June 11, 2017
Die Kunst der Fuge, Contrapunctus X - J. S. Bach - Zoltan Kocsis
Sequences establish a rhythm of (usually) stepwise motion, allowing cross-rhythms of modulations and quasi-modulations - as though another music were going by in the background at a different tempo.
I love how the grandness of the denouement is fully established within what is really a quite thin texture. We hear it as grand because, in order to hear its logic, we imagine each note as sustaining at full volume - virtual grandiosity with virtual sustain.
Quartet in E-flat Major, opus 76 #6 - Haydn - Amadeus Quartet
Not sure this is really what's happening, but what I wanted to be happening is a sequence of variations occurring within single iterations of a larger theme and variations - both T and V constructed out of shorter Ts and Vs.
June 14, 2017
Birdwell Blues - Nolan Welsh, Louis Armstrong [from Alan Lowe's Really The Blues]
A tale: police harassment. "You know I been here before." Truth.
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| Don Redman |
Trouble Why Pick On Me - Don Redman, Red Allen [from Alan Lowe's That Devilin' Tune]
Unexpected wonders: that voice, those perfectly executed parallel trills thrown in just for fun, showy tonguing, a tightly organized arrangement.
Woke Up This Morning (With My Mind On Jesus) - Roosevelt Graves and Brother [from Goodbye Babylon]
Keeping it lively, everything is slap. Slap guitar slap vocal.
I'm Through With Love - Sarah Vaughan [from Interlude - Early Recordings 1944-1947]
Nothing wrong with this performance (it's flawless) but it fails to convince me, it never lifts off.
Walking My Lord Up Calvary Hill - Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper [from Goodbye Babylon]
The Passion according to just folks.
A Woman Alone With The Blues - Peggy Lee [from Black Coffee]
Sung as a single thought, a through-composed line. Tubular bells!
Rather bizarre, but it sounds like he was quite an interesting guy - trying to make the harmonica acceptable for the hi-fi crowd. The 45 that found me had suffered considerably, with much of the fi scuffed off the top.
Leopard Skin Pill-Box Hat - Bob Dylan [from Blonde on Blonde]
Kind of a mean-spirited blues when it comes right down to it.
Everybody Loves Me Baby - Don McLean [from American Pie]
In spite of his apparent attempt at humorous self-laceration, this still comes across as narrow and airless.
Young Americans - David Bowie [from Changes One]
Thick and taut, a line pulled past where it ought to break but that just won't.
In Session at the Tintinabulary
June 12, 2017
Gradus 313 - Neal Kosály-Meyer
June 15, 2017
Etudes - Keith Eisenbrey
These are five little pieces from 2000 that started life as clarinet duets: "Coiled", "Fragment", "Dance" "Air", and "Misterioso". I arranged them later as piano fingering puzzles. I was in the early stages of working with mod-17 pitch sets, essentially asking myself the question "What would regular music sound like if the modular interval were 17 instead of 12?" So, yes, this is what I think regular music is like.
Jerseyville Illinois - Your Mother Should Know [Karen Eisenbrey, drums; Neal Kosály-Meyer, vocal and piano]
In anticipation of a hoped-for pro-studio recording project I recorded three demo takes.
