7/4

Happy birthday to a minimalist pioneer By Jeremy Eichler Boston Globe/June 27, 2008 CAMBRIDGE - The wind in the local new-music scene often blows in decidedly uptown directions, but the 73d birthday of minimalist pioneer Terry Riley this week did not go completely unnoticed. The Boston-based art-rock band Birdsongs of the Mesozoic has been hosting a salon series at the postage-stamp-size Outpost 186. On Tuesday, by way of a Riley birthday tribute, Birdsongs invited some friends - Vessela Stoyanova and Valerie Thompson from Fluttr Effect, and composer Marti Epstein - to form a seven-piece band that took on Riley's roiling, iconic score "In C." This landmark of modern art music, often cited as the true opening blast of minimalism, was written in 1964 and premiered at the San Francisco Tape Music Center. (Steve Reich was one of the performers.) Serialism had been the dominant force in contemporary music but Riley's work seemed to explode every one of its tenets like a Molotov cocktail. This marvelously protean piece can be played by ensembles of any size and instrumentation. Its score consists of 53 distinct melodic cells that individual players are encouraged to repeat as many times as they wish before proceeding to the next. The music morphs slowly yet constantly as different patterns emerge, like a kaleidoscope for the ears. Performances can vary wildly in their length and approach, but the best ones convey something of the joyful spirit of liberation with which this music first came into the world. Flashes of that spirit appeared on Tuesday night, though occasional rhythmic imprecision, dynamic uniformity, and a certain expressive tentativeness kept this performance from truly scaling the heights. Still, it was an invigorating pleasure to hear this work played live in such close quarters. Guitarist Michael Bierylo set things in motion by producing the work's pulse on a laptop, and much of this reading's distinctive quality came from the unusual blending of Ken Field's saxophone, Thompson's cello, and Stoyanova's marimba lumina. The dense web of sound was nothing if not a full-ensemble creation. This performance clocked in at just about one-half hour (the night also included some group improvisation) and the audience was not much larger than the band on stage. Rather impressively, one man brought his baby, who was wide awake in the front row, taking it all in. Her father apparently places more faith in Riley than in Raffi, when it comes to expanding the mind.

6 out of 20. .

My entry into the big $$$$$$ world of John Adams and Pierre Boulez.

Happy Birthday to the ref! .

I don't know what you don't like, but if you like Trower, they're a pair of his best albums. .

Timeless. I have BLT and Truce together on one CD.

I zipped through the Rainbow years. Yes, people think he's an asshole...events could use a bit more detail. I'd like to know what really happened. I'll go back and read it from the beginning tonight. .

Same here! I know Husband from his many years with Holdsworth. It strikes me as a Bruce album. It's not as heavy as the two '80s albums.

Thanks for the update. .

I think it was $3.89 yesterday, but it probably went up this morning. .

I look forward to finding out how much of an asshole Blackmore is/was. .

Ritchie Blackmore Black Knight by Jerry Bloom. Looks pretty cool, I bought a copy a few days ago, but I still have to dig in.

and then there's Jazzmoose. What the hell was he thinkin'????

Cactus. .

'50's rock/Rockabilly...yet another generational divide.

Ehhhh. That's a cliche and an apocraphal story to boot. As much as I like and admire the Velvets (I have all their albums), I really don't think they had quite the impact attributed to them... Sure they did. You're probably too young to remember. All those lame ass new wave "punk" rock bands that never rose about cult status, for example....

Looks interesting. I have the Liebman/Beirach Select. .

El Becko is amazing, his guitar hits straight between the eyes. Mick Ronson, I barely remember. I need to brush up on Mott the Hoople and those Bowie years.

I was at a show from that Trower tour. There's a Trower signature Strat now, probably expensive. Al Hendrix was a bum.

Oh yeah, I'm a big Trower fan, I've had the chance to hear him play four or five times. .

At that price, I'd probably spring for one! .

That's a big affirmative. Thank you too, Shawn. How's this for impact?: Which drummer is sampled on just about every rap and hip hop record put out here in the good old US of A? I'm going to guess John Bonham.

That's shocking...only 48. RIP hey, I'm 48!

There hasn't been another Yngwie J. Malmsteen in the last 20 years. Yngwie J. Malmsteen hasn't even been Yngwie J. Malmsteen in the last 20 years.

So all I have to do is post a full article without a link and Clem's head will explode? Cool... .