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Modern Music

Bonnie Raitt on activism, making men cry and 38 years of sobriety

May 1, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

‘Do something with your actions. Don’t just write a cheque’: Bonnie Raitt An interview with Bonnie Raitt, May 1, 2025, The Guardian. Which artists inspire you today? onemoreseason If you like Little Feat, great soul singing and great slide, really knocking my socks off lately is the Bros Landreth out of Winnipeg, Canada – a … [Read more…]

Posted in: Arts, Content, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Feminism, Modern Music, Pandemic Tagged: Allen Shamblin, Angel from Montgomery, BB King, Bros Landreth, Bukka White, Courtney Barnett, Fred McDowell, Jason Isbell, Joey Landreth, John Lee Hooker, John Prine, John Raitt], Little Feat, Lola Young, Lowell George, Maia Sharp, Mike Reid, Oliver Mtukudzi, Olivia Rodrigo, the Grammys

Jon Balke

February 13, 2025 by sergneri Leave a Comment

I just purchased two albums of the group Batagraf, which Jon Balke is the leader. It is called a percussion group and fuses percussion, vocal and electronics. Nice stuff. Batagraf on Presto Music

Posted in: Arts, Content, Modern Music Tagged: Batagraf, electronics, Jon Balke, percussion, vocal

Greece finally pays tribute to Iannis Xenakis

January 28, 2024 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Greece finally pays tribute to Iannis Xenakis (The Guardian 01/28/2024) “Few cultural figures were as important in the second half of the century,” said Katerina Gregos, the artistic director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (EMST). “Xenakis was not just a polymath, a visionary, a true cosmopolitan, he was a mathematician, civil … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, History, Modern Music, Obituaries, Photography, Politics Tagged: architect, author, avant-garde music, civil engineer, Composer, draftsman, electronic musi, Iannis Xenakis, Le Corbusier, mathematician, music theorist

Out of Bounds: Japanese Women Artists in Fluxus

October 29, 2023 by sergneri Leave a Comment

A review of a Fluxus retrospective from the New York Times. Through Jan. 21 at Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, Manhattan https://www.japansociety.org/arts-and-culture/exhibitions/kazuko-miyamoto  

Posted in: Arts, Content, Ethical and green living, Faits Divers, Feminism, History, Modern Music, Politics, Racism, Science, Thinking about Tagged: Ayaka Iida, Conceptual art, Cut Piece, Experimental music, George Maciunas, improvisation, John Cage, Midori Yoshimoto, Mieko Shiomi, Minimalism, Nam June Paik, performance, Shigeko Kubota, Takako Saito, Tiffany Lambert, Vagina Painting, video, Yasunao Tone, Yoko Ono

Ryuichi Sakamoto Dies at 71

April 2, 2023 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Ryuichi Sakamoto, Oscar-Winning Japanese Composer, Dies at 71 in the New York Times. The Guardian carries a tribute here.

Posted in: Modern Music, Obituaries Tagged: Composer, Haruomi Hosono, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Yukihiro Takahashi

Keith Reid, Who Brought Poetry to Procol Harum, Dies at 76

March 31, 2023 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Keith Reid, Who Brought Poetry to Procol Harum, Dies at 76 He did not perform with the group, but his impressionistic words made it one of the leading acts of the progressive-rock era.

Posted in: Faits Divers, Modern Music, Obituaries Tagged: Keith Reid, lyricist, Procol Harum, rock star

Fuzzy Haskins, Who Helped Turn Doo-Wop Into P-Funk, Dies at 81

March 24, 2023 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Fuzzy Haskins, Who Helped Turn Doo-Wop Into P-Funk, Dies at 81 [NY Times requires a subscription] As a teenager, he joined forces with George Clinton. Their vocal group, the Parliaments, morphed into Parliament-Funkadelic, one of the wildest acts of the 1970s.

Posted in: Faits Divers, History, Modern Music, Obituaries, Racism, Thinking about Tagged: Calvin Simon, Doo-Wop, funk, Funkadelic, Fuzzy Haskins, George Clinton, Grady Thomas, obituaries, P-Funk, psychedelic rock, Sly and the Family Stone, the Parliaments

Angelo Badalamenti, Is Dead at 85

December 12, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

Angelo Badalamenti, Composer for ‘Twin Peaks,’ Is Dead at 85

Posted in: Faits Divers, Modern Music, Obituaries Tagged: 1990 Grammy, Angelo Badalamenti, Composer, David Lynch, films, Isabella Rossellini, music, musical, Soundtrack

Judith Davidoff, Master of Long-Dormant Instruments, Dies at 94

January 7, 2022 by sergneri Leave a Comment

A NYT obituary on Judith Davidoff, Master of Long-Dormant Instruments. A master of the viola da gamba and other stringed instruments, she was a central part of the early-music scene. By Neil Genzlinger Jan. 6, 2022 “She toured all over the world looking for instruments to play,” Ms. Terry, a past president of the Viola … [Read more…]

Posted in: Faits Divers, Modern Music, Obituaries Tagged: Baroque, Boston Camerata, Consort of Viols, early-music, Judith Davidoff, Pro Musica, the Chinese erhu, the rebec, the vielle, Viol, Viola da Gamba

how the first piece of AI music was born in 1956

December 7, 2021 by sergneri Leave a Comment

‘He touched a nerve’: how the first piece of AI music was born in 1956 Long before Auto-Tune and deepfake compositions, university professor Lejaren Hiller premiered a concert recital composed by a computer and became an overnight celebrity The Guardian Electronic music Jeff Gage Tue 7 Dec 2021 Illiac Suite

Posted in: Faits Divers, Modern Music, Science, Sea Stories, Thinking about Tagged: AI, artificial intelligence, classical, classical music, computer, Computing, David Rosenboom, electronic brain, Electronic music, experimental, Experimental music, George Andrix, Iannis Xenakis, Illiac, Illiac Suite, John Cage, Lejaren Hiller, Leonard M Isaacson, Sanford Reuning, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign
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