Romanian gypsy music offers zing and swing
Kathy Petite, Contributor, Singapore
A spontaneous blast of excitement emanated from the audience at a performance by Taraf de Haidouks at Jubilee Hall, Singapore, on June 22.
Originating from the small Romanian village of Clejani near Bucharest, this group, whose name means "band of honorable brigands", provided a rich feast of music, dance and theater at the 30th Singapore Arts Festival, which ran from May 25 through June 24 this year.
Singapore Arts Festival director Goh Ching Lee said they were the "true blue" of Romanian Gypsy bands that still have purity and originality. "I've been trying to contact them for four years but since they travel a lot, it's been a challenge to get them here."
The effort was truly worth it. The show lasted for 110 minutes with an intermission -- but never could one sense any decrease in energy that radiated from the eight colorful, warm, eccentric characters who created invigorating tunes from violins, accordions, cimbalom (a stringed instrument struck by two light hammers), bass and vocals.
The audience was transported by and immersed in intense medieval ballads -- Turkish-flavored tunes from the Balkans.
It was not easy to comprehend the complexity of the tunes as they darted and zigzagged with trills and precisely articulated repeated notes. But there were quieter parts, too, that created a more sentimental mood.
In the second part, the audience was treated to music with a stronger Turkish and Arabic flavor that was both exotic and fascinating.
Sunday, July 1, 2007
CHAMBER MUSIC’S FUTURE
Alive and Kicking
To the Editor:
Re “Music That Thinks Outside the Chamber” by Anne Midgette [June 24]:
As a 15-year-old violinist, I was drawn to your article about the death of chamber music. Chamber music may very well be moribund in the concert hall setting. But I can report from the trenches that it is alive and well. My string quartet, Seraphina, has performed in its share of concert halls, but our liveliest, most appreciative audiences have been in nontraditional settings.
Recently, after playing for a group of philanthropists in a luxurious apartment, we went out to Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia and played until dusk. The crowd that gathered included commuters, joggers, homeless people and children.
Whenever we do this, the response is overwhelmingly positive. If there is such apparent love for chamber music when it’s presented in a nonthreatening, unpretentious manner, how can it be dead?
Alive and Kicking
To the Editor:
Re “Music That Thinks Outside the Chamber” by Anne Midgette [June 24]:
As a 15-year-old violinist, I was drawn to your article about the death of chamber music. Chamber music may very well be moribund in the concert hall setting. But I can report from the trenches that it is alive and well. My string quartet, Seraphina, has performed in its share of concert halls, but our liveliest, most appreciative audiences have been in nontraditional settings.
Recently, after playing for a group of philanthropists in a luxurious apartment, we went out to Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia and played until dusk. The crowd that gathered included commuters, joggers, homeless people and children.
Whenever we do this, the response is overwhelmingly positive. If there is such apparent love for chamber music when it’s presented in a nonthreatening, unpretentious manner, how can it be dead?
American music kicks off Summerfest concerts
By PAUL HORSLEY
The Kansas City Star
Joshua Hood of North Carolina has been Summerfest bassoonist since 1998.
Summerfest 2007
Saturday concerts are at 7 p.m. at White Recital Hall, 4949 Cherry. Sunday concerts are at 5 p.m. at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 1307 Holmes.
Four-concert package costs $75, three concerts are $55. Single tickets are $25 ($20 for seniors, $10 student rush tickets available 30 minutes before each show).
Call 816-235-6222 or go to summerfestkc.org.
July 7-8: Music of Argento, Harbison, Still, Foote and Copland
July 14-15: Music of Couperin, Mackey, Françaix, Boeddecker and Mahler
July 21-22: Music of Moravec, Broughton and Telemann
July 28-29: Music of Gandolfi, Villa-Lobos and Beethoven
-->
American composers often score highest when they stick to what they know.
Just as Shostakovich wove Russian tunes into his symphonies and Mahler hid drinking-songs in his, Ives and Copland struck true when they used material that Americans recognize.
