4 Feb 2012, 12:04pm
music vocalists:
by

leave a comment

  • Meta

  • SiteMeter

  • Brighter Planet

    Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge
  • THIS is the blues, okay?

    Howlin’ Wolf:

    from 1966, here’s How Many More Years?

    Smokestack Lightnin’ :

    At the end of his career, with failing kidneys, singing “Evil”:

    Year 3, Month 1, Day 17: You Used To Look Happy To Greet Me

    More on the Edelweiss, this time from the UK Mail:

    Alpine plants such as the edelwiss could become extinct if summers continue to get warmer, scientist have warned.

    The cold-loving flowers are being forced higher up mountainsides by plants that thrive in higher temperatures, according to the first pan-European study of changing mountain vegetation published in the Journal Nature Climate Change.

    Sent January 12:

    The drama of climate change-triggered extinctions is unfolding before our eyes. Rapidly rising temperatures and changing weather patterns are now affecting the ecosystems of the European alps, threatening the survival of countless species of plants and animals, and turning the “small and bright, clean and white” Edelweiss into a historical footnote.

    Should that tiny Alpine flower vanish from the wild, one of the most-loved songs in the English-speaking world will become a museum piece, devoid of its connection to an actual place, an actual family, an actual story, or the achingly evocative voice of Christopher Plummer. Another victim.

    All over the planet, human cultures are likewise endangered; while people in the developed world may not find much sympathy for remote tribes whose habitats will be destroyed in the next fifty years, those societies have songs that mean as much to them as Rogers and Hammerstein’s beautiful “Edelweiss” does to us.

    Warren Senders

    I Have Fourteen Minutes, Fifty-Eight and a Half Seconds Left In My Allotment.

    A friend posted this clip on Facebook, and something about the scene rang a bell.

    Ah-hah! It was the first half of the “Concert For National Integration” at Shanmukhananda Hall in Bombay on Republic Day, 1986. I was in the audience; I had traveled from Pune along with Bhimsenji, who was singing a duet with Balamurali Krishna in the second half of the event.

    Why is it interesting? I mean, honestly, most of these Hindustani/Carnatic jugalbandis aren’t that satisfying. This one’s no exception; I’m including it in this post for the sake of completeness. The whole ending frenzy is IMO totally inexcusable.

    The next day Bhimsenji and his accompanists flew back to Pune; I was a member of the party. I received more than the usual amount of respect from airport personnel, who seemed to go out of their way to greet me courteously. On arriving in Pune I found out why.

    Doordarshan’s cameraman had found me in the crowd, and given me a full-face closeup, which is reproduced at 33:47 in the televised video:

    I was famous!

    On seeing this, my wife commented that I looked like someone who was forcing himself to enjoy something against his own will. That sounds about right.

    11 Jan 2012, 10:33pm
    humor music:
    by

    leave a comment

  • Meta

  • SiteMeter

  • Brighter Planet

    Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge
  • Breathe Deep!

    I am in the long-term process of digitizing all my lps. Recently I’ve been processing some of my blues records, and I recently came across this gem on the back of a Lightnin’ Hopkins collection. I would call this one of the most, um, evocative liner notes I’ve ever read.

    Enjoy:

    The Magnificent Montague is a real guy. I think I’m going to get his book; it looks like a lot of fun.

    6 Jan 2012, 11:58pm
    India Indian music music:
    by

    leave a comment

  • Meta

  • SiteMeter

  • Brighter Planet

    Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge
  • 78 rpm Records of Indian Music: The Sublime Artistry of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan

    Finally getting around to some more 78 rpm discs. Here are two recordings of Ali Akbar Khan’s earlier years. His plangent and expressive tone comes through loud and clear through the surface noise. Enjoy these recordings of one of the world’s greatest masters.


    Raga Lankadahan Sarang


    Raga Kedar

    This is infuriating…

    …I hope Yoko sues this asshat for everything he’s worth. This was what “Cee-Lo” did to Lennon’s “Imagine” last night in Times Square, while waiting for the ball to drop.

    The song is supposed to go like this:

    I’m not putting “genius” in the tags, because this post is a reaction to an unforgivable gutting of Lennon’s song, rather than a reflection on John’s abilities and inspirations.

    13 Dec 2011, 11:10pm
    Jazz music Personal photoblogging:
    by

    5 comments

  • Meta

  • SiteMeter

  • Brighter Planet

    Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge
  • More Jazz Photoblogging: Sam Rivers Trio, Boston, 1976

    I digitized a lot of photos over the past year, but I haven’t gotten around to putting them online. Here are some pictures from a wonderful performance by Sam Rivers’ Trio at the Jazz Workshop. Most of these were woefully underexposed; some parts of the images were restored digitally.

    While I don’t feel these are my best work they nonetheless capture some of the ambience of the gig that night. Not bad for a high-school student.

    Sam Rivers is a truly amazing musician who is still going strong. Here is his website.


    Sam Rivers


    Dave Holland


    Barry Altschul


    Sam Rivers

    11 Dec 2011, 12:13pm
    Education environment music:
    by

    leave a comment

  • Meta

  • SiteMeter

  • Brighter Planet

    Brighter Planet's 350 Challenge
  • The Musical Impact Of Climate Change, Pt. 3

    Years ago, a Dutch lady loaned me an lp of music from Indonesia. While I had already heard and admired the island nation’s complex orchestral music — the “gamelan” — I was unprepared for the soft and exquisite chamber music of the Sundanese people, which immediately captured my heart and enraptured my ears.

    Sundanese music of West Java

    Jakarta, June 4, 2007 – Indonesia is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change including prolonged droughts and floods raising serious food security and health threats while endangering the habitats and livelihoods of coastal communities…

    {snip}

    …global warming could increase temperatures, shorten the rainy season and intensify rainfall. These conditions may lead to changes in water conditions and soil moisture which have effects on agriculture and thus food security. Climate change will likely reduce soil fertility by 2 to 8 percent, resulting in projected decreases of rice yield. A simulation has projected a significant decrease in crop harvest in West and East Java due to climate change, the report added.

    Global warming will also make sea levels rise, the report said, inundating productive coastal zones and reducing farming in such communities. For instance, in West Java province’s Karawang region, a huge reduction in local rice supply is estimated as a result of inundation and loss in fish and prawn production could go over 7,000 tons. If such predictions come true, thousands of farmers in that area alone would have to look for other sources of income.

    Link

    The Musical Impact of Climate Change, pt. 2

    “Throat Singing” from the Siberian nation of Tuva is one of the most remarkable phenomena in all world music; individual voices are trained to produce multi-note melody-and-drone combinations, creating an orchestral effect.

    Kongar-ol Ondar visits David Letterman

    Tuva has been inhabited since the 12th century, starting with the expansion of the Mongolian empire, but because of changes in weather and climate (increasing drought, growing and fire seasons), the severity of fires and areas burnt have increased since 1990. At the same time, protecting the area against future fires is becoming more difficult. This might be because large portions of the forest are being converted to a steppe-type ecosystem after fires have occurred, which further inhibits post-fire forest regeneration. Such a conversion is precisely what models predict will be an initial indicator of climate-induced ecosystem change. In addition, annual fire carbon emissions have been estimated for the Balgazyn forest of Tuva with regard to ground fuel loading and fire severity. This is important because the dryer the fuels, the more severe the fires and the greater the greenhouse-gas emissions. And, forests are not always able to regenerate on severely burnt or repeatedly burnt regions.

    Link