Folks making music in public?

[TomF]

I'm gonna be doing more music in public this Spring than I have for quite a while - looking forward to it.

The local choral society and community orchestra are doing Bach's St. John Passion on Good Friday ... I'll be one of the soloists. That will be a lot of fun - last I sang the St. John was about 20 years ago.

Lots of music in our local church too - a kids' choir I've been doing stuff with will do some performaing, and I'll be playing cello, piano and flute with them (not all at once:D ). Also playing a bit of solo cello again, though only a couple of "party pieces."

Who else is making music in public just now? Mike, got another gig or two lined up? Bruce?

JT, what's the performing schedule looking like for you just now - working with anyone interesting?

[High C]

...JT, what's the performing schedule looking like for you just now - working with anyone interesting?

We play almost every day, lately a lot of cool Latin things, Paquito D'Rivera for instance. :cool:

The Mozart Concerto for 2 Pianos with Misha and Cipa Dichter is coming up next week.

Mahler 4 and Carmina by the end of the season, with lots of pops and other classical concerts in between. We did a Broadway pops last Saturday with Jodi Benson, the REAL Little Mermaid! :D Also a Broadway baritone named William Michals on that one. Boy, did he sound good.

There's also a Boheme and a Lucia. I love 'em both, of course. Oh Mimi...... :cool:

[ishmael]

I have a native voice that has gotten smoky because of age and tobacco(gawd I need to stop that idiot habit.) I used to be able to sing Danny Boy, with full range, on key, and good timbre. I can't hit the high notes anymore, even in the shower. I was never quite up there with fine Irish tenors, but not all that far off, by the estimation of musicians I encountered over the years. I wish I'd pursued it better, but I suppose there's still a place for it in local choirs if I want to put a little effort in.

Making music is so important. A remarkable place I lived for ten years was a little town in central MA. Fine musicians were thick as fleas on a hound, and for a few years there was a gathering place, a pub. Thinking back, I'm amazed at the quality. It was spectacular. Fiddle, guitar, flute, piano, voice, lyric you name it there were people who did it well.

Good luck on your re-debut, Tom. More power to you.

[TomF]

Mahler 4's so glorious. Huge, but glorious.

Lucia's a great sing ... much better bass parts in it than Boheme, Colline's farewell to his coat notwithstanding. Singing Dalle Stanze, ove Lucia is such fun! But from an audience member's perspective, I'd go for the Puccini.

I wore out an old recording of Renata Tebaldi and Carlo Bergonzi singing Boheme. Fabulous, fabulous singing.

[High C]

....fine Irish tenors....

"Mother Ireland" by Gary Lakes is a fine album of Irish tunes. Gary is a great big American heldentenor who had a fine career singing Wagner at Bayreuth and the Met.

We used to call him "the Great Lakes". ;)

[Phillip Allen]

My sister bought a new (old-1896?) Bosendorfer (85 keys) but can't play anymore and needs one of you guys to come over and play it for her... :)

[JimD]

Swimbo heads up the Taize group with her church. I am musically hopeless, however.

[Hwyl]

I've got a couple of poetry readings coming up, some of my own and I'm being asked to read D Thomas with my Welsh accent.

My singing is public in that my kids ask me to stop the car so they can get out when one of my "must sing along" songs comes on the radio. I was going to mention that in Chad's "brutality" thread. There is ahuge aspect of music that's just for self enjoyment.

[TomF]

My sister bought a new (old-1896?) Bosendorfer (85 keys) but can't play anymore and needs one of you guys to come over and play it for her... :)Cripes ... I'll be right over.

I'm waiting for my FIL and his second wife to sell their home, and move to a condo. Then their vintage Bechstein is slated to come and live at our house ... as the piano's the only physical thing left from my wife's mother.

[High C]

...Carlo Bergonzi singing Boheme. Fabulous, fabulous singing.

In the 80s we were lucky to have Bergonzi for a couple of Verdi's, Ballo and another that I can't recall. Carlo was in his late 60s then, but Holy Mother, did he sound sweet! No signs of age, either. (I have a pirate recording, shhhhhh ;) )

[TomF]

Yeah, Bergonzi was one who really knew how to "sing on the interest, not on the capital." Smart enough not to beat the crap out of his voice for dramatic effect, or to choose a repertoire that requires such histrionics ...

