We're presently confirming license agreements with the publishers for Radiohead, Elliott Smith and Nick Drake for permission to offer my single song arrangements as one-time secure PDF downloads on this site. While I loved putting the Radiohead book together with Steve Byram, and another such project would be something to consider seriously down the line, there have been so many requests for single songs that I wanted to see if that could happen. All the publishers were exceedingly responsive and courteous, and so it'll likely be on June 1st that the first batch should go up on the site. They'll most likely have their own page (drag your cursor over my picture and you'll see all the various page links appear) to accomodate all the various titles. Each song arrngement will sell for $5.
The Nick Drake titles to become available:
Fly
From the Morning
Hanging on a Star
Harvest Breed
Hazey Jane
Introduction to Bryter Layter
Joey
Northern Sky
One of These Things First
Place To Be
Rider on the Wheel
River Man
Three Hours
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Our latest 13-part series will go up for PBS on May 11. Check your local listings for time and day, as each market tends to play them when convenient. On the heels of the Emmy nominations for Season One, there should be a fair amount of interest in how this season stacks up. I can say with confidence that the new season looks and feels a whole lot more like the free-wheeling fun that the radio show continues to be, and this can be credited to the dedication of the whole crew, but most passionately by director Gary Halvorsen and Producer Tim Banker. They never slept, and never stopped coming up with new ideas and tweaks on the available material that made everything really pop. I'd always thought the half-hour format was a bit unwieldy, and Season One felt simultaneously too short to be anything but superficial and too long in its lack of focus. This year, the episodes have no dead weight on them, and much more of the action takes place off-stage. There's much more layering of the visual texture, much more spontaneity, and the performances were stellar throughout. Check it out.
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Another great tune from The Badass Drummer of The Bad Plus, David King. '1972 Bronze Medalist' always sports a phenomenally funny intro by frontman/genius pianist, Ethan Iverson. My take on the piece invokes a number of French quotations in honor of Jacques, the Bronze Medalist (for weight-lifting). Lots of fun to put together, great fun to play.
This track comes from the live taping of From The Top that took place on 2008.04.18 in New Albany, OH.
Download 1972_bronze_medalistlivetaping.mp3
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I'm a HUGE Bad Plus fan, have been ever since we were all playing at the Istanbul Jazz Festival, and, going back to meet the band for the first time, Ethan Iverson greeted me with the news that he actually owned and enjoyed my Scriabin album! Then, of course, the personal connections became evident: we're both connected in our admiration and friendship of great jazz pianist and composer Fred Hersch. Since Istanbul, I've gone to see The Bad Plus perform every chance I've had, and we've even shared the stage (split halves of concerts; we're still working on the opportunity to actually play something all together) at the San Francisco Jazz Festival and at Princeton University's McCarter Theater.
There are always great new things coming from each of band (they're all great composers, Ethan Iverson, Reid Anderson and David King), and things I'd eventually like to try my hand at, but this song was first on my Bad Plus shortlist. I've been performing it just for the past few weeks, and it was at Jordan Hall during a From The Top live taping in Boston just last Sunday (2008.03.02) that I think had the best combination of acoustics, decent piano, and great engineering. Berred Ouelette runs the board for From The Top, and John Servies is in charge of the house sound, which I'm sure contributed nicely to the already warm ambience of Jordan Hall. Thanks to them, and to Reid Mangan who prepared the sound file for me.
Enjoy.
Download anthem_for_the_earnest_applause_1.mp3
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the band has their most ecstatic album in recent memory out this month, along with a tour embracing SxSW and a performance at the royal albert hall (and points beyond and in between).
the bonus cd that accompanies this month's cover-story on r.e.m. has fifteen tracks the band members have chosen, with attendant program notes.
they really are the friendliest band in the world, as well as the best american band, ever.
http://promo.emapnetwork.com/q4music/rem/remjukebox.shtml
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I was introduced to Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street years ago, but it took Tim Burton and Company to make this song indelibly marked on my memory's playlist. Here's a performance taped at a From The Top live taping which took place in Boston at New England Conservatory's Jordan Hall on Sunday, 2008.02.03.Download johanna.mp3
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This Download carolines_fingers_performance.mp3 first perfromance comes from a From the Top live taping in Daytona Beach, FL, recorded on 2008.01.13.
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This is the rehearsal take of a song by Guided By Voices frontman, Robert Pollard. It was taped as part of a From The Top live taping at the Castle Theater on the island of Maui, 2007.11.16.
Download sea_of_dead_rehearsal.mp3
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This is my first live performance of an arrangement I did of the famous Smiths 'lullaby', 'Asleep'. It took place as part of a From The Top live taping at the Hawaii Theater in Honolulu, HI on 2007.11.14.Download 2_asleep_performance.mp3
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I've been doing arrangements lately of songs by various bands. This one comes from a From The Top live taping at the beautiful Mechanics Hall in Worcester, Massachusetts, 2007.10.16.
Enjoy.
Download surgical_focus_perfo1d5e3a.mp3
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