appearing with Mas Mamones June 8th at Tipitina's

That's right y'all! I'm back home for a good chunk of the summer so I'll be out with one of my oldest associations, Mas Mamones at Tipitina's in New Orleans.  Andrew Wolf-bass; Manny Lander-vocals; Michael Skinkus- percussion.

You'd be crazy not to come!

Appearing with Robert Walter/Stanton Moore at The Mint, LA 6/27

Upcoming show with organist, Robert Walter and drummer, Stanton Moore at The Mint in Los Angeles.  Its part of Robert Walter's 4 week residency there on Wednesdays in June.

It's also my first real appearance in LA since I've been spending a good deal of time out there.  Come out and support if you get the chance- the music will be outstanding!

Robert's a great organ player who started a rather notorious group amongst other things, and Stanton is my old uber-talented friend from the Klezmer All-Stars who likes to keep his drumstick wrapping fingers in many pots.

Also appearing at Skeriks's Saucefest

For those of you with that real spirit of musical adventure...I will be playing at Skerik's Saucefest, at Hi-ho Lounge on Tuesday May 1st.  I don't know what time and neither will you- so MAKE IT!

Upcoming performance with New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars at Jazzfest 2012

Will be performing with the New Orleans Klezmer All-Stars at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival on Sunday, April 29.

The All-Star lineup will be:

Joe Cabral-Bass

Glenn Hartman-Accordion, Keys

Jonathan Freilich-Guitar

Ben Ellman- Saxophone

Stanton Moore-drums

David Rebeck-Violin

You don't want to miss this.

This from Johann Sebastian Bach

What if he's right?

"The thorough bass is the most perfect foundation of music. It is played with both hands on a keyboard instrument in such a way that the left hand plays the written notes, while the right hand strikes consonances and dissonances, so that this results in full-sounding Harmonie to the honour of God and the permissable delight of the soul.  The ultimate or final goal of all music, including the thorough-bass shall be nothing but for the honour of God and the renewal of the soul.  Where these factors are not taken into consideration, there is no true music, rather, a devilish bawling and droning."

- J.S. Bach in Precepts and Principles for playing the thorough-bass or accompanying in four parts.

 

More Duchamp

"...I considered painting as a means of expression , not an end in itself. One means of expression among others, and not and not a complete end for life at all; in the same way I consider that color is only a means of expression in painting and not an end. In other words, painting should not be exclusively retinal or visual; it should have to do with the grey matter, with our urge for understanding.  This is generally what I love. I don't want to pin myself down to one little circle, and I tried at least to be as universal as I could."

-M Duchamp

From interview 1956

...this from Marcel Duchamp

"The question of shop windows [therefore]
To undergo the interrogation of shop windows [therefore]
The exigency of the shop window [therefore]
The shop window proof of the outside world [therefore]
When one undergoes the examination of the shop window, one also pronounces one's own sentence.  In fact, one's choice is "round trip."  From the demands of shop windows, from the inevitable response to shop windows, my choice is determined.  No obstinacy, ad absurdum, of hiding the coition through a glass pane with one or many objects of the shop window.  The penalty consists in cutting the pane and in feeling regret as possession is consummated. Q.E.D"

How about a little more Duchamp?

Question d'hygiene intime:
Faut-il mettre la moelle de l'épée dans l poil de l'aimée?

[Question of intimate hygiene:
Should you put the hilt of the foil in the quilt of the goil?]

and

Parmi nos articles de quincaillerie parasseusse, nous recommandons un robinet qui s'arrete de couler quand on ne l'ecoute pas.

[Among our articles of lazy hardware we recommend a faucet which stops dripping when nobody is listening to it.]

How great is Ivo Papasov?!!

Old news about dead opera...

After writing and working on a couple of operas the things that I was seeking to overcome still remained an obstacle.  A production or any presentation is a single item that should be looked after as a whole by all involved no matter what their particular field of excellence.  The tendency for most is to just attempt to do their "job" and if there are things amiss they pass the buck in a few ways that undermine the coherence of a work--at least those that are produced by a multiple number of people.  Often, after they have done their "bit" (acting, singing, playing, directing, or lighting) they neglect other shortfalls they observe as if it wasn't their department.  The mistake is, that in a larger work, the final work, as a whole, is every contributor's department.  Otherwise the work remains in pieces and, the work of each contributor, is looked at as deficient regardless of skill level.

From different backgrounds and diverse training experiences or modes of apprenticeship come different ways of working.  Certain artforms make action in different ways- for example the inner workings of opera singers tends to be different than actors and others from more "straight" theater.  Where there would be benefit from both exchanging, learning, and translating each others methods the default is to recoil into what is easy, and then compete for dominant view in a production.  If dominance isn't obtained then variations of the line, "well...I've done my job." emerge, and a production is on the way to fragmented compromise and egotistical stagnation of he various artisans.

It is like Franklin's revolutionary observation- "We must, indeed, all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately."

Most good theater has a certain air of revolution about it anyway, and this starts early in history.

(Note to hipsters and group musicians: when you perform it is a kind of theater ritual whether you like it or not.  The tendency is to imagine that you have a heady and less pretentious mode of performance...but you don't!  Audiences still respond as if it was a dramatic performance with another kind of content. Poor music performance often hangs on a lack of attention to this.  Muddy Waters's band had a look and a stance on stage where another could have been used, and a lot could be derived and realized from that stance.  So, he projected the real, or similar values even before any music was played.  Archie Shepp wrote for the theater and there is probably much underlying knowledge there that reveals itself in the power of his stance and presentation when he performs.  Arts separation is a bit deadly!)

Perusing Peter Brook's (wish I'd read it sooner) classic, The Empty Space,I came across this passage which even more articulately states the problem.

"Closely related to this is the conflict between theatre directors and musicians in opera productions where two totally different forms, drama and music, are treated as though they were one.  A musician is dealing with a fabric that is as near as man can get to an expression of the invisible.  His score notes this invisibility and his sound is made by instruments which hardly ever change. The player's personality is

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Petite Camusette- Arm in arm into the woods to...sleep?

Josquin; contrapuntalists beware! Rest of us are free to enjoy it within this supremely liberated state of ignorance...

Ligeti on the development of anti-anti-opera, Le Grand Macabre

..."Many things have thus become better playable, too - there are no "utopian" passages anymore."