NEARFEST 2009 Part One: Progressing into Yesterday, Steve Hillage and Van Der Graaf Generator NEARFEST, the North East Art Rock Festival, took place this past weekend and as is the custom of this 11-year-old institution, it was a mix of progressive rockers old and new. Today, Pt 1 of The Old Guard There is a…
Category: Reviews & Commentary
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Matthew Schoening’s Looped Cellos
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20090624.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSEchoes finds a lapsed classical cellist who is looped. You can hear an audio version of this blog with Matthew Schoening‘s music here. Just like Nathaniel Ayres, the homeless cellist at the center of the film, The Soloist, Matthew Schoening was a cellist, in Los Angeles, without a…
Reviews & Commentary
Ali Akbar Khan Plucks His Last String
Echoes remembers Ali Akbar Khan (April 14,1922-June 19, 2009) Ali Akbar Khan is one of the only Indian musicians whose name is spoken in the same breathe as Ravi Shankar. He plays the Indian stringed instrument called the sarod and since his American debut in 1955 playing duets with classical violinist Yehudi Menuhin, he’s been…
Reviews & Commentary
Charlie Mariano-From Bop to Fusion to India to Gone
Saxophonist Charlie Mariano passed at 86 on June 16, 2009 Charlie Mariano was a second tier bop saxophonist with a biting, post-Charlie Parker sound who later showed the influence of John Coltrane and became enthralled with eastern music. In addition to his saxophones, he started playing an obscure, oboe-like instrument from India called the nagaswarum. …
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: John Luther Adams
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20090617.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS Echoes from the Alaskan Tundra: John Luther Adams You can hear an audio version of this blog with music here Imagine a place where music changes according to time of day, geomagnetic activity, aurora shimmers, the path of the sun and moon through the sky and seismic…
Reviews & Commentary
Bill Frisell, Odean Pope and Sunny Murray: Opposites Distract
Bill Frisell, Odean Pope & Sunny Murray Live There was a study in opposites that should have been studies in confluence this weekend. Two shows of jazz adventurers tried to grace Philadelphia. One of them succeeded. On Sunday Night, June 14, 2009, Bill Frisell’s long time, road-tested trio of bassist Tony Scherr and drummer Kenny…
Reviews & Commentary
Echoes Top Ten Mellotron Albums
Echoes will run an interview with film director Dianna Dilworth about her movie Mellodrama: The Story of the Mellotron On Tuesday, June 16 . It documents the history of the Mellotron and it’s forerunner, the Chamberlin. I was starting to write a blog about it along with my 10 favorite Mellotron albums when I realized,…
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Inbar Bakal’s Sensual Psalms
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20090610.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSSAn Israeli singer turns Hebrew text into sensual electronica on Echoes. You can hear an audio version of this blog with Inbar Bakal’s music here. Israeli vocalist Inbar Bakal thought she’d become a pop singer and in 2003 she moved to Los Angeles with that goal in mind.…
Reviews & Commentary
Hugh Hopper R.I.P.: Soft Machine’s Soul
Hugh Hopper 1945-2009 The name Hugh Hopper probably wasn’t well known outside of the most progressive of progressive rock circles. As a member of The Wilde Flowers and then Soft Machine, he was one of the principal architects of the “Canterbury Sound” in progressive rock, which included Caravan, Hatfield and the North, Gong . The…
Reviews & Commentary
Echo Location: Mono
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
http://media.blubrry.com/echoespodcast/www.xpn.org/podcasts/echoes/echoes20090603.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: RSS Japanese post-rockers Mono, attain symphonic dimensions. You can hear an audio version of this blog with Mono’s music. Most composers would take offense if the orchestra playing their music was wearing ear plugs. That was the case with the Wordless Music Orchestra when they performed with the…