Music Review: Danny Holt's Fast Jump (2009), First Attempt of Many!

I neglected to review Mr Danny Holt's fine new album when it first came out, so to balance the karmic scales, I'm going to review it MANY TIMES. It's a fresh fleshy new CD of 21st century classical piano music. And it seems worth noting from the start that I've known hundreds of pianists, & despite the broad breadth of music available to them, you'd be shocked how so few venture very far away at all from the most central spinal cord of the narrowest classical cannon. In fact, if you're an American who never studied music, you've very likely never heard classical piano music that isn't Chopin or Beethoven or a few others. Will it surprise you to know that there is such a depth and range of other piano music pianists could be playing, a span of amazing American repertoire, from the mathematical dissonant stuff, to neo-Romantic stuff, to hip downtown stuff, to no end of jazz or pop or world-music influenced music, and really just about anything you can imagine? Now most emerging concert pianists tackle the same repertoire, & always dredge out the same awe at bringing to light new shadows in these masterpieces. But I just did a search for cds of Chopin's Nocturnes on Amazon, & just among the cds available to buy from that website of those pieces, there's more than two thousand different artists. I'm sure to them, tho, the new ways and exciting ways they've approached these beloved pieces are far more illuminating than considering playing any of the great music from the past hundred years, and at least they're not lonely on Amazon.

Do a search, tho, for Lona Kozik, an American composer of high caliber (she lives in Devon, England), and the centerpiece for the virtuosic first half of Danny Holt's new album. Fast Jump is the only hit for her on Amazon! And Graham Fitkin, an older more established composer on Holt's album (and a great favorite composer of mine), gets only twenty-six. The unavailability does not reflect the quality of the solo piano music being written in the past fifty years, just the wall between pianist's brains & great music (and also major label's inability to market much new classical music to an unaware public).

Danny Holt is a performing artist who takes great care in packaging likable music to timid audiences. He is not a secluded genius tinkering at horrible noises for a possible alien future where people will learn to love horrible noises. He attempted many gimmicks in his younger years to bring people into concerts halls, but most of his flash is just in the personality of his playing. Which of course is not lost in these studio recordings. He is wild & fun, & his taste always steers him towards music that can showcase his playful playing & deepest emotions. Style, tho, is what really sets him apart from other "emerging concert pianists" - his background in percussion and composition has left him with superior skills at playing difficult rhythms with precision, & everything always with crisp cleanliness. (These things seem like they're not worth pointing out, but much of the pianosphere is awash with romantic sloppiness, "expressive" rhythm, & in general, mush. It's like, everyone devotes great respect & adoration for Arthur Rubinstein & Glenn Gould, but fail to notice that a lot of what made those guys great was that they could count, their passion was tempered by clarity, & even groove.) Everything about Mr Holt's approach to classical piano music is alive - his composers are alive and paying attention, his playing is full of life, and his audience is awake.

Anyway, like I said, I wanted to review this CD in a couple pieces, without bogging the blogosphere with long essays. Look for this CD, altho it's easier to find it at Amazon, iTunes, or the innova website. Find yourself only about ten dollars poorer, play it at your wildest bacchanals. There's also some sample tracks at his music MySpace. The next installment will have less rant & focus more on individual pieces, what they mean to the galaxy, and an unbelievable narrative about Mr Holt & a rodent gynecologist.

Here in the Pianosphere: The Lost Music of James Welsch

Mr Mary & I have big plans for The Pianosphere. We spearheaded this department to showcase great pianospherists, like Tsegue-Maryam Guebrou, Liberian Congresswoman Malinda Jackson Parker, Italian Friar Brother Basil Frison, & onward towards the future. We are now conspiring, alongside glorifying these pianospheric outsiders, to offer the pianosphere our own contributions, & commission our comrades to contribute to the pianosphere, as well as our comrades' comrades (both ourselves, again, & outward.) 

