Jerry Douglas- Little Medely

From Transatlantic Sessions 3:

If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger....

One of my favorite blog discoveries of late is a collection of images archived by the fine people at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger There'd Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats. The images are primarily from the past with a heavy emphasis on the 20's through the 60's. Everything is here: celebrities, pulp novel covers, musicians, artists, political figures, pinups, advertisements, famous criminals, images of new york, interesting artifacts from quirky news stories. The archive is well organized and is updated daily. A true visual feast.

John Zorn's Masada live in Poland 1999

Joey Baron has to be one of the most enjoyable drummers to watch. I remember seeing pieces from the Masada books performed in Minneapolis with the same quartet in this video (though it was some 4 or 5 years later) and being absolutely transfixed by how much fun Baron seemed to be having while using rhythm and texture as highly expressive elements of the music. The other players ain't to shabby either :)... Dave Douglas on trumpet, Greg Cohen on bass, and Mr. Zorn on sax.

Pierre Boulez on listening

Its been a tremendous amount of time since the last post. Life has been busy which hasn't allowed for too much internet play time. I'm back to it again and I have some wonderful things to share so expect posts a little more often now.

"Just listen with the vastness of the world in mind. You can't fail to get the message."
--- Pierre Boulez

Fred Frith- workshop on extended guitar techniques

Seminal guitarist Fred Frith (Henry Cow, Art Bears, Skeleton Crew, Massacre) gives a seminar on guitar techniques at the 2007 Output Festival a three day event that occurred in Amsterdam in celebration of the electric guitar in composed music.

Iannis Xenakis on electronic composition

"With the aid of electronic computers, the composer becomes a sort of pilot: pressing buttons, introducing coordinates and supervising the controls of a cosmic vessel sailing in the space of sound, across sonic constellations and galaxies that could formerly be glimpsed only in a distant dream."

-Iannis Xenakis, Formalised Music, 1971

Andres Segovia- Song of the Guitar

murder for a jar of red rum

When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in a rather scornful tone,' it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less.'

'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.'

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master - that's all.'

Through the Looking Glass Project Gutenburg online text

Don't move.
Just die over and over.

Don't anticipate.
Nothing can save you now because you have only this moment.
Not even enlightenment will help you now because there are no other moments.

With no future, be true to yourself and express yourself fully.
Don't move.

-Shunryu Suzuki

Os Mutantes - Panis Et Circenses

It summer time which means listening to lots of Afro-Cuban jazz, Afro-funk, Cuban, and Brazilian music as well as old acoustic blues and country for those less pounding get up, get up, and get out moments. Os Mutantes are one of those bands that no one was aware of, then everyone seemed to be aware of, and now.. I don't know anymore, but they have some staying power for me as summer after summer I return to their music. In that spirit, here is a 1969 video for "Panis Et Circus" (english: bread and circuses). Below is a translation of the lyrics. Don't really know who did the translation but the topic is poignant for todays political climate even if the language seems a bit garbled. The translation could well be babblefish:

I'd like to sing
The music lighted with the heat of the sun
I drew the flags high on the slip of the wind
I sent the lions to my neighbours' backyard

But all the people having dinner inside
Are very busy with their food
'Til they die

I told the man
To make of stainless steel a very sharp sword
To kill my girlfriend on the heart and I did
At five o'clock at that central liebe stop

But all the people having dinner inside
Are very busy with their food
'Til they die

I told the man
To sew the seeds of dream in my bedroom floor
The leaves will know their way to reach out the sun
And their roots keep just going down, going down

But all the people having dinner inside
That same old people having dinner inside
But all the people having dinner inside
That same old people having dinner inside
Are very busy with their food
'Til they die