Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Carnegie Hall, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 12 of 12
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Hansel and Gretel, Carnegie Hall, The Truth is a Cave in the Black Mountains, fourplay, Add a tag
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Locus poll, lisa snellings, Advertising and its drawbacks, Carnegie Hall, bard, The Ocean At The End of the Lane, Stoya, It's pretty but is it art spiegelman, Lorenzo Mattotti, 8 Rules for Writing, Add a tag
The Evening With Art Spiegelman and Me at Bard was wonderful. It was sold out, and became mostly an interview, with me asking Art things, although I read the first few pages of the version of Hansel and Gretel I've written that Lorenzo Mattotti has illustrated, which was rather wonderful. (You can see one of the marvelous Mattotti illustrations on the screen behind us in this photo by Gideon Lester.)
There aren't any more events in New York this year that there are tickets for, except for THE TRUTH IS A CAVE IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS at Carnegie Hall. (At which I think I will also do the first reading of the whole of Hansel and Gretel as well.) Lots of people are asking if there will be a signing there... and I'm definitely considering it. The Ocean at the End of the Lane will have just come out in paperback, and The Truth is a Cave In The Black Mountains graphic novel will just have come out.... It's definitely possible.
Tickets and information at http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2014/6/27/0800/PM/Neil-Gaiman-The-Truth-is-a-Cave-in-the-Black-Mountains/
(And Where's Neil will tell you everywhere else I'll be until July, including San Francisco, London, Edinburgh, Barcelona and Madrid: http://www.neilgaiman.com/where/.)
Right now I'm in San Diego, just for the day, in order to see Amanda, who is out here where it is warm and she is working on her book. I'm not sure that spending a whole day flying out, and a day flying back, in order to spend a day together, makes the best sense, but I missed her and she missed me and I quite enjoy writing on planes...
The new house in the woods is wonderful, and I'm enjoying getting to know the whole new world of the Hudson Valley. And the old house back in the Midwest is still there, and it still has my books on the shelves and my art on the walls and my bed, and I suspect I'm going to wind up dividing my time between both places, as much as I succeed in living in any one place. I have a wife who also seems determined to have a bi-locational existence, only with Melbourne, Australia and New York City as her two places that she spends her life. We'll figure it out. As long as I get a desk to write at, and a view of trees, I'm happy.
Today, The Ocean at the End of the Lane came out in paperback in the UK. There's a moving version of the poster, which you can see here (needs Flash): http://www.teainteractive.com/clients/ocean/
And here are the Ocean posters that do not move, and I am extremely happy because I don't think I've ever had books that were posters before. They leave me faintly nervous: I hope that the kind of people who would like the book will find it, and that people who would simply not enjoy it do not succumb to the blandishments of advertising. (Goes and checks Amazon.co.uk to see if people are still enjoying it now it's out in paperback...) (And then puts up the Waterstones link, on noticing their name on the poster. Hello Waterstones!)
Let's see. I'll probably forget a few things I meant to mention here. I interviewed Stoya in the Oyster Magazine (she is seen here being Death at a Dr Sketchy's).
Biting Dog Press are releasing a limited print in June of 500 copies of my "8 Rules For Writing".
You can't buy them retail -- they will be going directly to bookshops -- but Dave of Biting Dog is releasing 50 of them to the public directly as incentives to fund his daughter Kayla's Elephant Sanctuary Volunteer Trip: details at http://www.bitingdogpress.com/Merchandise/orderpage.html.
I'm speaking in Syracuse, NY on April the 29th, as part of the Rosamund Gifford Lecture series. I will talk, and I will read, and it will be interesting. Details at http://www.dailyorange.com/2014/04/author-of-coraline-to-speak-at-crouse-hinds-theater-this-month/
I was thrilled to see that James Herbert will have a horror writing prize named after him. Jim is much missed, and this can only help to make sure that his name remains in people's minds.
Locus, the Magazine of the Science Fiction and Fantasy field, does an annual poll and survey: you have another five days to make your votes heard, and to tell them who you are. The poll closes on April 15th: http://www.locusmag.com/Magazine/2014/PollAndSurvey.html
A photo Amanda took of me last night. She calls it "Schrödinger's Door."
