I am currently administrating a most exciting project which will go ahead in December: IB Expo.
IB Expo is the brainchild of Mats Johansson, composer/musician with Isildurs Bane and myself. Briefly put, it is an opportunity for Isildurs Bane to meet and interact with top notch musicians during a handful of days. To wrap it up, we will put on a concert on Friday December 16 at Kulturhuset in Halmstad, Sweden.
Our guests this year will be basist Mick Karn, drummer/percussionist Jerry Marotta, stick player Tom Griesgraber our dear friends Metamorfosi Trio from Italy. This will be great!
Both Mick Karn and Jerry Marotta have told me that they look forward to our week together in December, and so is everyone involved in Isildurs Bane of course. At the moment we are working on the practical stuff, but soon the musical work will begin and in a couple of weeks, there will be interesting music right. left and centre.
* * *
A couple of days ago, I had the pleasure of attending Jazz in Malmo's 30th anniversary concert. A case of a who's who in Malmo's jazz history performed very short sets to get us from 1975 up to date. Highly memorable performances came from the subtleness of Hakan Rydin's trio accompanying Almaz Yebio and Elisabeth Melander; fierce trumpet solos from the horn master Anders Bergcrantz, a humour-filled double bass duet featuring Mattias Hjort and Mattias Svensson supported by Jan Lundgren; the wonderful spikey weirdness of guitarist Krister Jonsson... I could go on and on about this. I was truly pleased to see so many people of all ages there, everybody enjoying themselves and letting the music soak in.
* * *
Exposure was composed by Robert Fripp and Peter Gabriel. I prefer the version on Fripp's solo album on which this song is the title track. Terre Roche belts her heart out over a minimalistic background on this take. Much more interesting than Gabriel's restrained performance on his second solo album.
NP: Mick Karn - The Tooth Mother
Sunday, November 27, 2005
Sunday, November 13, 2005
Time
It's been longer than I intended since my last blog. A lot of water has passed under the bridge, and I will account for some of the most important things eventually.
First of all, I must mention two truly great concert experiences, both at the concert house in Malmo. First, I heard the Malmo Symphony Orchestra performing Giya Kancheli's sixth symphony. What a wonderful piece of music! Dynamic, lyrical, lamenting, powerful, arresting, breathtaking. The way Kancheli uses silence as a equal to sounding notes reminds me that silence is an absolute necessity in music. Without silence, how can there be any music?
The other concert was by the extraordinary Kronos Quartet. I have had the pleasure of hearing them twice before, both times in London. This time, they came to my home turf. A great programme: John Zorn, Charles Mingus, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Steve Reich and Peteris Vasks. The Zorn piece ("Cat o' Nine Tails") I've heard before on record and live, but not the other works. I was particularly eager to hear Sy Johnson's Mingus arrangement and Vasks' sixth string quartet. As it turned out, they were the highlights of the set along with Zorn and Reich ("Triple Quartet"). At least until the encores. I was surprised to see that two of the composers attending the concert - Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and Vasks. Just like Kancheli's symphony, the Vasks piece was very impressive and moving.
For the encores, Kronos chose to perform three wonderful pieces that were earthshattering in three completely different ways. The encores began with viola player Hank Dutt taking the spotlight with Ram Narayan's "Raga Mishra Bhairavi". Some amazing playing from Dutt here! Following some enthusiastic applause, the quartet returned to perform Sigur Ros' "Svefn-g-englr", a low-key piece with small gestures. But great music! For the third and final encore Kronos returned with a vengeance with their take on Jimi Hendrix' take on "The Star Spangled Banner". It was louder than anything I have ever heard at the concert house. Between gushes of feedback, frantic glissandi and chaotic variations on Hendrix' soundscapes, parts of the US national anthem could be heard.
In my forthcoming blogs: new work, book offer, december concert, international contacts, organizing, meetings, a bad person in the heating business, a great jazz concert. And then some.
* * *
"Time" by Pink Floyd is a song that starts off in a great way with the ticking clocks, haunting guitar and the contrasting almost happy-go-lucky percussion. The verses are great too, as is the guitar solo - performed tastefully as usually by David Gilmour. The contrasting theme on the other hand has always bothered me. I have problems with major 7th chords. They are simply too cheesy to my ears. Also, Rick Wright's voice is slightly too shakey in my opinion. On the other hand, his voice suits Roger Waters' words perfectly. Tiredness, anxiety and reflections on life work well with the monotonous vocal lines performed with Wright's fragile-sounding vocal performance.
NP: Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
First of all, I must mention two truly great concert experiences, both at the concert house in Malmo. First, I heard the Malmo Symphony Orchestra performing Giya Kancheli's sixth symphony. What a wonderful piece of music! Dynamic, lyrical, lamenting, powerful, arresting, breathtaking. The way Kancheli uses silence as a equal to sounding notes reminds me that silence is an absolute necessity in music. Without silence, how can there be any music?
The other concert was by the extraordinary Kronos Quartet. I have had the pleasure of hearing them twice before, both times in London. This time, they came to my home turf. A great programme: John Zorn, Charles Mingus, Pelle Gudmundsen-Holmgreen, Steve Reich and Peteris Vasks. The Zorn piece ("Cat o' Nine Tails") I've heard before on record and live, but not the other works. I was particularly eager to hear Sy Johnson's Mingus arrangement and Vasks' sixth string quartet. As it turned out, they were the highlights of the set along with Zorn and Reich ("Triple Quartet"). At least until the encores. I was surprised to see that two of the composers attending the concert - Gudmundsen-Holmgreen and Vasks. Just like Kancheli's symphony, the Vasks piece was very impressive and moving.
For the encores, Kronos chose to perform three wonderful pieces that were earthshattering in three completely different ways. The encores began with viola player Hank Dutt taking the spotlight with Ram Narayan's "Raga Mishra Bhairavi". Some amazing playing from Dutt here! Following some enthusiastic applause, the quartet returned to perform Sigur Ros' "Svefn-g-englr", a low-key piece with small gestures. But great music! For the third and final encore Kronos returned with a vengeance with their take on Jimi Hendrix' take on "The Star Spangled Banner". It was louder than anything I have ever heard at the concert house. Between gushes of feedback, frantic glissandi and chaotic variations on Hendrix' soundscapes, parts of the US national anthem could be heard.
In my forthcoming blogs: new work, book offer, december concert, international contacts, organizing, meetings, a bad person in the heating business, a great jazz concert. And then some.
* * *
"Time" by Pink Floyd is a song that starts off in a great way with the ticking clocks, haunting guitar and the contrasting almost happy-go-lucky percussion. The verses are great too, as is the guitar solo - performed tastefully as usually by David Gilmour. The contrasting theme on the other hand has always bothered me. I have problems with major 7th chords. They are simply too cheesy to my ears. Also, Rick Wright's voice is slightly too shakey in my opinion. On the other hand, his voice suits Roger Waters' words perfectly. Tiredness, anxiety and reflections on life work well with the monotonous vocal lines performed with Wright's fragile-sounding vocal performance.
NP: Aimee Mann - The Forgotten Arm
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