Wednesday, December 31, 2014

LOUIS ARMSTRONG

Spend New Years with one of the most important American artists in history. Fans who only remember Louis Armstrong for later-day appearances and tunes like Hello Dolly only have to scratch the surface to discover Satchmo's colossal impact on Jazz as an art form. Armstrong is not remembered for his political ideas, but one only needs to read David Margolick's article in the New York Times to learn about his political stand in 1957 in support of the kids in Little Rock. Winton Marsalis had this to say about Armstrong in Ken Burns Jazz: "Louis Armstrong invented a new style of playing. Louis Armstrong created the coherent solo. Louis Armstrong fused the sound of the Blues with the American popular song. Louis Armstrong extended the range of the trumpet. Louis Armstrong created the melodic and rhythmic vocabulary that all the big bands wrote music out of." There's a lot to explore in his long career! Image below: Cover design for the beautiful art book showcasing Armstrong's collage art, Satchmo: the Wonderful World and Art of Louis Armstrong.

See clips below for some of my favorite performances: Dinah, Hotter Than That, Russian Lullaby. You can also hear New Year's concerts from 1953, 1954, 1962, and 1967 over at Ricky Riccardi's blog here. BBC broadcast of Armstrong's home-recorded tapes here. Louis Armstrong House Museum here. Enjoy! Learn more about Satchmo with these NPR documentaries: Louis Armstrong: The Man and His Music part 1,  Revisiting Louis Armstrong in the Context of Civil Rights,  Louis Armstrong: The Man and His Music part 2,  Pops: Louis Armstrong in His Own Words, review of Mosaic's Decca Sessions box set, Louis Armstrong: the Singer, Louis Armstrong: the Trumpeter. Suggested reading: Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, Satchmo: the Genius of Louis Armstrong. Suggested CDs: Hot Fives and Sevens, Satchmo at Symphony Hall, Plays WC Handy, Complete Decca Session 1935-1946, Columbia & RCA Live Recordings with the All-Stars, Satch Plays Fats

Thursday, December 25, 2014

DOIN' THE BING

Bing Crosby was once called the Mick Jagger of the 1920s. Spy Vibers who only know Der Bingle from his later years and Christmas tunes would be surprised to see him at his youthful prime, belting out hot jazz numbers with the likes of Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, and Eddie Lang. Bing was really the first super star, reaching the #1 spot as America's entertainer on radio, film, and records. As an innovator, he used early microphone technology and radio to invent a new expressive style of singing and he helped translate jazz idioms, like scat singing, to a wider audience. Bing essentially played himself in public, cultivating a relaxed, casual vibe. Way before the hat and pipe, viewers were introduced to his trademark cool in a series of Mack Sennett shorts in the early 1930s. On Christmas Eve 1962, ABC aired the Bing Crosby Christmas Special for Clairol (his fourth special and the network's first broadcast in color). The show included guests Mary Martin and Andre Previn, and featured this fantastically modern dance devoted to Bing's casual lifestyle, Doin' the Bing. I love the design choices, from the costumes and minimal staging to the use of contemporary furniture. If your season is filled with White Christmas and Holiday Inn and you crave more Bing, I challenge you to master this hilarious (and charming!) dance. Happy Holidays! Suggested Bing releases: Bix n Bing, 16 Most Requested Songs, Some Fine Old Chestnuts, Bing in Dixieland, So Rare, Johnny Mercer Songbook, Irving Berlin Songbook, And Some Jazz Friends, Fancy Meeting You Here, Favorite Hawaiian Songs

 

Saturday, December 20, 2014

DEVO HOLIDAYS!

Happy Holidays from Jason at Art Pioneers! Christmas starts to look a bit strange when you're away from the holiday rush, so I made these cards to celebrate the season with a healthy balance of vintage charm and de-evolotion commentary. Share and enjoy!








Friday, December 19, 2014

DEVO FILM AT NOISE POP SF

The Noise Pop Festival in San Francisco has just announced an exciting lineup of movies that include Hardcore Devo Live, a new concert/documentary film about the band's early work. Band founder/songwriter Gerald Casale will at the event for Q&A. Screening is 7PM on Feb 20th at the Roxie Theater. Additional screenings in LA and Minneapolis. Press release: "DEVO was among the most thought-provoking bands to emerge in the aftermath of punk, but before hits like “Whip It,” DEVO worked in the basements and garages of Akron, Ohio, to make raw, unfiltered music that the group called “Hardcore DEVO.” In the summer of 2014, DEVO did 10 shows performing these seminal pre-fame songs, created between 1974 and 1977 and rarely played since then. Shot at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California, this exciting concert film captures these groundbreaking artists performing the songs that started it all, interwoven with interviews revealing the history of the band." A number of interesting movies join Devo on the bill, including Stop Making Sense, Metropolis (with live score), Spike Jonze skate films, and The 78 Project. Noise Pop features some incredible artists this year. See site for details. Watch a clip of Hardcore Devo Live on Vimeo here. Devo website here.


