Regular readers know I’m a DMB fanatic and I’ve written about the group at length before and in three other MTH-V entries (here, here, and here). Simply enjoy the debut single’s video (“Mercy,” which features much many fan contributions) and get your copy ASAP. (My “super deluxe edition” should arrive any minute…)
Below is perhaps my favorite single James Carter clip on YouTube. It’s a full concert from Germany in 2004, the year his Organ Trio – with fellow Detroiters Gerard Gibbs and Leonard King – began. (I saw them that spring at Detroit’s Orchestra Hall and they blew the roof off the place.) Since then they’ve been tearing it up across the globe and through two official releases: Out of Nowhere and At The Crossroads. (Those musicians are also featured on Live At Baker’s Keyboard Lounge.) Do watch the full concert if you have time, but if you don’t the first tune alone (Eddie Harris’s “Winter Meeting”) sums it up pretty well, especially Carter’s final chorus. An interesting tidbit from the Montreux performance: Carter eulogized both Whitney Houston and Andy Griffith (whom died that week). He based the opening cadenza for “I Wonder Where Our Love Has Gone” on Houston’s “Saving All My Love For You,” and then for his last chorus on “JC On The Set” he quotedThe Andy Griffith Show’s theme song over the rhythm changes.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_d0I97ZNl0
Next up, Spectrum Road. This is a live clip taken about ten days before I saw them. It includes a bit of everything: solos by Reid, Medeski, and Santana, and vocals by Jack Bruce. While Reid may show off a bit more than I’d like, the group works quite well as a unit. And Medeski always brings the madness, of course. Spectrum Road is a tribute to The Tony Williams Lifetime, one of the first fusion bands. If only I had a clip of when John McLaughlin made a surprise appearance at the end of the Montreux set…
Capping off this post, and the Montreux set, is Neneh Cherry & The Thing. This is one of the better, more representative videos I could find with decent audio and video quality. I wasn’t aware of either group, let along their collaboration, before purchasing my ticket. But I can safely say that I’m now a fan and would love to see them again. It’s not for the faint of heart. But it islovely…
What do Ani DiFranco and my wedding anniversary (today) have in common? Quite a bit.
I’ve been a fan of Ani’s for over a decade now. I wouldn’t say I’m a die-hard fan, but I have a few albums and have seen her live a couple times. She’s a great and prolific songwriter, and after all more than two decades is still hustling and bustling – tearing up the road, releasing album after album, managing her record label Righteous Babe Records, and engaging in social and political activism. Ani is also a great performer, with her nimble voice and raucous guitar style making her infectious both as a solo act and with a backing band.
Ani’s hometown is Buffalo, NY, and she does much to support her home community. Righteous Babe Records’s headquarters remains in Buffalo, connected to an amazing performance space and art gallery known collectively as Babeville. Originally an ornate – but later run-down – cathedral in downtown Buffalo, Ani purchased and updated the space. Not only did she provide Buffalo with a new and unique stage, but the hall is also rented out for private functions. This where I come in.
My wife, also a Buffalo native, and I were married at Babeville’s Asbury Hall last year and it couldn’t have been more perfect. (We didn’t select it because of Ani’s connection – it was just a happy coincidence.) The unique venue – old, artsy, classy – was the right size for our number of guests, and the staff was simply amazing. (The wedding and reception were both onsite.) A few of my friends are big Ani fans, so there was also the added fun of both taking vows and dancing right by the stage. And having the wedding party camp out in the green rooms was a nice bonus.
Here’s a video of Ani and her band performing at Babeville. It’s from here DVD Live at Babeville. (I don’t yet have that one, but I do have and love Trust.) I generally don’t like including “DVD material” in this series, but considering it’s from the official Righteous Babe Records YouTube account, I call that a wash.
“Little Plastic Castle” (NOTE: her fans are loud and love to sing…)
Though I’ve tried to temper the references and/or devoted entries since the blog’s inception, regular readers may be familiar with my deep love of DMB. Besides keeping company with the rest of my Top 5, I’ve seen them far more than any other act (56 times and counting) and only Miles Davis comes close to rivaling them in my record collection. (Thank you, Complete Columbia Recordings box sets…)
This past Friday and Saturday I attended their two-night stand in Saratoga, NY. SPAC is one of the four coveted venues for a DMB fan, the shows at which always result in top-notch setlists, rare performances, and a hardcore fan base. (The other three venues are The Gorge in George, WA, Red Rocks Ampitheatre in Morrison, CO, and Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Elkhorn, WI. I’ve seen 21 shows at The Gorge but have yet to attend the other two.) It’s also one of the band’s favorite venues (along with the other three), hence the “historic” performances (in DMB lore, that is).
