What was your last concert you went to ?
Posted by: sjust on 18 October 2004
Just returning from one of the Enjoy Jazz Festival concerts currently happening in my area. The old man and the younger lady burnt the house down ! Let's put the cover of forgiving and forgetting over the sound of the P.A. but fortunately you were able to hear both the piano and the saxes through the amplifiers, and that was a pleasure to do ! Shepp (whom I saw before, when he was much younger) still has so much energy that flows directly into his horn (and voice !!!), that it's breath taking. May he still live long and produce music, music, music !
Best regards, freundliche Grüße
Stefan
<h2>Nov. 22 2013: Michael Tilson Thomas/CSO: Mahler Symphony 9</h2>
Yesterday, MTT kept the CSO dancing on their toes for 90 min. straight with extremely dynamic and expressive performance.
He was animated as if the spirit of Mahler took over his body. I saw many of the same gestures from the maestro I have seen on this Maher's caricatures!
The CSO orchestra was unusually rhythmic and the MTT focused on dynamic contrasts as well as tiniest details and textures buried in the scores that I didn't even realise they were there. Mahler's music can be tasking with many of repeated similar passages but the way it was done, they were necessary to build the story and the poignant last movement.
All 4 movements were well differentiated from one another yet they were thematically connected. Tilson Thomas said in the past that Mahler's music is bit like Schubert's but done in a Wagnarian way. He has well demonstrated his point in the performance yesterday.
If there was one thing bothered me was that CSO's strings tend to sound bright and get congested at tutti. Sort of like hifi system overloading. CSO strings tend to sound a bit light weight than others in general.( Reiner/CSO excluded ) Other than that, the way the strings and winds interact were intoxicating. MTT kept the tensions and pauses just right, even the long drawn-out finale was captivating as the Missa Solemnis.
Every musicians in the orchestra had to be alert and ready for action for the duration and boy they never skipped the beat.
This was my highlight of the 2013 concert along with Thielman/Dresden Brahms Concerto this year.
Incidentally, the concert started with Stravinsky's 'Elegy for J.F.K', a short 2 min. tune. Memorial for the Kennedy's assassination on November 22nd, 1963.
Archie Shepp & The Attica Blues Orchestra at the Barbican, last night.
I was wondering if last week's Wayne Shorter show could have been topped but this gig was even better I think.
After a typically Sheppian monologue, delivered over the PA, about the 1971 Attica prison riots, the orchestra - a huge, lumbering beast of some 25 people (four string players, drummer, bassist, guitar, two trombones, bass trombone, piano, three trumpeters, and eight sax players, plus three singers and Shepp himself) - ambled on to the stage.
We were in the fifth row, dead centre and I was glad of a bit of distance between us and the musicians - this was LOUD, with every musician miked up.
What I liked about this was that it was the classic big band sound - my word, this ensemble swings - with a harder, contemporary edge. This was true, deep, soulful jazz-funk: as far away from the brittle 1980s slap-bass shenanigans of, say, Miles' "Tutu" as you can get.
Shepp is also a master of stagecraft - much of this show had the choreographed (but uninhibited) fervour of a 1960s soul revue - who clearly loves hamming it up for the audience and this was almost as impressive visually as it was musically, with virtually every player coming to the front to solo. Everyone was clearly having a ball, as did the SRO audience, who were clapping and whooping along with the band.
Particularly outstanding was trumpeter Stephane Belomondo, the brilliant deadpan bass (electric and acoustic) player Reggie Washington and Art Ensemble of Chicago drummer Famoudou Don Moye (wearing, I regret to say, a particularly nasty pair of baggy leather trousers), Pierre Durand on guitar, (whose gurning and dancing about as if if he was dying for a crap was hugely entertaining in itself) and, of course Shepp himself, a gruff and imposing presence alternating between tenor, alto and vocals.
Best songs of the night were hugely powerful versions of "Attica Blues" and "Blues for Brother George Jackson" and "Mama Too Tight", plus touching renditions of quieter tunes and ballads like "Steam", "Goodbye Sweet Pops" (dedicated to Louis Armstrong) and Duke's "Come Sunday".
