Schwartz's Point

From a visit in December

For Memorial Day: About the National Anthem

Friday Vid

I Wouldn't Live There If You Paid Me To

These words often enter my thoughts. Listen at your own risk.

Herbie Hancock Electronica 1984

Odetta and Tennessee Ernie Ford

Woman with one name and a man with three, among other differences:

Ralph Stanley

"I'm just an old hillbilly, and proud of it, too. Plain as an old shoe." -Ralph Stanley, (he recorded at King Records too)

Our Summer Soundtrack

Die Meistersinger

It is not very often that in your life that you can walk down the street, across a park and sit down to watch a world-class performance of a 6 hour Wagner opera.

Amazing performance.
 

(Thanks also to friends who have tickets they cannot use and other friends who will babysit).

ASCAP shutting down Third Places

For Henderson business owner Mike Hopper, his coffee shop, Mocha Joe, was the perfect environment to let local artists showcase their original music. At least that was the plan until the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers said otherwise....

However, Hopper said it was just a misunderstanding between him and the organizations. He then called to explain that the unsigned bands were playing 100 percent original songs...

"I am 100 percent in compliance," Hopper said. "I'm not charging cover at the door. I'm not paying the bands, and they are just playing songs they wrote. They essentially said to me, "We don't care. We have this low-end licensing fee you must have because there is a chance your band might play a cover song."

...Looking at potentially paying a total of $1,800 in annual fees to the three agencies and the possibility that he would be shut down permanently, Hopper discontinued music at Mocha Joe... - Henderson, NV View

Some People Love Their Work

Some examples I experienced this past week:

Mayberry. The guy who runs this little restaurant loves food. You can tell when you meet him and when you taste what he makes. He is someone who loves fat and butter, and is not ashamed.

Craig Kopp on WNKU. It seems that he really likes the music he plays. And in this day of pre-programmed music stations, that is refreshing.

Ed Moss. Playing piano is like breathing for this man. Enough said.

Pokey Lafarge. We accidentally saw this guy playing at the Southgate House, in the front parlor Saturday, and found him to be authentic. Again, he seems to be born (not so long ago either) to sing in small clubs:

John Lally of Boston

This is a test to see if I can successfully attach a music clip to a post. I'm not really sure of the best way, but this one is thru "esnips".

The music is a project I have been working on for a while. The musician is Bob Schmertz, an architect from Pittsburgh who recorded four albums from 1949-1960. The recording below is from the 1960 album "Ladies Beware of an Architect". I cannot find this album anywhere, so this is digitized from an old cassette tape I copied off my partner years ago. The song is about how a plain "concrete filled pipe... a column without any clothes" has replaced the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian and Composite classical columns.

I especially love this stanza:
Its' sly self effacement that hid in each basement (but soon began gaining in status);
amongst wealth and passion it's now all the fashion and adds to artistic inflatus..

go to esnips | Track details |

He had one song: "Queen Ann Front and Mary Ann Behind" which became somewhat well known when Pete Seeger recorded it. There was a website up by an admirer, but it has been defunct for a few years.

I think he was a genius. I would like to make him more widely known, and this is my first attempt.

Any advice on how better to post music to a blog post would be appreciated. Also, please contact me if you have any of his albums.

Buddy Guy - First Time I Met The Blues

I was thinking as I watched this video how the things in this video were once common in Cincinnati too (blues music, and the general scene).

A friend of mine sent me this video because of the 1970's shots of Chicago's South Side, especially the "Wall of Respect" which was a public art project that people he knows contributed too. Plus the music rocks:

Everybody's Records CDs and Tapes

 

Inside they have these MP3 players that work off the UPC code of the CD in your hand, which I've never seen before, but are probably everywhere:
 

I feel at home in a record store. But with Pandora and iTunes etc, I'm not really buying anymore, just looking.

[where: 6106 Montgomery Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45213]

Ohio Is A Piano

Ohio has 88 counties and a piano has 88 keys. Thus, play Ohio like a piano.