Thursday, December 18, 2014

MCCARTNEY: HOPE FOR THE FUTURE

Inspired by his grandkids' passion for video games, Paul McCartney recently collaborated on a new soundtrack to Destiny. The project included a new single called Hope For the Future, which the ex-Beatle recorded at Abbey Road Studios with Giles Martin. The promo video has gathered mixed reactions from fans, but I think it's visually interesting. Paul appears as a holographic image, looking dapper in a slim Nehru jacket. Destiny is a science fiction shooting game, so the pairing with McCartney may seem odd in terms of personal values. But the lyrics really focus on imagery about reaching out to the future, discovery, and bringing light to darkness. It sounds to me like he embraced the hope that embodies space travel- especially for someone who grew up during the space race. As a creative recording project (which he did for free!), Hope For the Future delivers a majestic tune with stunning vocals. I love it! Check it out below and see what you think. The Sci-Fi element reminds me a bit of the robot-like Silly Love Songs sequence in his film, Give My Regards to Broadstreet. Enjoy!

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

WASSILY KANDINSKY

Happy Birthday to Wassily (Vasily) Kandinsky. The celebrated Russian painter and innovator was born on this day in 1866. Kandinsky's work went through an interesting transformation between the turn of the 20th Century and the 1920s, when he moved away from representational imagery to explore Constructivist and Suprematist ideas to create early abstractions using delineated shapes and overlapping planes. His interest in expression brought him to the Bauhaus in 1922, where he explored the psychological and spiritual effects of colors and forms. According to an article in the Telegraph, Kandinsky apparently had Synaethesia, a condition that enables a person to experience sounds, colors, and words with multiple senses at the same time. You can see a timeline of Kandinsky's work at the Guggenheim here. Image below: Composition 8 (1923). Learn more: Painting Music (NY Times), Birthday tribute at the Independent, Bauhaus design at The Met, The Bauhaus UNESCO World Heritage Sites here, Art at Bauhaus.


Sunday, December 14, 2014

HARDCORE DEVO LIVE

A new film of Devo performing their early material will be screened at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood on January 17th, followed by a discussion with the director, co-producer, and Devo members Mark Mothersbaugh, Gerald Casale, and Bob Mothersbaugh! The movie and soundtrack will see a wide release on Blu-ray/DVD and CD/LP on February 10th. Press release: "DEVO was among the most thought-provoking bands to emerge in the aftermath of punk, but before hits like "Whip It," DEVO worked in the basements and garages of Akron, Ohio, to make raw, unfiltered music that the group called "Hardcore DEVO." In the summer of 2014, DEVO did 10 shows performing these seminal pre-fame songs, created between 1974 and 1977 and rarely played since then. Shot at the Fox Theater in Oakland, California, this exciting concert film captures these groundbreaking artists performing the songs that started it all, interwoven with interviews revealing the history of the band." Ticket info here. Blu-ray on Amazon here. Images: Mothersbaugh and Casale in their early hardcore performance-art glory; Blu-ray cover design.

Saturday, December 13, 2014

STARN TWINS MTA

Get a tour of the new South Ferry subway station in Manhattan designed by artists Doug and Mike Starn. In this video by the Arts for Transit MTA program, the Starn Twins transform the space using their trademark experimental photography and sculptural elements to evoke the city's natural and historical identity. Enjoy! Learn more at the Stan Twins website here

Friday, December 12, 2014

JOHN CAGE

John Cage talks about silence and his love of sound, particularly the unpredictable sound of traffic on sixth avenue. 