Marvellous stuff. Again, a real privilege to have been there.
Saturday 23rd November, G Live Guildford. Bill Wyman and the Rhythm Kings, no Georgie Fame as he has been very ill. Main members of the band did a great job, aided and abetted by Maria Maldur.
Bill as usually frenetically standing stock still, no excess effort in playing , but some good stories.
An evening or 2 1/2 hours at least of blues, soul and rock and roll.
Most enjoyable.
Off The Wall (Pink Floyd tribute band).
Saturday 23rd November @ Trading Boundaries, nr Fletching, East Sussex.
A bit unusual this as it was in a sort of home wares / warehouse / cafe where the owners are obviously looking to expand their business. It is very close to friends of ours in Fletching so worth popping along to see. You could opt for a show only or show plus dinner ticket. We were happy to just go along to see the band and so were standing which is always better for rock gigs I think.
It was the first time I'd been to see a tribute Floyd band and I have to say was very impressed. They played a greatest hits set with something from most of the bigger selling albums (except Animals). They started with Shine On You Crazy Diamond and included a great version of Echoes which I'd never seen performed anytime I'd seen the actual Floyd or RW. After a brief break they nailed most of DSOTM and a few highlights from the Wall when the bass player donned a long leather jacket and Rogged it up a bit for a laugh. All great fun especially Another Brick in the Wall (part 2) where I think everyone was joining in. All in all a grat night at an unusual but good new venue.
Scott
Yesterday - Steven Wilson at The Circus in Helsinki. A very nice (maybe even great) gig although a bit bass heavy to my ears. Below is a short video clip (includes the story of the lonely Swede as introductory).
Scott, we saw Off The Wall a few years ago and indeed they are very good, a couple of others not so good, but they are all bettered by Brit Floyd or our favourite Aussie Pink Floyd Show.
Scott, we saw Off The Wall a few years ago and indeed they are very good, a couple of others not so good, but they are all bettered by Brit Floyd or our favourite Aussie Pink Floyd Show.
Thanks Howard - good to know there are even better options out there. Scott.
Scott can you E-Mail me, addy in profile?
+1 for Brit Floyd & backing singers Excellent show music, lights & on screen graphics.
As I said in an earlier thread if they are playing anywhere near you just book tickets ,you will not be disappointed.
Tomorrow I will be at the last night of the proms in Cologne Germany...
On Tuesday night I went to a truly remarkable evening of music at LSO St Luke's.
For those who don't know it, LSO St Luke's is an old Anglican church, built in 1733 just north of the City of London. In 1964 it fell out of use and became a virtual ruin for the next 40 years. The London Symphony Orchestra then acquired it as a rehearsal and recording space, and over the past few years it has become one of London's very best venues, visually and acoustically stunning. If you ever get the chance to go to a concert there, you'll be blown away.
Anyway, on to the music.
We went to see the premiere of A Norwegian Requiem, a piece by choral composer Andrew Smith dedicated to young, victims of conflict everywhere, in particular those who lost their lives during the terrible massacre on Utøya on 22 July 2011.
The piece was played by Arve Henriksen (trumpet, vocals and electronics) with Stale Storløkken on keyboards, and the voices of the acclaimed all-female Wells Cathedral School Choralia and the LSO Community Choir; some 106 voices in all.
First of all, AH and SS played a trio of improvised duets. They were breathtaking - very quiet, hardly rising above the level of a whisper; there was, save for the odd gurgle and blip from Storløkken's Mini-Moog, no semblance of a rhythm. But these duets were about texture, nuance and space. The silences were as important as the sounds.
Even more striking than Arve's ethereal trumpet (which often more resembles a flute or an organ than a brass instrument) was his improvised singing: he was a beautiful voice, and often his singing resembled a muezzin's call to prayer.
After the intermission, the meat of he evening: the Requiem, which was loosely based on the Roman Catholic Mass. It was absolutely exquisite, and desperately moving, moving from horror through to grief, from suffering to peace - but utterly restrained throughout. No mawkishness or theatricals here. Highlight for me was the "Kyrie", which was sung in plainsong, with beautifully-judged interventions from the two instrumentalists.
