Starting with the more experienced, Piano Magic is a London-based collective of musicians that has revolved throughout their 12 years of existence. Glen Johnson, Dominic Chenell, and Dick Rance were the original members upon their formation in 1996, though Johnson is the only one currently remaining. He served as the lead songwriter and frontman after Chenell and Rance had left by 1999. Johnson’s leadership steered the group in a more conventional direction, as their first several years saw a higher emphasis on a style of experimental pop music that found difficulty amassing a steady fan base. At this point, the most common comparison was to that of Kraftwerk and other electronically-enabled forms of Krautrock. After Johnson took control and assembled a new lineup though, a more accessible stylistic transition was made to a highly stylized fusion of post-punk and electronic pop that brought on new comparisons to stylistics molders of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s like Joy Division and New Order. Keeping in mind that New Order derived from the demise of Joy Division, the current sound of Piano Magic reminds me most of Electronic, an offshoot of New Order that featured the superduo of Bernard Sumner (Joy Division/New Order) and Johnny Marr (The Smiths). The duo took their fans by storm in 1991 when their classic self-titled debut disclosed an infectious mixture of post-punk and electronica, two styles that Piano Magic implement flawlessly into their sound.

In maintaining their ceaselessly prolific output, Piano Magic released a new EP, Dark Horses, in October. With nine full-lengths, a handful of EPs, and a countless number of singles and collaborations under their belts, the new EP simply attests to the continuous stream of quality that the group successfully strives for. It has been a common practice for Piano Magic to recruit new vocalists for a release, as they even helped convince ‘60s folk artist Vashti Bunyan to commence her recent resurgence by supplying her first vocal recording in over 30 years for Piano Magic’s 2002 album, Writers Without Homes. As a result, I must commend Johnson for being consistent in bringing back the angelic vocals of Angele David-Guillou for Dark Horses. The Klima vocalist and solo performer had previously appeared on Piano Magic’s 2005 album, Disaffected, and contributed immensely to the beautifully melodic sound presented. Within the span of two years from Disaffected to 2007’s Part Monster, their ninth full-length, Johnson also released a solo album and the group embarked on a world tour. Somehow though, they still managed the time to write and record the very enjoyable Dark Horses EP.

Limited to 1000 copies, Dark Horses features four tracks that embody the group’s sound in extremely complementary form. “Vacancies” features an infectiously haunting mixture of jangly guitar riffs, subtle synths pads, and a continuous bass line. David-Guillou’s vocal approach here may remind some of Black Box Recorder’s Sarah Nixey, especially when considering that the backing music is rooted in swift arrangements of whispery synths and jangly guitar progressions. “Dark Horses” is noticeably darker with a predominant rhythm section. Johnson’s eerily satisfying vocals are reminiscent of Robert Forster, and The Go-Betweens comparison does not stop simply at the vocal front. This track encompasses a similar touch of dark industrial-rock with near-spoken-word accompaniments that made the legendary Australian group’s sound so memorable. “Stations” also employs an eerily nocturnal feel, once again complemented by a steady mixture of heavily reverbed post-punk guitar lines and a prominent rhythm section. For those getting first acquainted to Piano Magic, I would recommend checking out either Low Birth Weight or Artists’ Rifles. However, to get a grasp on their current sound, Dark Horses is an impressive effort that solidifies the belief that Johnson and co. are one of the most consistent groups that, for some reason, remain criminally overlooked.

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Piano Magic - Vacancies

Download audio file (pmagic-vac.mp3)

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Piano Magic - Dark Horses

Download audio file (pmagic-dar.mp3)

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Piano Magic - Stations

Download audio file (pmagic-sta.mp3)

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Official Web Site

MySpace

BUY

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As I make the transition from a well-traveled group with dozens of releases and several international tours to their name to a four-piece where not even one member is of legal US drinking age, one must keep in mind the developmental process of a band. Piano Magic alternated their lineups before they became stylistically comfortable, leading to a prolific number of quality releases that any musician would respect. When listening to Braids and noticing their prevalent talent, I can’t help but wonder how they will evolve throughout the coming years together, perhaps both stylistically and personally like Piano Magic. To date, the only change they have made pertains to their name (from The Neighbourhood Council to Braids). Listening to their self-released EP, Set Pieces, though, neither their approach nor make-up would benefit from a change at this point. Whether you are referring to 19-year-olds or 49-year-olds, the material presented here is startlingly innovative enough to captivate audiences whether they have prior knowledge of the band’s teenage status or not. When given Braid’s average age, one may have a tendency to make a generalization in regard to their sound. Generic indie-rock perhaps, as an ode to those conventional pop bands that everyone knows and loves? For our sake, it is quite the contrary. Not only are the able to craft 7+ minute experimental-rock epics with ease, but the ideas, songwriting, and high quality of performance are all aspects that truly define what it means for a new act to strive fearlessly for creativity. After opening for acts like Deerhunter and Times New Viking, it seems as if a few of the most prestigious names in indie-rock feel the same.

