Important Albums of 2008
Album sales might be decreasing every year, but that doesn’t mean anything for 2008. Whether you bought them on special edition vinyl, downloaded them, or streamed them off of Seeqpod, the following albums probably made it into your playlist at some point during the course of the year. The past twelve months have given us plenty of important debut albums, career-shifting solo efforts, and also a good handful of reliable releases from well-established acts. You know it’s a great year when campus geeks Vampike Weekend take the world by storm within months of the release of Coldplay’s piéce-de-résistance, “Viva la vida, or Death and All His Friends.”
Songs With Words
Fundamentally, choral music is difficult to listen to. Certainly, there are technical issues that are prevalent throughout all of music — unusual dissonances, uncompromising forms and lengths — but choral music, in particular, adds another significant complexity.
Freddie Hubbard: 1938–2008
Playing trumpet with the masters of jazz (Sonny Rollins, Eric Dolphy, Quincy Jones) by twenty, Freddie Hubbard was key in the development of both free jazz and jazz fusion. A protege of Miles Davis, Hubbard brought a new fire to the instrument with chop-busting high notes and a controlled, unique tone. He participated in innovative work both as a sideman (Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage, Oliver Nelson’s The Blues and the Abstract Truth, Ornette Coleman’s Free Jazz) and soared as a frontman (Hub Cap, Ready for Freddie). In the 70’s, Hubbard signed on to the new Creed Taylor label CTI, going on to produce some of his most famous albums: Red Clay, Straight Life, First Light, and others. Hubbard continued playing to general acclaim for several decades, even after suffering an upper lip injury in 1992 that would largely remove him from the scene (an injury tragically brought on by Hubbard’s unrelenting lip technique). Hubbard died on the morning of December 29, 2008, at his home in California. He is survived by his wife, Briggie, and his son, Duane.—<i>Samuel Markson</i>
The Year in Campus Concerts
Two thousand and eight saw an explosion of student music groups and student-organized concerts on campus. Dormitories cleaned out their basements and put on shows to increasingly eager crowds. Kicking off the year with Bexxxley Roxxx Some More, an epic concert at Bexley Hall in February 2008, soon other dorms and frats followed suit in a chain of concerts to remember. The growing music scene encouraged bands like Fortran, The Pears, Space Faces, Chicken Scratch, and Pesticide Red to form. The end of 2008 saw the birth of many new bands as fresh talent from the freshman class came in. The advent of WMBR Live also brought concerts to campus, encouraging bands to write new material and put on riveting shows. Here’s a look at some memorable shows from the year!
CONCERT REVIEW The Man Who Makes Gypsy-Rock Symphonies
Having just returned from a Killers concert earlier in the week, I was both anticipative and tentative about the Andrew Bird concert at the Orpheum. On the day of the concert, I still hadn’t received my tickets in the mail, so I fearfully asked my roommate if I would be placed in the mosh pit. “Andrew Bird? A mosh pit? It’s in the freakin’ Orpheum for crying out loud!” Apparently “mosh pit” should never be in the same sentence as “Andrew Bird” — correction, not even in the same line of thought.
CD REVIEW Beats and Electronics on Beats and Electronics
Most Radiohead fans consumed Thom Yorke’s 2006 solo effort, <i>The Eraser</i>, as a welcome treat in that awkward limbo period between the releases of <i>Hail To The Theif</i> and <i>In Rainbows</i>. But it you call it filler, at least call it good filler. Now that the <i>In Rainbows</i> craze has died down a little, we find Thom Yorke releasing a remix album to satiate our thirst for Radiohead-related material (at least temporarily, that is). Last week, Yorke released a compilation (available only in Japan until now) entitled <i>The Eraser Remixes</i>, housed in a package mimicking the original acclaimed artwork of its predecessor.
CONCERT REVIEW Making Mainstream Cool
The Killers are a well-established band. While some may categorize them as “mainstream,” to me, they will always be in their own class. They’re just a bit too off, a bit too awkward, and a bit too raw to fit in with the likes of, say, Coldplay or Switchfoot. Their creative usage of electronica, sometimes profound lyrics, and eccentricity were all virtues that had me shrieking when I was first offered a free concert ticket by a friend.
THEATER REVIEW The Corn is Green at the Huntington Theatre
Lights come up. Welsh hymns slowly fill the air. Actor scurry about stage. The modern day is left at the doorstep and nineteenth-century Wales comes to the fore.
