SOUNDTRACK: THE WESTERLIES-Tiny Desk Concert #576 (November 2, 2016).
The Westerlies call themselves “an accidental brass quartet,” (two trumpets and two trombones). I don’t know if a brass quartet has a “standard make up,” but having only two instruments seems to make for an unexpected sound–one that feels more like a marching band than a swing or big band, but which is clearly not playing marching band music. “Trumpeters Riley Mulherkar and Zubin Hensler and trombonists Andy Clausen and Willem de Koch can blow hard — after all, this is a brass band — but the surprise comes in their soft tones and subtle phrasing.”
The band doesn’t only play standards either. For this Tiny Desk, they play three originals:
Clausen provides two tunes, beginning with “New Berlin, New York,” which sports a snappy theme, standing out like a bright tie on a smart suit. A scurrying pattern of interlocking notes furnishes the underlying fabric. [I really like the staccato trombone notes which are really fast and bouncy. Mulherkar gets a pretty cool solo in the middle of the piece, but it sounds best when the two trumpets play together. And yet there is another moment later on where it’s just one trumpet and one trombone and it sounds very cool. I love watching the trombone play all of those fast notes].
Hensler’s “Run On Down” evokes the calm beauty of Washington’s San Juan Islands, north of the band’s former home base. [I love that he can get a different sound out of his trumpet without seeming to do anything different in his playing style. The song opens with two lonely sounding trumpets. Midway through Clausen plays a sound like a person talking or humming. I didn’t know you could change the tone and sound of a trombone like that].
Clausen ‘s closing number, “Rue Des Rosiers,” conjures up the circus-like vibe of a Parisian street scene. A whimsical theme gradually coalesces from fragments and grows into a rollicking amusement. [He introduces the piece by saying it was “inspired by a crazy old man riding a tricycle down the street of Paris. It was a giant tricycle and was wearing a beautiful bejeweled vest and there were windmills and horns and was something straight out of the circus.” And boy, does this ever evoke circus music with the opening bass notes and the screaming trumpet. The song slows down before building up into a rollicking circus piece. And when one trumpet and one trombone put a mute on the sound gets all the more wild. The piece ends with a variation on the traditional circus music before concluding].
[READ: June 2, 2016] Copper
After enjoying Kabuishi’s Explorer series I saw this book by him.
Copper was his first “comic strip” creation. The story follows a boy named Copper who is quiet adventuresome and his dog Fred who is practical–and tries to keep him out of trouble.
In the introduction, Kabuishi says that the first comic (called Rocket Pack Fantasy) reflected his inner life at the time. This proved to be his first published comic. It was pretty dark (and black and white). In that first one, he imagines wearing a rocket pack and then dropping bombs on a city.
But after a few more strips, Copper became more optimistic and Fred was there to question that optimism. Kabuishi also added color.
The stories have fantastical settings or are set in dreamscapes. Big Robot and Bubbles are both set in the dream realm While later stories are just in unusual (but natural) places–Copper and Fred surfing or mountain climbing. Or walking through ruins or even piloting a helicopter to get some of Aunt Koko’s melon bread.
The first longer story (several pages) is called Mushroom Crossing, and it is wonderfully surreal.
About a third of the way through the stories we finally meet a new semi-regular character–she is an unnamed girl who throws a piece of paper at him which says nice to meet ya. She comes by again later and she puts a pink bow on Fred.
The fantasy scenes continue as he imagines being in the graffiti on a train (this one was very cool). But there’s also darker ones, like when they are living in what looks like a junkyard or on the water. In one they are in outer space and in another they are in a casino. And there are lots and lots of robots.
Kibuishi draws a lot for mushrooms and other striking elements. But there’s also amusing characters like the rabbit- like creatures (who are bittersweet) and fish and machines.
Despite all of the fantasy elements, one of the funniest moments is when Fred (a talking dog) spots and needs to chase his tail.
There’s a very lengthy story called Maiden Voyage in which Copper builds and flies a plane
About midway through the book he adds some interestingly designed spaces to his pages. They tend to have a very large center picture and then a panels on either side–they are visually striking.
The final story is another long one called Lunch Pack.
The stories are usually enjoyable and interesting–never exactly funny or sad, just interesting.
Kibuishi’s drawing style is very satisfying–his lines are very round and everything has a very simple, easy feeling to it.
The end of the book is a Behind the Scenes in which he writes about how he creates things.
He begins by drawing thumbnails on white paper. Then he transfers those to a very large sheet of Bristol paper (19 x 24 inches). He creates panels and penciling. Then he does the lettering. And finally he inks the whole thing.
At this pint he scans everything into Photoshop where he adds colors (I found this process to be quite fascinating).
I really like Kibuishi and hope he has more works coming out soon.
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