Nordic Jazz 2011 – House of Sweden

Another wonderful concert at the House of Sweden on the shores of the Potomac this past Sunday – June 19, 2011. On tap were three Nordic Jazz bands – In the Country (Norway), Tonbruket (Sweden), and the Andres Thor Trio (Iceland).

I enjoyed all three bands and was able to capture pictures and sounds with my LX3 and H1.

In the Country had a cool mellow vibe that quietly ebbed and flowed with adroit use of piano, bass, and drums accented by burbling ambient electronics. Quite effective!

Tonbbruket used an interesting sampling of instruments including piano, bass, drums, guitar, and pedal steel to achieve both calm and driving sounds that were very engaging.

Andres Thor was the most traditional of the three bands and explored the classic bass, drums, and guitar trio sound to full effect. As I confirmed in my conversation with Adres Thor afterward, he cites John Scofield as one of his influences.

This is the fifth year for Nordic Jazz. I am pleased that I have been able to attend the last three of these years. I have high hopes for this series going forward.

Kuára at Finland Embassy 06-14-2011

Last night, I attended a wonderful jazz concert at the foliage filled Finland Embassy in Washington, DC. The music was part of the annual Nordic Jazz week that marshals the resources of the Scandinavian embassies. The series concludes on Sunday 06/19/2011 with an outdoor concert on the rooftop of the Swedish Embassy along the Georgetown waterfront.

The concert at the Finland Embassy featured ECM recording artists Kuára with Per Jørgensen on trumpet. This was their first concert in the United States. True to the ECM sound, the music mixed jazz, folk songs, and ambient sounds in an exciting and dramatic fashion. What a delight.

The concert gave me an opportunity to try out my newly purchased Zoom H1 recorder. My brief listen of the result sounds very good. I will now have to hunker down to perform the post editing to bring out the best results. Based on this test, I believe the H1 is close to equal to my H2 that has served me so well.

I also took many pictures with my trusty Panasonic LX3. Even with the challenging light situation, I captured a few good shots.

More Reverb – Pierre Bensusan @ IMT 03-16-2010

Last night Pierre Bensusan returned to the DC Metro area with an exhilarating set of acoustic music. Dubbed the “KIng of Reverb” by Dave of the Institute of Musical Traditions, Pierre played to a nearly full house in the intimate theater at the Takoma Park Community Center. The reverb remark was a running gag throughout the concert much akin to the “more cowbell” joke made famous in an SNL skit. At one point, I shouted “more cowbell” and Pierre responded with bemusement to the unfamiliar concept and added it to his ongoing humorous remarks between songs. Even though he was near the end of this tour, he was clearly in a jovial mood!

Pierre played his trademarked open tuning guitar based music that shifts seamlessly between medieval folk songs, celtic reels, wordless jazz singing, and middle eastern sonorities. Because of his long association with the open tuning style he could also be dubbed the “KIng of DADGAD”.

I first encountered his music while travelling in France in 1982 and stumbled upon his Solilaï album that I bought in an FNAC in Paris. I still have that LP today and enjoy listening to it along with his numerous other releases since then.

For me there was never a wrong note in the evening’s performance and this was probably the best of all the times that I have seen him perform.

Pierre concluded the evening with an encore medley of celtic tunes which was thrilling to me and was the perfect conclusion to a flawless performance.

Bravo Pierre Bensusan.

iPad 2 = Best Buy Fail

Just got back from purchasing my iPad 2. Only spent about 1.5 hours in total on this exercise.

I first went to my local Best Buy store which is less than a mile from my house. I had called the day before to get a feel for their expected supply and was told they had 20 pieces of multiple sizes to sell. Armed with this information I took a chance. Well I arrive and am told at 4 pm they have 10 and are already sold out! I then go to the back of the store and ask to speak to a manager for clarification. There were already 20 people in line that had been waiting since 12 pm! I start asking questions about their expected stock and they can’t answer and don’t know anything. They then said that if I kept asking questions they would escort me from the store!

Best Buy, your customer service is horrendous. You should be able to answer basic questions without threatening your customers. Give people enough information to make informed decisions. Stringing people along is not beneficial to your business or customers. If it’s too much for your business to handle something like this then just don’t bother.

So, I abandoned this Best Buy failure and headed to my local Target store less than a quarter mile away.

I arrived to find that they only had 5 of the 32 gb model. I only wanted the 16 gb model but adapted to this new reality. I want to give high kudos to the Target staff in Wheaton, MD who were courteous and and honestly answered questions without equivocation. I later learned that they had been trained by their management for this occasion. It showed and is appreciated by this customer. Being honest with your customers is the only proper and appropriate way to behave. Target understands this – Best Buy does not.

