The Classical Connection Blog: Where Progressive Rock and Classical Music Meet

New Renaissance Live DVD released

2011-12-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

The band Renaissance, led by founding members guitarist Michael Dunford and vocalist Annie Haslam, have released a DVD/2CD package from their 2011 tour of the eastern US. The recording features the classic albums "Turn of the Cards" and "Scheherezade and Other Stories" in their entirety, with over 2 hours of music. It also features an interview with Dunford and Haslam.

In the 70s, the band recorded and performed with full orchestra (arranged/orchestrated by Dunford), but their performances were never captured professionally on film. This performance features a 6-pience band, but thanks to modern electronic keyboards they're able to recreate many of the lush orchestrations of the original works.

Official video trailer:

Echolyn Recording Sessions Continue: Bringing In the Strings!

2011-11-11T08:33:00.000-08:00

Echolyn continues work on their new studio album. They recently posted short video clips featuring Chris Buzby leading a string quartet through a recording session (Chris is the keyboardist; he is also a career music teacher and does many of the arrangements for the band). This is a good sign, as usually recording the session musicians is done toward the final stages of the recording process! I'm looking forward to hearing this album.

For many years Echolyn has been one of my favorite new progressive rock bands. They mix jazz, rock, and classical composition techniques in a perfect blend for my ears. I most highly recommend these three albums [links go to band's album pages where you can hear full songs! (except Mei)]:

As the World: In 1995 Echolyn actually got signed by Sony music and recorded this album while under contract. The deal went sour, as Sony decided they didn't know what to do with the band. Incredibly complex, jazzy, polyharmonic and polyrhythmic, with occasional string and woodwind sections. A perfect introduction, and a musical highlight. In 2005 the band was finally able to reissue the album themselves.

Cowboy Poems Free (2000): After the debacle with Sony, the band managed to continue with this self-released title. A stripped-down sound (although reasonably complex in a mature way) with a unique concept. This album is a genre unto itself: Americana Prog, offering historic vignettes interspersed with musical "poems." The album has recently been remastered and reissued with a marvelous new album cover.

Mei (2002): their next album featured a single 50-minute track scored for band plus string quartet and woodwinds. A bit heavier and darker than earlier albums, it depicts a drive through the country side...or it depicts passing through the trials of life...or a trial of faith. You decide.

Their most recent album, The End is Beautiful (2005), was unfortunately too dark and discouraging for me to be able to appreciate fully. Please note that my sensitivity meter is quite mild; this isn't death metal! Or even close to it. Musically it is excelent as always, hard hitting, jazzy, with a horn section added to several tracks. But I am easily affected by the music I listen to, and I get depressed if I listen to moody music, so there are many very talented bands (or specific albums by certain bands) that I don't listen to very often because of their subject matter.

I'm sure a lot has changed in the 6 years that have passed since the release of their last album. I had the privilege of meeting several of the band members at NEARfest several years ago (although they were not performing that year). They explained that the album had been an important step for them as a group in moving through life, and that writing and recording it had been cathartic. So I'm hoping that Echolyn has moved on from that stage of their development and that their newest album will not be quite as dark, thematically, as its immediate predecessor.

And to not end this post on a down note, I'll post a video from Echolyn's early years that I just found this week. It's a rough live recording of my favorite early Echolyn track: The Meaning and the Moment. Feel free to skip through the first 2 minutes of onstage banter and detuned noodling; the proper song begins right at 2:07.

See my previous post about Echolyn with additional video footage.

Classical Guitarist Peter Fletcher—Coming Soon to a Library Near You!

2011-11-07T22:18:00.000-08:00

I just returned home from a wonderful free concert at my local public library, of all places, offered by classical guitarist Peter Fletcher. I first learned of the concert a month ago when I saw a sign posted in the library foyer and decided I definitely wanted to go, but I also looked him up on the Internet. I was surprised that he was not a local musician, as I had first supposed. From his website:

PETER FLETCHER began guitar study at the age of seven under classical guitar instructor, John Sutherland. In 1980 classical guitarist Jose Tomas, Andres Segovia's teaching assistant in Spain, held a week long master class in Atlanta, GA. Peter Fletcher was the youngest student to perform in the class, playing music by Bach and Carcassi.

In December, 1983, he made his formal debut at the age of fifteen under the auspices of The Brasstown Concert Association in North Carolina. Wrote the critic of The Cherokee Scout, “He has technical facility but what one remembers about his playing is the nuances, the poetical phrasing, dynamic and tonal changes, his harmonics, his cadences.”

Fletcher furthered his studies in Master Classes with David Leisner, David Russell, Oscar Ghiglia and Pepe Romero. As a performer in the Christopher Parkening Master Class he was chosen to play in the student recital two consecutive years and, in 1988, the class was broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR). In 1990, the Music Teacher’s National Association (MTNA) awarded Fletcher a prize at its National Level Competition, performing Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco’s Concerto in D. In 1995, he received the Master of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music under Nicholas Goluses, and was twice the recipient of an Eastman Graduate Award.

In demand as a performer in cultural venues throughout the country, Mr. Fletcher has been invited to give recitals at...[impressively long list of well known venues including Carnegie Hall].

Peter Fletcher believes in carrying on the Segovia tradition of expanding the comparatively small classical guitar repertoire. He plans to do this by transcribing from other instruments (mainly the piano) and also by commissioning new music.

Interests outside of music include reading and cross-country running. He lives in New York City.

I was amazed. Here was a world class musician coming to play a free concert in our local library. It didn't add up. I did a search for his name on the Internet and found something impressive: Peter Fletcher performs similar library concerts all around the country. What a nice thing to do. He certainly doesn't have to do this. Perhaps it's a unique way to see the country, or perhaps it helps him stay in shape in between his bigger concerts. Sure, he sells a few CDs at each gig, but that probably barely covers his travel and hotel expenses. I do certainly appreciate his generosity. Of course now I wanted to attend the concert even more.

As for the concert itself, it was wonderful. My favorite parts were an arrangement of the "Solveig's Song" from Edvard Grieg's Peer Gynt Suite, as well as Fletcher's own arrangements of two movements of another Grieg work (I remembered which right up until I sat down to write this), and two pieces from Ravel's Mother Goose Suite ("Pavane of Sleeping Beauty" and "Empress of the Pagodas"). Unfortunately he hasn't yet recorded any of these favorites of mine, although the Grieg will be on his upcoming recording and I found a video of the Ravel "Pavane." He claims the other Ravel piece is too difficult to record, but it sure sounded great tonight! It certainly did seem technically challenging and unique, with a pentatonic sound to it and some unique guitar techniques employed to evoke oriental tones. I would love to hear it again.

After the show I went up with my parents (who attended the concert with me, along with one of my daughters) to buy some CDs, and he graciously thanked us for attending his concert. Imagine, him thanking US for attending.

I was surprised at the modest turnout. Perhaps people don't look at signs like I do; perhaps people don't take the time to look up visiting musicians on the Internet like I do. We showed up an hour early, because we were worried that the library isn't very big and here was a world-class musician coming to town for a free concert! But there was plenty of seating right up until 5 minutes before showtime, and there were only about 50 seats.

So look up his website, and check out your local library listings. He might be coming to a library near you! And you'll get a chance to hear a great guitarist in a comfortable, intimate setting for free. If not, you can at least watch some of his videos here, and more on his website, and even try out his CDs.

Cello Party! de Falla & Villa Lobos arr. for Lots of Cellos

2011-10-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

I was looking at a a friend's facebook page and watching some of the YouTube videos he'd posted when a recommendation popped up for a wonderful arrangement of de Falla's Ritual Fire Dance performed by a group of about a dozen cellists with one soloist, Luca Sulic. I then found a very nice performance of a Villa Lobos piece from the same performance, but this time with no soloist.

The recordings were filmed in a beautiful, small hall at the Dubrovnik Summer Festival in 2005. You can hear enough of the reverb in the recording to know that it must have been incredible to witness those 12 cellos in that room. The building is just singing with the overtones of those cellos! While it might sound a bit muddy when recorded, it must have been amazing in person.

So here is a playlist with both pieces. Enjoy!

