A few weeks ago, Antoine Dodson was a nobody from Huntsville, Alabama.  That is, until his sister was the victim in a near-rape incident.  As the news report stated, Dodson’s sister was in bed when a man climbed through her window and tried to get in bed with her.  Antoine heard the ruckus and came to his sister’s rescue, and the attacker escaped.  As soon as the story was shown on television, Antoine Dodson gained in popularity and fame.  The way in which he warns everyone to “hide yo’ kids, hide yo’ wife, and hide yo’ husband, cuz they rapin’ everybody out here” was a hit!  I remember hearing his news report being broadcasted on the radio a few days after the occurrence.  The noteworthy part is not the news report itself, but rather what came of it.  People turned Dodson’s words into an actual song, which held a number one spot on iTunes for purchased songs for quite some time!  Antoine Dodson became a celebrity in just a few days–for seemingly nothing!  Check out the video below:

I’m not sure what to think of Dodson.  Should I be happy that this unknown man suddenly lives a life of fame?  Or should I be upset by how easily he came to this state?  What is a celebrity?  I always used to think that actors, musicians, and artists were among those worthy enough to be deemed “celebrities”.  They worked hard to get where they are.  On the other hand, Dodson was just giving his report of what had happened, and now he, too, is famous!  I guess this just goes to show that anyone can get known by doing pretty much anything at all.  And just yesterday I learned that Dodson now came out with a new iPhone Application, warning people about sex offenders and providing them with a way to find such people in their own neighborhoods.  If Antoine Dodson can become famous so easily, what’s stopping me?

Music is all around us, not only in the form of recorded songs but sometimes even simple tapping noises. A lot of sounds could be consider as music, because much like art there isn’t really a line that is drawn. Many people may disagree with me and have a strong opinion about what is music and what isn’t music, but that is another topic for another time.

Music is very representative, it can tell a complex story that words cannot express. A few simple notes in the right order can convey more feelings that a whole page of words. It also has a profound effect on movies. The “mood” music in a movie, in my opinion, is just as important as the lines the actors speak. The music builds anticipation for upcoming scenes and adds to the scenes. Think back to the last horror film that you saw, wasn’t there some type of scary music that made you more and more nervous by the second? Can you imagine how it would have been without the music? The scene probably wouldn’t have been as scary and wouldn’t make you jump as much. You don’t really think about it, but the effect that music has on films is enormous.

The influence on music is basically everywhere, personally I like to have music playing when I’m doing work (Currently listening to Taylor Swift’s new album). It’s a habit of mine, and it feels weird for me to work without music. Most of the music that people our age listen to has lyrics that tells a story, but sometimes just the music is enough. There are no words needed and at times music can tell a even more beautiful story than words.

At the beginning of the year, Professor Smaldone had each of us write our favorite experience with the arts on an index card. Well, I am officially changing my answer. Last night, I had the opportunity to go with my family to see Woody Allen play the clarinet along with the Eddy Davis New Orleans Jazz Band at the Cafe Carlyle. Everything about the experience was incredible. From seeing Woody Allen sitting five in front of me, to the upbeat jazz music that made it impossible to be in a bad mood, to the awesomeness of being in the Hotel Carlyle. This was unlike any concert that I’ve ever been to.

While Woody Allen is probably the quintessential New York film director of the twentieth century, he also happens to one my personal favorite directors. While I always pictured Woody Allen as his younger self out of one of his classic movies, like Annie Hall, it was amazing to see how he has evolved in his later years. While he still makes movies, the 75 year-old Allen also devotes his time to his passion for jazz. As you can observe in the clip below, aside from grayer hair and some more wrinkles, Allen looks exactly the same as he does in his famous movies. His style, glasses, hairdo, and attitude has remained exactly the same. In this short clip, you can see how much energy he still has in his senior years and how talented of a musician he is.

Nevertheless, immediately after he stops playing, you can see that drops his head, looks down, and simply waits until his next part. When the show ended, he walked out as nonchalantly as he walked in. He’s a truly incredibly talented who has excelled in numerous art forms, including filmmaking, playwrighting,comedy, and music. Despite all of this, he remains himself and never changes who he is in his heart.

