Archive for the ‘Events’ Category
I was out of town last weekend camping, so I missed most of Record Store Day. But I did manage to get home for the Liam Hayes performance at Reckless Records here in Chicago which was great. Unfortunately, though, I missed out on most of the sweet RSD exclusives. I was able to pick up the Heart Of Gold/Sugar Mountain 7″, but missed out on the John Fahey LP reissue (only 500 copies pressed! c’mon guys!) But it seemed like there are more and more people combing through the racks of LPs, even on non-RSD weekends.
On Twitter yesterday, there were a bunch of folks pointing to numbers that emerged regarding sales per format and how well this RSD did.
From Billboard:
According to Street Pulse, comparing Record Store Day 2010 to RSD 2009 showed an increase of overall sales by 135.4%.
Here was their breakdown:
All Music + 135.4%
Vinyl + 376.7%
CD + 40.4%
Video – 38.6%
Merch + 28.5%Also, and this is an interesting fact, according to Nielsen Soundscan, Record Store Day 2010 was the biggest day of sales for vinyl in Soundscan’s history. This is definitely good news for vinyl record, and turntable, manufacturers.
Couldn’t be happier about the bolded text. Maybe with more buyers, new LP costs will start coming down a bit. And maybe GLM might even jump into that marketplace.
So congrats to everyone who was involved for delivering on what should be, in my view, a major national holiday… or simply an everyday holiday.
All comments are in. The commenters with the correct answer were tossed into my personal Greenleaf Music Hat and chosen at random. The five winners are:
Bob (last name not present)
David French
Chad McCullough
Peter Sardellitto
Damon Shulenberger
As much as I wanted to make sure Herman Melville made the show, that’s the luck of the draw.
Congrats guys. Enjoy the show!
–
In other Keystone related news, as we celebrate the world premiere this weekend, we’ve slashed the prices of the Keystone: Live at Jazz Standard sets — $5 for MP3s, $7 for FLACs, and a similarly price-adjusted Full Book. Better snatch up those sets while the deal is fresh. And don’t forget about the Jazz Standard poster.
T minus 4 days till the World Premiere of Spark Of Being at Stanford University. Thanks to all who have submitted their answer to the Trivia for Tickets post. We’ll be drawing from that list tomorrow morning. Check back then for an update. Also, check out the digital edition of the Program Notes for this Saturday’s performance.
–
This performance is part of the Stanford Lively Arts series as you may know. Dave has been an Artist in Residence over the past year working with students, with Bill Morrison, recording Spark… with Keystone, and a lot more. I was just alerted to this video of Dave working with the Stanford Orchestra back in February. Check it out.
April 24th, 2010 will see the World Premiere of Dave Douglas’ collaboration with Bill Morrison, Spark Of Being, at Stanford University. You can purchase tickets here. But before you do, answer the question below in the comments section of this post for a chance to win yourself tickets.
Question: What is the origin of the band name Keystone?
Answer: ?
We will announce the winner(s) next week. Good luck!
–
For fairness, I have closed the comments from view. Once you submit, you will not be able to see the comment until I publish the winner.
Dave will be running in the Half-Marathon in NYC this Sunday. At the start-point, DD promises to play the Rocky theme song to get everyone in the mood. Just kidding, of course.
From New York Road Runners:
The 90-minute live broadcast will start at 7:30 a.m. EDT and will feature the men’s and women’s professional race. It will be seen on Universal Sports TV and streamed on UniversalSports.com.
NYRR and Flotrack.com have also teamed up to offer live streaming feeds of the race from the start, Times Square, and the finish beginning at 6:30 a.m. Link coming soon.
Not much of a runner myself, but I did just buy a pair of Nike Air’s. Somehow that accomplishment — if one can call it that — doesn’t hold up to a half-marathon run. Ah well.
Good luck, DD!
For those who need more than just the usual Americano on this Spring-forwarded Monday morning, a few links…
First, Darcy continues his Composition Vivisection feature with his second post. For those interested in nerdy music analysis, these posts are not to be unclicked.
Next, check out the exclusive track stream of Vandermark/Haaker Flaten/Wiik from the forthcoming Gray Scale at Peter Margasak’s blog. This came after three performances with Atomic — shows that I regrettably missed, but heard were amazing (even when the weekend patrons at the Mill wouldn’t keep quiet).
