The Beeb

On January 1, 1927, the British General Post Office created a new company for the purpose of radio broadcasting. The company was given the prosaic name, "the British Broadcasting Corporation" and adopted the motto, "Nation shall speak peace unto Nation."

Over the years since its creation, the BBC (or "The Beeb" as it is affectionately known) has grown into a world-wide cultural phenomenon. Many Americans would be surprised to learn that the BBC is primarily funded through a mandatory fee on TV sets. If you own a TV in the UK, you have to pay an annual fee equivalent to about US$200 per year (they cut you a discount if your TV is black-and-white or if you are blind). BBC operates a number of television channels and radio stations throughout the UK, each serving a different audience.

When I was a kid growing up in Kansas, I had a cantankerous old short-wave receiver in my room, and I often stayed up late at night tuning in stations from around the world. As often as not, I'd hear the calm, measured tones of a BBC announcer though the static and squeal in my headphones.

In the modern era, the BBC has brought their incredibly diverse broadcast content online in a big way. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that whatever your taste in music is, The Beeb has you covered, and you can tune it all in on your PC! I'll just hit some highlights for you here, and encourage you to explore the BBC online to find your own favorites (or favourites).

A good place to start exploring is the BBC Radio "On Air Now" page. From there you can branch off to each of the fourteen individual BBC Radio channels. On each channel, you'll find a listing of all the 'programmes' on that channel, and each program can usually be streamed online for a week after its broadcast date, although some are available longer.

Radio 1 is the youth-oriented channel. You'll find pop and rock music there, with some live concerts and artist interviews. Radio 2 is more adult-oriented and diverse. A peculiar and very entertaining show on Radio 2 is the long running (since 1952!) "Friday Night is Music Night"  – a live concert featuring the BBC Concert Orchestra and singers from all genres; one week you might hear an operatic soprano, the next week, Alanis Morrisette might perform. The theme and playlist are never revealed ahead of the broadcast, which surprises and delights the live audience. Also on Radio 2 is Desmond Carrington's program "The Music Goes Round" which features a different theme each week, and music related to that theme from all eras, up to the present. A recent theme was "insects." Desmond always finds great tunes to fit the theme.

June has found some unexpected gems on BBC Radio. How about a Scottish jazz show? "The Jazz House" on Radio Scotland features very hip music and interviews, hosted by the knowledgeable Mr. Stephen Duffy. Radio Wales has "A String of Pearls" with Dewi Griffiths, featuring music from the 20s through the 50s.

It used to be said that the sun never set on the British empire. The same could certainly be said of BBC Radio. The BBC Asian Network features Desi music, interviews with Bollywood stars, Sikh devotional music and much more. I have heard Punjabi rap on that channel! The BBC World Service  exists in parallel with BBC Radio, with its own diverse selection on documentaries, discussions, and cultural programming. When I listen to one of these programs, and hear the calm, measured tones so typical of BBC presenters, I flash back to the days of my old shortwave radio (but now there is no static!).

Alabama Shakes

My new favorite group is the Alabama Shakes. Singer Brittany Howard gives me the same kind of thrill I used to get from Janis. Here they are at Bonnaroo:

Phillip Glass Flash Choir in NYC

June found this one, and it's really lovely. An ad hoc choir assembles in Times Square to perform a piece by Phillip Glass, led by Kent Tritle:

Som Sabadell flashmob

If you have not seen this yet, please watch and share. We need fewer wars and more of this sort of thing, in my not-so-humble opinion.

The Hammer of Fate

Gustav Mahler was born in Bohemia in 1860. His musical talent was recognized early, and at the age of 18, he began his career as a conductor. Like the 20th-century conductor Leonard Bernstein, Mahler was also a composer, but had to focus most of his energy and time on his primary source of income – conducting.

Fate began dealing blows to Mahler early in his life. At key moments in his life, family members died, including two of his brothers; the youngest – Otto – by suicide. Mahler struggled against antisemitism most of his life, and even converted to Catholicism in order to secure a post as a Kapellmeister in Vienna in 1897. Ironically, this did little to quell the antisemitic attacks which continued throughout his life. Mahler's own health was poor, and in 1907, shortly after the death of his young daughter Maria from diphtheria, Mahler was diagnosed with an incurable heart condition; he died of a related infection in 1911.

Mahler did not have a huge compositional output. He completed nine symphonies and was at work on a tenth when he died. Like many restless composers, he continually revised and re-revised his works throughout his life.

