If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. ~ Charlie Parker
My CLMOOC friend, Wendy, had sent me some manuscript music she had composed for clarinet, and suggested I might try to do something with it with my saxophone. But I found it interesting to interpret it for keyboard, in a rather avant-garde fashion, layering different sounds to capture the sense of a tree’s rings and age.
Peace (inside the bark),
Kevin
This is the third original song we played at a recent open mic.
Peace (and song),
Kevin
This is an original song, from an open mic night.
Peace (and song),
Kevin
I played a few original songs with bandmates Greg and Marc at a local open mic night. This one is called Sweet Sounds.
Peace (and music),
Kevin
Jake Manzi, who used to live in my small city in Western Massachusetts, wrote a song about this place and came home to shoot some film. He’s playing this week in a club to celebrate the release of his new album, which has this song on it.
Peace (in ‘Hamp),
Kevin
We lost Sonny Rollins this past week. I saw him in concert years ago and he was fabulous and expressive, and so inventive.
Peace (and sound),
Kevin
The other week, I put out an album of original music, so I figure I will slowly share the individual songs here, too. The first song is called Wander With Grace. It’s on Bandcamp, which means you are welcome to listen for free.
Peace (and song and stories),
Kevin
For the third year in a row, in May, I am publishing an album of original songs. All but one were written in the last eight months or so, and some were previously published as singles on Bandcamp. But I have gathered those and the others now under one roof, entitled Wander.
Peace (and sound),
Kevin
Any list of any musicians or artists is sure to get push-back. Still, I enjoy the grapple and I am listening to The Daily podcast from yesterday, explaining and exploring its list of the 30 Greatest Living Songwriters. I did appreciate the videos the NYT folks shot of various artists explaining their art — from Jay Z talking about flow to Taylor Swift talking about bridges.
Peace (and sound),
Kevin
“We hope humanity will see Earth with new eyes, and hear Music with new ears.” — Earth Music Theater website
My wife and I went to this free musical/visual event — Earth Music Theater — last night at our local library, where video footage of earth from the International Space Station was shown while a band played original compositions inspired by the footage.
This project unfolds in different places around the country, with different musicians, and it was such a lovely, evocative experience, and the video footage is amazing (as was the music).
I had actually interviewed the first astronaut in the video – Cady Coleman — years ago when I was a newspaper reporter and she was training to go into space (she lives near me). What a joy it was to see her on the ISS, and even playing her flute on the video in zero gravity.
Peace (from a distance),
Kevin