BookBlog

Gilberto Gil online

Thanks to this webjay roots playlist from Prentiss, and this inspirational Lessig article about free culture and live music extravaganza with the popstar turned minister, I've been having much fun rummaging through Gil's 5-decade online mp3 discography.

Looks like it will take Portuguese to get beyond thumbnail reviews and hagiography.

Addition: Gil speaks about digital freedom at NYU before his Creative Commons conference:

I think that the most important political battle that is being fought today in the technological, economic, social and cultural fields has to do with free software and with the method digital freedom has put in place for the production of shared knowledge.

What's on the playlist?

Inspired by Nashville and the influences of Nancy Griffith, I'm listening to Loretta Lynn, new and old.

Apparently Nashville's fragile country diva was modeled after Lynn. The Nashville soundtrack itself is mostly mediocre 70s folk-cheese, except for cameo appearances of Vassar Clements, next up on the playlist, and a few other, lesser known real live bluegrass bands doing background music.

Skimmed another dating service form that asks for favorite romantic music, and what objects are found in one's bedroom. It is infinitely more fun to surf the music of one's cultural influences and one's friends than to script a romantic encounter with an unknown stranger, complete with music, lighting, and stage props. Finding common ground and discovering new ground is joyful; describing a stage set for an anonymous other is chilling.

Years ago, I learned the art of the job interview; how one is supposed to answer when the question is "tell me about yourself", or "tell my why you left your last job". The interviewer is looking to find relevant qualities and skills for the job at and, and figure out, in a few unrepresentative minutes, how you'd be to work with.

I'm sure there's a corresponding art to the dating service profile. I'd be a lot better off if I conceded to the process of marketing, packaging, and product positioning. I really hate turning a process of joyful discovery into a short-answer quiz where there are right and wrong answers.

Vassar Clements Living With the Blues now on, just fabulous.

Music: From Jerusalem to Cordoba

I heard these folks tonight at Casa de Luz.

From the promo email:

Music, chants, and texts from Mediterranean sacred traditions.

A musical voyage through history and spirituality.

Catherine Braslavsky, chant, drum, dulcimer;
Joseph Rowe, texts, oud, drums, tampura, mbira, Tibetan bowls.

Hildegard of Bingen, Gregorian chant, Troubadours, Ibn Arabi, Yehuda Halevi,
Judeo-Spanish, and original compositions

Good:

• Braslavsky's beautiful voice


• Musical illustration of cultural influences and differences in Christian, Arabic and Jewish songs from Andalusia


• Cross-cultural themes of spiritual openness, in liturgical poetry by Meister Eckhart, Hildegard of Bingen, Ibn Arabi (Sufi)


• Meditative atmosphere (also see not-as-good)

Not-as-good:

• High seriousness. The performers strode onto the stage seriously, Rowe ringing a meditation bell. Rowe narrated the performance in * a * serious * performance * voice. There were Judeospanish and Arabic pieces that could have been celebratory. There were Sufi pieces that could have been done with more energy.


• Western-european style. The vocals were beautiful, the instrumentals were fine accompaniment; they complemented the singer and created atmosphere without overshadowing the vocals. But the rhythms, phrasing, and tonality were westernized. This isn't a big complaint because it sounded good, and because cultural purity is exactly beside the point.


• Uniformly meditative pace. Her specialty is Gregorian chant; he's studied with Hamza El Din, so it stands to reason.

• The concert was held in a performance space of Casa de Luz, a local macrobiotic restaurant and community center. The average audience age was about 50; a central-Austin ex-hippie crowd. One can imagine such concerts being held at the estates of monarchs and nobles in Andalusia; this was good American pay-at-the-door democarcy.