There is already plenty in the archives, & tonight we will drag out the first sampling. Mr Danny Holt, about eight years ago, put on a concert at Hampshire College called The Lost Music of James Welsch - named after a series of piano pieces I had written as a teenager which were lost & found. Actually the original sketches were from a series of unfinished "etudes" to practice odd rhythms, I was writing for a friend who was a good pianist but couldn't count her way into a hippy drum circle. I was looking thru old scores a few weeks ago, & I found all these sketches again, most of them are sucking, but a few are gems - I found them a second time! Then, I realized I didn't have a copy of the recording Mr Holt made earlier this decade, & luckily he was able to dig it up. WITHOUT ANY MORE ADO:

I had forgotten that he had played so many of these little pieces as a suite, I had only remembered him doing the first couple, but he does:

I. Syncopation (Ragtime)

II. 5/4 Waltz

III. The Hemiola

IV. Dies Irae (3+2)

V. Dies Irae (2+3)

Of course, Mr Holt's groovy performances do great justice to these sketches. Those are the titles from the original "etudes", named after the rhythm it was meant to teach. A hemiola is when a meter is beat with different accents to imply another meter (like, if you're in 3/4, which has six eighth-notes, & the first & fourth eighth-notes are accented, making it sound like 6/8 time. It happens all the time in the finest music.) Dies Irae is a chant from the 13th century which is referenced all over classical music - the first eight notes of it are often heard, hinting at doom or just a gothic mood. It's famously used in the witch scene in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantasique, & it's all over The Nightmare Before Christmas ("Making Christmas") & Sweeney Todd. I'm not telling you why I evoked it, not once, but DOUBLY in "The Lost Music of James Welsch", that is for the great romantic artist & his critics to exegete. The sketch of the "Dies Irae (2+3)" I'm looking at ends differently then the last few seconds of that recording - I think Danny & I added an unfinished measure to imply the composer had somehow, perhaps violently, left off writing - a parody of J.S. Bach's Art of the Fugue, where the composer croaked mid-way thru writing the Contrapunctus XIV, & his son Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach wrote in the score: "At the point where the composer introduces the name BACH (or in English notation, B-flat A C B-natural) in the countersubject to this fugue, the composer died."

Future contributions to the PIANOSPHERE will not end so badly! If you have anything to add, either a lead or an original, send it this way ~ (My e-mail is o [[at]] itwaslost.org.)

Danny Holt is releasing a new CD soon, check his WEBSITE & for details & his MySpace for samples & more on that here anon.

Music Review: Versions of Paranoid Android

Of course, there are many ways to listen to Radiohead's music without having to hear them perform it. (I'm referring to the British band, not to be confused with the late-John-Lennon-song cover band we had in college.) I woke up this morning to discover someone had put this entire song into a program called Mario Paint Composer. I'm not sure which came first, if the version off the album OK Computer is a painstaking re-creation of this one or visa versa:


There are several solo piano arrangements, from different universes. The NPR host Christopher O'Riley has arranged dozens of Radiohead songs for classical piano. My friend Mr Holt tells me that whole project is a bit sloppy, & also that O'Riley's performances of these arrangements are unsatisfying.

Now, Brad Mehldau's jazz versions are a whole different kicking squeeling gucci little piggy. Here's the version from the album Largo. I'll never get tired of hearing the prepared piano in the beginning:

	Brad Mehldau - Paranoid Android
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

And if you're into nerdily comparing dozens of different live jazz solos, Mehldau has no shortage to dig thru. There's a couple other covers of just this song released, & there's a few more on bootlegs, like this one in Perugia 1999, only about fifteen wanky minutes total:



The reggae band Easy Star All-Stars has covered the entire OK Cupid album, a bit of a hit-or-miss project. My favorite part about it is the newfound ability to understand the lyrics. About two minutes into Paranoid Android, the brass part is great. If there's anything Radiohead can learn from the Easy Star All-Star covers & Mehlau's Largo version, is that they should have much more trombones in their productions.

	Easy Star All-Stars - Paranoid Android
	Found at bee mp3 search engine

Art & Architecture: Fabricide

Mr Danny Holt, at whose apartment in the valley I'm currently loitering, was just practicing some of Christopher O'Riley's piano arrangements of Radiohead this morning (not to be confused with the band Radiohead, the college rock band / John Lennon Cover Band I formed with Sam Amidon in 2004) - his version of "Let Down" from OK Computer is just beautiful, reminiscent of the Ligeti Etudes, & of course Mr Holt performs them with more taste & affection than Chris O'Riley. I played Danny the reggae version of the same song performed by Easy All-Stars, which is also beautiful. While we're mentioning it, if any of you haven't heard Brad Mehldau's jazz covers of Radiohead songs, like for instance his epic version of "Paranoid Android" from the album Largo, that's some pretty intense stuff.


