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What are you listening to? Part III
- Thread starter S.B.G
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Baroque music also relied on the bass for rhythm, and you won't usually see percussion (other than keyboards) in a Baroque ensemble.
Actually, a cello, double bass (I think I mentioned a superb jazz trio I saw last year in Bosnia, which included a guitar and double bass - they were excellent), a viol da gamba - or an archlute, or - best of all, a theorbo - were usually more than sufficient for both bass and sustaining rhythm in Baroque music.
Well, I'm a "full-tine musician" when I'm not in school - even when I was in high school, I still played gigs at least three times a week. I think I play professionally often enough to call myself a musician. Right now in college I haven't done much so far, but it literally just started... I've also done soundtracks and video projects, too (both as the musician in the video and as the editor of the video). Started playing around age 3, started producing (messing aroung with patches on the computer) and recording myself when I was 6 (I recorded myself nearly every time I sat down at the piano/keyboard), and I started playing jazz at around 11. Like I said I haven't done much in the past two or so weeks, and idk how many actual gigs I'm going to do up here in Wisconsin, but back home I'm quite established. I play piano and am also a VERY mediocre bass player (but I'm trying to get better). To compensate for my terrible bass guitar playing, I HAVE become good (I'd say) at left-hand walking bass on piano. I'm also a decent jazz organ player, but I can never really practice because my keyboard isn't the combo organ model (it's the piano-focused one). I also have synthesizers, but I don't really know much about them--I haven't had the time to learn about synthesis in-depth, but it doesn't really matter for me. If I need a synthesizer on a gig, I'll bring one and figure it out. I haven't really made any records or any of that--I've played on some people's college audition tapes that were recorded in-studio, but that's about it. A guitar player asked me a few weeks ago if I could do a record with him next year, so if that happens, that'll be my first one...
What kind of stuff did/do you play?
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That thing you saw in Bosnia was piano, guitar, and bass, right? I can't remember... I haven't done many gigs with that lineup, I've done far more with piano, bass, and a horn player (trumpet, sax, etc.). I've also done just a few with just piano and bass, though I hope to do more of those, they're always fun! And of course I do MANY, MANY, duo acts with a vocalist or horn player, and quartet acts with a bass player, drummer, and horn player.
I sort of wish there was a modern equivalent to the theorbo (is there??), that'd make for some interesting lineups in jazz groups... Best you can get currently is the guitar, which still only has six strings that don't go very low.
The double bass (rather than a cello) that night in central Bosnia, with three (excellent) musicians, really blew me away; it was brilliant, and I hadn't been expecting a double bass in such an ensemble; I was dining with some colleagues in a small (but packed) restaurant the night before the election, and the musicians (I imagine it was some manner of residency) showed up and played for around an hour, hour and a half, with a break of twenty minutes in the middle of their set, which was that nexus of seemingly effortless jazz, modern Balkan trad, and the 'chanson' (but instrumental) music you used to find in French, (and Italian) and old style Serb and Croatian (50s, 60s, 70s), café music.
Piano and bass is a classic pairing, for a very good reason; you get the sound, texture, tone, and (above all) tune, not forgetting depth, rhythm and bass all wrapped up in two instruments.
The Baroque equivalent pairing would have been Baroque lute and theorbo, (as keyboards seem to have been less portable).
No reason you can't play a theorbo in jazz, unless you want to insist on historical - or traditional - verisimilitude at all times when playing, and jamming, and enjoying and composing music, which would be something of a shame; it is an amazing instrument, - the bass is extraordinary - and I'd love to see (well, hear) how it would (could) work in - released from the (wonderful) confines of the Baroque era.
Now, obviously, it works brilliantly with Baroque music; this was its era, and the music of the time was written with a deep knowledge of the instrument and an awareness of how best to play to its strengths; however, I'd imagine - at the very least - that it could work well with some modern 'trad' inspired music (some Irish trad, or stuff such as Steeleye Span, for example), as such music salutes (and recognises) Renaissance and Baroque ancestry.
Having said that, if modern instruments can be used - along with some with a more venerable ancestry - to inform the music of much modern trad, why not see (hear, listen to) what a theorbo (or archlute, or lute) sounds like when reimagined in a different musical context, sound and setting?
On this (or a closely related) topic, the wonderful (I love his stuff) American artist (and specialist in early music plucked instruments) Brandon Acker made a terrific (short) video with the title "Doth My Lute Hath The Courage To Shred?" and decided to demonstrate that it is indeed possible to 'shred' on the Baroque lute; I have always loved the rosette soundhole of the Baroque lute, it is a gorgeous instrument.
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I mean this in a positive way: now that your undergraduate experience has begun, I hope you will spend less time on MR (so that you can participate in as much of what your university and university community have to offer as possible!).
Don't worry! I'm finding myself becoming plenty occupied with other things!
Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
That's a good record.Big Thief - Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You
A wonderful sounding JP bootleg from 1979. Also weirdly known as 'Employee Killer Pension'
A few pieces of music from an album (a CD, on my computer's iTunes, and on my iPod) called Early Venetian Lute Music.
These are Calata Ala Spagnola and Saltarello & Piva, both by Joan Ambrosio Dalza
These are Calata Ala Spagnola and Saltarello & Piva, both by Joan Ambrosio Dalza
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Just discovered the most extraordinary pianist, Cliburn gold medalist at just 18 years old:
some pianists pound the keys. He makes love to them, caressing each key to do its best, aggressively if needed. Reminds me of the frothy way Liberace played.
His Beethoven Piano Concerto #5 with the Gwangju Symphony orchestra is an acoustic delight.
some pianists pound the keys. He makes love to them, caressing each key to do its best, aggressively if needed. Reminds me of the frothy way Liberace played.
His Beethoven Piano Concerto #5 with the Gwangju Symphony orchestra is an acoustic delight.
Not great quality but still a good listen/watch... The band that surrounds James Mercer now is much better but these 4 guys gave it a good run. Until the bass player turned out to be a jerk.