This is my first vlog for our Arts in New York class! I tried to incorporate as much as I could do into the video: fancy transitions, video and picture, and editing techniques. This program is still very new to me, but I did my best.

In the video, I discuss the musical group Muse and how they developed to where they are today. I also explain what I believe makes them aurally attractive. Since I was seeing them live at Nassau Coliseum on October 23rd, I included a little review of the concert as well.

I hope you learn something new from my video! Thanks for watching!

A new book entitled “Life” is to be released soon. This biography is the chronicling of the life of one of the world’s most famous musicians. Keith Richards, the guitar player for The Rolling Stones, who in 66 years has had an exciting life and has amassed a list of personal stories that someone couldn’t make up. Between the drugs, the women, the music, the fame, the money, etc., Keith Richards personifies the stereotypical rock and roll rebel. This book also goes deep into the personal life and thoughts of Richards. He talks about his childhood and his friendship with Stone’s front man Mick Jagger. A lot of focus is placed on Richard’s addiction to heroin and Richards tells stories of his life as a junky. Another important part of the biography is the discussion of some of the most famous Rolling Stones songs and how they came about. This book is sure to be full of exciting stories, first person accounts of famous events in rock and roll, and important perspective on, arguably, the most famous band in rock history.

-Alexa Lempel

It’s hard to explain why, but I love to see artists completely junk the styles that made them famous and veer off in some wild unexpected direction.  I guess it must be that I admire their willingness to risk their reputations, for the sake artistic integrity, when turning out “more of the same” held the promise of near guaranteed success….  But reasons aside, I found one such stylistic about-face to love last week when I picked up Sufjan Stevens’ new album The Age of Adz.

Stevens, whose usual wares involve much sensitive poetical singing and quiet banjo melodies, has here released an altogether highly aggressive, synth-laden beast of an album, with one 25 minute track consisting mostly of blaring sirens (which I suppose is to be expected from a man who, after releasing Michigan and Illinois, once planned to write a full length album for each of America’s fifty states).  I’m a huge fan of Stevens’ older work, but this departure, explained by Stevens as the result of being “sick of [his own] voice and…sick of the strummy-strum acoustic guitar song and… sick of [his] lyrical approach” is a definite triumph.  Take a listen below to compare some of Sufjan’s old stuff with The Age of Adz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnycQL6UTow

I am constantly amazed by the Danish comedian Victor Borge. Not only does he have a great sense of humor, but he is a great pianist as well. I think this combination makes his musical comedy acts very humorous. Victor Borge was born in Copenhagen, Denmark on January 3, 1909. He started out as a classical pianist, and he went to the Royal Danish Academy of Music. He soon became a well-known musician, and in the 1930s, he started to develop his own sense of style and humor. Victor Borge moved to America in 1940, where he did not know a word of English. However, it was not long before he was able to translate his jokes into English, and he soon had an act in Bing Cosby’s Radio Show in 1941. This was the beginning of his long career in America.

In the video below, Borge is doing a skit with his friend Zhahan Azruni, where they both play Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsody No.2.  What ensues is a their comedic attempts at working together.  This was one of the first videos I have seen of Borge, and ever since that day, watching videos of his acts was one of my favorite ways to procrastinate.  In his other acts, he makes fun of some of the stereotypical musicians.  Then there is his famous “inflationary language” act that doesn’t have anything to do with music at all.  But all in all, he is a music comedian.  And I think the fact that he is a great musician can be heard through his acts when he plays the piano, but unfortunately, there is only a limited amount of youtube videos of him playing the piano seriously.

Usdan Center for the Creative and Performing Arts on Long Island is a regular venue for renowned jazz singer Jane Monheit, and I have been privileged to watch her perform on numerous occasions. When I saw her picture besides an article entitled “A Plush Voice Discovers Some Room to Be Frisky“, I was immediately intrigued.

