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Top Music for 2005- The Best Stuff

Top Music for 2005- The Best Stuff

This music is probably my true DNA. . .over the last month I have been posting my opinions (who elses!) about the most interesting and to a certain extent the best music of the year. As most of you know I am an avid classical music fan-in fact, this year I've attended more "classical" music concerts than any other "type" of music-but the sad truth is that my connection to new releases has ceased to exist. The Greenwich Library in Greenwich, CT has by far and away the largest and best public collection of "classical" music. In the past, when my company was based there, I was able to go and sample 30 CDs per outing. Naturally I developed a fairly refined taste for early vocal music among other things. But now my company is based in London so instead I have to do with Heathrow and its discontents. So my selection of new and best in this area is meager by comparison. In other areas such as popular music my horizons have expanded this year as I've learned to harness the power of the Internet.

My selection criteria is simple. The music has to be original (surprising) in sound and have real sonic appeal. It has to have lasting power; that is, you have to be able to listen to it more than once and  over a lengthy period of time. And hopefully, three or say ten years from now you have to still enjoy the sound of it when you hear it coming from a distant speaker. Finally, the CD as a whole has to hold-up as an entity. A CD that has a couple of excellent cuts would not make my list. Simple criteria.

Here is a summary with links to my earlier postings of my selections for Top music of the 2005 year:

Adriana Maciel - Poeira Leve
Broken Social Scene - Broken Social Scene
Drew Gress - Seven Black Butterflies
Edward Simon - Simplicitas
DJ Dolores - Contraditoria?
John Coltrane - One Up, One Down-Live at the Half Note on Impulse
Jorge Pardo - Vientos Flamencos
Feist - Let it Die
Javier Ruibal - Sahara
Paul Motian - I Have the Room Above Her
Pedro Luis Ferrer - Rustico
Roisin Murphy - Ruby Blue
Seu Jorge - Cru
Shukar Collective - Urban Gypsy
Tackas Quartet - Beethoven's Late Quartets

The Internet has made it feasible for someone to stay in contact with music across the world and this is reflected in my selection. This capability will have deep impact on the listening behavior of those who are now coming onto the Internet at very young age-they will be able to explore, using most likely and even more sophisticated and powerful Google, to uncover artist who are like the ones they enjoy but who may not have the same level of publicity. This is the way I discovered the majority of the music I listen to this year and it was specially the case with House and Dance music which I have had little exposure to until recently. But with search tools and favorite links at sites that have related content you can quickly discover Nirvana. Then, there is the power of Peer to Peer. Like LSD it will soon be outlawed and the NSA will be cracking down on all those who engage in this sinister practice of "file sharing". One day, perhaps, it will be looked the same way we look at radio-it didn't destroy the music industry. In fact, Radio helped created the lethargic creature (our music industry) that now wants to stiffle any sort of digital music exchange between individuals.

Well, so much for my ruminations. In the next couple of days I will link to other Best lists so you can get a tasting for what others were saying. Incredibly enough there was a sense of concensus among the rock crowd. look it over and let me know what you think.

Crop Circles in Kansas

Earth Observatory

Top Music for 2005- Roisin Murphy

Ruby Blue, Roisin Murphy's new release, is a perfect vehicle to showcase her vast vocal talents. I had been disapointed with her efforts through her pop duo, Moloko, after their initial grounbreaking release in the mid-90's Do You Like my Tight Sweater?  Ruby Blue continues her electronic foray but the beats are varied and the arrangements by Mathew Herbert are exactly what the sound doctor ordered. A lovely pop album for those whose ears can tolerate some unfamiliarity. Here's a typically pop-ish interview from Fused magazine:

So what’s going on – have we heard the last of Moloko?
I’m just not sure.  There’s a lot that happens when people split.  There’s no full stop.

Your album – is this instead of therapy?
My problem is that I’m so passionate, over passionate.  It’s all the contradictions that come with it.  I was spending a lot of time on my own; I had no life in London, you know, it was just necessary to make it, kind of part of a process.  He (Mark Brydon – her partner and Moloko co-founder) was my best friend, the one I spoke to if I had a bad dream, or a good one for that matter.  It’s like getting used to being responsible for yourself again without that.  That’s what this album was about it helped me do that.