Steve & John Hackett

2011-10-06T09:11:00.000-07:00

Genesis fans will of course be familiar with guitarist Steve Hackett, but some of you may not be aware that his younger brother is also a talented musician. John Hackett's primary instrument is the flute; John recounts on his website that Peter Gabriel would sometimes ask to borrow his flute after wielding his own flute on stage as a sword, with rather disastrous consequences. On such occasions John would fear for the safety of his own treasured instrument!

In recent years John has begun playing a custom-made, vertically-held flute. Although I was unable to find a published explanation for this, I would expect it is for medical or comfort reasons.

Here are three videos of some very nice performances featuring John and Steve together, joined by different keyboardists, from recent performances:

Steve and John have both released numerous classically oriented recordings in recent years, both together and separately. Rather than attempting a complete list, I highly recommend the following:

Sketches of Satie: The popular piano works of the French composer arranged by the brothers for classical guitar and flute.
A Mid Summer's Night Dream, by Steve Hacket, with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Steve Hackett and the Underworld Orchestra: Metamorpheus

Portions of all three of these albums can be heard in two different episodes of the Classical Connection radio show: Episode #3: Classical Genesis, and Episode #12, a special featuring Steve Hackett. I had the opportunity to interview Steve via email for the episode concerning his favorite classical music, his new album at the time, Wild Orchids, which features mostly orchestral tracks mixed with rock instrumentation, and other related topics. Both hour-long episodes are available for listening at the show's website.

And I'm looking forward to John's new album, to be released on October 24th: Moonspinner, featuring music for classical guitar and flute. Watch his promotional video below:

John Lord's Durham Concerto

2011-09-26T21:36:00.000-07:00

As it's been quite a few years since I recorded the original Classical Connection episodes, I periodically follow up on the musicians I featured to see what they've been up to. In episode 28 I featured John Lord's Suite for Band and Orchestra, recorded back in the early years of Deep Purple. Since I recorded that episode John has composed a number or orchestral works; I've been very happy to find and listen to the gorgeous Durham Concerto from 2007.

And that's not all! In 2008 John released his "Boom of the Tinglings Strings" piano concerto, and in 2010 the album "To Notice Such Things." That's three great CDs of symphonic music released in the last few years, all composed by John Lord. Not bad for the keyboardist formerly of Deep Purple. Looks like I have a lot of listening to do.

His website states that his current projects have been delayed due to his struggle with cancer. Best wishes, John! Hope to hear more soon.

Symphonic Theater of Dreams

2011-09-14T20:52:00.000-07:00

UPDATE 11/8/11—in response to Mike Mierzejewski's comment, I'm posting a link to the Symphonic Theater of Dreams Facebook page! Thanks Mike for the comment. I'm looking forward to hearing more from you and the rest of the musicians involved with SToD.

As Dream Theater releases their new album, I'm happy to learn of another new release, as well as a musical project that I was previously unaware of: the Symphonic Theater of Dreams. It is an orchestral project put together by some classically trained Polish prog rock fans. They released a 9/11 tribute of their arrangement of the Dream Theater song "Sacrificed Sons." It's an exciting 9-minute arrangement that seems very nicely done! I'm looking forward to hearing more from this relatively new project.

The arranger is Michael Mierzejewski. Here is a video of one of his original compositions for String Orchestra. Titled "Schizophrenia," it aptly juxtaposes a fast rhythmic theme with a quiet melody in a rather disjointed way—perfectly suiting the title.

And of course you can learn more about the new Dream Theater album at the official DT site.

Yes Fly From Here Review: It Soars!

2011-07-22T13:14:00.000-07:00

I've had my CD for a week now and after listening to it many times (and having a spare moment in my work schedule) I'm prepared to write a review. It's good! I've enjoyed listening to the entire album clear through many times in the past week, which is more than can be said for Magnification (always wanted to skip one song), The Ladder (always wanted to skip a couple songs), or Open Your Eyes (always wanted to skip more than half of the songs!) So compared with the rest of the band's relatively recent catalog, it fares quite well.

It's got some very poppy moments, which we've come to expect from Yes in recent years. Fortunately they're mixed in with some quite interesting proggy bits and some nice dense instrumentation.

This album and recent events in the band's history have a lot of fans stirred up, but really—it's nothing we haven't seen before. After all, this is Yes! Line-up changes and behind-the-scenes drama are what it's all about. I became a fan of Yes at the time of Union (I was 18 at the time) so I got my fill of the whole YesWest/AWBH mess. I finally decided that I didn't care who played on what; I just liked music that didn't bore me by being overly repetitive or predictable. I'm happy to say that there is at least one song on EVERY Yes album that I really like.

So Jon got sick and the band found someone else to sing. Trevor Horn came along with some 30-year-old post-Drama and Buggles material that he wanted to get recorded and brought Geoff Downes along with him. Deal with it. Musically, it's a good album.

Face it, these guys are OLD. This could be one of our last chances to hear some of our favorite musicians in the studio. Rather than moaning and groaning about "what should have been" (according to our own warped perceptions) we should be celebrating how wonderful it is that we've got an exceptional talent like Trevor Horn producing some incredibly talented Yesmen once again to create some beautiful music. And don't forget the marvelous artwork by Roger Dean.

Yes have posted a film-style video for one of the more pop-oriented moments from their new CD on Youtube. It's interesting to watch. To my knowledge, producer and ex-Yes man Trevor Horn is the only person associated with the band to make an appearance in the video; he's the guy with the cigar. The band does not appear; the music is used as the soundtrack for this mini-film.

Here's the video!

In other news, Rick Wakeman, Trevor Rabin, and Jon Anderson are reportedly working together on a new project. There was even a rumor that Bill Bruford had been invited to join. This will be interesting, I wonder what they'll call themselves; ABW...R? I am excited to hear what they come up with.

National Anthem by Enchant's Ted Leonard

2011-07-02T07:50:00.000-07:00

Happy Independence Day in the USA! Ted Leonard of the band Enchant performed a wonderful, straight-forward rendition of our national anthem at a ball game a few years ago. One of the better performances of the song that I've heard. Have a listen and enjoy your 4th.

And so you can see him in his band context, here is an Enchant live performance video.

Aaron Meyer: Portland-area rock violinist

2011-06-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

Here in Tualatin, Oregon we've got a nice summer "Concerts in the Commons" series of free outdoor concerts with a wide variety of music. As I reviewed this year's schedule I was pleasantly surprised to see a "Rock Violinist" listed! Intrigued, I checked out the artist's website.

Aaron Meyer is a talented musician with great stage presence, and he's put together a great band. His website has several videos, and YouTube has quite a few more. I'm really looking forward to the concert this summer!

First video I'll share is a promo clip from a video CD he released recently that features the band playing along with their studio recording--so you can hear some overdubbed parts that aren't actually being played, and there is no audience, but the camera work is really good:

Then a couple clips from an older live concert, where the sound and camera isn't as clean but it's a genuine live performance with audience:

New Yes Album: Fly From Here

2011-06-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

New Yes album will be released in less than a month. It's available for pre-order now, with official release date of July 12. The band has released some clips, and some of them sound quite promising! This is the second album in the band's history to not feature Jon Anderson as the lead singer. Benoit David has a great voice in comparable range and in some parts sounds quite a bit like Jon. The music reminds me a lot of the Drama album, which I guess is no accident seeing as Trevor Horn is at the helm again in the producer's seat. Fellow ex-Buggle/YesMan Jeff Downes joined the line-up in time for this summer's tour, but to my knowledge he doesn't appear on the album; in the studio keys were handled by Oliver Wakeman (yes, Rick's son).

And they've released the first single! Yes, an actual single relased by the band. Imagine that. Pretty cool. Here's an exclusive stream from Rolling Stone:

Click here to listen to Yes' "We Can Fly"

Here are some other nice clips from the album:

Life On A Film Set by yestheband

Fly From Here part 3 - Madman at the Screens (Preview Snippet) by yestheband

Fly From Here part 5 - We Can Fly (Reprise) by yestheband

***UPDATE: I just found the track listing and credits for the new album on wikipedia, and it looks like Trevor Horn and Jeff Downes in fact did participate quite a bit on this album, with writing credits for a good portion of the music. Sounds like Drama, indeed!

