Videos

The Bad Plus: Everybody Wants to Rule the World

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The Bad Plus performed the Tears For Fears classic Everybody Wants to Rule The World on their 2007 release Prog. The concert footage is from The Basement night club in Sydney Australia in 2008. It's incredibly good. Here's why:

The Bad Plus is a jazz trio that isn't afraid of negative space in their interpretation. Dave King on drums doesn't feel the need to merely pound away at the pocket and Ethan Iverson on piano is not afraid of simple harmonies an open voicings. This approach makes subtly more effective and dynamic shaping more emotionally evocative. I love how Dave King paints with his drum kit. His playing is a narrative as he interacts with the other two musicians. 

Secondly, the group brings the piece to a controlled boil starting a 2:59 during Reid Anderson's bass solo and when the swell is at its breaking point at 4:29 they pull back and imediately return to the stoic emotional place where they began. They pull this gesture off so well that it is the only time the audience breaks the frame of silence. 

Which brings me to my final thought – the audience etiquette during this performance is neither rock and roll nor jazz. The crowd is completely reverent, at a night club – I love this. This is a trademark of a Bad Plus concert. They shape their interpretations so convincingly that their is no moment which is not completely engaging. Soft, loud, whatever – when The Bad Plus performs they occupy ever inch of the room. You dig?

Don't miss more TWD articles about The Bad Plus here, their Twitter, Facebook, and Ethan Iverson's blog Do The Math.

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Unearthed Music

Ben Beirs: Widening Circles

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Ben Beirs is an exceptional classical guitarist based out of beautiful charm city Baltimore. He is a multi-faceted talent whose titles include musician, teacher, composer, arranger, and duck pin bowler. He has been featured on the Dig before alongside his duo partner Maud LaForest for their work as the Duo Transatlantique. Moreover, Ben has been praised by the D.C. Examiner for being a "Brilliant young classical guitarist" and he is once again in the studio working on a second solo album.

The new album is entitled Widening Circles and in an attempt to defray the many costs of releasing this album he has created a Kickstarter page. I believe that this album and this artist are worth your time, consideration, and perhaps a few of your hard earned dollars. Ben Beirs is the quintessential 21st century musician/entrepreneur for undertaking repertoire which defies genre, for creating his own opportunities to be seen and heard, and for utilizing tools like Twitter, YouTube, and Kickstarter to promote, fund, and share his art.

Classical music needs new audiences. Furthermore, the classical musicians are the ones who need to take charge of their art and bring it out of the universities and tired under appreciated music societies and into your earbuds. As a classical musician myself, I too feel this burden and have tried in my own way to create an outlet for appreciation, education, and general exposure to a music which I know has something meaningful to offer. Watch the video and then jump on over to the attached Kickstarter page for more information about how a little can go a long way to support the arts, and keep music by the people, for the people, alive and well. If you are unfamiliar with this organization read on for the full details of how the donation process works. You dig?

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Diggity Damn Good Tracks

Antony and the Johnsons – Fistful of Love

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Velvet Underground Month was a pretty thorough undertaking. But I missed stuff. And even with a post to compile everything I missed, it turns out I still forgot something. In my mind, it happens to be a glaring omission so I'm sharing it right now. The silver lining is that this song is so great it deserves its own post anyways. The song is "Fistful of Love" by Antony and the Johnsons, featuring Lou Reed.

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One Note One Phrase

Franz Schubert: (Jazz) Piano Sonata in G

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Franz Schubert (1797-1828) was a short man who lived a short life, but the thing about Franz Schubert is that he was prolific. Succinctly put, he composed over 600 lieder (songs), 9 symphonies, liturgical music, oratorio, chamber music, and some of the most sublime piano sonatas I have ever known. Not to mention one badass string quintet.

He also wrote jazz. Well, kind of, it's more like he implied jazz – keep in mind that this is music from the 19th century. Schubert was a contemporary of Beethoven and died only one year after our man Ludwig. Regardless, the composition in question is his Piano Sonata in G major (composed in 1826). The entire work is broken into 4 movements and totals about 41 minutes of music. But specifically I want to examine the content from the first movement at about 30 seconds in.

At this point in the composition Schubert implies a gospel progression as he elaborates upon the opening theme. This is a small moment in a large work but you could extrapolate more jazz implications throughout the work since this moment is thematic to the work as a whole. As a reference to the particular jazz language I want you to be on the look out for I'll hook you up with Oscar Peterson and his Hymn to Freedom (1962).

I don't know about you but this is an amazing moment in music listening to me because it tears down preconceptions and generalizations about two different artists, from two different centuries, on two different continents, working in two different genres. I hope you dig it. I do.

Oscar Peterson: Hymn to Freedom

Alfred Brendel: Piano Sonata in G (D894) Molto Moderato e Cantabile

 

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Album Reviews

The Music Tapes: Porim's Shadows

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The thing about Pop music is (and I'm using the word Pop in the broadest and most generalized way possible) that it is all largely the same. The names and faces may change but the instrumentation, time/key signatures, song form, lyrical themes, and content delivery are all pretty much the same. Sometimes this bothers me – a lot. But the fact remains that when a Pop artist works well within this structure, it is a moving experience regardless of the surrounding mediocrity.  

The Music Tapes are Pop musicians, but I believe that they are pushing the boundries of performance and compositional expectation. I had the pleasure of seeing them perform at the 2640 Space in Baltimore MD this week with Jeff Mangum and I was transfixed by their story telling, unusual song forms, instrumentation, interactive stage sculptures/quasi-band mates and general child-like imagination with adult means in achievment. I felt like I had slipped into a Michel Gondry film about singing saws, bowed orchestral banjos, and a seven foot tall metronome. I knew immediately that this was about to get awesome.

The Music Tapes: So The Day Long

The Music Tapes: A Lightning's Cheeks (Everything Gets Born Here)

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