I was fourth in line and so I was able to purchase an iPad 2 without drama and was on my way by 5:10 pm.

If I had gone to one of the two Apple stores in my area, I would still be in line waiting although it has been stated online that Apple stores have plenty of supply.

I think the very small allocation to the non-Apple stores is poor planning by Apple and is mostly an exercise in frustration for customers. Either ship sufficient stock to partner stores or just only sell them at Apple. Apple could do better but it is a game they seem to enjoy playing?

Update: I just saw this article that points to Best Buy sales shenanigans and Apple being none too pleased. If this article is accurate, it explains my experience and further reinforces my belief that Best Buy is on a downward spiral and will fail in the not too distant future.

California Guitar Trio at Wolftrap Barns 2011

At the last moment, I decided to attend a CGT performance last night at Wolftrap Barns. The band was in good form as usual and played a nearly perfect set. They were in a reminiscent mood since this is their twentieth anniversary tour. Paul Richards commented that they had a lot of history playing in the metro DC area and recounted these concerts plus their involvement in the Guitar Craft directed by Robert Fripp. He mentioned their early Crafty Guitarists concerts at George Washington University over 20 years ago that I also attended.

As in the past, they also recorded and burned CDs of the concert directly after the show. In my opinion, this should be standard practice at all concerts.

I absolutely love the Wolftrap Barns hall and it’s always perfect acoustic sound. I’ve had seats all over the hall and there isn’t a bad spot anywhere.

Next week I have tickets to the incomparable Pierre Bensusan at IMT. A great couple of weeks for guitar music.

September’s Here Again…

September by David Sylvian

Zappa & Glass at BSO with Marin Alsop

The BSO gave a phenomenal performance last night at  Meyerhoff Hall of Baltimore’s native sons Frank Zappa and Philip Glass music.

Marin Alsop continues to be a breath of fresh air in the staid classical music community by “breaking the rules” and generally embracing the present and the future.

The BSO under Alsop’s able hand performed the admittedly tricky and complex notes of Mr. Zappa with great alacrity and aplomb.

I was so thrilled to hear one of my favorite Zappa compositions, Outrage at Valdez, in a live performance. The eerie present day relevance (i.e. Gulf Oil Spill) as Ms. Alsop pointed out made the performance even more poignant. The BSO perfectly captured the mystery and mourning that makes this piece so moving.

Ms. Alsop and the BSO should be given 10 stars for presenting such an ambitious evening of music. Hopefully this will be repeated in the future?

Update: The Baltimore Sun gives an enthusiastic review here.

Capital Audiofest Day 1

Yesterday, I attended the first day of the Capital Audiofest taking place at the Glenview Mansion in Rockville, MD. I have been looking forward to this event for months!

I’ve posted some pictures of the first day.

I’ll be returning today and tomorrow. I hope to post some thoughts on what I heard as I have time to digest everything.

Capital Audiofest 2010 (June 11-13)

Judee Sill on United States of Tara tonight

Interesting to hear a very short snippet of the great song Crayon Angels by Judee Sill on the Showtime series United States of Tara tonight.

I had the rare opportunity to see her perform, at the Kennedy Center no-less, when she opened for Cat Stevens in the early 1970’s. I always loved her music and was very happy to pick up her reissued CDs when they became available. Her many fans include Andy Partridge of XTC!

It is so sad that she led such a tragic life and died so young.

Oblivion Sun @ Orion Sound Studios 04-15-2010

Baltimore based prog band Oblivion Sun took the stage at Orion Studios last night. They were greeted by a packed house full of lifetime Happy the Man and progressive music fans. The band was in good spirits and performed a solid two hour set that included songs from their first album and as well as premieres from their forthcoming second album titled The High Places. The title track is and extended masterpiece by the prolific Frank Wyatt.

Oblvion Sun is at its core longtime collaborators Stanley Whitaker and Frank Wyatt who formed along with Kit Watkins, Rick Kennel, and Mike Beck the original Happy the Man in the 1970’s. They went on to great fame and notoriety with two fantastic albums on Arista Records and performed extensively around their home base in the Washington, DC metro area.

The current band includes Bill Plummer on keyboards, Bill Brasso on drums, and David Hughes on Bass.

I have seen this current lineup several times and believe that they have really meshed and coalesced into a very lean and muscular performing unit. The sheer musicality and interplay is simply stunning and is a wonder to behold!

This band should not be missed.