What else do you do to get it all out your system?
I have all these scrapbooks of words and phrases; it’s a visual thing.  They’re there for me when I don’t know where I’m going.

How do you like your portrait on the album cover?  Do you think it’s terribly vain to have such a thing hanging up?
No way, I’d never hang it up, it’s huge!  I did buy it but I’ve got it for my kids so they can see what I once looked like.  Simon (Henwood) was famous for doing these kind of one-dimensional portraits of teenagers.  When we hooked up, he got excited about my sequins.  All that glitter!  I was pulling all these mad moves to make abstract shapes.  He loved it.

Do you get sick of ‘yes’ men?
I’m not unilaterally told I’m brilliant; some tell me I’m a fool.  My E.P’s are as close to 100% as I could get them.  I think they’re astonishingly good!

Do you worry that this album doesn’t err on the side of commercial?
I don’t think about it.  I didn’t make a big ‘here it is’ about it. You know, it was done in down time and that’s when things get hairy.  I suppose I entered into the whole thing in a naïve way and the album was made for the sake of making it.  It was just something I needed to do.

You speak about things being ‘beautifully flawed’.  Can you cope with that or do you seek perfection?
I’ve felt feelings that are perfect.  With actions, I like people to see the dark and the light.  I can dance like a fairy and then stumble like a fool.  That’s just the way it is.

What would you be doing if not this?
I'd probably be having a nervous breakdown!  No, seriously, something with visual art.

So music wasn't always your first passion?
I just kind of fell into it. I was floating around between Ireland and England, met Mark and suddenly I had a recording contract.  I guess it was fate.

readymade fotos

Ave maria at readymade

Top Music for 2005-Tackas Quarter

Though I was not in sufficient contact with new Classical releases in 2005, I was fortunate enough to get a hold of the authoritative renditions of the late Beethoven's quartets by the Tackas Quartet. There are many very good version of these deep and timeless pieces of music by Beethoven - I still play with regularity the Quarteto Italiano's sculptural interpretations. Tackas' approach is nuanced and, with the ever refinement of today's audio technology. superior sonically to other versions. The interplay highlights this experienced quartet's intelligence when it comes to best of the best compositions. From Bernard Solomon's Introduction to his book Late Beethoven:   

It is well recognized that during his last years, especially from 1817 on, Beethoven's music underwent a transformation that redefined his legacy and in a series of powerful masterstrokes forever enlarged the sphere of human experience accessible to the creative imagination. Some may disagree about the precise dates of the inception of the late style, differ over the extent to which it emerged from immanent or external sources, and struggle to describe its characteristics in a coherent and meaningful way, but few have disagreed about the existence of the phase itself, let alone its seismic character or its chief examples—the late sonatas and string quartets, the "Diabelli" Variations and bagatelles, the Ninth Symphony and Missa solemnis. And many Beethovenians have called attention to adumbrations of particular aspects of the late style in keynote works written between about 1810 and 1816, seeing in the solo and string sonatas, chamber music, song cycle, and symphonies of those years signs of transition towards an emerging set of paradigms.

Students of Beethoven have wondered whether and how the phenomenon of the late style may be linked to the changing circumstances of his life. Many conceivable connections have been proposed and elucidated, often with fruitful results, for it is clear that no single perspective can exhaust the style's sources. Prominent among biographical factors are his state of mind, his descent into almost total deafness by 1818, and his increasing vulnerability to the aging process. Psychologically, of course, this was an era of enormous stress for Beethoven, and his inner conflicts have been thought to be somehow connected to the emergence of the late works. Attention is inevitably drawn to the failure of his marriage project by his early forties, followed by his renunciation of the possibility of domestic happiness, and his increasing tendency to isolate himself from the world. Here, one cannot overlook that the onset of the late style roughly coincided with the harrowing legal struggle over the guardianship of his nephew Karl. Historical and cultural factors also play their part: the close of a dramatic period in European history, climaxed by the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the consolidation of coercive regimes in the chief continental monarchies, exemplified by the autocratic Habsburg state under Emperor Franz II and Prince Metternich.