Has this British artist, Yinka Shonibare, made it over to America at all? He uses African fabrics on bourgeoisie European set-ups, sometimes recreating famous paintings et cetera. There's like a re-examining Africa's roll in the empires-aspect to it, but also it's playful & super-colorful. He was commissioned to make a big ship-in-a-bottle for Trafalger Square - He didn't reveal how he got it in there. Some examples:

Special Report: Is Michael Jackson a Castrato?

For those unfamiliar with the term, a Castrato is a male soprano whose larynx was never transformed by puberty (i.e. lowered into Tenor or Bass range). Occasionally, this is the result of an endocrinological condition (as the Wikipedia tells me), but it was semi-common practice throughout the Catholic Middle Ages & Renaissance to castrate great boy singers to preserve their pristine upper ranges. (Countertenors are male altos with testicles who have perfected their falsetto, & were also commonly used in church music for centuries, & still sing modern & ancient music today. The last proper Italian operatic Castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, died in 1922. There are a few scratchy old recordings of him.)



I do not know that much about Michael Jackson or his music, but I watched the premier of his controversial interview with Martin Bashir, Living with Michael Jackson, while I was in England in 2003/04. I was fascinated by his behavior on that program, & I tossed off the theory that maybe he was castrated before he reached puberty, thus explaining many of his quirks at once. I was just thinking about it again recently, & I asked my friend Danny Holt to bring up an old VHS tape of Living with Michael Jackson, from his collection, when he visited last night. (It's not commercially available.) Danny's friend Shirley suggested I should write down my theory, so, if in twenty years, I'm proved correct, I can say "look when I guessed it!" I'm sure others have suggested this before, but here's my talking points, all based on Martin Bashir's interview.



-HIStory: Jackson was an inspired child singer. His father was controlling, abusive, violent, & obsessed with the success of his children's act. Michael describes repeated beatings, & also his extreme desire to fulfill his father's expectations. With the international fame, & stressful schedule, Michael more or less did not get a childhood. He also refers to his emotional turmoil at puberty, not wanting to grow up or lose his child star qualities, being embarrassed at his zitty pubescent face. If he, his father, or someone else, ever had the crazy idea that they could prolong his child fame & soprano voice by castrating young Michael, I do not want to speculate the actual events. Or maybe he developed an endocrinological condition possibly related to his phoney skin disease.

-His Voice: His singing range is very high, with some seriously difficult-to-reach upper notes which he hits with no strain. Stranger, tho, is the apparent lack of any low tones. I'm not that familiar with his complete cannon, but if anyone is aware of a moment when he throws in a masculine phrase or Elvis impersonation, where is it, & are we sure that he sang it? More interestingly, his speaking voice is pretty high without sounding affected - it doesn't sound like, say, a stereotypical movie transvestite speaking in falsetto with the occasional break away from head voice.

-Eternal Youth: It is obvious that Jackson has deep psychological issues with age. I'm sure these can't be chalked up to any specific thing, his abnormal childhood or his celebrity isolation - and if you castrated a normal small-town boy, he could conceivably have a normal adult life or musical career without building a fantasy Neverland with a private zoo. Jackson claims to have the soul of a child, & some of his regular 12-year-old friends that are interviewed say that he acts & plays like just one of the kids. But as sociopathic behavior isn't evidence of anything physical, I'll leave this issue to the forensic psychologists.

-Virginity: Jackson tells several anecdotes to Bashir about how he was scandalized by sex as a boy. Once when his brother was having sex with girls in the same hotel room. The second story is far stranger, when he is older, at a time when normal teen stars couldn't be happier that girls follow them everywhere, he describes a groupie trying to seduce him & he wasn't "tempted." I should discuss that castrati historically are not asexual, with famous examples like Farinelli, the 18th Century playboy opera-singer. Eunuchs of Antiquity were castrated men employed to accompany & protect the many wives of a patriarch, but their roles also were not asexual - they were often needed to pleasure neglected women of a harem without the threat of impregnation. Michael Jackson is almost certainly not a virgin; but in my subjective opinion, there is something very non-sexual about his relationship with women, & there is something very pure about his obsession with toys & desire to hang out with kids his mental age. I'll return to this thought below.

