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January 22, 2011 - Bonnie Jones and Samita Singh @ Red Room, Baltimore...
Bonnie Jones performing her multitracked text
Senator Mikulski (D-MD) during the intermission. (Wearing the purple coat.) Turns out that she knows John Berndt's mother. He's the guy talking with her and one of the principals or cofounders of Normals bookstore and Red Room performance space. (Don't know the white-haired woman with Mikulski.)
Samita Sinha looking beatific, for a moment...
(more pics to come)
17 February - DAT recorders... came across a Sony TCD-D8 and a Panasonic SV 255.
(more pics to come)
19 February - Del Sol string quartet, Meyer auditorium, Freer Gallery, Wash., DC (pics to come)
26 February - Don & Bunk, Orion Studios, Baltimore, MD... This old-timer duo (Don Preston -kybds./electronic efx/vocals; Bunk Gardner -sax/flute) played a lotta Frank Zappa works, and some other stuff. They used to play in the Mothers of Invention with Zappa, early on (not sure if their stints with Zappa overlapped). They're both around 78 years old, which I didn't realize, at the time. Although at the end of the performance, they made comments about their advanced age. In fact, Preston asked if anyone didn't know how old they were. No one raised their hand... (pics to come)
28 February - while surfing the web, I discovered that a Chinese American composer won 2 Grammy's earlier this month. Christopher Tin won an award for 'Best Classical Crossover Album' (Calling All Dawns) and 'Best Instrumental Arrangement Accompanying Vocalists' (Baba Yetu). The latter was included in the album, but it's better known as the theme song for the Sid Meier computer game, Civilization IV.
8 March - a bit of headphones history... someone I know who has done some acoustic-related research, was inventoring their equipment and showed me a set of see-through headphones they claimed were the first Bose model that were noise-cancelling (circa late-80s?):
Next to it, I've placed a picture of headphones used 40+ years earlier (during the Nuremburg trials), just to show the changes in design and technology.
7 April - Jen Shyu (based in NY), Baltimore, MD... She did solo stuff, accompanying her vocals with Moon Lute, erhu, and piano. Then she did an improv duet with Dave Ballou on trumpet, where they moved about on stage. She sang/vocalized and her movements seemed to incorporate tai chi and some sort of sewing/harvesting task.. (pics to come)... I renewed my acquaintance with her (having met her briefly 8 or 9 years ago in San Francisco) and she said she got a Fulbright to study gamelan singing in Indonesia.
Here she is playing a 2-string Moon Lute:
18-21 May - Asian American studies conference, New Orleans.
21 May - wedding parade, French Quarter, New Orleans (pics to come)
14 June - since it's Che Guevara's birthday, today, here's a picture of a recording of him issued by the Smithsonian Folkways label. I saw this last year, at the Smithsonian's annual Folklife Festival on The Mall in DC.
16 June - saw jazz / improv pianist Craig Taborn give a solo recital in Baltimore at An die Musik. The house was packed! That surprised me. I didn't realize that his abilities had impressed folks in previous ensemble appearances and word had gotten around. I'd seen him a bunch of years ago (probably with a group led by percussionist Susie Ibarra), and had noted his pianistic prowess.
(The attendance pleasantly surprised An die Musik owner, Henry Wong. I overheard him telling someone that the previous night's gig had only attracted a handful of folks.)
Taborn's performance was a mixture of the obviously improvisational and obviously practiced. Even when he repeated a phrase over and over again, it didn't bore me because I could hear him altering the loudness (and dynamics). And when he bashed the keyboard with his elbow, it sounded like he'd aimed at certain keys, that it wasn't merely a random noise effect. (Of course, I could be wrong.)
So the recital was terrific. I'd arrived a bit tired, but left energized by what I saw and heard.
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