Marlon Brando. Yeah, sure, he could act. Very talented guy. But, hey, he also invented a radically innovative tuning system for conga drums. Played the congas, too. Yup.
That's right.
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Jul 3, 2011 -
23 comments
Freeman Davis, better known as
Brother Bones, was a whistler and player of the
bones.
As his story goes, he started in Montgomery, Alabama, hearing his mother whistle. He made his way to Long Beach, California, where he was a shoe-shining entertainer called Whistling Sam. Somewhere along the way, he gained popularity with the bones as Brother Bones, leading a group called Brother Bones and His Shadows, as heard here in
Rosetta and
Listen To The Mockingbird. Their
1948 instrumental version of
the 1920s jazz standard Sweet Georgia Brown was chosen as the theme song for the
Harlem Globetrotters. Brother Bones was also
featured in the
blackface minstrel show movie,
Yes Sir, Mr. Bones. Freeman Davis died in 1970, and in 2002 he was paid tribute at the
Rhythm Bones Society's
Bones Fest 6, honoring the 100th anniversary of his birth.
[more inside]
posted by filthy light thief
on Dec 8, 2010 -
6 comments
"But this wasn't quite enough and so then I got the idea of having all thirteen of the lowest tones of the piano played together... In other words, I was inventing a new musical sound later to be called 'tone clusters'... Anyway, this was my professional debut as a composer." Henry Cowell's musical autobiography. Cowell was one of the most important figures in 20th-century American music,
described by John Cage as "the open sesame for new music in America." In this hour-long program recorded four years before his death in 1965, compositions from every stage in Cowell's career are contextualized and discussed by the man himself.
posted by No-sword
on Aug 8, 2010 -
10 comments
"Puncture Kit was brought to life after sitting in London's Green Park with my new bicycle not long after arriving from Australia in June 2008... no car, no drums, and a need to create beats. With my bike turned upside down, a sketchbook and no desire to be tubing a drum kit around underground, I started dreaming of ways to use my bike as my transport and drum kit ."
[more inside]
posted by SyntacticSugar
on Jun 24, 2010 -
9 comments
Back in the 1920s, when
Warren "Baby" Dodds was busy inventing jazz drumming in the company of pioneers like King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrong, to "give the drummer some" usually never meant more than a couple of bars fill every now and again. Fortunately, though, come 1946, when Dodds was already an older man but still in fine playing form, someone had the wherewithal to record this seminal percussion stylist in a series of extended drum solos, displaying his
exuberant rhythmic stylings as well as his lending of
superbly playful swing to the
the rudiments. But let's jump back to the 20's again, and hear drummer Dodds, with the aforementioned King Oliver, take what's gotta be the killingest
slide whistle solo in all of jazz history.
[more inside]
posted by flapjax at midnite
on Mar 22, 2010 -
11 comments
Terry Riley celebrates
the 45th anniversary of his groundbreaking composition,
In C. A major work in the history of
minimalist music, In C has an incredibly flexible
score and performance guidelines, which have inspired many musicians to make their own versions, including a
French guitar quintet, a
traditional Chinese orchestra, a
keyboard ensemble, an
all-synthesizer group,
CalArts Music students,
French-Canadian hippies, a
Danish vocal and percussion ensemble, another
percussion ensemble,
Japanese acidheads, a
"laptop orchestra", the
Bang on a Can Orchestra, and a
rock "orchestration" by the Styrenes. No two versions can sound exactly the same, but it's still an open question how they will compare to the performance of In C at its
Carnegie Hall debut next month. No recording of the original 1964 performance has ever been publicly released, but some eyewitness accounts can be found
here.
posted by jonp72
on Mar 4, 2009 -
40 comments
Counting in groups of 12 the first performer claps on 1,2,3,5,6,8,10 and 11. The second performer starts by clapping the same pattern but gradually shifts the pattern one step to the right. You are playing
Steve Reich's clapping music. If you are serious you will want to study the
score - and perhaps a
watch a performance). If you are happen to be Evelyn Glennie you can have a go at
both parts at once. - those slightly less more mortal are likely to end up like
this.
[more inside]
posted by rongorongo
on Jan 14, 2008 -
25 comments
Drums around the world "Drums Around the World is an annual simultaneous world wide drumming day.Our purpose is to Honor the traditions of the drum, celebrate its power to unify humanity."
The tenth anniversary of the annual "Drums around the World: ....In 1994, the inaugural event, over 2100 drummers showed up at the main event (facilitated by Baba Olatunji, Hamza El Din, Arthur Hull, John Bergamo, Jim Greiner, Muruga Booker, and Native Drummers) creating the worlds largest drum circle. This event was also broadcast world-wide via satellite (complements of CNN)."
Ever drummed on a Djembe until your hands bled? ....Or wondered why virtually no republicans practice African or indigenous drumming techniques? Are hand drums, to the US far right, a spooky talesman which evokes lurid fantasies of wild satanic or Santeria (Voodoo) rituals?
posted by troutfishing
on Aug 24, 2003 -
25 comments
The steam-powered drum machine - an astonishing extract from the journal of Charles Franklin, the founder of the London Museum of Techno. Written in 1894, Franklin describes a steam-powered drum machine and what may have been the world's first rave. "
Driven by the thunderous rhythms of Hoovenaars tremendous "drum machine" the crowd - academics and dockers, architects and cobblers - were whipped into a frenzy, dancing and screaming like savages until sunrise, when the Machine finally ground to a halt with a suffering hiss."
posted by adrianhon
on May 20, 2003 -
33 comments
History of Applause: What compels us to clap in appreciation?
Theories abound. The earliest clapping is found in percussive instruments of ancient Egypt (
jpg), while the Bible has us clap in
joy, as well as
derision. Emperor Nero so craved it he would pay
freelancers to applaud his atrocious singing. Applause has even influenced classical
compositions.
But, in the age of the pre-planned encore, do we still
mean it?
posted by apostasy
on Feb 2, 2003 -
17 comments