Jane just recently performed at Birdland (a prestigious jazz club in Manhattan), and according to music reviewer Stephen Holden, she was spectacular, and even more so than usual (which is saying something). She is known for her beautiful, “plush” voice, improvisational skill, and polished performances. This alone is enough to be extraordinarily impressive, but at her Birdland performance, she also connected to her music in ways she had previously struggled. She was confident, at ease, and interpretive.

It is these elements, I believe, which take music and turn it into art.

One of the first words that Larry Rohter used to describe singer Concha Buika was ecletic.  The Merriam-Webster definition would be: “composed of elements drawn from various sources”, but another way to look at it would be in the words of Rohter: “from everywhere at once and nowhere in particular.”  Although Concha Buika has a many influences, such as jazz, pop, soul, flamenco, and African poly-rhythm, her record producer said that “she’s clearly Spanish in the way she feels music and life.”
Concha Buika was born in Majorca, a Spanish Mediterranean Island.  Her parents were from Equatorial Guinea, where they fled from the African dictatorship.  Growing up in Majorca, Buika was the only African child there, and so she sympathized with the local gypsies, absorbing their style of deep singing and passion for flamenco.  About ten years ago, Buika was still having a hard time making it as a singer, and she was in Las Vegas doing imitations of Tina Turner.  Now, her latest CD “El Último Trago” is being nominated for two Latin Grammy awards, and she as collaborated with Nelly Furtado and Seal.
Buika has the husky, soulful voice that can get very emotional.  She also mentions Billy Holiday as one of her influences (whom ToniAnn talked about in one of her previous posts), as well as Nina Simone,.  I feel like anything she sings would sound good, but fortunately, I very much like her music too.   Listening to a various songs on youtube, I could definitely hear the different influences in her music.  Even though it is a little hard to define which parts come from which influences, I feel like Buika’s music tends to be more on the soft, lyrical, and expressive side.  It seems to me that there is a definite Spanish influence in the way she sings as well, despite the fact that she is singing in Spanish.link to NYTimes article

Here is “Soledad” from her album “El Último Trago”, or “The Last Drink”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc62Vv6FXIM

Last Wednesday, along with Nicole and Katherine, I sat down in Lefrak Hall for a piano concert by Stephanie and Saar during free hour. Over the past few days, I have tried to come up with the best ways to describe the performance and compare it to previous ones that we have seen as a class. Because I do not have as extensive a musical background or vocabulary as many of our more experienced classmates, I am not capable of the type of analysis that many of you are, but I will try to explain what I found interesting.

The first thing I found interesting was hearing Professor Smaldone’s composition. I have never know a composer before this semester, and it was very cool to hear one Professor’s Smaldone’s works for the second time. While hearing a piece from Mozart or Beethoven can be very captivating, I think it is much more special to hear pieces of music written by composer that you know on personal level. It’s a much different feeling to be able to put the notes that you are hearing into the larger perspective of the composer’s personality. As we discussed in class after visiting the MoMa, you can appreciate so much more about a single work of art if you’re able to compare to it other works made throughout the artist’s career. Although I have only heard two pieces by Professor Smaldone, I am starting to get an idea of his general style. His piece that was performed by Stephanie and Saar was distinctly different from the other pieces they played. The piece was divided into 6 separate sections (Introduction, Out of Eden, Sonata, Secret of the Earth, Django’s Lick, Epilogue), which at times, include series of slow notes with pauses of silence that caused you to contemplate the message of what you were listening to.

Another thing that always catches my attention at every concert that we see is the way that the composers choose to name their works. I’m not exactly sure what Professor Smaldone was trying to convey by the names of each section of his piece, but I definitely felt like a “Secret of the Earth” was being subtly portrayed at times. Another name that stood out on the program was a piece titled “CcHhOoPpIiNn nNiIpPoOhHcC,” which is one of the most bizarre palindromes that I’ve ever seen. It didn’t really make sense to me until Katherine pointed out that it refers to Chopin.

