Video Blog

Nina Simone - Harlem Festival

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 11:51:02 -0800

"Be my husband". Nina Simone live at Harlem Festival, in Central Park, 1969.

Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933–April 21, 2003), better known by her stage name Nina Simone, was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and civil rights activist. Although she disliked being categorized, Simone is most associated with jazz music. Simone originally aspired to become a classical pianist, but her work covers an eclectic variety of musical styles that include classical, jazz, blues, soul, folk, R&B, gospel, and pop. Her vocal style is characterized by intense passion, a loose vibrato, and a slightly androgynous timbre, in part due to her unusually low vocal range which veered between the alto and tenor ranges (occasionally even reaching baritone lows). Also known as The High Priestess of Soul, she paid great attention to the musical expression of emotions. Within one album or concert she could fluctuate between exuberant happiness and tragic melancholy. These fluctuations also characterized her own personality and personal life, amplified by bipolar disorder with which she was diagnosed in the mid-1960s, but kept secret until after her death in 2003. According to Nadine Cohodas, Simone's biographer, Ms. Simone was first diagnosed with multiple personality disorder and later with schizophrenia.
Simone recorded over 40 live and studio albums, the greatest body of her work released between 1958 (when she made her debut with Little Girl Blue) and 1974. Her most well known songs include "My Baby Just Cares for Me", "I Put a Spell on You", "Four Women", "I Loves You Porgy", "Feeling Good", "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood", "Sinnerman", "To Be Young, Gifted and Black", "Mississippi Goddam", "Ain't Got No, I Got Life" and "I Want a Little Sugar in My Bowl".
Her music and message made a strong and lasting impact on culture, illustrated by the numerous contemporary artists who cite her as an important influence. Several hip hop musicians and other modern artists sample and remix Simone's rhythms and beats on their tracks. In particular, Talib Kweli and Mos Def routinely pay tribute to her outstanding and soulful musical style. Many of her songs are featured on motion picture soundtracks, as well as in video games, commercials, and TV series.
More info about Nina Simone on:
www.ninasimone.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone

Matthew Herbert and Dani Siciliano

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:59:45 -0800

Matthew Herbert (1972), also known as Herbert, Doctor Rockit, Radio Boy, Mr. Vertigo, Transformer, and Wishmountain, is a British electronic musician. His avant-garde electronic work, influenced by the techniques of musique concrète, helped pioneer the microhouse genre.
Career
Herbert began experimenting with aleatoric processes while studying drama at Exeter University in the early 1990s. He gave his first public performance in 1995 as Wishmountain, reportedly using a bag of crisps as an instrument. Two years of performing under this name followed before he retired Wishmountain in favor of Radio Boy. In addition to creating rhythmic musique concrete as Radio Boy, however, Herbert worked on more traditional, yet relatively experimental dance music.
In the mid 90s he traveled to San Francisco, where he met jazz singer Dani Siciliano. The two became collaborators and romantic partners, and eventually married. In 1998, Herbert issued Around the House, which successfully mixed dance beats, sounds generated by everyday kitchen objects, and Siciliano's wry vocals. By the late Nineties, Herbert was remixing tracks for dance artists like Moloko, Motorbass, Alter Ego, and others. (Many of these were later collected on Secondhand Sounds: Herbert Remixes.) He also recorded singles, EPs, and albums under a variety of aliases (Doctor Rockit, Radio Boy, Mr. Vertigo, and Transformer) as well as his own name.
In 2001, Herbert issued Bodily Functions. Similar in structure to Around the House, it culled sounds generated by manipulating human hair and skin as well as internal bodily organs. Less severe than Matmos' work, its light and sinuous dance sound augured the rise of microhouse. Bodily Functions benefited greatly from a deal Herbert signed with electronic imprint Studio !K7, making it his first full-length to receive worldwide distribution.
Goodbye Swingtime, a 2003 album issued as the Matthew Herbert Big Band, combined the political commentary of Radio Boy with the song structure of his Herbert albums. Recorded with sixteen musicians from the British jazz world, including saxophonists Dave O'Higgins and Nigel Hitchcock, pianist Phil Parnell, and bassist Dave Green, the band is complemented on stage by Siciliano, Arto Lindsay, Warp recording artist Jamie Lidell, and Mara Carlyle.
In 2005 Herbert recorded a version of Jeff Buckley's "Everybody Here Wants You" with singer Dani Siciliano for the tribute album Dream Brother: The Songs of Tim and Jeff Buckley.
On May 30 2006, Herbert issued Scale, his most successful album to date. In the U.S., it reached number 20 on Billboard's electronic music album chart. Entertainment Weekly remarked, "Herbert sneakily subverts Scale's apocalyptic thematic thread into something warm and danceable." Online magazine Pitchfork Media noted, "Sophisticated and whimsical, joyful and yet tinged with sadness, Scale is one of this year's great albums."
In October 2008 Matthew Herbert released the second album by his Matthew Herbert Big Band project, entitled 'There's Me And There's You', fronted by vocalist Eska.
Herbert served as co-producer for Patrick Wolf's latest project "The Bachelor", producing alongside Wolf on "Who Will?" among other tracks.
Theories and politics
In 2000, Herbert wrote a manifesto titled "Personal Contract for the Composition of Music (Incorporating the Manifest of Mistakes)", which served as a theoretical guide for much of his ensuing work. Often referred to as PCCOM, some of its eleven goals includes a personal ban on using drum machines and pre-existing samples, and ensuring that anything created in the studio can be replicated in live performance.
Many of his less dance-oriented projects (chiefly those not recorded under the name Herbert) take on sundry political concerns, using specific objects to create a conceptual piece. His 2001 project as Radio Boy, The Mechanics of Destruction sampled objects from McDonald's & The Gap merchandise as a protest against corporate globalism. It was made available as a free MP3 download, via concerts and could be acquired by sending an addressed envelope to accidental records. It is still available to download for free.
In 2005 Herbert released the album Plat du Jour under his proper name, Matthew Herbert. The disc addresses commercial food production and marketing.
In February 2006, Herbert helped form the virtual community Country X. In an introduction posted on the website, he writes, "Why not start a country? only this time, a virtual one. free from the necessity to defend its borders physically, we can reduce the violence of exclusion. a new description of resistance."
Herbert shared some of his thoughts on the future in an article for UK music magazine, 'Clash', writing "we are facing a perfect storm of shit: global financial meltdown, massive climatic shifts and the end of oil."
Accidental Records
By 2000 Herbert assembled several microlabels he initiated, including Soundslike (for his Herbert alias) and Lifelike (originally called Lowlife, begun in 1998 for his Doctor Rockit alias), under the umbrella Accidental Records. In addition to documenting Herbert's sundry projects, these imprints issued works from The Soft Pink Truth, Mara Carlyle, Mugison and Beckett & Taylor among others. Currently the label is working on a new Matthew Herbert Big Band record, and with the Invisible, Setsubun Bean Unit and Micachu.
Additional projects
Matthew Herbert has produced remixes for numerous artists, including Moloko, R.E.M., Perry Farrell, Serge Gainsbourg, Yoko Ono, John Cale, The Avalanches and Cornelius. He programmed three tracks on Björk's Vespertine, and produced The Invisible's debut album, along with Moloko singer Róisín Murphy's album Ruby Blue'.
He has contributed music to several films, including Human Traffic and Dogme 95 director Kristian Levring's The Intended, Agathe Clery, Le Defi, as well as UK television, theatrical and concert dance productions. He has recently finished work on BBC/HBo production, 'A Number'.

