioned arrangements of each song for this ensemble by a well-respected Canadian arranger.
In this concert you’ll hear songs by Mary-Margaret O’Hara, Ron Sexsmith, Hawksley Workman, Feist, Leonard Cohen and many more all newly arranged by the likes of Aaron Davis, Phil Dwyer, Roberto Occhipinti, Gavin Bryars and others.
Sarah Slean and The Art of Time Ensemble at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by on July 11, 2007 at 07:24 AM
The requests are educational this morning on Here's To You -- all of them come from Brandon University music students enrolled in a general music history course.
They have eclectic tastes, these students -- requests include Nexus, the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra with “The History of Percussion in the Orchestra,” Johannes Brahms Finale from Symphony No. 4 and Ann Southam's “Glass houses No. 9”.
July 10, 2007
Posted by on July 10, 2007 at 08:15 PM
Interesting that despite declining CD sales, (in the UK they dropped by 10% in the first half of 2007, as compared with the same period in 2006, according to BBC News), throat singing is on the rise. (So says the Globe and Mail.)
Maybe you're thinking, "Apples and oranges, baby. What have CD sales got to do with throat singing?"
Here's a theory. The more digital the dissemination of music gets, the more organic the creation of music can be. If samples of throat singing are heard in complicated "pop" music mixes available to all and any as a download, more people are drawn to the sound that gives that mix its kick, and more people aspire to create that sound, or use that instrument.
Like I say, it's a theory.
Posted by on July 10, 2007 at 06:45 PM
The Art of Time Ensemble, led by pianist Andrew Burashko, takes a catholic approach to classical music. Burashko is unabashed in saying that collaborating with musicians better known outside the classical world is one of the ways classical music can refresh itself, stay relevant and draw in new and younger audiences. In other words, all of the things that classical music organizations are desperate to do.
Tonight you can hear one outcome of this attitude as Canada Live presents the Art of Time performing mostly Canadian songs, with new arrangements by the likes of Aaron Davis, Phil Dwyer, Roberto Occhipinti and Gavin Bryars. Pop singer Sarah Slean does the singing, and songs are by by Mary-Margaret O'Hara, Ron Sexsmith, Hawksley Workman, Feist, Leonard Cohen and others.
Posted by on July 10, 2007 at 04:30 PM
You have to love a song with a name like "Rumpwinder." Or at least want to hear it. And you can, tonight on Tonic. Katie plays saxophonist Karl Denson's tune "Rumpwinder” this eve, and suggests that it's the perfect tune to "give your pelvis a workout." (Goodness, and here I was thinking good clean family rumpus room type fun.)
Anyway, from rumpwinding to weeping -- the folks at Tonic also counsel us to have our hankies ready tonight for a torchsong trilogy from singers Betty Carter, Joe Williams and Shirley Horn.
Posted by on July 10, 2007 at 02:45 PM
The post-game commentary about the massive Live Earth concerts that took place on the weekend is still commentating away, with pundits weighing in on whether or not having huge rock concerts to raise awareness about issues like climate change is a good or a bad thing.
In today's Globe and Mail, TV critic John Doyle, (never one to mince words), calls Live Earth "bloated, meandering and self congratulatory." (Warning: you have to be a "Globe Insider" to access the full story, which means you have to shell out some $$. Or buy today's paper.)
Leaving aside the "global rock concerts -- good or bad?" question for a moment, what about the music itself? Surely with so many festivals happening all over the world, there are better ways to connect to both music and the environment than by watching Madonna on a computer screen inciting us to jump up and down if we want to save the planet.
With that in mind I biked over to Afro Fest on the weekend. It's an annual festival held in Queen's Park in downtown Toronto that brings together musicians from many different African countries. Consequently the audience is made up of people from many different African countries, not to mention those of us not from any African country at all.
The experience had three things going for it that something like Live Earth does not: it's close to home, it's filled with musical surprises, and it creates a sense of community that is immediate and tangible. The conclusion? Think globally, listen locally.
Posted by on July 10, 2007 at 11:15 AM
Don't know where you weigh in on surreality TV shows involving music and dance. I can take or leave all the Idols, particularly when the singing is egregious, yet still the judges give praise. Or when the object of the game is blatant humiliation. (eg. The famous "you look like a bush baby" comment.)
I will, however, go on record as saying "So You Think You Can Dance" has many virtues, not the least of which is that no one sings.
Now there's NBC's "The Singing Bee," wherein people compete to remember lyrics accurately. It debuts tonight and sounds like a dilly.
Virginia Heffernan, writing in the New York Times says that The Singing Bee exploits the fact that "Many ordinary people aren’t afraid to sing before huge audiences anymore. Karaoke has perhaps toughened their hides or helped them customize a beta-blocker-and-margarita combo..."
Likely true. And of course it is possible to become famous for doing things badly, so why not give it your worst try?
As for the actual competition, it does sound fierce. Who among us accurately recalls the words to “Venus,” for example? Apparently contestants universally omit the crucial "at" in the lyric, and just sing "your desire." (“I’m your Venus/I’m your fire/At your desire.”)