One of the most unique of Mahler's symphonies is the Sixth, which has sometimes been called "The Tragic." This is a huge, rich composition in four movements. While the nominal key of the composition is A minor, there is frequent shifting from major to minor sonorities. Similarly, the textures shift from light to heavy, and from joy to grief throughout the symphony.

It is in the last of the four movements that Mahler lays bare his soul and his feelings about the blows fate has dealt him in his life. To make those blows explicit in a musical way, Mahler added a unique percussion part to the score, which was marked simply as, "Hammer." This, he wrote, should be "brief and mighty, but dull in resonance and with a non-metallic character (like the fall of an axe)."

The hammer in Mahler's sixth. Markings by L. Bernstein.

The hammer blows fall at just three places in the Finale. Mahler later removed the third, instead letting the music build and build, culminating in stark silence to represent the final blow.

But how to make such a sound? It is known that in Mahler's lifetime, he was never really satisfied with any of the contraptions invented to try to fulfill his wishes. To this day, orchestras struggle with how to create Mahler's "Hammer of Fate." Some orchestras use a large wooden box, struck with a hefty wooden maul. Others combine a large bass drum with other percussion devices to simulate the sound. It's the orchestral equivalent of cranking the amps up to "11" – the hammer blows should be felt in the chest, and should startle and thrill the listener.

Dallas Symphony Orchestra's hammer

I love watching symphonies perform the final movement. I wait with anticipation for the hammer blows, and delight in seeing a percussionist raise the huge mallet high above his or her head just before the triple-forte quarter-notes in the score.

Here is an excerpt from the Finale, performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Bernard Haitink. The first hammer blow is at about 3:07:

There are a number of performances of Mahler's Sixth Symphony available online. I highly recommend you seek out full recordings of all four movements.

More Bass!!!

Ok, here's a band I can really relate to:

Found at Boing Boing

Five-octave thumb piano

The thumb piano, or mbira, is a musical instrument of African origin. It generally consists of a small wooden box which can be easily held in the hands to which metal tines of various lengths have been attached. A musician generally holds the mbira with both hands and plucks the tines with his or her thumbs.

There are many variants on the mbira, mostly produced by local craftsmen in the villages and townships. The instrument started being heard more outside of Africa in the 1970s (I think I still have one up in the attic somewhere).

Of course, anything can be taken to an extreme, and so I present, the five-octave thumb piano:

3D Ball Music Machine

I really like contraptions, and this one (even though it doesn't really exist) made me smile:

See all of Animusic's imaginative videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/AnimusicLLC

UPDATE:It appears that someone at Intel was inspired sufficiently to build a real-world version:

Story Time: Peggy DeCastro

How about a little change of pace? Here's a story from my own musical career.

In the mid-1970s, I was hired to play bass on a tour with Peggy DeCastro. Peggy was one of the famous DeCastro Sisters, who'd had a huge hit in 1954 with the song Teach Me Tonight. Peggy was very extroverted, so she took the role of the clown in the group. She eventually split from the group to go solo.

Peggy was a delight to work with, and was a real character. Her stage persona was a sort of Cuban version of Carmen Miranda (who was in fact, an early mentor of the DeCastro Sisters), full of cutely misunderstood or mis-pronounced words, often with a naughty double entendre. I have thought that the later-generation performer Charo must have copied at least some of Peggy's act, as well as a lot of Carmen's. To be fair, I do think Peggy sincerely had trouble with some English lyrics, particularly if they didn't make sense to her. For example, the song The Way We Were, includes the lines:

Memories 

light the corners of my mind

misty watercolor memories...

With Peggy singing, this generally came out:

Memories

like the corners on my brain

missing colored watered memories...

Peggy was chronically late. For everything. It was just in her nature. Once, Bobby Darin had told her that the trick to being on time was to set her watch ahead fifteen minutes, so that when you think it's 8:00 and time to go onstage, and you're still putting on your makeup, it's really 7:45. Well, Peggy decided that if fifteen minutes worked for most people, she'd need to set her watch ahead by a full hour, because she was usually an hour or so late for things. And that's what she did. If it was 7:00, Peggy's watch said 8:00. The problem was, since she knew she'd set her watch ahead, she then mentally subtracted the hour. Many times, she'd look at her watch and say something like, “Ooh, looka the time! Eet's nine-fifteen already, which is really eight-fifteen. We gotta get movin'!” So, she was still always late.