Blog: OUPblog (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Clef Club Orchestra, Gabriel Solis, James Reese Europe, Johnny Griffin, Newport Jazz Festival, Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall, Vijay Iyer, Village Vanguard, Books, Music, Carnegie Hall, Weather Report, Thelonious Monk, *Featured, Arts & Leisure, Add a tag
By Gabriel Solis
Most people who have listened to jazz for very long have a list in their minds of the best live performances they’ve ever been to. I know I do. I remember with particular fondness a performance by Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson that I saw in the early 1980s in Modesto, California that was a benefit for local jazz musician and DJ Mel Williams’s Sickle Cell Anemia Foundation. It wasn’t so much that it was a groundbreaking concert as such–though I still remember how tight and in-the-pocket his band swung–but it was one of the first I ever went to.
As a kid in California’s Central Valley, an agricultural backwater at the time, I didn’t have that many chances to hear live jazz, and it was a revelation. I remember equally fondly seeing Johnny Griffin at Birdland in New York, when I was doing research for my first book, Monk’s Music (University of California Press, 2008). I had dug Griff on vinyl since I was in high school, and to see that band take the stage and hear him—old by then, but still brimming with intensity–burn through two sets of serious hard bop felt a little like coming home.
And most people who go see jazz regularly will tell you that the particular features of the venues where jazz happens color their experiences in tangible ways. For me, The Village Vanguard when it’s full has a kind of electricity that comes from the tight seating and the quality of the light in its cramped little basement space, as well as from its storied past. Sitting cheek-by-jowl with a couple hundred other fans to hear jazz in dim twilight in the same room where John Coltrane once played has a power that can’t be overstated. And being so close to the musicians in a room which has crisp acoustics doesn’t hurt, either.
These features and more make it common for jazz fans to feel that club dates are the best — or even the most authentic — way to hear the music. And yet, concerts, whether they be in monumental halls originally designed for classical music or in the purpose-built, often open-air spaces used for jazz festivals, have been an important context for the music as well. Since the 1920s jazz has been presented in these settings, often to truly great effect. As I say in my book on the Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane’s live recording at Carnegie Hall, while clubs may offer certain pleasures for musicians–a more interactive, intimate experience especially–concerts have had their value as well. Better pay, typically, for one, but also the opportunity to present their musical ideas in more formal venues.
I’ve seen some great jazz performances at clubs and in concerts, but still, sometimes, I wonder if I didn’t grow up at the wrong time, in the wrong place. There’s just so much I never had the chance to hear — Monk at the Five Spot, Coltrane at the Village Vanguard, Billie Holiday at Café Society, Ellington anywhere … With that in mind, here are five jazz concerts I wish I had seen, in no particular order:
5. Newport Jazz Festival, 1956
To have been at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1956 to hear Ellington’s band play the set that included “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue” would have been, as the beatniks used to say, “beyond the beyond.”
Click here to view the embedded video.
Duke Ellington Orchestra at Newport 1956, “Diminuendo in Blue” and “Crescendo in Blue,” separated, as Ellington puts it, “by an interval by Paul Gonsalves”
The story is well-enough known to jazz aficionados, that Ellington’s star was on the wane, and that this concert was a way back for them, that on this tune Gonsalves took a solo that was a standard part of the show and turned it into a 27-chorus blues tour-de-force, inspired by a woman in a little black dress who danced and danced and danced while he blew. What else is jazz but that?
I would have worn my groovy fedora, some high-waisted white slacks, combed Brylcreem through my hair and dug every minute of it.
4. Weather Report in Tokyo, 1972
Weather Report’s work, by the later 1970s, includes some pretty dispiriting instrumental pop, but in 1972, Zawinul, Shorter, and company made some music that was vital, and living somewhere on the edge of experimental funk, avant garde noise, and deep groove.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Medley of “Vertical Invader,” “Seventh Arrow,” “T.H.,” and “Doctor Honoria Causus,” from the live recording Weather Report Live in Tokyo
Recordings of this music can only begin to capture its range. Even on high fidelity equipment, the silences are not as heavy as they would have been in the concert hall, not as pregnant with expectation, and the band at full volume is not as overwhelming. In some sense jazz performances are always a bit of a ritual, but this seems like an immersive experience of another level.
