> The first one is pretty enjoyable, and well worth getting if only for
> Robert Black's performance of Tom Johnson's "Failing: A Very Difficult
> Piece for String Bass", a classic. Black's a fine player.
>
> When I've seen them in performance, they've been inconsistent, though
> most of that has been for choice of their own material, which gets,
> imho, over-promoted during their marathons. Michael Gordon has the habit
> of stretching five minutes worth of good ideas over almost an hour.
> What happened to this year's NYC marathon?
what marathons are you talking about?
Marcin Gokieli
marcingokieli@go2.pl
<<Thanks to this excellent device
man shall reenter paradise.>>
Auden & Kallman, Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress"
- -
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 08 Jul 2000 14:13:49 -0400
From: Brian Olewnick <olewnik@idt.net>
Subject: Re: Odp: Bang On a Can
Marcin Gokieli wrote:
> what marathons are you talking about?
For a bunch of years, they (BOAC) have organized a day-long new music
fest, running around 12 hours and featuring a pretty wide variety of
music, usually with a spotlight on some major piece, like last year's
live performance of Stockhausen's 'Mikrophonie'. Generally, of course,
the performances run the gamut from awful to excellent, but the jewels
have usually been worth waiting for. I've fond memories of pieces like
Phil Kline's "Whole Lotta" for 10 boomboxes, some Rzewski, Feldman,
Xenakis, etc. On the other hand, the BOAC principals (Lang, Gordon,
Wolfe, Ziporyn) make sure to carve out a substantial amount of time for
their own pieces, usually way too much. Worst was a couple of years back
when the highlight was to be the US premiere of Bryars' "Jesus' Blood"
(with the original tape). It was the final piece of the evening and most
of the crowd was clearly staying to hear it. Despite being obvious that
the show was running late and would be cut short, Gordon and others
insisted on performing their own (drastically over-long) compositions
and ended the night without playing the Bryars. Kinda soured me on them.
Brian Olewnick
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------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2000 21:00:08 +0200
From: "Marcin Gokieli" <marcingokieli@go2.pl>
Subject: Odp: Odp: Bang On a Can
BTW, their guitarist is Mark Stewart, who has played with Frith's quartet.
He's a great player, what does he do besides it (BTW I almost killed him by
falling on him during a jam session after a Frith's concert. We drank
heavily with him and Nick Didkovsky. I hardly remeber anything... a nice
evening)?
Marcin Gokieli
marcingokieli@go2.pl
<<Thanks to this excellent device
man shall reenter paradise.>>
Auden & Kallman, Stravinsky's "The Rake's Progress"
- -
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2000 15:57:47 -0400
From: myke cuthbert <cuthbert@hcs.harvard.edu>
Subject: Re: Bang On a Can
> release - I don't know why, exactly - but the thing interested me. What are
> the other albums like (I know the eno album, 'music for airports', whichj is
> really incredible. Seriously recommended) ? and what is that band, where do
> they come from? Ziopyryn, their clarinette player is pretty amazing (as well
> as all the other musicians, in fact).
An incredible disc, but pretty hard to find, is the Bang-on-a-can
all-stars disc "Industry". The highlight on that one is their
performance of Andriessen's Hoketus. I only got mine by writing to
Bang on a Can.
m.
- -
------------------------------
Date: 8 Jul 2000 14:28:49 -0700
From: Dan Given <dlgiven@altavista.com>
Subject: Re: Zorn List Digest V2 #993
> And don't forget to listen to Michel Doneda and Urs Leimgruber.
>
> Jacques Oger
I was just about to mention Doneda when this message came through from Jacques. I've recently been enjoying two new releases with him:
Kazue Sawai/Michel Doneda/Tetsu Saitoh -- Live at Hall Egg Farm (Sparkling Beatnik) and
Helene Breschand/Michel Doneda/Gerald Zbinden -- L'intense (For 4 Ears)
Doneda is one of the more unique soprano players that I can think of. He playing is, usually, very harsh but not in that cold and dry Steve Lacy way. This is more of a bone-rattling aggressive sounding playing, with lots of overblowing. The For 4 Ears disc is harp/soprano/electic guitar, and is often quite noisy and intense. Breschand (harpist) seems to get lost in the mix a bit, but manages to come through sometimes to help create interesting drony wall of sound.
The Sparkling Beatnik disc is a bit quieter, a bit more spacious, but not much. It is koto/soprano/bass. This is my first exposure to Tetsu Saitoh, who I like quite a bit. Can anyone recommend anything else by him (preferably that isn't too hard to find)? I know there is a duet with Joelle Leandre on Egg Farm, but I have no idea how I could get a copy.
