Archive for the 'Editorials' Category
Berlin poses with a neon copy of his Dean bass. A sweet sounding instrument as evidenced on his new album, "High Standards".
There used to be a blogger I worked with a while ago. Anthony Medici, whom I admired for his tenacity, work ethic and integrity. I especially respected him once he started to take on the major jazz publications and took them to task! He also had some harsh words for a local public radio outlet near his hometown (Washington DC area). But he knew his stuff about jazz, and were he still working for the blog, I would ask him to review Jeff Berlin’s new disc, and most likely ask him to do this interview.
It isn’t as though I am totally foreign to Berlin’s work. I was first exposed to Jeff Berlin during his tenure with Bill Bruford’s fusion band, Bruford in the late 70’s. Having recently purchased the “Bruford – Rock Goes To College ” DVD, I was able to watch a young Jeff Berlin toss around riffs with the likes of Bruford, Allan Holdsworth, among others.
Berlin has come a long way…
read comments (13)Bet You Don’t Have Just One! (Classically Speaking #2 by Ken Howard)
Author: Kenneth P. Howard
In my years of listening to classical music of all genres and forms, there are a number of compositions which speak to me so profoundly or entertain me on so many levels that just one recording of it is never enough. My father has often asked me, “Why do you have so many versions of one piece?” Very bluntly I would reply, “Because no two performances are the same.” This observation has only increased in truth for me as time has gone by. Verdi’s DON CARLO, Cilea’s ADRIANA LECOUVREUR, Puccini’s SUOR ANGELICA and Offenbach’s LES CONTES D’HOFFMANN top a very long list of my favorite operas – the Verdi and the Offenbach all the more because of the different versions which have been used. Symphonically speaking, I have several takes on Respighi’s THE PINES OF ROME, while the most entries in my choral section are of the requiems of Verdi, Faure, and Durufle as well as Orff’s CARMINA BURANA. Comparing tempi, articulation, vocal timbre, phrasing, etc. can be a fun sort of way to dig deeper into favorites and discover new nuances in the hands of different artists. Some collectors may claim that a particular recording or performance is definitive, but I prefer to allow room for other possibilities by saying that I have favorite interpretations based on the talents and temperaments of the forces involved.
DANGER DANGER, WILL ROBINSON! BOULE REVIEWS BELEW’S “e”! DANGER, DANGER!!!
Author: Jeff Boule
Sorry, my copy of Belew's e was written all over... BY THE BAND!! (Reprinted with permission from Adrian Belew Presents)
Hi! Remember me? I’m the guy who broke the story that King Crimson was rumored to be over because a player in the scenario affixed situations to realities and created a rumored scheduling rift between when Fripp had wanted to do Crimson dates and the subject of this review, the Adrian Belew Power Trio had dates scheduled during that time. When Fripp became aware of the scheduling rift, he took it as Belew not being as committed to KC as Fripp would have wanted.
Or so it is alleged. I am not sticking my neck onto that chopping block again…
Entertainment Is Killing Music!
Author: Butler Bad
Ok, I blog about music that I think is worth listening to. I have written about people that I have seen in concert and music that I listen to on a regular basis. I write about artists. The question that I often ponder when making my musical choices is this: What is the line that divides music between art and entertainment? Is the latest boy/girl band that sings over recorded beats art or entertainment? Personally, I consider it neither and closer to the eighth ring of hell. No offense to those kids who were new on the block, the boys of the backstreet, or the menagerie of boys that danced in sync because at 18-20, I would have probably sold my soul for the money and chicks as well. Read the rest of this entry »
BOSCH ARE MORE THAN GERMAN CAR PART MANUFACTURERS. MUCH MORE!
Author: Jeff Boule
BOSCH are (from l to r) Christopher Brown, Charles Greenleaf, and Kevin Sims. I dig `em daddy-o!
I find it hard to find new music I LIKE. Yeah, yeah, there are satellite channels, pay-radio, web-radio, TV “music” channels, friends, etc. But just because there are multiple sources of input does not necessarily yield categorical output.
I like BOSCH.
MASK SETS A MATURE ROMANTIC MOOD FOR GOTHIC ROMANCE, ADULTS ONLY, PLEASE!
Author: Jeff Boule
For those of you not aware of this, I have the unique fortune of having two very good friends in some influential situations. The first person I met, then had the great fortune to re-connect with, is author, musician, promoter, and more, Billy James. The second of these unique folks is Doug Ford of RundgrenRadio.com.
But this blog isn’t about Rundgren (I’ll wait for the cheers to subside).
Classically Speaking… Part 1
Author: Kenneth P. Howard
Let’s Start at the Very Beginning . . .
To everything, there is a beginning, so as a way of beginning this new classical music blog as inspired by the Princeton Record Exchange, I would like to introduce myself and propose a premise to this forum.
