Harvey Pekar passed away yesterday. In 2003, Harvey invited me to his home in Cleveland after I asked him to record some voiceover narration for a documentary of jazz musician Albert Ayler I was producing. Harvey and illustrator Gary Dumm (also the brains behind "American Splendor") created an incredible series of panels on Ayler's life. I found Harvey to be incredibly gracious and extremely passionate about music and art (and everything
else, it seemed!) His work has always been a big inspiration to me. He
will be missed.
Christian Marclay was one of the biggest influences on my radio show Free Association.
The Whitney Museum in NYC is presenting a festival of Christian Marclay
exhibits through September 26th. I'm going to try to make it when I'm
in NYC again. More information here. Here Christian is performing on the short-lived television show Night Music. To the casual observer, he's just screwing around. Closer inspection and listening reveals a methodical approach to spontaneous block composition. For example, fast decelerated spins serve as loud, sharp transitions between melodic ideas.
For those in NYC, the Ghost Train Orchestra will be performing this Friday night, 10pm at Barbes in Brooklyn. The orchestra is Curtis Hasselbring (trombone), Andy Laster (saxophones), Oscar Noriega (clarinet), Jessica Lurie (reeds), Mazz Swift (violin, vocals), Cynthia Sayer (banjo), Ron Caswell (tuba), Rob Garcia (drums), and me on trumpet. Reedman Oscar Noriega and banjoist/pianist Cynthia Sayer from the Woody Allen Band will be making their first appearances with the GTO.
We've finished mixing the new Ghost Train Orchestra with esteemed producer Danny Blume. I've uploaded three mixes, you can listen here. The record documents some of the pieces the band has been playing live for several years, the music of late 1920s Chicago and Harlem bandleader/composers Tiny Parham, Charlie Johnson, Fess Williams, Don Redman, and John Nesbitt. We'll be mastering next month and are currently in the process of scouting labels for this record. If you have ideas, let us know!
"The Sound Of Horror", a 3-hour radio program study of sound design in modern horror films, is now available for order on this website. This
radio program has been used in
universities across
the world in study of sound design.
Included are
clips, interviews, and examples of
classic director
/ sound designer collaborations such as
David
Lynch / Alan Splet (Eraserhead, Blue
Velvet),
Alfred Hitchcock / Bernard Hermann
(Psycho, The
Birds), and Darren Aronofsky / Brian
Emrich (Pi,
Requiem For A Dream). Films studied
include "Psycho",
"The Haunting", "The Birds",
2001", "Alien", "The Exorcist",
"Blair Witch Project", "Eraserhead",
"Blue Velvet", "Mulholland Drive",
"Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Seven",
"Pi", and "Requiem for a Dream". See more information here.
We're back in action this month after a winter hiatus. Since releasing
Boy From Black Mountain to rave reviews last fall, we've been busy. I have been in the studio recording with the Ghost
Train Orchestra and recently recorded with Michael Gira's reformed Swans.
Paran Amirinazari has been touring with singer-songwriter Larkin Grimm,
Gavin McCarthy has been in the studio with his new band Wallcreeper, and
Paul Dilley has been on tour with Miss Tess. Starting in late April, we'll
be embarking on a short tour of the Northeast with Brooklyn's La Strada,
who are releasing an album on Ernest Jenning. We're working on a lot of
new material for our next album with new instrumentation, so expect to hear
a lot of new songs.
Our May 5th show at Middle East Upstairs with La Strada and Alec K. Redfearn
and the Eyesores will be one of only a few Boston-area shows this year so
we hope to see you all there. Advance tickets are here.
I've recently finished mixing the debut Ghost Train Orchestra album with producer Danny Blume (Klezmatics, Sex Mob). The album is called "Hothouse Stomp". New arrangements of dance music from 1929 Harlem and Chicago. I formed this band when Heather Kuhn, a programmer for the Regent Theater, a historic vaudeville theater in Boston, hired me as musical director for the theater's 90th anniversary. I was interested in 1929 in particular, that being a transitional year for jazz, and so I went about exploring, transcribing, and arranging this music from that era.
The album covers four of the most important (and I think overlooked) jazz bands of that year: Charlie Johnson's Paradise Orchestra, Tiny Parham and His Musicians, Fess Williams' Royal Flush Orchestra, and McKinney's Cotton Pickers. This music that has not been heard live for 80 years and the original recordings, if you can find them, are of very bad quality. Since the Regent Theater shows three years ago, I've been developing this band live at Barbes. I've retooled the original arrangements to add strings, musical saw, voice, and a few other surprises. Last November we recorded at Avatar Studios with Grammy-award winner Danny Blume (Klezmatics, Sex Mob) and just recently finished mixing. I've just posted three mixes up on the Facebook page. Enjoy.
Boy From Black Mountain won the 9th Independent Music Award for
Best Alt/Country Album. This year's judges included Tom Waits, Ricky Skaggs,
Aimee Mann, Judy Collins, and Suzanne Vega. See the winners in all the categories
here.
Boy From Black Mountain has been earning great reviews. PopMatters
writes "Beat Circus has provided one of the highs of the year."
The Boston
Phoenix raves "Boy From Black Mounain is the prettiest
darn dark Americana record in recent memory." The Boston Herald ranks Boy From Black Mountain in their top 10 of 2009. The album has also been nominated for Best Alt-Country Album by the Independent Music Awards. Boy From Black Mountain
is now available in our online STORE. All profits from our online store go directly to the artist!