Barock Project: Rock in Theater COMPLETE! (almost) 1.5 hour playlist of Live Concert

2011-06-02T01:23:00.000-07:00

OK, I know i just wrote a post about these guys a few days ago, but they've uploaded more videos! This time it's footage from their yet-to-be released Live DVD featuring a string quartet! I first heard "Un Altro Mundo" from this concert a couple years ago and it became an immediate favorite. Unfortunately the band has still not released this amazing concert DVD.

However, they now have most of the music from that performance on YouTube! It features many of their own compositions as well as music by ELP, Bartok(arr.ELP), Corelli(arr. New Trolls) and Aires Tango. I couldn't find a playlist for the concert, so I've arranged the videos into an order that made sense to me. Here is the entire concert, 14 videos, about an hour and a half of great music.

And yes, I loved watching and listening to it so much that I really did stay up to 1:20AM. I think everybody should get a chance to watch this amazing concert! And now's your chance:

See my other posts concerning Barock Project

Singring and the Glass Guitar! Pure Utopia

2011-05-31T08:07:00.000-07:00

I absolutely love this piece by Todd Rundgren's Utopia. A cheesy story. Goofy 70s costumes. What's not to love? Oh, and did I mention amazing musicianship?

The story is about Singring, the spirit of peace and happiness, being trapped in a glass guitar and locked way, with 4 keys scattered to the ends of the earth, with 4 heroes (the 4 band members) sent out to find them and bring happiness back to the land. The best thing about this piece is each of the band members gets their own section to sing lead (how many bands could do that?) and then play an extended solo portraying their quest to retrieve their key. Then they finally return with their keys, unlock the chest, and smash the glass guitar (apparently in many of their concerts they had a guitar made out of ice that they would literally smash) and free Singring.

So here it is, an old video from 1977, complete with less than ideal sound quality, synch problems, and video glitches: Singring and the Glass Guitar, spread over 3 YouTube video clips. Sit back and watch the adventure unfold!

And if that wasn't enough, here is a live recording of my favorite Utopia track. Just listen to those harmonies--and they're playing pretty complex parts at the same time. Pretty amazing. Not the best sound or video quality, so check out the studio recording if you want to hear it a lot cleaner.

Barock Project: 3 Songs from Rebus on Youtube!

2011-05-26T09:22:00.000-07:00

If you're following the blog you might start to notice that one of my favorite new bands is the Italian band Barock Project. They just posted 3 new videos on YouTube! They're video montages using 3 different songs from their Rebus album as the soundtracks. While some of the video footage might be a bit distracting from the music, it's still a great chance to hear some more of the album if you don't yet own it. Chances are you'll want to get it once you've heard enough of them!

See my other post concerning Barock Project

Ethan Winer: A Cello Rondo, Tele Vision -- AMAZING

2011-05-19T23:32:00.000-07:00

Time for an old favorite. I originally discovered Ethan Winer a year a go when I was considering doing more episodes for my show. I keep telling myself maybe someday, but it's very time consuming... so for now, on with the blog entries.

Ethan is a genius. He's a sound engineer by profession. You can see quite a few videos on his YouTube channel where he describes the acoustic properties of rooms and various audio absorbers, diffusers, etc. But then he's also an amazing musician! And he's just and all around nice guy. I had the opportunity to correspond with him via e-mail about show posibilities, and enjoyed it. He also has a fun sense of humor.

So, put that technical knowledge together with musical talent and a bit of cheesy humor and what do you get?

A Cello Rondo!

Ethan composed the music, Played and filmed all 27 cello parts himself, and did all the video compositing. Wow.

And if that isn't enough, check this one out:

A light-hearted 12-minute instrumental ecclectic prog rock epic. It's got multiple electric guitar, steel and nylon acoustic guitar, country style playing, bass, a classical string ensemble, piano and electric keyboard, men's do-whop choir, harmonica, banjo, and even slide whistles -- ALL PLAYED BY ETHAN. The only thing Ethan doesn't play is the drum kit and a couple of the guitar parts. he says on his site it took him over a year to make it. He goes all out for this one, wearing fun costumes for the various roles. he even has a bit of morse code in there...spelling "Jeff Beck" (no, I didn't figure that out for myself-it's in the youtube comments).

Pure genius, in a down-to-earth, entertaining way.

New Favorites 1/3: Circus Maximus

2011-05-11T20:42:00.000-07:00

I'm not a huge fan of metal, so I'm always excited when a new prog metal band comes along that I really like! And Circus Maximus has done more than just impress me; they've made my #1 spot of new favorite bands. Every track on their two albums is delicious. They're working on their third now. But rather than going on and on about them, I'll let their music speak for them.

And I just found some great live videos! I've looked before but not found these until today, so I'm very happy to share them with you. First, one of my favorite tracks, "The Prophesy," with extended solos from each band member worked in to the end of it.

And then two more:

New Favorites 2/3: Kaipa

2011-05-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

Ok, well, they're not exactly new. Kaipa is where the Flower Kings' Roine Stolt got his start way back in the 70s. However, the band has been reborn with its keyboardist being the only original player, so I'm comfortable listing them in my "New" favorites. Their 2010 Album In the Wake of Evolution completely astounded me. It's surprisingly joyful music! A real must-have album. Here is the 11-minute opening track.

New Favorites 3/3: Presto Ballet

2011-05-09T20:30:00.000-07:00

I've decided to write posts about three of my favorite new bands, as sort of a countdown. In the number 3 slot is Presto Ballet. They've released 3 great albums in the last 6 years. Founded by guitarist Kurdt Vanderhoof in order to explore his progressive leanings, he remains the only constant throughout the band's career to date. Recordings use all vintage analog gear, for a warm "old fashioned" sound. I'm hoping for a lot more from Presto Ballet!

Since I've not been able to find any good live videos, here are some album tracks instead:

Some Music by Paul Erdman

2011-05-05T00:04:00.000-07:00

I enjoy writing and arranging music. My approach is different from many musicians in that I prefer to work in notation software; this is probably mostly due to the fact that I'm not terribly proficient at any musical instruments! I also enjoy music theory, and so it's important to me to be able to see the notes and make sure all my harmonies and melodic lines work well together.

I recently took some time to create video slideshows for three of my pieces and upload them to YouTube. The recordings are all of MIDI playback from Finale notation software through a Roland Sound Canvas—so it sounds halfway decent. Maybe someday I'll have live recordings of them, but for now, use your imagination!

Dream Theater's New Drummer

2011-04-29T09:15:00.000-07:00

Dream Theater has found a new drummer. They also found an entertaining way to tell the world and play the suspense for all it was worth, and I have to admit I enjoyed it. They held auditions for 7 of the worlds greatest rock drummers, and they videotaped it. Then by way of announcement they released the video in 3 installment throughout the past week. I've been watching each video as it comes out, but decided to wait until the final installment and official announcement before posting this.

Unfortunately embedding has been disabled for two of the 3 videos, but I made a playlist of them which you can watch via this link:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=A01EF1AD56716586

After watching the videos, it was clear to me that DT made the best choice for them. Technical abilities aside (as all the drummers were pretty amazing) it was clear that Mike Mangini definitely gelled with the band. Looking forward to what they come up with together! As I watched Mangini play the DT audition I was reminded of Christian Vander of Magma--which of course is a big compliment. Mike has played in Extreme, Steve Vai, and on several of James Labrie's solo albums. He is a friend of Mike Portnoy's. He also teaches at the Berkeley School of Music, where Dream Theater had its beginnings over 25 years ago. What a perfect fit for the band.

I just found a really fun video of Mike playing on Discovery Channel's "Time Warp" program. It features some interview, some great solos, and some entertaining slow-motion footage. Enjoy!

MusicRacer: Another Unique way to Experience Music

2011-04-27T11:49:00.000-07:00

I've recently spent some time looking for music visualizers; this is my second post on the topic, and I've found another software project that holds real promise.

Music Racer is a FREE simple shooter game with a musical twist, in which you move a spaceship back and forth on a track to pick up bonus points and avoid negative points. What makes it fascinating is that the placement of the point items and even the design of the track on which you race is based on music of your choice. You select any song on your computer (supports MP3, OGG, FLAC, WAV; AAC and WMA not supported due to DRM issues) using the built in media browser, and the program analyzes the audio data and generates a track. I contacted the developers on their Facebook page for more detail on how the track is created, and here is their response:

The track generation is deterministic. Curves are generated from the stereo offset, slope from the average number of beats. So the track and beats will always be the same for a particular song.

