Posts made by SSmith1226

9/11/21 9:03 AM

Youtube Video

@j-jericho said in THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED:

@ssmith1226 Afghanistan does appear to have some harsh music critics!

One can only hope that no one there plays the Bagpipes or Banjo.

@j-jericho said in THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED:

The concept of using persuasion instead of pressure in a culture of power, aggression, fear, and submission is naive. In such a culture, superior power and dominance is respected and provokes cooperation, while pleas for civil behavior are considered weak and deserving of ridicule and derision. There are those who understand this and are capable of exercising strength, and there are others who either disbelieve the reality of it or have no clue.

If I lived there I would be persuaded immediately that music is not an option. I would also be persuaded to leave if possible. Of course the UN has politely asked the Taliban not to do that again.

@dr-go said in THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED:

I did play it once, during a celebration party of my visit, way out in the desert after I thought I had silently walked away from the host, where I played Caravan. As fate would have in, several host diplomates followed me out into the desert (unbeknownst by me) and heard me playing. I turned around to see applause. I returned from that party, hands intact.

It appears that you lucked out, and left Saudi Arabis with your hands, brain, and no whip marks. I would not suggest attending any events in Afganistan!

The following is not a political discussion. It is reality. Given a different set of circumstances, or at the whim, so to speak, of a spin of the dice, we could be living under these or similarly severe circumstances. For example, due to circumstances similar to this, I, or my generational equivalent, probably would never have been born if my great grandparents had not made the choice to leave Eastern Europe and Russia and settle in the United States over 120 years ago.
Here is a news report, of a contemporary situation verified by searching international sources. The first thing that came to my mind was the title of the Don McLean song, “The Day The Music Died”.

From Classic FM:

Taliban executes folk singer after announcing a public music ban in Afghanistan

An Afghan musician has been shot dead in the Baghlan province, after Taliban officials announced a ban on playing music in public.

Fawad Andarabi, a well-known folk singer, was killed in the Afghanistan village of Andarab, north of Kabul, according to multiple reports. He was said to have been dragged from his village home before being shot dead by the Taliban.

Afghanistan’s former interior minister Masoud Andarabi tweeted: “Taliban’s brutality continues in Andarab. Today they brutally killed folkloric singer, Fawad Andarabi who simply was bringing joy to this valley and its people.”

United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Karima Bennoune, posted online: “As UN Special Rapporteur on cultural rights, with Unesco Goodwill Ambassador on artistic freedom, I express grave concern about reports of the terrible killing of singer Fawad Andarabi.

“We call on governments to demand the Taliban respect the human rights of artists. We reiterate our plea for governments to find safe, effective ways for artists & cultural workers who need to do so to get out of Afghanistan.”

The Taliban has banned playing music in public. Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid told the New York Times in a recent interview that music is “un-Islamic”.

“Music is forbidden in Islam, but we’re hoping that we can persuade people not to do such things, instead of pressuring them,” he said.

20 years ago, when they were last in Afghanistan, the Taliban only permitted religious singing. Other forms of music-making were banned.

Celebrating weddings with dancing and music was banned by the Taliban from 1996 to 2001.

In recent media appearances, Taliban spokesmen are trying to give the impression that the group had changed its ways since its first government of the late 1990s, with more moderate positions on matters of culture and women’s education.

However, around the time the US and NATO forces are leaving Kabul, people are voicing deep fear for the safety of artists and the Taliban’s treatment of cultural artefacts and traditions in the country.

Andarabi played the ghichak, a bowed lute, and sang traditional songs about his birthplace, his people and Afghanistan.

The full report can be found at:
https://www.classicfm.com/music-news/taliban-executes-singer-afghanistan-fawad-andarabi/

Is there such a thing as a “natural player”?
See what you think.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CTXTQZeFa_x/?utm_medium=share_sheet

@bigdub said in A little humour:

@dr-go
They have rabbits on the African plains?

Extinct

I received this email today from Jari Villanueva. I imagine many of you did as well. I will post it for those that did not.

TAPS ON 9-11 20TH ANNIVERSARY

YOU CAN REGISTER AT:
www.tapsforveterans.org/tapsevent/sept-11-20th-anniversary/

TAPS FOR VETERANS, TAPS ACROSS AMERICA and TAPS BUGLER encourages all buglers and trumpeters across the nation to sound Taps marking the 20th anniversary of 9-11 on Saturday September 11, 2021. If you are not involved with a formal ceremony please sound Taps at one of the times listed below. You can sound Taps at a location of your choosing.

It would also be appropriate to sound Taps at Sunset (your local time) in memory of those who died on this day.

All registrants will receive a TAPS IN HONORED GLORY patch (patches mailed out the week of September 13) Additional patches may be purchased at the Taps For Veterans Store by clicking HERE

Please register to sound Taps on 9-11

We encourage you to make a video of your performance and upload that video to our YouTube channel. Taps For Veterans Events
The upload link will be provided on Sept 11.

