ChordStrike

World Music Wednesday (Actually Thursday): Celtic Music

First, an apology—I was supposed to post this yesterday, but time got away from me, and “World Music Wednesday” has become…“World Music Thursday.”  At least this week. 

Anyway, I was perusing our free world music MP3 samplers yesterday evening, and the first one that I happened to download was Alula’s Celtic Sampler Summer 2009.  I was wary at first (I’m picky about my celtic music!), but it turned out to be a lovely collection, and I decided that I had to write about it.

I’ve always loved celtic music.  I’ve had a thing for celtic mythology ever since I was little, and traditional celtic tunes are full of stories.  When I think of celtic music, I still have romantic visions spring to mind—of wandering bards, mummers, and céilidhs.  My love for celtic music deepened when I lived in France; I would make regular jaunts over to Brittany, where I’d sit in dark pubs, soaking up live music over tangy cider brut and a savory buckwheat galette.

So it’s no wonder that celtic music has remained lodged in my psyche.  Celtic music is difficult to define accurately, since the term itself is extremely broad and general (kind of like “world music.”)  For the purposes of this post, I’ll define celtic music as the music of the Celtic Nations (Ireland, Scotland, the the Isle of Man, Wales, Cornwall (southwestern England), Brittany (western France), and Galicia (northwestern Spain).

In researching celtic music, I discovered that it’s far more complex than I have space to describe here (sadly), so for the time being, I’ll provide you with a brief synopsis of Irish music, since much of the music on the Alula sampler is based on traditional Irish music.

Many Irish folk songs originated in rural areas and evolved over time.  The human voice is an important component of Irish music, and one of the most prevalent styles of traditional Irish vocal singing is known as sean-nós (“old style.”)  Sean-nós singers have marvelously flexible voices, and their vocals normally soar and dip, creating a pure, haunting, and melodically rich listening experience. 

Instruments used in Irish music include the Irish harp, the bodhrán (a drum with a goatskin frame), uilleann pipes, the tin whistle, the fiddle and the accordion.  I’m partial to the fiddle and tin whistle, both of which feature in the sampler.   Download it free (for a limited time only), and check out all the free samplers here.

--Bri Nguyen

August is an exciting month here at ChordStrike.  We've put together our World Music Event and our editors’ picks for the 100 Greatest World Music Albums of All Time, and in honor of these internationally-themed occasions (and frankly because I’ll use any excuse to blog about world music), I’ve created a month-long miniseries of blog posts called “World Music Wednesdays." Each Wednesday this month, I’ll highlight a different genre of world music. Suggestions welcome!

Les Paul 1915 - 2009

Instrumentalist, entertainer, and inventor of the guitar model that bears his name, Les Paul passed away today in White Plains, New York, at the age of 94.

Born in Waukesha, Wisconsin, on June 9, 1915, Paul began performing in public as a "honky-tonk" guitarist at the age of 13.  In the 1930s and '40s, he played with bandleader Fred Waring and many popular singers, including Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, and The Andrews Sisters. It was Crosby that gave Paul an early tape recorder that he began to modify, allowing him to pioneer the art of multi-track recording.

An electronics enthusiast since his youth, Les Paul began experimenting with new guitar designs in the ‘30s.  As ensemble sound levels were growing with amplification, his goal was to improve tone and sustain, while minimizing feedback, so he designed an instrument with a solid body, reducing vibration in the frame and concentrating it in the string.

His initial design was given the unflattering name "The Log" because of the solid construction.  It was 10 years before a manufacturer picked up a refinement of this design, and the first Les Paul was produced by Gibson in 1952.  Since that date the "Les Paul" has gone on to be one of the most recognizable sounds in rock, famed for its dominance and versatility of tone.

In 2008, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame paid tribute to Les Paul in a week-long celebration of his life, which culminated with a live performance by Paul himself. He is the only individual to share membership of the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the National Inventors Hall of Fame, and the National Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Until recently he continued to perform two weekly New York shows with the Les Paul Trio, at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City. -- Hugo Munday

Best World Music Albums of 2009 So Far (Including Imports)*

*A word of explanation about this list: while the majority of my picks can be called world music, a couple of them (Emmy the Great, Little Boots) are imports which don't necessarily fall into the world music category. I'm including them here because: 1) they've been released in another country, and 2) I couldn't resist sharing them (seriously, they're that good).  But keep in mind that you probably won't find either of these artists categorized under world music in our music or MP3 stores.