The game offers 3 play modes that effect the placement of bonus point items. "Catch All" offers only positive point markers and you try to catch them all. "Points" has positive markers that you collect and negative red markers that you avoid. My favorite is "Hold Speed" mode, which offers only positive point markers, but if you miss several in a row the whole track, including the music, slows down! You'll hear your favorite music go more and more flat and slow as you miss markers, if you're not careful--but all is not lost, as picking up markers raises the speed and pitch back up to regular levels.

The bonus point items that you collect coincide with beats in the song--or for music without much of a beat, with the peaks in the audio signal. The color of the bonus items is determined as follows (again from the developers):

That's a combination of beat intensity and angle of the curve. It isn't very obvious, but we didn't want to use any random numbers so the track will always be the same.

Other options include mouse sensitivity, separate music and sound effect controls, difficulty control, and display settings. Some of these settings are only accessible during gameplay by pressing the ESC key.

It's a fun concept, and as it's a free game it's well worth your time to check it out. You've never PLAYED (literally) your music like this before!

Available for both Mac & Windows.

The Polynomial: Space of the Music

2011-04-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

It's an awesome 3D-fractal-generated-music-visualizer-space-shooter-game! I love music visualizers. I find watching attractive color displays animating in synch with my music to be very enjoyable. I also love fractal artwork; the beauty of complex math is amazing to witness. Put these things together with a bit of 3D space shoot-em-up and you have The Polynomial.

The actual gameplay is optional; I often prefer to turn off the black packman bad guys and just fly around the beautiful scenery. It's also a fractal editor; you can tweak parameters and generate and save your own unique 3D ITS fractal plots -- and fly through them as they animate to your music.

The free demo is fully functional with no nags, but only has a few predesigned arenas and it doesn't support MP3. You can still generate your own fractals, but you can't save them.

For only $8 you can have it animate fractal visuals with tunes of your choice, and it comes with some very nice saved fractals, or arenas, to play in.

You can buy it through the third party deployment platform "Steam," but I prefer to go directly to the developer's website: http://dmytry.com/games/

Available for Mac, Windows, and various other OS.

Luca Zabbini - "Spring Comes Early" - Composition for piano

2011-04-12T09:33:00.000-07:00

Barock Project's Luca Zabbini has recently posted a recording of a new composition on Youtube. It's audio only, but is quite beautiful. The recording features Zabbini on piano accompanied by a synth orchestra.

If you enjoy it, see my other video posts about the Barock Project:
Barock Project
Barock Project Revisited

Khachaturian's Toccata

2011-04-12T09:14:00.000-07:00

I've loved this piece ever since I first heard my sister play it years ago when we were at college together. She recently discovered this beautiful performance and recording of the piece and shared the link with me. Well worth watching.

Revisiting an old favorite: Yes "Gates"

2011-04-05T23:03:00.000-07:00

Every once in a while I listen to the band Yes again to remind me of why they're my favorite band. I've listened to them so much in the past that I don't listen to them as much any more--but so far I've always had no trouble remembering! Still my favorite.

Today I listened to the Relayer album--twice--as I drove to Dallas Oregon and back for a consulting appointment. I've never heard any other band take melodic themes and weave them together in such a way; usually we only find this sort of thematic development in classical music. The album contains three pieces of music: The 20 minute epic "The Gates of Delirium" which deals with the pointlessness of war, as well and the two 10 minute pieces "Sound Chaser" and "To Be Over." What incredible music!

A few years ago Yes released a wonderful DVD entitled "Yes Symphonic Live." It features most of the classic line-up, with the exception of the keyboardist slot, which is more than adequately covered by a young keyboardist by the name of Tom Brislin. As the title indicates, the band is backed up for the entire concert by a symphony orchestra. It's one of my favorite music DVDs.

So here is "The Gates of Delirium" taken from the DVD. It's 24 minutes, split across 3 youtube videos, presented here in a playlist. As you listen to it, imagine two groups of people, tensions rising, then breaking out into a battle, the battle reaching its climax, and then the quiet aftermath in which we reflect on what just transpired and think, "Soon, oh soon the light..." Just amazing.

If you enjoy it, please get the DVD, it's truly wonderful.

April Fool's PDQ Bach Day

2011-04-01T07:00:00.000-07:00

What better to share on April 1st than some PDQ Bach? Along with Itzhak Perlman, John Williams and the Boston Pops.

Jad&Den Jazz Quintet perform ELP, Yes, Queen

2011-03-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

I made the most interesting musical discovery today, thanks to YouTube. The Jad&Den Quintet is a French jazz ensemble that appears to have a penchant for progressive rock music—they have a full concert posted on YouTube, and among the tracks performed are Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Trilogy," Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart," and Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." Their arrangements are imaginative, their performace exciting, and the cinematography artistic. The overall effect is quite astonishing.

Barock Project Revisited

2011-03-08T13:14:00.000-08:00

When I first started this blog I wrote a post about one of my favorite new discoveries: the Italian band Barock Project. They have released two studio albums and will (hopefully) soon be releasing a DVD of a live performance featuring the band plus a string quartet (the video I posted previously is taken from this DVD). Their website also states that they are working on a new album.

The Barock Project is led by Luca Zabbini, who is also pianist and composer in residence at the "O.Vecchi" musical institute in Modena. I recently found this rough video of a rehearsal of Zabbini's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. It's not a very good recording, but you can still get a nice sample of Zabbini's playing and composition skills.

One of Zabbini's major influences is Keith Emerson. Here is a clip from a live performance of Emerson's Piano Concerto, rearranged for band and string quartet.

And I'll wrap it up with a video the band just posted a month ago.

Dredging the Dregs...

2011-02-24T11:14:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while I make a musical rediscovery. I'll re-listen to something that I've heard before, but I'll really LISTEN, and it makes an impression. Well, that happened to me yesterday. I've had the music of the Dixie Dregs in my iTunes for years, and I've known they were a great band ... but I didn't really discover them until yesterday, when I listened to their album "What If" over 5 times in a row.

The Dixie Dregs are an instrumental band that got their start at the University of Miami in the '70s. Don't let let their appearance fool you; they might look rather like your average rock band in their manner of dress and long hair, but these are highly trained and respected musicians, several of them with college music degrees.

I went on YouTube and was happy to find some great videos displaying their ecclectic range of music:

CLASSICAL: (well, loosely classical) a beautiful duet for violin and acoustic guitar called "Little Kids" (audio only).

A nice duet with Steve Morse and Dave LaRue playing a piece entitled "Point Counterpoint."

PROGRESSIVE ROCK: "Odyssey" -- there's a LOT going on in this piece. I love how all the different themes fit together.

JAZZ FUSION: Leprecaun Promenade

COUNTRY: Wrap it all up with a great country-style shred fest.

Marco Minnemann and DT rumors

2011-01-22T10:08:00.000-08:00

Several months ago Mike Portnoy announced he needed a break from the band he co-founded. The rest of Dream Theater felt they had momentum and did not want to stop, so they are moving on without him. I would be surprised if Mike stayed out more than several years, but in the interim DT will be recruiting a new drummer; but how do you go about replacing one of the most respected drummers in music today?

Well, rumors are flying, and nothing official has been announced. One of the rumors I've heard is that the new DT drummer may be Marco Minnemann. This was a surprise to me, as I hadn't heard of him -- and now after watching, listening, and reading about some of his music I'm almost embarrassed to say I hadn't heard of him until now. He's played with many prog musicians, like Mike Keneally, Trey Gunn, Eddie Jobson, and Tony Levin. He's also toured with drummers Terry Bozzio and Chad Wackerman. He's written several educational books and videos.

There are quite a few videos of him playing out there, but this is one of my favorites. Be sure to watch it the whole way through -- it gets more and more amazing the longer you watch.

Regardless of whether or not he joins DT, I'm very happy to have discovered him and look forward to hearing more of his music.

