Interview on 'It's New Orleans: Out to Lunch show' with LPO conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto

Here was an interesting invite- a conversational program about business recorded at Commanders Palace about The Naked Orchestra and the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra.

You can listen to it on their website here ...

Conductor of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, Carlos Miguel Prieto and I, talk about the funny money stuff that goes on with orchestra operation.  
The show is available online at any time.  It airs on WWNO on 5/26 at 1pm and again at 6:30pm.

Carlos Miguel Prieto

Busoni- From so long ago you'd think we'd be getting it by now.

I looked down and there was just too much promotion afoot.  Must get back to revelations on THE subject...

Some thoughts and stuff then, starting here with Busoni--I'll add more on this later, but for now, since this was more than 100 years ago- could we please stop flogging a dead horse?  You know who you are. The flies are getting unbearable!

"Tradition is a plaster mask taken from life, which, in the course of many years, and after passing through the hands of innumerable artisans, leaves its resemblance to the original largely a matter of imagination."

"The function of the artist consists in making laws, not in following laws ready made.  He who follows such laws, ceases to be a creator."

"So narrow has our tonal range become, so stereotyped its form of expression, that nowadays there is not one formal motive that cannot be fitted with some other familiar motive so that the two may be played simultaneously."

"What we now call our Tonal System is nothing more than a set of "signs"; an ingenious device to grasp somewhat of eternal harmony; a meagre pocket edition of that encyclopedic work; artificial light instead of the sun...

"And so, in music, the signs have assumed greater consequence than that which they ought to stand for, and can only suggest...

"How important, indeed, are "Third," "Fifth," and "Octave"! How strictly we divide "consonances" from "dissonances"--in a sphere where no dissonances can possibly exist!"

 

Wadada Leo Smith at New Quorum. Also, the new Group: J. Free and the Down-Low-Mon. 9th of May.

It's been so busy that there has been no mention yet of my new operating group- J. Free and the Down Low.  We have had two shows so far and they have gone very well.  I suppose the group is exploring original compositions and arrangements, but also new ways of dealing with the language of developing improvisations.  There are many stages to the rhythmic nature of the music, some masked beneath the surface and some openly manifested in the sound surfaces.  Check the exciting lineup-

Dan Oestreicher- Alto sax/ Bari sax/ Electronics
Jeff Albert- Trombone
Doug Garrison- Drums
Devon Taylor- Tuba
Jonathan Freilich- guitar

Who is J. Free?  You'd have to ask Wadada Leo Smith or Lisa Harris or Gianna Chachere or Damon Locks.

Which brings me to the more important part of this post.  Wadada Leo Smith is coming in to New Orleans to give a presentation on his cycle, Ten Freedom Summers,  about the civil rights movement across the 20th century.  This will be at The New Quorum, on this same evening.  The talk is part of gearing up for a performance on the work in New Orleans later in the year.  The whole thing kicks off at 6:30pm.

Where: The New Quorum- 2435 Esplanade Ave, New Orleans, Louisiana 70119

Other details: 

Trumpeter/composer, 2016 Doris Duke Performing Artist, and former New Quorum resident, Wadada Leo Smith is returning to New Orleans! Join us for a special presentation about his Pulitzer Prize nominated work Ten Freedom Summers, which will be produced in New Orleans. Followed by a short performance by Wadada and additional music by J.Free and the Down Low. Refreshments served.

Ten Freedom Summers is the work of a lifetime by one of jazz’s true visionaries, a kaleidoscopic, spiritually charged opus inspired by the struggle for African-American freedom and equality before the law.