Music in general, but classical music specifically, has been a passion of mine since the womb. You may laugh, but my mother tells the story that while singing “For Unto Us a Child Is Born” during a church choir rehearsal for The Messiah in December 1962 she felt me kick. She was thinking that I was liking what I was hearing. I jokingly think it was being I want out of the womb to correct some of the tenors’ wrong pitches. Read the rest of this entry »
Rundgren meets Robert Johnson and takes it to the bank! Photo courtesy RundgrenRadio.com / Doug Ford
I keep telling you people, and you just don’t listen to me. Well maybe now, you brave blogites are forging new paths, lighting out for new territories, peering into crevices where few have crept before. Rundgren has returned to his blues-oriented roots and revived 12 of Blues legend Robert Johnson’s (now royalty-free) songs, 3 of them in a downloadable EP, live and hopefully an album!
And according to Amazon Blues charts, Todd Rundgren is finally getting his due.
Postmodern Masters
Author: Gabriel Barrio
There is a nagging suspicion that these recurring themes I hear in music lately are no accident, but play into
the hands of a generation without direction, nothing of its own but hopelessness. All these purported advances in musical style are not braving a new world but are borrowed from our most colorful decade the 80′s. The 80’s bred some sort of
strange postmodern musicianship that had previous generations scratching their heads. Read the rest of this entry »
Once upon a time, there was a band nobody heard of. The people HAD actually heard this band many times. MTV, they were the backing band for Meatloaf’s massive debut album. This band and many members of Bruce Springsteen’s E-Street Band formed that famous backing troupe.
Previewing SXSW – 10 Acts to Look Out For in 2010
Author: Ryan Brodhead
For movie fans there is Sundance. For sports fans there is the Super Bowl. For us music nerds, there is the Grammys. Actually — you know what…scratch that. For the most part, we were all equally outraged (or at least should have been) by what transpired at this past year’s awards ceremony. In a perfect world, the Grammys should be able to accurately inform the nation of which artists are currently trending and deserve recognition for their efforts. Here in the real world, we were just told Taylor Swift’s “Fearless” was the best album of 2009. Hmm…
There is a light at the end of the tunnel for music geeks everywhere, though. No, I’m not talking about those of us that are obsessed with Rihanna or that think Drake is the man. I’m talking about the select few that view music as a complete and utter obsession. Those of us that still go to our favorite record stores and buy albums. Those of us that still play in bands even though we know we really can’t afford it. For us there is the South By Southwest Music Conference in Austin, Texas. Read the rest of this entry »
Top Ten Musician Lists for 2009
Author: Jeff Boule
This year’s top ten list is a bit late. I will confess that I have been busy setting up a new business venture that is finally starting to provide its own sustainability. It involves people and things I am not allowed to elaborate on. While it is something I love to do, it is not music related directly. Therefore I feel this is an incorrect forum for this and subsequently no need to go into the details.
If you remember last year’s Top Ten, we certainly stirred up some controversy regarding the omission of a certain electronic guitarist due to a scheduling snafu. For those of you who don’t remember, and due to the fact that their scheduling snafu affected shows that were due to happen this year, that same omission is applicable again this year. That and the fact that a certain omitted electronic guitarist was asked by a member of the Montreal Gazette about the incident that occurred right here on the blog earlier this year.
So read on, get angry, write me nasty comments and tell me I do drugs and I should be sued for libel.
Been there, done that…
Vinyl or CD? (Setting the record straight)
Author: Doctor B
The great debate over digital versus analogue audio has been raging since a joint venture between SONY and Philips brought the (literally) logical successor the the vinyl record to market over a quarter-century ago. It came up again in the course of a review in Goldmine magazine, the New York Times of the music-collecting community. It was for the vinyl reissue of a long-sought-after 1973 album by the seminal German progressive (or “kraut-rock”) band, Faust,. whom I had the privilege of seeing live in concert at Philadelphia’s International House last fall. The Goldmine review lauded EMI’s 180-gram audiophile edition of Faust IV. I recommend this album or any other by this act without hesitation, whatever form you choose to buy it in.
I’m always glad to see great vintage music back in print. I do take issue however with the reviewer’s apparent assertion that vinyl always sounds better than digital audio. As I’ve pointed out from time to time elsewhere, the technology used to make a recording, analogue or digital, takes a back seat to the technique and skills of the engineer and the amount of care he or she takes in making the recording. The mastering process, as any producer can tell you, can make or break the sound of a recording. And the efforts of everyone else in the chain, from the performers on down, don’t mean a thing if similar care isn’t taken in manufacturing the final product. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m Only Sleeping. And Eating. And I’m So Tired.