Shostakovich String Qtet No. 3, 3rd movement; Emerson String Quartet

2011-01-21T08:01:00.000-08:00

The amazing (and very famous) Emerson Quartet performing exciting music written by the genius Dmitri Shostakovich. Full of fire and power, no electric amps or special effects needed here! Anyone who says they don't listen to classical music because it puts them to sleep obviously needs to hear this!

Sibelius Symphony #1, Leonard Bernstein conducting

2011-01-21T08:00:00.000-08:00

A beautiful recording of one of my favorite symphonies, conducted by one of the great modern musical masters. The concert was recorded in 1990 -- Bernstein died later that year, so this is one of the final video recordings made of him.

I've embedded the entire symphony playlist -- fans of progressive rock will find the Third Movement immediately appealing for it's aggressive power and brevity, but it's certainly worth taking the time to enjoy the entire symphony. However, if you want to skip directly to the third movement it begins in video clip 3/5 at 5:50.

Bartok and Resolving the Classical Disconnect

2011-01-20T22:31:00.000-08:00

I've been doing this blog now for quite a while, and as I review my posts I see a problem -- a glaring lack of classical music. Since this is all about the connections between the two genres, I've decided that I'll start posting some of my favorite classical music that is sure to appeal to prog fans.

And I'm going to start it off with one of my favorites pieces for small ensembles: the final movement of Bartok's 4th String Quartet. I found several videos of it on Youtube, and while this version by the Carducci String Quartet was not the best video quality I enjoyed watching and listening to the performers the best -- they really get into the spirit of the piece. Especially that cellist -- she's attacking her instrument with a vengeance! This has got to be one of the hardest rocking pieces of classical music ever written...but stay tuned for more.

You can learn more about the Carducci String Quartet and their recordings at their website:
www.carducciquartet.co.uk

Nice Christmas Message

2010-12-24T12:03:00.000-08:00

As I was looking for Christmas light videos I came across this wonderful video collage someone had made for Jon Anderson's song "All God's Children." I felt it was perfectly appropriate for the season.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T11:45:00.000-08:00

These sorts of videos have been around for a long time but it seemed an appropriate way to wish readers a Merry Christmas! Lights synchronized to the music of Jon Anderson, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and Mannheim Steamroller.

Pain of Salvation: "Be" with Orchestra

2010-12-24T11:33:00.000-08:00

Interesting mix of prog, metal, and folk music dealing with struggles of faith, commercialism, and other social themes. Unique staging puts the small chamber orchestra mixed in with the band members. I'm not a huge fan of the band, but I really like some of it so I've made a playlist of 4 of my favorite segments from the DVD.

Kansas Know Place Like Home DVD-with Orchestra, Kerry Livgren, Steve Morse

2010-12-24T10:47:00.000-08:00

This looks like a great new DVD from Kansas! I'm really excited about it -- they sound better than they have for a long time. One thing I really like is that they've got a new singer for the high melodies--looks like Steve Walsh has finally acknowledged that he can't hit those notes like he used to, and he sounds great on the lower vocal leads and harmony parts. Here is the official teaser video.

Another Magenta Cover: Lucky Man

2010-12-24T10:12:00.000-08:00

Magenta have recorded their second cover of a classic prog rock tune, giving it a unique Magenta treatment. I've embedded the Magenta version as well as a video of a gum-chewing Greg Lake performing it solo in 1974.

Yes Alumni Update: Jon Anderson

2010-12-15T11:33:00.000-08:00

Jon Anderson got ill when Yes was to go on tour; rather than canceling the tour Yes found a new singer. Jon has moved on to work with many other musicians, including the Contemporary Youth Orchestra. A new television special was broadcast over the Thanksgiving break of a concert; I can't wait until a DVD is available.

Yes Alumni Update: Trevor Rabin

2010-12-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

Trevor Rabin continues to compose and produce music for film and many other venues. His most recent soundtrack was for The Magician's Apprentice. He does a great job of weaving Dukas' music throughout the the score -- sometimes it sneaks in subtly, and sometimes it bursts brazenly in. Here is one bit of it:

I checked out his website and was very happy to find a nice audio player there with some of his music, including the NBA theme, music from movies, and other things. The only Yes in the list was a bit of the song Silent Spring from the album Talk.

Click here to open the audio player.

I still find it surprising that in 1980 Trevor joined members of the then defunct classically-oriented band Yes to revitalize it as a vehicle for his pop songs, then leave the band to compose movie soundtracks. Just listen to his music and imagine what he could do for a prog rock band. Too bad he didn't take Yes more in this direction while he was with them (although there certainly are elements in the three Yes albums he participated in).

Yes Alumni Update: Bill Bruford

2010-12-15T10:47:00.000-08:00

Bill Bruford continues to use his remarkable talents with Earthworks and other jazz projects. While I really enjoy his music I didn't realize he had gotten together with three other amazing drummers, including Chad Wackerman, to form the World Drummers Ensemble. I got to see Chad play with Alan Holdsworth at NEARfest a few years ago, it was amazing. So here is the promo video for their DVD:

And here is a nice Earthworks video from quite a few years ago, when he was in his electronic drumpad kick:

Yes Alumni Update: Rick Wakeman

2010-12-15T10:24:00.000-08:00

I recently decided to see what some ex-Yesmen were up to, and was quite happy with what I found. I'll be making a series of posts to share what I learned.

Rick Wakeman just released a DVD of a live piano performance with orchestra in Lugano, Switzerland, in a beautiful outdoor setting. Enjoy this clip of Catherine Howard. Other tracks include The King Arthur Suite, Gone But Not Forgotten, Merlin The Magician and Journey To The Centre Of The Earth. See it listed on Amazon.com.

Magenta Real World-Live Acoustic with String Quartet & Oboe!

2010-10-30T09:04:00.000-07:00

Official news release from the Magenta Website:

Magenta is thrilled to announce the release of ‘Live at Real World’, the 3 disc set of its acoustic performance at Peter Gabriel’s Real World Studio recorded in November 2009. This special package features a 2 CD recording of the concert, with the addition of three additional songs also recorded at Real World the following day. A DVD is also included featuring NTSC format video of the entire concert with audio in stereo and 5.1 mixes. Extras include a 5.1 mix of ‘Joe’ from ‘Home’, the promotional video of ‘Blind Faith’ and two photo galleries.

The band has two videos on YouTube from the performance:

Yes Union DVD -- mixed reactions

2010-10-18T09:06:00.000-07:00

A Concert from the 1991 Yes Union tour is finally being released! I was originally very excited when I heard this news; it was the first time I ever saw them in concert (I was 18 at the time), and it was quite spectacular. "In the Round," performing on a circular stage in the center of the Rose Garden in Portland, with this huge metal multi-armed spider-like light rigging up above them, the stage would revolve slowly giving you a great view of all 8 members of the tour, bringing them together onstage for the only tour in the band's history like this. Just the fact that they were able to get Howe and Rabin onstage at the same time is saying something!

However, I was quite disappointed today when I went and looked at the official video clips on YouTube from this DVD. The concert that is presented in the video is NOT "In the Round," but is on a traditional stage. I was really looking forward to seeing them perform on the revolving stage, as I remember it.

And why does Tony Kaye's T-Shirt say "HARD?" That made me laugh. Perhaps he's finding Wakeman's parts a bit too difficult? Or perhaps he just has a hard time playing them one handed while waving the other hand up in the air?

And poor Bruford looks like he's bored, perhaps thinking... "Only one time signature at a time... sheesh. But at least I get my electronic drumpad endorsement."

I wonder if Rabin plays the same acoustic guitar solo that I still remember way back from that concert I watched in 1991 -- I mean, he's a great guitarist in his own right, but when he's up against Steve Howe, who's doing one of his amazing acoustic guitar solos, perhaps Trevor should have just grabbed his electric instead and done some nice fast shredding or something -- perhaps accompanied by one of the drummers. That's what he seemed best at.

Which reminds me ... Hmmm, I think I remember Bruford and White did a rather awesome drum duet. Might be worth getting the DVD just for that.

I read that this was filmed during the last concert of the tour-- perhaps that's why they all look so tired and disinterested.

All gripes and jokes aside, I'm looking forward to getting this DVD. I just wish they had filmed a concert "In the Round" as I remember it.

I've incuded a short clip of Awaken for your (hopefully) enjoyment.

