Category: Music

Greg writes a eulogy for Nina Simone, who passed away yesterday at 70:

This Is Not the Greatest Post in the World…this is just a tribute — a tribute to Nina Simone, the legendary and fiery-tempered jazz vocalist…you could start anywhere in her catalog and not go wrong. I’m only glad I got to know her work. A roommate hipped me to her when I first moved to Chicago, and I’ve been listening to her ever since.

Eric Olsen at Blogcritics rounds up some great biographical sketches, including one from Salon: “‘To Love Somebody’ was my introduction to Simone, and I’ll never forget the way she berated her musicians during the intro to ‘Revolution.’ She harshly tells them, ‘Hold it! This is louder than usual. Let it groove on its own thing.’ Cool. I thought. This woman can kick butt…”

Listened to the family-and-friends-only CD that the Suspicious Cheese Lords made (back when I was in the group), Incipit, on the way in this morning. It’s a schizoid disc, half devoted to a bunch of new music members of the group wrote for a theater production of Romeo and Juliet that we recorded but which was never used, half to new and old lamentations. The centerpiece and title piece of the album is Thomas Tallis’s Lamentations of Jeremiah, which was the musical work the group was originally formed to perform and which is still in my head. A fascinatingly complex work, with intricate five voice polyphony and loads of double meanings. The text, Jeremiah’s lament for the fall of Jerusalem, can be read as Tallis’s lament for the suppression and demise of Catholicism, his tradition of faith, in England.

We performed this piece many times, but almost always during Holy Week, the week leading up to Easter, as part of Tenebrae and Holy Friday services. Here the Lamentations would take on additional meaning in the Christian context of lamenting the sinfulness of man and the attendant sacrifice of Christ. But despite all the lamenting, these were always happy times. The group would perform two or three times during the week, steep itself in the religious tradition, and get to be part of some truly moving observances of faith. And spend a lot of time together as friends.

The Lamentations have a double meaning for me as well, since I first sang them with the Virginia Glee Club under John Liepold in his first season. Favorite memories of performing the piece: a morning performance on a spring break trip after a night in New Orleans at a private school with an, um, impaired group (during the course of the fifteen minute work, we sank a full minor third under pitch); and performing it with seven or eight good friends in resonant stairwells and arcades in academic buildings and on the Lawn.

So this piece with its deep message of despair came to be a familiar friend and a comfort to me over the years. There is, I think, something to be said for the liturgical emphasis during Lent of recognizing grief as a key part of the church year, and as a necessary precursor to the joy of Easter.

I wanted to add a new CD to the “Current Listening” section below (see my actual home page, all you RSS viewers who are missing this feature), but I was stymied because Amazon doesn’t list it. But go check out Michael, the Athens, GA emo-pop band, and PayPal the album. It’s pretty damned good.

My friends in the group in which I sang in Washington, DC, the Suspicious Cheese Lords, will make their satellite radio debut on Sirius XM this Sunday (scroll to the bottom), in promotion of their new album
Maestro di Capella. Go listen.

Suspicious Cheese Lords In Concert
Vox – XM 112
Noon ET
The early-music ensemble Suspicious Cheese Lords join us live at the XM Studios for a special performance of sacred music.

A college friend now employed by the Berklee College of Music, Adam Olenn, writes to say he is coordinating Berklee’s involvement in a charity concert, called A Night of Healing, for the victims and survivors of the Rhode Island nightclub fire that claimed the lives of 100 Great White concertgoers:

 

On February 20th a fire consumed The Station nightclub in Rhode Island at a Great White concert. There were almost 300 people in attendance, and 3 minutes after the pyrotechnics were deployed, 100 were dead and over 150 were badly burned. 

To put this in perspective, the population of Rhode Island is around 300,000. Which means that something like 1% of the population was involved in that fire.

West Warwick, RI is a working-class community in which people don’t tend to have a lot of cash lying around. This becomes a problem when they are suddenly hit with a minimum funeral cost of $5,000 or medical bills of $350,000.