3. The Clef Club Orchestra, Massed Gala 1912 and 1913
Under the leadership of James Reese Europe, the Clef Club orchestra played at some of the best private dances New York society had in the early years of the 20th century, but they also presided over at least two “massed galas” in Carnegie Hall in the years 1912 and 1913. While Europe’s bands as they were recorded around the time included fewer than a dozen musicians, an image of the full group on stage at Carnegie Hall has better than fifty. The excitement generated by the group’s sheer size and its range of instruments including cellos, harp-guitars, drums, brass, and who knows what is born out in descriptions from the time that emphasize spectacle.
Click here to view the embedded video.
James Reese Europe’s Society Orchestra, “The Castle Walk,” 1914
Somehow the recordings we know Europe by just don’t seem like they do justice …
2. Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall
I’ve written about Monk for so many years now, it is a particular sadness to say I never saw him play. Our lives overlapped a bit–I had just turned 10 when he died–but he had stopped playing in public for the most part by the time I was born, and even if he had been playing, he wouldn’t likely have played where I was.
I would love to have seen him play with any of his groups, but there was something special about that band and that night in November, 1957.
Click here to view the embedded video.
Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane, “Monk’s Mood”
It’s not just that the band gave a brilliant performance–though they did. It’s more. As I say at some length in my book on this concert recording, the selection of tunes is great, the chance to hear Coltrane working out a sound in relation to Monk’s established style is a treat, and there is something brilliant about the way Shadow Wilson and Ahmed Abdul-Malik come together to underpin the whole event.
Though only Monk’s set was released on CD, I would love to have had the chance to hear this performance in context with the rest of the groups on that evening’s remarkable bill, including Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday, Chet Baker, Zoot Sims, Sonny Rollins.
1. Newport Jazz Festival 1969, Final Night
OK, so technically this wasn’t necessarily, strictly speaking, a jazz concert, as such, but I would kill to have been at the NJF the night Miles Davis famously saw Led Zeppelin drive the kids wild. This is another one that is well-known and the stuff of legend, but everything about it would have felt like a lightening bolt at the time. Would Zeppelin play or wouldn’t they? Promoter George Wein was convinced that they would start a riot, but after some controversy, they did close an evening that also included Herbie Hancock’s sextet, and the Buddy Rich band, among others.
We often hear about Zeppelin in this story, but the whole festival was kind of incredible. The British rock band played at the end of a weekend that included George Benson, Bill Evans, Sun Ra’s Arkestra, Blood, Sweat and Tears, Art Blakey, Dave Brubeck, Sly and the Family Stone, and Jimmy Smith hosting a jam session that included Sonny Stitt and Ray Nance, among others.
So maybe I was born too soon. Though, in the past month I’ve had my head expanded by Vijay Iyer’s trio, by William Parker, and by the Bad Plus, all in the little college town in East Central Illinois where I live, so perhaps it’s all just fine.
Gabriel Solis is Associate Professor of music, African American studies, and anthropology at the University of Illinois. A scholar of jazz, American popular music, and the transnational politics of race, his work has appeared in leading journals of ethnomusicology, music history, and sociology. He is the author of Monk’s Music: Thelonious Monk and Jazz History in the Making (California, 2008), co-editor with Bruno Nettl of Musical Improvisation: Art, Education, and Society (Illinois, 2009), a forthcoming book on singer, songwriter, and performing artist, Tom Waits titled Sounding America: Gender, Genre, Memory, and the Music of Tom Waits (California), and Thelonious Monk Quartet with John Coltrane at Carnegie Hall.
Subscribe to the OUPblog via email or RSS.
Subscribe to only music articles on the OUPblog via email or RSS.
The post Five jazz concerts I wish I had been at appeared first on OUPblog.
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Book of the Year, Carnegie Hall, Fortunately the Milk, The Ocean At The End of the Lane, It's pretty but is it art spiegelman, What does Book Of The Year mean anyway?, What Stephen King said, Add a tag
Manhattan, NY: A rare chance to join Art Spiegelman (class of '65) for coffee, carbs, and juice as he gives a personal guided tour of the 50' x 8' two-sided glass mural he designed for the school. Secrets-literally-behind the window will be revealed!
