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Archive for the ‘Authors’ Category

Bob Boilen–Your Song Changed My Life: From Jimmy Page to St. Vincent, Smokey Robinson to Hozier, Thirty-Five Beloved Artists on Their Journey and the Music That Inspired It (2016)

Posted in All Songs Considered, Angel Olsen, Asaf Avidan, Ásgeir, Bob Boilen, Bon Iver, Books about music, Carrie Brownstein, Cat Power, Cat Stevens, Chris Thile, Colin Meloy, Conor Oberst, Courtney Barnett, Dave Grohl, David Byrne, Fantastic Negrito, Glenn Gould, Hüsker Dü, Hozier, Ian MacKaye, Interviews, Jackson Browne, James Blake, Jónsi, Jeff Tweedy, Jimmy Page, Josh Ritter, Justin Vernon, Kate Tempest, Leon Bridges, Lucinda Williams, Michael Stipe, Nickel Creek, NPR/PRI/PBS, Philip Glass, Pokey LaFarge, R.E.M., Rilo Kiley, Sara Watkins, Scritti Politti, Sharon Van Etten, Smokey Robinson, St. Vincent, The Beatles, The Staves, The Velvet Underground, Tiny Desk Concert, Tiny Desk Contest, Tiny Desk Unit, Trey Anastasio, West Side Story, Wilco on July 20, 2016| Leave a Comment »

boilenSOUNDTRACK: ANGEL OLSEN-Tiny Desk Concert #333 (January 27, 2014).

angelBob Boilen has liked Angel Olsen for some time, so when she did her Tiny Desk and most of us had never heard of her, he was already a fan.

Olsen plays a long set but with four songs.

She sits very still, strumming with her thumb and singing kind of low–not unlike Sharon van Etten.  The first song, “Unfucktheworld” is only two ans a half minutes.  The second song, “Iota,” is a little longer.  She sings in an affected almost falsetto style, although the guitar remains very spare.

Between these songs, she is coy about the title of the new record although she is quick to say the first word of the title “burn.”  Later she admits that the final song contains the title of the album, if we wanted to spend time figuring it out.

I marvelled at how high the chords were that she played on “Enemy,”  She seems to eschew any bass for this song.  This one is five and a half minutes long and is just as slow as the others.

Before the final song they talk about whether this is the most awkward show she has done.  She says everyone is very alert–and indeed you can hear utter silence between songs.  But then they talk about the storm outside (and potential tornado) and how this show may never air if the storm is really bad.

“White Fire” is an 8 minute story song.  She does use the whole guitar for this one, which has many many verses.   Since I don’t really know Olsen’s stuff that well, I don’t know if this was a good example of her show or a fun treat to hear her in such an intimate way.

[READ: May 10, 2016] Your Song Changed My Life

This site is all about music and books, but you may be surprised to know that I don’t really like books about music all that much.  I have read a number of them—biographies, autobiography or whatever, and I don’t love them wholesale. Some are fine, but in general musicians aren’t really as interesting as they may seem.

What I do like however, is hearing a decent interview with musicians to find out some details about them–something that will flesh out my interest in them or perhaps make me interested in someone I previously wasn’t.  Not a whole book, maybe just an article, I guess.

I also really like Bob Boilen. I think he’s a great advocate of music and new bands.  I have been listening to his shows on NPR for years and obvious I have been talking about hundreds of the Tiny Desk Concerts that he originated.  I also really like his taste in music.  So I was pretty psyched when Sarah got me this book for my birthday.

I read it really quickly–just devoured the whole thing.  And it was really enjoyable. (more…)

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Mary Karr–“High Maintenance” (New Yorker, May 16, 2016)

Posted in André Leon Talley, David Foster Wallace, Essays, Hillary Clinton, History, Mary Karr, New Yorker, Suzanne Vega, Tiny Desk Concert, Victoria Beckham on July 19, 2016| Leave a Comment »

may16 SOUNDTRACK: SUZANNE VEGA-Tiny Desk Concert #336 (February 10, 2014).

vegaSuzanne Vega is practically a one hit wonder except that she has released a half-dozen great albums that are full of wonderful songs.  I stopped listening to her some time in the mid 90’s, so I missed her 2000s comeback, but this four-song show from 2014 has her two most famous songs and two songs from her then about t o be released album Tales from the Realm of the Queen of Pentacles.

As the Concert opens, she asks “for real?” and the hits the Tiny Desk gong (with quite a flourish).

Then she launches into “Luka.”  She plays acoustic guitar and sings.  Her voice sounds pretty much exactly as it did twenty years ago.  In part, sure, it’s because her singing voice is practically a whisper, but it’s amazing how good she sounds.  She has a second guitarist, Gerry Leonard, with her (on electric guitar) who plays a great sounding solo in the middle of the song.

The first new song is “Crack in the Wall.”  She says that it  describes when a crack appears allowing you to see into the spiritual world.  In this version (I don’t know the studio version), it sounds a lot like an old song–stripped down and simple, with Vega’s interesting gentle acoustic guitar chords and voice.  There’s also a cool echoed electric guitar solo.