Again, some perspective – the minimum cost to bury the dead from this tragedy is half a million dollars. That doesn’t begin to get into medical bills, or the costs of losing a family provider.

Under the auspices of Berklee College of Music, I have teamed up with Century Productions to produce A Night of Healing.

A Night of Healing is a benefit concert to aid the victims and survivors of The Station nightclub fire, and will be held on April 22 at the Providence Performing Arts Center from 7pm to midnight. Tickets are $35, $45, and $50, and can be purchased through the PPAC box office (401-421-2997) or through Ticketmaster. If you can possibly attend, I ask that you do so.

On Saturday April 26, A Night of Healing will be broadcast on NBC, ABC, and CBS in the Southern New England region and nationally on the Comcast Network from 7-10pm. During the broadcast, we will display an 800 number to solicit donations for The Station Fire Nightclub Fund which has been set up by the governor. If you cannot attend, please watch the telethon and call in your donation.

The performers at A Night of Healing include: Pheobe Snow, Billy Gilman, Blue Oyster Cult, Gary Angelin & the CCCM Gospel Choir, Black Hawk, Andrew Douglass of Berklee, John Anthony, Servants & Saints, Rick Derringer of Zebra, Vanilla Fudge, James Montgomery, Lennon Murphy, Chris & Meredith Thompson, Shortino from Quiet Riot, Larry Hoppen of Orleans, and Mark Farner of Grand Funk Railroad

If you can come to the concert, please do that. If you cannot, please tune in on Saturday evening and make a donation. If you have questions about the fund, visit http://www2.sec.state.ri.us/feb_event/. If you have questions about the event, please email me.

If you or your company can provide sponsorship to help us cover the costs of producing A Night of Healing, please contact me at your earliest convenience.

I thank you all for your time and attention, and for your generosity as we help the people of Rhode Island heal from this tragedy.

Official site here; press release (on VH1.com) here.

Bob Dylan
Oh Mercy
Sony/Columbia, 1989

Broken lines, broken strings,
Broken threads, broken springs,
Broken idols, broken heads,
People sleeping in broken beds.
Ain’t no use jiving
Ain’t no use joking
Everything is broken.

Broken bottles, broken plates,
Broken switches, broken gates,
Broken dishes, broken parts,
Streets are filled with broken hearts.
Broken words never meant to be spoken,
Everything is broken.

Seem like every time you stop and turn around
Something else just hit the ground

Broken cutters, broken saws,
Broken buckles, broken laws,
Broken bodies, broken bones,
Broken voices on broken phones.
Take a deep breath, feel like you’re chokin’,
Everything is broken.

Every time you leave and go off someplace
Things fall to pieces in my face

Broken hands on broken ploughs,
Broken treaties, broken vows,
Broken pipes, broken tools,
People bending broken rules.
Hound dog howling, bull frog croaking,
Everything is broken.

Blogcritics: Tori wants your help on her “Taxi Ride.” Contest on Tori’s web site to submit your video/animation ideas for what the video should be.

I might think about entering, if

• I had any cinematography/animation skillz
• I had heard the song in question.

Yep, haven’t bought a Tori album since To Venus and Back. Which wasn’t that good.

McLusky
McLusky Do Dallas
Beggars Banquet/Too Pure, 2002

My love is bigger than your love
We take more drugs than a touring funk band (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)

My band is better than your band
We’ve got more songs than a song convention (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)

And we’re all going straight to hell

My dad is bigger than your dad
He’s got eight cars and a house in Ireland (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)

When we gonna torch the restaurant? (Sing it)
When we gonna pay the guide dog? (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)

And we’re all going straight to hell

When we gonna torch the restaurant? (Sing it)
When we gonna get excited? (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)
My love is bigger than your love (Sing it)
And we’re all going straight to hell

As I drove in this morning listening to KEXP, I was thinking how it was interesting that you could interpret just about any song as war commentary. Example to follow: McClusky’s “To Hell With Good Intentions.” Then John (In The Morning) put on War on War and I realized that I wasn’t the only one hearing it that way. Heck of a playlist today, starting at 6 am. In fact, I’m half tempted to submit it to Art of the Mix and see how it gets voted.

