Esperanza Spalding

Tonight, on the PBS NewsHour:

Dylan and Google

If you are a Google user (who isn't?!), you may be aware of Google Instant, a realtime progressive search mechanism that is demonstrated to good effect by ... Bob Dylan!



This video has generated a fair amount of Internet buzz, with an example and some history here.

NPR 24/7 and some tangents

NPR announces their new All Songs 24/7 Music Channel. Also find there a listing of NPR member stations with continuous music streams (I think they are categorized as Rock/Pop/Folk, Classical, Jazz/Blues and Other). This kind of stuff may not be ideal for audiophiliac-type hard listening (about the best you can expect from Internet radio MP3 streams is 128kbps), but it is a good way to keep music in the background at home or in the office.

I have made quite a few discoveries of music I would not have found otherwise by listening to Internet radio, going back to the early Internet days of Shoutcast. We used to listen often to KCRW's Eclectic 24 and other kcrw.com programs (when I lived in L.A. I was addicted to KCRW, Santa Monica College's public radio station), but now Kim usually has Radio Paradise streaming via Roku while she goes about life in the kitchen and rest of the house. My bedside Logitech Squeezebox usually puts me to sleep/wakes me up to the alt/indie pop/rock stream from OPBMusic. All of these sources are recommended, but one of my very favorites that I connect with now and then is David Byrne's stream of whatever is on his current playlist: right now he has a terrific playlist of tangos featured.

Geminus Guitar Duo

Foti Lycouridis and Hideki Yamaya are the Portland-based Geminus Guitar Duo, and last night they performed at our local library.



Their instruments are 6-, 7- and 10-string guitars, restored mostly from 19th century instruments they have salvaged throughout the world, often via eBay.








Their program consisted largely of music of that time as well, and represented pieces and composers that were quite new to me. Their program ranged from Johann Kasper Mertz, an 1800s Hungarian guitarist/composer, to some more contemporary Greek dances by Argiris Kounadis.



If you visit their fascinating Website, you can see that Lycouridis and Yamaya have heavyweight CVs and some terrific examples of their work.

The Wilderness Downtown

When the new Arcade Fire album, The Suburbs, was released a couple of months ago, I found myself somewhat nonplussed. Long a fan, it nevertheless has taken some time for the album to gradually grow on me. One of my favorite cuts is We Used To Wait. If you have installed the Chrome browser and have a decent amount of bandwidth and processor, arguably the best way to hear that song is by visiting thewildernessdowntown.com.

The Creole Choir of Cuba

Credit the B&W Society of Sound for bringing this one to my attention. The Creole Choir of Cuba is a group of Haitian migrants to Cuba, doing a'capella "undiscovered music of the Caribbean". Visit their Website, YouTube and Myspace site to hear this intoxicating stuff. In the meantime ...

Hilary Again

Fresh from our mention the other day, Hilary Hahn appeared on the radar again last night when the PBS Newshour did a piece on her collaboration with composer Jennifer Higdon, which you can see here. (Here is a most interesting NPR (National Public Radio) interview on the same subject, also.)

A plus was Hilary's bonus performance of Bach's Sarabande in D minor...



You might also like to check out one of the earliest interviews with Hilary I heard back in 2004 on NPR. Over the years, NPR has included Hilary in quite a few pieces, which I encourage you to explore on its site.

Finally, I must turn you on to one of my favorite CDs ... Bach: Violin and Voice in which Hilary accompanies Matthias Goerne and Christine Schafer in a variety of Bach cantatas and selections from the Mass in B minor and the St. Matthew Passion.

The Jazz Loft

If you are interested in jazz history, this piece from the ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) is a must-read. And, if like me, you also have forever admired and been inspired by the photography of W. Eugene Smith, you gotta read this story.

http://www.ascmag.com/blog/2010/05/10/w-eugene-smith-david-x-young-and-the-jazz-loft/

Hilary and More

Profound disappointment. This weekend Hilary Hahn (remember her from this post?) will be performing with the Oregon Symphony. And I won't make it. Here is a piece from The Oregonian on Hilary.

Other good things went down in Portland this week. Arcade Fire was in concert, with Calexico as its opening act. Holy cow! I understand that Calexico was even covering Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" something that brings back my hours of listening in punk-era Los Angeles, with and without Kim. Again, The Oregonian (by way of Jeff Baker, its book editor) comments.

My typical Saturday night at home, searching out musical treasure on the Internet, has now at least these three ways to go...Wonder if that Joy Division cover is out there somewhere? But, of course:




Can't stop there, of course. Joy Division itself:



Now that that is taken care of, I am going to return to violin and Arvo Part's Spiegel Im Spiegel, which I was hearing when I read about the Hilary concerts ...