BUT WAIT!!!!!! Look what I just found: a professionally filmed video clip of Yes performing in the round on the Union Tour in Denver ... so the film exists. Wonder why they never released it? Aparently the sound of the full concert isn't very good, but Trevor Rabin did a nice sound mix for some of the tracks. Luckily someone has put quite a bit of it on Youtube -- 12 segments. I'm guessing I'd like this better than the DVD that's being released -- and since I (and you) can watch it free on YouTube, I think it may be far the better alternative.

The playlist can be found here:
http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=88E9341241E1B062

and you can watch it below. I've got the full playlist embedded:

Take a pebble....

2010-10-12T14:51:00.000-07:00

I just got a new book of ELP sheet music -- the only one currently in print. To celebrate I'm posting the two-part video of Emerson, Lake, & Palmer performing "Take a Pebble" in 1971. It's a great song with some unusual piano strumming, jazzy improve, and some great drumming and vocals, with a nice folksy acoustic guitar bit in the middle. The video is a little out of synch with the music, but it's still nice.

Caamora's "She"

2010-10-02T08:31:00.000-07:00

I heard about this project of Clive Nolan's back when it was first released, but it's taken me until now to get around to getting a copy and giving it a listen. Now I'm wondering what I was waiting for! One of the best new albums I've heard in a long time. It's a 2 hour long symphonic rock opera adaptation of the classic novel She written by Henry Rider Haggard in the late 1800s. A plot synopsis of the opera can be found here.

Clive Nolan has created something really incredible here. not only did he write pretty much the whole thing and play all keyboards, he also takes on the role of one of the main characters, a lost explorer named Leo. He's joined by the Polish singer Agnieszka Swita in the role of She Who Must Be Obeyed, the 2,000-year-old power-mad god-queen, Christina Booth of Magenta as Ustane, the servant girl who falls in love with him, and Alan Reed, formerly of the band Pallas, who takes the part of his friend and fellow explorer.

She is available as a double CD studio album, as well as a live performance DVD. In the DVD the band (joined by cello, French horn, and various woodwinds) takes on the passive role, similar to a pit orchestra, while the cast and chorus move around on stage in costume as in a traditional opera. While some are undoubtedly inclined to label this as pretentious or overdone, I think they've pulled it off wonderfully. The show has been performed around the world, mostly in countries more inclined toward such musical efforts.

A couple clips of the DVD are available on YouTube, so I've included them here:

The scene at the opening where the two explorers are shipwrecked in a storm.

The confrontation between She and Ustane over the wounded Leo.

Nightwish: Ghost Love Score

2010-10-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

Not one of my favorite bands, but one of my favorite songs -- A 10-minute-long, near perfect blend of metal, orchestra, choir, and quasi-operatic vocals. I'm not a huge fan of metal music generally, but since I have a soft spot for anything orchestral I quickly fell for this. They have quite a few other songs backed with orchestra and choir, and they're done quite well.

Unfortunately I couldn't find any performances actually featuring the choir and orchestra -- in this video the band is performing along with pre-recorded orchestra and choral tracks.

I don't follow this band very closely, but I do know that the singer featured in this video has been replaced, which caused quite a stir among fans. I have two of their albums that feature the singer in this video, and really enjoy the more orchestral tracks on them.

Ever wonder how Jordan Rudess gets away with only 1 keyboard?

2010-09-20T14:45:00.000-07:00

Progressive Rock usually means stacks of keyboards, right? So how does Jordan Rudess of Dream Theater get away with just one? Usually in live performances you'll be able to see Jordan playing just one keyboard, the Korg Oasis -- and he has it mounted on a cool swivel stand so he can sort of move around a bit when he plays.

Well, I found a video where Jordan explains how this keyboard was able to single-board-edly replace almost all his other instruments in live performances. It's a fun video.

Ayreon Live

2010-09-20T11:33:00.000-07:00

Arjen Lucassen's Ayreon albums pull together some of the best musicians in rock and metal to present some great sci-fi progressive rock operas. Here are a couple videos from live performances. You'll see a lot of different musicians -- Arjen of course is the very tall guitarist.

Mike Patton singing Italian with Metropole Orchestra

2010-09-20T10:55:00.000-07:00

Mike Patton is best known as the versatile vocalist for Faith No More. Just how versatile? He has fronted several other bands, performed compositions of vocal noises by John Zorn, and performed monster noises for movies. He also sang in concert with the Metropole Orchestra, performing almost the entire concert in Italian. Here are a couple videos from the performance.

Birdsongs of the Mesozoic

2010-06-19T07:16:00.000-07:00

I figured I should post some mention of this great band on the blog, since I recently brought them up in a musical discussion. One of my favorite bands, but unfortunately the only videos I could find did not feature one of their members, woodwind player Ken Fields. Their official site isn't working at the moment, hopefully it will be back. In the meantime you can learn about them and hear their music in these places:

wikipedia
myspace (has some songs you can listen to)
The Classical Connection:

Episode 6: Chamber Prog

Episode 13: Birdsongs of the Mesozoic (hour-long episode featuring, in addition to music by the band, compositions and performances by it's members and music by Schnitke, Piazzolla, Debussy, and John Adams! Go listen to it!

AUDIO PLAYERS FIXED!!!

2010-06-16T10:58:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to mention that I fixed the embedded audio players on the Classical Connection website. I had originally used a google MP3 player, but it inexplicably stopped working. I have switched to Quicktime. You may need to install Quicktime on your computer in order to listen.

Episodes 1-26 are now, once again, available for listening! That's over 26 hours of great music!

I still need to recompile episodes 27-33, save them as single MP3 files, and upload them.

As for new episodes, I have about 10 in the works in various stages of completion, so stay tuned.

Snow Goose

2010-06-15T15:23:00.000-07:00

I was listening to music on shuffle today, and Camel's classic "Music Inspired by the Snow Goose" album came up. I realized that I have yet to feature this on my show or blog. It's mellow instrumental progressive rock featuring some beautiful electric guitar and some sections composed for traditional instruments.

This video features a live performance of 3 portions of the album. The middle section, beginning at 3:00 into the video, is a nice woodwind quartet with some help from the keyboards.

I'm working on collecting some more music inspired by The Snow Goose, a short book by Paul Gallico. Hopefully I'll have enough to do an hour-long show on the theme.

I'm Seeing Magenta and hearing Wondrous Stories

2010-06-12T07:20:00.000-07:00

Since I posted yesterday about Karnataka, I thought I'd post about another band featuring a female vocalist, the Welsh band Magenta. I have corresponded with keyboardist/composer Rob Reed via e-mail in the past, and they were the first new prog band featured on my show (episode 4). I actually got to see them perform and met them at NEARfest a few years ago - amazing concert, and great people. Christina even gave me a hug!

They're still one of my favorite bands, even though I disagreed with the subject matter and artwork on their most recent album and as a result don't listen to it much. I'm hoping their next one will be more palatable for me. I do really like their previous albums.

Here is the video for a beautiful recording of the Yes song "Wondrous Stories" that they released earlier this year.

And a live performance from a concert DVD that i own:

You Could Sing for Karnataka!

2010-06-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

The excellent British band Karnataka features female vocals and a melodic, peaceful sound. They released their first album in 1998 and released two others before disbanding in 2004. The band then reformed but went through a dizzying maze of line-up changes. They released a great new album in February of 2010 entitled "The Gathering Light," that seems to me to be more musically adventerous than their previous (and still excellent) albums, but I miss the heavenly vocals of Rachel (Jones) Cohen, who had been replaced by Lisa Fury who does a fine job -- but now they are now once again without a singer (as made painfully clear on their homepage, which currently is mostly taken up by a large ad regarding this).

Below is a live performance of "Time Stands Still" (and no, that's not Rachel singing; there are other videos on youtube that have her, but I really like this song).

Beatles on a Stick! (Greg Howard Video)

2010-06-04T07:51:00.000-07:00

If you've never heard of the Chapman Stick or seen it played you're in for a real treat. Greg Howard is well regarded as one of its most proficient players, and is one of my favorites. I was very happy to discover this new, very clear video taken from a performance in 2009.