Just like Piano Magic, Braids are beginning their young careers ambitiously with a style of experimental rock music that demonstrates their unwillingness to conform to a conventionally appealing, radio-friendly atmosphere. Luckily for them, their approach is within the same realm as adored contemporary artists like Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Atlas Sound, and other staples of indie-rock that have found momentous success through extremely innovative means this past decade. They recorded Set Pieces live at the University of Calgary’s radio station and released it in late June, though fans are just starting to catch on after this month’s release of another EP, Live At CJSW. The opening track on Set Pieces, “Liver and Tan”, is pure 9-minute goodness. A twinkling guitar progression carries the initial strum and a steady rush of percussion eventually increases in complexity and involvement. Light piano chords supplement the onslaught until about a minute in, which is when the piano abruptly replaces the guitar as the leading force. The guitar then reverts to a series of slide patterns, leading the way for each instrumental accompaniment to become involved in equal form.

The major transition point in “Liver and Tan” occurs at 2:15, when a serene break in rhythmic instrumentation commences a three-minute build-up that later introduces several overlapping vocal melodies which brilliantly usher their way in toward the instrumental accompaniment. The vocal delivery sounds like a tribal chant of sorts, and I can’t help but saying that the vocals remind me of what it would sound like if Régine Chassagne (Arcade Fire) attempted to imitate Avey Tare (Animal Collective). There is no real imitation here though for the Calgary natives, as the entirety of Braids’ EP is sprawling with original ideas that lead me to believe that this group is easily one of the most promising out of the already-fledging Montreal music scene. Oh, by the way, check out “Lemonade” on their MySpace. It may be my favorite one yet from this promising four-piece.

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Braids - Liver and Tan

Download audio file (braids-liv.mp3)

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Braids - She Brave Soul

Download audio file (braids-she.mp3)

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Braids - Vendevel

Download audio file (braids-ven.mp3)

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MySpace

Since they self-release their own material, e-mail the band at theneighbourhoodcouncil@gmail.com if you want a copy of either EP.

A third value that underpins our scene, but which is less-frequently discussed, is Virtuosity. New Amsterdam artists do not fit the stereotype of “the virtuoso”; Lang Lang does not appear on our albums, nor are we sending our people into battle for Guitar God supremacy with the Steve Vais of the world - although (as I’ll discuss shortly) we have some incredible guitarists and pianists and, yes, violists on our roster. Despite avoiding these obvious categories, there’s no doubt that the performers of New Amsterdam Records are virtuosos, in various, often idiosyncratic ways. This Interval concert is, in part, an effort to help to define that term for our community.

I’ll begin working toward a definition by talking about the name of the concert: The NEW New Virtuosity. This is, self-evidently, a cumbersome and awkward title. Doesn’t New Amsterdam purport to be an organization that has kept up with current approaches to marketing and style, and don’t I therefore know that many people will find the name to be at best a mouthful, and at worst a pedantic mess? Yes, and yes! It pains me to think that we would be anything but stylish in our nomenclature. But “virtuosity” is too broad a term for us to claim ownership, and simply using the naked word itself would imply a potential overreach: “this is what virtuosity looks like today” is not my claim. There are many ways to be a virtuoso in 2008; some of those ways apply to our community, and those are the ones we’re seeking. I do think that the New Amsterdam version of virtuosity is a new one; certainly, we’re not talking about the same kind of virtuosity that is reflected in the works of, say, Paganini and Liszt, or Vivaldi and Frescobaldi, or even Ravel and Prokofiev. There are similarities - virtuosity has always been about surpassing the imagined limits of performance, and this is the thread that binds our artists to those from the past. As I said, History is an always-present concern for us, so those threads are more than welcome; they are celebrated. But this concert is also a reflection of a different approach to the term - a New Virtuosity.