Playlist so far:

• Billy Bragg, “Rumours of War”, Don’t Try This At Home
• Coldplay, “A Rush Of Blood To The Head”, A Rush Of Blood To The Head
• Echo & the Bunnymen, “The Killing Moon”, Songs To Learn & Sing
• Massive Attack, “What Your Soul Sings”, 100th Window
• Moby, “The Sky is Broken”, Play
• The Fading Collection, “Grief”, Interactive Family Radio
• Jakatta, “American Dream”, Indian Summer
• Stars, “Death To Death”, Heart
• Smog, “Morality”, Supper
• The Cure, “Killing an Arab”, Boys Don’t Cry
• The Postal Service, “Brand New Colony”, Give Up
• Belle & Sebastian, “I Fought in a War”, Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like A Peasant
• New Order, “Love Vigilantes”, (the best of new order)
• Butterglory, “The Sklls of the Star Pilot”, Crumble
• Cat Power, “He War”, You Are Free
• Longwave, “Wake Me When Its Over”, The Strangest Things
• The Godfathers, “This Is War”, Unreal World
• Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, “Dead Voices”, Hearts Of Oak
• Beatles, “Revolution 1”, The White Album
• Junior Ross & The Spear, “Rough Way Ahead”, Babylon Fall
• Jurassic Five, “Freedom”, Power in Numbers
• Marlena Shaw, “I Wish I Knew (how it would feel to be free)”, Black & Proud Vol. 2
• Public Enemy, “Louder Than a Bomb”, It Takes a Nation of Millions To Hold Us Back
• Gus Gus, “Gun”, Polydistortion
• The Future Sound Of London, “We Have Explosive”, Dead Cities
• Sigur Ros, “Viorar Vel Til Loftarasa (good weather for airstrikes)”, Agaetis Byrjun
• Clinic, “For the Wars”, Walking With Thee
• Wimbledon, “That’s What I Like to Call Collateral Damage”, Cumershl
• Grand Mal, “1st Round K.O.”, Bad Timing
• Mclusky, “To Hell With Good Intentions”, Mclusky Do Dallas
• Sleater-Kinney, “Combat Rock”, One Beat
• Wilco, “War On War”, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
• Willie Nelson, “Darkness on the Face of the Earth”, Crazy: The Demo Sessions
• Bob Dylan, “Paths of Victory”, The Bootleg Series Vol 1
• Ben Harper, “With My Two Hands”, Diamonds On The Inside
• Johnny Clarke, “Love Your Brothers and Sisters”, Dubwise & Otherwise 2
• Gomez, “Army Dub”, In Our Gun
• The Notwist, “Consequence”, Neon Golden
• Joseph Arthur, “Ashes Everywhere”, Come To Where I’m From

Early spring is also Lent. For years I celebrated Lent, and especially Holy Week, with the Suspicious Cheese Lords. We would provide music for a Tenebrae service at a church—including, over the years, the Church of the Epiphany, St. Matthew’s Cathedral, and the Franciscan Monastery—generally the Tallis Lamentations. We would also host a Tenebrae service at the Georgetown University chapel.

What great music. Over the years, we debuted members’ original compositions, sang Allegri’s Miserere, Byrd’s “Ave Verum Corpus,” Pärt’s “De profundis” (my directorial debut), and dozens of other works, including my introduction to Gregorian chant.

This year, with Mæstro di Capella under their belts, the group is branching into radio gigs, including a live performance on XM radio a week ago and a coming episode of Millennium of Music. Should be good listening. I wish I could be there to sing.

Tony reminds me that last night was the induction of the first New Wave class into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Meaning the Clash, the Police, and Elvis Costello. Damn. Oh, yeah, and AC/DC.