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

MOMA ON MUSIC

A new exhibit opened at the Museum of Modern Art in NYC in November that focuses on the aesthetic connections between music and visual art and design. The scope of the collection is quite impressive, spanning designs for sound equipment, live hall spaces, sheet music, commercial design and graphics, as well as instruments themselves. Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye was curated by the Department of Architecture and Design and will be up through November 1, 2015. Official description from MOMA: "Music and design- art forms that share aesthetics of rhythm, tonality, harmony, interaction, and improvisation- have long had a close affinity, perhaps never more so than during the 20th century. Radical design and technological innovations, from the LP to the iPod and from the transistor radio to the Stratocaster, have profoundly altered our sense of how music can be performed, heard, distributed, and visualized. Avant-garde designers- among them Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Lilly Reich, Saul Bass, Jørn Utzon, and Daniel Libeskind- have pushed the boundaries of their design work in tandem with the music of their time. Drawn entirely from the Museum’s collection, Making Music Modern gathers designs for auditoriums, instruments, and equipment for listening to music, along with posters, record sleeves, sheet music, and animation. The exhibition examines alternative music cultures of the early 20th century, the rise of radio during the interwar period, how design shaped the “cool” aesthetic of midcentury jazz and hi-fidelity culture, and its role in countercultural music scenes from pop to punk, and later 20th-century design explorations at the intersection of art, technology, and perception." More details here. As a music fan and musician, I hope to make it to the exhibit. I image they included a number of graphic scores, which I'd love to see up close. And as a record collector, it must be thrilling to see the various designs for LP jackets and players. Promo image below: Radio by Hiroshi Ohchi, 1954. Ohchi (2008-1974) was a prominent designer and art director of IDEA magazine. Related posts: my visit to SFMOMA to see the Dieter Rams design show here, 8-Track Museum, Vintage Vinyl, London HMV



Monday, December 8, 2014

LAUGH WITH LENNON

Long before Rock 'N Roll arrived, one of John Lennon's passions was writing and illustrating satirical pieces in his school notebooks. A great fan of Lewis Carroll, his imagery could be surreal and distorted, cementing a style in childhood that would carry over into his later work as an author and musician. Lennon grew up listening to The Goons and his sense of humor can be traced to the context of Britain's own satire and surrealism boom in the late 1950s and 1960s. I honor John Lennon's passing today with a brief into this lineage of comedic pioneers, from Peter Sellers and Peter Cook, to John Lennon and Monty Python. Videos below: Lennon reads two poems in the mid-1960s and offers humorous ads for Tobias Sportwear during a radio DJ show in the 1970s.







With the rise of youth culture and a questioning of traditional class roles, social satire became the new frontier in late 1950s/early 1960s British humor. Following in the footsteps of Peter Sellers and The Goons, who offered a wild send-up of British characters and institutions, young comedians like Peter Cook and Dudley Moore of Beyond the Fringe and the future members of Monty Python became the acerbic voice of their generation. Some of the popular targets included class, the generation gap, authority, official media, media styles/conventions, education, family, and the job market. Comedy fans may recall Beyond the Fringe skits like The Great Train Robbery and my favorite below, One Leg Too Few. Film fans may remember John Schlesinger's Billy Liar (Tom Courtenay/1963) for its blend of satire and fantasy. John Lennon played a key role in this satirical climate, with his James Thurber-like books of cartoons and poetry, In His Own Write (1964) and A Spaniard in the Works (1965).



Surrealism experienced a major renaissance in the early-mid 1960s. Long before the mind-altering psychedelia that we associate with the decade was introduced, influential artists like John Lennon were already thinking outside the box. Inspired by the surrealism of Lewis Carroll, Lennon and others challenged the status quo with a playful and eschewed view. One figure who loomed large in this movement was an American ex-pat in London named Richard Lester, who had worked with The Goons on television projects. At the dawn of the sixties, he collaborated with Peter Sellers and Spike Milligan on a short film called the Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1960). John Lennon, a fan of The Goons, loved the movie and kept Lester in mind when it came time for The Beatles to make a motion picture. Seeing a clip from Running Jumping below, readers will recognize a gag which emerged in Monty Python years later called the Fish-Slapping Dance.


Richard Lester was picked to direct The Beatles in A Hard Day's Night (1964), also groundbreaking for its surreal segments, and he went on to direct the band in Help! (The Beatles/1965) and Lennon in How I Won the War (Tom Courtenay/John Lennon/1967). Lester also teamed with James Bond composer, John Barry, in two major pieces for the 1960s, The Knack... and How to Get it (Rita Tushingham/1965) and Petulia (Julie Christie/1968). Fans of The Monkees might recognize a surreal scene inspired by The Knack, where the characters wheel a bed through traffic.