 

1. Coeur de Pirate, Coeur de Pirate (CD)

I practically swooned the first time I heard this tiny, tattooed French-Canadian chanteuse.  With a voice like honey, Coeur de Pirate ("Heart of a Pirate"), otherwise known as 19-year-old Béatrice Martin of Quebec,  has crafted a rich, whimsical, and utterly stirring debut album imbued with a vein of nostalgia and maturity that far belies her years.  While songs on the album are driven primarily by Martin’s magical piano playing, Martin weaves in string arrangements, horn interludes, and accordion accompaniment with a thoughtful, nuanced touch.  Each melody is as finely crafted as spun silk.

The album sounds like it could have been made in 1920's France or used in the soundtrack to the film Amélie.  The buoyant “Ensemble” (“Together”) makes me feel like dancing down the street, while the pensive “C’était Salement Romantique” (“It Was Terribly Romantic”) fills me with longing for something that I can't quite define.  Listen and imagine yourself wandering the winding, cobbled streets of some old European city.  You don’t have to understand French to love this album.

If you can't see the embedded video player above, click here to watch a YouTube video of Coeur de Pirate performing "C'etait Salement Romantique."

2. Issa Bagayogo, Issa Remixed (MP3)

I was blown away when I first heard Issa Bagayogo’s Issa Remixed.  Rarely have I heard West African music infused with house-style dance rhythms so successfully—and so infectiously.  Originally from Mali, Issa grew up playing the ngoni (a three-stringed lute popular in West Africa), but rather than sticking to traditional music, he’s infused his albums with elements of jazz, dub, and funk.  Hybrid albums like this can often go wrong, but Issa’s compositions are masterfully done, and Issa Remixed is no exception.  Who knew that West African chord structures could mesh so well with electronica and sound so natural?

3. Emmy the Great, First Love (CD | MP3) 

I never would have expected the artist behind one of my favorite folk albums to be from London--a city that I tend to associate more with sassy britpop (think Lily Allen, Kate Nash) or alternative rock (think Coldplay).  But with a soaring, lyrical voice that hearkens back to the ‘60s, Emmy the Great (Emma-Lee Moss) is the real deal—with a twist.  Yes, her music is folk, but she's anything but traditional.  Witty and sarcastic, she probes into heavy subjects (death, pregnancy) and offers up world-weary and frequently biting social commentary couched in that smooth, magnetic voice of hers.  This is folk music with a thoroughly modern edge--or, perhaps, folk music for the 21st century.

4. Mariza, Terra (CD | MP3)

Reigning fado queen Mariza doesn’t disappoint with her fourth studio album.  No fado album is complete without heavy doses of Portuguese guitar—and this album has it in spades—but Mariza also experiments with other musical styles without straying too far from her musical roots.  She sets her marvelously flexible vocals to blues and jazzy piano, succeeding at the difficult task of offering up a thoroughly refreshing take on this most traditional and stylized of musical genres.    

5. Little Boots, Hands (CD)  

If you’re into dance music, you’ve probably already heard of Little Boots, a.k.a. 25-year-old Victoria Hesketh of England.  A multitalented musical dynamo, Little Boots made a name for herself by posting YouTube videos in which she performed her own original compositions and covered other popular songs.  Not only does she sing, she also plays the keyboard, the piano, the stylophone, and the very cool electronic Tenori-on—sometimes all at the same time.  With an astute ear and a flair for making multilayered rhythms irresistibly catchy, Little Boots merits the buzz that she’s generated.  She’s a serious musician taking electro-pop seriously, and the result is a dance enthusiast's delight, especially welcome in a genre that is sometimes considered too commercial to be "real." 

If you can't see the embedded video player above, click here to watch a YouTube video of Little Boots performing "Meddle."

--Bri Nguyen

Big Pipes: A Concert Hall Organ Primer

Most musicians probably take for granted the fact that they can carry around their instruments to concerts and band practice. In today’s world, a small Fender amp and Stratocaster are all a musician needs to get rolling. And in yesterday’s world, as we learned in anthro-musicology news last week, something as simple as a little vulture bone and mammoth tusk made a fine instrument some 35,000 years ago.

On the opposite end of the scale – literally – fast forward several thousand millenia and consider that one particular instrument of choice is so large that it probably requires an installation plan, building permits, and perhaps an architect. Yes, I’m talking about the world’s largest instrument: the pipe organ.

While recently digesting some minutia related to Renaissance piano concerto transcriptions with my friend Pete who provided background research for this piece, he brought up an interesting point that there seems to be a recent resurgence of the pipe organ in concert halls nationwide.

That’s right, it turns out that pipe organs are not just for Sunday School anymore, even though many followers of the craft still convene in grandiose churches, as they did in Seattle last weekend to pay homage to the pipes and not necessarily the holy water.

