Playlist

Recorded

August 7, 2011
Fun House - The Stooges

Full of mid and off rhymes, this is what Joey Ramone wanted to sound like, if he'd had more range. The introduction to Dirt is brilliantly composed, each instrument sliding in from where it always was. 1970 has the roll part of rock&roll in spades. The rhythm section is uncannily both dirt-basic and absolutely distinctive at once. Listening to both discs all together may a bit much, but this is pretty interesting stuff.

Going Down The Road Feeling Bad - Golden River Grass Group [from Art Rosenbaum's The Art of Field Recording volume 1]

This cooks - really really cooks. bonker banjos.

August 9, 2011
Three: for Keith: 3 - Benjamin Boretz

Intuitive quantity steps sideways. The Liszt of Via Crucis, rescaling time.

A Cat's Life Act I - Keith Eisenbrey

My draft recording of  2/20/1991.

In Session

August 8, 2011
Gradus 195 - Neal Meyer

Neal rehearses for the gig on Friday, with three rungs.

Live

August 6, 2011
Porgy and Bess - George Gershwin - Seattle Opera

The principal Bess, Lisa Daltirus, was ill, so we had a replacement: Donita Volkwijn. She did splendidly. I have no complaints whatsoever. I love all the ensemble stuff. This is what big productions are for.


August 10, 2011
Tom Baker at Composer's Spotlight - Jack Straw Productions, Seattle

Tom discussed his soon-to-be-released recording of Hunger: The Journey of Tamsen Donner.

August 12, 2011

In Memory of John Cage - Chapel Performance Space, Good Shepherd Center, Seattle

Gradus: for Fux, Tesla, and Milo the Wrestler - Neal Meyer

Actively serious in a way that little else is. Maximal minimalism. Transformation is the quest, but it isn't principally our transformation he is after, it is his. Actually tangential to music rather than simply evoking the pretense of tangentiousness. We are afforded an opportunity to hear and think our own voices, our own heads, and our own species. We make a dull roar. Out aloud allowed in out loud. The freeway crescendo throughout - a great gooey mass from which is occasionally extruded a temporary particularity. And through it all Neal persists.