The 23 Constellations of Joan Miro

I came across this interesting archive from a recent concert, from the WNYC New Sounds Live Concert Series, and may be a great introduction to the music of Bobby Previte.

From the New Sounds Live Concert Series, recorded in October at the World Financial Center's Winter Garden, hear the American premiere of Bobby Previte's set of musical miniatures - "The 23 Constellations of Joan Miro." It's an ambitious and colorful work by the composer/drummer Previte, where painting, poetry and music all come together, bringing to life a series of small canvases that Joan Miro painted during World War II. Listen to Joan Miro's texts, read by actor David Patrick Kelly, and Bobby Previte's musical responses the paintings.

Ruth is Be-Bop

I don't expect you to watch a 9 minute video, but check out the first minute, and the amazing Ruth Underwood at 4:20-5:30

Beat Circus on WERS

A bit late notice, buttomorrow one of my favorite bands in the world, Beat Circus, are going to play a live set on Emerson College radio, WERS. Sad to say, I found myself never tuning in once the station went to their new programming a few years ago, but I am happy to say I'll be tuning in at 1pm tomorrow (4/1/09) for a live set from Beat Circus!

So, please, have a listen at 1pm on Wednesday, 4/1/09! On the FM dial, it's frequency 88.9. To stream go here and look in the top left for your favorite method. And if you like, go see them at TT the Bear's on the 29th of April.

From www.beatcircus.net
Beat Circus was formed in 2002 in Boston, Massachusetts by singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Brian Carpenter, who has been its only constant member since its inception. In 2005 Carpenter began a radical shift in direction resulting in the recording of Dreamland, the first part of Carpenter's Weird American Gothic trilogy, with legendary NY producer Martin Bisi. Filled with dark narrative songs and loosely based on historical events associated with turn-of-the-century New York, Dreamland was the culmination of a two-year effort by Beat Circus. In Summer 2007 Brian Carpenter debuted the third incarnation of Beat Circus with a new concept and sound to develop the second part of the trilogy, Boy From Black Mountain, personal songs about family and fatherhood in the tradition of Southern Gospel songwriters and Southern Gothic literature.

Nettled

Last Saturday’s Nettle show at Brandeis was a night that will be difficult to forget. After a listening to an interesting pre-concert talk, we had an opportunity take a look at the art in the Rose Museum. Impressive! There was a Hans Hofmann installation, as well as an installation of paintings named "Masters of Reality"---so good.

For the show, we were fortunate enough to be sitting right in the middle, in the front row-- which put us on the same level as the musicians, basically 10 or 15 feet away. The concert was held in a recital hall with approximately a 250 seat capacity, and great acoustics. The musicians played together beautifully, merging a vast combination of sounds, textures, and feelings. Besides supplying beats and other electronic effects, DJ/ Rupture also provided some real-time manipulation of some of his colleagues’ sounds, which was an exciting element. There were also some amazing moments of video complimenting audio, adjustments and directions given in real time to compliment the music. You can read a longer review here.

The Performers:
DJ/ Rupture – electronics
Abdelhak Rahal – Violin and Banjo
Khalid Bennaji – guembri, vocals
Brent Arnold – Cello
Grey Filastine - Percussion
Daniel Perlin - Video

The concert was captured on video by a guy to the right of us, and hopefully that will become available for the public to watch at some point. Thanks to the folks that went through the many efforts to make this amazing concert happen. It was definitely one of a kind!

Nettle live @ Brandeis

A heads-up to the heads in the Boston/Providence area-----this Saturday, March 21st, Brandeis University and MusicUnitesUS will be hosting the US premiere of Nettle. I have not been this excited for a show in a long time! I can't say enough great things about the music of Nettle, and DJ/ Rupture, so rather than me ramble on, I'd like to point you to a few true words that others have said---definitely offer more substance than I can provide...one of them being Wayne Marshall, who is currently the Florence Levy Kay Fellow in Ethnomusicology at Brandeis, and the author of a blog that I check out.


http://wayneandwax.com/?p=1261

http://www.musicunitesus.info/nettle.html

Here's a vid of a live performance of Nettle.


Both of their albums are on the Agriculture, and can be purchased through shops linked at their website.

Tickets to the show at Brandeis can be purchased here.

Morgan Packard and Joshua Ott @ Mutek 2008

Badun Live at Jazzjuice 07

Badun's website is dope. To play a clip from one of their live shows in 07, click here . To download it, right click and do click 'save target as'.

Mermen Live at Center Camp on 2004-09-05

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I woke up from the desert floor hearing the beginning of this exact show. That year the G Spot was very close to center camp, so we rubbed our eyes and walked across the street to catch the rest of the show. In a very busy week filled with fun, chaos, and electronic music, it was nice to catch this live instrumental set. Plus, there's something cool about the juxtaposition of psychedelic surf music on a dried up desert mountain lakebed.

Club D'Elf @ AS220 Providence

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Club d’Elf is a band that plays regularly at the Lizard Lounge, in Cambridge. While they fly under the radar of most heads, they are pretty well known within circles of improvising musicians. Many well known artists have sat down to play with them over the years: John Medeski, Marc Ribot, Dave Tronzo, DJ Logic, David Fuiczynski, Mark Sandman, Danny Blume, Steven Bernstein, Kenwood Dennard, Oren Bloedow, and Mister Rourke, to name a few.

While Cambridge is their stomping grounds, they are gradually taking over the universe with their funk, heavy rhythms, and psychedelic improvisations. One of their recent conquests was a show at an art space in Providence, AS220 .