In pieces reviewing a year past, writers often try to find a few narratives and blanketly apply them. The problem with this approach, however. While providing some coherence, such simplification completely overlooks much of what happened that year. One can posit how, through albums like Mary Halvorson’s ‘Cloudward’ or David Murray’s ‘Francesca’, avant-garde music was […]
In the late 1850s, two decades before Thomas Edison’s phonograph, French inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville created the first sound recording device. In the generations since, the interrelation between recorded sound and new creation have continually been a matter of great controversy. When recorded music first emerged, many musicians became dismayed that it would end […]
The albums we collectively felt were the best of 2024 (technically from Thanksgiving 2023 to Thanksgiving 2024) show a beautiful range of diverse voices. I don’t think any of us consciously chose our albums based on identifiers like race, gender, or nationality. The fact it is replete with musicians from around the globe – from […]
Western literature has long noted the disconnection between perception and reality. In 1175, French monk Alain de Lille “Do not hold everything gold that shines like gold.” Geoffrey Chaucer and William Shakespeare carried this thought through The Canterbury Tales (1387-1400) and The Merchant of Venice (1596-1598), respectively. Now, centuries later, the division of what seems […]
We continue our conversation with Fred Frith (read part one here) with a focus on his work with homemade instruments, specifically his duo with Sudh Tewari, Normal. PostGenre: A little earlier, you mentioned how you put aside the guitar for a few years in the early 1980s. What led to your stepping away from the […]
When first learning about music, students are often taught to classify instruments by their sound. In the abstract, this basic exercise appears helpful. Woodwind reeds will inevitably produce a different tone than one can get on a brass mouthpiece. Tapping fingers on a string will likely not sound close to that produced by the same […]
Far too often, history is perceived through a lens of minimizing the problems of the present. According to George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” Or to Edmund Burke, “People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors.” But while the lessons learned from […]
Pablo Picasso once noted that “Without great solitude, no serious work is possible.” In music, artists can converse in ways often words alone cannot. But there is also a great power in being alone. This power is known well by Jessica Pavone. Across her two decades of live performances and unaccompanied albums, the violist has […]
As artificial intelligence increasingly disrupts our ordinary lives, there is an ongoing concern about how the new technology will impact music. In an industry in which its chief creators are already economically suppressed, it is all too easy to envision a future in which algorithms supplant artists. However, as anyone who has listened to significant […]
We continue our conversation with Terry Gibbs (read part one here), with a discussion of the intersection of Jewish music and jazz, Alice Coltrane, the meaning of music, and more. PostGenre: Jumping ahead a bit – though we will go back – there are stories of how Charlie Parker played at bar mitzvahs. You have […]