Huh, never mind the "at." All these years I thought it was "joy, desire." Your desire? Pah.
Posted by on July 10, 2007 at 09:08 AM
Yesterday I posed the following question: Is the clarinet an overlooked instrument?
No one said boo. I take that as a yes.
But maybe I'll hear from the ukulele lobbyists when I pose a similar question today.
Wither goest the uke? Is it merely relegated to tiptoeing through the tulips, an amateur hour turn, or is it worthy of a great deal more consideration? For that matter, is there some clandestine ukulele movement we should all be more aware of?
I'm told there is at least one ukulele virtuoso, and today we get to hear him when Studio Sparks presents an encore presentation of a live studio session with James Hill, who they bill as a "ukulele wizard."
Also, Bill Richardson is guest hosting the show this week, and I have a feeling he might have a thought or two on the little stringed thing. (I'm not sure why I think that, I just do. I suppose because Bill is, after all, a man who associates many things with many things.)
Posted by on July 10, 2007 at 07:42 AM
Ah summer, the season of long, sticky days, of cool lakes and warm docks (for the lucky), and of course of music festivals (ditto on the lucky front).
But summer is also the season of guest hosts, and although you may miss your regular show host, it's a nice surprise to hear unexpected voices pop up on the radio, and refreshing to get different perspectives on music.
Today, for instance, on Music And Company it's Philly Markowitz, whose regular gig is hosting Roots & Wings. She just played some lovely tune by Astor Piazzolla. (At least I think it was Piazzolla, the caffeine hadn't quite hit yet. But then, that's what that playlist feature on the left is for...ain't technology grand.)
July 09, 2007
Posted by on July 9, 2007 at 08:45 PM
Sometimes liner notes can be helpful, other times they're just baffling.
Bernard Holland wrote a funny piece about this in yesterday's NYTimes, based on his experience reading the liner notes to a CD of music by Marc-André Dalbavie.
In what Holland calls "verbal space walks" the liner note guy came up with gems such as this:
"[Mr. Dalbavie’s] works do not limit their musical space to the concert platform, but extend to the entire hall. The defocalisation thus achieved calls into question the spatial hierarchy resulting from any frontal presentation of the music.'
Holland's response:
"I sure wish Gabrieli had thought about that 450 years ago; imagine the antiphonal music he could have written, with sound flying from every direction at people standing in the middle of his church."
Here's the link to read all of "Don't Let Words Get In The Way."
[File under: Eschew Obfuscation.]
Posted by on July 9, 2007 at 06:45 PM
What do you think, does the clarinet get overlooked? Does it languish in the shadow of the saxophone? Seems to me that once the big band era went kaput, the clarinet became something of the poor country cousin to the sax. (Eric Dolphy and Don Byron aside.)
Tonight on Canada Live the clarinet has its day though. Three star clarinetists, James Campbell, Phil Nimmons and Airat Ichmouratov, (as pictured stage left), share the bill on what was a sold out show from Almonte Old Town Hall. What's more, they're doing something of a Nigel Kennedy (does this make them the bad clarinet-playing-boys?) by playing both jazz and classical, with music from Ellington, Mozart and Brahms, as well as some contemporary jazz and klezmer.
You can also hear this performance at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by on July 9, 2007 at 04:33 PM
Funny how no one ever seems to graduate from being "the bad boy of such and such" to being "the bad man." Take Nigel Kennedy, perpetual "bad boy of classical music," despite turning 50 last year. What, do we think that grown men can't be bad?
If that were the case then there wouldn't be movies with titles like A Touch of Evil, the theme song of which can be heard on tonight's Tonic, as performed by the Jazz-at-the-Movies band.
Speaking of film noir, as some of us were earlier today, the score to Touch Of is by Henry Mancini, and if I remember it accurately much of it is Mancini's take on Mexican pop music. Sort of mariachi meets big band jazz in a seedy saloon. All so that Janet Leigh can skitter about border-town streets making a bad situation worse.
Anyway, back to Bad Boy/Man Kennedy. You can also hear him on this evening's edition of Tonic playing Kenny Burrell's Midnight Blue. Which isn't so bad at all.
Posted by on July 9, 2007 at 03:04 PM
Well, Live Earth has come and gone. Many thousands have signed Al Gore's Seven Point Pledge to combat global warming. Madonna's people have gotten down on their knees and said a little prayer that we'll believe them when they tell us she's committed to becoming environmentally responsible. And one can only imagine the state of the beach in Rio.
Did Live Earth have real impact? Will the thousands who signed (and the thousands who didn't) be more thoughtful -- on an ongoing basis -- about living the green life? Or was Live Earth, as any number of wits have suggested, really a case of Global Yawning?
Continue reading "Global Yawning?" »
Posted by on July 9, 2007 at 12:00 PM
"Radio in the night, exchanging show hosts"...