Could this new movement bring pipe organs into the mainstream of the classical music world? Or does the fact that so many pipe organs already exist in concert halls indicate a fait accompli for pipe organs beyond the hallowed walls of churches everywhere? To help answer it all, let’s look at some of these noble beasts up close and personal based on their most notable features:

The Newborn: We start off by highlighting the pristine William J. Gillespie Organ which is the newest concert hall organ to be built and resides at the  Renée and Henry Segerstrom Concert Hall in Costa Mesa, CA. 

The Queen’s Throne: Certain to help sell tickets with its good looks and towering majesty, the organ inside Meyerson Hall in Dallas epitomizes the "new" wave in concert hall organs.

The Cubist: As one might expect, one of the most visually spectacular, and extremely controversial new pipe organs is the monster Rosales Opus 24 in the new Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles. 

The Big Boy: One of the most recent additions, and attracting tremendous attention, is the new Dobson (2006) at the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia.

The Southern Bell: One of the smaller blowers in the ring of newly christened organs calls Music City its home in the Nashville Symphony's new concert hall. Hmm, I do love me some honky tonk mixed with a little organ music on a Friday night to kick off the weekend.

The Postmodernist: In the category of Things To Come (a couple years away), Casavant is currently building a major organ for the new Kauffman Center in Kansas City.

The Orphan:  Alice Tully Hall in NYC is still awaiting the glorious return of its pipe organ after it was removed prior to the hall's acoustical renovation.

Calling attention to the new concert hall trend, the New York Times states that, "An organless Tully means that New York has no major concert hall with a pipe organ, bucking a nationwide trend. 

The Nip & Tuck Class: (currently or recently under renovation):

Boston Symphony Hall
Severance Hall, Cleveland

Chicago Symphony Hall

The Energizer Bunnies: Two really venerable old guys, not recently rebuilt but kept in shape by virtue of excellent maintenance:

The Atlantic City Convention Hall (which also claims to be the largest in the world).

The venerable Hutchings by Steere/Skinner in Woolsey Hall at Yale.

The Storage Rack:  Speaking of Steere, we would be remiss not to mention that Springfield, MA (Pete’s hometown) has a fine concert hall with a 1902 Steere organ that has been in crates for 30 years in the basement of a municipal building. The Steere & Turner company was located in Springfield and subsequently bought out by Skinner (then the General Motors of the organ world) in the 1920's.

Long story short, it’s an active time in the pipe organ world.  And, of course, we have not even touched on pipe organs in churches, from which many glorious sounds are emanating from pipe organs everywhere. But for secularists and other organ-obsessed fans everywhere, the options for enjoying some pipe music in multiple locales are growing, and growing, and growing.

--Lucas Hilbert

Best Classical Albums of 2009 - so far

Leopold Stokowski: Bach Transcriptions, Vol. 2
Conductor: José Serebrier
Orchestra: Bournemouth Symphony

As the authentic performance movement started to gain momentum 35 years ago, these transcriptions became a common point of derision. Why would you take the hallowed works of J. S. Bach and bastardize them with "modern" instruments? One of the marks of a Stokowski or a Beecham is that they took great works (as did Bach) and re-voiced them for their orchestras. Also, as the D minor Toccata and Fugue that opens this recording reminds us, through Mickey Mouse, Stokowski brought transcribed works to a massive audience.  These transcriptions are good, but it's the Olympian grasp of ensemble that is what this disc is all about. This is amplified by the fact that José Serebrier knows the Bournemouth Symphony like the back of his hand, and he was mentored in his youth by Stokowski, himself. There is no new ground here, just a stunning and ravishing exercise in orchestral beauty, recorded and staged with excellence (thank you Naxos). These sounds are good enough to eat.

Vivaldi
Soloist: Daniel Hope
Orchestra: Chamber Orchestra of Europe
I'm in two minds about encouraging this sort of album, but the playing and the repertoire have won me over.  It teeters close to the type of vehicle superstars use to strut their stuff.  I'm referring to the glossy, themed production, with a lush cover, with only one or two words in the title, that contain repertoire from all over the place, to show what a particular race horse can do.  Although Daniel Hope's recent offering looks the part, further comparison would be unfair.  His theme is Vivaldi that hasn't been beaten to death, and there is a great selection of well and lesser well-known works here.  Get it right and Vivaldi is a home-run.  He has a sense of theater and dance that the other Italian Baroquers never quite capture, and Hope latches into both in these pieces.  It's not exactly a bonus track, but Anne-Sophie von Otter - joins the band with the subdued, but beautiful aria "Sovvente il sole". I was sorry when the album came to an end.