Noir Desir: L'appartement

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 14:34:02 -0800

Noir Désir is a French rock band from Bordeaux. They were active during the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s, and have had two albums certified double platinum in France and three certified gold. They have been an influence on numerous French musicians including Cali, Louise Attaque and Miossec. The band currently consists of Bertrand Cantat (vocals, guitar), Serge Teyssot-Gay (guitar), Jean-Paul Roy (bass guitar) and Denis Barthe (drums).

Formation: 1980–1985
Bertrand Cantat and Serge Teyssot-Gay met in 1980 at secondary school after Cantat moved to Bordeaux from his hometown in Normandy; Teyssot-Gay was 17 and Cantat was 16 at the time. The two teenagers shared a love of music, particularly Led Zeppelin, The Who, and AC/DC and so they decided to form a band. Tesyssot had a strong musical background and a decade's worth training in classical guitar, however Cantat could not play any instrument at the time, and so became the singer for their band. They met Denis Barthe, during the summer vacation who shared a similar passion for music and he agreed to play drums for the band, although he had never played them before.
They went through a series of temporary bassists, eventually settling on Vincent Leriche. The band originally called themselves "Psychoz", then "6.35", "Station Désir" and finally "Noirs Désirs". In 1982 Teyssot-Gay and Leriche left the group to form BAM (Boîte A Musique). The remaining band members, Barthe and Cantat, went in search for a replacement guitarist and bassist. For the bass they found Frèdèric Vidalenc, who had played in the well reputed local group Dernier Métro, and eventually they settled on Luc Robène for guitar. However the next year Cantat would also leave the band temporarally, being replaced by Emmanuel Ory-Weil, who would later become the band's manager. When Robène quit in 1985 Cantat was eager to get their original guitarist, Teyssot-Gay, back into the band and succeeded. The new lineup of Cantat on vocals, Teyssot-Gay on guitar, Vidalenc on bass and Barthe on drums continued for 11 more years.

Des visages des figures: 2001–2003
Their most recent studio album, 2001's Des visages des figures was much quieter than any of their previous albums, but was very well received, selling over 1 million copies. The group received five Victoires de la Musique award nominations for 2001, winning both Best Rock Album of the Year and Music Video of the Year for "Le vent nous portera" in collaboration with the French/Spanish artist Manu Chao. During the awards ceremony Cantat read out a speech on behalf of the band, addressed to Jean-Marie Messier, the CEO of Vivendi, the group which owns Noir Désir's record company, Universal. Messier was a controversial figure in France at the time, due to the perception that he was abandoning his French roots in favour of Americanization. In their speech, Noir Désir accused Vivendi of exploiting their band’s name in order to rebut criticism of Messier's treatment of French culture. The band played few concerts for their Des visages des figures tour, however all were held in large stadium like venues, except those of the Middle East tour, which allowed the band to go back to their roots playing in small clubs. They were invited to perform a one off concert at the “Montpellier Radio-France” festival in 2002. For the 55 minute performance, titled "Nous n'avons fait que fuir", Cantat recited a long-form poem he'd written over musical improvisations played by the rest of the band. The text of the poem along with a recording of the performance on CD was released by French book publisher Éditions Verticales.

Prince: Purple Rain

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 15:19:28 -0800

Purple Rain is an 1984 musical film directed by Albert Magnoli and written by Magnoli and William Blinn.
Prince stars in this movie, which was developed to showcase his particular talents.
Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson on June 7, 1958) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. He has also been known under the unpronounceable symbol, which he used between 1993 and 2000. This name change invoked controversy and many referred to him as "the artist formerly known as Prince" often abbreviated to "TAFKAP", or simply "The Artist" during that period.
According to Robert Larsen in his book History of Rock and Roll, Prince is "one of the most talented and commercially successful pop musicians of the last twenty years" producing ten Platinum albums and thirty Top 40 singles during his career. Prince founded his own recording studio and label, writing, self-producing and playing most, or all, of the instruments on his recordings. In addition, Prince has been a "talent promoter" for the careers of Sheila E, Carmen Electra, The Time and Vanity 6, making him one of the most successful artists in music history.
Prince is reported to have written more than one thousand songs some of which have been released by Prince under pseudonyms and pen names or recorded and released by other artists. Prince also has hundreds of unreleased songs in his "vault". He has won seven Grammy Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Academy Award. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004, the first year he was eligible. In that same year Rolling Stone ranked Prince #28 on its list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
Prince's music has been influenced by R&B, soul, funk, rock, blues, New Wave, psychedelia, folk, jazz and hip hop. His artistic influences include Jimi Hendrix, James Brown, Sly & the Family Stone, Curtis Mayfield, Parliament-Funkadelic, Stevie Wonder, Carlos Santana, Joni Mitchell, The Beatles, Duke Ellington, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Miles Davis.

