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is this kosher?

I am playing with the Who-Band Saturday night at Blueberry Hill.   Here is their super cool poster:

They are playing all of Quadrophenia, plus other assorted songs. I am playing the violin solo in Baba O’Riley.

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what I’m listening to this week

This album is called Eight Seasons because it’s got Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, probably the most widely known baroque piece, and Cuatro estaciones porteña (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires) written by the father of nuevo tango (and one of my personal faves), Astor Piazzolla.   Piazzolla is the best known Argentine composer in the world of classical music (my home planet) and he’s known for taking tango in a new direction – previously it was only heard in dance halls – by incorporating elements of jazz and classical music into his compositions.   The purists were upset, but Piazzolla’s trailblazing helped elevate tango from folk music to serious art form and he is now regarded as an important figure in both 20th century classical music and the tango world.

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is actually the first four concertos in a set of twelve Vivaldi titled Il cimento dell’armonica e dell’inventione (The Contest between Harmony and Invention).   All twelve concertos are scored for violin solo, strings, and basso continuo- out of the more than 500 concertos Vivaldi wrote during his life, 230 are for violin.   Each of the first four concertos were written to go along with a sonnet (technically this makes them tone poems), are named after a season, and are comprised of three movements (fast, slow, fast).    The concerti are mostly homophonic and homorhythmic, and Vivaldi employed a lot of musical onomatopoeia- the viola part in the 2nd movement of Spring is supposed to sound like a barking dog; the 3rd movement of Summer sounds like a rainstorm.   The Four Seasons is a classic example of program music: it’s intended to represent specific images, as opposed to absolute music which is music purely for the sake of music, without metaphor or context.

Piazzolla originally wrote The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires for his folk ensemble.   In the late 90s composer Leonid Desyatnikov arranged it for violin and string orchestra.   It’s very cleverly written – each movement has short samples of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons woven into it, but there’s a twist: since Argentina’s Summer is Italy’s Winter, the Vivaldi Winter samples are found in Piazzolla’s Summer, and vice versa.   No percussion instruments are needed for this piece- the string players create the percussion needed by hitting their instruments with the wood of their bows (this is called col legno).

I like this album – it’s got a lot of fire.  Tango is a genre that I have never had the privilege to play, but I would like to at some point.  I’ve never really listened to Gidon Kremer before this album, but he has made a favorable impression on me.   My only complaint is that they play the slow movement of Vivaldi Winter waaaaaaay too fast.

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Young @ Heart – you’re never too old to rock

Last night after band practice I went home and watched this movie.    It’s about a group of old people (average age: 80) who sing in a chorus in Massachusetts, doing renditions of popular rock songs by the likes of The Clash and Radiohead. It made me laugh, and cry, and laugh some more. I’ll be recommending this movie to everyone I know for probably the next 6 months. I can’t say enough good things about this movie!

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We’ve got a show on Wednesday

On Wednesday night, April 8th, we are playing at the Way Out Club with locals Big Heart Slide and a band from Chicago called Charlie Don’t Shake. Big HEart Slide features Todd McKenzie, one of the writers at the great, semi-St. Louis-based blog, The Post-Rockist. Please come check it out. It’ll be good times.

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my 10 favorite film scores of all time

in no particular order

Pride and Prejudice (2005)- Dario Marianelli
All of the Jane Austen movies made in recent years have great scores, but this one is my favorite. The scene where Mr. Darcy walks through the fog? swoon
Clearly this composer understands the romantic desires of women, or is really good at faking it.

Hamlet (1964) – Dmitri Shostakovich
Shostakovich is best known for his symphonic works, but he also wrote film scores (full list here). I played this with my college orchestra and it was exhilarating. It’s pretty hard to find a copy of this version of Hamlet (it was out of print for many years, then only available with Dutch subtitles), but it is a true gem. It’s got that intense je ne sais quois only found in Russian productions.

Planet of the Apes (1968) – Jerry Goldsmith
Many elements of this movie can be described as “groundbreaking,” and the percussive, atonal score is no exception. In the hands of a lesser composer the story would have seemed much more cheesy. No one would have appreciated the score of There Will Be Blood if Planet of the Apes hadn’t come first.
Fun fact of the day: the author who wrote Planet of the Apes, Pierre Boulle, also wrote Bridge on the River Kwai.

The Sand Pebbles (1966)- Jerry Goldsmith
Another gem of a movie that was out of print for many years. It’s got Steve McQueen, it’s about racism and colonialism, and it’s heartbreaking. So is the score. Great horn parts.

An American in Paris (1959) – George Gershwin
MGM had to pay more than $150,000 for the movie rights to Gershwin’s titular tone poem (he was long dead by this time), and it cost more than half a million dollars to film the extended dance scene near the end of the movie. It was worth every penny. The best part is the trumpet solo when the two main characters are dancing in the fountain – whoever played trumpet on the studio recording gives the most searing rendition I’ve ever heard. No other recordings I’ve heard hold a candle to the one in the film.

