David Byrne appears on Marc Maron's WTF Podcast -- listen
I loved David Byrne's book, How Mysic Works... Check out this interview!
Listening Lately
Here goes... I've been getting back into some more listening the past week or so... Here's what I'm into lately... Sean Rowe - Sean has a new EP out, called Her Songs. I especially like "Ode to Divorce" and "Soldier's Song". "EP" is a little misleading since there is a video to go with each of the 6 tunes on the album. Great stuff.
The Gaslight Anthem - I listened to the '59 Sound so much I got sick of it... I just realized this band has a few albums out since then! The latest is Get Hurt. I really like their sound!
Death Cab for Cutie - Kintsugi - I just love this album. Still listening to it. Bought tickets to their show at Merriweather Post Pavilion on September 13.
Valor Brass - yep, our album made it's way to my doorstep yesterday. Currently available here. We are thrilled with the sound from our engineer, Ed Kelly, at Cedar Knoll Media. Phil Snedecor, longtime director and trumpeter of Washington Symphonic Brass was our producer.
Berlin Philharmonic - I recently bought a one-week ticket to Berlin's Digital Concert Hall. Wow, what an experience! I binge-watched a number of pieces and concerts over the past week... check out their recent Mahler 5 with a new trumpet concerto called Aerial performed by Swedish virtuoso Hakan Hardenburger. There is also a great interview with Hakan and conductor, Andris Nelsons, given by Sarah Willis. I also enjoyed immensely the Wagner set from Siegfried/Gotterdammerung conducted by Daniele Gatti. $180 for a one-year ticket is quite a bargain when you see what you have access to on the Digital Concert Hall. Finally, check out a great behind the scenes tour of their production setup. Cool!
Alright, one more thing. This is cool. Great tune, performing, and possibly the best horn section name ever... Tim Akers and the Smoking Section. The tune is "Uptown Funk". Enjoy.
Cheers,
The Virtual Trombonist
Selling the Digital Experience
So today I find myself on a bus for a better part of the day, and with lots of time on my hands, children at daycare, and an electrical outlet for my phone charger, I'm doing what any technology junkie would do: spending the entire drive catching up on articles and video that I've bookmarked! One thing I keep coming back to is the Digital Concert Hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. The folks in Berlin have done something very smart by outfitting the Philharmonie with a professional television studio and rigging their setup to broadcast all of their concerts live in HD. Another brilliant thing they've done is to feature the talents of Sarah Willis, fourth horn in the orchestra. Besides being a fabulous musician and having her own very successful "horn hangouts" online, Sarah has done a number of interviews that are accessible on the digital concert hall. The Philharmonic recently performed a program featuring a new work for trumpet and orchestra by HK Gruber called Aerial. The soloist was Hakan Hardenburger, for whom the piece was written. I got sucked in to watching an interview that Ms. Willis conducted with Hakan and the program's conductor, Andris Nelsons. I'll just get right to the point, the interview, and Mr. Hardenburger's insight into the process of playing and learning the piece was so fascinating, that I immediately bought a 7-day pass for the digital concert hall and watched the program on my long bus ride. What an amazing concert, soloist, and orchestra!
It's no surprise to anyone that an online digital presence is the future of classical music. Berlin has done it right. Not only can you watch live concerts in HD with fantastic audio quality, but they have an amazing back catalog of concerts, interviews with soloists and conductors, and documentaries about the orchestra. Know I will be binge-watching quite a lot of Berlin Philharmonic concerts over the next 7-days!
As we enter fully the era of constant connectivity and faster internet connections, this type of experience is only going to become more prevalent for all musicians. People fret that the Internet and mobile technology is going to make everyone more detached from their audience. Using the talents of Ms. Willis as an example, I don't think this could be further from the truth! What is now clearly critical is having the ability and desire to speak to an audience, conduct an interview, and otherwise engage people in a personal and informative way. Oh! It's those people skills my parents used to always talk to me about!
I feel fortunate the U.S. Marine Band has begun to live stream many of our own concerts. The band also has some very cool projects on line now, with my favorite being the recording and release of free PDF parts and scores for every March John Philip Sousa ever wrote! Their adding enough that the band is hiring a third full time audio engineer as well.
Ok, back to my looong bus ride and my digital concert hall ticket! If it seems I'm being secretive about where I'm headed, then well, I am! The Marines don't do anything the easy way, and today is no exception. More about our trip later when the cat is out of the bag!
Live Music and the Mouse
I'm just wrapping up a few days in Florida with my family,and we, of course, spent a few days at Disneyworld. I had a great time, as always, and like every other visit I checked out the state of the live music scene within the parks. I didn't get to all the parks this time, nor was I able to hear many of the existing groups. One group I did hear, the Grand Floridian Society Orchestra, was a treat. More about them momentarily...
Back in 1993, there were a ton of musicians working at Disney. In Epcot alone, you had Futureworld Brass, FutureCorps, a brass quintet, and a number of other groups, not to mention all the awesome groups at the other parks in Florida (Hitmen and Tubafours at the Studios, World Band at Magic Kingdom). Those days are gone.
The parks in Orlando are somewhat of a live music wasteland. There are a few groups around still, mostly small ensembles of just a few players. The big, exciting groups that would bring people running are gone. In their place you generally hear recorded music, which sounds fine and of course the general public doesn't know the difference anyway (sadly to me).
The college music program was a fantastic experience, and still exists, although only in California and only in its big band/marching band form. I made lifelong friends that summer, and I gained experience that serves me to this very day in my professional musical life. Disney runs a tight ship, and the requirements placed on me personally as a 20 year old employee were very similar to the ones the Marine Corps expects of me now. There are many times where I'm out on very hot jobs with the Marine Band and all I can think is, "Well, it's not as hot as Orlando in July!"
My program lasted 11 weeks, and we spent about 9 or so of those weeks playing 4 shows, 5 days per week. Many days, with rehearsals and performances, I played upwards of 8 hours per day. It was fantastic.
As I mentioned above, I got a chance to hear the Grand Floridian Society Orchestra this year. I heard 4 or 5 tunes and walked away convinced this band could play anything, and do so all night. Judging by the thickness of their books ok the stands, I have no doubt they could! This 7 piece band has been playing for over 23 years, and their list of current and former members is quite something. Harold Johnson, the trombonist, told me he has been at the parks here since 1981. Amazing! It was fun to watch people in the lobby of the hotel run up to listen to the band. Check them out on their Facebook page.
I understand the economics of employing live musicians very well. I have no doubt that Disney feels it's doing what their paying public wants. However, as I was walking around the Animal Kingdom today, I couldn't help but notice some WD quotes written on the decorative barriers covering up a construction site... All the messages had to do with how "we never cut corners", and "we do what other people won't", and "if you can dream it, you can do it." It begs me to ask, if you want to be the best, to lead, to create, and remain at the leading edge of entertainment, could you be doing better?
I have nothing but love and appreciation for my experiences at Disney. It really is a great place. Mostly, it's just wonderful people. I just would love to see Disney, as a leader in the entertainment industry, championing the cause of live music in the stunningly creative way that only Disney can do it.
Cheers,
Chris