If you're looking for Jowi Taylor, look no farther than your radio dial. Jowi will be the guest host of CBC Radio Two's overnight music show, Nightstream, for most of the summer. So if you're up in the wee sma's, be sure to tune in.
I wonder if Jowi's read the Overnight Radio Handbook? According to its author, Jim Cutler, the overnight is "the craziest shift in an already crazy business."
Doesn't that just make you want to start speaking in film noir?
"Say, I'm thinkin' of getting into the radio game, whaddya think?"
"Lemme set you straight, buddy. It's a crazy business."
Anyway, I'm happy to to be guest blogger (glogger?) in J.T.'s absence. You'll continue to see a mix of music news, programme updates, and reflections on music and culture, here on what we affectionately call the R2 Blog. And of course, your comments on the posts are most welcome.
See ya later, angel -- gotta go see a man about a blog.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 9, 2007 at 10:10 AM
Today on Studio Sparks, guest host Bill Richardson presents some highlights from the recent Festival 500 International Choral Festival in St. John's Newfoundland.
After that... a musical morning, noon, and night suite with music by Haydn, Respighi, Dvorak, and artists like the Wailin' Jennies and Holly Cole.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 9, 2007 at 08:45 AM
This is my last morning to be able to do this. Li Robbins will be taking over the blog for the next little while as I take over Nightstreams for the next little while. This grove is perfect this morning so it'll be nice to remember in a cramped studio.
There used to be a club in a fleabag hotel at the corner of Carlton
and Jarvis in Toronto: Larry's Hideaway. While some of the clientele
were having their own kind of sublime experiences upstairs, my
contemporaries and I had some of the most sublime music experiences
of our young lives downstairs.
Continue reading "Final Thoughts from the Grove: Risky Business" »
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 9, 2007 at 07:07 AM
This morning on Here's To You with Shelley Solmes, Mozart's "Bassoon Concerto in B flat” and Healey Willen's Anthem on "Ye Watchers and Ye Holy Ones".
Also, Leevi Madetoja's "Symphony No. 3".
July 08, 2007
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 8, 2007 at 08:12 PM
Tonight's edition of The Signal with Pat Carrabré features new music for traditional instruments from outside the western classical tradition.
Whether it’s the Chinese Zheng, Scottish Bagpipes or Balinese Gender Wayang they’ve all found a home in contemporary classical music.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 8, 2007 at 06:08 PM
Pierre Flynn is one of Quebec's best singer songwriters. His songs seem to be bathed in an aura of mystery.
Starting out in the 70s as the lead singer of a very popular band called Octobre, Flynn only recently decided to play solo: his piano, his guitar and his voice.
For this special concert, a few special guests join him on stage for some exceptional collaborations.
That’s tonight on Canada Live with Patti Schmidt.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 8, 2007 at 04:12 PM
This evening on Tonic with Tim Tamashiro, Medeski Martin & Wood match their funky Hammond and breaking beats with the guitar of John Scofield.
You'll hear a bluesy side to Supreme's leading lady Diana Ross and some funky Motown remixes.
Plus, music from Holly Cole, Simon Fisk and Jazz Jamaica.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 8, 2007 at 03:15 PM
This afternoon on Fuse, with Alan Neal - veteran Newfoundland songwriter Ron Hynes melds minds with Nova Scotia upstarts The Trews.
The result is quieter than regular Trews but full of Atlantic flavour (fish? salt? No, you know what I mean - musical flavour).
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 8, 2007 at 01:13 PM
This afternoon on Skylarking with Andre Alexis, we imagine the gentle meeting of things we love: the music of the Malian group "Tinariwen" and the writing of Yasunari Kawabata, the first Japanese Nobel prize-winner. A Skylarking that imagines shifting sands, first love, and the secret connections between distant worlds.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 8, 2007 at 11:11 AM
Today on OnStage with Shelley Solmes from the Glenn Gould Studio, piano and vocal sensation Laila Biali & Friends.
She's opened for a sold-out Diana Krall show at the Vancouver International Jazz Festival; she was a double winner for Composer of the Year and Keyboardist of the Year at the National Jazz Awards in 2005; she represented Canada as the pianist with “Swinging Europe,” a European Jazz Orchestra that toured several countries in the Spring of 2006; she's currently touring with both Paula Cole and Blood Sweat & Tears; and she's only 26 years old.
Don't you just hate that?
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 8, 2007 at 08:08 AM
This morning on Symphony Hall with Katherine Duncan:
Resphighi's "Ancient Airs and Dances, Suite 1"; Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings"; and Harry Somers' "North Country".
July 07, 2007
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 7, 2007 at 08:12 PM
The Mutek Festival in Montréal celebrates electronic music and other forms of digital culture.
So what are clarinet, guitar and viola da gamba doing on the stage there?
A lot more than you'd think as they meld seamlessly in the music of electronic artist Colleen - visiting the festival from France.
You'll hear her in performance tonight on The Signal with Pat Carrabré.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 7, 2007 at 06:16 PM
If you've just been listening to Tonic (or your ear to the Vinyl Café now and then), you'll have had a taste of one of Canada's foremost jazz pianists, Michael Kaeshammer.
He's released a series of award winning, critically acclaimed recordings and has developed a large, international following through his dynamic live performances and his encyclopedic knowledge of traditional piano styles.
You'll hear his full range in performance tonight on Canada Live with Patti Schmidt.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 7, 2007 at 04:11 PM
The weekday edition of Tonic is hosted by Katie Malloch and comes out of Montréal.
The weekend edition is hosted by Tim Tamashiro and comes out of Calgary, where the Stampede is in full swing right now. And so is Tim's Tonic - with music from the Bebop Cowboys and Lyle Lovett.
There's Nu-Jazz from Canada as well as great nonsense music from Cake and Freddie Cole.
You'll also hear from Michael Kaeshammer, Jeff Healy and The Bad Plus.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 7, 2007 at 03:21 PM
On the eve of another gala performance at the Montreal International Jazz Festival, acclaimed pianist Oliver Jones mused on Friday about his mentor Oscar Peterson and the state of jazz today.
Read the full story at CBC | Music News
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 7, 2007 at 02:41 PM
Last year, theatre director Peter Sellars organized the New Crowned Hope Festival for the city of Vienna in celebration of Mozart's 250th anniversary. As part of that festival, he challenged musicians from around the world to re-imagine the final years of Mozart's life.
The young Malian singer Rokia Traore rose to the challenge with a piece called "Wati", in which she draws parallels between Mozart's life and that of the Mandinka Griots, who were also commissioned composers serving the pleasure of the court. The piece wonders aloud: What if Mozart were born Soundiata Keita in 13th century Mali? The show that answers that question is now on its way to the Barbican Centre in London.
Find out more at Guardian Unlimited | Music.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 7, 2007 at 10:10 AM
Today's edition of Sound Advice with Rick Phillips is the last completely new episode before the start of his 8-week summer-long "Best of Sound Advice" series.
Now that doesn't mean there's not a reason to tune in in the summer just because you've been listening all winter and fall. Each week, Rick will have another clue to a special summer quiz with the winner announced in September.
This weekend, though, Rick surveys a bunch of recent releases of suitable summer selections. Included is a new Beethoven "Symphony No. 9" and a couple of new releases of stories with music for children aged 4 and up. When the books, games and DVDs aren't cutting it anymore, this summer, try these to keep the kids busy!
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 7, 2007 at 07:07 AM
This morning in the Vinyl Café, host Stuart McLean talks about why he has been spending a lot of time in graveyards lately and about the run-in he had in a bad neighborhood in downtown Toronto late at night.
He was surrounded by these law-breakers.... guerillas of a sort.... dirty to look at.... holding menacing looking sticks... they were...... gardening in public space !!!!!
And, speaking of gardening, he explains why he has been launching potatoes and canned food and buckets of water into his backyard.
Hey, who hasn't been there?
July 06, 2007
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 6, 2007 at 09:43 PM
Acclaimed French soprano Régine Crespin, the elegant and luminous performer who sang at the world's top opera venues, had died at the age of 80.
Read the full story at CBC | Music News.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 6, 2007 at 08:14 PM
Tonight on The Signal with Pat Carrabré, from a performance at the Mutek Festival in Montreal, Pat presents Hauschka.
He's the German pianist and composer Volker Bertelmann who makes it his business to explore the full potential of the prepared piano.
Plus, laughs, giggles and even the odd chortle shows up tonight in a set of laughter music - Apostle of Hustle, the Happy Campers and Bob Wiseman bring the guffaws.
That's kind of appropriate because whenever I think of prepared piano, I think of John Cage. And whenever I picture John Cage, I picture him laughing.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 6, 2007 at 06:16 PM
The Winnipeg Folk Festival is legendary for its presentation of music, its variety, its spectacular location, its longevity and its baseball-sized mosquitos.
Tonight on Canada Live with Matt Galloway, you'll drop in on the opening night mainstage show, featuring an exciting mix of Canadian and international artists at their peak. Performances include Olla belle, The John Jorgensen Quintet, The Duhks and the Indigo Girls - all recorded live at Birds Hill Park. No DDT required.
You know, the other neat thing about the Winnipeg Folk Festival is that Birds Hill Park is a fair way from downtown Winnipeg. They overcome the distance handily with regular shuttle buses. What remains is a really special sense that you're travelling to a special space to hear special music. It's like Avalon or something.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 6, 2007 at 04:17 PM
This evening on Tonic with Katie Malloch, guitarist Russell Malone plays the theme from the TV show "The Odd Couple”. I actually blogged a short while ago about the death of Plas Johnson, who played the saxophone in that theme and also the sax part in the "Pink Panther" signature theme. We'll take this as a posthumous tribute.
Later, a beautiful ballad called "My Foolish Heart" from Guido Basso on flugelhorn and Doug Riley on Hammond B3 organ and if you love soul singers, check out Amp Fiddler's irresistible tune "Unconditional Eyes".