It is History, then, that demands this level of specificity, distinguishing the present approaches from those that came before, while nodding in the direction of those precursors. And History proves to be even more demanding, as it turns out that the name “The New Virtosity” has been used in at least two prior eras, to describe what was happening in those times. The first appearance, the one that birthed the name, was in the 1960s, with the performers who took it upon themselves to learn new (”extended”) techniques on their instruments and their voices, and who, in so doing, allowed an entire generation of composers to redefine the musical landscape in their notated pieces. The name came back in the 1980s, surfacing in a much more haphazard fashion, and centered mainly around the Downtown scene that further expanded the sonic palette; this generation largely distinguished itself from the prior one through the use of electronics, but also (quite significantly) in the rise of composer-performers who created their own, idiosyncratic languages for both composition and performance.

This Interval concert, and the New Amsterdam style of Virtuosity more generally, encompasses both of those “New Virtuosity” traditions. Nadia Sirota is a violist who can, quite literally, “play anything”; from a purely technical standpoint, she is one of those rare musicians who sets the standard for possibility in what she can or cannot do. Part of that standard-setting comes from a simple willingness to make the effort, to never reject what is asked before seeing if it can be done, and putting in significant effort to make it so. Nadia is not a composer herself, but she reaches out and challenges her composer friends to broaden the repertoire for her instrument, both in the sense of writing new viola pieces, and in the sense of having those pieces bring something truly new to the table. I’ll look forward to reading Nadia’s discussion of the pieces themselves in her blog entry, but suffice it to say for now: I believe that Nico, Marcos and I have risen to that challenge. In my case, I have offered Escape to quite a few violists who have eagerly asked to see the score, having heard Nadia’s live performances, but no one has yet stepped up to the challenge besides Nadia herself. I say that not to criticize those violists (at all!) but merely to let the anecdote suggest the difficulty of the work.

Nadia therefore represents, in her own way, a continuation of the earlier, 1960s thread of “New Virtuosity”: she is a non-composing performer who broadens the possibilities of her instrument through collaboration with composers. Andrew McKenna Lee, on the other hand, is equally skilled as a guitarist and a composer; in both these capacities, his work is a reflection of his varied and passionate influences, most notably Baroque music and Classic Rock. Andrew’s virtuosity comes through as a guitarist in his own music (though his performances of Bach are stunning in their own right) - the pieces he writes are specially and specifically crafted for Andrew, The Instrument, and he makes them feel less like written compositions than like free improvisations that somehow yield works with immaculate form and multi-layered detail across their span. Andrew has developed his own technique on the acoustic and electric guitars, broadening the possibilities of the instruments through composing for them. In that sense, he represents a continuation of the later thread of “New Virtuosity”.

In the ways I’ve discussed, Nadia and Andrew are connected to earlier conceptions of “New Virtuosity”, Andrew through writing compositions for himself to play, and Nadia through her close collaborations with peer composers. But this is not the end of the story. Both Nadia and Andrew, and the many other virtuosic performers in the New Amsterdam community and beyond, reflect a genuinely new development in our generation of classically-trained musicians. As with earlier generations, our technical training, as composers and performers, has continued to be heavily weighted toward the music of the past. What has changed, I believe, is the relationship between classical and non-classical musics, and the internalized relationship that performers must have with the wider world of music in our time. Put in another way, Virtuosity in the early 21st century is not only about the expansion of technique in the realm of the Classical, but is also about the ability of performers to negotiate the contemporary sound of a polyglot world, reflected in the compositions of younger composers working today.

To understand this Virtuosity, it’s necessary to understand the context for contemporary composition and performance. To pick an example for examination, much has been of the iPod, and specifically, its “Shuffle” feature, wherein one can allow the random impulses of the machine to move, scattershot, around one’s musical collection. While cultural critics continue to be fascinated by the boundary-breaking mythology of the Shuffle function, seeing it as a revolutionary Tool of Progress that liberates music from genre, those of us who actually make music in the world recognize that the “liberation” they reference was itself a precursor to the technological innovation, not a result of it. In other words, young people like using Shuffle because they already reject rigid genre distinctions, not the other way around. In the indie classical scene, genre is still a presence, but only in terms of its practical implications - will a piece be amplified? Will it be played in a club, or in a concert hall? What kind of musician is needed to pull off a performance of a given work - do they have to be able to read music, for example? And are these “works”, at all, or is the creative process more collaborative, as in a traditional rock band format, among countless others? These are very real questions that imply genre, but the genre distinctions themselves are not the defining and controlling influence that they were in earlier eras.

