Today I turn seven and it still feels strange having an actual day to claim as my own. I've only met one other person with a Leap Day birthday and it was completely by chance in a NYC subway. Recently there have been many press inquiries from reporters wanting to know what makes Leap Day birthdays special and how we Leapers celebrate differently from everyone else. On non leap years I devote an entire week to my birthday, that is, if my friends and family don't get irritated by my having to compensate for my lack of a day.
Being born on February 29th holds a personal significance because I share my birthday with one of my favorite composers, Gioachino Rossini! Seeing his opera The Barber of Seville inspired me to get into music and become a composer.
My first 7th birthday!
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
For the past six days I've been tuning into YouTube's live stream of Carnaval in Salvador Bahia, Brazil. Last year at this time I was there partaking in the largest street party in the world, and this year I'm missing it like crazy! I didn't post anything last year but I found this video of us on the Will.I.Am trio. My sister, Meia Noite, and I were in Daniela Mercury's camarote (kind of like a club overlooking the festivities) when Will's trio stopped and played right in front of us. Meia Noite has played with Will.I.Am on the soundtrack for Rio and with Sergio Mendes. We got his attention and were invited up on the trio. It took us about a half hour to elbow our way through the massive crowds but we finally made it up to the truck for Will's dj set. It was the perfect way to close out carnaval!
Before Will's trio, in Daniela Mercury's camarote:
I've been trying to go to more of my friends' and colleagues' concerts lately. It seems like every week I have over twenty invites to events that I would love to go to, but never get around to hearing. Last week was the Metropolis Ensemble's Music Box, a concert featuring six world premieres of newly commissioned works for solo harp with resident artist Bridget Kibbey. Solo harp concerts are rare and can be difficult to pull off; the last one I attended was a Juilliard Pre-College Division senior recital ten years ago. But this program was incredible! Not only is Bridget a unique virtuoso, but she is also a dynamic speaker with a magnetic stage presence.
My beautiful sister! This girl has the most eclectic taste in music and is always down for a concert date.
Today my sister emailed me a link to the song "Es hora de bailar" by the '90's house-merengue hip-hop duo Sandy y Papo. A few seconds into it and a heard a very familiar loop, a four bar phrase that served as the summer anthem for 2009 from Pitbull's "Hotel Room Service." I was shocked that the lick had been around for so long and that Pitbull would blatantly rip it off. But upon further 'research' I discovered that Sandy y Papo didn't write it either. Apparently in 1992 a British house music group, The Nightcrawlers, were the first to use it in their song "Push the Feeling On." All three versions are below. (If you don't have time to watch all three videos, you must at least watch The Nightcrawlers' version!)
Sandy y Papo:
Pitbull:
I guess the different versions serve as a testament to the versatility of a strong, good tune. Just like "Llorando se fue" which later became Lamabada, then Taboo, then JLo's (and Pitbull, again!) On the Floor and finally Wisin y Yandel's Pam Pam. I wonder how many people know that it originated as a Bolivian folk song. This is Los Kjarkas, who recorded it in 1981:
Thursday, December 1, 2011
I've been watching the new Parangole DVD which is making me want to go back to Brazil! The musicians are soooo good! Probably because they start when they're this young:
Meia Noite's two-year-old nephew. He loves Timbalada, isn't he the cutest?
I'm just seeing this video of a piece I did with KDNY in 2009. From is my absolute favorite work that I've collaborated on with Kathleen Dyer. It's for four dancers and string quartet, performed here by the Voxare String Quartet. Enjoy!
Friend, fellow composer, and co-founder of MuSe Yui Kitamura produced an incredible Sounds of Arts Festival at The Secret Theater in Queens this weekend. I was thrilled when Yui invited Blind Ear to be a part of the program; I've known Yui for ten years and always had fun working with her on small collaborations when we were both at Juilliard. Blind Ear teamed up with Cadillac Moon Ensemble and percussionists Frank Tyl and Chihiro Shibayama for the performance.
It was the first Blind Ear concert that I performed in alone and I must admit, I was a bit nervous. (Jakub is getting married in India!) But everything went smoothly and it was fun to add Yui as a new Blind Ear composer. It remains true that although we use the same technology and the same basic instrumentation in a performance, each composer's individual style comes across distinctly.