The surreal and whimsical work of Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) resonated throughout the Arts in early-mid sixties England. John Lennon often listed the author as a big influence on his own imagery (see I am the Walrus below). A notable celebration of Lewis Carroll came in 1966 with the BBC's production of The Wednesday Play. With a soundtrack by Ravi Shankar, this surreal Alice in Wonderland film starred a who's who of British talent, including Peter Sellers (Goons/Pink Panther), Wilfrid Brambell (A Hard Days Night), Leo McKern, Sir Michael Redgrave, Eric Idle (Monty Python), Sir John Gielgud, and all four members of Beyond the Fringe, Peter Cook, Dudley Moore, Alan Bennett, and writer/director, Jonathan Miller. Most of the cast would appear again in a 1972 Alice film. Spy fans will recognize a number of actors in the film for their appearances in surreal action shows like The Avengers and The Prisoner. Video below: clips from Alice in Wonderland.


An element that is pointed out when discussing the performance style of the period is the breaking of the fourth wall (when actors speak directly to the audience). This was not a new technique. Eugene O'Neill is one playwright who employed it in his play, Strange Interlude. This was parodied in the 1930s by the Marx Brothers, when Groucho actually spoke of "corridors." The convention was also seen in the wartime and post-war comedies by Bob Hope and the Warner Brothers animation studio. The sudden, snappy interplay between character and viewer was hip again in the 1960s. This convention of storytelling had an element of participation that I believe created a deeper level of engagement with the largely young audience. As viewers saw Julie Christie interact on-screen with a TV soap opera in Fahrenheit 451 (1966), films like Alfie (1966), How I Won the War (1967), and The Knack...and How to Get it (1965) actually put the movie-going viewer right into the action. Below: Lennon segments in How I Won the War.


Additional Viewing: Essential favorites from the satire/surrealism boom also include The Wrong Box (Michael Caine/Peter Cook/Dudley Moore/1966) Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969-1974), Not Only But Also (Peter Cook/Dudley Moore/1965-1970), Bedazzled (Peter Cook/Dudley Moore/1967), The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (Peter Cook/1970), The Bed Sitting Room (Richard Lester/Peter Cook/Rita Tushingham/1969), and Magical Mystery Tour (The Beatles/1967). Lennon incorporated an odd dream into the movie where he shoveled pasta onto a "fat lady's" plate. My particular favorite sequence is this musical visualization for I Am the Walrus

Saturday, December 6, 2014

JOHN LENNON ART BOOK

New Release: Fans of John Lennon and The Beatles may be interested in a new book called John Lennon: The Collected Artwork. Compiled by Scott Gutterman, writer and director of the Neu Gallery, and Yoko Ono, the project features familiar and obscure visual works by Lennon that include early childhood cartoons, illustrations, lithographs, and experimental images. Much of Lennon's work has been over-saturated, particularly the cover image, but the book will include twenty-five pieces that have never been published before. Clocking in at 204 pages, The Collected Artwork will be published by Insight Editions on Dec 23rd (US date). From Amazon: "Over the course of John Lennon’s career, his work as an artist expressed the societal themes that touched his life. Until now, little of this work has been seen in one place. For the first time, John Lennon: The Collected Artwork offers a captivating history of Lennon’s visionary art, from his early childhood to his untimely death in 1980. Lennon’s artwork predated his success with the Beatles and remained a passion throughout his years as a music legend. During his lifetime, he produced numerous series of sketches and lithographs, which were published starting in the early 1960s. Often surreal and composed through a method of free association, his drawings from this period were widely considered some of the finest interpretive artworks of the era. In 1969, Lennon began exhibiting selected drawings from a series entitled Bag One. This array was wildly popular and frequently censored due to its overt eroticism. His peace-themed sketches were elevated through their use in antiwar movements, beginning in the 1970s and continuing to the present day. Capturing his emotional, political, and imaginative energy, this lavishly produced collection serves as a timeless record of John Lennon’s creative spirit." AmazonUK link here