This Saturday and Sunday, Summerfest Concerts begins its four-weekend season of chamber music with an all-American program that includes “Songs America Loves to Sing,” a more recent musical “quilt” by John Harbison scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano.
“He was thinking about pieces that his parents and grandparents would have known, common everyday music everyone would know,” said Summerfest artistic co-director Jane Carl, who also plays clarinet in this top-drawer group. “But he transforms these pieces in his own way.”
With everything from hymns to blues and “We Shall Overcome,” Harbison’s piece “elicits a giggle, but it’s very effective,” said fellow artistic co-director Nancy Beckmann. “And at the end we all play harmonicas.”
The New Jersey-born Harbison, who is 68, represents a classic blend of American vigor (his primary teacher at Harvard was Walter Piston, preeminent American contrapuntalist) and European complexity (Boris Blacher was his mentor in Berlin).
Accordingly his music is approachable but often surprisingly dense. “Songs America Loves to Sing” uses familiar tunes in complicated settings, which the composer said “will still be recognizable.”
“If we know the tunes, our enjoyment of the pieces is enhanced,” Harbison wrote in a program note. “It is my hope that choosing well-known material will make these settings transparent.”
Nostalgia plays a role in Harbison’s vision, too, as it did with Bach, Mahler or Shostakovich.
“It is a distant, quaint vision,” he wrote, “the family around the piano singing familiar songs, a Currier and Ives print, an album of sepia photographs. But I remember it well (or did I imagine it?).”
The opening Summerfest program also features Kansas City favorite Rebecca Lloyd, who will lend her soprano to Domenic Argento’s fascinating “Six Elizabethan Songs” and Copland’s “As It Fell Upon a Day,” the latter a setting of a bizarre, witty little Lewis Carroll verse.
The program is filled out by “Panamanian Dances” by 20th-century African-American composer William Grant Still and “Saraband and Rigaudon” by Arthur Foote.
Summerfest continues each Saturday and Sunday through July. Tickets are available at Central Ticket Office at 816-235-6222.
By PAUL HORSLEY
The Kansas City Star
Joshua Hood of North Carolina has been Summerfest bassoonist since 1998.
Summerfest 2007
Saturday concerts are at 7 p.m. at White Recital Hall, 4949 Cherry. Sunday concerts are at 5 p.m. at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, 1307 Holmes.
Four-concert package costs $75, three concerts are $55. Single tickets are $25 ($20 for seniors, $10 student rush tickets available 30 minutes before each show).
Call 816-235-6222 or go to summerfestkc.org.
July 7-8: Music of Argento, Harbison, Still, Foote and Copland
July 14-15: Music of Couperin, Mackey, Françaix, Boeddecker and Mahler
July 21-22: Music of Moravec, Broughton and Telemann
July 28-29: Music of Gandolfi, Villa-Lobos and Beethoven
-->
American composers often score highest when they stick to what they know.
Just as Shostakovich wove Russian tunes into his symphonies and Mahler hid drinking-songs in his, Ives and Copland struck true when they used material that Americans recognize.
This Saturday and Sunday, Summerfest Concerts begins its four-weekend season of chamber music with an all-American program that includes “Songs America Loves to Sing,” a more recent musical “quilt” by John Harbison scored for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano.
“He was thinking about pieces that his parents and grandparents would have known, common everyday music everyone would know,” said Summerfest artistic co-director Jane Carl, who also plays clarinet in this top-drawer group. “But he transforms these pieces in his own way.”
With everything from hymns to blues and “We Shall Overcome,” Harbison’s piece “elicits a giggle, but it’s very effective,” said fellow artistic co-director Nancy Beckmann. “And at the end we all play harmonicas.”
The New Jersey-born Harbison, who is 68, represents a classic blend of American vigor (his primary teacher at Harvard was Walter Piston, preeminent American contrapuntalist) and European complexity (Boris Blacher was his mentor in Berlin).