Anyway, Elvis Costello and me you know about. Except, like anything else, there’s always more to the story. I had never heard of Elvis Costello until “Veronica.” Sad, I know. But I absorbed Spike through my pores, even “Deep Dark Truthful Mirror.” Then Mighty Like a Rose came along and I slowly got disenchanted. Then The Juliet Letters and I fell back in love. Then Brutal Youth and… well, you get the picture.

The Police? Entirely different story. Synchronicity was one of the first rock albums I ever heard, thanks to a babysitter and my parents’ old turntable. That, and the fact that if you left your house and rode in the car of someone who listened to rock instead of classical, you couldn’t escape “Every Breath You Take,” “King of Pain,” or “Wrapped Around Your Finger.” I learned the lyrics, I learned to sing like Sting. I went on to dig into the Police’s back catalog with Rob, learning about the oddities and the brilliance on Outlandos D’Amore and Zenyatta Mondatta. It was a musical formative event that wouldn’t be equalled until I discovered Nirvana, then Parliament, taking me away from the arch writing of Sting into anarchy and funk.

But I never really left. How could I? Singing like Sting was the first public (non-choral) singing I did. Scenario: talent show at the summer Governor’s School for Science, after my junior year of high school. Sting’s “Sister Moon” from …Nothing Like the Sun. I pull together a guitarist and saxophonist for a jazz trio, but they can’t make it to the rehearsal. An empty auditorium except for the counselor in charge of the talent show…and two attractive girls, talking to each other, who hadn’t been giving me the time of day, and whom I had written off totally. So I put the tape on quietly, grab the mic, and start singing. Nervous because I don’t know how to sing with a mic, until I look up during the second verse and see two attractive mouths hanging open staring at me listening.

After that it was all downhill. The violin had already gone; the piano went soon after. If I could have that effect with an instrument I had with me all the time, why bother with anything else?

Thanks, Sting, for immeasurably improving my social life.

And thanks, Rob, for enriching my back catalog.

Currently playing song: “In A World Gone Mad…” by Beastie Boys on www.BeastieBoys.com. Yeah, you read that right. Free Beasties download. New antiwar song. A few choice rhymes:

Mirrors, smoke screens, and lies
It’s not the politicians but their actions I despise…

As you build more bombs, as you get more gold
As your midlife crisis war unfolds
All you wanna do is take control
Put the Axis of Evil bullshit on hold

Citizens rule number 2080
Politicians are shady…

Well I’ll be sleepin’ on the speeches till I start to snore
Cause I won’t carry coal for an oil war…

Now don’t get us wrong cause we love America
But that’s no reason to get hysterica
They’re layin’ on the syrup thick
We ain’t waffles we ain’t havin’ it

If ever there was someone who should be paid to write about music, it’s Joe Gross. Thank God the Austin American-Statesman had the good sense to employ him. This week he writes about everyone’s favorite leftist band that no one knows, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, and finds them “calcified” but still full of promise:

…At the center of all this despair there remains unexploded faith, however overwrought and pretentious. As the sleeve puts it, “hope still, a little resistance always maybe stubborn tiny lights vs. clustering darkness foreverok?” Their ambitions are vast, their music even more so and, to paraphrase Bruce Cockburn, Godspeed seem determined to drone into the darkness till it bleeds daylight.

—Of course, all this reminds me of two things:

• I need to write about some more music.
• I need to go listen to “Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven” again.

Two quick updates:

1. Tara reminded me that Folk Implosion are playing the Crocodile on Sunday night. Go forth and lo-fi. I’d go but I have a feeling I’ll be too tired from:
2. The Cascadian Chorale’s War and Peace concert, at St. Thomas Episcopal in Medina. Tickets here or at the door. Program will include classical and contemporary reflections on war, including:
   • Haydn’s Mass in the Time of War
   • An excerpt from Tippett’s “A Child of Our Time”
   • Howells’ “O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem”

Go forth and enjoy.