Such Richness of Sound

"This September 2011, Hassan Wargui (Imanaren) from south Morocco met the group Nettle from New York City in Tangiers. A week of collaborative songwriting and recording led up to a concert outside the Cinematheque de Tanger in the medina. This is "L'Avion", one of the songs they wrote during this time."

Rambunctious Fun

Sometimes making music is a rambunctious sweaty fun sort of affair where the noise and foot stomping lends its vibes to the music on stage. Video in point. Can you feel the audience jumping up and down on each others toes?

Hats Off To Akala

Hats off to Akala for rapping, ranting, raging, rhyming with heart and sharp eloquence. Please watch to the end. You can even listen twice. Pure energy and tension and still loose.

Some things are meant to be shared

There are things happening on the internet that have to be shared. Whether it is a traditional newspaper giving voice to young musicians (above)...

Or, listening to a director talk about the creative process of making a film with humble beginnings, yet it reached large...

Or, global internet fans following a fellow's poetic wanderings around the world...

There is so much out there in the tubes that is inspiring. Barely a day goes by without my tripping over something perfectly marvelous.

Bitter Sweet, But Oh So Dear

OK, another Guardian gem:

"Randy Newman gives an exclusive performance of his song Losing You and talks about the difficult events that inspired it."

There is also a wonderful article, a fine piece of journalistic writing, that accompanies the video. Do enjoy.

Come Outside To Play

We had the most lovely of warm sunny spring days today. As I sat on a park bench with my eyes closed, I heard the voices of all my childhood friends calling me to come outside to play. The residues of winter, dead leaves and broken branches, not quite vanished from the corners of the garden. Buds on the branches. Discarded jackets littering the lawn. We ran around crazily, wildly; pure joy.



What I like about this video is the playfulness. How they could take a simple idea and translate it into something that visually matches the beauty of the music note for note. Do enjoy it, my dear friends.

Letting Music Inspire

The last weeks have been filled with quiet hours for working on my collages and listening to the many podcasts I subscribe to, which were lying unheard on my iTunes. It also has been a time of getting my google reader list read and watching videos. These quiet occupations inspire my collage making. It is as if learning and creating are correlating processes.

The inspiration for today's collage came from this video from the Guardian titled, “Robert Schumann: Love, music and madness”. It's focus is described as,

“Two hundred years after Schumann was born, and following on from a festival at Kings Place in London, actors Juliet Stevenson and Sebastian Koch, cellist Natalie Clein and pianists Lucy Parham and Alan Rusbridger discuss the composer's music, his passionate relationships with his wife Clara and fellow composer Brahms, and his painful descent into mental illness.”

It is typical of the high quality media this newspaper daily produces, which is why I so adore the paper. I don’t know of any other newspaper that manages to do this so well. If you know of one, please tell me.

Just Right

After a week of absence (illness), I wanted to share a Goldilocks' moment of finding something Just Right.  This is Jim Boggia’s wonderful version of Thunder Road from Bruce Springsteen.

Well on my way to a full recovery.
 

Remix Heaven

Kleptones - Come Again (Beatles vs Rare Earth vs Beaties vs Daft Punk vs Cypress Hill vs Boston) Video by Crumbs Chief from The Videotones on Vimeo.

It's Friday and so I wanted to share this delightful remix. May you all have a sunny and enjoyable few days at home or on your travels.

Gil Scott-Heron, I'm New Here

Something so mesmerizing about Gil Scott-Heron's voice and the moving images along the walls and piano keys...

There are still some posts that I am composing concerning my trip to Toronto and Montreal. Been trying to catch up on my google reader and all the emails. Thought I would be able to get so much done today. Not so. Slow as a snail actually would be the best way to describe the pace.

Wonderful to be back, though the time spent with family and friends was brilliant.

Big news... oldest child officially finished with high school (grade 13). How marvelous! Congratulations, dear son of mine.

Janelle Monáe - Something Fresh

Janelle Monáe featuring Big Boi of Outkast, “Tight Rope.”

I just love this fusion of song, dance, storyline, and music video production. Janelle Monáe and the other musicians and dancers have created something fresh, though there is some very old about the moves too. Maybe not old, but classic. Can you make something new that is already classic? I've watched the video now five times and with each viewing I learn to like it better each time.  

Audience Experience versus Musical Participation

I know a couple that is very active in a charity organisation that brings classical music into people’s everyday lives. They arrange for very talented musicians, mostly master students from the local music conservatory, to play music in concert halls, churches, school auditoriums, hospital wards, prison cafeterias, senior citizen homes, women centers… anywhere people gather, they try to bring music to them.

One of the perks of this couple’s volunteer work, is they get to know many of the musicians personally. A few years ago, three musicians mentioned how they were preparing some pieces for an international music competition. They were concerned that they had only practiced the pieces, but not actually preformed them. So, began a series of home concerts in my friends’ living room.

The next concert is just around the corner (piano and violin) and I am very much looking forward to going. It is hard to describe how magical it is to hear music of such beauty in the intimacy of a living room. There is something visceral, physical, and emotional about the experience. It cannot be compared to recorded music, and not even music performed in a concert hall.