Accordingly his music is approachable but often surprisingly dense. “Songs America Loves to Sing” uses familiar tunes in complicated settings, which the composer said “will still be recognizable.”
“If we know the tunes, our enjoyment of the pieces is enhanced,” Harbison wrote in a program note. “It is my hope that choosing well-known material will make these settings transparent.”
Nostalgia plays a role in Harbison’s vision, too, as it did with Bach, Mahler or Shostakovich.
“It is a distant, quaint vision,” he wrote, “the family around the piano singing familiar songs, a Currier and Ives print, an album of sepia photographs. But I remember it well (or did I imagine it?).”
The opening Summerfest program also features Kansas City favorite Rebecca Lloyd, who will lend her soprano to Domenic Argento’s fascinating “Six Elizabethan Songs” and Copland’s “As It Fell Upon a Day,” the latter a setting of a bizarre, witty little Lewis Carroll verse.
The program is filled out by “Panamanian Dances” by 20th-century African-American composer William Grant Still and “Saraband and Rigaudon” by Arthur Foote.
Summerfest continues each Saturday and Sunday through July. Tickets are available at Central Ticket Office at 816-235-6222.
Jazz Fest serves up pop, swing, music impersonator
By Celia R. Baker Special to The Tribune
Article Launched: 07/01/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT
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Don't know the difference between bebop, hard bop and neobop? Don't understand what separates funk from fusion? Don't worry: You don't have to be a jazz die-hard to appreciate the offerings of the 2007 Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival. Now in its seventh year, the festival's focus is broader than ever. Jazzers still will get their musical fix from performances by legendary sax-man David "Fathead" Newman, Luther Hughes and the Cannonball/Coltrane Project, Grammy-winning vocalist Dianne Reeves and others. But, there will be a large helping of pop crossover music for people who don't know a riff from a tag. The hot touring band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is back to celebrate the swinging music - and clothing - of the Big Band Era. Zone Azul adds Brazilian flair to the line-up. Decades of pop standards are celebrated by Great American Songbook. Then, there's singer and musical impersonator Bob Anderson, who appears in the prime time slot of the festival's last night, singing the enduring music of Frank Sinatra and friends. Festival director Jerry Floor said the "jazz umbrella" is a big one, and the great tunes of Sinatra, Martin, Bennett and the rest fit neatly underneath.
By Celia R. Baker Special to The Tribune
Article Launched: 07/01/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT
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Don't know the difference between bebop, hard bop and neobop? Don't understand what separates funk from fusion? Don't worry: You don't have to be a jazz die-hard to appreciate the offerings of the 2007 Salt Lake City International Jazz Festival. Now in its seventh year, the festival's focus is broader than ever. Jazzers still will get their musical fix from performances by legendary sax-man David "Fathead" Newman, Luther Hughes and the Cannonball/Coltrane Project, Grammy-winning vocalist Dianne Reeves and others. But, there will be a large helping of pop crossover music for people who don't know a riff from a tag. The hot touring band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy is back to celebrate the swinging music - and clothing - of the Big Band Era. Zone Azul adds Brazilian flair to the line-up. Decades of pop standards are celebrated by Great American Songbook. Then, there's singer and musical impersonator Bob Anderson, who appears in the prime time slot of the festival's last night, singing the enduring music of Frank Sinatra and friends. Festival director Jerry Floor said the "jazz umbrella" is a big one, and the great tunes of Sinatra, Martin, Bennett and the rest fit neatly underneath.
The past 12 months have been a landmark year for Tyscot Records, the gospel label established by dentist Leonard Scott and late church organist Craig Tyson in 1976.
Bryant Scott, president and CEO of gospel record label Tyscot, will be profiled in a "Behind the Music" story, Wednesday, June 13, 2007. (Photo by Danese Kenon/The Indianapolis Star) - Danese Kenon / The Star
Bryant Scott -- son of Leonard Scott -- signed mega-church leader Bishop Noel Jones, former R&B vocalist Shirley Murdock and platinum-selling contemporary Christian singer Carman to recording contracts.
