Friday, June 29, 2012

Beasts of the Southern Wild soundtrack

Here's an interview with multi-instrumentalist and producer Dan Romer, who composed the score to the new film Beasts of the Southern Wild, which is really starting to blow up.
I recorded some piano for part of the score, I'm excited to see it on the big screen!

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Being an ethical music fan




Links to David Lowery's letter to Emily White at NPR's All Songs Considered have been popping up everywhere I look lately and I finally got around to reading it this evening. It is the best article I've seen thus far about the ethical decisions that we face as music consumers in the digital age. I strongly urge you to read it if you care about these issues.
I mused on some of these dilemmas in my post about Spotify a while back.

Some particularly good points from Mr. Lowery's article:

On the perception that fairly compensating artists should be up to large corporations or governments:

"fairness for musicians is a problem that requires each of us to individually look at our own actions, values and choices and try to anticipate the consequences of our choices. I would suggest to you that, like so many other policies in our society, it is up to us individually to put pressure on our governments and private corporations to act ethically and fairly when it comes to artists rights. Not the other way around. We cannot wait for these entities to act in the myriad little transactions that make up an ethical life."

On the "you can't fight progress" idea:

"Rather than using our morality and principles to guide us through technological change, there are those asking us to change our morality and principles to fit the technological change–if a machine can do something, it ought to be done. Although it is the premise of every “machines gone wild” story since Jules Verne or Fritz Lang, this is exactly backwards."

And just really laying it out there for you.....

"The existential questions that your generation gets to answer are these:

Why do we value the network and hardware that delivers music but not the music itself?

Why are we willing to pay for computers, iPods, smartphones, data plans, and high speed internet access but not the music itself?

Why do we gladly give our money to some of the largest richest corporations in the world but not the companies and individuals who create and sell music?

This is a bit of hyperbole to emphasize the point. But it’s as if:

Networks: Giant mega corporations. Cool! have some money!

Hardware: Giant mega corporations. Cool! have some money!

Artists: 99.9 % lower middle class. Screw you, you greedy bastards!"

Monday, June 18, 2012

Tonight at Sycamore: RADIO ZERO SERIES VOL. 3

This week's RADIO ZERO series concert promises to be an exciting evening with the Mavi Yol Quartet and Nashaz! Two groups playing original music incorporating Arabic music, jazz, and improvisation.

The RADIO ZERO series is happening every Monday at Sycamore (1118 Cortelyou Rd) in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn. The month of June was curated by me.

8:30PM MAVI YOL QUARTET

Senem Diyici - Voice, Percussion
Alain Blesing - Guitars
Bruno Tocanne - Drums
Can Omer Uygan - Trumpet

On tour from France!

Mavi Yol 4tet evolves constantly between jazz, free improvisation and traditional music from Turkey. A musical complicity nurtured by their exceptional qualities of improvisers allows the 4 musicians to explore an infinite number of musical horizons while remaining in the heart of emotion.

9:30PM NASHAZ

Brian Prunka - Oud
Kenny Warren - Trumpet
Apostolos Sideris - Bass
George Mel - Percussion

Nashaz plays original music drawing on the Arabic tradition with a jazz perspective.


Here's a collage of video from last week's concert:

Monday, June 11, 2012

Jesse Stacken's Weekly Composition Project

I was just at pianist/composer Jesse Stacken's website catching up on his weekly composition project. He's writing a new piece every week and posting a recording and score online. This is an inspiring feat, my composing process can be pretty slow. Also, Jesse is exploring specific musical concepts in each piece, like a compositional etude. My favorite so far is "Seeing Iris", a slow brooding piece with mystical-sounding chords constructed from a diminished scale.



Monday, June 4, 2012

Announcing the RADIO ZERO music series at Sycamore!



This Monday, June 4th marks the beginning of the RADIO ZERO music series, hosted by Sycamore in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn.

Every Monday we'll be bringing you exciting music from the Brooklyn improvised music world and beyond. Each month will be curated by a different musician, so expect lots of variety and a great hang!

I curated the month of June, and I'm playing a few times, including tomorrow night with Old Time Musketry!

There is no cover charge for these shows, but there is a $10 suggested donation, all of which goes to the musicians. The full calendar for June is below, we hope to see you!