... as a result, he (and we) had the pleasure of his warm, flexible voice for decades.

[Gonzalo]

It's not music, but on Thursday I open in a play, "A Number" by Caryl Churchill. It's a two-hander, so it's a pretty decent part.

http://www.realtheatre.org/index.html

Gareth, I downloaded some mp3 files of Dylan Thomas reading his poetry. What an amazing voice. I don't particularly like the way he reads his poetry, though. Most poets are actually not good poetry readers, but Dylan Thomas's voice covers a multitude of sins.

Years ago I heard the recording of his radio broadcast of "Under Milkwood." He played First Voice and several other characters. I would love to hear it again.

[Wild Dingo]

I havent played a note for 2 years now... just cant get motivated enough... I sing only for myself nowadays as the hoons have just made it soooo damned difficult what with the eggs tomatoes spuds watermelons etc that they threw at me... I was gettin too damned fat for awhile there but its all good they stopped as soon as I stopped openin me vocal chords... seems the old Slim Dusty died when Slim croaked and John Williamson I aint... so I no longer sing either

Possumpoop has never EVER liked my singing... or so she told me during a heart to heart the other day... seems she reckons I sound too much like a demented chook with its head cut of... no bloody appreciation!!... she sold the banjo while I was away last "oh that thing was just gathering dust and in the way in the bedroom so I sold it" there goes another fine idea of mine down the shyteshoot... the guitars next apparently but somehow I dont really mind anymore since the flood and loosing my two other guitars Ive just had no desire to play this new one sounds and feels wrong so I just leave it in its case in the bedroom to gather dust...

So no I guess my answer is Im not singing or doing anything musical anymore... except in me shed where IM THE BOSS!!! And by gar if I choose to friggin screach out Opera Blues ROCK AN ROLL or anything in between I damned well will... they dont like it buggar off... ITS MY SHED! :cool:

[Hwyl]

It's not music, but on Thursday I open in a play, "A Number" by Caryl Churchill. It's a two-hander, so it's a pretty decent part.

http://www.realtheatre.org/index.html

Gareth, I downloaded some mp3 files of Dylan Thomas reading his poetry. What an amazing voice. I don't particularly like the way he reads his poetry, though. Most poets are actually not good poetry readers, but Dylan Thomas's voice covers a multitude of sins.

Years ago I heard the recording of his radio broadcast of "Under Milkwood." He played First Voice and several other characters. I would love to hear it again.

His parents gave him elocution lessons when he was young. He complained his accent was like "cut glass".

Break a leg

[Nanoose]

We play almost every day, lately a lot of cool Latin things, Paquito D'Rivera for instance. :cool:

The Mozart Concerto for 2 Pianos with Misha and Cipa Dichter is coming up next week.

Mahler 4 and Carmina by the end of the season, with lots of pops and other classical concerts in between. We did a Broadway pops last Saturday with Jodi Benson, the REAL Little Mermaid! :D Also a Broadway baritone named William Michals on that one. Boy, did he sound good.

There's also a Boheme and a Lucia. I love 'em both, of course. Oh Mimi...... :cool:

What do you play?

[Lance F. Gunderson]

I'm a professional classical, flamenco and jazz guitarist. Make my living, such as it is, from performing and teaching in the Boston area. My next gig is a wedding in Rye, N.Y. Have played concerts for Helen & Scott Nearing, Bud McIntosh, Al Gore, Ted Kennedy and, yes, I hate to admit it but it's true....George W. Bush. 'Been at it for 47 years now.

[High C]

What do you play?

Percussion and timpani, and a little singing on the side....mostly in the shower lately. :D

[Gonzalo]

High C, I thought you sang opera. Baritone, maybe, IIRC?

[Mrleft8]

I can sing "Green onions", "Wipe out", and "Tequila" with out missing a note.....

[High C]

High C, I thought you sang opera. Baritone, maybe, IIRC?

I do sing, tenor, but I haven't done it professionally for some time. At the peak of my vocal career I made maybe a couple of grand a year singing. :D The drumming is the real job.