Bassist Michael Manring

2010-06-03T07:29:00.000-07:00

I had heard his name, but it wasn't until a friend of mine sent me a link to one of Michael Manring's YouTube videos that I truly understood his mastery of the instrument. Manring plays a custom built "Zon Hyperbass" that allows him to easily retune the instrument mid-performance through the use of various levers and a special bridge. Special instrument aside, Manring is simply amazing to watch and listen to. He has recorded with a huge list of musicians, performing music ranging from jazz-rock fusion to new age.

Soon... (for Memorial Day)

2010-06-02T16:33:00.000-07:00

OK, well, I missed it by a couple days -- I was thinking of Memorial Day and what it means... then I thought of this song. Yes' Gates of Delirium is a 20+ minute epic about war: the music begins with tensions building, then erupts into a frenzied battle, then concludes with this hauntingly beautiful portion, Soon... looking forward to the end of all wars. This video is taken from the wonderful Symphonic Yes DVD.
Enjoy.

p.s. for anyone unfamiliar with Yes and guitarist Steve Howe, that's a pedal steel that he's playing. It's usually used in country music. Steve plays a wide range of electric and acoustic guitars during a typical concert; the pedal steel is used sparingly, only appearing on a small portion of songs.

Sonic Circuits Festival in DC

2010-06-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

http://dc-soniccircuits.org/index.php/2010-festival/

I just got this e-mail from Cuneiform Records concerning the relatively new, annual Sonic Circuits Festival in Washington DC. An impressive list of musicians will be performing there later this year, including my favorites Magma and Univers Zero! Makes me wish we could go visit DC this year!

------

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
SONIC CIRCUITS FESTIVAL 2010 TO FEATURE FIRST WASHINGTON, DC APPEARANCES OF MAGMA (FRANCE),UNIVERS ZERO (BELGIUM), FENNESZ (AUSTRIA) and a rare DC performance by MERZBOW (JAPAN), as well as more than 25 other cutting-edge artists from around the world.

Sonic Circuits Festival
September 18-25, 2010 / Washington DC
Washington DC's premiere music festival returns for another exhilarating blast of avant music to challenge, provoke, inspire and delight DC area audiences. The tenth edition of Sonic Circuits will offer up the best in improv, avant rock, electronica, noise, and contemporary composition from around the globe. Our 10th anniversary deserves special celebration, and thus this year Sonic Circuits will shine a spotlight on the Francophone world to reveal some of the most creative and innovative contributions in contemporary music (including music genres that erase the classical/popular divide) and to present an astonishing number of avant-garde music’s most legendary artists to Washington DC audiences for the very first time. 2010 will also see the third installment of the popular District of Noise CD compilations featuring music by DC area experimental artists with a bonus LP of 100 lock grooves. We hope you'll join us for what will be an amazing week of musical discovery!

Magma (France)Led by composer/drummer Christian Vander, the French band Magma is one of the world’s greatest avant rock bands, its music as unique and as significant as such American groups as Captain Beefheart Magic Band or the Sun Ra Arkhestra. Active for over 4 decades, it has released many works widely considered to be among the chief works avant-garde rock. Beginning in the late 1960s/early 70s, Magma combined rock music with opera/classical music, jazz, and elements of trance, Ju Ju and Soul, to create a new, strikingly original musical genre called "Zeuhl". Under the leadership of visionary Vander, Magma operated in a univers of its own making. The band sang vocals in its own, made-up language, called Kobaian, which was simultaneously incomprehensible and universally accessible. Dark, forbidding, powerful, Magma’s music is intense, with wave upon wave of carefully built tension and release. It is also timeless, universal, and globally influential. Other Francophone bands followed Magma’s lead in distilling musical genres in the’70s, to create the new genre Chamber Rock. In the 1990s, the Japanese band Ruins popularized Zeuhl among a new generation, invigorating it with a punk edge and kicking off a massive world-wide revival. Much of today’s cutting-edge rock music is indebted to the French group and its zeuhl. But while other groups today may resemble Magma, Magma does not resemble any other group. Its live performances are legendary; Magma's first-ever Washington DC appearance is a show not to be missed. - Washington premiere!

Magma will be performing at La Maison Française, Embassy of France on September 18, 2010
Visit Magma online: http://www.seventhrecords.com/

Univers Zero (Belgium)
The francophone Belgian band Univers Zero is legendary for their uncompromising musical vision – a sound and stance Keyboard described as "Chamber music for the Apocalypse". Simultaneously medieval & modern, its distinctive, dark and elegantly beautiful music has set the standard for "chamber rock", a New Music hybrid of Francophone origin and worldwide appeal that UZ pioneered. UZ’s singular sound derives from its unique instrumentation (piano and keyboards, violin, clarinets saxophone, oboe, bassoon, English horn, electric bass, drums) combined with brooding gothic imagery, elements of European folk and other world musics, the iconoclasm and intensity of rock, the relentless sonic experimentation of the avant garde, and leader and composer Daniel Denis’ classically-inspired writing style, influenced by early 20th Century avant garde classical composers. In the hands of some of the best musicians in Europe, these factors result in a group on the cutting edge of
creating a new, vital, and unique fusion of classical and rock music. The band has remained on the cutting edge of New Music throughout the course of a career that began in the '70s and continues today, stretching and disintegrating the boundaries of classical and rock music alike to create a new, vital, and unique fusion. Today, several decades after Univers Zero first forged its unique sound, critics cite its oeuvre as the precursor to the best avant-garde rock and classical music of the present day, from post-rock, associated with Godspeed You! Black Emperor,
Secret Chiefs 3, Kayo Dot, Tortoise and other instrumentally-based rock bands – to the numerous late 20th/early 21st century classical chamber ensembles integrating rock into their repertoire, such as Bang on a Can, Kronos Quartet and others. When Cuneiform recently released a remastered reissue of the band’s self-titled debut album, critics who heard the band's music for the first time called it a "revelation", "..the
hidden source for every one of today’s avant-garde rock bands"[Organ]. - Second ever show in the USA & Washington premiere! Univer Zero will be performing at La Maison Française, Embassy of France on September 25, 2010Visit Univer Zero online: http://www.univers-zero.com/

Echolyn

2010-06-01T07:34:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite modern prog bands -- if you haven't heard them you simply must.

Magma Rocks

2010-05-31T10:10:00.000-07:00

Magma is one of the most unique and amazing group of musicians ever, featuring dense, lenthy, complex classical/jazz/rock compositons with operatic vocals sung in the fictional Kobaian language. Two videos for you of this amazing band: a live performance of material from their latest album, as well as a segment from a live DVD recording.

Glass Hammer

2010-05-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

Modern proggers Glass Hammer released a new album in November of 2009 entitled "Three Cheers for the Broken Hearted." I've attached a video for one of the songs, as well as a video trailer for the excellent DVD "Live at Belmont."

Stay Focused with a bit of Hocus Pocus!

2010-05-28T07:30:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite videos. The song has been covered by a number of other bands, but you just can't beat the heavy metal yodeling found in the original. This performance from 1973 is just plain amazing, and the video quality is superb given its age. Enjoy! I know I've watched it over and over since I found it a few years ago.

More Richard Harvey & John Williams

2010-05-27T07:19:00.000-07:00

I could not resist posting some more wonderful music videos featuring the compositions of Richard Harvey. Enjoy! I'm just including links in this post as some of the videos could not be embedded.

These could not be embedded, so here are links to selections from Plague and the Moonflower:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xGouT7RYXo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0UB_64fBrU&NR=1

Lots more is available on youtube search for "Richard Harvey."

Guitarrist John Williams and Richard Harvey

2010-05-26T07:50:00.000-07:00

Most of you will be familiar with the famous classical guitarrist John Williams. You may not be as familiar with the multi-instrumentallist/composer Richard Harvey. Harvey is a graduate from the Royal College of Music and was a co-founder of the '70s classical/folk/rock band Gryphon. Since then he has composed for and peformed on many television and film scores. Harvey is proficient on a wide range of instruments, as can be seen in the two attached videos.

Richard Harvey and John Williams have worked together on a number of projects in recent years. In 1995 Harvey composed the Concerto Antico for Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra. Harvey contributed to William's "Musical Box" album. More recently, The two musicians recorded a live concert in japan that will soon be released on DVD. These two clips are from that concert.