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 6, 2007 at 12:25 PM
Pear is a sweet yet gritty alt-country band fronted by Denis & Lynae Dufresne. They joined forces with singer songwriter Lorrie Matheson in the second Combo to Go concert presented by CBC Radio and the Epcor Centre in Calgary.
Pear with Lorrie Matheson in Combo to Go at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 6, 2007 at 10:03 AM
Although the piece was written for an entirely different era of painting, I'll credit Studio Sparks with keeping to the Rembrandt theme from Here's To You as guest host Bill Richardson plays the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's recording of Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition".
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 6, 2007 at 09:26 AM
Trumpeter, composer and Ashkenaz originator and former artistic director David Buchbinder teams up with JUNO-winning pianist and composer Hilario Durán and crew of the city’s top musicians to present this exciting klezmer-Cuban fusion.
Odessa and Havana at Lula Lounge at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 6, 2007 at 07:09 AM
July 15th, 2006 would have been Rembrandt van Rijn's 400th birthday. Getting a bit of a jump on things, on this morning's edition of Here's To You with Shelley Solmes: Cornelius Dopper's "Rembrandt” Symphony No. 3.
There are other equally masterful music selections as well and... who knows... perhaps even an Anatomy Lesson!
July 05, 2007
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 5, 2007 at 08:16 PM
Tonight on The Signal with Laurie Brown, still more from the Cool Drummings festival - tonight featuring Canada's premier pioneering percussion ensemble, Nexus.
Staying with drummers, the legendary Moondog (born Louis Hardin, Kansas, 1916) who was in many ways the quintessential American iconoclast. He taught himself music by ear and by braille (he was blinded in an accident at the age of 12) and moved in circles that included many native American musicians as well as classical and jazz icons like Leonard Bernstein and Charlie Parker.
Also on the show, the return of desert gothic poet Jerry Granelli and the Cinematic Orchestra.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 5, 2007 at 06:15 PM
Tonight on Canada Live with Matt Galloway, Vivaldi’s Angels conductor Matthias Maute brings together two sopranos, two baroque ensembles and a women's choir to perform sacred works by Vivaldi, including his "Gloria".
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 5, 2007 at 04:17 PM
This evening on Tonic with Katie Malloch, Vancouver saxophonist Ross Taggart plays an appetizing tune called "TV lunch".
Then, snack on a cut called "Breakfast Samba" from bassist Paul Donat's latest CD, "Rio Bossa" (though I wonder if that shouldn't be "Rio Kielbassa").
And ask for your Hammond B3 "Over Easy" from Booker T. and the MGs.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 5, 2007 at 12:27 PM
Iranian musician Amir Amiri goes back to his Persian classical music roots backed up by Edmonton drummer Sandro Dominelli at the Cathedral Church of the Redeemer in Calgary.
Amir Amiri and Sandro Dominelli at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 5, 2007 at 09:28 AM
Lynn Olagundoye and the Guerrilla Funk Monster are all Canadian born, but they present the rhythm of their roots in this rhythm and blues hip hop party at Quincy’s nightclub.
Lynn Olagundoye and Guerrilla Funk Monster at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 5, 2007 at 09:13 AM
Bill Frisell, in Canada for shows in Montréal, Toronto and Halifax, is an extraordinary guitar player who most often finds himself described as a jazz player and in the company of jazz musicians - but whose influences straddle genres, influences and even instruments.
Read an interview with Frisell at Globe and Mail | Music News.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 5, 2007 at 07:10 AM
This morning on Here’s to You with Shelley Solmes, something to really wake you up: Georg Druschetzky's "Concerto for Six Timpani"!
Also, Beethoven’s “Waldstein Sonata” - that's a little more low-key.
And of course it's Organ Thursday so for the day after July 4th Jurgen Petrenko has a piece called "Variations on America" by Charles Ives, played by Gillian Wier.
July 04, 2007
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 4, 2007 at 08:17 PM
The Cool Drummings Festival in Toronto assembled all kinds of percusso-centric music from around the world on a variety of stages and fitting to a variety of tastes - from Steve Reich to Beverly Johnston, from Latin to African to avant-garde. Tonight on The Signal with Laurie Brown, you'll hear more excerpts from the festival (different from the ones you heard on last night's show).
Plus, the mysterious and slightly somnambulistic poetry/music of Jerry Granelli, New Orleans group Garage a Trois, the amazingly weird and wonderful San Francisco performance artist Kevin Blechdom and Laconnor - the side project of Jesse Zubot, Francois Houle and Jean Martin.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 4, 2007 at 06:13 PM
Tonight on Canada Live with Matt Galloway, Iranian musician Amir Amiri presents his latest compositions backed up by drummer Sandro Dominelli at Edmonton's Cathedral Church of the Redeemer.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 4, 2007 at 04:13 PM
This evening on Tonic with Katie Malloch, a sexy tune called "Oh What a Night" from the late Gerald Levert's album "The G Spot" which, sadly, was not recorded live at Gräfenberg's in St. John's, Newfoundland.
