First, there was Vincent van Gogh. Then came Vincent Price. Following him was Vincent Furnier. And now there’s Vincent Persichetti (1915-1987)–the latest in a long line of distinguished Vincents, each of whom has made a huge impression on the worlds of art, music and film. Just kidding. This here Piano Sonatas 10 and 11 CD is a reissue of an old LP that collects three works for solo piano composed in the 1950s and ’60s, but not recorded until the 1980s. The liner notes describe Persichetti as “one of the major figures of American music of the 20th century.” Really? Before this CD was released, I had never even heard of his name before. No matter, let’s get down to the music.
If you’re a fan of John Coltrane–the not-so-jolly giant of ’60s jazz–you already know that footage of the man in action is more rare than a Kinetoscope film of a pterodactyl crashing a Tupperware party. So, imagine my surprise when a whole DVD’s worth of moving images chasing the Trane winked its way into existence inside that as-yet-unamed reality that we call home. The disc rolls out the red carpet for no less than three performances from small town Europe in the early 1960s.
The first set was filmed on March 28, 1960 in Dusseldorf, West Germany on an off night during a Miles Davis Quintet tour. (Having been Davis’ sideman for years, Coltrane begrudgingly did this one last tour with him as a favor.) With Coltrane at the helm, this set boasts five examples of super-mellow, late-night, smokey supper club ballads occasionally salted with Coltrane’s rapid-fire sheets of sound approach that he had developed in the mid-’50s. Featuring Davis’ rhythm section–Paul Chambers on bass, Jimmy Cobb on drums and Wynton Kelly on piano–the whole lilting thing was filmed for a TV broadcast in stark black-and-white with multiple cameras, which allowed for some pleasantly artistic montages of already nicely composed scenes. Fellow sax man Stan Getz and pianist Oscar Peterson guest on a couple of tracks.
Vast jungles crawling with rare, exotic animals, insects and plants. Pristine beaches and islands supporting fragile, beautiful coral reefs. Traditional kampung thatched roof houses. Sprawling urban centers sprinkled with shiny glass high rises next to run-down alleys sporting a generous helping of dirt and grime. All of these elements and much more make up the Muslim-dominated country of Malaysia, which lies under the stinging equatorial sun, right between Thailand and Singapore.
Tropical Punch Tour: Malaysia Video takes a quick look at the colorful seaside colonial town of Melaka, including flower-festooned trishaws, a musical performance and dance party stirred up by Hiasan Budaya and a sardine-packed night market in Chinatown. Up in the sprawling capital city, Kuala Lumpur, we briefly encounter a plethora of traditional Malaysian dances offered up at various tourist centers, plus stops at the lovely and lush Taman Rama Rama, also known as the Butterfly Park, and the home of some of Earth’s most brightly hued birds at the KL Bird Park.
For tons of photos and a detailed travel journal, visit the Tropical Punch Tour page.
“Made in Singapore.” Throughout your whole life, you’ve seen those three words stamped on many a product. I’m finally here! But I haven’t seen any smokey factories belching out all of that stuff. Maybe they’re hidden underneath the neatly swept and polished surface. Singapore is a small and tidy island / city / nation that measures only roughly 12 x 24 miles. It’s highly Westernized, ultra-modern, and as far as diners and shoppers are concerned, it can easily compete with any city on the globe.
Tropical Punch Tour: Singapore Video takes a cursory glance at all of the architectural eye candy around town, plus live music performances in the form of a shrill buddhist temple ceremony at Thian Hock Keng, a couple of random street musicians and performers on Cavenagh Bridge, and a chorus of frogs singing their hearts out down inside a sewer in Fort Canning. Background songs courtesy of the Singapore A-Go-Go compilation CD on Sublime Frequencies.
For tons of photos and a detailed travel journal, visit the Tropical Punch Tour page.
Spanning roughly 150 x 600 miles, Java is one long stringbean of a volcano-spined tropical island. Boasting the highest population of Indonesia, many of whom are Muslim, its largest cities–Jakarta on the West side and Surabaya on the East–are sprawling, polluted, centers of raw, urban chaos. Yogyakarta and Solo in Central Java rival each other as centers of culture, with regular dance and gamelan music performances and tons of other traditional artistic output in the form of carvings, sculpture, painting, and much more. Endless beaches, jungles and mountains also attract their fair share of foreigners.
Tropical Punch Tour: Java Video aims the spotlight on musical and cultural life in and around Yogyakarta. The shenanigans begin with a quick glance at raw street musicians on the main drag in town, Jalon Malioboro. Next up, a few Wayang Kulit shadow puppets float into view, followed by a sprightly gamelan orchestra and Wayang Kulit shadow puppet play at the Sono Budoyo Museum. Next morning, we peel ourselves out of bed for an early morning visit to Borobudur, a giant Buddhist temple that’s bigger than a city block and taller than Godzilla. It was built back in the ninth century, when Buddhism reigned as Java’s primary religion. A violent Wayang Golek wooden puppet play with another chiming gamelan orchestra goes down at the Sultan’s Palace, followed by the super-colorful Ramayana Ballet at Purawisata. The video closes with a visit to the serene Taman Sari water palace, and musical instruments under fiery construction at a gamelan foundry in Bentuyang.
For tons of photos and a detailed travel journal, visit the Tropical Punch Tour page.
