cornerpocket
RJD2 on stage, 4/10/10
Apr/04/2010 *
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RJD2 tore up the Wild Buffalo in Bellingham to a packed house on the 58th stop of his 59-city tour. Mixing new songs from his album "The Collossus" with older favorites from "Deadringer" and "The Horror," Rambling John played an array of turntables, mixing boards, computers, gadgets and guitar and sang too. A good time was had by all!
And here's a RJD2 on-air radio mix from 2004 for your funky enjoyments: www.podcastcafe.org/freestyle/RJD2-BreezeblockMix-2004.mp3
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Scenes from the Gorge...
May/05/2009 *
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I could talk
at length about how great last weekend's trip to the
Gorge in eastern Washington to see the Doobie
Brothers, the Allman Brothers and the Grateful Dead
was -- and how amazingly surprised and pleased I was
with The Dead's inspired performance -- but for now,
I need to just listen to the music
play....
Esbjorn Svensson, leader of e.s.t., R.I.P.
Jun/06/2008 *
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Pianist Esbjorn Svensson dies last week in a scuba accident off the coast of his home country Sweden. An amazing, passionate and intelligent piano player, performer and composer, I was fortunate to catch his band e.s.t. at the Vancouver Jazz Festival a few years ago. Kidd Logic, Carol Freelander and I made the pilgrimage north to see them at the East VAncouver Cultural Centre ("the Cultch" if yer cool) and the concert really blew me away. The venue is very small with a tiny stage surrounded by close-in balconies full of people three-deep. Up in the balcony seats, you are pretty close to being right on top of the performers, and I was able to look down and watch Svensson's hands abuse his piano from a bird's-eye view. Breath-taking.
Marcey and I coincidentally were planning on seeing e.s.t. again, next week, once again at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. We have tickets for the show, which featured e.s.t. opening up for the John Scofield Trio. I was so close to seeing them again, but alas, it isn't meant to be.
I uploaded an amazing e.s.t. performance over at the Live Archive. Click for more: a heartfelt tribute from a jazz critic in Enland....
If you're the
DJ on a jazz radio programme, as I am, you face the
task of dealing with the death of a significant
musician at some point or other. Live on air, it's no
easy task: how do you actually say that a person has
died? How do you maintain formality but also point to
the dignified joy of the music? What do you miss, the
person or the work? Your tone of voice, almost
inevitably, is gauged too far towards stiffness - I
avoid referring to someone as having "passed away"
but it's often all you can say. It's easy to make a
slip, and if it's live, you'll never get another
chance to show your appreciation for that person or,
in the case of the Swedish jazz pianist Esbjörn
Svensson, your love.
I'm not looking forward to my show on Sunday, where I will pay tribute to Svensson, one of the great jazz pianists and composers, who died last week at the age of 44. There's no question of me getting this broadcast wrong - my listeners already know how I'll be feeling. They know because I've told them of my admiration for Svensson, and because they heard the music. Endless plays of Elevation of Love, which still makes me smile, cry and want to drive across Europe in mad abandon, or critical appraisals of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio's Viaticum - which I slightly criticised, for God's sake - will mean that my listeners will be tuning in for a tribute from a number one fan. I'm worried I won't deliver.
I found the Esbjörn Svensson Trio in a massive gold mine of a record shop in Hamburg. Bored with the usual thing and knowing I could find the "good stuff" in northern Europe, I headed to the record shop at the earliest opportunity. I grabbed Tomasz Stanko, Miroslav Vitous and a few bargain basement compilations. Just as I was moving toward the electronica section I noticed the cover of Strange Place for Snow. Seeing this enticing minimalist design made me buy all the EST they had, and driving back to the ferry I listened all night.
The mix of autobahn and EST was delicious - I had found what I was looking for in jazz. It was jazz, but it was pop and it was dance music. It was sensuous, soulful and funky music, executed with precision and passion but tempered by the self-awareness of competent jazz players honestly stretching the potential of the music. I underline that this music was born out of self-awareness, not self-consciousness; this wasn't an exercise in vanity. This confident group made music that they wanted to listen to and invited us to join them in understanding it. We came in droves.
I was lucky enough to interview the trio in Southampton for my show around the release of Seven Days of Falling. It was my first radio interview and probably the most nervous I've ever been. I was allowed to watch the soundcheck and sat at the back of the auditorium to watch EST perform Elevation of Love, with me as the sole audience member. I remember suppressing tears as I sat, mouth open, staggered that these guys could do this live. To this day it's my favourite track: its seamless variations and nods at all the musical styles still wows me. Esbjörn - though he wouldn't take credit in the interview - had constructed the most moving piece of music, its progressions wrenching the listener into a blanket of beauty no matter where the CD is played.
