king ubu

Whoa, seriously now? Someone should add an "are you sure you wanna friggin' delete the entire thread now?"-pop-up now!

I usually post about concerts in German and don't like the idea of translating/re-writing much, but for once I wrote this in english for another music forum: MO 09.05.16 19:30 - ca. 22:00 Uhr, Grosser Saal, Tonhalle Zürich Neue Konzertreihe Zürich Chamber Orchestra of Europe Vladimir JurowskiThierry Fischer Leitung Patricia Kopatchinskaja Violine Mieczyslaw Weinberg: Sinfonie Nr. 10 a-Moll op. 98 "Transcendence" für Streicher Sergej Prokofjew: Violinkonzert Nr. 2 g-Moll op. 63 Ludwig van Beethoven: Sinfonie Nr. 7 A-Dur op. 92 There was a change in the line-up, as reflected above: Swiss conductor Thierry Fischer took over the entire tour on short notice, as Jurowski had to cancel (for health issues, they said). No loss for sure (though I've never seen Jurowski live ... just starting to attend classical concerts in a sort of serious way). Either way I had one of those seats at the back of the stage, which was sonically not perfect for the Prok of the Van, but it's still fun to watch the orchestra from behind (and costs about half of the expensive seats which are just too rich for me). Anyway, the Weinberg caught me totally off guard ... I'm not completely unfamiliar with his work but haven't heard any symphonies yet, and this one, played by just a few strings (I think I counted 18, 4-4-4-3-3) was plain amazing - plenty of soloist parts for violin, cello, viola, as well as for the double bass), intense, rich in colours, with plenty of humour too, but overall a very melancholic, brooding piece I found. I hated the audience unrest, but in light of most of them having been present when Beethoven still conducted his own works, I can somewhat relate that this music was "difficult" for them subjects of geriatrics ... dammit, don't we live in 21c by now? Can't people get the sticks out their ... and loosen up some please? Then they had to re-arrange the stage and on it went with Prokofiev's second concerto. Now I had half the orchestra between me and gorgeous PatKop. When the music got loud, she got drowned out, alas. The concerto, which I like well enough without it being a top favourite (I had revisited the Kopatchinskaja/Jurowski recording on naïve several times in the past days) turned out to be somewhat of a let down after the gorgeous Weinberg, but Kopatchinskaja performed terrifically and in her usual, burningly intense way, stomping, dancing, facing various orchestra members/sections with whom she was interacting ... Of course they had to do an encore, and she played the second part of Ravel's sonata for violin and cello with the leading cello player of the orchestra (who had taken care of the cello solo parts in the Weinberg), a fun bit for sure, don't think I've heard this sonata, but I have the Ravel Decca/Universal box somewhere, so ... give me time (and money so I don't need to work any more)! After the break, they performed an animated, intense and dancing Beethoven 7. Very impressive, lots of dynamics and most lively. The orchestra had by that time grown again some and the dynamics indeed got more extreme, for parts where you'd have heard a needle drop to very loud. Now the french horns in front of me interfered some, alas (what a misconstruction anyway, that instrument ... I love its sound, but it always goes off in wrong directions, though the two dudes did an excellent job last night, not hitting one wrong note, at least not a discernible one, and not really fumbling one, either). Anyway, a truly elevating concert, and a great experience to witness such a tight and lively orchestra!

