GA Russell

My favorite television show, Secret Agent (aka Danger Man), used a lot of harpsichord in its music. Start here at 1:15.

Pianist Mina Cho Solidifies Her Unique Fusion of Jazz With Korean Traditional Music On "Beat Mirage," Set for February 9 Release by International Gugak Jazz Institute Records Album Features Seven Original Compositions Marrying the Two Styles, Also Introducing Cho's Grace Beat Quartet Upcoming Shows at Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Thurs 2/15; Somerville (MA) Community Baptist Church, Sat 2/17; St. Paul's Chapel of Trinity Church, NYC, Sun 8/4   January 4, 2024 Mina Cho’s startlingly fresh approach to jazz fusion reaches its culmination with Beat Mirage, her fifth album and the debut of her Grace Beat Quartet. Supported by bassist Max Ridley, drummer Yeongjin Kim and percussionist Insoo Kim, the Boston (by way of Seoul) pianist and composer makes bold new strides in her career-long quest to bridge the musical traditions of Korean gugak and American jazz. “What is Korean jazz? What makes Korean jazz?” Cho found herself asking. “Rhythm is very important for this project, and different uses of space.” It’s for this reason that she created a band that offsets the traditional jazz piano trio with a host of native Korean percussion instruments: the janggu, the sori-buk, the kkwaenggwari and jing gongs. Brought together, they form an imaginative range of sonics that “often blend notated amalgamations of Korean and jazz rhythms.” Rarely can the two sides of that amalgamation be discerned: Cho’s music is an entirely original one. The cultural cross-pollination does, however, make it immediately distinctive. Evidence of this requires looking no further than opening “Nacht Song”: Even beyond its solemn chant (drawn from the rites of Korean shamanism), the tune is arresting in its use of interlocking rhythms and unique sense of melody and harmony. Other fascinating idiosyncrasies reveal themselves on “Beat Mirage,” whose lithe classical-piano veneer belies its frantic percussive accents, and “Parallel Destiny (UnMyung II),” which wraps its stabbing beat cycles in elaborate tendrils of melody. There’s even a whiff of Afro-Cuban music on “G-Street Dance,” which Cho calls “Latin Gugak jazz.” But Beat Mirage is no mere experiment in ethnomusicology. Overlaid on Cho’s highly personal sound is the map of a spiritual journey, from the shamanic tones of “Nacht Song” to the gospel music echoes of the closing “If There’s a Stage for Me in Heaven.” Along the way are passages of tender introspection like “A Bit of Grace” and the ecstatic catharsis of “Prints of Imperfection,” presenting an emotional tapestry that’s every bit as complex and compelling as the cultural tapestry. L. to r. Insoo Kim, Yeongjin Kim, Mina Cho, Max Ridley. Not to be overlooked is the superlative work of the Grace Beat Quartet. Drawn from Cho’s larger Gugak Jazz Society ensemble, the rhythmic powerhouse of Ridley and Yeongjin and Insoo Kim is as smooth and precise as clockwork—no small feat given the intricate and sometimes jagged rhythms they are tasked with. Their ability to make these complexities sound so effortless is, truly, a beat mirage. Mina Cho was born in Seoul, South Korea on August 20, 1981—and, seemingly, born to the piano. Her youth offered her the promise of a life as an esteemed concert pianist. While still a student, however, Cho found herself struck by the power of gospel, in both the religious and musical sense. Majoring in theology at the prestigious Yonsei University in Seoul, Cho continued to nourish her love of gospel music as well. She earned a scholarship to Boston’s Berklee College of Music to study the music formally, a pursuit that led her to discover jazz. She earned her degrees in film scoring and jazz composition, ultimately earning both master’s and doctorate degrees in the latter. Gospel never ceased to be a passion of Cho’s, however; she worked as an accompanist at several churches in the Boston area. Nor did she leave behind the gugak tradition when she left Korea: At Somerville Community Baptist Church, where she currently serves as music director (and her husband is the pastor), Cho leads a gospel jazz band whose instrumentation includes a Korean ajaeng (bowed zither). Naturally she began to explore all of those possibilities, and how to bring them together, in her own music. Cho’s 2010 debut album, Originality, was a deep dive into the substantial common ground between the gospel and jazz traditions. She recorded a follow-up, Love Transformation, in 2016, and has also worked extensively with Darrell Katz’s Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra. In 2021 and 2023 she released GreeKorea: Greeting the Moon and Samulnori Fantasy: Seasons, which introduced her nine-piece Gugak Jazz Society as a vehicle for merging its two titular traditions. It is that band’s offspring that produced the Grace Beat Quartet and Beat Mirage, which, Cho says, “fulfills my long-standing ambition to create a platform where traditional Korean and jazz musicians can organically exchange ideas for composition and improvisation.” Mina Cho will be performing a Lunar New Year Celebration Concert at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, on Thursday 2/15; and a Black History Month Celebration with a Community Gospel Choir Concert, Somerville MA (Somerville Community Baptist Church), on Saturday 2/17. Mina Cho’s Grace Beat Quartet will present selections from Beat Mirage in New York (St. Paul’s Chapel of Trinity Church, 209 Broadway) on Sunday 8/4. The Grace Beat Quartet and Gugak Jazz Society will participate in the K-Festival (Boston) in September and the 10th Corée d’ici festival (Montpellier, France) in October. Updates on the upcoming performances for the CD release concerts and Canada-Korea Co-Creation Project will be announced on the website. Photography: Christo Tsiaras (quartet), Daniel Schwartz (Mina)    EPK: Mina Cho's Grace Beat Quartet | Beat Mirage  Mina Cho Web Site  