D:O posted a great Max Roach and Archie Shepp track last week in case you missed it.
Last, a service delay prompts NYC Subway patrons at the Times Square stop to form an impromptu chorus as a busking band performs The Beatles’ “Hey Jude”.
There’s a great feature on Stanford Lively Arts director Jenny Bilfield posted yesterday at the MetroActive site.
An excerpt from the story of how Reich’s Double Sextet came to be:
Upon hanging up the phone [with Bilfield], Reich thought back to his ’60s pieces like Violin Phase, written for instruments being played live against recordings of themselves. He realized that he could do the same thing for eighth blackbird if the group would agree to pre-record a piece, then play a second sextet performance live against that recording—thus, Double Sextet. He called Bilfield back the next day and proposed the idea, and she took it to the group members, who said they would love to do it.
“And the piece won the Pulitzer Prize, and it is really one of the best pieces I’ve ever written,” says Reich. “But I would never have thought in a million years to write for eighth blackbird. It was Jenny Bilfield, whose basic subtext is ‘I’m not taking no for an answer.’”
And later in the article, some words about the Dave Douglas/Bill Morrison collaboration Spark Of Being [world premiere next month].
“Jenny called me and said, ‘What would you like to do that you couldn’t do anywhere else?” remembers Douglas. “It’s not every day that you get asked that question.”
The basis of the piece is matching Morrison’s talent for shaping films made from a collage of archival footage—his similarly constructed Decasia was named by the Village Voice as one of the 10 best films of 2003—with Douglas’ composition work. It has gone by many different titles over time; for a while, it was known as Frankenstein: The First 100 Years, in reference to Thomas Edison’s 1910 film.
“Before that, it was called The History of Gadgetry,” Douglas says. “For us, it’s all been about this conversation between technology and art, humanity and invention—what our inventions mean to us and how science has affected humanity. We went to Frankenstein because that seemed like a good metaphor for the whole thing. Bill works with older films, creating something new out of them, and I work a lot with samples and various disparate elements of music.”
“The Frankenstein monster is a collage of pieces in and of itself, so we’re referencing our process,” says Morrison. Finally, though, they settled on Spark of Being.
Read the full article here.
A new show just posted to the DD shows page. John Zorn’s Masada Sextet will hit the Cleveland Museum of Art on Friday, March 26th. Show time is at 7:30 PM. Happy hour with a cash bar and light snacks starts at 5:30 PM. Tickets are available here. The Masada Sextet is John Zorn, sax; Dave Douglas, trumpet; Uri Caine, piano; Greg Cohen, bass; Cyro Baptista, percussion; Joey Baron, drums.
In other Masada news, Dave will be conducting a seminar on May 10th at The Stone celebrating the Masada book. Details below. Further info at The Stone’s website.
DAVE DOUGLAS—The Music of Masada
7PM to 10PM—THIRTY DOLLARS: Open to musicians on any instrument.
Trumpeter in various MASADA ensembles since 1993, Douglas talks about and demonstrates some of the unique performance issues raised in this celebrated book of compositions by John Zorn. The group will work on several pieces from the book in differing ensemble formations, illuminating ideas about performance practice and limning the knowns and unknowns in the pages of the MASADA book. For those interested in an inside look at this music, this will be a challenging and fun hands-on experience. Please arrive on time and bring your instrument.
A nice review of the Brass Ecstasy performance last night by the Oregon Music News blog hit this morning. Click here to read.
UPDATE: Check out another review from Mainly Music Meanderings here with accompanying photos. Note: one tune was missing from Posty McPosterton’s setlist — “The Brass Ring” (with the drum solo Posty mentions) should appear between “Awake Nu” and “Mr. Pitiful.” That update came straight from the horse’s mouth. Thanks for posting Posty!
Early Warning: Brass Ecstasy’s next scheduled performance this year will be at the Red Sea Jazz Festival this coming August. More info on that festival coming soon. As always, keep your eye on Dave’s tour page for the most recent tour news.
Special 1/2 price Student/Senior Tickets
Half-price tickets are available to students and seniors via walk-up only at the Crystal Ballroom. Limited availability.
For non-seniors and non-students, buy your tickets in advance here.