Prince pioneered the "Minneapolis sound" a hybrid mixture of funk, rock, pop, R&B and New Wave that influenced other musicians.

Tuck & Patti: Learning How To Fly

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:55:23 -0800

Tuck & Patti are an American husband and wife jazz duo.
Biography by John Bush
Over a career of jazz, R&B, and crossover recordings, husband-and-wife duo Tuck & Patti have produced a remarkable amount of music, especially considering that they rely on the textures of only guitar and voice. Tuck Andress was born in Oklahoma and studied classical guitar at Stanford University before traveling to Las Vegas to audition for a show band in 1980; also there was Patti Cathcart, a San Francisco native who was classically trained in the Bay Area. The two hit it off immediately, and began to perform as a duo around California beginning in 1981. They were married in 1983, but resisted recording contracts so they could cement their unique sound. Finally, in 1987, Tuck & Patti signed to Windham Hill Jazz, recording albums for the label in 1988 (Tears of Joy), 1989 (Love Warriors), and 1991 (Dream). Tuck Andress also released several solo albums for Windham Hill, and the duo signed to Epic in 1995. Tuck & Patti's first album for Epic, Learning How to Fly, alternated Cathcart originals with several covers of contemporary standards. Paradise Found followed in 1998. Taking the Long Way Home appeared two years later. In 2002 Chocolate Moment, only their second album of original songs, and the first on their own label, was released, followed the next year with A Gift of Love, a collection of romantic covers originally intended solely for the Asian market, though the success it found there prompted Tuck & Patti to also issue it in Europe and the U.S. In 2006, the third Windham Hill compilation, Pure Tuck & Patti, was released.

Street Art: Joshua Allen Harris' Inflatable Bag Monsters

Wed, 3 Feb 2010 08:42:57 -0800

“Call us boring and simple-minded, but before we saw the work of street artist Joshua Allen Harris we never once considered the artistic possibilities of subway exhaust. Using only tape and garbage bags, Harris creates giant inflatable animals that become animated when fastened to a sidewalk grate. Steven Psyllos caught up with Harris recently to discuss his older works (including a bear and a giraffe) and unveil a new beast that looks not unlike the Cloverfield monster.” New York Magazine
Video by Jonah Green

James Taylor Quartet : j.t.q. theme

Tue, 2 Feb 2010 09:01:31 -0800

James Taylor Quartet play "j.t.q. theme".
Town and Country Club in London. June 8th,1991.

The James Taylor Quartet are a British four-piece jazz funk band who have become renowned for their live performances. They were formed by Hammond organ player James Taylor following the break-up of his former band The Prisoners in the wake of Stiff Records' bankruptcy. The core line-up is James Taylor (Hammond organ), Chris Montague (guitar), Andrew McKinney (bass) and Adam Betts (drums), although recordings and live performances usually feature a horn section comprising John Willmott (tenor sax/flute) and Nick Smart (trumpet), and also vocalist Yvonne Yanney.
The band are often referred to by the acronym JTQ, and have no connection to the American singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Film theme beginnings
The James Taylor Quartet's first single, "Blow-Up" (a funked up version of Herbie Hancock's main theme from the seminal 60s film of the same name), was released in 1985 on the Re Elect The President label, which would later become the Acid Jazz label. The track was championed by the NME and John Peel, appearing in Peel's Festive Fifty chart for 1987. The band's debut album, Mission Impossible was released the following year and predominantly consisted of covers of Sixties film themes such as "Alfie", "Mrs. Robinson" and "Goldfinger" in a rough, up-tempo, almost punk-like style that was primarily focussed on Taylor's Hammond organ playing. Their second album, The Money Spyder, was the soundtrack to an imaginary spy film, applying the band's distinctive style to Taylor's own compositions.
Whilst promoting these albums The James Taylor Quartet developed a strong reputation as a live band that remains to this day. The live set focuses on accessible rhythm driven music that some classify as having elements of modern dance music, despite including a lot of improvised solos. During this period a contract with a major record led to them playing to ever increasing audiences. The band also recorded their signature tune "The Theme from Starsky and Hutch" during this period. This led to the release of the live album Absolute in 1991, which attempted to capture the experience of the band in concert (even though it was recorded 'live' in the studio, the audience cheering being overdubbed later).
The emergence of acid jazz
In the early 1990s the band changed direction and released a string of song-based albums to appeal to the then fashionable Soul and Acid Jazz scene in the UK. They featured vocalists such as Rose Windross of Soul II Soul, Alison Limerick and Noel McKoy. McKoy became a permanent member of the band for part of this period. The single "Love The Life" reached the Top 40 and the accompanying album Supernatural Feeling reached the top 30 in the UK charts. The next album In The Hand of The Inevitable saw a return to the Acid Jazz label where it remains the label's biggest selling album.
The return to funk roots
Since then the James Taylor Quartet have returned to their original style of instrumental Hammond-led jazz funk workouts on albums that have showcased the band's instrumental talents. Cover versions such as "Whole Lotta Love", "Dirty Harry" and "Jesus Christ Superstar"' are still recorded in the same spirit as the band's debut "Blow-Up" single, but the albums are mainly original compositions.Live gigs regularly feature a vocalist and showcase songs from the soul period of the band. They received a Music of Black Origin nomination for their second live album Whole Lotta Live.
Collaborations and guest spots
The James Taylor Quartet produced a bona-fide film theme of their own when they contributed to the soundtrack of the first Austin Powers film. As well as their own recordings, James Taylor and members of the quartet have collaborated with Tom Jones on the duets album Reload and featured on records by The Wonder Stuff, Manic Street Preachers, The Pogues, Kingmaker and U2. They were also the house band on Gaby Roslin's short-lived Channel 4 chat show.
In the late 1990s, James Taylor began composing and recording library music for the Bruton Music company. A series of releases were made available for use by the media industry in TV advertisements, programmes, films etc. As this material is not available for sale to the general public it is sought after by completist, diehard fans.
The James Taylor Quartet have also released three albums under the name New Jersey Kings. These are similar in style to the core funky Hammond sound of JTQ, but have tended to be recorded live in the studio resulting in a more natural yet raw sound.
Some performances during 2005 included an augmented horn section and have been promoted as the James Taylor Funk Orchestra. During 2005 Nigel Price (guitar) replaced David Taylor.

