Posted by Li Robbins on
Wednesday November 18, 2009 at 3:00 AM
Uri Caine is a keyboard player who has played with quite a range of musicians (just check out his bio).
Sometimes, he's in the improvisation-meets-rock-or-electronica realm -- tonight you can hear him at the Vancouver New Music Festival with drummer Ben Perowsky, trumpeter Ralph Alessi, and Canadian composer and electronics guru, Giorgio Magnanensi.
Other times, he's interpreting the classical repertoire. Which makes him a good person to explain why Bach is like jazz:
Posted by Li Robbins on
Friday November 13, 2009 at 3:00 AM
Are you superstitious? If you answered "no," more power to you. I like to think of myself as lacking the superstition gene. The fact that it's Friday the 13th doesn't bother me at all. But the other day, wishing a friend good luck on his upcoming concert, there was no way I was going to say "good luck." No, it was all "break a leg" and "merde."
Tonight The Signal gives a nod to Lady Luck, with music including I Should Be So Lucky, performed by guitarist Noel Akchoté, and Dumb Luck from Dntel.
Those of you who grudgingly (or freely) admit you fall prey to superstition may want to watch this work by David Magnier, a budding animator, about "the perils of having faith in nonsensical beliefs." Fingers crossed you'll enjoy it too.
Posted by Laurie Brown on
Thursday November 12, 2009 at 12:55 PM
What kind of music did you grow up with? What kind of music did your parents listen to?
In my semi-detached 2 storey suburban home in Scarborough, Ontario, there was music on from the moment my dad walked through the door after work. I remember the day he brought home his precious Telefunken reel to reel tape recorder, spending hours making mixed jazz tapes from all his records.... that's the music my sister and I fell asleep to every night. So I have a soft spot in my heart for jazz music. In fact I love it a lot.
Was there music in your childhood home? How has it affected your taste in music? Let's compare musical upbringings.
Posted by Li Robbins on
Wednesday November 11, 2009 at 3:00 AM
It's Wednesday, November 11th, a day which always raises the question of remembrance. Some remember by buying a poppy. Some remember with a moment of silence. Today The Signal remembers with music.
You'll hear Radiohead's tribute to Harry Patch, The Last Tommy. (Patch was one of the last veterans of World War I. He died at the age of 111 in July of this year. That's right, 111.)
Also, Eleanor Daley's composition For The Fallen, performed by the Halifax Camerata Singers, and a version of Kate Bush's Army Dreamers by cellist and singer Kevin Fox -- among many other pieces of music noting Remembrance Day.
For many of us music is the most powerful way of taking that moment of silence -- the music prompting the silence within us, instead of outside of us. I'm thinking of works like Olivier Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time.
What do you think is the most powerful music for remembrance?
Posted by Li Robbins on
Saturday November 7, 2009 at 3:00 AM
A concert tonight featuring Milford Graves, one of the pioneers of the avant-garde, free jazz percussion movement in the 1960s. (He worked with Paul Bley and the New York Art Quartet, among others.)
AND featuring reed man David Murray, who may have had a clear connection to Coltrane but also did so much to bring a fresh compositional sense to jazz -- in his many ECM recordings for example. (And yet appears to have no website. Talking about revolutionary!)
The concert comes to us from the 2009 Guelph Jazz Festival, and Exclaim magazine described their collaboration as "sublimely ecstatic."
Posted by Li Robbins on
Wednesday November 4, 2009 at 3:00 AM
Bjork meets big band on The Signal tonight, with music from Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra. They're just one of the a number of jazz groups to take on Bjork. Why Bjork?
Sullivan told one blogger: "I think it's more notable to ask why it's not happening with more (new pop) artists."
Not sure I'd call Bjork "pop." But think about popular music music for a minute. I am. Imagining Black Eyed Peas I Gotta Feeling covered by Bell Orchestre. Likely better without the words. (Although they could yell "mazel tov" at the appropriate moment.)
Posted by Laurie Brown on
Monday November 2, 2009 at 2:02 PM
It's always surprising to me to find out how many people work at night. When most of us are penned up working our 9 to 5 jobs, they are wandering around in a half-emptied world, talking to retired people on the street and mothers with babies in strollers in the sunshine. Sounds good.
There are great advantages to working at night, disadvantages too. I hear from a lot of you who tell me you are working...I'd let to find out at what.
Let me know what it is you do for a living, late at night, while you're listening to The Signal.
Here's a link to an interview that Andy Sheppard and I did for a radio station in California about the show....if you want to know more about our work, and how we put the show together, have a listen
here.
Unite, night workers - let me know what job keeps you up late listening to The Signal.
Posted by Li Robbins on
Wednesday October 28, 2009 at 3:00 AM
Dr. Beauchef, Penguin Dentist, is one of the compositions you'll hear tonight on The Signal. What a great weird song title. It's from Kneebody's album Low Electrical Worker. (In itself an intriguing title. Possibly about the electricians who worked on Being John Malkovich's half floor?)
But Dr. Beauchef, Penguin Dentist has a decidedly Zappa-ish feel to it. Or maybe it's just evocative of the lyrics to Montana. ("Movin' to Montana soon, Gonna be a Dental Floss tycoon.")
Anyway, it brings me to this. Laurie, Andy and yours truly are curious (it's often been said about us). But seriously, we all wonder:
What are the best song titles?
Posted by Laurie Brown on
Monday October 26, 2009 at 11:54 AM
The response to the "Where are you?" blog entry has been wonderful. One of my favourites came from Hugh in the Yukon, who told us how he listened to The Signal from his outhouse (with the electric bum warmer). So of course I asked him for pictures. Here they are, with a few important points Hugh wanted to emphasize:
1. Location, location, location.
2. Styrofoam seat is a must.
3. Electric bum heater essential for those -40 ice fog mornings.
4. Archie comics for short stirring stories of human conflict and how life is all about love and food.
5. Ghetto blaster permanently fixed to Radio2
6. Old posters and knick knacks donated by patrons.
Thanks Hugh for sending along the pictures. Now when I do the show, I take a moment before I plunge in and think of the show heading directly to this outhouse in the Yukon.
My grandmother's farm had a outhouse -- well not exactly - it was attached to the house, through the woodshed. It's distinguishing feature was that is boasted two holes and a 1964 Eaton's Catalogue for reading material. Maybe this is just a Nova Scotia thing?? My house there also has an outhouse (only used in party situations now) that is also a 2 holer.
Bring me your outhouse stories. No need to reveal your true identity.
Posted by Li Robbins on
Wednesday October 21, 2009 at 3:00 AM
Probably the first two people who ever played something called "jazz" listened to each other and privately thought, "Yeah, but is it jazz?"
Jazz is a pretty broad term, and never broader than the music at the Guelph Jazz Festival.
Tonight you can hear some music from the fest by Montreal's Rodeoscopique. They make music an Hour journalist described as sounding like "songs written by Bill Frisell and Anton Webern inspired by a drive across the desert."
Is it jazz? Beats me. But what do you think jazz is, in the 21st century?
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