Later, guitarist Mark Elf and vocalist Dinah Washington perform music from Frank Loesser's "Guys and Dolls”.
And in honour of many listeners south of the border, you'll hear pianist Bill Charlap's rendition of Leonard Bernstein's "America", which may or may not be in the key of "G".
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 4, 2007 at 03:51 PM
Eisenach, a town in central Germany, wants everyone to know that Martin Luther isn't their only famous son.
Read about Bach's musical homecoming at Guardian Unlimited | Music.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 4, 2007 at 03:48 PM
The 5th Annual Global Divas benefit concert, featuring acclaimed jazz saxophonist Jane Bunnett and The Spirits of Havana on June 12 at the Palais Royale Ballroom in Toronto.
The concert showcased four leading world music vocalists, with Cuban rapera/jazz poet Telmary; the reigning Queen of Haitian Song, Emeline Michel; South Asian musical master Suba Sankaran of Autorickshaw fame; and Canadian blues guitarist/vocalist Rita Chiarelli, who's been exploring the folk music of her Italian heritage on her most recent album.
Global Divas at Concerts On Demand.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 4, 2007 at 02:40 PM
I'd written a while ago about the impending debut of Damon Albarn's ambitious opera project at a festival in Manchester England.
Well, that debut has come and gone and there are reviews. You'll find one of them at:
Guardian Unlimited | Music.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 4, 2007 at 01:14 PM
History, it is said, is written by the victors - unless, of course, the losers have oodles and oodles of cash, in which case they can write whatever they like.
The griots of Mandinka culture in West Africa wrote laudatory histories of their patrons, which they then disseminated to the populace either through their own travels or by others picking up their tunes.
Countless classical musicians puffed the feathers of their courtly patrons for the sake of an ongoing gig.
In the latest twist on "he who pays the piper", singers and rappers like Fergie and 50 Cent are making deals to make "product placement" a lyrical term. And you thought Busta Rhymes was rapping about "Courvoisier" just because he likes the stuff.
For more on this story, see the John Harris article in Guardian Unlimited | Music.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 4, 2007 at 10:09 AM
A concert with the Norwegian star pianist Leif Ove Andsnes is always an event.
On today's edition of Studio Sparks, guest host Bill Richardson presents him a in a live concert recording with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, performing Mozart's "Piano Concerto N. 17 in G, K. 453".
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 4, 2007 at 07:16 AM
German composer and musician Paul Hindemith (1895-1963) had several interesting things going for him:
1. He played in and composed for everything from coffee house groups to chamber ensembles to jazz bands to musical comedy acts. ie., a well-rounded and fun individual;
2. Joseph Goebbels denounced his music as "degenerate". (In fact, he had a kind of complicated relationship with the Nazis but his wife was Jewish and he eventually fled Germany);
3. He was invited by Ataturk to reorganize the Turkish music education system and was responsible for the establishment of the Turkish State Opera and Ballet.
This morning on Here’s to You with guest host Catherine Belyea, you'll hear Hindemith's "Sonata for Alto Horn in E Flat" as played by Glenn Gould and Mason Jones.
You'll also hear Healey Willan's "Second Symphony" as played by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra.
July 03, 2007
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 3, 2007 at 08:10 PM
Tonight on The Signal with Laurie Brown, "Improvisations on Four Inventions by J.S. Bach" by Oscar Morawetz from Thursday night's concert - available in full on the Concerts On Demand panel.
Also, hear some excerpts of Nexus performing in the Cool Drummings festival this past May and more of the weird-and-wonderfulness you've come to expect.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 3, 2007 at 06:18 PM
At its première in 1913, the awe-inspiring evocation of ancient pagan ceremonies that is Stravinsky's “The Rite of Spring” provoked the greatest scandal in twentieth-century music. Long a classic of the orchestral repertoire, its elemental titanic rhythms and vivid orchestration make for one of the most virtuoso pieces in the repertoire. Tonight on Canada Live with Matt Galloway, you'll hear the first of a two-part Stravinsky festival from the TSO.
While we're at it, there's a new production of "The Rite of Spring" at the newly opened Festival Hall, South Bank in London featuring 3-D Holographic projections and other innovations. You can read an appreciation of Stravinsky from Artistic Director Jude Kelly in this article from the Independent Online.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 3, 2007 at 04:28 PM
Hy Zaret, the lyricist behind "Unchained Melody", one of the most frequently recorded songs of the 20th century, has died.
Read the full obituary at CBC | Music News
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 3, 2007 at 04:24 PM
The great opera star and popularizer of the art for a generation of kids has died at her Manhattan home at the age of 78.
Read the full story at CBC | Arts.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 3, 2007 at 04:16 PM
Here are a couple of confessional lines spoken by Dr. Evil on the set of the Jerry Springer show in the second Austin Powers movie. They didn't make the final cut:
"I wrote 'It's Raining Men', or so the Christmas babies told me.