And he'll have special guest Joost Swarte on hand, showing slides of his own stained glass windows in the Netherlands!
The tour begins Sunday, April 6th, at 10:30 am, at the High School of Art and Design cafeteria, 5th floor. That's 245 East 56th Street, between 2nd and 3rd Avenues.Get your tickets here now! Tickets are $20, but $15 for those of you with a MoCCA pass, and free for current A&D students! Proceeds go to the Alumni Association to benefit the students of Art and Design.
...
St Mark's Bookshop has slowly become one of my favourite bookshops around, I think because it's so well curated. I never walk in there and think "So many books are being published. Why don't people just stop and read the ones that are already out there?" which I sometimes find myself thinking on walking into huge chain bookshops. Instead I just walk around going "I didn't know that existed. I'll have that, and that, and that, and I'll get that for a friend...".
They are doing an Indiegogo fundraiser to help crowdfund their move. Support it, if you can. (I'm going to donate a hand-annotated book or two to their rewards.) https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/st-mark-s-bookshop-on-the-move
...
Reminder: the Symphony Space "Selected Shorts" evening has sold out.
The only remaining event on the East Coast this year is the Carnegie Hall TRUTH IS A CAVE IN THE BLACK MOUNTAINS reading, with the FourPlay String Quartet and Eddie Campbell paintings and all, on June 27th. It's happening at the same time that THE OCEAN AT THE END OF THE LANE is coming out in the US in paperback. (Amazing things will be happening on that that night: trust me. This is the big one...)
Tickets at http://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2014/6/27/0800/PM/Neil-Gaiman-The-Truth-is-a-Cave-in-the-Black-Mountains/
Blog: readergirlz (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Lorie Ann Grover, john green, Hank Green, Nerdfighters, Carnegie Hall, The Fault in Our Stars, Add a tag
Did you all catch John and Hank live? The show in Carnegie Hall was amazing. So much fun! readergirlz are Nerdfighters. Thanks, brothers! We celebrate with you!
Blog: Ypulse (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: com, carnegie hall, lostletterman, nylon, Jobs, do something, Add a tag
Today we bring you our weekly sampler of the cool youth media and marketing gigs. If your company has an open position in the youth media or marketing space, we encourage you to join the Ypulse LinkedIn group, if you haven't yet, and post there for... Read the rest of this post
Add a CommentBlog: Saipan Writer (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: award winner, SSHS Manta Band, Carnegie Hall, Add a tag
SSHS Manta Ray Band won the Silver Award at the New York International Music Festival!
Just being selected as one of six schools to compete and perform at Carnegie Hall was a huge honor. Winning second place is incredible!
Congratulations Manta Ray Band and Mr. Will DeWitt. Thanks for all you've done and kudos for another amazing success!
Blog: Saipan Writer (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Anna Rose, SSHS Manta Band, Carnegie Hall, Add a tag
Another pre-dawn light rain. Dogs barking in the night. Crescent moon.
______________________________
Thanks to Rose Cuison Villazor who sent this photo of Anna Rose (flanked by Roseanna Sablan and Theszaray Omar).
I'm guessing this was before the show. (Strange hair, which in later years will be material for comedy, I'm sure!)
Blog: Saipan Writer (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: New York City, publicity, SSHS Manta Band, Carnegie Hall, Add a tag
The arrival of the Saipan Southern High School Manta Ray Band in New York City has not gone unnoticed! PRI's The World (from BBC) has a short feature and interview with them.
Fumi and James make the photo! Naomi and Leagine get interviewed. Will DeWitt is in there too.
Photo by Mary Kay Magistad
Good content, too.
Blog: Saipan Writer (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: SSHS Manta Band, Carnegie Hall, Add a tag
The days are gradually lengthening. It's still light at 6:30 PM. We never have those long summer days experienced in the temperate zones--at most we'll get to light still at 7 PM or so, but it's still nice to notice the longer daylight. Also beautiful sunsets the past two days--not glorious, but simple sun sinking into the water and a gradual pink to gray sky.