For younger composers working in this environment, ours is not an era of “influence upon” but, rather, is one of “incorporation into“; the chocolate chips, as it were, have been melted into the cookie batter. Unless we want them to still be chips - in which case, it’s a deliberate choice to leave them there! What this implies, for performers working in our community, is that their Virtuosity needs to extend to the realm of musical awareness and understanding. They must be flexible and adaptable enough to understand the “feel” of a given passage that finds its roots in one of any number of other musics - much like a classical piano virtuoso must know what “dolce“ means in Chopin, versus what it means in Brahms, and so on. If those distinctions, between composers from a similar era, represent an X axis of interpretive depth, and if the distinctions between different eras of composition - Baroque, Classical, Romantic, and so on - represent the Y axis, then today’s Virtuosos must also understand the Z axis, wherein the boundaries across genre and geography are similarly transcended. For Andrew, this process happens seamlessly, as he is a composer who has digested his influences and incorporated them into his own unique and powerful voice. For Nadia, the process of learning new styles and approaches happens through her introduction to new compositional voices; she is like a sponge for styles that are new to her, and has the ability to quickly and seamlessly reproduce those new concepts to which she is introduced. In these ways, Nadia and Andrew represent a New, New Virtuosity, an extension of what has come before, and a reflection of the musical moment in which we live.

With all the live material which has been made available from Yes over the years in various formats the obvious choice remains 1973`s unquantifiable Yessongs. If one wants to know how the band had matured over roughly 18 year period since it`s release then House Of Yes is arguably the obvious choice. Immaculately produced from one of performances at the The House of Blues in Las Vegas during the 1999 Ladder tour it contains a suprisingly well selected set-list which encompasses their entire career up to that point. It even includes a rendition of the Owner Of A Lonely Heart from the Rabin era which makes it even more attractive for fans of Yes` 1980s pop phase, although long-time afficiados might wince at a couple of cut-down oldies which are nothing more than teases, shaking their heads wondering why they bothered to include them in the first place. Nonetheless, relatively complete versions of the other tracks more than adequately atone for this minor atrocity.

What really gives this album sustenance & colour are newcomer Igor Koroshev`s well tempered keyboards. His stylings, although attempting to capture the essence of predecessor Rick Wakeman, are more lush and fluid unlike Wakeman`s harsher right hand attacks which were much more in tune with the pomp & circumstance of the Yes of the early seventies. As a result a more liquefied flow is attained by the band as a whole here and breaths of new life are fluxed into older tracks such as I`ve Seen All Good People and Yours Is No Disgrace which give the band more unity than on previous live recordings. Chris Squire`s usually loud bass fits better into the equation here which is toned down a notch while Howe just breezes through the entire set as if he just stepped out of a time machine from 1973. A couple of thouroughly enjoyable highlights are the refreshing Lightning Strikes and The Messenger where the band steps slightly out of character rocking it out with samba and reggae rhythms adding a new dimension and radiance to this version of Yes. The extended 17 minute epic Awaken in all it`s splendour recalls the glory days of art rock concerts in the seventies. In addition to being a worthy successor to Close To The Edge it also serves as a testament to the fact that Yes were one of the few bands, if not the only one, who could pull off a marvel like this on the eve of the 21st century in a venue such as the House Of Blues. Naturally the almost compulsory Roundabout appears as the last encore but is given a soecial House Of The Blues treatment!

Adorned with Roger Dean artwork which has about as little to do with the recording as Yes has to do with the blues, the performances on House Of Yes are very mature, animated and refined and represent Yes in top form as they enter their third decade.

by Vibrationbaby


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Thursday morning I talked with composer Terry Riley, who is in New York this week to collaborate with the Bang on a Can All-Stars in the US premiere of his work Autodreamographical Tales at Le Poisson Rouge on 8 November.

Riley is famous for being one of the “Big Four” of American minimalist composers (the others: LaMonte Young, Steve Reich, and Philip Glass). But while his early works, such as A Rainbow in Curved Air, Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band, and the seminal In C, were musical rallying cries during minimalism’s ascendance in the 1960s, Riley’s been involved with many other important pieces, styles, and activities since then. His palette encompasses North Indian music, jazz, electronics, various intonation systems, and increasingly in recent years, projects incorporating guitar and spoken word.

