Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for April 26, 2014

In which, the above normal amount of traffic noise outside the window manages to not occur during the mic breaks...

Unpopular Music - April 26, 2014 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Two Nights at the Regattabar

Dave Douglas' Riverside, April 17, 2014

It took a bit of convincing myself to go to this show. I mean Dave Douglas, sure. Steve Swallow, a definite plus. But who are these other guys? Well, the Times speaks highly of this Chet Doxas fellow. Oh, but the group is an homage to Jimmy Giuffre? OK, let's go!

Playlist for the April 19, 2014 Unpopular Music webcast

A pre-recorded show for the Easter/Patriot's Day/Boston Marathon/Record Store Day/Earth Day weekend (hence shabby sounding, bedroom recorded mic breaks)

After the break...

Down with Poptimism!!

(in which I lapse into grandiosity)

For those of you lucky enough to receive the Somerville Community Access TV newsletter, you read a blurb for my program (not written by me) which I think made it out to be more exclusive and snobby than I intend it to be. (This is mostly my fault since I've been terrible at describing the show, and also missed a deadline to submit some promotional copy of my own. I'm not mad at anyone over it) To be clear, I'm not aiming for the select few, but I (and I'm sure everyone on Boston Free Radio) am trying to bring forward an alternative to pop radio hegemony. I certainly don't want to be one of those dj's who are too cool to even like the music they play.


Which brings me to

Catching up, Part 2

Remanence: Monstrance/Remonstrance at the ICA Boston (March 29, 2014)

An extravagance presented by the artist Matthew Ritchie and the musicians Bryce Dessner, Shara Worden, David Sheppard and Evan Ziporyn. We began in the lobby of the ICA facing a large mural by Ritchie with light projections above and seated on the floor on foam rubber pads sharing the same amoeba-like design (for serious lack of a better description). The musical component, a collaboration between Dessner and Ziporyn titled "Propolis", a sort of structured improvisation for violin, trombone, bass clarinet, double bass and highly electronically manipulated electric guitar, transformed by Sheppard's sound design, emitting through speakers on all sides and above the audience. The audience is immersed in sound, also somewhat amoeba-like in shape, as Sheppard records the ensembles playing, manipulates it, creating loops and such for the players to respond further etc, etc. Some very fascinating, beautiful, scary music ensued.

Playlist for the April 12, 2014 Unpopular Music webcast

Commemorating (but not celebrating) the 50th anniversary of the Senate (eventually overcome) filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.  (and other things too)

Unpopular Music - April 12, 2014 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Find the playlist after the break...

Playlist for the April 5, 2014 Unpopular Music webcast

In which I manage to not play anything with Bill Frisell (except for the theme). Next week we'll try Joey Baron (except for the theme).

Unpopular Music - April 05, 2014 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Playlist after the break

Jason Moran's Fats Waller Dance Party

Just a couple of thoughts on last night's somewhat enjoyable, somewhat maddening performance of Jason Moran's Fats Waller Dance Party at the Berklee Performance Center.

First of all, as a performer, you don't always get the audience you want. That's the way it goes. It's your job as a professional, though, to find a way to engage the audience (without resorting to pandering) or failing that, perform for your own pleasure, and if the audience doesn't catch up, it's their loss. I, however, dislike being implored by someone on stage to react to the performance other than how I am, especially when it's not the person whose name is on the ticket.

Correcting Bob's grammar

I don't really go around being a persnickety grammar enforcer, but every time I hear Positively 4th Street, I cringe at "you know as well as me, you'd rather see me paralyzed", not only for the grammar, but for how "I" would rhyme with "paralyzed". I guess "me" makes an OK internal rhyme with "see", but it's not worth it.

Someone might argue "no man, he's saying the guy knows he'd rather see Bob paralyzed as well as he knows Bob", but it's just time to take that person in out of the sun, cause obviously Bob is arguing that this person doesn't know him very well at all.

Catching up, part one

Some real life (let's call it) stuff over the last couple of weeks have kept me from my already erratic blogging schedule. Here's the first part of stuff I've been meaning to write about.

Sing, Sing, Sing (with a Swing) – Benny Goodman Orchestra from Live at Carnegie Hall (1938)

Pretty much used to signify “old people music” these days, give it a close listen sometime, it's quite a bit more modern than you'd expect, especially once we move part the point where the original 78 ends (around the 3:45 mark). After a tenor sax solos over punchy brass and Krupa's tribal syncopations, some tight canons in a somewhat Arabic sounding scale weave their way along to a rapid fire trumpet solo by Harry James. After an ensemble passage, Goodman solos again with active interplay with Jess Stacy on piano and Krupa's drums. The playing is freer and more improvisatory than the big bands of that time are usually given credit for (especially the white ones). Stacy's solo in particular is revelatory. And Krupa's drumming, constantly coming up with subtle shifts and variations of the famous pounding introduction, fuels this performance as the climax of a triumphant evening.