There is a conspicuous fusion of retrospective and modernist tendencies in Beethoven's late style, but the relative absence of contemporary musical influences confirms the weight of Beethoven's originality, his expanded rhetorical vocabulary, his formulation of unprecedented ways of representing states of being that flourish beyond the boundaries of ordinary experience, and his transformations of Classical structural models, preparing the way for their eventual dissolution. The exhaustion of the vaunted "heroic style" and its descent into self-parody in Wellington's Victory and other propagandist pièces d'occasion written in connection with the victory over Napoleon and the subsequent convening of the Congress of Vienna made it imperative that Beethoven locate a hitherto unimagined musical problématique. It was a time of many endings—historical, philosophical, biographical, stylistic—a period of flux in which old habits of mind needed to be reconsidered and the most deeply held beliefs subjected to scrutiny.

More on this

Top Music for 2005- Jorge Pardo

A mixture of influences dominates the sound of Jorge Pardo's music: jazz, rock, and flamenco are all there but you can also hear classical and his traditional Spanish roots. Pardo, a member of Paco de Lucia's sextet, has been generating very good, capable albums for the last ten years. They have contained strong moments of brilliance but overall they lacked cohesiveness and at times due to the confluence of influences were a little strained. This offering is pure and has an acoustic quality that surpasses all previous outings. Vientos Flamencos is an authentic and lyrical rendition of what can be done in today's musical environment. Utilizing flute, saxophone, guitar, voices, and body percussion, Pardo and his companions create a satisfying brew.  Bravo, as they say! From Flamenco-World.com here's and interview regarding his tour with Chick Corea and the travails of flamenco music in Europe:
And going back to Chick Corea, that awakens a good deal of curiosity among audiences. What's your professional opinion of the tour?                  

In my opinion it's been positive in every respect. The work  with Chick is interesting, he's a good leader. And he said it himself, he doesn't hide the fact that the music he's making  contains our heritage, bears our hallmarks. Commercially speaking, it seems like the group is on the up. Because to the jazz  scene, when we're presented by Chick Corea, the group seems new even though we've been together twenty or thirty years. It makes you mad, but at the same time you have to be grateful.   Since everybody sees the project as something fresh, it seems like the group is destined for long life. This year we still have a few tours to do, one in autumn and another in winter, of Europe and the U.S. Many of the concerts are in Spain, at least fourteen in November.                  

It'll be satisfying to be seen as a prophet in your own land, won't it?                

On the one hand, I think why should Chick have to come to my country to present my music so that I get hired and am accepted by my critics, by my country's newspapers... But, on the other hand, since that's the way of the world and you can't throw yourself to the dogs, you accept the positive side of it. Something that does hurt when I hear it is that Paco de Lucía's group is playing with Chick Corea.   As a basic explanation, I don't mind. But when people say that in your country, where they know you and they've listened to you a thousand times, or where you can find out who Carles Benavent or Jorge Pardo or Rubem Dantas are... that gets on my nerves.                

So what about next year?            

Well later in February, more or less, Chick has plans (he should say that himself, but I'll tell you in advance) to expand the group in the sense that he plans to bring in different guest artists. These artists will be drawn both from the flamenco scene - there may be a few surprises - and from the jazz scene, to play certain special events.                

How well do you think flamenco stands up on the jazz scene?                  

You come to the conclusion that jazz is a trade mark. And us local artists don't actually play jazz. We play Spanish music from this century with influences of all kinds: from  jazz, from Arabia, from Brazil, from Jimi Hendrix... The only  way of selling our music abroad, even in our own country, is to call it ‘jazzwhatever’. That's the only  way to get signed up for any jazz festival. If not, it would         be practically unviable. How many flamenco festivals are there in Europe? Four. The jazz festivals are a refuge for so many musicians like us from other countries... Anouar Braheim, for example - no way is that jazz but he's at all the European festivals. Paco de Lucía himself, does he play jazz? No, he plays flamenco. Jazz right now is a label to sell music,  whatever music you like. But when you use the label flamenco, the same thing doesn't happen. What attracts people to flamenco is a certain bohemian, a certain romantic notion, but it doesn't  sell. To sound cool in interviews it's fine, but go ahead and advertise the ‘Enrique Iglesias flamenco festival’- you won't get fifteen thousand people turning up!