-His Children Are White: The unalterable nature of genetics & recessive genes were not subjects that his private tutors (most likely Jehovah's Witnesses) ever taught in much detail, because he has a Bush-ian ignorance that he can just tell the world whatever fantasy he believes, like that he is the father of his children. Prince Michael I, Paris, & Prince Michael II ("Blanket") are Caucasian, visibly not half nor fully African-American - (Jackson claims the secret mother of Blanket is black). Whether he has convinced himself that his phoney degenerative skin disease has affected what color his children's skin will be, or if he has been lied to, or simply doesn't get that the rest of the world understands genetics better than he does, is a mystery. But on the interview he unblinkingly describes the conception of his children with their contractual mothers, & rhapsodizes lovingly about their family resemblance to other Jacksons. I feel I can say without much controversy that Joe Jackson is not their genetic grandfather. Whether this is because Michael Jackson does not possess the biological capabilities to create sperm may never be known. But at some point in his late thirties, he expressed the obsession to become a father (he says he would carry around baby dolls), & rather than going about the fairly conventional process of impregnating his wife with his own DNA (& celebrities with large egos are even more prone to want to sire replicas - like baseball player Manny Ramirez, who also named both his first two sons Manny, Jr.), Jackson somehow brought into this world three white children.

-Michael Jackson His Sexuality: Again, we may never know for sure if he is actually a sexual predator who has a history of ogling adolescents. He has been determined, thru several decades, to have sleepovers with kids, & it is even his naive & earnest desire is to admit it openly. This doesn't seem like the behavior of a pervert, who usually has some self-awareness of indiscretion. When I think of Humbert Humbert's caution & paranoia, Jackson comes off as much more of a foot-in-the-mouth putz. He is just so oblivious that, in his mind, kids aren't allowed to sleep in the same bed as other "kids". A better historical parallel may be Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, the Oxford mathematics professor & Anglican clergyman, who wrote Alice in Wonderland under the pen name Lewis Carroll. Although Dodgson had many consecutive relationships with young girls, & even photographed some of them semi-nude, Carrollians are in general agreement that his relationships were "platonic". As an adult, Dodgson was a shy, nervous stuttering man, & he only ever felt comfortable around his child friends. It's more complicated than that of course, & one interesting aspect is that the age of Dodgson's girlfriends increased as he did, so that by the time he was an old man, he had several female friends who were in their twenties. As for any Victorian appreciation for the beauty of children, without the creepy sexual overtones always inflicted by our modern minds, we may never be able to see his photography-hobby as not suspect. I'll tell you what I think is creepy: the oil painting in Michael Jackson's house, shown behind him in the interviews, of a mostly-naked Michael in Renaissance style, surrounded by a dozen floating naked cherubs. The point is, even if he naively doesn't see the harm in this aestetic, can't he realize how twisted that seems to the rest of us! Dodgson's photographs have long since been salvaged from suspicion by art critics & biographers - (Go ahead! you can enjoy the beauty of Alice Liddell without feeling non-Catholic guilt or receiving a subpoena) - but there's something fundamentally disturbing about Jackson's tacky taste. I'm on the fence about what's actually going on in his psyche, why or how he is the way he is, what he actually did, & whether history will vindicate him.



If it ever comes out that Michael Jackson is a castrato, that would certainly add an interesting dimension to the discussions about his sexuality & psychology. I recall that in one of the court cases, there was some talk about the victim identifying something unusual about the defendant's genitalia, & there was going to be a photograph of the King of Pop's privates exhibited as corroborative evidence. Any revelation of that magnitude would have been explosive, impossible to keep away from the press. But could it have been....?

Read more from our fantastic weblog: www.itwaslost.org
UPDATE: I've posted some of the comments from this post in two new separate posts: here & here.
←─╥╜╞╬╝More updates: Follow SSandrigon on twitter.

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E-mail: Communicating with Danny Curley Holt, & some highschool news archives

Date:	Wed, 7 Mar 2007 11:20:29 -0800 (PST)
From:	"James Welsch" <______@itwaslost.org>
Subject:	Little Miss
To:	"Danny Curley Holt" <________@yahoo.com>

D.C.