Oh yes, I also made a Marzipan voodoo effigy of The Fonze while I was in coma after smoking some Peruvian prayer hash, but who at the end of the day can honestly say they haven't done that?"
And who can't relate to Eartha Kitt when she sings, "I Want to be Evil”? You'll hear it this evening on Tonic with Katie Malloch.
Plus R&B;, Funk and hip-hop meet in Zap Mama's tune "Miss Q. In." and a beautiful solo piano piece from Cedar Walton.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 3, 2007 at 12:10 PM
A new lead violinist is expected to renew harmony in Ottawa's National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Read the full story at CBC | Music News
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 3, 2007 at 10:13 AM
He's everywhere.
He hosted Canada Reads, he's the new host of Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and he'll be the host of the forthcoming yet-to-be-named flagship Sunday classical music concert show on Radio Two.
And this week, Bill Richardson begins a three week stint as guest host of Studio Sparks. He'll kick things off by presenting a brand new recording of Tchaikovsky's "Symphony no. 4" with Christoph Eschenbach conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra.
Plus, songs from Nina Simone and Kiran Ahluwalia.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 3, 2007 at 07:07 AM
This morning on Here’s To You with Shelley Solmes, "Over the Transom" features music by Spanish composers from 4 centuries.
Plus Roland Dyens arrangements for guitar and string quartet of Fernando Sor's "Etudes" played by guitarist Dyens and the Arthur Leblanc quartet.
July 02, 2007
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 2, 2007 at 06:17 PM
In case you haven't already checked it out on the Concerts On Demand panel, or heard it on Symphony Hall over the weekend, tonight on Canada Live with Matt Galloway, you'll hear a remarkable project commissioned by the CBC Radio Orchestra in Vancouver.
For "The Great Canadian Songbook", the Orchestra commissioned four Canadian composers to orchestrate songs by four icons of Canadian songwriting: Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy Saint Marie, Joni Mitchell and Serge Fiori (whom you may remember from the band Harmonium).
The arrangements are by Glenn Buhr, Giorgio Magnanensi, Phil Dwyer and the Artistic Director/Conductor of the CBC Radio Orchestra, Alain Trudel.
Then, in "I Remember Wayne", narrator Stuart McLean and composer Cam Wilson put their creative talents together to tell the culture-clashing story of Wayne Gretzky's fictional boyhood neighbour. This musical story is accompanied by an original score by Cameron Wilson performed by the CBC Radio Orchestra recorded at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 2, 2007 at 04:16 PM
Did you know the story of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land"?
Woody borrowed the tune of the Baptist hymn "When the World's On Fire" as popularized by the Carter Family and wrote new lyrics in response to Kate Smith's ubiquitous rendering of the ponderous Irving Berlin classic "God Bless America". After multiple changes to the lyrics, he recorded the song in 1944. But, of course, Woody was persona non grata in certain circles in the U.S. and - in spite of great grass-roots popularity - he wasn't getting any airplay. That's when Pete Seeger shared the song with Canada's The Travellers, who rewrote the lyrics for Canadian radio where it became a massive hit. Smelling green, corporate radio in America changed their minds and the song became a huge hit there too. You'll hear Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings' version of the song on this evening's edition of Tonic with Katie Malloch.
Also in a Canadian vein, excerpts from Oscar Peterson's Canadiana Suite.
Plus, Mario Biondi and the High Five Quintet have got the "Rio de Janeiro Blues."
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 2, 2007 at 10:09 AM
Mozart piano trios don't always get the attention they deserve, but today on Studio Sparks with Eric Friesen, the Gryphon Trio rectify that with a guided tour to two of them.
In front of a live audience in Winnipeg presented by the Virtuosi Series, Eric and the Gryphons discuss and perform highlights from the Trios in B flat and C major.
Also: the Gryphon Trio recordings of the complete versions of each of those trios.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 2, 2007 at 07:13 AM
Having recently returned from a glorious week in the hills outside the olive oil town of Periana in Malaga Province, I'm anxious to hear this morning's edition of Here’s To You with Shelley Solmes, when she plays “Nights in the Gardens of Spain” by Manuel de Falla.
Also you'll hear William Bolcom’s “ Songs of Innocence".
And keep listening - you'll hear lots more.
July 01, 2007
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 08:13 PM
It's a Canadian tradition - making that trek from east to west just to remind ourselves of the breadth of this extraordinary country. And I mean breadth in every sense of the word.
On tonight's edition of The Signal with Pat Carrabré, Pat rounds out his all-Canadian weekend by making that journey across the breadth of Canada's new classical composing landscape. Clark Ross, Paul Cram, Alistair MacLean and Richard Gibson all round out the east coast. And check out prairie boy Randolf Peters' science-inspired piece "Three Quarks for Muster Mark," as well as BC's Jocelyn Morlock's "Dervish".
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 06:08 PM
The Canada Day edition of Canada Live with Patti Schmidt brings you the 5th Annual Global Divas benefit concert that took place just over two weeks ago at Toronto’s historic (and beautifully refurbished) Palais Royale Ballroom.
