Computers and Music
Thursday, September 29, 2005
In an article in the Asbury Park Press (click here), Chris Junior writes about San Francisco-based music photographer Jim Marshall and his new book "Jim Marshall/Jazz". From the article:
Jazz in the 1950s and 1960s often went hand in hand with smoking, and cigarettes make for an intriguing subplot to "Jim Marshall/Jazz." There's a 1966 photo of someone lighting a cigarette for Louis Armstrong, with the flame from the man's lighter resembling a small light bulb. Another shot has Harry James lighting a cigarette for Davis as they stood backstage at the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1963. The two best of all are a close-up featuring Monk's left hand (clearly distinguished by a ring with diamonds that spell his last name) holding a burning cigarette over a piano's keys and a wonderfully framed image of Ray Charles sideman Marcus Belgrave, the long ash of his cigarette dangling inches above his trumpet as he plays.
You can view (and buy) a wonderful collection of Jim Marshall's work on his web site (click here). I especially like the photo of Bill Evans taken in 1963. Looking at these photos really gives me a sense that these jazz legends actually existed as real people, not just as some abstract entities who happened to leave behind brilliant recordings.
 
Saturday, September 24, 2005
Yesterday I created a new web experiment called "Internet Auto Typer" (click here). Enter a few words of a sentence and it will try to fill in the rest of the sentence for you, by using words found on the Internet.
 
Monday, September 19, 2005
If you're interested in hearing some lively folk dance music, in a Celtic/Cape Breton style, tune into Cape Breton Live Radio (click here). This week's performance features Kinnon and Andrea Beaton on fiddle, Betty Beaton and Mac Morin on piano, and others!
 
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
As Larry Katz describes in the Boston Herald (click here for article), jazz piano great Herbie Hancock has teamed up (on separate tracks) with Christina Aguilera, Paul Simon, Annie Lennox, Trey Anastasio, Sting, John Mayer, Joss Stone, Jonny Lang, Damien Rice, Lisa Hannigan, Raul Midon, Santana, and Angelique Kidjo for his latest CD, "Possibilities". In an interview with the Herald, Hancock describes:
Hancock: If you listen to each tune, it doesn't sound like what you're used to hearing from these artists. Christina sounds much freer than I've heard her on her other albums. I knew she could sing. I felt she had never been given the opportunity to deliver the way she delivers on this record. And Paul Simon, you ever heard him do a track like (``I Do It For Your Love'')? And that's his own song. And you have John Mayer with a different twist. When Joss Stone and Jonny Lang sing (U2's) `When Love Comes to Town,' it starts off country blues, goes blues rock, and then this funky layer happens before I play a jazz solo on the end of it. Every track has a different twist.

[...]

Herald: You know some people will accuse you of being a sellout for making a CD like this, right?

Hancock: It's not my problem. People who have narrow tastes, they can like what they like. But I have this opportunity to be broad. The strongest I can be is to be honest to myself.

Herald: ``Possibilities'' is being sold in Starbucks as well as retail stores. Does this mean you play Starbucks music?

Hancock: (Laughs) I was delighted to be involved with Starbucks. Everybody goes to Starbucks. Even people my age.
Samples from each track, as well as a well-produced short video on the CD's making, are available on Herbie Hancock's web site (click here).
 
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
NPR has made available a free online recording of jazz pianist Brad Mehldau performing with mezzo-soprano Renee Fleming in the Creators at Carnegie series.
Click here to view the concert details, and then click the "Listen to the Concert" link that appears below the title on that page. It's wonderful that NPR has made this music available for free. Here is the concert playlist:
Creators at Carnegie
Brad Mehldau with Renee Fleming

In Concert at Zankel Hall

"Lithium" (Cobain)

"Things Behind the Sun" (Drake)

"River Man" (Drake)

WORLD PREMIERE: Songs from The Book of Hours: Love Poems to God (Mehldau/Words by Rainer Maria Rilke)

Excerpts:

III. "I Love the Dark Hours of My Being" (Mehldau/Words by Rilke)

IV. "I Love You, Gentlest of Ways" (Mehldau/Words by Rilke)

VII. "Extinguish My Eyes, I'll Go on Seeing You" (Mehldau/Words by Rilke)


Break: Intro (Mehldau) from the album Live in Tokyo


In Concert at Zankel Hall

"How Long Has This Been Going On?" (Gershwin)

"But Beautiful" (Burke/Van Heusen)
 
Thoughts of an aspiring jazz musician and computer programmer.

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