I'm sitting at work, googling, & I just found something crazy. Put this into google:

"Danny Holt" site:http://listserv.american.edu/

It's quite an artform, Google, like mining, but for treasures more mysterious.

You know, they're getting in trouble with publishers & copyright hawks, because they're scanning every book. They want to make every book ever published searchable.

I was thinking how impossible that would be with music. How could you scan an audio recording & make it searchable? Like googling for "L'homme arme".

I'm sorry we never spoke on the phone when you called months ago. I'm very flakey with my cellphone, but not flakey with other mediums, like talking to someone in person, or even electronic mail. What's the address to your new house? Is you piano white, black, or pink? I know you zip around at 90 miles per hour while talking on your cellphone, but I try & keep mine as far from my reproductive organs as possible. You know 200,000 Americans have died in car crashes since the invasion of Iraq, where, relatively, 3,000 Americans have died.

I keep my iPod on "random album" at work, & then skip the album if it's inappropriate. Bela Fleck playing classical music is playing right now, he's playing The Moonlight Sonata with Edgar Meyer. Who knew? Have you recorded "Wed"? I wish you'd send your latest recordings to 1985 Ashby Ave, Berkeley, CA 94703.

Well, I long to attend one of your salons. There are complicated issues involving why I never go South anymore.

Watch closely the new Alarm Will Sound DVD of live Reich. Yours truly is in the front row the audience, sometimes right under Caleb's armpit.

Speaking of whom, Alarm Will Sound plays Berkeley this weekend. I think it's all Nancarrow.

I live in this beautiful apartment. We have a guest futon & another couch, so you could theoretically arrive with a vanload of hippies & I could accommodate - so, if you're ever near the bay area with a vanload of hippies, they have a place to stay.

I was just ten feet from John Adams's butt the other day, conducting his new opera. I reviewed it here.

Why don't you play that first interlude from that sonata? It's so beautiful, & the world has no idea. I have issues with closure, which my therapist advizes me to get the fuck over. Actually, my therapist never swears, except when I'm [doing something offensive to] her from behind. I don't have a therapist, but if I did, she'd be a [derogatory slang for attractive female human].

Stravinsky's Symphony in C just came on now. Who knew?

Who's your girlfriend?

Love,
James

______________________________________________________________________

In regards to the above suggestion for Mr Holt to google himself in that listserv website: Someone has posted some selected archives of the E-NEWS from my high-school, the Interlochen Arts Academy. O, some fond memories can be found, mostly the listings for concerts we gave, during our young creative salad days. For instance, from March 10, 1999:

Composers Forum:  Thursday, March 11, 8:30 p.m., in the Chapel.

Featuring **world premieres** of works by Ayaka "Kew" Nishina,

Danny Holt, James Welsch, Steve Whipple, and faculty member Elaine

Broad.

From February 16, 2000:

CONGRATULATIONS: Seven Academy students were named finalists in the Arts Recognition and Talent Search (ARTS) program and received additional awards following a week of workshops and presentations in Florida. Writing student Onnesha Roychoudhuri, who received a level II award, was also invited to compete for a Presidential Scholar in the Arts Award. Other awardees include: Jaren Philleo (oboe) Level II; Shea Scruggs (oboe) Level I; James Welsch (composition) Level II; Bonnie Whiting (percussion) Level II; Jamie Polychronis, IAA '99, (flute) Level III; and Jessie Iott (writing) Level II. In addition, Academy students received seven Honorable Mentions and 15 Merit Awards prior to the January event. ARTS is a national program designed to identify, recognize, and encourage talented high school seniors who demonstrate excellence in dance, photography, theater, jazz, music, voice, visual arts, or writing.

From February 11^th, 1999:

Composers' Forum:  Friday, February 12, 8:00 p.m. in the Chapel.

Will feature works by Danny Holt, James Welsch, Ashley Fure, David

Stinson, Levi Taylor, Mr. Joe DeFazio, and special guest Dr. Doy

Baker.  If you always wanted to know what a THEREMIN was, this is

your chance to find out (and hear it played!).

