Cafe Aman

Into the archives...

For a current project, I've been revisiting some  world music recordings which I adore but, in many cases, to which I haven't had the chance to listen in years.

A small sampling  of this wonderful assortment:

MS Subbulakshmi: Sri Vishnu Sahasranamam (the chanting of the 1000 names of Vishnu). RPG/Gramophone Co. of India. (That's her on the left, in a still from her 1945 film Meera.)

Roza Eskenazi: Rembetissa, 1933-36. Rounder.

Hassan Hakmoun: The Fire Within. Music of the World.

Kayhan Kalhor: Scattering Stars Like Dust. Traditional Crossroads.

Fairouz: Good Friday--Eastern Sacred Songs. VDL.

Grave duress and a hideous, prolonged case of the dropsies

Less than three weeks ago, I toddled down to Tekserve to have them fix my broken laptop. Somehow, the day before, I had managed to knock it off my desk in such a way that it flipped in the air and landed in a mangled V, face down, on the floor. (Have you ever dropped a beautifully schmeared bagel half, and watched in horror as it flew through the air in slow-mo and landed cheese side down? It was just like that.)

So that repair cost me $40 in parts (for a broken bevel, I think) and a couple of hundred more in labor, and a week spent on an  ailing and unloved PC.  When I picked up my beloved iBook, I thought to myself: "I don't know how that happened, exactly, given that it was on a flat surface, but never ever ever again."

Less than three weeks later (earlier this evening, the sad truth be known): I'm pulling crazy hours to finish a big (BIG!) batch of assignments handed out at quite the last minute by a new client. (Names not to be mentioned to protect the innocent and/or guilty.) I have the laptop, good as new, on the living room couch next to me as I pause for a couple of minutes to refocus and enjoy a refreshing glass of water. I think to myself: "This isn't safe. I have a history of clumsiness. Best to move the laptop onto the coffee table."

Now here comes the truly unbelievable: As I pick up the laptop to transport it to a safer resting spot on the coffee table, it leaps (LEAPS!) out of my hands, and executes the same forward flip as three weeks before which would make any of the Olympic aerials competitors proud, except that again it lands in a mangled V. This time, however, the screen has managed to hit the edge of my water glass in such a way that it leaves an enormous dent, and instead of legible characters there is now a digital crackled-glass, almost bullet-shot pattern radiating from the place where the screen has quite obviously been damaged.

So, back to the PC, and my wonderful spouse has offered to go down to Tekserve tomorrow to have a professional assess the injury. I'm too embarrassed and furious at myself to go down there again in person.

Update: I killed the thing. The repair would be almost as much money as buying a whole new machine. I'm still mourning the $250 I was out three weeks ago, never mind this new loss. There is some lesson to be learned in here somewhere.

What's in My Ear, all recordings edition:

Lila Downs: La Cantina--Entre copa y copa (Narada)

Sentieri Selvaggi: AC/DC (Cantaloupe)

Anga: Echu Mingua (Nonesuch)

Manu Katche: Neighbourhood (ECM)

Rolando Villazon: Opera Recital (Virgin Classics)

Diomande & anthrax

The New York Times reports today that the man who contracted anthrax, Vadio Diomande, is a drummer and dancer from the fairly well-known NYC-based, Ivory Coast-inspired troupe called the Kotchegna Dance Company.  (Mayor Bloomberg said repeatedly at a news conference today that "there is no — let me repeat, no — evidence at this time of any criminal intent associated with this infection.")

Of course, the threat of anthrax should be taken very seriously, but I wonder if the circumstances surrounding his infection will mean that (over-) zealous customs agents will start trying to seize international musicians' finished drums as they enter the US on tour. First, the visa red tape; then, arguing with the USDA...

I found a link on Afropop for a fundraiser for Diomande's  2003 medical crisis (scroll about halfway down the page), which the Times mentions again today:

"[Diomande's] personal physician, Dr. Melanie A. MacLennan, said he suffered a severe skin infection in 2003 that left him hospitalized for six weeks. MacLennan told The New York Times and Daily News that Diomande was probably exposed to anthrax while in Africa that year."

