Three videos for November 16, 2014

Here are three random videos I came across this week. They're not at all connected and have their own significance, and no relationship between them is implied.

Fist we have an IBM commercial, of all things, directed by Jim Henson, of all people, with music by Raymond Scott (well, he at least is partly known for liking to use machines to generate ideas).

Top 5 (plus) for September 11, 2013

En Saga by Jean Sibelius performed by Wilhelm Furtwängler and the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1943, from Aufnahmen 1942-1944, Vol 2.

Or whatever of the Berlin Philharmonic had not fled by this point. Not a very refined performance, but with a depth not typically found. From Furtwängler's quixotic battle that culture could save Germany.

How does it feel to be back – Daryl Hall and John Oates from Voices, 1980

Oates' finest moment

Parole Ambulante – John Tchicai's Five Points, from One Long Minute

I saw this group (and bought this disc) on the fist day of summer 2010 at the Brooklyn club Zebulon, two years or so before Tchicai's death. He was very much in the role of the proud teacher, watching his students put their lessons into practice. only letting it rip at the end. After one tune fell apart at its start, he said, while regrouping “The task at hand is to change the mistakes into something beautiful” which I jotted down on the back of a flyer with Muhal Richard Abrams on the front. (for the benefit of the scholars who will someday study my papers, I must make sure to note this is Tchicai's quote and not Muhal's (or my own for that matter) to avoid misattribution.) A wonderful souvenir of a wonderful night.