This year’s concert was once again hosted by international acclaimed jazz virtuoso Jane Bunnett and her band The Spirits of Havana and features the voices of Emeline Michel, Telmary, Suba Sankaran and Rita Chiarelli.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 04:13 PM
88% Canadian content, that is. Otherwise, it's all heart.
On this evening's Canada Day edition of Tonic with Tim Tamashiro, Madeline Peyroux and Joe Pass are the interlopers but they're more than welcome.
The rest is homegrown, including a survey of the Latin Canadian Music, some up and comers to the Canadian jazz scene and the output of some great Canadian record labels.
There's a nod to to Canadian songwriter Ron Sexsmith and music from Susie Arioli, Diana Krall and the seemingly ubiquitous Michael Bublé.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 03:18 PM
This week's edition of Fuse with Alan Neal is a potluck of outtakes, lost songs, and new-to-you material.
They've rounded up the best musical mashups you've never heard. Whether it's Ron Sexsmith harmonizing with Sam Roberts, or Jim Cuddy forgetting the lyrics to his own songs, Fuse is reaching back into its vaults to showcase the songs that haven't yet hit the airwaves (and, let's face it, may not other than right here).
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 02:14 PM
This afternoon on Roots and Wings with Philly Markowitz, in celebration of Canada Day and the upcoming festival season, Philly plays some of the best from Canadian and international artists on the circuit this summer.
You'll also hear the world radio debut of a song by Juno-award winning roots group The McDades remixed by ambient dub master Andrew McPherson, a.k.a. Eccodek.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 01:13 PM
Today's edition of Skylarking with Andre Alexis is a repeat of what he called his "U.N. Show" - though I'm not quite sure why he called it that.
But then, he also told me it was sponsored by Adolfo's on the Danforth: "you can't window shop at Adolfo's, but you can buy beer for your bees and other insect intoxicants".
He is a strange, strange man. Nice.... but strange.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 11:28 AM
Today on OnStage with Shelley Solmes, a special tribute to the group that paved the way for a generation of Canadian rock and pop artists.
On the American Thanksgiving Holiday in 1976, after sixteen years on the road The Band said goodbye to their fans by staging an all star concert that featured artists such as Joni Mitchell, Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Ronnie Hawkins. On the 30th anniversary of this event a torch will be passed to a new generation of Canadian artists as OnStage gathers together an all-star band that will celebrate the music of The Band and the artists that shared the stage with them back in 1976.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 09:48 AM
On this Canada Day - as we consider what it means to be Canadian - I'd like to point you to the words of an American.
Dana Gioia is the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts and the son of Mexican and Italian immigrants. He delivered this year's Commencement Address to the graduating class at his alma mater, Stanford University in Palo Alto California.
While I don't agree with every point, there is much wisdom in what he says.
You'll find the text of his speech online here.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 08:06 AM
In case you haven't already checked it out on the Concerts On Demand panel, today on Symphony Hall with Katherine Duncan, you'll hear a remarkable project commissioned by the CBC Radio Orchestra in Vancouver.
For "The Great Canadian Songbook", the Orchestra commissioned four Canadian composers to orchestrate songs by four icons of Canadian songwriting: Gordon Lightfoot, Buffy Saint Marie, Joni Mitchell and Serge Fiori (whom you may remember from the band Harmonium).
The arrangements are by Glenn Buhr, Giorgio Magnanensi, Phil Dwyer and the Artistic Director/Conductor of the CBC Radio Orchestra, Alain Trudel.
The songs are given new voice by Ron Sexsmith, Sarah Slean, Veda Hille, and Marc Dery.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 07:20 AM
Well good morning folks - and happy Canada Day to y'all.
I'm spending the day in the nation's capital - right in the thick of it. Last year was my first trip to Ottawa for Canada Day and I have to say there's nothing like it. In some parts of the country it's a bit of a party, in others a day off but in Ottawa it really is a phenomenon.
I'm taking part in the flag-raising ceremony on Parliament Hill in a couple of hours and quite excited about it. Then I'll split my time between Jacques Cartier Park in Gatineau and Major's Hill Park across from the National Gallery and then wind up for the big show in the evening on Parliament Hill.
There's extraordinary talent from right across the country - everyone from Feist to Gregory Charles to Shaye to Tagaq to Nikki Yanofsky to Delhi2Dublin.
The Canada Day Noon Show on Parliament Hill will be broadcast live on CBC Television, Newsworld, RDI, and Télévision de Radio-Canada.
The evening show will be a delayed broadcast on Télévision de Radio-Canada.
Hope you have a great day.
Posted by Jowi Taylor on July 1, 2007 at 06:05 AM
Former prime minister Jean Chrétien, pop singer Molly Johnson, award-winning writer Alistair MacLeod and broadcaster Pamela Wallin are among the latest distinguished Canadians set to receive the Order of Canada.
Read the full story at CBC | Arts
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