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Utopian Turtletop. Monsieur Croche's Bête Noire. Contact: turtletop [at] hotmail [dot] com
Sunday, March 18, 2007
The other day for the first time in a while I listened to the Bebel Gilberto album Tanto Tempo Remixes (I've never heard the original album) and the Suba album Tributo (I've never heard anything "else" by him [this one is remixes & rerecordings of his stuff put out after he died]) -- two gorgeous dreamy artifacts of '90s Brazilian dance music, with that international dance '90s reverb-y sound. Today I got a collection of recordings from Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag by kids' music star Dan Zanes from the library, and was struck by the '90s dance-music reverb applied judiciously to guitars in spots.
Zanes's singing reminds me of Jerry Garcia. Several months ago I offended my hipster neighbors when I said this -- well-dressed hipsters don't cotton to Jerry comparisons -- but it's true. I've had this reaction to Wilco too -- two times when I've heard them on the radio I thought at first it was the Dead -- Tweedy is another Jerry acolyte as a vocalist.
Zanes is a sharper dresser than Jerry. And his Songbag album has nice arrangements. The singing doesn't suit me for this stuff (and I like Jerry!) -- too laid-back for how I imagine the material in my mind's ear. But I'm happy to see Sandburg getting some love.
* * *
On the recommendation of Gavin Borchert in this terrific article about taking classical music to where people are, I took the kid to a free marathon performance of all 6 of Bach's Suites for Cello at a church yesterday, performed by 24 cellists taking turns. We caught about half of the E-flat suite and half of the C-minor suite -- people were coming and going throughout, though most people were there a lot longer than we were. We left before the end of the C-minor because the kid was hungry -- it was lunch time.
I asked him what he thought of the music.
"I liked it and I didn't like it. I didn't like that we couldn't talk and we couldn't walk around."
"What did you like?"
"I liked the music. Yeah, I liked the music."
The music was gorgeous -- beautiful reverberant church, beautiful cellos filling the sanctuary, beautiful Bach, on-the-whole beautiful playing. And -- it was almost totally contemporary. Some of the dance tunes are clearly not in today's dance style, but the casual dress of the performers said, "This is our music; these are our lives; they go together." Because Bach wrote for the church more than for court or dance hall, his music still makes it into contemporary movies for internal mood-setting, and it has dated very little if at all. This was music of emotion and meditation, that followed the trails of memories, passions, joys, longings, regrets, reconciliations.
Would have loved to have heard more of the marathon; was joyed to hear what I did.
Labels: Bach cello suites
Comments:
Just for the record, my kid was quiet during the music, and we left between movements in one of the suites.
I wasn't crazy about the "crumble" part of the interview -- what I liked was the cellist's determination to take the music where people already are and where they're comfortable -- because, there may be a significant population of potential classical music lovers who are intimidated by the rituals of a symphony hall, and Mr. Roman's experience seems to indicate that he has been able to reach some of them. And I must say that I wondered how he'd feel about the crumble if it meant he'd lose his salary.
Not everybody is going to like the music. Not all of the venues are going to be silent. I love the silent recital hall too (and I worried about my kid making noise, but it wasn't his first classical concert and he knew what to do). But I think it's great that Mr. Roman's playing the music in alternative venues.
You're right about symphonies. What alternative venue could they play in? Mahler in a stadium? Half time show at some superb bowl or other? Unlikely to work. But I love chamber music; I probably listen to it more than I do symphonic music. The point is -- the classical music tradition encompasses a huge range of stuff.
Thanks for your comment. I'd love to hear the Turangalila Symphony live someday.
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I wasn't crazy about the "crumble" part of the interview -- what I liked was the cellist's determination to take the music where people already are and where they're comfortable -- because, there may be a significant population of potential classical music lovers who are intimidated by the rituals of a symphony hall, and Mr. Roman's experience seems to indicate that he has been able to reach some of them. And I must say that I wondered how he'd feel about the crumble if it meant he'd lose his salary.
Not everybody is going to like the music. Not all of the venues are going to be silent. I love the silent recital hall too (and I worried about my kid making noise, but it wasn't his first classical concert and he knew what to do). But I think it's great that Mr. Roman's playing the music in alternative venues.
You're right about symphonies. What alternative venue could they play in? Mahler in a stadium? Half time show at some superb bowl or other? Unlikely to work. But I love chamber music; I probably listen to it more than I do symphonic music. The point is -- the classical music tradition encompasses a huge range of stuff.
Thanks for your comment. I'd love to hear the Turangalila Symphony live someday.