The Guarneri Quartet
The Hungarian Album
Where's the American music?  I don't have a slew of new world compositions but I have returned to this album a few times.  A couple of years ago the Guarneri announced that they would stop performing as a quartet in 2009.  I don't know whether this will be their last release, but if it is, one of my favorite American groups is going out on the right note.  On offer are three quartets, two of which are by Ernö Dohnányi (D flat major and A minor, respectively), but it's the middle offering from Kodály that I keep going back to.  A little more challenging, tonally, this gem does not look west for influences, but is a rustic exploration of Hungarian folk idioms, even bird-song and musical fragments that build to a full-blown Hungarian dance at the climax of the second movement.  Distinct and different music, given a clear, cohesive voice, by a group that will be missed.

Shostakovich: Symphony No. 11 "The Year 1905"
Conductor: Vasily Petrenko
Orchestra: Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
Finished in 1957, the eleventh symphony commemorates the massacre of hundreds of Russian demonstrators by the Imperial Guard, outside the Winter Palace, in January, 1905.  Part of the brittle terror locked in this work comes from the fact that while Shostakovich was working on this piece, Soviet tanks were dealing with Hungarian students and demonstrators, with a similarly cruel hand.  That terror is not locked in there anymore.  Conducting phenom', Vasily Petrenko was still 20 years away from being born when this was written but he brings a level of cohesion and understanding that makes this one of the most accomplished, dynamic readings of this work, I have ever heard.  I've got goose-bumps just penning this.

Susan Boyle, Viral Videos, and Idol's Worldwide Appeal

If you’ve spent any time surfing the Net this past week, chances are you’ve seen the video of Susan Boyle, the 47-year-old singing sensation who stunned judges on the reality TV show Britain’s Got Talent and garnered more YouTube views than Tina Fey’s portrayal of Sarah Palin (source). 

Being something of a viral video junkie, I admit to being one of the early discoverers of Susan's video, and I confess to having pushed the play button more than once. Call me sappy, but I like seeing underdogs succeed (despite speculation that this whole thing was stage managed). And I liked seeing the way Simon Cowell’s eyebrows shot up to his hairline when Susan started singing.

Apparently, so did millions of other people.  While scrolling through the video's comments, I saw posts in Spanish, French, Russian, and Polish (in addition to the standard English). This got me to thinking about the universal popularity of the musical reality show juggernaut (i.e. Idol in all its incarnations), and subsequently led me on a search for Idol-related videos from around the world.

While I have a fond affinity for obscure, non-commercial indie artists, part of me is intrigued by the mass market appeal of musical reality TV.  So, with that being said, here are my top video finds (all titles and comments by me):

“Ken Lee” (or, The Joys of Phonetic Singing) from Bulgarian Idol  

Paul Potts Audition, Britain’s Got Talent
The former mobile phone salesman shot to stardom on the same show which launched Susan Boyle, and is set to release his second album, Passione, on May 5.  

Freestyle with Kazakh Dombra (as seen on SuperStar KZ, a.k.a. Kazakh Idol)
An inventive contestant engages in a freestyle rap while accompanying himself on a traditional Kazakh dombra. Love it!

Although Idol has been knocked for its commercialism, its worldwide appeal really can't be denied--I guess there's something compelling about people putting themselves out there.  And there's always that element of surprise--you never know when the next Kelly Clarkson or William Hung will emerge to (perhaps inexplicably) capture the public imagination.  

Okay.  That's enough Idol for one post.  To balance this out, my next post will focus on some little-known musical art form.  Promise!

--Bri Nguyen

MGMT Covered on iPhone & iPod Touch

The Mentalists, a band of innovative British ladies, have done a magnificent cover of "Kids" by MGMT, played entirely on iPhones and iPods.

I've got several of these apps on my phone, but haven't managed to pull together anything close to this cool. Have you?

--Alan Wiley

New Instruments: The Silent Drum Controller

Jamie Oliver, a PhD candidate in Computer Music at UCSD recently won 1st prize in the Guthman Musical Instrument Competition at the Georgia Tech Center for Music Technology with his innovative new instrument, the silent drum controller, which uses visual cues from an elastic drum head to shape and control sampled sounds. Check it out:





With her penchant for using cool new sound technologies, I expect to see this used in a Bjork performance in the not-too-distant future.

