aworks :: "new" american classical music

aworks ordered list :: top five for the day /impervious to outside influences/

Image by dou_ble_you via Flickr

1. John McLaughlin. Miles Davis
2. The Blessing. John Coltrane and Don Cherry
3. Legions (War). Zoe Keating
4. Mnemonics III. Pauline Oliveros
5. Symphony No. 2. Paul Creston aka Giuseppe Guttoveggio

The song John McLaughlin from Bitches Brew features the playing of guitarist John McLaughlin.

I have been listening to the music of Paul Creston this week. The only thing I can think of is to link to Walter Simmons' writings on the composer including this particular quote:

Considered in its entirety, Creston’s musical output suffers from considerable unevenness in quality. Like other composers who prided themselves on their own uniqueness of approach, he became hermetically impervious to outside influences, his creativity suffocating in a self-protective vacuum.

aworks ordered list :: top five for the day /couples music/

1. Summertime. Jim Hall and Pat Metheny
2. My Little Brown Book. Duke Ellington and John Coltrane
3. The Blessing. John Coltrane and Don Cherry
4. You Never Know. Jeff Beck
5. A Hudson Cycle (Rival Consoles RMX). Nico Muhly

Hall/Metheny: I didn't intend to listen to couples music but it seems appropriate for today. Metheny in particular seems to need a good foil to move beyond his usual aesthetic e.g. Jim Hall here as well as withOrnette Coleman on Song X. (Not available on lala; speaking of which, I wonder if lala will re-enable the ability to upload MP3s to the cloud).

Ellington/Coltrane/Cherry: I like how Ellington's piano is subdued and of course tasteful. It's hard to say if Coltrane plays less exuberantly because of this. The Blessing is an Ornette Coleman tune.

Beck: I"m listening to the version with conductor Kenneth Woods on guitar when he was 19, playing in an Indiana University percussion recital. Great photo of him in a tree at the time as well.

Muhly: A Hudson Cycle is a favorite of mine and I like the idea of variations via electronic instrumentation but this one reminds me of most Philip Glass or Steve Reich remixes - novel and unenlightening.

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aworks ordered list :: top five for the day /girl i love you/

1. Girl I Love You. Massive Attack
2. Imaginary Landscape #1. John Cage
3. The Little Blue Frog. Miles Davis
4. Side Band. Arnold Dreyblatt
5. Intégrales. Edgard Varèse

Massive Attack: From the new (and so far disappointing) new album.

Cage: Kyle Gann blogs about his new book on 4'33" and as I read the post, this Cage work started playing from my queue. I like how Gann calls Cage a great writer but not necessarily a consistent thinker.

Davis: Outtake from Bitches Brew.

Dreyblatt: As played by the Orchestra of Excited Strings. And they do sound excited.

Varèse: I run the risk of listening to this so much that it is starting to sound conventional.

top 5 today :: 2/10/10

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aworks ordered list :: top five of the day /not out of kilter/

Lenin image by Getty Images via Daylife

1. Bemusha Swing. Cecil Taylor and John Coltrane.
2. Psychedelic (Психоделика). Sergey Kuryokhin
3. Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors. Radiohead
4. Linus and Lucy. Vince Guaraldi
5. Kilter. Mary Ellen Childs

Taylor/Coltrane: This is so inferior to any version of Bemsha Swing by Monk but an interesting oddity nonetheless. I don't think you could say Taylor swings on the piano but he clearly his own peculiar aesthetic, evident even in this recording from his earlier days.

Kuryokhin: Russian artist and composer who among other claims to fame, "proved" on Russian TV that Lenin was a mushroom. If nothing else, this music is eclectic.

Radiohead: Pulk/Pull Revolving Doors is as outré as Radiohead gets.

Guaraldi: Listening to some jazz compositions by Vince Guaraldi as played by George Winston led me back to the hit.

Childs: While listening to this piano work again, I had to confirm the precise definition of "kilter."

lala: top 5 today :: 2/6/10

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aworks ordered list :: top five for the day /traveller/

Cover of Mysterious Traveller

1. Mysterious Traveller. Weather Report
2. Lyric Quartet. William Grant Still
3. Prince and the Mermaid Suite. William Grant Still
4. Blues (from Lennox Avenue). William Grant Still
5. Ukom. William Chapman Nyaho

Wayne Shorter/Weather Report: Today I was listening to works in reverse order of composer name so these all start with "w." Mysterious Traveller is an old favorite although this appears to the the only work from today's the list available on lala.

Still: Born in 1895, William Grant Still was an African-American composer. Probably the most traditional music I've listened to this week. Wikipedia:

Still initially composed in the modernist style, but later merged musical aspects of his African-American heritage with traditional European classical forms to form a unique style.