________________________________________________
While other students enjoyed a day off on "Easter Monday," the SSHS Manta Ray Band had a 3 hour rehearsal--from 4 AM to 7 AM! They're working hard on their Carnegie Hall performance and testing the time adjustment, as well.
And it looks like they will be in good shape financially, as well. My gripe (wanting information about the amount raised and not only general cheeriness) was just a bit premature. This week, SSHS Principal Craig Garrison announced that, with the latest donation of $7,000 from Bridge Capital, the band has reached its goal, previously announced as $142,000, the estimated cost of the trip.
The band is still accepting donations, because the estimated fundraising goal is just that--an estimate, and the worry is that it may be too low or that unexpected expenses may crop up. So if you want to donate, (any amount!) you can make a check payable to Saipan Southern High School and in the memo box, write in Manta Ray Band.
The band leaves April 17, 2010 for its debut performance in New York City, first at Central Park, and then at Carnegie Halll.
Blog: Saipan Writer (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Manta Band, SSHS Manta Band, Carnegie Hall, Add a tag
Bright and sunny now. It rained yesterday morning and there was a lovely rainbow in the southwest. I saw a single yellow sulphur butterfly while driving on the road near NMC and remembered the past, when there would be clouds of them "crossing the road" at times.
____________________________
The SSHS Manta Ray Band is looking forward to springtime in New York City. They will be there from April 17 to April 21, 2010 to participate in the New York International Music Festival. They have a busy schedule in that short time.
Their two key performances will be on Monday (late morning/afternoon?) at Central Park bandshell and on Tuesday at 2 PM at Carnegie Hall. The second performance is an adjudicated event; if they do well (and we are hopefully confident and confidently hopeful), they may win awards, which will be presented after an 8 PM evening show performed by Stockton California musicians (the San Joaquin Delta College Symphonic Band and the Stockton Wind Ensemble).
If you are interested in tickets to the Carnegie Hall events (2 PM performance, evening awards), you can get tickets at the Carnegie Hall Box Office. No cost for the afternoon performance; $20 for the evening show.
Blog: Saipan Writer (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Saipan, Manta Band, SSHS Manta Band, Saipan Southern High School, Carnegie Hall, Add a tag
Saipan Southern High School's Manta Ray Band is heading to NYC to perform at Carnegie Hall for the New York International Music Festival. They won the right to be on stage through their audition. But now they are desperately trying to raise the funds needed for the trip.
Come have fun and help them! This Saturday.
You can pledge for the band members joining the fun run (either by dollar amount or by the laps they run). [I'd be happy to take pledges! I know several of the students. Checks are made payable to SSHS with a notation in the memo part for Manta's Carnegie trip.]
You can come to the evening festival and spend your pocket money.
Please take this opportunity to help!
_______________________________________________
We've been having perfect weather, but just now it's gone grey and looks a bit stormy. The bouganvillea is stunningly bright and beautiful, in full flower. There is plumeria in blossom and even a few Flame Trees already starting to show orange flowers.
_______________________________________________
Addendum: If you'll be in New York City during April 2010, you might be interested in seeing the Manta Ray Band on stage at Carnegie Hall. Here's what I've found out about tickets, which are AVAILABLE NOW:
Performance Date – April 20, 2010
Performance Times! – 2:00pm and 8:00pm
Location – Isaac Stern Auditorium, Carnegie Hall
Cost – 2:00pm Adjudicated Performances - Ticketed but free of charge, obtain tickets at Carnegie Hall Box Office
Cost – 8:00pm Showcase Concert - $20.00 per person, obtain tickets at Carnegie Hall Box Office
How to get Ticket – Obtain tickets at Carnegie Hall box office
Box office info – http://www.carnegiehall.org/
Carnegie Hall
57th Street & 7th Avenue
New York, NY 10019
Tickets released – February 15, 2010
congrats! I hope somebody recorded something for Youtube!
As I understand it, Carnegie Hall has a rule prohibiting cameras, videocams, recording devices of all types--so I don't think there will be anything for You Tube.
There will be a video filmed and produced by the festival sponsors themselves.
(BTW, for those interested, the comment deleted was a duplicate post. Thanks for deleting for me, Angelo.)