As an admirer of his music, it’s somewhat frustrating to read review after review in which he’s asked to talk about the importance of In C and his work is then pigeon-holed as minimalist in style. In planning for the interview, I promised myself that both minimalism and In C would be off-limits. When the composer mentions in passing an upcoming performance of In C (April 24, 2009 at Carnegie Hall, but you didn’t hear that from me), I tell him of my secret pact and he enthusiastically agrees! Instead, we focus on recent, current and future projects.

Riley says, “Autodreamographical Tales started out a while ago as a piece for radio in which I narrated and played all the instruments. There were overdubs and samples. The Bang on a Can All Stars wanted me to create a new version of the piece to perform with them. My son Gyan, who’s also a guitarist and composer, helped me to orchestrate the piece. While there are still a few samples, we’ve figured out how to perform live many of the things that were looped or overdubbed.”

“The piece is based on a dream journal that I was keeping at the time. Some of my dreams had evocative images and stories that I felt would work well in the piece for radio and, now, in this new version for Bang on a Can. We got together and rehearsed it this past summer during a week-long residency in Italy. A performance there was the world premiere and this one in New York is Autodreamographical Tales’ second performance.”

Riley also spent time this past summer in New England at Bang on a Can’s Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA. “It was an inspiring setting: a number of talented composers and performers, the galleries, and so many excellent concerts.”

We return to the subject of his son, a talented musician in his own right who encouraged the elder Riley to explore composing for the guitar. “Gyan came home with all of these recordings of the guitar: he was just crazy about it and wanted to share his enthusiasm with me. We listened to all sorts of players, especially classical and Brazilian artists.”

During the past two decades, Riley has created a number of works for the instrument, including the solo collection Book of Abbeyozzud and Cantos Desiertos: a beautiful set of pieces for flute and guitar. When I comment that Riley has managed to combine expected, idiomatic passages with some very fresh-sounding guitar writing, he replies, “It was challenging to write for the guitar as a non-guitarist. I really worked hard to learn about the instrument: there’s a lot to know in order to compose effectively for it.”

New music guitarist David Tanenbaum, Gyan’s principal instructor, has also been the beneficiary of several recent works for the instrument, including a 2008 piece for national steel and synthesizer entitled Moonshine Sonata. Riley says, “The national steel for which I wrote the sonata is a special model, redesigned so that it’s tuned in just intonation. The company that made the instrument for David loaned me one while I was composing the piece; it’s amazing how resonant, how loud it is all by itself – it doesn’t need amplification!”

Tanenbaum and Gyan Riley, along with violinist Krista Bennion Feeney, premiered another 2008 Riley work: the Triple Concerto Soltierraluna. The concerto form is one to which Riley is drawn of late: a project in the pipeline is a violin concerto commissioned by a symphony orchestra in Bari, Italy for soloist Francesco D’Orazio. “I don’t approach the concerto form in the conventional manner, as this heroic thing; I like to find ways to integrate the soloist into the ensemble; to foster interactions between them that you don’t get in the big Classical or Romantic pieces. In a sense, what I’m writing is more akin to the concerto grosso form.”

Since the 1970s, Riley has frequently collaborated with the Kronos Quartet, producing a number of pieces for them. He’s currently at work on another, titled Poppy Nogood and the Transylvanian Horns. The title refers to one of Riley’s best known early works, Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band; but this successor also includes the Kronos group playing some newly adopted instruments. The “Transylvanian horns” in question are called “stro instruments:” string instruments fitted with trumpet or trombone bells. The composer seems to relish the challenge of learning about and composing for these hybrid instruments. Even when called upon to revisit ideas from his past, Terry Riley is ever eager to try something new.

The Swiss Movement is a live album recorded on June 21, 1969 at The Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland. The Les McCann trio, Eddie Harris, and Benny Bailey came together to record one of the better live jazz albums of the era. Even though the band played at a very high level, both Eddie Harris and Benny Bailey say that they were unprepared because they had not had rehearsals. "I didn't know any of the tunes, and there was no rehearsal. They had to call out the changes for me." said Benny Bailey. Eddie Harris was also unprepared and said this: "I told Les just to play his normal stuff with the Trio, and I would look over his shoulder to check the chords- because I used to be a piano player." One of the albums biggest songs was "Compared to What" which spoke out against the Vietnam War, other songs like "You Got it in Your Soulness" and "Cold Duck Time" featured explosive solos from McCann, Bailey, and Harris. The hit song "Compared to What" quickly grew in popularity, especially among the young African Americans integrating college campuses thanks to the civil rights movement. The song's themes are relevant today with their focus on an unwanted war, racism and poverty. Elders in the civil rights movement and African American community, however, were often offended by elements of the song and seldom fans of the piece.