Shawshank Redemption (1994) – Thomas Newman
To me, this is a perfect movie. Nothing else needs to be said.

West Side Story (1961) – Leonard Bernstein
I guess technically this should not be a part of my list because it was originally written for the stage, but I’m keeping it in because it is the best musical ever captured on film. I’m not saying it has the best plot or the best characters, but it definitely has the best music.

Motorcycle Diaries (2004) – Gustavo Santoalalla
Why Gustavo Santoalalla didn’t receive an Oscar nomination for this score is a mystery to me.

Black Orpheus (1959) – Luiz Bonja and Antonio Carlos Jobim
This movie (winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes) is an important primary source in music history because it was the world’s introduction to Bossa Nova. It’s a modern adaption of the Orpheus tale set during Carnival in Rio. I spent my final semester of college studying Bossa Nova and wrote my senior thesis on it, so I could go on forever…. This is a great movie for film or music nerds.

And the greatest film score of all time,
To Kill a Mockingbird (1961) – Elmer Bernstein
Film composers have a hard job trying to make great stories greater and it’s even more difficult when you’re trying to orchestrate a classic book. Elmer Bernstein’s score is restrained and poignant, with a hint of mystery. In a word: perfect.

I know this will make me sound like an old coot, but they don’t write film scores like they used to. I can count the composers currently working in film who I really think are “great,” on one hand:
1. John Williams – he’s written music for a ton of classic movies, but it’s his lesser known ones I like the best: Hook (1991) and Sabrina (1995)
2. Gabriel Yared – The English Patient (1996)
3. Dario Marianelli – Pride and Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007)
4. Gustavo Santoalalla – The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Babel (2006)
5. Thomas Newman – Shawshank Redemption (1994), American Beauty (1999)

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This is your childhood on drugs

Fast forward to 1:25 for the good part.

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New (Old) Music I’ve discovered

Since everyone is sharing this week (except Bookends!) Here are some albums that have recently fallen into my record player’s rotation:

Emmylou Harris : Pieces of the Sky
Released 1975
Most people that know me a little bit know that I loves me some Emmylou… but I can  honestly say that every song on this recording is awesome. “From Boulder to Birmingham” is heartbreaking and beautiful, and her version of “Coat of Many Colors” is a fine tribute to Dolly. I bought this record for “From Boulder…” and was floored by how consistently great it is as a whole. Go buy it. Yesterday.

Roy Acuff: Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
Released 1978
Sorry, no photo. I heard a bit of Roy Acuff here and there growing up and liked his voice, and this double LP had cool packaging, so I picked it up. There’s a lot of the J-Bomb being thrown around, but it’s hard not to like Acuff’s (in all the good ways) delivery of classics such as “Wabash Cannonball” and “Turn Your Radio On” and the awesomely entertaining “Story Of The Violin”. I can’t seem to find this on CD, so I guess it hasn’t been released? Overall it’s a fine Saturday morning listen fo’sho’. The guy is a legend (R.I.P.) and definitely worth a listen for a lesson in the roots of country music.

Jimmy Herring: Lifeboat
Released: 2008
This is a jazz instrumental album by one of the best fusion (?) guitarists living and working in music today. He’s played with a bunch of rock bands, including the Allman Brothers and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. Anyway, this album shows off Herring’s ability to straddle the fence of high concept jazz and rock accessibility. Lifeboat also showcases Herring’s ample technical skill, though in a way that I found to be refreshingly unpretentious and free of wank. There are a few parts that are a little Smoov Jazz for my taste (just say no to jazz flute, people. Ron Burgundy über alles!), but I have to say that this album has really grown on me over the past couple weeks. The funky stuff and more old school numbers are the highlights for me.

The Long Winters: Putting the Days to Bed
Released: 2006
The Long Winters are one of my favorite bands, and this album is mighty fine. “Teaspoon” and “The Sky is Open” are two standouts. John Roderick can turn a phrase with the best of them, and musically his tunes range from wide open stompers to initmiate portraits, sometimes within the same song. “Clouds” is another good one that starts out simply but builds to a rolling, airy finish. Don’t write your name in the clouds from the ground!

That’s all for now.

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new music, by Rachel

Recently my music library got 30% larger, thanks to my wonderful man-friend Walter. Here is the stuff I have listened to so far and enjoyed:

The Flaming Lips – Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
Gym Class Heroes – As Cruel as School Children
OK Go – Oh No
Deee-Lite – The Very Best of Deee-lite

My current favorite song is Gym Class Heroes – Viva la White Girl. I tried to find it on Youtube, but there are only crappy cell-phone recordings from concerts. So you’ll just have to take my word for it and buy or download it. Or we could have a music sharing party and you can get it that way.

Also, I am aware that I am way behind the curve because all of these albums came out years ago. I am just listening to them now because I live under a rock, and usually pay no attention to what the rest of my generation is listening to.

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