We traveled the hotel/lounge circuit around the western U.S., and everywhere we went, people loved Peggy. She was open and loving with her band (her son played guitar in the group, too), and she regaled us with stories of the old days in Las Vegas (Peggy suggested to Bobby Darin that he record Mack the Knife, which at the time he considered to be just a novelty tune to fill out his nightclub act), being on Your Hit Parade with “Schnooky Lansing,” performing in the movie “Casablanca” with Carmen Miranda and Groucho Marx, and all about show-biz as it was back then. Apparently her sisters Cherie and Babette had eventually married fans and settled down to live the good life, while Peggy married her manager and worked every day for the rest of her life. She seemed to thrive on it, though.

It was with great sadness that I read of the death of Peggy in 2004 at age 82. I've worked with many singers and musicians in my career, but few that I remember with such fondness.

The Wikipedia entry for the  DeCastro Sisters is pretty accurate.

“Teach Me Tonight” on YouTube (audio only): http://youtu.be/9KiO42i7uVM


Here's a "soundie" of the tune Sun Sun Babae with Peggy doing some of her classic mugging and clowning:

Locals Only

One of the things I love about Portland and the Pacific Northwest is the abundance and variety of talented musical artists that call this place home (at least until they get successful and move away. Sigh.). This month I want to share some of my favorite local artists with you. Please check their websites and videos, and try to see them live if you can!

A few months ago, Eugene-area Mensan Ted (Theo) Czuk sent me a copy of his new CD, titled The Gamut. Ted is a very talented multi-instrumentalist and poet, and his new CD really showcases Ted's mastery of  many musical genres. Check out his website: http://www.tedczuk.com/ and get on his mailing list for opportunities to hear him live!

Closer to home, you have probably noticed—as I have—ads in the Omen for performances by the Bach Cantata Choir, which has two Mensa members—Mary Forst and Barbara Lance. This group has a very interesting and ambitious mission: "to sing the entire set of cantatas by Johann Sebastian Bach over a period of 20 years." I'm looking forward to an opportunity to attend one of their concerts at Rose City Park Presbyterian Church in the near future. More details and schedule at:
http://www.bachcantatachoir.org/.

One of the most exciting bands to come out of Portland in the past few years is the trio Gossip. They have a tight drums-and-bass sound, which they augment for live performances with guitar and keyboard. Singer Beth Ditto is a total delight to watch; she's powerful, sexy, and a total original. Sometimes I think she is simultaneously channeling Dolly Parton and Divine. You must watch at least a few of their videos at http://www.gossipyouth.com

Here's Gossip's video of "Pop Goes the World." Gotta love the sparkly skull epaulets:




The cello was my first instrument, so—as you might imagine—I have great affection for Portland Cello Project. I think we own all of their CDs, and they are always coming up with interesting music from many sources.  Check their website for videos and live performance schedule: https://portlandcelloproject.com/

Here's a lovely video featuring music by the Portland Cello Project:



Jazz fans already know the name and voice of Portlander Nancy King. If you only know her from her recordings, you owe it to yourself to hear her live. She has a web page at http://www.jazzvox.com/nancyking/. Frequently backing Nancy King is trumpeter, singer, and harmonica player Robert Moore. I've had the pleasure of jamming with Robert a number of times and I can tell you that he is the real deal. He has a soulful, expressive singing voice, and he's also a top-tier jazz instrumentalist. Get on  his mailing list by going to: http://romomusic.net/. I consider both of these artists to be true treasures of the Portland jazz scene.

Here's Nancy King with Steve Christofferson doing Zanzibar by Dave Frishberg (who, by the way, is yet another Portland treasure):



Singer and bassist Esperanza Spalding  has moved beyond the hype surrounding her "Best New Artist" Grammy award (yes, kiddies, there actually is someone better than Beiber) and is proving that she is talented, soulful, original, and evolving as an artist. Her last two CDs—Chamber Music Society  and Radio Music Society showcase the depth of her talent. And she has an afro to die for. http://www.esperanzaspalding.com/

Here's Essie doing one of her new tunes (and not playing upright bass quite so much any more):




What is in the water here that is making young women want to play the bass and sing? Kate Davis is a delightful young performer who is currently studying in NYC. She has a sweet, unaffected voice that sometimes reminds me of Blossom Dearie. http://www.katedavismusic.com/

Here's dear little Kate walking her tail off on the jazz standard Just One of Those Things. If playing those fast walking lines on the string bass looks hard, let me assure you -- it is. If you're thinking it must cause blisters -- yes, it does: