aworks :: "new" american classical music

Dropout Boogie (1967). Don Van Vliet, Herb Bermann /hodge podge of works that work/

What do Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, Herbie Hancock and Milton Babbitt have in common?

They all have works on a fine album by the Meridian Arts Ensemble. From the ensemble website:

Whose music do we play (in no particular order)? 

• Frank Zappa, J.S. Bach, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Tania Leon, King Crimson, Captain Beefheart, and Jimi Hendrix
• Mark Applebaum, Milton Babbitt, Alvin Etler, Elliott Carter, Tom Pierson
• members of the MAE (who also do their own arranging)
• Renaissance and Baroque music, Afro-Cuban dance styles, South American folk music

A rather diverse repertoire for five brass players and one percussionist, this is a surprisingly fun mix.

YouTube animated video using the original Dropout Boogie:

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meridian arts ensemble: website blog 2008 concert at stanford.

Safe as Milk (1967). Don Van Vliet /phil dines out/

Sepia Mutiny: A minor tamasha ensued, during which Philip Glass turned to me and said, with an air of wisdom, “Don’t worry, they have very small appetites.”

now playing: safe as milk - captain beefheart & the magic band.

Electricity (1967). Don Van Vliet, Herb Bermann

Just watched Captain Beefheart: Under Review, a DVD documentary of the music of Don Van Vliet and his bands. Notes:

• The guy was an artist who expressed himself through music (and who ultimately gave up on the music business to turn to the potentially more receptive avant-garde art world).
• He was really remaking the natural, bluesy world in his own, gnarly image.
• The footage of elder bluesman Howlin' Wolf was invigorating.
• The DVD had hokey staging for each of the interviews but it didn't detract from the story.
• An underlying theme throughout was a sense of mild disappointment in the face of creativity, both in the resultant music as well as the lack of popular success.
• Similar to Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, the Magic Band varied in both membership and quality over time.
• Captain Beefheart turned down the opportunity to play at Woodstock.
• As we know, the theremin was used in music by Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys, Edgard Varèse, and Captain Beefheart, although for the latter, the band tried to get a buzz saw effect before turning to the theremin.

theremin resources: theremin world.  electro-theremin page.
other theremin users: charles ives, aaron copland.
wikipedia quotes: John Peel stated, "If there has ever been such a thing as a genius in the history of popular music, it's Beefheart." "Art critic John Rogers agrees that Van Vliet is "one of the art world's more renowned abstract expressionists."
napster: captain beefheart's shiny beast. 75 howlin' wolf tracks. edgard varèse' ecuatorial. brian wilson's good vibrations
youtube: beefheart's big eyed beans from venus and ice cream for crow. beefheart/zappa's willie the pimp. beefheart on david letterman (twice).