--Alan Wiley

Monday Morning Bluegrass, Er, Redgrass

Forget currency fixing, trade deficits, six-way summits, and bad fusion food. What the world needs now is... Redgrass! That is, bluegrass performed on traditional Chinese instruments, as seen here in a spirited performance by Mei Han's Red Chamber ensemble with John Reischman and the Jaybirds:

Thanks to Kim Komando, self-dubbed Digital Goddess, for first offering up this performance video, taped in May, 2008, here in the Northwest at Vancouver Community College.

     --Jason Kirk

Best Music of Feb, 2009: "The Happiness Project" by Charles Spearin

Charles Spearin, Canadian musician and founding member of Do Make Say Think, releases a solo effort called The Happiness Project on February 14. No accident with the date, methinks. Love abounds on this album. Not the romance of a couple, but the love of happiness that comes from connecting with a neighbor or a friend.

Spearin tells us he has long wanted to score the accidental music our voices make, when we speak. He invited neighbors into his apartment to tape them having a meandering chat, about what makes them happy. Listening to the recordings, he edited and then passed sections on to musician friends, to copy as closely as they could, on their instruments. Finally, Spearing sets these melodies, as if they were songs.

The opening effect is not unlike Steve Reich's post-phasing work, where a solo instrument (in this case a sax, guitar, bass etc.) slip-streams our "soloist", as they deliver their opening statements. Then Spearin goes his own way, snatching a phrase that interests him and riffing it out into their song. "Anna", reveling in the happiness of others, gets a floppy, jazzy combo, complemented by looped birdsong from the street outside. "Vittoria's" juvenile, halting speech grows into a syncopated brass / bass reed band treatment, replete with Hawaii 5-0 drum riffs. "Vanessa", deaf since birth, hears for the first time at 30, after surgery. Her arresting eloquence gets a beautiful, lilting loop at the moment of epiphany.

"Mrs. Morris" begins and ends the album, with her Caribbean musings on "happiness is love".  Her reprise is beautifully informed not only by the first, reverential treatment, that begins the album, but also every other track we've heard. 

Spearing finds a lot of music in all of us.  This record is a delight. -- Hugo Munday

The YouTube Symphony

What could be more inclusive and equitable than a YouTube Symphony Orchestra, composed of successful applicants from all over the world? 

I love the idea of Tan Dun writing an Internet Symphony No. 1.  Calling it "Eroica” waves a flag for a brave, new era, even if we are more than 20 years into this revolution.  Also, what better conductor than Maestro Tilson Thomas, who has championed new works as a conductor from the podium of the San Francisco Symphony and other orchestras, even composing extensively himself?

This whole project looks to have a very bright future,if it doesn't get soiled by ugly mistakes we have made in the past.  For many years, anybody that wasn't male or white stood little chance of being hired by a major symphony orchestra, until blind auditions, conducted with a screen between the applicant and the audition panel, were instituted.  Some orchestras have brought on vitriolic criticism, because they adopted these practices late or half-heartedly, most notable among them, The Vienna Philharmonic.  Malcolm Gladwell uses the blind audition problem as a prime example of bias in his book "Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking."

In the competition rules and regulations, I can't find any language that says that YouTube have made a provision for blind auditions, and for a website whose mission is to allow people to discover, watch and share original videos, I think this is something they will need to address. 

Would it be that hard to do?  I think there are ways to demonstrate attempts to eliminate bias, even in a medium that begins with watching and listening.  Whatever they come up with, I fully acknowledge the need for YouTube to scrutinize the applicants, to make sure they're actually playing and not miming to a brilliant recording of "The Flight of the Bumblebee".  Actually that could become a competition in itself.  Who can spoof the audition panel?  I can see it now - "Eh-hem.  I would now like to perform the percussion part from "Fire", by the late James Hendrix..." -- Hugo Munday

David Byrne: Addressing the Edifice

Former Talking Head, longtime multimedia artist, and noted label impresario David Byrne takes being a multi-instrumentalist to a new level.

Its not exactly burning down the house, but it's almost as cool...

     --Jason Kirk

West Coast Squeezebox Road Show

Bellow the news from the rooftops! The self-dubbed Monsters of Accordion will hit the road from August 14-23, hammering the West Coast with--if the Seattle performances of a few of these folks are any indication--what's sure to be a ridiculously fun night of rawk, starring a motley cast billing itself like so:

JASON WEBLEY - mysterious accordion cult leader. mass-hypnosis
MARK GROWDEN - dark, seductive squeezer returns after years of silence
AMY DENIO - legendary experimental performer conjures the spirits
DUCKMANDU - classical virtuosity gone horribly awry

Full tour schedule here. Attendees, write us and share stories of ensuing debauchery...

     --Jason Kirk