Eddie Harris was born October 20, 1934 in Chicago, Illinois. He began his career as a singer in various Baptist churches throughout Chicago. Around the age of three, Eddie’s cousin, Bernice Benson, who played piano at Eddie’s mother’s church, began teaching him how to play the piano where he learned how to play by ear and eventually learned to read music.

Eddie Harris’ educational background began at the John Farren and Burke Elementary schools. He later attended DuSable and Hyde Park High Schools in Chicago. Eddie Harris first started playing the vibraphone while attending DuSable High School under the guidance of a well-known and influential Black leader, Captain Walter Dyette. Capt. Dyette was responsible for the development of several Jazz musicians who came out of Chicago during the 1940’s, 1950’s and the early 1960’s. Capt. Walter Dyette passed away in the mid 1970’s.

Eddie Harris always wanted to play the saxophone simply because he admired the way it looked. But in order to play saxophone for Capt. Dyette one had to play the clarinet first, so Eddie’s first wind instrument was the clarinet. Eddie took private clarinet and saxophone lessons for many years and then began his saxophone career playing with all types of bands.

After graduation from high school, Eddie Harris continued his musical studies at Illinois University and Roosevelt University. Eventually, he was drafted into the Army, at which time he was placed in the area of electronics. He later went airborne and soon became disgusted with seeing many of the soldiers being injured. He auditioned for the Army band. By this time, Eddie could play the piano, saxophone, vibraphone, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, and the bassoon. He took the Army’s music exam and out of a possible score of 100 where he was tested on reading music, ear training, written phrases and command of the instrument, Eddie received a score of 98. His score was so high that it was recommended that he play in the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra in Germany. The symphony was unable to take on any additional band members at that time, so Eddie was placed in the Army band in Fulda, Germany for eight months. Subsequently, Eddie became a member of the Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra and he became part of the Jazz band that was formed from the orchestra and was able to tour France and Germany. As a result, Eddie became internationally known. He also took classical saxophone lessons at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Upon his return to the United States after leaving the armed services, Eddie began living and playing in New York City. He worked consistently with Pit Bands, Jazz Bands and combos as well as playing piano.

Due to an illness in his family, Eddie returned to Chicago, Illinois and eventually met and married Sara Elizabeth and they had two daughters - Lolita and Yvonne. Eddie has always been known for his experiments with the tenor saxophone. For example, he used to play the tenor saxophone with a trombone mouthpiece and called it the Saxobone. In later years, he began using a clarinet, double barrel joint in between the neck and the instrument. The tenor sax was made to sound like a bass clarinet. He then began playing saxophone with a bassoon boccel instead of the tenor sax neck. He recorded with these sounds on his album entitled, A Study in Jazz on Vee Jay Records. The main purpose with the boccel substitution was to make the tenor sax sound like a bassoon. He could make all these sounds with only a few spare parts along with the tenor saxophone.

Another one of Eddie’s creations and most popular was the reed mouthpiece. He holds the U.S. patent for the reed mouthpiece for the trumpet, coronet, trombone and flugelhorn. Eddie Harris was the first musician to create the Electro Voice and Selmer Saxophone creation for all saxophones and the attachment was called, The Varitone which was designed in order to play along with the sound of the saxophone a sub octave plus a filter that could change the timbre of the tone. Eddie later signed onto the Chicago Musical Instrument Company, also known as Noreland. He introduced their new unit called the W2, a filtering unit for the saxophone and the clarinet that emulated the organ stops. He then went with a company called Innovex, a division of Hammond Organ that created a unit called the Condour. This unit was similar to the W2 but had more tabs and a modern circuitry. Eddie began advertising for a company called Frapp which had one of the most sophisticated audio pickups for wind instruments. Eddie developed The Eddie Harris Attachment, a wind synthesizer housing four oscillators that enable any sax player to play in five (5) part harmony as in a reed section of a big band. Eddie played on a Selmar sax, a Mark VI with a Selmar mouthpiece called a C start with a Selmar reed size number three (# 3). Eddie encompasses the use of his genius ability of the reed trumpet, tenor sax and the Eddie Harris Attachment on the CD entitled, Eddie Harris Quartet Steps Up on the track Freedom Jazz Dance. Eddie Harris was a man immersed in music as a composer, bandleader, performer, writer, innovator, inventor, and social critic.