This was my second trek to SPAC, with the other being in 2009. I briefly discussed that experience here. That night’s concert in question was one of the best DMB shows I’ve attended. “The Stone” was beyond epic, “Halloween” was out of nowhere, and the band was on fire. While I don’t think a single night from this past weekend beats the 06.13.09 show, the diverse setlists for both nights probably elevated over my previous trip as a whole. Rarities, new songs, and guest musicians (Lettuce‘s Eric Krasno and The Shady Horns) sprinkled both shows for a solid weekend.
I often try to “connect the dots” with these video posts, and I can do so again here. First, it’s a somewhat timely follow-up to the aforementioned “Stifle Yourself” post. I once again saw “Halloween” at SPAC, only this time my phone remained firmly in pocket all the while. This time I just soaked it in. I considered taking a picture of all the other fans taking pictures and videos, but figured that’d open up a meta-can of worms that’s best kept closed. Second, like last week, it’s a nice reminder of a great live musical experience.
The audio on some of these could be a bit better, but the video quality is pretty good. Not all songs from both nights are up, so it’s somewhat of a random sampling, but enough to give you a good taste. (And the best part is that I got to top the weekend off by seeing Radiohead in Detroit Monday night… 🙂 )
N1: Finale, “Halloween” into “Tripping Billies”
N1: “Seven” — FUNKY mixed meter goodness in all its glory. (My favorite song from Big Whiskey…)
N1: “Can’t Stop” (w. Eric Krasno & The Shady Horns) — One of the “lost” 2006 tunes starting to enjoy a gradual comeback. (Please do the same for “Break Free”…)
N2: “Two Step” — Finale, and the crowd chanted for it all night long (until they gave up and started chanting “Last Stop,” which is heard at the beginning).
It’s been about 4.5 months since I was fortunate enough to attend the final “preview performance” of Philip Glass‘s Einstein on the Beach. Just as the opera continues to shock and intrigue almost forty years after its premiere, I myself remain utterly fascinated all these months later. And it’s not that I’m simply taken with the work per se, but rather just what I experienced in person on that lovely winter afternoon in Ann Arbor in January. That night’s immediate reaction is detailed here. (If you don’t know about this piece, do reference the above links.)
Now that I’m beyond jotting down my immediate thoughts, I can safely said that I truly was moved by this experience. Without being hyperbolic I feel as if my “aesthetic self” can be measured in some ways as “before Einstein” and “after Einstein.” It resonated with me deeper and more profoundly than I had anticipated. As my wife can attest, I frequently bring it – either the work in general, my seeing it, or what it means to me – up in conversation. Frequently. And since January I can specifically remember three separate occasions in which I tossed and turned throughout the night because it raced through my mind. (The most recent was this past weekend, hence this week’s “MTH-V.”) Although I’m sure this weekend’s episode was partially in thanks to the tweeting of the entire libretto. (Which I of course enthusiastically followed.)
What I wouldn’t give to see experience it again on this (final?) world tour. There are so few chances, and I have either competing travel plans (as is the case for this weekend when it’s in Toronto) or a full slate of gigs lined up (September in Brooklyn) to contend with. Yet I continue scheming to try to make it work. Who knows…
So why the fascination with a 4.5-hour intermission-less, plot-less opera “about” Einstein? Well, Albert’s own words perhaps sum it up best: “The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. Whoever does not know it and can no longer wonder, no longer marvel, is as good as dead, and his eyes are dimmed.” -from The World As I See It And it was both mysterious and beautiful.
Because Einstein is easier done than said, this week’s video is of abbreviated footage of “Train” (Act I, Scene 1). An audience member captured pretty good footage from the Montpellier performance (the next stop after Ann Arbor’s “previews”). And I say abbreviated because it occasionally skips to “condense” the scene down to 10 minutes. The actual scene is over twenty minutes in length, though you wouldn’t know it sitting in the audience. (You lose all sense of time and place if you allow yourself to get lost in it.) This person has posted condensed versions of most all of the scenes and knee plays (interludes), but I chose the opening scene because this is what sucked me in. During the introductory knee play I was still just thinking this is so cool. But a few minutes into “Train” I was far from Earth and didn’t return until over four hours later.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYCwvqF9Pe0
The official trailer for the Brooklyn run features 2012 footage from Ann Arbor, I believe…
For fans of the LEGO parodies, check out these two videos: here and here.