My meeting with Esbjörn was probably the most star-struck I've ever been. I only ever saw EST live again once in Hamburg and embarrassed myself by shedding tears (again) at their performance.
Probably for the first and last time, my show on Sunday will be a tribute to my favourite musician: a champion of the European sound - indeed Svensson was the European jazz sound - a man whose musical mind, as complex as it was, embraced all its listeners, whether jazzheads or not. I'm not looking forward to my show, but I will convey how much Esbjörn Svensson meant to jazz and to jazz fans. We have truly lost a genius and it breaks my heart.
--Sam Christie, The Guardian's musical blog
I'm not looking forward to my show on Sunday, where I will pay tribute to Svensson, one of the great jazz pianists and composers, who died last week at the age of 44. There's no question of me getting this broadcast wrong - my listeners already know how I'll be feeling. They know because I've told them of my admiration for Svensson, and because they heard the music. Endless plays of Elevation of Love, which still makes me smile, cry and want to drive across Europe in mad abandon, or critical appraisals of the Esbjörn Svensson Trio's Viaticum - which I slightly criticised, for God's sake - will mean that my listeners will be tuning in for a tribute from a number one fan. I'm worried I won't deliver.
I found the Esbjörn Svensson Trio in a massive gold mine of a record shop in Hamburg. Bored with the usual thing and knowing I could find the "good stuff" in northern Europe, I headed to the record shop at the earliest opportunity. I grabbed Tomasz Stanko, Miroslav Vitous and a few bargain basement compilations. Just as I was moving toward the electronica section I noticed the cover of Strange Place for Snow. Seeing this enticing minimalist design made me buy all the EST they had, and driving back to the ferry I listened all night.
The mix of autobahn and EST was delicious - I had found what I was looking for in jazz. It was jazz, but it was pop and it was dance music. It was sensuous, soulful and funky music, executed with precision and passion but tempered by the self-awareness of competent jazz players honestly stretching the potential of the music. I underline that this music was born out of self-awareness, not self-consciousness; this wasn't an exercise in vanity. This confident group made music that they wanted to listen to and invited us to join them in understanding it. We came in droves.
I was lucky enough to interview the trio in Southampton for my show around the release of Seven Days of Falling. It was my first radio interview and probably the most nervous I've ever been. I was allowed to watch the soundcheck and sat at the back of the auditorium to watch EST perform Elevation of Love, with me as the sole audience member. I remember suppressing tears as I sat, mouth open, staggered that these guys could do this live. To this day it's my favourite track: its seamless variations and nods at all the musical styles still wows me. Esbjörn - though he wouldn't take credit in the interview - had constructed the most moving piece of music, its progressions wrenching the listener into a blanket of beauty no matter where the CD is played.
My meeting with Esbjörn was probably the most star-struck I've ever been. I only ever saw EST live again once in Hamburg and embarrassed myself by shedding tears (again) at their performance.
Probably for the first and last time, my show on Sunday will be a tribute to my favourite musician: a champion of the European sound - indeed Svensson was the European jazz sound - a man whose musical mind, as complex as it was, embraced all its listeners, whether jazzheads or not. I'm not looking forward to my show, but I will convey how much Esbjörn Svensson meant to jazz and to jazz fans. We have truly lost a genius and it breaks my heart.
--Sam Christie, The Guardian's musical blog
His Holiness in the Pacific Northwest
Apr/04/2008 *
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As a result of the Dalai Lama's recent visit to the Pacific Northwest, I've been inspired to create, collect and share various sounds and words I've created to honor him and his work in this world. Here are some links to pages throughout this site that will hook you up with downloadable wisdom:
You can stream or download a podcast of his 2008 talk from Seattle here and his 2004 talk from Vancouver, B.C. here.
I wrote a story about the Dalai Lama's visit to Seattle for the Cascadia Weekly newspaper; it also discusses author Pico Iyer's new biopgraphy The Open Road: The Global Journey of the Fourteenth Dalai Lama. You can view and/or download a pdf of the story right over here. Another story I wrote about the Dalai Lama's 2004 visit to Vancouver B.C. is available here.
Finally, DJ Fundi posted a mix entitled "A Lament for Tibet" featuring music from the Himalayan region at the Podcast Cafe right here.
Namaste.
(updated 5/19/08)