Trimpin: the sound of invention

Mon, 1 Feb 2010 10:47:29 -0800

This film is an amusing journey through the musical world of an eccentric creative genius, Trimpin.
Directed by Peter Esmonde, featuring the Kronos Quartet.

Trimpin (born Gerhard Trimpin 1951 in Istein, Germany, now part of Efringen-Kirchen) is a Seattle, Washington-based kinetic sculptor, sound artist, musician, and composer, most of whose pieces integrate both sculpture and music in some way, and many of which make use of computers to play these instruments. He uses only his last name, and has legally changed his name accordingly.)

Early life
Trimpin grew up near the French and Swiss borders, a native speaker of Alemannisch. The son of a brass and woodwind player, as a child he had access to old brass instruments to experiment with. He played brass instruments himself, but developed an allergy to metal that affected his lips and made him give up playing. Trimpin's father treated him to spatial musical experiences, playing at some distance in the German woods, and young Trimpin experimented with old radios and with cutting apart and recombining elements of musical instruments. He studied at the University of Berlin.
One early project in Berlin used a balancing clown figurine to play a wire recording of speech. The wire was stretched across a room and tilted up and down while the figurine rode the wire and played it, backwards and forwards. The history his work recapitulates much of the history of data and sound storage technology. Prior to the availability of MIDI, Trimpin developed his own protocol for computer storage of music.
In 1980 Trimpin moved to America because he needed access to old, used technological components, which were difficult to find in Europe; he settled in Seattle because it "sounded like a nice place to live". In the 1980s, he worked a month a year fishing in Alaska to support his work.
Inventions
One of his early installations was a six-story-high microtonal xylophone (that is, one with smaller intervals between achievable tones than in conventional Western musical scales) running through a spiral staircase in an Amsterdam theater, with computer-driven melodies ripping up and down it. Another piece was a water fountain installation in which drops of water, timed in complex rhythmic fugues, dripped into glass receptacles. Several of his pieces since that time have made similar use of falling water. A dance piece used the dancers' bodies to make music, with small bellows in the dancers' shoes that played duck calls, air blowers triggered by sacs under their armpits, etc.
Trimpin has invented a gamelan whose iron bells are suspended in air by electronic magnets; a photo sensor prevents them from rising past a certain point, and since they don't touch anything, once rung they will sound with a phenomenally long decay. Another invention is an extra-long bass clarinet. Extra keys spiraled around the instrument allow a microtonal scale. A human blows through the mouthpiece; the dozens of extra keys are played via computer. In 1987 he met Conlon Nancarrow, composer of experimental player piano music unplayable by a human pianist. Trimpin already had the technology to convert Nancarrow's player piano rolls into MIDI information, thus saving their contents from potential deterioration and disaster.
Trimpin has invented machines to play every instrument of the orchestra via MIDI commands. His mechanical cello can achieve virtually unnoticeable bow changes, and his MIDI timpani can be rubbed quickly by the mallet, for a timpani drone unachievable by human hands. Indeed, his pieces do not generally try to imitate human playing. "What I'm trying to do," he as remarked, "is go beyond human physical limitations to play instruments in such a way that no matter how complex the composition of the timing, it can be pushed over the limits."
Although most of his music is computer-driven, Trimpin almost never uses electronic sounds—not because he objects to them on principle, but because he thinks that loudspeaker design, basically unchanged for 100 years, has lagged behind the rest of electronic music technology. His one work to use electronic sounds was commission-mandated, a tornado-shaped column of electric guitars called Roots and Branches, installed in Seattle's Experience Music Project. Difficult to reach, the guitars tune themselves automatically, their tuning pegs turned via computer whenever pitch sensors register too flat or sharp.
Exhibited work
Beginning in July 2005, several Washington museums engaged in a year-long survey of his work curated by Beth Sellars, with installations and/or performances occurring at the Seattle Art Museum at SAAM, Henry Art Gallery of the University of Washington, Consolidated Works (which dissolved shortly after the Trimpin Exhibit), the Frye Art Museum, Jack Straw New Media Gallery, and Suyama Space in Seattle; the Museum of Glass and the Tacoma Art Museum in Tacoma; the Washington State University Museum of Art (Pullman); and, outside of Washington State, at the Missoula Museum of Art in Missoula, Montana and the Vancouver International Jazz Festival in Vancouver, Canada.
The Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Concourse A artwalk includes Trimpin's Contraption installed next to the concourse's first moving sidewalk. Contraption is a motion activated work consisting of two moving "contraptions" made of assorted musical instruments and found objects, housed in an 80-foot long glass case. Each "contraption" plays music in response to people passing by.
In 1994, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award. Trimpin was also the recipient of a 1997 MacArthur "Genius" Award. More recently, he was an invited keynote speaker at the 7th International NIME (New Interfaces for Musical Expression) conference in New York City, in June 2007.
As of 2007, he is among a number of artists establishing studio space in Tieton, Washington, on the edge of Washington's Yakima Valley.
Trimpin's water-based sound sculpture "Shang High" was exhibited during the 2009 Ojai Music Festival, and one of his creations was featured in one of the pieces performed on the last evening.