Author: Lydia Pudzianowski
In this busy time of year, I thought it fitting to open up a discussion about something we’re all probably lacking: sleep. The context here is the Beatles. Read the rest of this entry »
R.I.P. Jim Carroll
Author: Doctor B
Death as a subject in rock music (or “nec-rock-philia” as some wags have dubbed it) is nothing new. It showed up in everything from Mark Dinning’s 1959 one-hit wonder Teen Angel, to J. Frank Wilson & The Cavaliers’ romance-comic-like tear-jerker from 1964, Last Kiss to Bloodrock’s grinding, dirgey, death-metallic 1971 hit, DOA. Nonetheless, when Jim Carroll’s single People Who Died arrived at the radio station I spin for back in 1980, my jaw hit the floor. What was this guy up to? What was this guy on? Read the rest of this entry »
Todd Rundgren poses as master of disguise during his time travel back to 1973. Photo by Lynn Vala
On the two and a half hour drive from my home base in the fascist surrounds of Salisbury Township, Pennsylvania to Stamford CT, all I kept saying to myself is “This better be worth it, I am too damn old to be doing this!!!” There were extenuating circumstances this time. I had first volunteered to assist in the production, working concession organization the night before. This was when the show was not yet a minor tour, and only happening in Akron OH on the sixth. I had even been contacted by my former band mate from The Goodz, Marc Blanc, and he had proposed my best thing to ever happen to me and I join him and his cousin Jaime to venture first to Penn State, then to the Rock and Roll hall of fame in Cleveland.
Their proposition had become pricey, and times, as you know and can well verify for yourselves, are tough.
I had decided as temping as this was, I had to decline. This is where the volunteerism had come into play. I made sure to contact one of the promoters, someone who I must interview, with his partner Cruiser Mel, as they are most fascinating topics, yet the nicest, down to earth people you will meet, Doug Ford and let him know I could not attend but would lend assistance in anyway possible, promoting it in the blog, etc. Did I mention they were nice? Mr. Ford then suggests that if my best thing to ever happen to me and I were interested, we could work concessions, sorting merchandise by size, type etc. the night before the show. This was when the show was in Akron OH and was a one-off. Interest became so great that a second show was added. Then a show in Stamford CT., then Bethesda MD, London, and more. I had contacted Mr. Ford and asked could the arrangements be switched, and while the opportunity to sell merchandise was occupied, the spots available were assisting in the ticket sales, Will Call and reserved V.I.P. tickets.
Follow me through an adventurous, enlightening and needless to say entertaining evening, an evening I like to call 999 (09-09-2009).
Rundgren takes the mic back from Sulton for the ever popular 'Soul Medley'. Photo by Lynn Vala
Rundgren reemerges with an Orange suit on, much like the one worn during the Liars tour. This medley is obviously what they rehearsed the most, or it at least sounded that way as apart from some errant Theremin notes (and those things were hair-trigger at best) this was as tight as it gets.
Ever enchanting Amos warms the ivories on her trusty Bosendorfer piano. Photo by Lynn Vala.
Picking up from last time, we are now reviewing the concert show for Amos’ most recent release Abnormally Attracted To Sin. Red Bank to the average visitor (which I consider myself to be) is a quaint hamlet akin to Philadelphia’s South Street before the Mardi Gras riots of a few years ago. After a lovely dinner at a local diner, we venture to the venue. An all-American meal before seeing a show from an all-American girl.
Who just so happens to live in England.
TORI AMOS ABNORMALLY ATTRACTED TO SIN ATTRACTS ABNORMALS OF ALL KINDS
Author: Jeff Boule
On the outskirts of town, there is a scarlet mansion. Well maintained, and heavily visited. The police know what goes on there, and they look away. Those who enjoy visiting the scarlet mansion come and go frequently. Each bringing in their cares and woes and after an hour or so visit, they leave without them. What is the attraction? The girls.
Anyone who knows Tori Amos, knows that she refers to her songs as girls. When the girls want to come out and play, Amos inserts them into the song list, records them, or just pals around with them. If there was ever an appropriate allegory for a Tori Amos album, the above seems to fit. On the outskirts of town? Definitely a fringe artist, Amos only enjoyed minor success at the beginning of her career. As she became more established, her sales numbers leveled off until she was unceremoniously dumped by Atlantic Records. She did sign a short-lived deal with Epic, and they released some very interesting if not earnestly successful records. My most notable is “Strange Little Girls” which was an album of covers done in her own inimitable style. A scarlet mansion? Come on, look at her.
I’m not about to call one of music’s smartest redheads a blonde-wood bungalow.
The Young Person’s Guide To Fripp & Eno
Author: Jeff Boule
Again, we have a reissued blog from a time lost to the digital gremlins:
Mr. Billingsworth,
Upon bringing in the email, I found your exchange with my Mrs. from earlier today regarding Fripp & Eno. I have a few points of interest and we can also discuss Prog matters in general.