May 9, 2017
The Stampede - Fletcher Henderson [from Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz]
The rhythm of our focus is composed into the arrangement - long solos, quick breaks, choruses flipping from instrument group to instrument group (changing channels).
A Lazy Farmer Boy - Buster Carter and Preston Young [from Anthology of American Folk Music]
Drawing attention to our internal presumptions of imminent profanity by the oh so clever near misses. An old trick, still works.
Two Old Maids - Billy Mitchell [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
Among many, another low point in public discourse about sexual orientation: deriding the other as an obscenity.
When Was Jesus Born? - Heavenly Gospel Singers [from Goodbye Babylon]
 |
| Mel Powell |
Rehearsed so as to sound invented on the spot, but is caught going round and round until it doesn't.
Lover Man - Mel Powell [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
French film noir score, a tone poem with hints of Ellington, Gershwin, or Paul Whiteman.
The Happening - Paul Gonsalvez [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
Nothing fancy in the arrangement, just solo over accompaniment.
Easy Living - Peggy Lee [from Black Coffee]
Wish fulfillment for the 50's man.
February Piece 1961 - Cornelius Cardew - John Tilbury
 |
| Cornelius Cardew |
I kept thinking how melodious this was, though made of sharp edged sweepings.
Visions of Johanna - Bob Dylan [from Blonde on Blonde]
As in Paul Gonsalvez above, nothing really but poetvoice solo above an accompaniment. Our focus is not to waver.
May 11, 2017
Till Tomorrow - Don MacLean [from American Pie]
Not a horrible song, but would benefit greatly by stripping off the strings and stuff, dialing back the reverb.
Suffragette City - David Bowie [from Changes One]
This plays a kind of strip tease with itself, shedding song parts along the way until it's nothing more than its own hook.
AKU (midi) - Keith Eisenbrey
In 2004 I made this midi version of my 1981 synclavier piece. There are a couple three glitches in the sound - alas, I no longer have that midi box to try and fix it. This version preserves the pitch and time schemes, instrument differentiation, and, at times, the curiously uneven way the sound hangs in the room - move your head ever so slightly and the sound shifts dramatically. Something about standing waves, I presume. It loses some of the subtle envelope and overtone differentials that were in the original (though they didn't really come across all that well anyhow). And I suppose the moment in the original where the sci-fi tanks blast through the church walls is (unfortunately) rather more elegant and nuanced here. The balance is not optimal, but it does gain some sparseness and clarity.
Its internal sense of what it becomes as it goes along is cumulative, like the Sibelius of Tapiola, but a better way to put it is that, it isn't entirely unlike that. It is this aspect of it that I, as its composer, find most gratifying.
In Session at the Tintinabulary
May 8, 2017
Banned Telepath 55 170508 Seattle - Karen Eisenbrey, Keith Eisenbrey, Steve Kennedy, Neal Kosály-Meyer
Rumor has been floated that Aaron will send some sound from Anchorage, so the full version of Banned Rehearsal 934 will have to wait. Our local sound is here for all it's worth.