Here are the times of events on 9-11

8:46 A.M.: Flight 11 crashes into the North Tower of the World Trade Center between the 93rd and 99th floors.

9:03 A.M.: Flight 175 crashes into the South Tower of the World Trade Center between the 77th and 85th floors.

9:37 A.M.: Flight 77 crashes into The Pentagon.

9:59 A.M.: The South Tower collapses.

10:03 A.M.: Flight 93 crashes into a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

10:28 A.M.: The North Tower collapses.

#TapsForVeterans
#TapsBugler
#TapsAcrossAmerica
#Taps
#HonorThem

THANKS FOR YOUR CONTINUING SUPPORT!

DON'T FORGET ABOUT TAPS IN HONORED GLORY
https://www.tapsforveterans.org/tapsevent/taps-in-honored-glory/

AND OUR SPECIAL CENTENNIAL CHALLENGE COIN FOR THE TOMB OF THE UNKNOWN SOLDIER
https://www.tapsforveterans.org/store/

Here are two more examples:

Mark Stryker, critic and author of “Jazz From Detroit”
Kenny Dorham (1924-72) did not command attention with Gabriel-like power and bravura technique. A favorite of jazz connoisseurs, he seduced listeners with the soulful warmth, colorful wit and understated wisdom of the hippest bon vivant on the scene. Everything about his approach to the trumpet and improvisation was expressive, relaxed and personal. The dappled smears of his crepuscular tone and the flirty bounce he brings to the standard “I Had the Craziest Dream” in 1959 make a beeline for your heart. His improvised phrases, delivered with nonchalant charm, enchant you with clever melodic and rhythmic rhymes and piquant note choices. He’s telling a story, inviting you into his dream — where you not only fall in love with the trumpet, but also the man with the horn.

Leonard Slatkin, conductor
In 1958 my father, the conductor Felix Slatkin, commissioned the composer Leo Arnaud to create pieces that would demonstrate the then-new audio format of stereo. Utilizing various military fanfares as well as original tunes, “Bugler’s Dream” included what would become known as “The Olympic Fanfare.” The track was featured on a Capitol Records album called “Charge!” and has been reissued several times.

With trumpets of all sizes and the musicians separated into two different studios, there was simply no better way to show off not only the new technology but also the incredible skill of the 26 players. If you do not love the trumpet after listening to this, I suggest the track that contains the 12 bagpipers.

@administrator said in 5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Trumpet- New York Times:

I spent 5 years studying the trumpet at a collegiate level, let alone 5 minutes.

The article was aimed at the general public, not individuals who play the Trumpet. Just the 16 recorded examples that the 16 essays are based on alone will take over an hour ho listen to and the essays probably another 30-40 minutes. The entire project is actually very informative. This is part of a series of music appreciation related articles.

“ In the past we’ve chosen the five minutes or so we would play to make our friends fall in love with classical music, piano, opera, cello, Mozart, 21st-century composers, violin, Baroque music, sopranos, Beethoven, flute, string quartets, tenors, Brahms, choral music, percussion, symphonies and Stravinsky.

Now we want to convince those curious friends to love the trumpet. We hope you find lots here to discover and enjoy; leave your favorites in the comments.”

The New York Times today had an article written from multiple points of view, “5 Minutes That Will Make You Love the Trumpet”. There were 16 short essays by music critics, reporters. Trumpet Players, composers, musicians, conductors, etc. Each short essay was accompanied by a recording that illustrated the point of the essay. The link to this article is below.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/arts/music/classical-music-trumpet-jazz.html

An example of an essay and accompanying recording by Terence Blanchard is below. It is very timely with Hurricane Ida making landfall in Louisiana. I know that I am “preaching to the choir”, but it is a great article. You should be able to access it by opening a free New York Times account.

◆ ◆ ◆

Terence Blanchard, trumpeter and composer:

Here is my impassioned clarion call to understand the trumpet! See that exclamation point? That’s what a trumpet does. It punctuates emotions. My trumpet teacher Bill Fielder would always ask, “What is the trumpet?” I would ponder for a moment and offer an encyclopedic answer like “A metal instrument with … blah, blah, blah.” To that Mr. Fielder would say, “It is a mirror of your mind.”

Ordinarily, I would invite you to listen to Miles Davis’s “Porgy and Bess,” a classic collaboration between Miles and Gil Evans. This album set the stage for people thinking differently about the orchestra and jazz. But as I write this, yesterday was the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. My song “Funeral Dirge,” from the album “A Tale of God’s Will,” originally composed for the soundtrack of Spike Lee’s first Katrina documentary, “When the Levees Broke,” still haunts me today. Actually, I don’t feel like I composed it. I feel like it was being screamed at me: my personal clarion call to hear and weep with my hometown, New Orleans.