Songs About Zoning

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

...Hammet has concluded that “most code is written to benefit cars. … Then you start to say, ‘Hey, this is kind of an emotional thing here. Where am I in this planning and zoning?’ “

Her response was “The Automobile Song (Car Tune),” about how a vehicle runs the driver’s life:

“I drive my car to all its favorite places/ I cannot wave at other people’s faces/ Because I’m here behind the tinted glass/ Because it likes to move so very fast/ We don’t go to the zoo or the ballet/ It likes a parking lot or the highway/ It likes the pavement underneath its wheels/ The grass or sandy beach has no appeal/ And when it’s ready for a little rest/ I fill it up with gasoline, high test/ And then I park it safe behind the walls/ Of its own palace, the Garage Mahal/ A-B-C-D-S-U-V, tell me what you think of me.”

Withrow Marching Band at Dribblethon

Just like last year, we had a great time watching the very entertaining Withrow Marching Band at Dribblethon. Here are a couple of very short videos highlighting the drummers:

Support Your Local Piccolo Player

YouTube is creating the first collaborative symphony. From the site:

We have invited musicians from around the world to audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. The video entries will be combined into the first ever collaborative virtual performance, and the world will select the best to perform at New York City's Carnegie Hall in April 2009.

There is at least one local in the finals. Jennifer King is a CCM grad, has played for a number of local orchestras, and is currently a flutist for the Kentucky Symphony Orchestra.

You can support her in the contest by:

1. Going to http://www.youtube.com/symphony.
2. Click on Vote.
3. Select Piccolo from the Category drop-down list.
4. Click Go.
5. View Jennifer.
6. Click the Green thumbs-up.
   

Now, there are three finalists, so the responsible thing to do is to recommend that you listed to all three and choose your favorite. But I know you are all busy people, so I can save you the time and recommend that Jennifer is the one you want to select.

Also, you can vote once a day. So the old joke "vote early, vote often" is very applicable here.

Yma Sumac Gone

Yma Sumac, the subject of some album cover posts on this blog recently died. Here is what Camille Paglia says about her:

... I was startled to read of the death last week of Yma Sumac, the virtuoso five-octave Peruvian singer who seems like a legendary figure of the misty past. Sumac's 1950 debut album, "Voice of the Xtabay," made a tremendous impact on me as a child. My family attended her performance (with her company of 20 artists) at the Binghamton Theatre in what was probably 1951. I still have the yellowed clippings and program, which lists songs eerily mimicking the sound of the Andean winds and earthquakes. The cover image of "Voice of the Xtabay" with a glamorous Sumac in the pose of a prophesying priestess against a background of fierce sculptures and an erupting volcano, contains the entire pagan worldview and nature cult of what would become my first book, "Sexual Personae," published 40 years later. Thank you, Yma!

Saengerfest Returns to OTR via Memorial Hall

Memorial Hall Saengerfest Returns to OTR Sunday, October 12th, 2008

 

Revival of Traditional Cincinnati Festival Highlights :

A new generation of Greater Cincinnatians will have the opportunity to participate in a traditional German-American Saengerfest when Memorial Hall celebrates its centennial on October 12.

German immigrants originally introduced the Saengerfest, a traditional German choral and music festival, to Cincinnati in the mid-19th century. The Saengerfest continued to be a regular part of Cincinnati cultural life for more than 100 years, and eventually gave rise to popular musical events such as the Cincinnati May Festival. Over-the-Rhine in general and Memorial Hall in particular served as centers of the Saengerfest until the hall fell on hard times after World War II. The revived Saengerfest will serve as the climax of day-long events to mark the 100th Anniversary of Memorial Hall's dedication this October.

Activities begin at 11:00 a.m. and include:

* Musical presentations in the Washington Park Gazebo

* Civil War Re-enactors in Washington Park

* Informational presentations in the Memorial Hall Theater and lobby

* Saengerfest and Rededication presented by Queen City Concert Band at 4:00 p.m.

* 1940s-era USO Dance presented by Green Hills American Legion Band 5:30-7:30 p.m.

All activities are free and open to the public except a $10 “cover charge” for the USO-style dance. Souvenir programs also will be available for $5.

Memorial Hall is Hamilton County’s monument to the service and sacrifice of its war veterans. The hall, at 1225 Elm Street just south of Music Hall, is a building of national significance for its architecture and its cultural heritage. Designed by Samuel Hannaford & Sons, the military statues below the pediment were created by Clement Barnhorn. The spectacular mural in the auditorium was executed by Francis Pedretti.