Hit drum, get check. :D

[Gonzalo]

High C, that's about what I make acting. In a very good year. My day job prevents me from auditioning for most commercials or industrial films, but I know a few people who keep body and soul together acting around here. They put a lot of miles on their cars driving to auditions and shoots, but make a living at it.

Sorry I didn't remember you sang tenor.

[Phillip Allen]

I can sing "Green onions", "Wipe out", and "Tequila" with out missing a note.....

I get it! I get it! :)

[Vince Brennan]

TomF, ordinarily I'd post this as a PM but it looks like we have a few musicians on the board, so:

Irish Music site (http://www.oldmusicproject.com/oneils1.html):

Madrigal site (http://www.oldmusicproject.com/madrigals.html) :

"The Catch Club" site and some rounds (http://oldmusicproject.com/catches.html)

PM/Email if you have problems using these.

(I'm knot a musician, but I portray one on TV...)

[Bruce Taylor]

Who else is making music in public just now? Mike, got another gig or two lined up? Bruce?

We have various combinations of friends who get together regularly to play. Kitchen music, I guess you'd call it. The "audience" is anyone unlucky enough to be within hearing distance. :) I was asked to back up the fiddler at a square dance a few weeks ago, but couldn't make it. Soooo....I guess I haven't played in "public" since my years as an itinerant puppeteer.

[Donn]

I've become an accomplished whistler since most of my teeth fell out. It's very entertaining to be whistling in the garden and look up to find a Cardinal sitting 8 feet away, with his head cocked, trying to join in.

Speaking of beautiful voices; Raul Malo was on Imus the other day. Former solo for The Mavericks, this man has a stunning voice. His latest album covers 'You're Only Lonely,' by JD Souther.

Turn up the volume and clickit. (http://www.raulmalo.com/main/)

[TomF]

Thanks esp. for the madrigals site ... many of those are new to me, and some are hysterical.

I've had a look at a friend's print copy of O'Neill's, but the web resource is now a bookmark. I do love slip jigs ...

[Flying Orca]

I do love slip jigs ...

Agreed, in spades. SWMBO and I used to be in the house band of a local pub (the one my new band is playing on St Pat's, actually). That was my intro to the surprisingly tricky art of guitar accompaniment for tunes.

We used to agree that when we were playing jigs, especially slip jigs, jigs were the best... until we kicked it into a reel, at which time reels became the most fun! Gotta get the current fiddler up to speed on some more sets of tunes - he's a great jammer but not big on the trad. And this band rocks the trad. ;) Cheers!

[Todd Bradshaw]

"His latest album covers 'You're Only Lonely,' by JD Souther"

I always loved that song and like the honesty and clean simplicity of his vocal, but did anybody else notice how dark the mix is? I kept waiting for something to sparkle a little bit in the upper frequencies to offset that low rumble that they have going on in the background with the bass, keyboard, drums and rhythm guitar. I even fed it through my studio monitors which are very flat and accurate to see if my computer speakers were just missing something, but it still sounded about the same. It's not necessarily bad, but it's unusually dark. By the time I got to the last verse and instrumental break I was dying for something subtle, but bright and clean to come in and add a little bit of shimmer to the whole thing. Even the pedal steel riffs at the end might do it if they weren't so mellowed out tone-wise, but it made me want to go check to see if my tweeters were still working.

[Donn]

My ears aren't that good, and I was listening on a 10 year old internal PC speaker.

Is it possible it's the sample rate his website is streaming?

I like several other songs on the album, and may have to pop for it.

[Todd Bradshaw]

I suppose it's possible, but don't know enough about digital cyberstuff to say. There are also some more down-to-earth possibilities. The control/mixing room's speakers may have been tuned badly for the space they were in (with all that rumble in the basic tracks on a nice low-key song, one might suspect that the room wasn't accurately set up and they couldn't hear it). Nobody may have noticed it (after a long day in the studio you can get pretty punchy) or that might just be the way they liked it, since everybody has their own idea of what makes a perfect mix. In any case, it's still a pretty nice sound and it's probably worth the cash to hear more of it.