I believe I was playing the theremin in an improvised improvisation with Nicole DeLaittre.

Is this boring for you yet? I’m still having a blast. From November 11^th, 1999:

COMPOSERS' FORUM: The first student Composers' Forum of the year is on Saturday, November 13, at 8:00pm in the Chapel. Come hear new music written by Ashley Fure, Steven Whipple, David Stinson, Jonathan Shapiro, Victor Giraldo, James Welsch, and faculty member John Boyle.

MISSING GLASSES: Kelly Greenfield is missing a pair of glasses in a green Lenscrafter soft case. If you find them, please return them to Kelly in Counseling Services, or contact her by email (greenfieldkk) and she will come to you. "The computer screen is much more difficult to read without them!" Kelly says.

MISSING NOTEBOOKS: Cassidy Barnes is missing two notebooks. His lab notebook is a dark green spiral and has his name on the inside, with Physics and Chemistry written on the first page. His chem binder is a lighter shade of green and has the Interlochen logo on the front and his name on the inside. If found, please contact Cassidy in Hemingway.

[…]

ROAD TO WELLNESS THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: Someone asked the other day, "Where is the music we used to hear in the cafeteria?" The inquiry prompted an interest in what actually led to the practice of music being played over meals. Research indicates that it all started a long time ago...in England. When he wasn't beheading wives, Henry VIII kept a court band of 79 musicians on hand for his royal entertainment. Meanwhile, his daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, made popular the whole idea of dinner music. Word has it that she could not eat supper unless she was being serenaded. So, there you go. While not answering the original question, it is interesting. One should also note that more Thoughts For The Day are needed! Email your ideas to Michael Haynes (haynesma).

TODAY'S MENU: Lunch - beef barley soup, plain and flavored wing dings, vegan chop suey, brown rice, snow pea pods, deli. Dinner - vegetarian vegetable soup, pork chops, vegan stew, scalloped potatoes, baby carrots, hot cinnamon applesauce, deli.

Quotes: Youth, Sympathies with Failure, & Nostagia

Arthur was a young man, just on the threshold of life. He had fair hair and a stupid face, or at any rate there was a lack of cunning in it.
-T.H. White, The Once & Future King (1939)

Of course! Ophelia’s death! Hamlet! In good old Andrey Kroneberg’s Russian translation, 1844 - the joy of Pnin’s youth, & of his father’s & grandfather’s young days! And here, as in the Kostromsky passage, there is, we recollect, also a willow & also wreaths. But where to check properly? Alas, “Gamlet” Vil’yama Shekspira had not been acquired by Mr. Todd, was not represented in Waindell College Library, & whenever you were reduced to look up something in the English version, you never found this or that beautiful, noble, sonorous line that you remembered all your life from Kroneberg’s text in Vengerov’s splendid edition. Sad!
-Vladimir Nabokov, Pnin (1953)

But the post-beatnik ponderousness of the project made it hard to endure. At all times, Mr. Burnett played the pour soul who must face the contemporary problem of existence & bear witness with vintage analog equipment. It’s hard to imagine someone in the audience who hasn’t already arrived at similar conclusions about the world, & at times the show felt like preaching to the choir in a boutique.
-Ben Ratliff, “At town hall, T-Bone Burnett explores the raw & the slick”, New York Times, 3 June 2006


When first my brave Johnie lad came to this town,
He had a blue bonnet that wanted the crown,
But now he has gotten a hat and a feather -
Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver!

Cock up your beaver, and cock it fu' sprush!
We'll over the border and gie them a brush:
There's somebody there we'll teach better behavior -
Hey, brave Johnie lad, cock up your beaver!
-Robert Burns, 1791

_____________________________________________________________________

Date: Sat, 03 Jun 2006 08:05:39 -0700
From: "Samuel Tear Amidon" <______@gmail.com>
Subject:
this week: samamidon at tonic this saturday
To: <_________@yahoo.com>

as soon as I woke up this morning, I was one fifth of the way to 125. woah.

SAMAMIDON singing the old folksongs

tonight, JUNE 3
at TONIC
MIDnight, $5

see you there?

sam
www.samamidon.com/thischicken.html

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Date: Fri, 2 Jun 2006 14:54:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: "James Welsch" <_______@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Furies,
To: "Danny Curley Holt" <______@yahoo.com>

D. C.,

What's up? I got your phone message, but I won't be phone-y until I'm unemployed again in two weeks. [...]