Sand Animation by Kseniya Simonova

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 09:46:33 -0800

Kseniya Simonova (born 1985 as Ксения Симонова) is a sand animator from Ukraine. She started drawing with sand after her business collapsed due to the early 21st century credit crunch and had been drawing for less than a year when she entered Ukraine's Got Talent. She became the 2009 winner of that show, constructing an animation that portrayed life during the USSR's Great Patriotic War against the Third Reich in World War II.
Simonova won 1,000,000 Ukrainian Hryvnia (approx. USD125,000) for her first place in the show.

Women In Art by Philip Scott Johnson

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 19:24:25 -0800

500 Years of Female Portraits in Western Art.

This is a very geat video work by Philip Scott Johnson

Music: Bach's Sarabande from Suite for Solo Cello No. 1 in G Major, BWV 1007 performed by Yo-Yo Ma

Nominated as Most Creative Video
2nd Annual YouTube Awards

For a complete list of artists and paintings visit http://www.maysstuff.com/womenid.htm

High resolution version:
http://www.vimeo.com/1456037

Contact information:
eggman913@gmail.com

1
0:00 Archangel (Angel of the Golden Locks) Novgorod School, Russia 2nd half of the 12th c.
2
0:01 La Scapigliata (The Lady of the Dishevelled Hair) Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) 1508
3
0:03 The Madonna of the Carnation Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) 1478-80
4
0:05 Mona Lisa (La Gioconda) Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) 1503-05
5
0:07 Lady with a Unicorn Raphael
(1483-1520) c.1505
6
0:09 The Birth of Venus Sandro Botticelli
(1444-1510) 1485
7
0:11 Portrait of a Young Woman Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
(c.1490-1576) 1536
8
0:13 Portrait of a Lady as St Lucy Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio
(1467-1516) 1500
9
0:14 Sacred Conversation Giovanni Bellini
(1430-1516) 1490
10
0:16 Profane Love
(Vanity) Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
(c.1490-1576) 1514-1515
11
0:18 Judith with the Head of Holofernes Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
(c.1490-1576) c.1515
12
0:20 Mary Magdalene Pietro Perugino
(1448-1523) 1500
13
0:22 Portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519) 1476
14
0:24 Lady with an Ermine
Portrait of Cecilia Gallerani Leonardo da Vinci
(1452-1519) 1483 - 1490
15
0:26 Virgin Annunciate
Maria der Verkündigung Antonello da Messina
(c.1430-1479) 1476
16
0:28 La Donna Velata
(Woman with a Veil) Raphael
(1483-1520) c.1514
17
0:30 Portrait of a Young Venetian Woman or Red-haired Woman from Venice Albrecht Dürer
(1471-1528) 1505
18
0:32 Portrait of a Woman Lucas Cranach the Elder
(1472-1553) 1526 19
0:34 Porträt der Maria Maddalena Portinari Hans Memling
(1430/40-1494) 1470
20
0:35 Lais of Corinth Hans Holbein the Younger
(1497-1543) 1526
21
0:37 Portrait of Elsbeth Tucher Albrecht Dürer
(1471-1528) 1499
22
0:39 Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire Sir Joshua Reynolds
(1723-1792) 1775-76
23
0:41 Jane, Countess of Harrington Sir Joshua Reynolds
(1723-1792) 1778
24
0:43 Mrs. John Hale Sir Joshua Reynolds
(1723-1792) 1762-64
25
0:44 Mrs. Abington Sir Joshua Reynolds
(1723-1792) 1764-1773
26
0:46 Charlotte-Aglaé d'Orléans
Duchesse de Modène Pierre Gobert
(1622-1744) 1744
27
0:48 Portrait of Suzanna Huygens Caspar Netscher
(1639-1684) 1667-69
28
0:50 The Marquise de Seignelay and Two of her Children Pierre Mignard
(1612-1695) 1691
29
0:52 Madame Victoire de France Jean-Marc Nattier
(1685-1766) 1748
30
0:54 Portrait of an Unknown Woman in a Blue Dress with Yellow Trimmings Fyodor Rokotov
(1735-1808) 1760s
31
0:56 Le Chapeau de Paille
(The Straw Hat) Peter Paul Rubens
(1577-1640) c. 1626
32
0:58 Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun
(1755-1842) 1782
33
1:00 Portrait of Lady-in-Waiting to the Infanta Isabella Peter Paul Rubens
(1577-1640) Mid-1620s
34
1:01 Lady with a Flower in her Hair El Greco
(1541-1614) c1590-1600
35
1:03 Madame Barbe de Rimsky-Korsakov Franz Xaver Winterhalter
(1805-1873) 1864
36
1:05 Young Housewife Alexei Vasilievich Tyranov
(1808-1859) 1840s
37
1:07 Portrait of M. I. Lopukhina Vladimir Lukich Borovikovsky
(1757-1825) 1797
38
1:09 Portrait of V. S. Putyatina Alexey Gavrilovich Venetsianov
(1780-1847) 1815-1816
39
1:11 Madame Pasteur Antoine-Jean Gros
(1771-1835) 1795-96
40
1:13 Amalie von Schintling Joseph Karl Stieler
(1781-1858) 1831
41
1:15 Portrait of M. A. Kikina Orest Adamovich Kiprensky
(1782-1836) 1816
42
1:17 Woman with a Pearl Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot
(1796-1875) c1869
43
1:18 The Reading Edouard Manet
(1832-1883) 1869
44
1:20 Berthe Morisot Edouard Manet
(1832-1883) 1872
45
1:22 Charlotte Dubourg Henri Fantin-Latour
(1836-1904) 1882
46
1:24 Portrait of an Italian Woman Alexei Vasilievich Tyranov
(1808-1859) 1851
47
1:26 Princess Albert de Broglie Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
(1780-1867) 1851-53
48
1:28 An Elegant Beauty William Clark Wontner
(1857-1930)
49
1:30 Souvenir William-Adolphe Bouguereau
(1825-1905) 1895
50
1:31 La Belle Liseuse
(The Beautiful Reader) Lêon François Comerre
(1850-1916)
51
1:33 Modesti William-Adolphe Bouguereau
(1825-1905) 1902
52
1:35 Pavonia Lord Frederick Leighton
(1830-1896) 1858-59
53
1:37 A Portrait of a Young Lady Eugene de Blaas
(1843-1931)
54
1:39 Musette Eugene de Blaas
(1843-1931) 1900
55
1:41 An Arab Beauty Lêon François Comerre
(1850-1916)
56
1:43 Girl Braiding Her Hair
(Suzanne Valadon) Pierre Auguste Renoir
(1841-1919) 1885
57
1:45 Portrait of Madame Henriot Pierre Auguste Renoir
(1841-1919) 1877
58
1:47 Two Sisters on the Terrace Pierre Auguste Renoir
(1841-1919) 1881
59
1:48 Portrait of the Actress Jeanne Samary Pierre Auguste Renoir
(1841-1919) 1878
60
1:50 La Chevelure
Young Woman Braiding her Hair Pierre Auguste Renoir
(1841-1919) 1876
61
1:52 Blonde Nude Pierre Auguste Renoir
(1841-1919) 1882
62
1:54 La Promenade Édouard Manet
(1832-1883) c. 1880
63
1:56 Portrait of Maggie Wilson Frank Duveneck
(1848-1919) 1898
64
1:58 Woman with a Pearl Necklace in a Loge Mary Cassatt
(1844-1926) 1879
65
2:00 Ideal Head Julian Alden Weir
(1852-1919)
66
2:01 Portrait of a Woman Paul Cesar Helleu
(1859-1927) 1909
67
2:03 Ols Maria Anders Zorn
(1860-1920) 1918
68
2:05 The Artist Alphonse Maria Mucha
(1860-1939) 1920
69
2:07 The Matyr of the Solway John Everett Millais
(1829-1896) 1871
70
2:09 Madeleine Bernard Paul Gauguin
(1848-1903) 1888
71
2:11 Woman with a Hat Henri Matisse
(1869-1954) 1905
72
2:13 Madras Rouge Henri Matisse
(1869-1954) 1907
73
2:15 Cocolo Francis Picabia
(1879-1953) 1936-38
74
2:16 Ritratto di Signora di Klimt Gustav Klimt
(1862-1918) 1916-17
75
2:18 La fleur
(serigraph) Henri Matisse
(1869-1954) 1937
76
2:20 Portrait of Lydia Delectorskaya, the Artist's Secretary Henri Matisse
(1869-1954) 1947
77
2:22 The Mask Louis Welden Hawkins
(1849-1910) 1905
78
2:24 Les Fleurs du Mal
(Flowers of Evil) Rene Magritte
(1898-1967) 1946
79
2:26 F. Champenois Alphonse Maria Mucha
(1860-1939) 1897
80
2:28 Cycles Perfecta Alphonse Maria Mucha
(1860-1939) 1902
81
2:30 Raphaelesque Head Exploding Salvador Dali
(1904-1989) 1951
82
2:31 Head Bombarded with Grains of Wheat Salvador Dali
(1904-1989) 1954
83
2:33 Apparition of a Face with a Fruit Dish on a Beach Salvador Dali
(1904-1989) 1938
84
2:35 Woman Torso Kazimir Malevich
(1878-1935) 1928-1932
85
2:37 American Beauty
(The Movie Star) Knud Merrild
(1894-1954) 1928
86
2:39 Portrait of Lunia Czechowska Amedeo Modigliani
(1884-1920) 1919
87
2:41 Tumblers (Mother and Son) Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973) 1905
88
2:43 Maternity Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973) 1905
89
2:45 Nude Woman In A Red Armchair Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973) 1932
90
2:47 Portrait of Françoise Pablo Picasso
(1881-1973) 1946