It was during the 1960’s that Vee Jay Records asked Eddie to record for their label, but they wanted Eddie to play piano. After some discussion, it was agreed that Eddie would record half the album playing piano and the other half playing saxophone.

Eddie made his first major recording under his own name with Vee Jay Records in 1961. One of the tunes made on his first album was entitled, Exodus to Jazz. This composition was entitled, Exodus from the motion picture of the same title. The song was first released on a 45 rpm and sold well over a million copies which placed him at Gold Status. After two years, Eddie left Vee Jay Records and began recording for Columbia Records and then Atlantic Records. He recorded on Atlantic Records for over a decade.

Eddie recorded Listen Here (a hit which coined Eddie, The Electrifying Eddie Harris) and composed the jazz tune, Freedom Jazz Dance which became a standard modern work recorded by Miles Davis and 53 other artists. He is noted for a very successful partnership with pianist Les McCann in the late 60’s; a union which produced the Atlantic LP Swiss Movement - another million seller in 1969. In 1970, this record awarded Eddie and Les a Grammy nomination at the 13th Annual GRAMMY Awards for the category of Best Jazz Performance/Small Group or Soloist with Small Group. Eddie performed throughout the world at several domestic and international venues, concert halls, NBA games, and festivals. Some of his most notable festival performances are: The Montreaux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, Soul to Soul in West Africa, The North Sea Jazz Festival in the Netherlands and The Playboy and Monterey Festivals in California.

Although Eddie played and experimented with several instruments, his primary and by far most proficient instrument was the tenor saxophone. Eddie Harris, the saxophonist, is the exploration in self-study. He describes his sound as a soft sound. Some call it the Stan Getz School, but it’s really the Lester Young School. Eddie plays this type of sound so he can skip over the horn faster, in which he sacrifices volume for speed. According to Eddie, “cats can play loud like Gene Ammons and Sonny Rollins but don’t play as fast as Sonny Stitt. When anyone else plays fast, they get softer because they can’t maintain volume going that fast.”

In later years, Eddie began singing due to the restrictions he faced playing the saxophone on funk tunes. “I would play more saxophone, but I realized the fact that if I played more saxophone I’d have to play a lot more Listen Here, and that was limiting my saxophone playing, so I figured that a way that I didn’t have to play so much funk on the saxophone was to start singing.” Vocal recordings for Eddie represented pragmatism rather than fashion and provided both latitude and fulfillment for him as a jazz instrumentalist.

As a composer and performer, Eddie is not limited to any of the musical vehicles within his grasp. He is most closely identified by the public and music critics in the funk-fusion genre – identification not without benefits. One such benefit has been access to the mass audience. A second product of the funk label, not necessarily a benefit, has been the problem of stereotyping and categorization. His reputation as a funk player has narrowed the public and music industry’s view of him. As a result, in the mid-1970s, Eddie worked consistently, but he did not have access to many of the prestigious and profitable musical outlets (concerts, tours, etc.) his situation did not embitter Eddie, but has made him an astute businessman and musician and in turn, allowed him to concentrate more on his music.

Part of understanding Eddie Harris, THE MUSICIAN, is understanding, Eddie Harris, THE MAN. One characteristic of Eddie the man is his dislike for cliques and fads. “I’m not hung up with fads, for the simple reason that they stunt my growth.”

This love for individuality is apparent in Eddie Harris’ music and in whom he cites as influences. “I call it inspiration,” and “I like to hear anybody that is individualistic especially if they are individualistic minded. You can hear it come out in their playing…Monk, Miles, Mingus, Duke, Sun Ra, Tristano, Kool and The Gang, Sly, Bartok, Scheonberg… anything that people do that is unique and different.”

Eddie Harris is much more than the funk player and humorist that he is often presented as. His musical and intellectual interests and capabilities are broad and he seems guided by one consistent force which is HONESTY. After talking with him briefly or listening to one of his live performances, his sincerity and honesty are easy to detect.

In the course of recording more than 70 albums and CD’s, and the author of seven (7) music books, Eddie has displayed himself as a jazz artist who has played blues, rock, jazz fusion, straight-ahead, soul and funk grooves. Eddie’s pioneering work in musical electronics and the effective conjunction of different elements of blues, rhythm and blues, jazz and funk has had widespread influence of what is generally considered today’s music. Eddie’s music has been sampled by over 30 artists including: Macy Gray, Jamiroquai, DJ Jazz Jeff, Heavy D and the Fresh Prince.

