Musical Ramblings

How d'you make a saw sing?

In French a saw (une scie) is a word used not only to describe a tool and occasional musical instrument, it's also used to describe a classic that's been played to death and therefore (usually) bores to death as a consequence.

When I saw that Swedish harp player Filip Jers had released a video of St James Infirmary I groaned inside. And then I clicked, because that's what you do. I'm glad I did. This is how you make a saw sing:

Fun music for a sunday

My kids and I just found this on Youtube and loved it. Maybe I did too. A bit...

Session Americana in Cambridge

I'm writing this from Boston, where I came over for work this week. I landed on Sunday afternoon, and as soon as my luggage was laid down at the hotel, I jumped in a cab to the New School of Music in Cambridge, where Session Americana was playing.

Session Americana is one of the bands in which the amazing Jim Fitting of Treat Her Right fame officiates as a harp player and singer. It was an incredibly fun gig with a really cool atmosphere, and it's not that often that you hear musicians playing unamplified to an audience (although there was a vocal microphone at the center of the round table).

In their normal concerts (this one was unusual, in a very small room in a music school), the round table that they're all sitting under has a microphone for each musician just under the table and the central mic for the vocalist. Thankfully, the small room helped with a (mostly) unamplified sound.

Last night I shared a few beers with Jim and we talked shop, and also discussed Morphine and Mark Sandman. Jim is a harp player I really like, he's got a sober quality that is not the best shared skill amongst harp players, pro or otherwise, and there's always something really interesting and different about his bands.

In addition, it's very humbling to talk to a guy who played with one of my musical heroes for so long. Jim mentioned that Dana Colley and Jerome Dupree of Morphine were playing that evening with a slide player, but I stupidly didn't write down the name of the club and subsequently couldn't find it... Oh well, I guess that'll be for my next Boston trip!

I took some photos and shot a few videos on Sunday, including the following song called Coal Oil Johnny:

Derek Trucks Band - So Close, So Far Away

This is the first of four videos I did from the DTB concert at the Alhambra in Paris. The sound is very saturated, I'm afraid I was too close to the stage for my zi6 not to saturate with the bass frequencies. Derek's playing is really cool though, so I hope you can bear the non-optimal sound. This is So Close, So Far Away from Joyful Noise.

Gutpuppet - Astral Harmonium

I don't know much about mindblowing substances, but I do know something about mindblowing music, and this certainly is it. Astral Harmonium is a track from Gutpuppet's latest and (in my opinion) best album, Gutpuppet 4.

Everything about this astounds me. The whole first section has Bill playing probably the most advanced stuff I've ever heard on the harmonica ever, using intervals and textures, counterpoints and tons of stuff I don't quite know how to name. Then when Scot comes in things get really intense, there's a level of interplay here that's really unique.

But enough of me blathering about it, let the music speak for itself:

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!

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:

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...