Peter J Woods 7/11/09 Video

Below is a live video of Peter J Woods live in Allston, MA 7.11.09, courtesy of Noise Vision. See the original post and related performances here, and yes, that is a Realicide t-shirt.




Watch PETER J WOODS - LIVE AT THE BUTCHER SHOP - ALLSTON,MA - JULY 11TH 2009 in Music | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Top 25 Albums/Pieces

So a while back, it seemed like the new big craze all over Facebook was to come up with a list of your top 25 favorite and/or most influential albums/pieces. I never thought much of it until a conversation I had with a friend of mine, I thought it would just be too hard to whittle it down to just 25 and kind of pointless anyways. What I got from that conversation was that, hey why the fuck not just try it? Especially if you just sit down with a pencil and paper, not looking through CD collections, not looking through iTunes, so everything you come up with for the list is something that really means that much to you, or had that much influence on you. It definitely proved to be a very interesting experience. The first problem: Where do I start????? Seriously ... I found myself thinking "Should I really put that one down now? Maybe save it for later?" It really is much harder than it sounds. Just because of the way it makes you think about your experience with music over your entire life and what sticks out as the 25 strongest experiences seems like something that would be good and healthy to do maybe every five years or so. And boy, does it get hard to think of albums/pieces once you get to the late teens and you're struggling to make sure the things you're thinking of really fit in the top 25, and that you aren't forgetting anything and/or putting things down that don't quite make the cut. I think that's exactly why it's so important to do this away from your iTunes or CD collection, and literally have nothing in front of you but pencil and paper.

Anyways, I encourage everyone to give this a try if they haven't already. If you make a playlist of all the music on the list you come up with, you'll be in EMO!!! sappy! heaven for a long while .... And so, without any further adieu, here is my list (in no particular order besides the order in which I remembered and wrote each entry down):

1. Hermeto Pascoal - Mundo Verde Esperança
2. Eugenics Council - Think Machine
3. Olivier Messiaen - Quatour por la fin du temps
4. Igor Stravinsky - The Rite of Spring
5. Igor Stravinsky - Petrouchka
6. Hermeto Pascoal & Aline Morena - Duo Chimarrão com Rapadura
7. Ahmad Jamal - At The Pershing
8. Anton Von Webern - Six pieces for Orchestra Op. 6
9. Alfred Schnittke - String Quartets 2 & 3, performed by the Kronos Quartet
10. Henryk Górecki - Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs)
11. Dmitri Shostakovich - String Quartet No. 8, Performed by the Emerson String Quartet
12. Arnold Schönberg - Verklärte Nacht
13. Maurice Ravel - String Quartet in F
14. Chet Baker - The Best of Chet Baker Sings
15. Luciana Souza - Brazilian Duos, Duos II
16. Hermeto Pascoal - So Não Toca Quem Não Quer
17. YMCK - Family Music, Family Genesis
18. John Coltrate & Johnny Hartman
19. Baden Powell - Tristeza on Guitar
20. Maria Rita - Sambe Meu
21. Gene Bertoncini - Quiet Now
22. Masonna - Ejaculation Generator
23. Anton Von Webern - All Lieder (Or the lieder disc from Boulez conducts the complete works of Webern)
24. Chick Corea - Light as a Feather
25. João Gilberto - The Complete Bossa Nova Recordings

Well, there you have it. I'm very interested to see how the list would evolve if this exercise was to be repeated every five years or so. What would stay the same? What would change? Maybe that says something about how much of an influence certain things really had, and what things were just very emotionally intense phases. Who knows ... music is dumb anyways, right?? Feel free to add a comment with your own top 25 or a link to it or whatever ...

Performance Calendar

I have now switched to using Google Calendar to list my upcoming performances. Please scroll to the bottom of the main page to see the calendar.

Nós.

Chimarrão com Rapadura is the latest (as far as I know) release from Hermeto Pascoal. For those of you that know Hermeto's music (and haven't heard this album), you know that this is a big deal. For those of you that don't know Hermeto's music: I'm not going to try to give a summary of all he has done so please get some background info here, and please listen to some of his music. (I highly recommend So Nao Toca Quem Nao Quer and Mundo Verde Esperança)

I really can't say anything about this album (or maybe I just can't say enough ...). Dan DiPiero gave it a very nice review, which can be found here. My own review of the album would probably be to take every good thing you've heard about it, put them all together, and multiply by about 10,000,000, and that's essentially how I feel about it. I find myself thinking, "I think this one might be my favorite" at the beginning and end of every single track.

Anyways, the whole point of this post was to share one specific track (yeah, I know ...) titled "Nós". Nós is a hauntingly beautiful (something ... I don't know what to call it) that essentially builds up to a climax at the very end. It is also very textural in nature. During the "intro" section, you hear Hermeto playing some kind of brass mouthpiece into the end of a tea kettle and Dense voicings on Melodica provided by Aline Morena, who also gives us a melody somewhere in the nether regions of her seemingly endless range. The main body of the piece consists of chords on a synth patch with little piano flourishes. Aline Morena sings her original lyrics, and Hermeto takes a solo on Melodica. I was hoping to find a video to post, but the closest thing I could come up with was the page linked below. There are a bunch of really great videos in that list, and Nós is the very last one. (You can just hit back as soon as the player loads, or better yet, watch them all with Nós being the last one)

http://www.hermetopascoalealinemorena.com.br/escute_dvd.asp

I'd like to take a closer look at the text as well. if anyone knows where I can find it, please let me know as I would like to take a stab at translating it.

Edit: I just found a nice interview with Jovinos Santos Neto. Check it out!

Updates / Shameless Plug

I have just updated my myspace page with new recordings and gig information (gigs!? .... what gigs??) I'll add a calendar of some sort to this site/blog of my performances at some point. Myspace works fine for now. Below is a description/information about the recordings I currently have up. If you've managed to find yourself at my Bandcamp page, there's a good chance you've heard most of these already.

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Bobagem:

Original composition, featuring Aaron Quinn also on guitar, Roger Hines on bass, and Dan DiPiero on drums. Recorded live at James' 88 Club 3/20/2009.

Burning Bridges - Nardis:

Another original composition which transitions into Nardis. From the same gig (and same musicians) as Bobagem.

Lush Life:

Original solo arrangement of Billy Strayhorn's "Lush Life", inspired by Robert Holliday. Recorded during the winter of 2007-2008.

Iron Man - Modinha:

A medley showcasing the stark contrast (or the lack thereof) between violence and beauty: Eric Dolphy's "Iron Man" and Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Modinha". From the same gig (and same musicians) as Bobagem and Burning Bridges.

Pra Que Discutir Com Madame:

Recorded at Jayanthi's Half (Junior) Recital. Featuring Maggie Green on voice.

My One and Only Love arr. Bertoncini:

Solo arrangement by Gene Bertoncini. Recorded in the winter of 2008.


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Hooray for shameless self-promotion.
Check it ... http://www.myspace.com/ajayanthi.
Don't forget to check out the links I have for all the other great musicians I've been lucky to work with.