Eddie was by far and foremost a great musician and a great human being. He was a master of his talents and a wonderful family man. His demise in November 1996 was a tragedy to his family and fans. His contributions to the music world will always be appreciated, recognized, and remembered. Eddie is survived by his wife Sara and their two daughters.

This is the first review I have written on progarchives after many happy months of browsing and researching, and listening to the products of its great catalog of artists and albums. Amarok by Mike Oldfield was the sudden impetus of what I felt was a necessity: to herald the 1:00:02 of absolute bliss this record has recently condoned upon my now-shattered brain.

As dedicated proggers, it is our desire and responsibility to be constantly searching for the next best thing in progressive music. For those who have already explored the depths of Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, Van der Graaf, and the like, I implore you to listen to Mike Oldfield--particularly his albums Ommadawn and Amarok, the latter being the supposed quasi-sequel to Ommadawn, produced 15 years down the road.

This album encompasses thousands of layered parts, hundreds of melodies, tens of genres, and a colossal army of instruments and noise-making devices (almost all of them played by Oldfield himself). That alone should spur you to give this album a listen...if that's not enough, I will say that listening to this album is LITERALLY like taking a life journey, after which you come away a changed person.

It wouldn't be worthwhile to get into the specifics of the album as there is WAY too much going on. The only comparison I can draw is to say this album is like Ommadawn plus a lot of African choir and ambient/new age influences, but don't let these shy you away from what is the album's inherently progressive nature. The characteristic Mike Oldfield searing guitars, groovy riffs, ridiculous ethnic instruments, and top-notch composition--it's all there and more! Plus an epic ending to rival all epic endings...

Like any great prog masterpiece, you have to listen to it multiple times to even begin to appreciate its beauty and complexity. As a standalone hour-long track, this demands a lot of the listener. However, the rewards are great! Mike Oldfield is a true genius of progressive music (at least from the select albums I've heard), and it's a shame that it took me this long to find him!

Happy?

by fragilelambtongues


OLDFIELD, MIKE Music Online:
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Jennifer and her sister Julia have established a new foundation in the honor of their recently deceased family members to help others suffering sorrow.

The Hudson-King Foundation for Families of Slain Victims will provide assistance to families who have lost relatives to a violent crime. The aid will encompass basic needs like food, clothing and shelter, as well as grief counseling.

“The specific purpose of the Foundation is to care for the needs of families who have lost relatives to a violent crime,” the family says in a statement. “This encompasses their basic needs of food, clothing and shelter as well as grief counseling.”

Donations to the Hudson-King Foundation can be sent:
c/o Abrams Garfinkel Margolis Bergson, LLP
Attn: William L. Abrams, Esq.
237 West 35th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10001

Amos Lee is in need of more love. Been checking different posts here on MOG and I’m finding them wanting.

I’ve been listening to his latest release "Last days at the lodge" for a while now and quite frankly, I have been impressed with what I’ve been hearing. So perhaps I have an uncultured ear?  You tell me.

His musical style encompasses folk, soul, and jazz and a smattering of blues.. Now, there’s a mix for you.  He has released three albums on Blue Note Records, Amos Lee, Supply and Demand and Last Days at the Lodge. He has been on tour with musicians such as Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Norah Jones, Paul Simon, and Merle Haggard. Lee performs with drummer Fred Berman and bassist Jaron Olevsky. Some of his musical influences include Stevie Wonder, John Prine, Bill Withers, and James Taylor.

From the Wik:

Born in 1978, Lee grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He graduated from Cherry Hill High School East. He enrolled at the University of South Carolina in 1995, graduating with an English degree. While attending the university, Lee’s stepfather gave him an acoustic guitar. Lee also found a job at a record store that specialized in jazz musicians, where he picked up an affinity for Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis. After college, he moved back to Philadelphia and taught elementary school for two years, but later made the decision to stop teaching in order to pursue a career in music. Lee released a self-produced EP that featured five songs in 2003, and was signed by Blue Note Records soon afterward. The EP sold well in Philadelphia, catching the attention of Norah Jones. Jones invited Lee to open for her on her 2004 tour. Lee has also taken part in shows with Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Paul Simon and John Prine.