Bjork: Big Time Sensuality

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:52:33 -0800

In the somewhat iconic music video for "Big Time Sensuality", directed by Stéphane Sednaoui, Björk dances on the back of a moving truck slowly driving through New York City in the middle of the day.

Lyrics:
I can sense it
Something important
Is about to happen
It's coming up

It takes courage
To enjoy it
The hardcore and the gentle
Big time sensuality

We just met
And i know i'm a bit too intimate
But something huge is coming up
And we're both included

It takes courage
To enjoy it
The hardcore and the gentle
Big time sensuality

I don't know my future
After this weekend
And I dont want to!

It takes courage
To enjoy it
The hardcore and the gentle
Big time sensuality

Sensuality!

Björk Guðmundsdóttir (born 21 November 1965), known as Björk, is an Icelandic singer-songwriter, composer, actress and music producer, whose work includes seven solo albums and two film soundtracks including the 1994 film Léon, in which "Venus As A Boy" was featured.
She is best known for her expressive vocals, broad soprano vocal range, and a diverse and eclectic musical style, which incorporates influences from many different genres, including pop, alternative rock, jazz, electronic, classical, folk and trip hop, as well as her eccentric costumes and music videos. Her singles "It's Oh So Quiet", "Army of Me" and "Hyperballad" all charted in the UK Top 10.
Her record label, One Little Indian, reported in 2003 that she had sold more than 15 million albums worldwide. She has been nominated for 13 Grammy Awards, an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards (including one for acting). For her performance in Dancer in the Dark, Björk won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival.
Björk was born and raised in Reykjavík, Iceland. Her musical career began when she was eleven with her study of classical piano in elementary school. One of her instructors sent a recording of Björk singing Tina Charles' song "I Love to Love" to RÚV, then the only radio station in Iceland. The recording was broadcast on radio nationally; after hearing it, a representative of the record label Fálkinn contacted Björk to offer a record contract. An album, Björk, was recorded and released in 1977.
In her teens, Björk was influenced by punk; at 14 she formed the all-girl punk band Spit and Snot, shortly followed by the jazz fusion group Exodus in 1979. In 1980 she graduated from music school. In 1981 she and bassist Jakob Magnússon formed another band called Jam-80, which later became Tappi Tíkarrass (which means "Cork the Bitch’s Arse" in Icelandic), and released an extended single, "Bítið Fast í Vítið" in the same year. Their next album, Miranda, was released in 1983.
Afterward, Björk collaborated with Einar Örn Benediktsson and Einar Melax from Purrkur Pillnikk, and Guðlaugur Óttarsson, Sigtryggur Baldursson, and Birgir Mogensen from Þeyr. After writing songs and rehearsing for two weeks, the new band, KUKL ("sorcery" in Icelandic), developed a sound described as Gothic rock. Björk began to show indications of her trademark singing style, which was punctuated by howls and shrieks.