One the most enjoyable parts was at the end of the concert, when the two pianist sat at the same piano and began to play. Overall, this concert was a very pleasant way to clear my mind in the middle of the day, and I hope to go to more of these in the future.

Listen to the Stephanie and Saar DUO on their website

Check of Stephanie and Saar on youtube

– Alexa Lempel

Math rock.  No, it’s not a song about multiplication tables from the “I’m Just a Bill” folks over at Schoolhouse Rock.  Math rock is a popular underground music genre that evolved in the late 80’s alongside grunge and post-rock. Easily identified by its multi-layered off-kilter beats (including irregular stopping and starting), angular melodies, and dissonant chords, math rock earns its name from its sometimes hard to appreciate habit of junking the standard 4/4 rock meter in favor of complex patterns of alternating uncommon meters such as 7/8, 11/8, and 13/8.  Here rhythm is king, although it’s not always a rhythm easily appreciated by the casual listener; in fact, in spite of math rock’s intellectually well-structured beats, it’s abruptly changing time-signatures sound like pure chaos to some.  Personally I find the beats pretty orderly and interesting, but click below to take a listen to some math rock and decide for yourself.

Last Wednesday, on October 13, I also went to the Stephanie and Saar concert at Lefrak Hall and I loved it. I thought that the pieces played were very beautiful, and both Stephanie and Saar played with such passion and energy. It was fun to listen to them play, but also to watch how they communicated with each other during their performances. They would energetically nod their heads to signal each other during the trickier parts of the piece, so that they would play their notes together.

I loved Professor Smaldone’s piece, “Secret of the Earth” from Transformational Etudes because it was very different from the other pieces played during the concert. It put the audience in the piece since it had such a mysterious and darker tone, and because of the strong mood of the piece, I was instantly absorbed by it. Another favorite of mine was Rob Schwimmer’s CcHhOoPpIiNn nNiIpPoOhHcC, which if you couldn’t tell from the name, references Chopin. It was a really fun piece to listen to, and definitely reminded me of Chopin’s work.

I thoroughly enjoyed this concert because it was the first time I saw a performance of just two pianists. The Bright Sheng performance we went to had more variety in the instruments played, which kept the audience more excited for the other pieces that were coming up. However, I thought that this concert was equally, if not more, entertaining because it explored different themes and different types of pieces through the use of just two pianos, which provided an easy comparison between the different pieces that were played.

On Wednesday, October 13th, I went to LeFrak Hall during free hour to listen to some of the music put together by the Long Island Composers Alliance. I didn’t know what to expect and I liked what I heard. I think that throughout my life the only piano music that I’ve heard really has just been classical. I find that classical piano music is soothing and I like that about it, but I also began to like these new, more modern pieces that I heard on Wednesday. I watched in amazement as Stephanie and Saar, the pianist duo, played at such fast paces for different parts of the pieces. I kept thinking to myself how talented they are to be playing these complex pieces for an hour and a half basically non-stop.

In comparison to what we heard at Le Poisson Rouge and Bright Sheng’s pieces, I think that this performance had a little less variety, mainly because in the other two performances we saw, there were other instruments. There was a variety of composers with different styles for Stephanie and Saar’s show which switched things up a bit and I liked that. All the pieces had a different vibe and that was interesting to me. I may have liked the performances we saw as a group a little more because there were more performers and more instruments. I personally like having more things happening to draw my attention.

I would just like to end this by saying that even though I think classical music is soothing, I still felt nice and relaxed after hearing this more contemporary piano performance. It was great to go to and just relax for a little bit in the middle of my hectic school day.

Many of the music students at Queens College have been classically trained, like Alexander Markov. However, if given the opportunity, could they suddenly change persona and electrify an audience with a rock show?

This fascinating instrumentalist can. With electric violin at hand, Markov introduced himself twice while performing at Carnegie Hall last Saturday. His rock piece, cleverly titled “The Rock Concerto,” was co-written by James V. Remington, Neal Coomer, and Markov himself (he is obviously quite multi-talented). But, of course, he saved this awakening work for the end, right after playing an intimate rendition of a Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto.