Thursday, December 4, 2014

NEW MURAKAMI BOOK

The Strange Library by Haruki Murakami was published this week by Knopf in the US and by Harvill Secker in the UK. Released in collaboration with Chip Kidd, who provided illustrations and design, the book is only the first in a number of older Murakami projects scheduled to finally see English-language releases. From my conversation with translator Ted Goossen in October, it sounds like fans of Japan's master of surreal mystery can expect to see a few more works published in English in the next year or two. Can't wait! The Strange Library has been listed as Amazon's Best Book of the Month and Neal Thompson has posted this intriguing review: "What an odd and oddly beautiful little book. A little boy enters a quiet library -- “even more hushed than usual,” we’re told in the opening line -- and is sent to Room 107, where he meets a creepy old librarian who leads him deep into a maze of dark catacombs beneath the library. There, we learn of the librarian’s ghoulish designs and the boy encounters a small man wearing the skin of a sheep and a pretty young girl pushing a teacart, their worlds now “all jumbled together.” Not even fresh-made doughnuts can sweeten the boy’s nightmarish predicament as the librarian’s prisoner. The Strange Library was designed and illustrated by famed book jacket designer (and frequent Murakami collaborator) Chip Kidd, whose moody and mysterious depictions of a child’s (and a parent’s) darkest dream match Murakami’s surreal imagination. It’s hard to discern the message. Maybe something about knowledge being free or the value of libraries. No matter. This is vintage Murakami and, at the same time, something entirely fresh. No one puts animal skins on humans like Murakami. No one would dare." Images: From the Art Pioneers Murakami Design image archive on Pinterest- new book designs and photographs of Murakami's own office space. Note the large record collection! The novelist once owned a jazz club in Tokyo called Peter Cat! Cool to see he is a Glenn Gould fan. Murakami has published many pieces about music, including a new book with conductor Seiji Ozawa (Japanese edition here). The Strange Library is available at local bookshops and at Amazon US and Amazon UK.








Tuesday, December 2, 2014

DAVID BYRNE MOVES

We continue our spotlight on David Byrne today with two videos that feature his interest in bringing strong elements of movement to his music. Byrne's career has included ties to modern dance, perhaps most notably with his compositions for The Knee Plays (Robert Wilson's experimental opera with Byrne, Philip Glass, and Gavin Bryars), and The Catherine Wheel with Twyla Tharp. Mainstream audiences got a glimpse of Byrne's own quirky movement choices in the official video for Once in a Lifetime (1980), the classic Talking Heads track made in collaboration with Brian Eno. The piece was co-directed by performer and choreographer Toni Basil (Antonia Christina Basilotta), who also choreographed Crosseyed and Painless, David Bowie and Bette Midler tours, as well as films like American Graffiti and That Thing You Do. Once in a Lifetime rose the bar for video art in the 1980s and is exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art. Post continues below.


David Byrne re-explored his work with Brian Eno for a 2008-2009 performance tour, which included the integration of modern dance by Noemie Lafrance, Annie B. Parson, Sonya Robbins, and Layla Childs. The production was recorded on film by David Hillman Curtis and released on DVD/Blu-ray in 2011. One of the most exciting sequences (below) is their rendition of Houses in Motion. In his 2011 interview with Helen Jack (The Quietus), Byrne said, "Well, in talking with the choreographers we all realised that it was really important to integrate what they were doing with the dancers with the rest of us. So in rehearsals they first worked with the dancers and then there was time spent to bring the singers in, to involve the three singers, to impart some of their movement and then me – to see how much I could be involved with what they were doing. And as the tour went on, I realised, for example, that Stephen [one of the dancers] plays guitar and sings so I thought OK we're going to add you to the band on some numbers and then we had the dancers singing on one number. We can blur the lines between what 'department' you're in.

"Although I'd seen these choreographers work before I realised that the world of contemporary dance is a kind of rarefied world which tends to have a very small audience. But we discovered that putting some of that stuff in more of a pop music context changed it and made it more accessible, made it seem a little less rarefied and took a way a bit of the fear factor, the 'I don't know what this is about.' It just kind of makes it all mush together and everybody goes 'Oh! This is a music concert, I understand that.' but as far as the feeling of humour mixed with dread and the kind of light and dark and balancing those elements - [long pause] I think we were just kind of lucky that way – the choreographers, dancers, band everybody kinda sensed where that balance might be – not to go into complete silliness and not to let it go too dark for too long." Related post: David Byrne St Vincent

Monday, December 1, 2014

DAVID BYRNE ST VINCENT

Many records cross my radar, but Love This Giant (2012) by David Byrne (Talking Heads) and St Vincent really stood out as November's most interesting discovery. If you're like me, you may have seen the album around over the last year or so, but didn't know what to make of it. I hadn't yet heard St Vincent/Annie Clark (so glad I've caught up!), but their collaborations won me over immediately once I gave them a listen. I now wish I had explored the project early enough to catch their live performances. The official video for the album's opening track, Who, features some wonderful visuals- another reminder that Byrne has an interest in movement as well as music. And like his work on Stop Making Sense so long ago, his choices appear fresh and individual. More on this topic soon! Enjoy!