Discography
• Björk (1977)
• Debut (1993)
• Post (1995)
• Homogenic (1997)
• Vespertine (2001)
• Medúlla (2004)
• Volta (2007)

Filmography, including cameos
• 1982 – Rokk í Reykjavík (Íslenska Kvikmyndasamsteypan), film directed by Friðrik Þór Friðriksson.
• 1983 – Nýtt Líf (Nýtt Líf ehf.), film directed by Þráinn Bertelsson.
• 1987 – The Juniper Tree, character: Margit. (Rhino Home Video)
• 1994 – Prêt-à-Porter, featuring Björk as a model. (Robert Altman)
• 2000 – Dancer in the Dark, character: Selma Ježková. (Lars von Trier)
• 2005 – Drawing Restraint 9, character is known as the "Guest". (Matthew Barney)
• 2005 – Screaming Masterpiece, herself.
• 2005 – Arakimentari, documentary on Japanese photographer Nobuyoshi Araki.
• 2006 – Matthew Barney: No Restraint, documentary on the making of Drawing Restraint 9.
• 2007 – Anna and the Moods, Björk performs the voice of Anna Young. (CAOZ Ltd.)

Lhasa De Sela: Con Toda Palabra

Wed, 27 Jan 2010 13:00:21 -0800

Music video directed by Ralph Dfouni & Brigitte Henry.

Lhasa de Sela (September 27, 1972 – January 1, 2010), also known by the mononym Lhasa, was an American-born singer-songwriter who was raised in Mexico and the United States and divided her adult life between Canada and France.

Lhasa was born in Big Indian, New York, of a Mexican father, Spanish instructor Alex Sela, and a Jewish-American mother, photographer and actress Alexandra Karam. Her first decade was spent criss-crossing the United States and Mexico in a converted school bus with her parents and siblings, who were home-schooled by their mother.
She started singing in a Greek cafe in San Francisco when she was thirteen. Aged 19, she moved to Montreal, and sang for five years in bars, where she developed the material that eventually became her first album, La Llorona, released in 1997. La Llorona, which mixes traditional Latin American songs with original songs, was strongly influenced by Mexican music, but also Klezmer music, Eastern European gypsy music, Middle-Eastern music and alternative rock. The album was released by the Canadian independent record label, Audiogram, in Montreal, and brought her much success, including the Quebec Félix Award in Canada for "Artiste québécois — musique du monde" in 1997 and a Canadian Juno Award for Best Global Artist in 1998.
After touring in Europe and North America for several years, Lhasa left her singing career in 1999 and moved to France to join her sisters in Pocheros, a circus/theatre company. She eventually reached Marseille, where she started writing songs again. She then returned to Montreal to produce her second album, The Living Road, which was released in 2003. While La Llorona had been entirely in Spanish, The Living Road included songs in English, French and Spanish.
A two year tour followed the release of The Living Road, taking her and her group to seventeen countries. She was a guest singer on the Tindersticks' track "Sometimes It Hurts" off their Waiting for the Moon album, and later joined Tindersticks' singer Stuart Staples for a duet on the track "That Leaving Feeling", found on his Leaving Songs album. She has also appeared as a guest on the albums of French singers Arthur H and Jérôme Minière, and the French gypsy music group Bratsch. She received the BBC World Music Award for Best Artist of the Americas in 2005. The accumulated worldwide sales of her two albums are nearing one million.
De Sela's third album Lhasa was released in April 2009 in Canada and Europe.
Lhasa de Sela passed away in her Montreal home on the night of January 1st 2010, just before midnight.
She succumbed to breast cancer after a twenty-one month long struggle, which she faced with courage and determination.
Throughout this difficult period, she continued to touch the lives of those around her with her characteristic grace, beauty and humor.

Unforgettable artist!

Hector Zazou & Swara: Zannat

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 09:50:35 -0800

Hector Zazou (July 11, 1948—September 8, 2008) was a prolific French composer and record producer who has produced and collaborated with an international array of recording artists.

This video is based on footage shot in Mumbai during the recording of Hector Zazou's posthumous album "In The House Of Mirrors".
Directed by Jean-Luc Martin.

More about the album:
Hector Zazou invited four outstanding instrumentalists from India and Uzbekistan to step into a virtual hall of mirrors, in which sound is reflected from one note to another: an aural equivalent of a famous scene in Orson Welles' The Lady From Shanghai.

Twenty-five years after laying the foundations for Afro-electronic fusion (with Congolese singer Bony Bikaye on the Noir & Blanc LP), and after many other groundbreaking albums, the ever-innovative Hector Zazou offers a fresh take on classical Asian music, in which the musicians' inspired performances are enhanced by his subtle reprocessing of the original sonic elements (no supplementary electronic sounds having been used).

The album was recorded in Mumbai with a core group of four musicians: Toir Kuziyev (tambur & oud), Milind Raykar (violin), Ronu Majumdar (flute) and Manish Pingle (Indian slide guitar).

