Musical Ramblings

Pump Up La Confiture

I've already professed my love for the Lost Fingers. Here's a HQ video of them doing Pump Up The Jam. AWE-SOME!

Jason Ricci's New CD is Out!

Moanin' (Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers)

I love Art Blakey's (well, technically Bobby Timmons') Moanin' as I've mentioned in the past. In the following video I attempt to play the theme and tab it out for you on a second position diatonic harmonica in Bb. If you like jazz and if you don't already own the album that this comes from, you're missing out on one of the most vibrant jazz records of all time, the aptly titled Moanin'. On this record you will also find the wonderful Blues March which I will tab out in a few weeks (still working on it!)

As usual, this comes with tabs which you activate by clicking on the upwards arrow in the lower right corner of the youtube screen.

Musical Ramblings: Now on Twitter

About three months ago I joined twitter to see what it was, with mostly a professional aim in mind. Turns out I've been tweeting about music just as much as I have about telecoms (my day job) so I thought I'd give you the opportunity, if you're interested, of following my thrilling twitter posting. It's very easy, just go to http://www.twitter.com/Fiberguy and click on Follow. If you're not already on twitter, you will have to open an account first, of course.

I'm planning extensive twitter coverage of Harmonica sur Cher 2009. Maybe by then I'll have sorted how to send twitpics with a blackberry. Until then, I've put my twitter feed up here on the right hand side so even non twitterites might follow. Don't blame if I don't just talk about music, though!

Ian Siegal and Greg Szlapczynski: Clap Hands

Ian & Greg: House Where Nobody Lives

This one really makes my skin crawl. It's a good illustration - at least as good as video will carry over - of how intense and deep Ian can be. Greg's playing here is all subdued and country like. I just love it to bits. I got hold of Ian's new CD The Dust at the concert, and it's solo stuff in this vein all the way through. I'll be reviewing it soon, but you don't have to wait: it's all good!

There's one more video from that gig to come, I'll post it tomorrow. Hope you're not getting sick of these!

Ian Siegal & Greg Szlapczynski à Utopia

Once per month, usually on the first Monday, Greg Szlapczynski holds musical court at the Utopia club near Montparnasse. It's called Gregtime and it's a themed musical evening with guests, the only constant being that it's run by Greg himself.

Last night I risked a (very) late night in order to go and see him at Utopia. I've seen Greg many times and I really like his playing, but what really attracted me this particular evening was the presence of the all too rare Ian Siegal, and the theme: Tom Waits. Considering how Ian's voice is one of the few I think might well compete with that of Tom Waits, it was a match made in heaven.

I've written before of Ian's intensity and how much I liked his one but last record Swagger. I've also written of my love for Greg's playing and composing, as showcased in both his recent Road Movie(s) and my personal favourite of his, La Part du Diable. So I wasn't taking much risk in attending besides getting a parking ticket (I didn't), risking not getting in (I didn't realise Greg had put me on the guest list) and being suffocated by smoke (I did, but it wasn't quite as bad as I anticipated).

Anyway, it was a good night although I wished at times that the musicians backing Greg and Ian had a better feel for where they, and particularly Ian was coming from. Ian has totally internalised the power of sparseness, and while there were moments of absolute magic, there were also times where the band wasn't really syncing with him, instead drowning his powers in a wave of chunk-a-chunk. I guess it's an inevitable consequence of jammy environments, even amongst respected musicians.

Still, I can't be picky, it was a good night of excellent music, I just felt it could have been better with just Ian and Greg on stage. I took tons of photos with the new camera I got for my birthday (you can find a few here) and I filmed four vids with my nifty kodak zi6. They take ages to upload, but here's the first one. I'll be posting the others over the next few days:

Minor Swing (aka Making a Fool of Myself in Public)

Earlier this week I was at a wonderful conference in DC called Freedom to Connect which combined heavy duty considerations about the future of broadband and the internet and musical entertainment by the wonderful John Jorgenson Quintet. The conference organiser had warned me that he would invite me to play something on the harmonica, and this is it, Django and Stephane's own Minor Swing.

My harp playing is full of mistakes - accuracy (especially in the theme and later in a crazy attempt to diddle on hole 3), choking reeds (at the end of my first chorus) and placement at the beginning - but I don't care: I had a load of fun. It's not every day you get the opportunity to play with such talents.

I'm using a G harp here played in A ie. 3rd position. I added the tabs for the opening theme and the closing theme, you just need to toggle them in Youtube to see them.

John Jorgenson, the American Manouche

Earlier this week I was in Washington for a work-related conference. Luckily, said conference was blessed with musical entertainment as well as a lot of brain power and nerdy sessions. The music was performed by John Jorgenson and his quintet. Jorgenson plays Gipsy Jazz like the best of them, and I couldn't resist filming their last performance of the conference on my zi6.

Incidentally, I also played a number with them which was filmed by one of my friends there. I'll upload it this week-end, although my playing is far from adequate alongside such virtuosos...