What's New?
Friday, January 20, 2012 at 5:44AM Stage full of heroes..
David Murray, Guadalupe, Gwo Ka Masters, Pharaoh Sanders in video Monday, January 9, 2012 at 11:27PM The opera, ee me & pollock thee, written by Adam Falik(Libretto) and Jonathan Freilich (Composer) has been nominated for an award in the Gambit's creative opera category...
Monday, January 9, 2012 at 4:11PM Comments will go back to the old system on this site. Disqus, a third-party commenting system, was embedded but it disabled the guest book and some other features.
So...get back to commenting and signing up! All previous comments are gone. Apologies if you were attached but, on the up side, you can now get mailers and other information directly, as well as more direct commentary if you have any.
Best,
Author
Comments, Disqus, Site functionality in announcement Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 11:05PM "To deny all morality is to be moral, for the accepted morality is the morality of respectability, and I'm afraid we all crave to be respected - which is to be recognised as good citizens in a rotten society. Respectability is very profitable and ensures you a good job and a steady income. The accepted morality of greed, envy and hate is the way of the establishment."
-J. Krishnamurti
Krishnamurti, Morality, Philosophy, Respectability, Society in thoughts Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 10:47PM Sonny, Sonny, Sonny...SHARROCK!
Guitar, Sonny Sharrock in video Thursday, January 5, 2012 at 8:22PM Dan Oestreicher passed this on. It's really beautiful...relax and enjoy!
African Guitar, Botswana, Guitar, dan Oestreicher in video Wednesday, January 4, 2012 at 4:30AM Sign this petition. The Super PAC- ery is already out of hand. The supreme court is clearly half run by super idiots- here is a proposal that could start straightening it out.
Here's the senate delivery...
You'd be mad to not at least try to get this moving!
Friday, December 30, 2011 at 8:44PM ;)
My old guitar teacher, friend, and brilliant New Orleans musician, Carl Leblanc has just released his brand new recording- Those Who Have Ears. It's available at CD Baby amongst other services and... help out an artist and pick up a copy.
I wrote a string quartet arrangement for one of the pieces on the record and am honored to find out that he wanted to use it on its own for the finale of the record. It's called Hesed if you pick up a copy.
Carl is a great guitarist and all around musician who always comes out with a landscape of musical statements on record that really shows all he can breathe life into for a listener. He has played on some key New Orleans recordings and has played in many of the greatest groups associated with the city including the Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Preservation Hall Jazz Band, Allen Toussaint- (actually the list is so extensive- I'll let you music fans seek out the rest of the bio information). He was also guitarist for the Sun Ra Arkestra for about 9 years and luckily my generous guitar teacher for a long time.
This one is worth checking out and many great musicians were involved...
Tuesday, December 27, 2011 at 5:54PM 
Jonathan Freilich, Sam Rivers, Jeff Albert, Zeitgeist theater, New Orleans The great Sam Rivers has passed and what a big loss, what a human being, what an improvisor. And really...what do I know? I only got to see him a handful of times but each was better than a delight; it was actually transformative.
The first couple of times that I saw him in person was when he came out to a couple of New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars shows in Orlando, FL. At one of them he was dancing wildly and he made sure to come over and tell us how much he liked it. He was one of my heroes and I felt like i'd been given a fresh, strong, backbone.
When we would go down to Orlando, we were sometimes lucky to see his Rivbea orchestra; a great band- check out some of those hot clips on youtube.
The most important memory of Sam for me, and a number of my comrades in New Orleans, was when he came down to play with the Naked Orchestra. He had some music prepared but there had been a mixup with his management who had incorrectly communicated the Naked Orchestra's instrumentation to him. He felt badly about it and said that he had lots of music for such a project if he'd been told what kind of band it was. He dissolved the rehearsal and said he would have new music for us right before the gig and he did just that; the following evening he had worked up a complete piece for the orchestra. It was a very ear opening piece of music and I wish I had a recording of that evening.
Every time you saw Sam Rivers he exuded a shocking amount of energy and his multi instrumental trio of recent years was also something else to see.
My old friend, David Kunian wrote a poem inspired by the show that night with the Naked Orchestra . Here it is...
SAM RIVERS AND THE NAKED ORCHESTRA 3/8/02 ZEITGEIST THEATRE
Michael Ray is his own delay.
If he were going the speed of light,
Would he hear his instrument in the mirror?
Yeah, Einstein, I’m hearing things, All Right!
Tim Green’s blowing breath through the bass sax
Powering the band like a B-2 bomber.
Sounds like Operation Anaconda creeping
Through the mountains and then a big BOOM
As Eric Lucero’s trumpet and Rob Wagner’s horn
Drop the furious atonal BOMB. Sam the Man Rivers
Writing a new piece like a snake
Sousaphone in the hills, saxophones in the grass.
Mikiel Williams fingering like a snake charmer.
Sam has Hart McKnee adding flute
And interpretive dance stomps.
“Ooops, I brought music for an orchestra,
but not this kind of Orchestra.”
Maybe an Arkestra? A Dressed Orchestra?
Michael Skinkus is the tomato conga.
Matt Perrine on sousaphone is definitely pickles.
Doug Miller no offense slathers on tenor mayo.
Jonathan Froelich’s sharp guitar tones and crazy clusters
Shreds my lettuce.
Cacophony is beautiful
Chaos is beautiful!
It makes no sense, maybe not
Nonsense, gimme more,
More more more more Naked Sense!
Top it with Sam Rivers hip reeds, wild chords,
Flowing charts, and toothy smile.
Written 3/8/02
Revised 3/15/02
Thanks Sam!
Thursday, December 22, 2011 at 4:39AM Infinite possibility and architecture. Wait until you are relaxed and no-one else is around...then turn it up and expand...there will be an infinity in that 10 minutes.