Classical music goes digital, revisited

Welcome, listeners from WNYC's "Soundcheck" who are visiting Cafe Aman for the first time. As promised, here is the article I wrote for Billboard about the blossoming of interest in digital downloads and other online/digital initiatives within the classical music realm:

Classical Music Takes the Digital Leap. From Billboard Magazine, Jan. 28, 2006. ETA: Available here for a limited time only, folks. Sorry if you missed it.

La Pasion segun San Marcos

Last night, I went to hear Golijov's St. Mark Passion at Jazz at Lincoln Center's Rose Theater. It's the first chance I've had to see the piece live since I reviewed it at BAM about three and a half years ago, and well before I knew all that much else of Osvaldo's music. A few new thoughts:

• Clearly, the Passion is as hot a ticket this time around as it was at its New York premiere, even for those generally living outside of the classical/new music hothouse. (Indeed, who should be sitting right in front of me but David Bowie, who clearly loved the performance.)
• Puzzlingly and quite frustratingly, there was no libretto or supertitles provided this time around. That's a real shame, especially since  the soloists and chorus singers alike keep shifting character and perspective in the narrative, which to me is one of the most intriguing and moving elements of Golijov's re-envisioning of the traditional Passion structure. I don't speak Spanish, but I know the piece fairly well by now, and even so I found myself missing that component. It's really a shame that people just experiencing the piece for the first time would miss that whole element. ETA: I've been informed today by Lincoln Center that there was no libretto available yesterday due to "an error on Lincoln Center's part," but that they WILL have libretti  on hand this evening. How regrettable nonetheless.
• There are times now when Robert Spano looks even less like a conductor than a vodou practitioner being "ridden" by a loa. (I mean that in a really good way.)
• Luciana Souza was absolutely entrancing last night, and in much stronger voice in this piece  than at that first St. Mark at BAM  (and I'd say than in the first recording of the work as well).
• Young soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird sang with a gorgeously clear and radiant tone. It couldn't be easy stepping into music so clearly associated with Dawn Upshaw, who was spotted in the audience last night.
• A probable first at the Rose Theater: while the artists took their bows, a couple of people sitting in the balcony unfurled their national flag in honor of the Schola Cantorum de Caracas. ¡Viva Venezuela!

Tomorrow on Soundcheck

I'll be appearing on WNYC's program "Soundcheck" tomorrow afternoon to discuss various orchestras' recent and new forays into making their own recordings and creating online/digital initiatives. A fellow guest will be the New York Philharmonic's president and executive director, Zarin Mehta, who I'm sure will be discussing the Phil's recent announcement that they will be making four concerts per year available via digital download in partnership with Universal Classics, as well as their new recording deal with New World Classics. So tune in...

 

The Lion's Trail

Reports say that Disney has reached a settlement with the family of South African singer and composer Solomon Linda over the song "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." The complete saga, which began in 1939 and eventually involved Alan Lomax, Pete Seeger, and RCA Victor (among other players), might never be fully resolved; it's a sad and cautionary tale whose definitive account was written by Rian Malan for Rolling Stone. It's well worth reading for anyone who is interested in South African music, musical copyright, or has been held hostage by a five-year-old demanding repeat screenings of "The Lion King."

Oi Olympiakoi Agones

Socialist Realist anvils, plastic cows on pulleys, The Buggles, and Pavarotti. That was...something.

(I did appreciate the grouping of women who carried in the Olympic flag, however.)

Another one?

I'm starting to suspect that this quiz is flattering everyone into believing that we are truly oboes at heart, because I--like Steve, Alex, and M.C.--have also come up with that match. My actual instruments of long, long ago, violin and viola, came up as a sorry 50% fit. Then again, if only I had had this quiz to guide me to my rightful fate...

And somebody alert the real oboist in my family (the one who's currently serving as second oboe in the CSO, thankyouverymuch).

ETA: MMFCC, a man who "owns trumpets," was horrified to discover his matchings: bassoon - 92%; violin 83%;  horn/oboe 75%; trumpet/trombone 58%. Quite candidly, I think he found the violin match-up particularly upsetting.