Monday June 4th

8:30PM SPOKE

Dan Loomis - Bass
Justin Wood - Alto Saxophone
Danny Fischer - Drums
Andy Hunter - Trombone

Improvised music in the creative cauldron of New York City.

9:30PM OLD TIME MUSKETRY

JP Schlegelmilch - Accordion, Wurlitzer
Adam Schneit - Saxophone, Clarinet
Max Goldman - Drums
Phil Rowan - Bass

OTM presents a joyous music that draws on the exuberant spirit of early jazz, the poignant melodies and soulful grooves of rock and folk music, the energy and spontaneity of free improvisation, and a willfully experimental attitude towards combining these elements into a unique vision of American music.

Monday June 11

8:30PM CARLO COSTA QUARTET

Carlo Costa - Drums
Jonathan Moritz - Saxophone
Sean Ali - Bass
Owen Stewart-Robertson - Guitar

Textural improvisation, sonic landscapes conjuring strange distant forests teeming with life.....

9:30PM DOWN TO THE VALLEY

jonathan goldberger - guitar
owen stewart-robertson - guitar
aryeh kobrinsky - bass

Ambient Americana

Monday June 18 (an evening of Middle-Eastern-infused improvised music!)

8:30PM MAVI YOL QUARTET

Senem Diyici - Voice, Percussion
Alain Blesing - Guitars
Bruno Tocanne - Drums
Can Omer Uygan - Trumpet

On tour from France!

Mavi Yol 4tet evolves constantly between jazz, free improvisation and traditional music from Turkey. A musical complicity nurtured by their exceptional qualities of improvisers allows the 4 musicians to explore an infinite number of musical horizons while remaining in the heart of emotion.

9:30PM NASHAZ

Brian Prunka - Oud
Kenny Warren - Trumpet
Apostolos Sideris - Bass
George Mel - Percussion

Nashaz plays original music drawing on the Arabic tradition with a jazz perspective.

Monday June 25th

8:30PM DOUGLAS BRADFORD TRIO

Douglas Bradford - Guitar
Nicholas Anderson - Drums
Zach Lober - Bass

Guitarist Douglas Bradford unveils his new trio project!

9:30PM TWO OF ANYTHING

JP Schlegelmilch - Wurlitzer, Synth, Compositions
Jason Nazary - Drums and Electronics
Aryeh Kobrinsky - Bass
Jeremy Viner - Saxophone

Analog sounds? check. Digital? check. Acoustic? double-check.

Friday, June 1, 2012

Solo Projects: Ches Smith and Jason Nazary

In the past week I've seen two solo drum performances that were also CD release parties. First I saw Ches Smith play at Zebulon, celebrating the release of "Psycho Predictions", his third installment of solo percussion music under the name Congs for Brums. I've caught a couple of Ches' solo shows, and the evolution of his music is pretty remarkable. Ches' drum set is situated in a kind of triangle with a vibraphone and Moog synthesizer and other electronics. A lot of the compositions are based around loops played on the synth, and then elaborated or deconstructed on the vibes or drums. The variety of textures was excellent, with the sometimes harsh electronic sounds side by side with the glowing resonance of the vibes. The set concluded with Ches pummeling the drum set, but not in the "drum solo" way that you might expect in a solo drum performance. It was more of a concentrated, groove-based explosion. I felt like Ches' compositional ideas were equally important as his always incredible drumming.

Then last night I saw Jason Nazary's CD release performance for his solo project, So Ghost. Jason mics his drums and runs the signal through his computer where he can control effects and loops. The music has an improvisational feel, but at the same time I was aware of a planned progression through different sound worlds. At times there was an incredibly dense layering of sounds, with the loops transfigured by effects or played at different speeds the music began to resemble some kind of alien tribal drum ensemble.
One similarity to Ches' show was that there was a long buildup to any kind of traditional drum set playing. But when Jason finally played the whole kit at the end of the set, the effect was revelatory. Like at Ches' show, it was also a groove-based explosion rather than a "drum solo", with a wall of sound blaring from the electronics. Totally gripping.
Another cool feature of Jason's set was a projection of a kind of sine wave graphic that responded to the sounds. The image was projected on Jason's white shirt, which was pretty cool to watch in a dark room. I tried to capture a little bit on my camera.