Diversion for March 31, 2014

Waiting for the subway this morning, I was listening to a particularly poor, commercially made MP3 and was bemused by how the Man feels there are certain frequencies I don't need to hear, so they can make the file smaller. Then, lo and behold, while listening at work to the archive of last Friday's Miniature Minotaurs program, host Kurt Gottschalk referred to this article [link now missing] by an artist who makes new music using the frequencies the MP3 leaves behind, along with a brief history of this confounding product, which makes music much more portable and transferable, at the expense of a richer sonic experience.

Playlist for the March 29, 2014 Unpopular Music webcast

If what happened to Kenmore Square happens to Union Square, I'm moving to Pittsburgh.
Today's playlist after the break...

Playlist for the March 22, 2014 Unpopular Music webcast

The remote control, time travel edition

Unpopular Music - March 22, 2014 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

After the break...

Playlist for the March 15, 2014 Unpopular Music program

In which I make several corny Ides of March jokes, yet somehow play a song called Caesar's Palace without comment.

After the break...

Playlist for the March 8, 2014 Unpopular Music program

The music played on the first show, archive to come

After the jump....

Top 3 for March 20, 2014

Room 237 directed by Rodney Ascher

I actually saw this about a month ago, but the recent news brought it back to mind.

The film presents five persons giving their theories about the secret subtextual messages hidden in Stanley Kubrick's film The Shining. As the theories themselves are abjectly ridiculous, what I enjoyed about the film is the way the interview subjects' theories seem to exist in search of a vehicle to convey them. I mean how else would somebody happening upon a movie poster with generic advertising copy that goes something like "the wave of terror that's sweeping the country" have a reaction that goes "well neither this movie, nor the book on which it's based is all that popular, so this is obviously a reference to the slaughter of the Native Americans." The fact that The Shining is a movie by a director with a reputation for meticulousness which happens to be riddled with continuity errors can only mean that he is sending secret messages. (Well, some of the Native American stuff is kind of interesting, but since the setting is a desecrated Indian burying ground in Colorado, not as much of a stretch as the claim that the film is Kubrick's obvious confession to fabricating the Moon landing footage.)

Wheel of Socialism

Ok, a bit of a digression, but, I'm up visiting Mom, and Wheel of Fortune is one of the few things we can all deal with, and I like word puzzles, so shut up.

Anyway, it's couples night, and she's a black-belt who teaches karate to pre-schoolers and he's a "huge Lakers fan" (there were probably more but I didn't bother to remember) and they build the pot up and get most of the letters but before they can solve, they hit BANKRUPT. It goes over to the next couple where he's a sales manager for a Fortune 500 company, and without spinning solve the puzzle and win the trip to Jamaica, reaping the rewards of the work done by others.

(also, the recent veteran went home with nothing)

America's Game!

Top bunch of stuff for March 19, 2014

A bunch of stuff by Jaco Pastorius

Back in my days at Famous Music College, I, like many there, had my Jaco period. (This was also not long after his tragic, violent death.) He is one of those relatively few who managed to be both macholy virtuosic and sensitive-artiste like in a balanced manner.

Digging through a box while looking for something else I pulled out his two probably best and best known albums, his eponymous triumphant arrival album from 1976 and grand artistic statement Word of Mouth from 1981.

Top 3 for March 14, 2014

Vijay Iyer Trio with Robert Pinsky at Sanders Theatre

The first set is with just Pinsky and Iyer, occasionally augmented by some sounds off Iyer's laptop. With the electronics (swirly sounds and beats), the effect is more like Robert Ashley that beatnik coffeehouse, for the better obviously. Poet and pianist work well as a duo, weaving in and out of each other's sonic and rhythmic spaces. Pinksy departs and the rest of the trio arrives. The do like their odd-meter, asymetric vamps and rhapsodic crescendos a little too much, but are never less than interesting. The highlight comes when a “event” as Iyer called it, entitled Hood emerges out of Henry Threadgill's tune Little Pocket-Sized Demons. Patterns between the piano and drums expand and contract until they curl up in a tense little ball and gradually unwind themselves. The drummer Marcus Gilmore, 26-year-old grandson of the great Roy Haynes, is a master colorist, dissecting patterns within patters, using a very dry and tight sounding kit always in service to the groove or the tune, avoiding the temptation to erupt in to a self-aggrandizing flourish in order to drive the music into a deeper place. I look forward to following his career. Pinsky rejoined the trio to recite one more poem, about American history vis-a-vis the history of the saxophone, over what I believe was a trio improvisation, all four men weaving their respective parts into some very vibrant music.

No. 1 for March 13, 2014

Hawks

So, I live in a city which, due to some vigorous construction and perhaps its garbage and recycling practices, has a bit of a rat problem. So, yesterday I'm walking home and on my street, not from the house I live in, but close enough, a small, not baby, a toddler maybe, not full-sized, but all the same, a small rat comes out of a driveway and is crossing the street and almost makes it to the other side, when a hawk swoops down, grabs the rat and flies away with it. “Hell, yeah” I shouted. A woman who had just parked her car, and saw the action from the reverse angle gets out of the car and says to me “did you see that?” “Hell, yeah. Totally badass” I reply. A man who had just pulled into his driveway and was walking to his front door and had his back turned to the action is befuddled, wondering why the two of us are so excited.

Anyway here's to hawks, keep up the good work.