I watched this video today with much interest:





On the TED site, the video is explained as follows:

“185 voices from 12 countries join a choir that spans the globe: "Lux Aurumque," composed and conducted by Eric Whitacre, merges hundreds of tracks individually recorded and posted to YouTube. It's an astonishing illustration of how technology can connect us.”

Initially, I was very intrigued by the idea and even the realisation. Then it started to remind me of some science fiction film, a little eerie, if not unsettling. Then I realised that, from an audience point of view, it just doesn’t work for me.  It couldn’t be further from the experience of sitting in the living room with a group of friends and hearing every nuance of a musician’s genius.

The merit of Eric Whitacre’s idea is perhaps in the experience the people performing the piece felt. The opportunity to sing in the comfort of your home and still participate in a virtual concert.

What do you think, would you rather be in that living room as the audience, or in your bedroom as a participator? 

The Moipei Quartet

Photo of The Moipei Quartet

Rafiki Kenya blog post a few days ago included some information about the Moipei Quartet,

“The Moipei triplets Mary, Martha and Magdalene and their younger sister Seraphine form the all girl music group, Moipei Quartet. These talented Maasai girls have very beautiful voices (well trained by their father Nicholas ole Moipei who is also their teacher) and often perform 'a capella' or accompanied by piano only, mostly in classical styles. Some of their songs also bring us a message, like Mbiu ya Mgambo, which highlights the plight of girls in the Maasai community.”



They have just brought out a new CD. Can imagine some of you (that means you, Fee) might like to order it.

I loved this song way back when, when my family and I used to watch John Denver sing it on his television show.

Everyday Heroes IV

Everyday heroes we encounter are important influences on our lives. They have the ability to alter our thinking and, often, even the direction of our decision-making. This post is part of a series I am writing about the heroes I have met.



Name: Karen
Profession: librarian
Marital Status: married
Children: two daughters
Place of Origin: Ohio, USA

How we met:

When I first came to live in Germany, all those years ago, it was winter. It was dark and dismal outdoors. Indoors it was lonely. I felt lamed.

Not knowing how to speak German was a barrier. As the only woman in a large department of socially inept engineers, it wasn’t easy getting to know people. When I met an American woman, Karen, whose husband was an officer in the US Army Base down the road from where I worked, my world changed.

Karen was actively immersed in the social and cultural life of the city; unlike many of the officers’ wives who lived very isolated lives on base. She was a member of the Bach Choir, part of the women’s literary society, and active in the neighbourhood community where she and her husband lived on the outskirts of the city.

What made her special was her willingness to (learn and) speak German, as well as her willingness to (learn and) respect the various social norms prevalent to the area. Up until the time I met Karen, I had been struggling unsuccessfully to learn German. And, my attitude towards the mountain of social norms I was being buried under was, “If you could just leave me alone, I’d love to leave you alone.” Karen, in her infinitely gracious and gentle manner helped me to surrender myself to my lot. Through example, she taught me more about how to be happy living as a foreigner in a foreign land than anyone I have met before or since.

What she taught me:

The first way to get to know someone is through language, then shared interests and experiences, and finally, through shared sense of humour and value system. She also showed me that there wasn’t any short cut to get there.

In the Pines

For her 15th birthday, my daughter requested a gift of an ukulele. She plays the piano and saxs, but this is her first string instrument. I really hope that she can in the future be a part of a group as fun and fantastic as the one above. Do enjoy.

Magical Night Journey

One of the many joyful experiences I had during this last trip Montreal happened during the last hours of the journey. When the plane hit Europe (Ireland) and all the way down to Munich we had a spectacular clear view of all the cities and highways illuminated in oranges, reds, and yellows.

It is impossible for me to describe the magical beauty of this aerial landscape. The hour or so I watched, I thought we were seeing veins of burning lava, a treasure chest of jewels, and brewing colony of insects all in one. We flew in a perpetual dawn that never became sunrise...

Proud as a Peacock

If I was male and I was a peacock, I’d be strutting like this fellow. My darling daughter’s school’s big band performed in a concert along side the NDR big band this evening. And, they played well. That is, the band my daughter plays in played well. The NDR band played veryvery well. Unbelievable.

One Love

Unless I got my dates mixed up, tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Not a day we celebrate in our household, at least not in the conventional or (commercially) traditional sense. At most, we shyly say the words, "Happy Valentine's Day" and smile at each other. Much in the same way we might say, "Happy Groundhog Day", if we happened to know when that was. Still, I'd like to send loving thoughts out to all of you who read this blog. It means a lot to me that you return day after day.



I've published another video of the Playing for Change songs. All are good. Some are so touching they bring tears of joy every time I hear them. Enjoy.

Fever & Fusion

Been under the weather with fever and winter grippe. Spent the afternoon in bed Stumbling through the poetry and music channels. Wonderful way to lull the time away between naps.

This is one of my favourites of the afternoon. Can’t explain why, except that it sort of was like fever and fusion all at once.





Hip Hip Violin And DJ - video powered by Metacafe

I do hope you have as much fun with it as I did.

Goosebumps

Vérité put me onto this video of Troy Andrews (aka Trombone Shorty) and other New Orleans musicians playing "O'Holy Night". One of my favourite songs. And the way Troy Andrews plays the trumpet give me goosebumps.



Do enjoy. I wish each and everyone a very 4th of Advent. (Yes, people around here do send good wishes each of the four Sundays in Advent.)