"If a drunkard in a sober fit is the dullest of mortals, an enthusiast in a reason fit is not the most lively. And this, without prejudice to his greatly improved understanding; for, if in his elation was the height of his madness, his despondency is but the extreme of his sanity."- Herman Melville from The Confidence Man: His Masquerade
Starting work on these again.
Look out for interviews with Dr. James "Jimbo" Walsh and Luke Allen, leader of The Happy Talk band.
The previous interviews are all up now. look for the music interviews link or...here.
Folks often ask about the titles I give to musical pieces and records. The recent Naked orchestra record was called From Pandemonium to a View of Eidolons and, believe it or not, it was shortened from the song title, A dose of mer-c takes the fractured soul from pandemonium to a view of eidolons. There are a number of puns and references in there that mostly cover all of the sorts of things I was thinking of, reading, viewing etc. at the time of composition.
Here are some fun background bits about the record title:
PANDEMONIUM
From Paradise Lost by John Milton
Mean while the winged Haralds by command
Of Sovran power, with awful Ceremony
And Trumpets sound throughout the Host proclaim
A solemn Councel forthwith to be held [ 755 ]
At Pandæmonium, the high Capital
Of Satan and his Peers: thir summons call'd
From every Band and squared Regiment
By place or choice the worthiest; they anon
With hunderds and with thousands trooping came [ 760 ]
"The confusion concerning music as a means of communication clearly arises from a lack of understanding of what music really signifies. If we try to qualify the meaning of a piece or a passage of music in terms of specific emotions, we immediately run in to difficulties of which I have already spoken. Not only do we find the music essentially indefinable, but the more we try to to define it, the more unsatisfactory the result. What we achieve fails to be convincing as a true description of the music; and it becomes clear immediately that the music does not rouse the same specific feelings in different individuals- in fact, it does not define feelings at all. Once more, music embodies the attitudes and gestures behind feelings- the movements, as I have said, of our inner being, which animate our emotions and give them their dynamic content. Each of us qualifies these attitudes and gestures according to the associations that our experience has provided."- Roger Sessions from The Musical Experience
Yesterday we made much further strides forward in recording the quintet at Dave Pirner's. (See the earlier post below for further information about that.) A couple favorites: Joe cabral's piece, Cuando When? and this group playing "waiting for my gin to hit me".(Cabral singing)
For more on the subject of Waiting For my Gin To Hit Me and an interesting blog that Doug Garrison hipped me to, click here...
Aurora Nealand in studio:
Dan Oestreicher
check this lengthy but interesting article/review on the various problems connected with music presentation from the standpoint of "classical" music...
Check out the complete recent at the open ears music series performance of Jonathan Freilich & The Peaceful Revolution.
Jonathan Freilich- guitar
Aurora Nealand- Alto/ soprano sax
Dan Oestreicher- Baritone sax
Jeff Albert- Trombone
James Singleton- Bass
Doug garrison- Drums
Featuring all original compositions by Jonathan Freilich
Yesterday, the quintet performed on WWOZ for their pledge drive. The group was:
Jonathan Freilich-guitar
Aurora Nealand-alto and soprano sax
Dan Oestreicher- sax
Joe Cabral- bass
Doug Garrison- drums
Energetically speaking, the performance went well; a crazy morning energy. Some precision elements flying out the window, sacrificing themselves for a rapid phoenix-like, burn up to get the energy to carry through the transmitters.
The quintet I'm writing for, Dan Oestreicher, Aurora Nealand, Joe Cabral, Doug Garrison, is doing some recording at Dave Pirner's new home studio. It's a bit of parallel guinea pigging; he's trying to get his new studio up and running while we are trying to troubleshoot arrangements with the slightly new sort of syntax I have been writing in.
The conversation turned to whether we are making a record and, it occurred to me that I don't even know what that means anymore. Dave concurred, "What does that mean anymore." We are, nonetheless, still in there recording amidst the building of a new studio. In this time we definitely are make recordings but not records in the old sense. The purpose is clearly different. We are probably moving towards purposelessness or a much more ephemeral, rapidly evaporating type of purpose. Ironically, both Dave and I were at the tail end of whatever that world was; of course, I believe his recording career was somewhat more successful, but in both cases, in those times, there were contracts for making a product, the record.
Now?...how do you even talk about it? We're sitting there talking about making a record (rabbit ears flying everywhere in the air), producer role (more rabbit ears) etc. Dave came to the good conclusion- that now things really are a labor of love; they have to be, or why would we do it?
I'm enjoying it. the guy is a pleasure to work with. I like the "idea" of Dave as a producer. His hearts in it and there's a lot to be excited about; his studio; talented engineer, George; this talented combo messing around with some unusual sounds in a new format with new ears. Creative possibility and outcome looming.
Looking forward to seeing what happens.
This should change everything; posting of new stuff possible closer to the speed at which I operate.
This is the new website, for the ongoing exploits of musical artist, Jonathan Freilich. It will feature information about current projects, musings, phant'sies, shows and other types of presentation worth catching.