Nyaho: William Chapman Nyaho is a Ghanian-American pianist and composer. I first heard his music in 2006 when I was looking up information in preparation for the United States/Ghana World cup match. (The US lost by the way after a tie with the ultimate winners, Italy).

top 5 today:: 02/02/10

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aworks ordered list :: top five for the day /i first heard/

Cover of Exile in Guyville

1. Pharoah's Dance. Miles Davis
2. Music in Twelve Parts, Part 2. Philip Glass.
3. Divorce Song. Liz Phair
4. Spem in alium. Thomas Tallis
5. Apparition, Elegiac Songs and Vocalises. George Crumb

Davis: I first heard the Bitches Brew LP in Indiana during the mid-seventies. This track still sounds as wild, dense, and futuristic now as it did then, electric pianos not withstanding.

Glass: I first heard the original Music in Twelve Parts CD in Palo Alto during the early nineties and had a major refresher last February in San Francisco.

Phair: I first heard the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street album in Montreal during the early seventies. I'd still like some stronger evidence that Phair patterned her album, Exile in Guyville, on that one.

Tallis: I first heard Spem in alium in England during the late 16th century and the sound was the most amazing thing I had ever heard. Of course, that was before the invention of recorded music (Hi Tom Edison!) and the resulting sense of being jaded.

Crumb: I first head Apparition on the Jan DeGaetini album in Menlo Park last year. I am no longer jaded, by the way...

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lala:

top 5 today :: 02/01/10

aworks ordered list :: top five for the day /escape to california/

Cover of Fahrenheit 451

1. Escape! Philip Glass
2. Going to California. Led Zeppelin
3. Fahrenheit 451 - Suite for Strings. Bernard Herrmann
4. Bemsha Swing - Thelonious Monk
5. Kilter - Mary Ann Childs

Glass: From The Hours (and based on his Metamporhosis Two) as played by Maki Namekawa. Are there other composer/pianists whose music is best played by others?

Led Zeppelin: I ground through numerous Zeppelin tracks today and I think I am done for awhile.

Herrmann: Conduced by Esa-Pekka Salonen.

Monk: This is the version from his Brilliant Corners album with Sonny Rollins, Grammy honoree Clark Terry and the stellar Max Roach on drums.

Childs: Her website here. Music from her 1999 appearance at the Other Minds Festival here.

top 5 today :: 01/31/10

aworks ordered list :: top five for today /what is and what should never be/

Rock gods image via Wikipedia

1. What Is and What Should Never Be. Led Zeppelin
2. Conloninpurple. Trimpin
3. 4 Cast: Unpredictable. Trimpin and Kronos Quartet.
4. Klompen. Trimpin
5. The Ocean. Led Zeppelin

Led Zeppelin: Tonight, I was in the Haight to see the Trimpin movie at the Red Vic. On my way, I was listening to Ursula Mamlok woodwind quintets or something. Then Led Zeppelin's The Ocean shuffled up and jolted me out of any complacency.

However, Haight Street seems the wrong aesthetic for listening to Led Zeppelin. Maybe they represent corporate-ism or some other 60s evil. On the drive home, the Castro seemed a better fit for the Zeppelin 70s ethos.

Trimpin: Trimpin is a German-born Seattle resident who builds unique musical machines and apparatus. TRIMPIN: the sound of invention is a documentary by Peter Esmonde of the man, his musical creations and his collaboration with artists such as Conlon Nancarrow and the Kronos Quartet. Highly recommended.

videos: what is and what should never be (audio only) | 4 cast: unpredictable | klompen |the ocean (complete with pre-roll microsoft ad)

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aworks ordered list :: top five for today /apparition/

1. Up on Teddy's Hill. Charlie Christian
2. North By Northwest. Bernard Herrmann
3. Apparition. George Crumb. Jan DeGaetini / Christine Schäfer
4. African-American Fragments. Frank Proto
5. Criss Cross. Thelonious Monk

Charlie Christian's early electric guitar remains a personal favorite...as does the soundtrack to North by Northwest...George Crumb's Apparition intrigues the more I listen to the two versions I have....The text of African-American Fragments is interesting and the music may be even better...Criss Cross is yet another genius work by Monk.

top 5 today :: 01/28/10

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aworks ordered list :: top five for today /pre-baroque/

1. Musique Bulgare – Taksim & Dance. Jordi Savall
2. Melody Day (Four Tet Remix). Caribou
3. Love Cry. Four Tet
4. The National Anthem. Radiohead
5. Le Chant Des Fauves. Tinariwen

No interesting jazz or American classical music today...The Jordi Savall album, The Forgotten Kingdom, is classifed by lala as "Pre-Baroque." I've not heard that as a classification term before but sign me up as I continue to listen to non-vocal music earlier than say, Gabrieli...On first listen, the new Four Tet album, There Is Love in You, strikes me as too sweet and yet the remix of Caribou I like so much is in fact sweet, in a ringing, singing kind of way. Love Cry appears to not have this quality despite vocals...The National Anthem is a somewhat challenging track although a comparsion with Stockhausen I've heard made seems a stretch...Tinariwen reminds me of slow, rhythmic alternative guitar rock as in Soundgarden but I'm not prepared to justify that observation.

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top five today :: 01/27/10