Setlist
1. Duet 1
2. Duet 2
3. Duet 3
[intermission]
4. Introitus - Requiem Aeternam
5. Precatio
6. Kyrie
7. Plorans Ploravit
8. Hymnum Canetas Marytrum
9. Vox in Rama
10. Dominus Pascit Me
11. Sanctus
12. In Paradisum
A wonderful evening of music - a choral setting is a fabulous one for Henrikson's trumpet - that wouldn't perhaps pass muster with jazz purists, but which certainly demonstrated to this old atheist the undimmed power of religious music.
Sounds good Kevin, really good. I reckon you might like Henriksen's Places of Worship if you haven't got it already.
Chris
Sounds good Kevin, really good. I reckon you might like Henriksen's Places of Worship if you haven't got it already.
Chris
I love it Chris, one of my albums of the year!
Ditto!
C.
Ditto!
C.
Have you got/heard the "Solidification" box set Chris?
Never heard of it until now. Just looking it up.
edit: impressive. What do you make of them?
Chris
Bob Dylan - Blackpool - Friday 22nd November 2014
.........
As those of you who have seen Bob with his current band will know they are very slick. I think that they are too slick and it is time for Bob to find a new band to give him back that spontaneous and rough edge…in my mind that is.
But if he did that, in the context of today's music business he'd be ploughing his own furrow. Oh, wait a minute.....
Chris
Never heard of it until now. Just looking it up.
edit: impressive. What do you make of them?
Chris
Bluddy brilliant!
Attended an excellent concert last night at Cadogan Hall; Christopher Koenig conducting the RPO with Jamie Walton playing Elgar's Cello Concerto. The evening was opened with Ravel's Tombeau de Couperin and finished with Tchaikovsky's 5th Symphony.
Zappa plays Zappa, Roxy and elsewhere
November 23rd in Gothenburg, really good show with a tight band.
29th November Queen Elizabeth Hall ,Southbank ,London. bad signage but a good venue.
Capercaillie ( Scottish folk rock) one of the best gigs we have ever seen. Good sound great musicians , they and the audience had a great time. Unusually these days no support, so an early 19:30 start 20 min break and finished about 22:15 home by 23:50 not done that for a while.
On Wednesday night I went to see Dylan at the Albert Hall, a venue I'd never seen him in before.
- Set 1:
- Things Have Changed
- She Belongs to Me
- Beyond Here Lies Nothin'
- What Good Am I?
- Duquesne Whistle
- Waiting for You
- Pay in Blood
- Tangled Up in Blue
- Love Sick
- Set 2:
- High Water (For Charley Patton)
- Simple Twist of Fate
- Early Roman Kings
- Forgetful Heart
- Spirit on the Water
- Scarlet Town
- Soon after Midnight
- Long and Wasted Years
- Encore:
- All Along the Watchtower
- Blowin' in the Wind
Of the 20 or so Dylan gigs I've seen, I think I enjoyed this one the most. First of all, there was the performance and choice of songs; and the band, which was as superb as ever.
But another reason why I enjoyed it was because I was in the seventh row - I've never been that close to the great man and I could see his hand gestures and facial expressions - fascinating, and so much better than seeing a distant dot in a vast box.
The sound, from where I was sitting at least, was superb, and for once, I could hear every word he was singing. Highlights for me were a brooding "Sick of Love" and a completely overhaul of "Blowing in the Wind", a song I loathe, but which was here deeply touching.
Last week a piano recital in a small church in Paris. Wish I had kept the info. Program was Litz, and Chopin, recital by the Paris Conservatory of Music. Acoustics were great, recital was very good, passionate with only a few minor mistakes and a very good value for only 10 Euro.
Billy Bragg at Sheffield City Hall last night. I got to few gigs but this was great. Bragg his usual committed and funny self, and a really good mixed set list. Last saw him 27 years ago, and he was just as good value.
Bruce
Michael Monroe (Ex Hanoi Rocks singer) Used to see him in the late 80s to a packed audiences every time. Saw him at Sheffield University last Wednesday evening - approx 200 people - which is a real shame as he gives his 'all'regardless of the box office.