Rather than making a hard sell or writing large checks to attract talent, Scott says he approached negotiations from a different direction.
"Listen and you'll learn," Scott says. "Learn what people's desires are. Learn what drives them. Then you can really find out how you can help them."
Scott, 39, began working at Tyscot in 1988, when he estimates the label sold about 50,000 recordings. By the early 1990s, annual unit sales exceeded 1 million, thanks to breakout star John P. Kee.
The label lost money and momentum, however, when a company contracted to place Tyscot recordings in stores filed for bankruptcy in 1993.
"It took about a decade to overcome that setback," says Scott, who maintains label headquarters in an office on the Far Northside. Tyscot employs a staff of 12, but only three work in Indianapolis. Five are based in Atlanta.
"I don't have to be in (cities such as New York and Nashville, Tenn.)," Scott says. "I can pick up my phone and call. The reason most of my employees are in Atlanta is because of the great talent pool there."
The North Central alumnus says radio industry consolidation and whims of big-box retailers create challenges for independent companies.
Bryant Scott, president and CEO of gospel record label Tyscot, will be profiled in a "Behind the Music" story, Wednesday, June 13, 2007. (Photo by Danese Kenon/The Indianapolis Star) - Danese Kenon / The Star
Bryant Scott -- son of Leonard Scott -- signed mega-church leader Bishop Noel Jones, former R&B vocalist Shirley Murdock and platinum-selling contemporary Christian singer Carman to recording contracts.
Rather than making a hard sell or writing large checks to attract talent, Scott says he approached negotiations from a different direction.
"Listen and you'll learn," Scott says. "Learn what people's desires are. Learn what drives them. Then you can really find out how you can help them."
Scott, 39, began working at Tyscot in 1988, when he estimates the label sold about 50,000 recordings. By the early 1990s, annual unit sales exceeded 1 million, thanks to breakout star John P. Kee.
The label lost money and momentum, however, when a company contracted to place Tyscot recordings in stores filed for bankruptcy in 1993.
"It took about a decade to overcome that setback," says Scott, who maintains label headquarters in an office on the Far Northside. Tyscot employs a staff of 12, but only three work in Indianapolis. Five are based in Atlanta.
"I don't have to be in (cities such as New York and Nashville, Tenn.)," Scott says. "I can pick up my phone and call. The reason most of my employees are in Atlanta is because of the great talent pool there."
The North Central alumnus says radio industry consolidation and whims of big-box retailers create challenges for independent companies.
Music fans pack flagship Sam's for one last shop
toronto.ctv.ca
Shoppers flocked into Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street Saturday, hoping to strike music gold one more time before the store closed its doors.
The company's flagship location, a downtown fixture since it opened in 1961, locked up for the last time at 7 p.m.
Sam's was buzzing as music boomed and people searched for last-minute steals, but some couldn't help but hear an ominous whisper of inevitability.
"I've never been able to find the music that I look for, that I like, any place else but Sam's," one woman said.
"Now I'm real sad because I don't know where I'm going to go to buy it."
John Fillion managed the downtown store for 32 years. He said closing up shop is hard because Sam's offered patrons much more than material goods.
toronto.ctv.ca
Shoppers flocked into Sam the Record Man on Yonge Street Saturday, hoping to strike music gold one more time before the store closed its doors.
The company's flagship location, a downtown fixture since it opened in 1961, locked up for the last time at 7 p.m.
Sam's was buzzing as music boomed and people searched for last-minute steals, but some couldn't help but hear an ominous whisper of inevitability.
"I've never been able to find the music that I look for, that I like, any place else but Sam's," one woman said.
"Now I'm real sad because I don't know where I'm going to go to buy it."
John Fillion managed the downtown store for 32 years. He said closing up shop is hard because Sam's offered patrons much more than material goods.
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