UPCOMING EVENTS Serving in Heaven to Reigning in Hell
<i>“Of Man’s First Disobedience, and the Fruit, Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal tast, Brought Death into the World, and all our woe, With loss of Eden, till one greater Man, Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat, Sing Heav’nly Muse …”</i>
CONCERT REVIEW Joshua Redman at Berklee Performance Center
Joshua Redman has high notes. He has low notes. He has trills. I could go further, and talk about brilliant expressionism, the emotive quality of his playing and that of his ensemble. It’s easy to hear that he knows how to make “jazz.”
Staff Picks
<b><i>Sam Markson</i></b>: “I’m eyeing the program at <i>Ryles</i> this week. Also check out some of the shows at <i>Berklee</i> (big stage and small — a lot of them free). For you theatrical types, check out <i>The Corn is Green</i> at the <i>Huntington</i> (see article), Chekhov’s <i>The Seagull</i> at the <i>Zero Arrow Theatre</i>, and Howard Zinn’s <i>Daughter of Venus</i> at <i>Boston Playwrights’ Theatre</i> (great for families, I hear).”
CONCERT REVIEW Hope at the End of Things
Hearing the all-star cast of the Tashi quartet (Peter Serkin, Ida Kavafian, Fred Sherry, and Richard Stoltzman) record Messiaen’s quartet in 1976 feels much like looking at pictures of your parents before they had any children. Each of these musicians has gone on to an illustrious musical careers of his own, and this particular recording was made before much of their serious careers as musicians. Although younger at the time of this recording, the quartet realizes Messiaen’s work with a mature exuberance and an intense attention to motive and detail that vaulted Messiaen’s music to the fame it currently enjoys: the vast litany of recordings of the work all seem to begin with this one in mind. Though this is an older recording, there is still no surprise that it was recommended by Alex Ross in his recent work, “The Rest is Noise”.
MOVIE REVIEW ★★★ Portrait of a City
Tokyo!” is a three-part film connected only by the Japanese capital and the eerie strangeness of the unconventional, distinctive portrayals. All three directors’ contributions provoke investigation of the supernatural and fantastic, while maintaining the underlying themes of self-discovery and human relationships.
What I’m Listening To
The story of jazz is a desperate struggle of birth and rebirth, of constantly trying to ride the “new,” of reinventing how we feel and relate to the world. Today’s innovators fuse genres, add instruments, at once rejecting the past and later resurrecting it. The jazz gods need constant infusions of blood to stay happy.
CD REVIEW Who Can Turn Skies Back and Begin Again?
Who would’ve ever thought George Crabbe? In fact: who’d ever heard of George Crabbe?
Staff Picks
<b><i>Sam Markson:</i></b><i> </i>“Gilfema and Either/Orchestra look solid, Wednesday and Saturday nights this week at the Regattabar. Also check out Chekhov’s <i>The Seagull</i> at the Zero Arrow Theatre.
CONCERT REVIEW Hiromi’s SonicBloom at Berklee Performance Center
I could say that Hiromi Uehara is one part Santana, one part Robert Fripp, and one part Monk, but it wouldn’t do her justice. Brought up in the Japanese conservatory environment and trained at Berklee (joining in 2003), Hiromi has carved out her distinctive musical niche by marrying her traditional, virtuosic training with an avant-garde flavor.
CONCERT REVIEW Bad Plus Play Residency at New York’s Village Vanguard
A little business, a lot of casual. The members of The Bad Plus look less like performers than the awkward guys who forgot to dress up for the dinner party that is 9:00 at the Village Vanguard. Thirty-something yuppies sip at their Cabernet Sauvignon while three dudes jam in the corner. Go to a Bad Plus show and you’ll be as likely to hear a Nirvana cover as a heavily warped version of a Ligeti composition. Bassist Reid Anderson wails out surreal, textured lines while drummer David King lays out a frenetic beat complete with baby toy tambourines and other contraptions as garnishes. Rock out with your Jazz-Purists’-Shock out. Jazz you can almost dance to?
FESTIVAL REVIEW ‘First Night’ Celebration Electrifies Boston
I boarded the 12:30 December 31 New York-Boston bus at the Port Authority, as my peers in line scoffed “I wonder why so many people are going to Boston for New Years.” At the time, that made sense. I had initially planned to stay in New York, but convenience and fatigue turned the Peter Pan bus line into an inexpensive and only slightly sketchy hotel. I knew vaguely that there was an arts festival in Boston on December 31 — the so-called “First Night” — and that it had some pretty slick events. I was down, and I was looking forward to sleeping in a bed that belonged to me.