The accounts are a way for musicians to hold themselves accountable for consistent, productive practice and to receive feedback from other musicians. They are also an archival tool, a way to track progress over time. Practicing, long an activity completed in solitude, with only a metronome and tuner as company, has now become its own sort of performance. Playing to a virtual audience has become one of the few remaining incentives for musicians who are otherwise holed up at home, away from their schools, orchestras, and teachers. – The New Yorker
Tag: 06.06.20
Recreating The Musical Instruments Of Ancient Mexico’s Lost Metropolis
Teotihuacán, which had a population of around 100,000 at its height circa 500 CE, seems to have had no system of writing and left behind no known written records. But musical instruments have survived — quadruple flutes, double-chambered water whistles and the like. Researcher Arnd Adje Both, whom one might call a paleo-musicologist, has had copies of those instruments made and is planning to bring them to Teotihuacán to be played. – The Economist
Longest-Working Comics Artist In History, Mad Magazine’s Al Jaffee, Is Retiring At 99
“To mark his farewell, Mad‘s ‘Usual Gang of Idiots’ will salute Jaffee with a tribute issue next week. It will be the magazine’s final regular issue to offer new material, including Jaffee’s final Fold-In, 65 years after he made his Mad debut” and 78 years after he began his career. – The Washington Post
Krumping Right In The Faces Of The LAPD — And Getting Thanked For It
“[Even] as krump has journeyed from the streets to screens and stages, it remains a protest art,” writes Sarah Kaufman. That’s why, at a demonstration on Sunday in Santa Monica, Jo’Artis Ratti, one of the founders of krump (nom de danse Big Mijo), “used it to improvise on a lifetime of rage and despair within a few feet of a police line. The result is one of the most poignant images to come out of the past week of protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police — and the story behind Ratti’s dancing, and what followed, is just as poignant.” – The Washington Post
Robert Northern, Classical And Jazz Horn Player Known As Brother Ah, Has Died At 86
In the late 1950s, Northern joined the Metropolitan Opera symphony, “where, he later recalled, as the only African-American member he was often subjected to racist abuse — reminiscent of what he had endured from white officers in the military.” He also played “on some of the most storied orchestral recordings in jazz history, including The Thelonious Monk Orchestra at Town Hall, John Coltrane’s Africa/Brass and Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra.” – The New York Times
How The Black Death Changed Art And The Human Imagination
The Black Death “was the most devastating incident in human history. It altered not only human society but the imagination itself. Its traces can be perceived today, and perhaps more lucidly during these difficult days.” – The Guardian (UK)
How The French Made The Modern Restaurant A Key Part Of A Good Life
Restaurants are reopening in France and elsewhere, and thus social life may be (somewhat) reborn. But how did the modern restaurant become the heart of social life in Paris, London, New York, Rome, and elsewhere? Look to Auguste Escoffier. – Le Monde
Composer Shaina Taub Pulled Off Her Stoop And Arrested By NYPD
Taub, a composer who has written music for the Public’s Twelfth Night and As You Like It, was cheering on a peaceful protest on her street, from her own stoop, when she and her husband were arrested. – Vulture
The Musicians’ Union In Britain Calls For A Relaxation Of Coronavirus-Related Rules
For musicians, that is. Two meters (roughly the USian-advised 6 feet) of distance is just too far to be practical for performing musicians, according to Musicians’ Union leader Horace Trubridge. “Many musicians had been earning £20,000 a year or less even before coronavirus, and some were missing out on furlough payments and loans, he said, adding: ‘I can’t see anything really significant happening this year to help them out of this hole.'”- BBC
Sending Support To Dancers Speaking Out Against A System That Takes Brutal Advantage Of Them
Eva Yaa Asantewaa, senior director at the Gibney Dance Company, and expert writer about dance, says, “We’ve gone too long doing a lot for very little, and now we’re all completely screwed. I’m in New York where the issue is not so much can a queer arts worker catch a break? It’s can a queer arts worker pay the rent? Can anybody? How can we make this life, in which we give so much of our hearts, truly sustainable? Artists are workers.” – Hyperallergic