Thanks rom!

They did it, 31-14.

I'm not seeing anything. Can anyone provide a link (to anywhere) about this? Thanks!

Congratulate me, boys! On Saturday January 6, 2024, Matt Dunigan liked one of my tweets.

If Cincinnati beats Cleveland, all four teams of the AFC North will finish above .500. This (all four teams finishing above .500) has not happened since the NFL West of 1935. AFC North will become first NFL division in 88 years to pull off this feat if Bengals beat Browns in Week 18 (msn.com)

The English are fighting the Scots again. The English army is camped on a hill waiting for a deep fog to clear. Out of the fog comes a Scottish shout: “One Scotsman is worth two Englishmen.” Many men volunteer and two of the biggest are selected. They advance down into the fog. Soon the sound of fighting can be heard, but it doesn’t last long. Then there is another shout: “One Scotsman is worth four Englishmen”. Four more volunteers are quickly selected and they advance down into the fog together. The sound of more fighting can be heard. It lasts a bit longer, but soon it goes quiet again, and then the same Scottish voice calls once more. “One Scotsman is worth a platoon of Englishmen”. There is a longer debate this time but soon a platoon advances steadily down into the fog. This time the sound of fighting goes on for quite a long time, and a few screams. Eventually all is quiet, and then the same Scottish voice calls again. “One Scotsman is worth a battalion of Englishmen.” The English are now quite worried but in due course a battalion is prepared and starts advancing into the fog. But a groan is heard on the ground at their feet. An English soldier barely alive has managed to crawl back up the hill, and he cries out: “Don’t go in, it’s a trap. There’s two of the bastards.”

I can't find the post now, but I remember two or three years ago that TTK said that his mom sang on Perry Como's Season's Greetings album. When I was a boy we had two Christmas albums - that one and Johnny Mathis's Merry Christmas. So this year I remembered, and pulled out my copy of the Como album, specifically to hear TTK's mom. She sounded great, TTK!

The Dalai Lama walks up to a hotdog vendor, and says, “Make me one with everything.” The vendor hands over the hotdog, and the Dalai Lama pays for it. He waits for a moment, and then demands, “What about my change?” The vendor replies, “Change comes from within.”

I remember well when the Rose Bowl game was the champions of the Big Five (later Pac-8, later Pac 10, later Pac-12) against the champions of the Big Ten. (Does no one else remember the 1963 Rose Bowl, when Ron VanderKellen and Wisconsin almost beat USC?) That's what we will see in Houston.

This year's Rose Bowl will be in Houston Monday - the champions of the Big Five against the champions of the Big Ten.

RIP. He was younger than I thought. Les McCann dies - Search (bing.com)

And now Bird. Disc 3

A horse walks into a bar, and orders three drinks. The bartender says, “Hey, ain't you been in here ordering three drinks every day this week? You some kind of lush or sumthin'?” The horse replies, “No, I don't think I am.” And just like that, the horse vanishes. I'd explain why, but that would be putting Descartes before the horse.

Twenty-five years ago I was in the habit of starting every new year with new (to me) albums by Julie London and Charlie Parker. So now I have just opened up Julie's Lonely Girl.

Shecky Greene has died at 97. RIP. I felt that he was like the secondary sports leagues (like the WHA and the ABA). Everybody had heard of him, but very few saw him or heard him, in that he wasn't on television or found in record stores like other comedians were. Shecky Greene, legendary standup comic, improv master and lord of Las Vegas, dies at 97 (msn.com)

Happy New Year everyone! Top 10 Plays https://www.cfl.ca/2023/12/29/top-10-plays-of-2023/

Ken, I would ask myself...Would this story be interesting if the people were not famous? In 2015 I read Linda Ronstadt's book Simple Dreams. I didn't mind that she declined the opportunity to embarrass anyone. But the book was 200 pages of stories of famous people, none of whom did anything interesting.

The Las Vegas Sands casino people have agreed to buy the Dallas Mavericks for $3.5 billion. NBA approves Dallas Mavericks sale - Search (bing.com)