This is not the first time someone has tried to fill in the space between orchestral music and modern rock. Although the idea may seem monotonous and unoriginal, it is still intriguing to an audience, since it represents his interpretation on how to combine the two. Yet, according to the article, it was easy to become enveloped in the popular genre and stop listening to the classical elements. Markov’s electric violin solos resembled those of heavy-metal hits and Led Zeppelin riffs. The outgoing characteristic of this pulse-raising music could easily overshadow the more mature and timid quality of symphonic music.

As a musician myself, I find Alexander Markov highly inspiring. It is not easy to master such contrasting genres, if you can even bring yourself to master one. However, such a talent is very beneficial; a musician who can perform in more than one style has a greater understanding for music, and a magnificently expanded repertoire.

Here is a sampling of the performance. The quality is not the best, but it helps to better visualize the performance:

Everyone knows the popular song by Ben E. King “Stand By Me”. However, I don’t know that everyone has heard the song performed quite like this ever before. Last year, my chorus teacher had us watch the attached video, which is a version of Stand By Me from the award-winning documentary, “Playing For Change: Peace Through Music”. This documentary features a number of popular songs sung and played by musicians around the world. I absolutely loved this from the very first time I heard/watched it. In the video clip, you can see the many different countries being represented around the world by musicians that would not normally get exposure. The song opens with a guitar player and singer from California, just playing on the streets. As the song goes on, many different voices and instruments are added in, all somehow fitting together perfectly. A man in France is playing the tambourine; a man from Brazil plays the ukelele; one from Russia on the cello; South Africa features an a capella vocal group; from Italy, an alto saxophone player. So many different ethnicities and countries, yet they are all brought together through this one song.

This video is an amazing display of the power of music to bring people together.  Music just links people, bonding them in a way that nothing else can.  It is incredible, almost magical in a sense.  The musicians in this video are not famous, and they are not seeking fame.  They all have a unique style which they add to their music, thus making the song as a whole that much better.  The power of music never ceases to amaze me.

This past weekend was the fifth annual Aggiefest. I have never heard of this Aggiefest or even Aggieville where it is held, so here is what I discovered. The Aggiefest takes place in Aggieville (by Manhattan City Park) for a whole weekend. It is an opportunity for fairly unknown bands to get out there and show the public what they can do. This past weekend, there were over 75 performing bands. This is not a very well known event seeing as the crowds weren’t that big, but I think that it’s great for new bands so they can get used to performing in front of others and maybe even make a few fans. Participants wish that this event happened more often and argue that just because bands aren’t as well known doesn’t make them worse than a more popular band. If anyone is interested in taking part in this Aggiefest, I guess you’ll have to wait a year, but heres the link so you can learn about it.
CLICK

Musical innovation, like that of John Cage and Frank Zappa, continues on.

Members of the New York Philharmonic gathered in a Staten Island scrap yard this week. Their intention was not to perform; rather, they were on the hunt for metallic items to be used as instruments. The excavation is being conducted for Magnus Lindberg’s piece, “Kraft.” As part of the piece’s 25 year tradition, the “instruments” must be discovered near the performance’s location (in this case, Lincoln Center). This makes each performance (around two dozen already) quite unique.

The process is harder than it looks. It can be frustrating when the composer cannot find the right timbre that he/she is looking for. A scouting for the perfect sound may take several hours, or several days. In Lindberg’s case, he prefers dry and metallic sounds to reflect his mental image of city development and traffic.

Of course, this type of instrumentation is not completely innovative. For example, we saw Michael Gordon’s “Timber” performed on slabs of wood last month. However, it is the exploration and discovery of new tones and colors that makes such an idea so exciting. Each piece of music composed in this way pushes the musical frontier even further.

This piece will be performed in Avery Fisher Hall on Thursday and Friday and on October 12. I’m looking into going on the 12th. Anyone else interested, as an individual outing?

A visual of the New York Times article is posted below.