Dead bodies floating. Dead bodies on top of cars. Dead bodies in the grass. Dead bodies in places I knew. Dead bodies in neighborhoods I grew up in. I saw these bodies in the raw footage of Spike’s documentary. One dead body I didn’t see in the video was that of an old neighborhood friend who died trying to help people stay on their roofs while floodwaters raged beneath. I never cried so much, shedding tears for the many bodies I saw, and the many, many more I didn’t see. This dirge is my tribute to those brave, valiant, fallen heroes. God bless those souls from Katrina — and, today, those souls from Ida.

Pack of Wolves

The discussion of Pepas Trumpet, real
or electronic, made me think of the band MEUTE, a “German Marching Band” that acoustically plays only electronic music covers, or “live techno”. An article about them from Billboard Magazine and two video links are below.

https://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/8545932/meute-german-marching-band-electronic-music

@jolter said in Blasphemous takes on classic tunes:

@bigdub said in Blasphemous takes on classic tunes:

I once saw a bunch of brass players who decided to play while submerged in a city fountain. Only the bells were above the water.

I guess it wasn’t these guys. They do this fountain gig every year on the day they turn the water on for summer.

Speak about blasphemous takes on classic tunes, by the way!

Information about the performing group from Sweden via google translate:

Blåshjuden, or formally KHMMC Blåshjuden - Kungliga HofMessingsMusiqueCorpsen Blåshjuden af ​​Götheborg, is a student orchestra for medical, pharmacist and speech therapy students at the University of Gothenburg, and is part of the Medical Association in Gothenburg.
The blues play German march, Swedish march and American march, among others. The repertoire also includes Austrian marches and traditional jazz-inspired marches in the same style as the brass bands that live in New Orleans. When you perform together with the ballet Inälfvorna, you play (sometimes reluctantly) basically anything.
Blåshjuden likes to play at various events and festivities, both for private individuals and at various orchestra festivals around Sweden and nearby countries.

Driving into Boston today, I encountered this billboard. This may be one of the only positive aspects of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The following is a link to the story of how the Piccolo Trumpet Solo on Penny Lane came about. I had seen on documentaries, and read in articles, bits and pieces of the story in the past, but this is a nice summary.
As a bonus, I am including a video of the Coronation Brass Band, representing Wales and beyond, including Cornetists Barliman2001 and SSmith1226, as well as Soprano Cornet Soloist Karen Packer, all in the last row on the left. They are seen performing “Penny Lane” at the Europaisches Folklore Festival in Bitburg, Germany, which was held in July, 2018. It is good that there is a video, because the volume of “Bitburger Brewery” Beer, schnapps, and wine has clouded my memory of the festival.

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/trumpet/piccolo-solo-penny-lane-david-mason-paul-mccartney/

When Mozart passed away, he was buried in a churchyard. A couple days later, the town drunk was walking through the cemetery and heard some strange noise coming from the area where Mozart was buried. Terrified, the drunk ran and got the priest to come and listen to it.
The priest bent close to the grave and heard some faint, unrecognizable music coming from the grave. Frightened, the priest ran and got the town magistrate.
When the magistrate arrived, he bent his ear to the grave, listened for a moment, and said, “Ah, yes, that’s Mozart’s Ninth Symphony, being played backwards.” He listened a while longer, and said, “There’s the Eighth Symphony, and it’s backwards, too. Most puzzling.” So the magistrate kept listening. By that time more towns folk came to the grave to hear the strange sounds.
“There’s the Seventh… the Sixth… the Fifth…” Suddenly the realization of what was happening dawned on the magistrate; he stood up and announced to the crowd that had gathered in the cemetery, “My fellow citizens, there’s nothing to worry about. It’s just Mozart decomposing.”

Here is another example:

Gunhild Carling is a true “multi instrumentalist”. The entire video is entertaining, but if you want to cut to the chase, advance the video to 3:00.
An article from Classic FM can be found at:

https://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/instruments/trumpet/gunhild-carling-plays-three-at-once/

I received my Curry Conn Shank Cornet mouthpiece. My actual cornet is at Osmun Music having its valves rebuilt. I was able to insert the Curry Conn Shank Mouthpiece into the receiver of a bandmate’s King Silver Tone Cornet of the same era. It fit perfectly. The standard shank mouthpieces that were loose in my cornet were similarly loose in his cornet. I did also try a short shank Yamaha cornet mouthpiece as well, but it also fit loosely.
Because of the covid situation, I did not try to play his cornet with the Conn Shank Mouthpiece. It appears that the Conn Shank is the proper fit. I will report further about the playability with the Curry Conn Shank Mouthpiece when I get my cornet back in September.

Below is a duet with the Golden Gate Bridge.

Guitarist and songwriter Nate Mercereau turned to an unconventional source of inspiration when recording his latest EP: the sounds of San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge.

Thanks to a quirk (or a flaw, depending on your perspective) in the design of a recent structural modification, the bridge has been producing ethereal drone sounds in strong winds. The sound has caused some controversy among local residents, who have reported hearing it from as far as three miles away and described it as something akin to "a giant wheezing kazoo"….
The entire article can be found at:

https://www.musicradar.com/news/la-based-musician-turns-golden-gate-bridge-into-worlds-largest-wind-instrument