I actually really love Sirius Radio, especially Deep Tracks (Channel 27) and Jam On (Channel 29). Tom Petty does an excellent show called Buried Treasure, which features rare rhythm and blues, as well as rock. I also like Channel 67 (Real Jazz), Channel 76 (Symphony) and Channel 49 (Motown). I have just started listening to Coffee House (Channel 31) and the Loft (Channel 30). Vin Scelsa, formerly of WNEW-FM, is on The Loft and he is interesting and eccentric.
My son Alex likes the mid-30's on Sirius Radio, with such stations as Ozzie's Boneyard (Channel 38), Lithium (Channel 32), Hair Nation, the Metal Station, etc. I confess I listen to his stuff once in a while and like it.
Saturday, July 26, 2014
Heartened by a comment from my son Alex
I hope Alex will start posting his own entries about great bands like Godsmack with their new single 1000 hp. Alex has a great handle on rock, especially hard rock and metal. But, like he says, he has an old soul...
Recounting some concerts I have been to lately -- perhaps the most striking was a genius known as Tara Kamangar (www.taraartemis.com) that I saw with my mother at Le Poisson Rouge a few weeks back. The concert started with the airing of a 1925 film about the annual migration of people from the Balkans with all their stuff and animals, like goats and cows. She is in her 20's and is quite simply a prodigy -- she played with a cellist, percussionist and played compositions "from Russian to Iran." American born of Iranian descent she plays these beautiful classical pieces influenced by the music of the Kurds.
She introduced the arranger of a Khachaturian (a Russian-Armenian Composer) who said he was not sure why he had arranged this particular movement of the Composer's Ballet Spartacus which I believe was originally written for Voice and Orchestra. It is known as the Adagio for Spartacus and Matthew Cameron arranged it for piano. Then, he received a call from Tara who said she wanted to record the piece on her album. The arranger, who is from Brooklyn, said that the music would not be published for a few months. Tara said that was not a problem because she picked up the entire arrangement by ear from listening to the Arranger's youtube video. He said at the concert, after he heard Tara's version he knew why he did the arrangement. Here is what Tara transcribed by ear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJJmF5qqQyE
Here is a sample of Tara's piano playing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUF9CzAXY_c
Her album is called "East of Melancholy" and obviously highly recommended. I bought it at the concert.
She also plays violin as well as she plays piano and has a trio known as Triptych that has a more pop oriented single known as Mr. Right. Here is another of the Trio's earlier songs called Stranded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiw9euF2_0I
Switching gears, last night Ellie and I saw The The Band Band, a tribute band that includes a friend of mine Gary Solomon and other Rockland NY musicians. They did an amazing 2.5 hour show that including all the hits except for Rag Mama Rag and a bunch of deep tracks. In honor of the 49th anniversary of Bob Dylan's going electric with The Band, they did a bunch of Dylan songs, including The Mighty Quinn and Like a Rolling Stone. I would venture to guess they are best Band tribute band around today.
Ellie and I will fortunate to see a show in Tarrytown with the Levon Helm Band, about two weeks before Levon passed away.
Today, as Alex pointed Nyack was full of music, including many drum circles, including across the street from us at The Edward Hopper house, which is an excellent outdoor venue for jazz concerts every Thursday in the summer. There was also a great African influenced band called Kakande, a group called Flamenco & Sol and a Step dance that Ellie said was amazing.
All this music prompted me to open a box of cassettes I have not listened to in many years. The cassette I selected was from some jams we did in Rockleigh NJ at my house on 3.31.90, which featured an excellent jazz horn player known as Doug White, a German drummer named Clemmons Herbert and an acoustic bass player Roy Cummings. They were joined by me struggling to keep up with the fast Charlie Parker and Coltrane tunes but I had less of a problem with Wayne Shorter's footprints. Also on that session were Michael Gittleman on electric bass, Michael Pollack on DX-7, John Baken on Percussion, and another percussionist.
I am going to have to start listening to some of these tapes that date back to the late 1970's,
Recounting some concerts I have been to lately -- perhaps the most striking was a genius known as Tara Kamangar (www.taraartemis.com) that I saw with my mother at Le Poisson Rouge a few weeks back. The concert started with the airing of a 1925 film about the annual migration of people from the Balkans with all their stuff and animals, like goats and cows. She is in her 20's and is quite simply a prodigy -- she played with a cellist, percussionist and played compositions "from Russian to Iran." American born of Iranian descent she plays these beautiful classical pieces influenced by the music of the Kurds.
She introduced the arranger of a Khachaturian (a Russian-Armenian Composer) who said he was not sure why he had arranged this particular movement of the Composer's Ballet Spartacus which I believe was originally written for Voice and Orchestra. It is known as the Adagio for Spartacus and Matthew Cameron arranged it for piano. Then, he received a call from Tara who said she wanted to record the piece on her album. The arranger, who is from Brooklyn, said that the music would not be published for a few months. Tara said that was not a problem because she picked up the entire arrangement by ear from listening to the Arranger's youtube video. He said at the concert, after he heard Tara's version he knew why he did the arrangement. Here is what Tara transcribed by ear:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJJmF5qqQyE
Here is a sample of Tara's piano playing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUF9CzAXY_c
Her album is called "East of Melancholy" and obviously highly recommended. I bought it at the concert.
She also plays violin as well as she plays piano and has a trio known as Triptych that has a more pop oriented single known as Mr. Right. Here is another of the Trio's earlier songs called Stranded
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yiw9euF2_0I
Switching gears, last night Ellie and I saw The The Band Band, a tribute band that includes a friend of mine Gary Solomon and other Rockland NY musicians. They did an amazing 2.5 hour show that including all the hits except for Rag Mama Rag and a bunch of deep tracks. In honor of the 49th anniversary of Bob Dylan's going electric with The Band, they did a bunch of Dylan songs, including The Mighty Quinn and Like a Rolling Stone. I would venture to guess they are best Band tribute band around today.
Ellie and I will fortunate to see a show in Tarrytown with the Levon Helm Band, about two weeks before Levon passed away.
Today, as Alex pointed Nyack was full of music, including many drum circles, including across the street from us at The Edward Hopper house, which is an excellent outdoor venue for jazz concerts every Thursday in the summer. There was also a great African influenced band called Kakande, a group called Flamenco & Sol and a Step dance that Ellie said was amazing.
All this music prompted me to open a box of cassettes I have not listened to in many years. The cassette I selected was from some jams we did in Rockleigh NJ at my house on 3.31.90, which featured an excellent jazz horn player known as Doug White, a German drummer named Clemmons Herbert and an acoustic bass player Roy Cummings. They were joined by me struggling to keep up with the fast Charlie Parker and Coltrane tunes but I had less of a problem with Wayne Shorter's footprints. Also on that session were Michael Gittleman on electric bass, Michael Pollack on DX-7, John Baken on Percussion, and another percussionist.
I am going to have to start listening to some of these tapes that date back to the late 1970's,
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