Guest players on the album include Spanish flute player Carlos Nuñez, Nils Petter Molvaer on trumpet, flamenco pianist Diego Amador, Hungarian violinist Zoltan Lantos and percussionist Bill Rieflin (currently with R.E.M.).

This is the last project he worked on, in which he offered a new take on classical Asian music, subtly reprocessed with a nod to some of the music produced in the '70s by Terry Riley and Fripp & Eno. In The House of Mirrors was recorded in Mumbai with the collaboration of four outstanding instrumentalists from India and Uzbekistan, as well as guests such as Diego Amador and Nils Petter Molvaer. This album came out only a few weeks following his untimely death in September 2008

Among his master pieces my favorite one is Sahara Blue, made in 1992.
Sahara Blue was based on an idea by Jacques Pasquier. Pasquier suggested Zazou commemorate the 100th anniversary of the death of author Arthur Rimbaud by setting music to Rimbaud's poetry. Contributions included spoken word from Gérard Depardieu, Dominique Dalcan and music by Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard of Dead Can Dance, Tim Simenon, and David Sylvian. He even adapted a traditional Ethiopian song.

✴ Lead vocalists: Samy Birnbach, Richard Bohringer, John Cale, Dominique Dalcan, Sussan Deihim, Lisa Gerard and Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance, Gérard Depardieu, Anneli Drecker, Barbara Gogan, Khaled, Ketema Mekonn, Malka Spigel.

✴ Contributors: Kent Condon, Yuka Fujii, Kenji Jammer, Vincent Kenis, Nabil Khalidi, Bill Laswell, Christian Lechevretel, Keith Leblanc, Lightwave, Gilles Martin, Denis Moulin, Renaud Pion, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Steve Shehan, Guy Sigsworth, Tim Simenon, David Sylvian, Elizabeth Valetti, Daniel Yvinec.

In 1994, he released the album Chansons des mers froides (called Songs from the Cold Seas for the anglophone market). The album was based on ocean-themed traditional folk songs from northern countries, such as Canada, Finland, Iceland, and Japan. It featured vocals by pop and rock artists such as Björk, Suzanne Vega, John Cale, Värttina, Jane Siberry, and Siouxsie Sioux in addition to recordings of shamanic incantations and lullabies from Ainu, Nanai, Inuit, and Yakut singers. Musicians included Mark Isham, Brendan Perry, and the Balanescu Quartet. A cameraman accompanied Zazou on the project and they shot and recorded in Alaska, Canada, Greenland, Japan, Scandinavia, and Siberia. The single "The Long Voyage" was the only song to be an original composition from Zazou. He wrote it in gratitude to his record company Sony who gave him complete artistic liberty. Performed by Suzanne Vega and John Cale, it was released as a single in 1995. The single featured remixes by Mad Professor as well as Zazou himself.

Unique artist!

Remember Shakti: La Danse du Bonheur

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:00:50 -0800

Remember Shakti is a quintet which combines elements of traditional Indian music with elements of jazz. The band consists of English guitarist John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain (tabla), U. Srinivas (mandolin), Shankar Mahadevan (vocals), and V. Selvaganesh (kanjira, ghatam, mridangam), who are all of Indian descent. The band's name is derived from John Mclaughlin's acoustic Indian fusion band Shakti which was active in the 1970s. This band consisted of John McLaughlin, Zakir Hussain, L. Shankar, T.H. "Vikku" Vinayakram, and R. Raghavan. The word "Shakti" translates in Sanskrit to "female creative power" or "goddess."

Biography
After disbanding in the late 1970s, Shakti enjoyed a twenty-year hiatus before McLaughlin and Hussain decided to reform the band. In addition to John and Zakir, T.H. "Vikku" Vinayakram (ghatam, mridangam), returned for Remember Shakti's eponymous debut album in 1997. However, McLaughlin could not locate Shakti's fourth member, violinist L. Shankar, and replaced him with bansuri player Pt. Hariprasad Chaurasia for the live recording of this album.
Remember Shakti Concert, Munich/Germany (2001) (left to right) U. Srinivas, John McLaughlin, V. Selvaganesh
For the band's next album, The Believer, recorded live and released in 1999, Chaurasia and Vinayakram were replaced by mandolin player U. Srinivas and Vinayakram's son V. Selvaganesh. The band's most recent live album, 2001's Saturday Night in Bombay, presents Remember Shakti augmented by an army of guests, notably Pt. Shivkumar Sharma (santoor), percussionist Taufiq Qureshi who is the brother of Zakir, and Shankar Mahadevan, who has now become Remember Shakti's fulltime vocalist. The band has toured extensively all around the world.

Iva Bittova & Vladimir Vaclavek: Sto let

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 11:00:44 -0800

Iva Bittova is a fenomenous Czech vocalist with her typical expresive exposure.
Vladimir Vaclavek is a legendary Czech multi-instrumentalist and song writter.
This song "Sto let" (Hundred years) was recorded for legendary double cd "Bile inferno" (White inferno), music by Iva Bittova & Vladimir Vaclavek, lyrics by So Päk-dzu, translation in Czech language by Oldrich Vyhlidal.

Bittová's music is a blend of rock and East European music which she describes as "my own personal folk music". Her violin playing mixes different techniques, including playing the strings with various objects and plucking them like a banjo. Her vocal utterances range from traditional singing to chirping, cackling and deep throat noises. She puts her whole body into her performances, drawing on her theatrical skills. AllMusic.com writes: "Her irresistible charm, original use of voice, and fondness of melodies that sit on the border of avant-garde and playground nursery rhymes won her devoted fans around the world."

Bittová recorded her first full length solo album Iva Bittová in 1991, followed by River of Milk, her first United States release. In 1997, she began exploring classical music with a series of concerts and recording an album of Béla Bartók's violin duets with Dorothea Kellerová. She collaborated with Vladimír Václavek to record a double album Bílé Inferno (White Inferno) in 1997, and the success of this release lead to Bittová and Václavek establishing Čikori, an association of musicians involved in improvisational music.