I actually just made a hotel reservation for August 24-29 - no need for Shepp/Kühn and not enough vacation days left this year ...) - not 100% sure yet I'll make it, need to check schedules and figure out things, but I'd love to catch The Thing/McPhee and Roscoe Mitchell and some of the others in between ... if I make it, I'll probably miss the lunch concert (Gustafsson) but will be there for Zeena Parkins solo - long time I heard her play live but it was great (Phantom Orchard, had my selfmade AUD on my blog for a long time ... actually only last year caught up with the fine Phantom Orchestra Orchestra release on Tzadik or wherever it came out). just in case, here's the line-up: LE PROGRAMME DU FESTIVAL MÉTÉO 2016 EST EN LIGNE MARDI 23 AOÛT 2016 * YUKO OSHIMA & FRANTZ LORIOT & ANIL ERASLAN * SUPERSONIC « PLAY SUN RA » (Thomas de Pourquery, Arnaud Roulin, Edward Perraud, Frederick Galiay, Fabrice Martinez, Daniel Zimmermann) * ARCHIE SHEPP & JOACHIM KÜHN MERCREDI 24 AOÛT 2016 * LUFT (Mats Gustafsson, Erwan Keravec) + CHRISTER BOTHÉN SOLO * ZEENA PARKINS SOLO * CLAYTON THOMAS & ANTHEA CADDY * SOPHIE AGNEL & JOKE LANZ & MICHAEL VATCHER * THE THING & JOE MCPHEE (Mats Gustafsson, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Paal Nilssen-Love, Joe McPhee) * LOUIS MINUS XVI (Adrien Douliez, Jean-Baptiste Rubin, Maxime Petit, Frédéric L’Homme) JEUDI 25 AOÛT 2016 * ALEXANDRE BABEL SOLO * HÉLÈNE BRESCHAND & KERWIN ROLLAND * MATHIAS DELPLANQUE SOLO * AGUSTÍ FERNÁNDEZ & KJELL NORDESON + DIEB13 SOLO * MATS GUSTAFSSON’S NU ENSEMBLE (Mats Gustafsson, Mariam Wallentin, Joe McPhee, Christer Bothén, Anders Nyqvist, Per-Åke Holmlander, Dieb13, Agustí Fernández, Kjell Nordeson, Paal Nilssen-Love, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Jon Rune Strøm) * VENTIL (Katharina Ernst, Michael Lahner, Florian Kindlinger, Peter Kutin, Conny Zenk) VENDREDI 26 AOÛT 2016 * JOACHIM BADENHORST SOLO * ÁINE O’DWYER SOLO * MIKE MAJKOWSKI SOLO * HAMID DRAKE & WILLIAM PARKER & PAT THOMAS * GREEN DOME (Zeena Parkins, Ryan Ross Smith, Ryan Sawyer) * ZEITKRATZER LOU REED « METAL MACHINE MUSIC », PARTS. 1-4 (Reinhold Friedl, Frank Gratkowski, Burkhard Schlothauer, Lisa Marie Landgraf, Elisabeth Fügemann, Hild Sofie Tafjord, Hilary Jeffery, Ulrich Phillipp, Maurice de Martin) SAMEDI 27 AOÛT 2016 * CLAYTON THOMAS SOLO * FANFARE D’OCCASION (Séverine Fel, Elise Chatelain, Alfred Spirli, Sébastien Coste) * DER VERBOTEN « DER DRITTE TREFFPUNKT » (Frantz Loriot, Cédric Piromalli, Christian Wolfarth, Antoine Chessex) * PHONOSCOPIE « SÉCANTE » (Jean-Philippe Gross, Thierry Madiot, Yanik Miossec) * NATIVE INSTRUMENT (Stine Janvin Motland, Felicity Mangan) * SONIC COMMUNION (Joëlle Léandre, Bernard Santacruz, Jean-Luc Cappozzo, Douglas R. Ewart, Michael Zerang) * ROSCOE MITCHELL TRIO (Roscoe Mitchell, John Edwards, Mark Sanders)

Haha ... well, the flaw in the whole discussion, in my view lies in the mere fact that apple even "offers" a funcion that will store-on-cloud/delete-on-local-drive/make-inaccessible-once-you-stop-paying - no matter if it's users dumbness (donkey-ass-moron-ity?) that actually has it kick in. But then I guess that's the ride we (collective we) chose to take, and this is what you get.

Okay, impressive enough ... but the rare tracks, singles and EPs shared on some of those great blogs dedicated to african music, they will likely never cover (or replace them with album tracks, who knows).

Frankly, to me this very discussion (the fact that it takes place) is disturbing enough. Call me a dinosaur ... I use this stuff to some extent - also have an iPad since some days, and with its ridiculous 16GB drive, obviously you can't store much music on it ... I did hook it up with my amazon cloud drive - which is pretty limited in scope and more or less accidental in selection, as it includes only my orders placed with the German site, not with the French and Italian sites which I use more regularly I think - and downloaded some essentials, but mostly I'll use my smartphone with an added memory card for listening ... and mostly I listen to music that these algorithms probably wouldn't recognize anyways (how large is iTunes'/Apple's Amadou Ballaké library?)

That's a pretty nice one! Guess it's a good pick for those (i.e. me) who don't feel the need for two dozen Capitol albums of hers.

http://www.chicagoreader.com/Bleader/archives/2016/05/06/great-improvising-trombonist-johannes-bauer-has-died

this one for me:

that's what Rhoda Scott does, of course

German trombone player Johannes Bauer has reportedly died of cancer, not quite 62 years old (born July 22, 1954). Confirmed on his brother and fellow 'bone player Konrad "Conny" Bauer's homepage: http://www.connybauer.de/en/ Most fond memories of some concerts (including an unforgettable set by Doppelmoppel with both Bauers), less fond memories of others ... but he was the genuine thing for sure. Sad to see him go, and too early at that.

disc two now, sacred music by Tabart - pretty captivating!

Yes! I'm very fond of Invernizzi (played yesterday, contains two of the Rossi cantatas also on the LeBlanc). Of these three, I still prefer the LeBlanc by a margin! Zomer I guess I prefer in French and somewhat later ("galant") repertoire, she's a bit too cool and too straight, not quite emotional and warm enough for me here, the "Odi Euterpe" is better in that respect, but LeBlanc is just perfect!

started the day with this most fascinating disc: now, disc one of this - Charpentier:

Can't make it for weekdays (only Friday, maybe Thursday - my vacation plans for this year are already settled and alas I don't have nearly as much vacation as I would like ) - but I see Roscoe is on Saturday - guess I should try. Don't usually follow what's going on in Mulhouse, Strasbourg (or even Basel) mostly - should change that!

Late to the party - all the best, my friend! Keep making great music! Looking forward to those Moholo gigs ... can hardly wait

earlier: now:

I like the vocal version on Ayelet Rose Gottlieb's "Internal External" (her debut album, I think - has Matana Roberts in the line-up, before she got her break)

Yeah, a warm-up for the sold out show at Globe Life Park, I'm sure!