The Gryphon Soars Once More

2010-05-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

Gryphon was a mostly instromental Renaissance/folk/rock band in the 70's. Their first album was entirely acoustic, with a number of of traditional songs mixed with original compositons. Their albums became progressively more rock-like, but always retained a very strong connection to early classical music.

Over the last few years its members have been working together on new material. In June of 2009 they put on a revival concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. This video is from that performance. Unfortunately the camera is panned out too far to really see the various instruments that they play, but it's great to listen to.

Tomorrow I'll be posting some great footage of one of Gryphon's members, Richard Harvey, performing with guitarist John Williams. The music of Gryphon and Richard Harvey were featured on episode 24 of the Classical Connection.

On Reflection of Gentle Giant

2010-05-24T21:01:00.000-07:00

Recently I've been listening a bit to one of my favorite '70s prog bands: Gentle Giant. When I first discovered this band as a college student I went out and bought every one of their albums in 3 weeks (and it only took that long because I had to special order most of them). The band members all sang and played at least 30 different instruments between them, often trading mid-song! Music was diverse, ranging from Renaissance to 20th C. classical to hard rock ... and beautifully complex. You can find many great videos of theirs on YouTube. Here is one of my favorites: On Reflection, beginning with a rather classical arrangement, then a capella singing, then a good hard rock treatment of the same themes.

Rite of Strings

2010-04-22T07:29:00.000-07:00

This is a great trio consisting of guitarist Al DiMeola, violinist Jean Luc Ponty, and bassist Stanley Clarke. I'll be featuring music by these three and other musicians they've worked with in the future. For now, enjoy this great performance video!

Univers Zero - "If Stravinsky had a rock band, it would sound like this..."

2010-04-16T12:01:00.000-07:00

The post title, with it's quotation taken from a review of the band posted on their website, is a perfect description for this amazing Belgian band. In the late 70s Univers Zero was a member of the Rock In Opposition (RIO) movement, whose slogan was "The music the record companies don't want you to hear." Throughout their history they've released 11 studio albums, with the most recent, Clivages, being released in February 2010.

The band features a violinist and two woodwind players, playing bassoon, english horn, oboe, clarinet, and saxophone. Keyboards, drums, and electric bass round out the lineup.

I have featured Univers Zero on episodes 6 and 29, so you can hear more of their music in those shows.

I was very happy to find this great video on Youtube today; enjoy!

KBB: Japanese Quartet Featuring Electric Violin

2010-04-15T10:50:00.000-07:00

KBB is a great current band from Tokyo that features amazing musicians led by violinist Akihisa Tsuboy. Their three albums feature very interesting compositions which perfectly blend classical, jazz, and rock influences. I'm looking forward to incorporating some of their music into an upcoming episode.

Alphabetical Index of Featured Musicians & Composers

2010-04-14T07:19:00.000-07:00

As mentioned previously I've rebuilt the official Classical Connection website and added new content. One of the new additions is an alphabetical index of all composers and progressive rock musicians featured on the show, referencing the musician or group name to the episode(s) they are featured on. In most cases the index does not include the performing ensemble or soloists unless they were responsible for the arrangement or composition of the piece performed.

The file is a two-page PDF, with information about The Classical Connection on the front and the index on the back (or second page). I will keep it up to date when creating new shows. Although the index can be found on the official site, I'm including a direct link for your convenience.

Download the index in PDF format

Renaissance on Tour of Eastern US

2010-04-13T07:46:00.000-07:00

The classic art-rock band Renaissance has been revived by vocalist Annie Haslam and guitarist Michael Dunford. Other musicians in the current line-up include Keyboardist Rave Tesar and bassist/vocalist David J. Keyes (Renaissance, Annie Haslam solo projects), keyboardist/vocalist Tom Brislin (Yes, Debbie Harry, Meat Loaf and Francis Dunnery) and drummer Frank Pagano (Bruce Springsteen, Bette Midler, Barry Manilow and Smashing Pumpkins).

They will be performing at ROSfest on May 1, then at a variety of other venues across eastern USA. You can also visit their myspace page for updates.

Renaissance and Annie Haslam have been featured on several episodes of The Classical Connection:
Episode 5 (Scheherezade)
Episode 16 (Prog at the Opera)
Episode 20 (Annie Haslam)
Episode 21 (Piano Prog, Pt. 1)

Visit The Classical Connection website to listen to these and other episodes.

I've embedded a very old video of Ocean Gypsy. Unfortunately the quality is not the best, and it's not in color; hopefully the new lineup will make a DVD out of one of their upcoming shows.

Music of the Spheres

2010-04-12T07:08:00.000-07:00

The concept of Music of the Spheres dates back to the ancient Greeks. Through history philosophers, scientists, and mystics have sought to interpret the musica univeralis, or the relationships between the motions of the planets and other celestial bodies. The rhythmic motions of the heavens are thought to have their own musical symmetry.

A number of musicians have taken this concept and incorporated it into their work. Most well known is possibly Mike Oldfield's recent orchestral suite Music of the Spheres. As I was researching music to use for an episode of this theme I made a wonderful musical discovery of the composer Philip Sparke and his Music of the Spheres, which musically describes the big bang and a number of other astronomical phenomena. I have been in communication with Philip and am looking forward to featuring an excelent recording of this piece in an upcoming episode.

Below you will find a good video of a performance of the piece, broken into two parts due to YouTube's 10 minute time constraints.

Patrick Moraz Live at Princeton

2010-04-11T09:17:00.000-07:00

Perhaps one of the more talented but less famous keyboardists of the prog rock heyday, Patrick Moraz is best know for his work on the Yes album Relayer and his time with the Moody Blues. More recently he has released a couple wonderful albums of his music for solo piano. In 1995 he also released a DVD of a live performance at Princeton. This video is just one of many great perfermances featured on the DVD.

Barock Project

2010-04-10T09:10:00.000-07:00

One of my more recent discoveries is the Barock Project, an excellent new band of young Italian musicians. Led by keyboardist Luca Zabbini, pianist and composer at the O.Vecchi musical institute in Modena, the band also features the impressive vocal talents of Luca Pancaldi. The band often performs covers of Emerson, Lake & Palmer music, including Emerson's Piano Concerto and Tarkus, as well as music of other great bands. But it is their original compositions that impress me most.

The band has released two albums, and will soon be releasing a live DVD featuring an excellent performance with a string quartet, for which Zabbini did the arrangements. Several videos from this DVD have been released on Youtube. The video below of Un Altro Mundo should leave no doubt that this is a great new band. I love the emotional and dynamic range in this song, moving from quiet and pensive to strident power.

I have communicated with Luca Zabbini about the show, and will most likely be featuring the band in an upcoming episode.

The Cello Rocks! Sneak peek at upcoming episode

2010-04-09T20:06:00.000-07:00

One of the upcoming episodes that I'm very excited about will feature one of my favorite instruments: the cello. I'm not going to give away the playlist, but know that it will feature two 20th C. classical works, a heavy metal cello quartet, a fantastic piece composed and performed by a single person recording over 30 layered tracks which feature the cello being played in very unique ways, and some great "kebab- kosher- jazz- film- traffic- punk- music" with heavily distorted cello!

And if you ever get tired of having people tell you classical music puts them to sleep, just let them watch this amazing performance by Janos Starker of the incredibly challenging Sonata for Solo Cello by Zoltan Kodaly (third and final movement).

Introducing the new blog!

2010-04-08T12:42:00.000-07:00

I've been getting ready to work on The Classical Connection again. What started as a weekly hour-long Internet broadcast on www.deliciousagony.com is growing into a fully-formed independant entity, with a community of its own. I've long wished for a gathering place for fans of the show to post suggestions and make connections. I've also wanted a forum in which I can more freely share some of the wonderful musical discoveries I've made.

I've also begun work on the new official site, to be located at www.classicalprog.com. The feature I'm most excited about will be the ability for visitors to listen to EVERY EPISODE at any time they choose. That's 32 hours of musical discovery just waiting for you to click. No more trying to tune in to Delicious Agony at just the right time to catch an episode!

New episodes are on their way, too. When I'm ready I will resume weekly broadcasts on Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio. Shows will premiere there before becoming available on the official site.