Top Music of 2005 - Edward Simon

I have been an ardent fan of Simon's brand of jazz since the mid-90's when I heard his second deceptively innovative album Edward Simon with the always excellent Mark Turner on saxophone. The Venzuelan pianist has a way of infusing his music with latin flavors yet always remains rigorous with his improvisations, lacing them with intelligence and emotion. Simplicitas, his 2005 release in mostly a trio format with the evercapable bassist Avashai Cohen and percussionist Adam Cruz, continues his evolution as one of the most enjoyable of contemporary pianist playing today. Here is John Kelman's review of Simplicitas at allaboutjazz.com:

Some artists seem to burst onto the scene, even though the reality may be something else entirely. Ethan Iverson of the Bad Plus and Esbjorn Svensson of E.S.T. both worked below the radar for periods of time before they were, seemingly suddenly, “discovered.” Such instant fame comes with a disadvantage, however. Being the flavour of the month also implies that, at some point, the public’s tastes will move on.

Others gradually insinuate themselves into the public’s consciousness, often through years of apprenticeship with others and a steady move towards a solo career. Case in point is pianist Edward Simon, who spent the early ‘90s working with artists including Greg Osby and, perhaps most notably, Bobby Watson’s Horizons. Simon has also developed some long-standing musical partnerships that continue to this day, including those with alto saxophonist David Binney, with whom he recently released a duet recording, Fiestas de Agosto, and guitarist Adam Rogers, on whose three Criss Cross albums he’s appeared, including the new Apparitions. The wealth of experience that Simon has gained has given him a broader scope that never forgets the folkloric roots of his Venezuelan upbringing, and it has kept him from being branded as just another Latin player.

On Simplicitas Simon continues to expand the piano trio tradition that he so vividly explored on ‘03’s The Process. Mixing original material with compositions by Brazilian singer Luciana Souza—who also adds wordless vocals to the impressionistic, ECM-informed Simon piece, “Unknown Path”—and Irish saxophonist Michael Buckley—whose melancholic hymnal, “South Facing,” is a highlight of the album, demonstrating Simon’s undivided attention to the nuances of and between every note—Simon has created a set where the songs flow forward with a distinct sense of purpose.

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War and activism

Chomsky in an interview with Charngchi  Way at Znet:

"Almost anything we understand about international affairs is on the level that my 10-year old grandson can figure out, if given a chance. So just give people a chance to figure it out for themselves. Everything we are talking about, for example, is completely obvious. You would see it unless you are deeply indoctrinated not to see it. Okay, just get people to question sensibly, be reasonable, and think through the obvious and so on.

Take, say, the invasion of Iraq. Outside of the West, everybody, including Iraq, everybody just assumes the obvious, the invasion of Iraq was undertaken because Iraq is right at the center of a major oil producing, energy producing region of the world and the US wants to extend control over it. It's like a truism.

The polls in Baghdad as they had, just takes it for granted. In the West if anybody says that, they are immediately denounced as a conspiracy theorist, or anti-American, or some lunatic tirade. What you are supposed to believe is that the US would have, as they called, "liberated" Iraq, if it was an island in the Indian Ocean producing lettuce. That's what you are supposed to believe. How much does it take to peel that away? Well, you know, you have to be willing to do it. And people don't think of it. Once somebody mention it to them it's kind of obvious. But when you are inundated with massive propaganda on the contrary, it's not easy to think of it.

For example, take a look at the US media, have you seen anybody say that? I mean, it's so obvious that a child could see it, have you ever seen it said? Well, you know, if nothing ever said, people don't think of it. You were there in Jamaica Plains? You remember I started by talking about the polls, well, you know, there's a reason why those polls are never published, literally. People are not supposed to know that their own attitudes are right in the mainstream. I mean, if you are an individual, you may have your own attitudes, but everything that you are hearing and seeing says you are a nut. So you think, okay, I am a nut. If you knew that's what the large majority are thinking, people would get together and do something about it.

So, intellectual self-defense is not easy, but it's not hard either. The instant you get the idea of it, everything falls apart pretty quickly. Unless there are real barriers, and the more educated you are, the more barriers. After all, it is what education is about. Large part of it is about indoctrination."

gravestmor fotos

Osaka aquarium by gravestmor at flickr