Ah, Concept Album. The diaphonous fjords of the imagination run with renewed vigor. I am working on a piece, concept-albumy, that you would for sure be interested in, sometime in the mid-future. The first part is already complete! It is called Late Glass, & is my humble attempt to imagine what Mr. Glass's mature period would sound like if he developed as an artist more in keeping with my desires. It is part parody & part criticism, but rife with doodle-ey doodle-eys. If this idea does not arouse your interest, or if you can only think "what a washed-up idea, I did something similar in Long Meadow High School", I can only implore you to consider that the proof is in the pudding. In regards to Concept Album: I am always enthusiastic, but at completely a loss, for the ability or resources to arrange such a reunion. I would outright refuse if it was to be in New York City. I believe I stressed Jonathan out to the extreme in asking him to help me arrange a recital there. He hooked me up with some excellent, enthusiastic musicians, & we even played in a small church for essentially free, but in such details as advertising & moving a marimba from Queens Boro to the upper-west-side, juxtaposed to the rewards of the concert, it almost wasn't worth it. I simply do not know if the Los Angeles vicinity offers any easier solutions. I am still writing plenty of un-played music, but you must sympathize with my situation, that I have a bit of difficulty in arranging concerts in metropolises, certainly only enough energy to attempt such failures once a year or less, & bewilderment as to who would occupy the audience for such an event. My friends in the mountains are mostly white college-educated intellectuals, & I assure you that none of them listen to classical music, have never heard of Steve Reich, are confused & dismayed when I put on such relatively-easy-to-appreciate pieces as for instance Gorecki 3, love Bob Dylan, & are familiar with American art, film, literature, poetry, architecture, but not, for some ungodly baffling offensive reason, modern American classical music. Danny, you have not read Harry Potter, but the premise is that muggles (regular humans) have no idea that an entire wizarding community is operating in their midst. This is the type of ignoring we are facing.

My heartiest congratulations to you for your diploma. Where to next?

Have you seen "Howl's Moving Castle"?

Now that your education is entering a new stage, ever consider again attempting to deepen your artistic scope by giving, once again, the realm of literature a fair trial? I recommend Vladimir Nabokov's Pnin, a short novel about a kooky Russian professor. You told me once that you did not understand the reason for fiction. I assure it has as much purpose as classical music, if not more.

Health & peace,
James

Music Review: Dolly Parton's "Those Were the Days" (2005)

This iconic country music star makes the bold move of releasing an album of classic hippie protest songs during a war, which, in general, country music stars aren’t supposed to do. They are, in general, supposed to take the views of Toby Keith, who sings:

"Now this nation that I love
Has fallen under attack
A mighty sucker punch came flying in
From somewhere in the back [sic]
Soon as we could see clearly
Through our big black eye
Man, we lit up your world
Like the 4th of July"
-Toby Keith, Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue

She insists that it is a peace album not a "protest" album, & indeed, most of the songs she sings are both over-played & ambiguous, so as not to make any obvious statement. The pervading theme of the album is nostalgia. Here is the Track List:

1. Those Were The Days
2. Blowin’ In The Wind
3. Where Have All The Flowers Gone?
4. Twelfth Of Never
5. Where Do the Children Play?
6. Me & Bobby McGee
7. Crimson & Clover
8. The Cruel War
9. Turn, Turn, Turn
10. If I Were A Carpenter
11. Both Sides Now
12. Imagine

The most surreal aspect is her pervading smilingness, gleefully belting songs like Blowin’ in the Wind & Where Have All the Flowers Gone?, songs which don’t make sense unless sung sad.

Overall, tho, from this reviewer’s impecable tastes, the album is perfect & masterfully rendered. Well worth the three year wait. & in honor of her releasing it on my 24th Birthday - October 11th, 2005 - I will take this opportunity to announce the release of my cover album, doing all of these songs in the same order, since I not-so-coincidentally play almost all of them anyway, to be released on my 25th Birthday, staring Sam Amidon on Appalacian dulcimer, Danny Holt on Yamaha Carilon, & Musaf Islam on hippie drums.