Computers and Music
Saturday, July 30, 2005
From Odeo.com:
Ron Steen is literally the Godfather of Jazz Jams in Portland, Oregon, and one of the most successful musicians in the area. He has had an ongoing jam session since 1980, and has been hosting Produce Row for about 13 years. Any New York pros who come through town stop in to Produce Row to jam on Monday nights.
Listen to an interview with Ron Steen here. Also check out Portland Jazz jams (click here).
 
Last night after spending 4 hours on tutoring computer stuff to two different students, I felt like I wanted to spend some time on myself. So I sat at the piano and composed a new song, which I wanted to somehow reflect some of my recent travel experiences. I am happy to present to you the world online premiere of "Savage Journey" (click here to listen).

As always, any comments about this music would be much appreciated!!
 
Wednesday, July 27, 2005


Tonight, pianist Leon Fleisher gave a concert at Harris Hall in Aspen, Colorado. From the Aspen Times (article here):
In 1965, 21 years after his New York Philharmonic debut on piano at age 16, Leon Fleisher was no longer able to play with two hands. A neurological disorder called focal dystonia had settled in, and he couldn't move two fingers of his right hand.

That did not keep him from his music. He plunged forward into conducting (including major orchestras such as those in Boston, Chicago and San Francisco), teaching, and mastering the extensive piano repertoire for the left hand. He will play from this repertoire tonight at 8 p.m. at Harris Concert Hall, an Aspen Music Festival and School special event.
An article by Lucie Renaud on Scena.org describes Fleisher as the "Obi Wan Kenobi of the piano". Describing his love of teaching, Fleisher says,
"My greatest pleasure is to see the light of understanding in a student’s eyes – what I call the ‘Aha!’ moment. A teacher should be irresistible, should find THE way of getting information across to a young pianist. We have to serve music."
Minnesota Public radio has a page (click here) with lots of audio clips of an interview with Leon Fleisher (worth a listen).
 
Friday, July 22, 2005
I have posted the complete live recording of our band's concert in the 2005 Vancouver International Jazz festival. We gave a last-minute concert at the Yale Hotel on the Tuesday night of the festival. Visit our band's web site (click here) to listen. Please let me know what you think of this music! These are our original compositions which we are going to feature on our upcoming CD.
 
Jazz pianist Tim Lyddon was featured in an article in the Houston Chronicle, for his decision to move from New York to Houston to become part of the jazz community there.
"Even though I had some success in New York City and established a reputation, it is still hard to get work there," he says. "I wanted to come to Houston to relax a bit, but also see what I can create in terms of a jazz audience. I'm trying to find a place where I can develop something, maybe bring some musicians from New York."
Visit Tim Lyddon's web site to find out more about his latest CD, Shades of People.
 
Sunday, July 10, 2005
If you're in the mood for a really stimulating intellectual journey into topics of music, intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, mind, and many others, you absolutely must read Marvin Minsky's Music Interview with Otto Laske. I was immensely honored to see Marvin Minsky in person today at AAAI-05.
 
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Found a fascinating interview with the one and only "Mr. Bongo", Jack Costanzo. From his own web site (which contains MP3 samples from his album Back from Havana):
Jack Costanzo is known and responsible for the popularity of the bongos all over the world. He introduced bongos into American music when he was with the famous Stan Kenton Band, which shot him to jazz fame overnight. Jack recorded with Stan such favorites as The Peanut Vendor, Bongo Riff, Cuban Carnival and about fifty other recordings.
Here's an excerpt from the interview:
JV: How was Kenton to work with?

JC: Marvelous! He let you stretch out. "Play what you feel Jack," he'd say. I remember the opening night at the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa. It's a little island he'd worked for years. It's opening night, his return, and he's going to show off his new band. So we start with Stardust and you know the tempo is real light and he gives Laurindo Almeida a guitar solo, then points to me. I looked at him like 'what am I supposed to do with this tempo?' So Shelly yells 'pick up the tempo' so I did these really fast runs and Kenton is yelling 'that's what I want!' (laughter)

[...]

JV: Tell us about your jazz experience.

JC: I went through bebop and cubop. When I went to Birdland, which I did fairly often, I was playing with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Max Roach, Percy Heath, Curley Russell, and before he died, Fats Navarro. Playing with Lester Young was probably one of my favorite experiences. But I really didn't play Latin and that's why I was so well-liked by the musicians at Birdland because I could play jazz. I remember Bud Powell saying finally we have a conga drummer that can play jazz.
 
Thoughts of an aspiring jazz musician and computer programmer.

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