When one thinks of the most common male names in the United States, Mike and Dave immediately come to mind. In France, it’s all about Pierre, and in avant-garde circles, the two most well-known Pierres brandish the last names Schaeffer and Henry. The former invented musique concrete, a symphony of cacophonous everyday sounds, in 1948. The latter became his first disciple and helped expose this radical new artform to the public throughout the subsequent decades. Fast forward to 2007. Pierre Henry has aged into quite a charming old man who, with his long, grey beard, resembles a modern day French Santa Claus brandishing a huge sack full of audio treats that he enthusiastically delivers to adventurous listeners around the globe.
A small, tropical island measuring just 69 x 95 miles nestled between Java and Lombok in the vast archipelago of Indonesia, Bali is covered with lush jungles, rice terraces, mountains and beautiful beaches, making it one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Some come for the sun, sand, surf, and world class resorts and spas, while others enjoy the predominantly Hindu culture that is celebrated daily with highly evolved dance, music, art and architecture.
Tropical Punch Tour: Bali Video 3 presents a cornucopia of hyper-colorful music, dance and ritual at four different locations in and around Ubud. First up is a skull-rattling performance of the reverberant jegog bamboo gamelan by Suara Sakti up in Bentuyung village, just North of Ubud. The Tary Panyembrana, Tari Gopola and Tari Belibus dances are presented, among others. Then we head over to Puri Agung Peliatan Palace for the Pendet, Baris and Legong Lasem dances. Next comes a chance encounter with an amazing but exhausting all-night performance of the Calon Arang story at Pura Dalem Puri, also in Peliatan. Calon Arang is a witch who practices black magic and, during a family drama, brings death and destruction to everything in her path. The tale is told through the Barong, Telek, Jauk, Kris, Sisya and Galuh dances, highlighted by a mass murder sequence (performed as a trance ritual in real life). Read the complete story. The video comes to a close over at Bale Banjar Ubud Kelod with an all-female outfit called Luh Luwih, who present lovely versions of the Gabor, Topeng Tua, Cendrawasih, Oleg Tambulilingan, Taruna Jaya and Baris dances. Thanks to captainputs for the black magic sequence.
For tons of photos and a detailed travel journal, visit the Tropical Punch Tour page.
“Dedicated to all astronauts,” the Helicopter String Quartet was inspired by a couple of whimsical dreams German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) had about classical musicians flying, and a completely liberated version of himself soaring free above a genteel, tuxedo-choked society. When the Salzburg Festival comissioned a new work in 1991 as a part of Stockhausen’s opera cycle Mittwoch from Licht, what else could he do, other than compose a piece that literally flew away?
By 1995, the work was completed and ready for its world premiere by the Arditti String Quartet, consisting of violinists Irvine Arditti and Graeme Jennings, violist Garth Knox and cellist Rohan de Saram. Inside one of four cramped helicopters–each containing a recording engineer and a video camera–a musician furiously sawed away on his instrument as they slowly circled above Amsterdam. Back in the concert hall, the composer mixed the sounds of the four players together with the noise of the helicopter rotors into a strange, hovering, glissing entity that soared and dived as effortlessly as an albatross in bright, sunlit skies. The audience was also treated to a live video feed from the helicopters displayed on a Jumbotron™. The fact that this super-complex event–a Herculean logistical challenge–was perfectly realized is astounding.
Even though his first name reminds me of ketchup, Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928-2007) remains a large fixture in the Food / Music section of my brain for another reason: as the man responsible for assembling one of my favorite pieces of electronic music ever, Hymnen (especially the ecstatically screaming drones in the Fourth Region), from 1965. Just four years after that epic work, Heinz had another musical revelation during a car ride on tour in New England: he jotted down on an envelope one simple musical formula that would be repeated over a long time. This piece, Mantra, marked a return to completely notated works to reign in his touring group, various members of which questioned who really was the creator–composer or performers–of the so-called intuitive music they had been partially improvising over the past several years. Spread out like ketchup over a 67-minute wide sandwich and harking back to the composer’s early serialism-inspired years, Mantra’s construction encourages two dueling pianists to produce a wide pallet of aural treats: from meditative to explosive, electronically treated with a ring modulator-like digital effect. This strange sound is occasionally accented with woodblock chops and crotale pings with a few spaceship gurgles thrown into the mix. The sonic variety comes as quite a surprise, considering the score’s simple economy. The passionate playing of pianists Xenia Pestova and Pascal Meyer and its electronic transformation by Jan Panis make this first-ever all-digital 2009 recording of Mantra really shine.
Five clones of Rash Behari Datta playing sitar grace the snazzy cover of this fine album. Don’t believe me? Go ahead and count ‘em yourself. I won’t be offended. If you think five is impressive, though, you better sit down, because Datta overdubbed himself 20 times playing various parts of each song on this recording, hence the title. That’s a whole rash of Rashes! Welcome to Overdub City, where Datta takes lush to a whole new level. Props must also be given to his impressive playing skills for pulling off such a challenging feat with floating colors. The program consists of Raga Malkouns, a popular night raga that was once recorded by Indian master singer Pandit Pran Nath. The four sections alternate back and forth between vigorous, longform finger workouts infused with sprightly melodic intricacy to sublimely meditative slow burners that you wish would never end. Any hour is the perfect time to sit down cross-legged on the floor, chomp on some Uttar Pradeshi cuisine and soak in the acoustic beauty of 20 Sitars.
Label:ARC MusicCatalog Number: EUCD 2312 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 5 Total Time: 65:44 Country: United Kingdom Released: 2010 More:All Music, Amazon
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