For “I Never Wear White” she takes off the acoustic guitar.  It’s just her singing and Leonard playing.  And his guitar his rough and distorted.  It is pretty shocking for a Vega song, but it works really well with her voice.  I really like this song a lot.

She ends with “Tom’s Diner.”  She was going to say the one and only, but says they’ve done so many different versions of it.  So this is their latest.  She sings parts a capella but the guitar plays some wonderful washes of sounds (looped) with different parts layered.  He also plays a percussive sound that makes the song kind of danceable.  And when she mentions the bells of the cathedral, Gerry plays some cool harmonic notes that are echoed and sound like clock chimes.  It’s very cool.

Vega’s speaking voice sound a little like Hillary Clinton’s (especially during the thank yous at the end).  But it’s nice that her singing voice still sounds the same and that 2014 album seems like it might be interesting.

[READ: July 6, 2016] “High Maintenance”

The May 16, 2016 issue of the New Yorker had a series called “Univent This” in which six authors imagine something that they could make go away. Since I knew many of them, I decided to write about them all.  I have to wonder how much these writers had to think about their answers, or if they’d imagined this all along.

I’ve never read Mary Karr, I only know her peripherally as connected with David Foster Wallace.  This may not have been the best introduction to her, although since she mostly writes memoirs, maybe this is the perfect introduction.

Mary Karr would like to uninvent high heels.  And while she does speak of this with some humor, the entire article just reeks of vanity and foolishness.  (The fact that she even mentions she can still squeeze into a size 4 should tell you all you need to know about this essay). (more…)

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Charlie Brooker–“Dance, Off” (New Yorker, May 16, 2016)

Posted in Charlie Brooker, Dance, Essays, Fanfare Ciocarlia, New Yorker, Tiny Desk Concert on July 13, 2016| Leave a Comment »

may16 SOUNDTRACK: FANFARE CIOCARLIA-Tiny Desk Concert #335 (February 8, 2014).

fanfareFanfare Ciocarlia (pronounced “fan-FAR-eh cho-car-LEE-ah”) is a 12 piece Balkan brass band from the Romanian village of Zece Prăjini.  They are frenetic and wild, who knows what they are singing, but boy are they having fun playing.

On the left side we have four men in black all with big brass instruments–sousaphones and baritone horns and the like.  On the right side we have eight men in red shirts.  The far right have trumpets and saxophones or and down the middle are the percussionists and the singer.  And when they play, everyone is in motion, including the audience.

“Sirba De La Monastirea” is a super fast instrumental–the tempo is insane with the red shirted guys’ fingers flying up and down the horns.  It’s practically like a punk klezmer song.  Hard to dance to but impossible to sit still during.

“Lume, Lume” has vocals. It opens with a fast section but the song slows down to some gentle washes of bass horns–slow and mournful.  After some verses, a sax solo (which sounds like a clarinet for some reason) plays over the horns.  But once the solo is over, the song picks up with a clap-along that grows faster and faster until it once again hits breakneck speed.

“Asfalt Tango” opens with a lot of bass–low horns and drums.  And then that sax/clarinet comes in and wails around.  There are times when the song sounds somewhat mariachi (especially with the red suits).  The trumpets take over which is pretty magnificent.  After a few minutes (the whole song is about 9 minutes long), the band drops away and the sax plays a real solo–just him–until a trumpet and bass horn take over with the melody of “Summertime” while the rest of the band dances or claps along.

The band is having such a good time.  They are lots of fun, cheering and clapping and raising their hands in praise.  Whatever these songs are about, this they area  lot of fun.

[READ: July 6, 2016] “Dance, Off”

The May 16, 2016 issue of the New Yorker had a series called “Univent This” in which six authors imagine something that they could make go away. Since I knew many of them, I decided to write about them all.  I have to wonder how much these writers had to think about their answers, or if they’d imagined this all along.

Brooker, while serious, certainly has fun with his uninvention.  He would like dance to be eradicated.  “I’d sooner defecate on live TV than dance at your wedding.”

He says he is awkward at the best of times so any kind of  attempt to make him coordinate his body with music is astronomically cruel. (more…)

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Alexandra Kleeman–“Seeing Double” (New Yorker, May 16, 2016)

Posted in Alexandra Kleeman, Essays, History, Mirrors, New Yorker, Robert Glasper Experiment, Tiny Desk Concert on July 12, 2016| Leave a Comment »

may16 SOUNDTRACK: ROBERT GLASPER EXPERIMENT-Tiny Desk Concert #332 (January 20, 2014).

glasperI am unfamiliar with Robert Glasper, but he is a whirlwind on the keyboard and a n excellent improviser.  He’s also pretty funny.  Before the show starts he made a few jokes including picking up a nearby phone and whispering that they were about to do a concert.

The band plays three songs.  I hated the first one, but really enjoyed the second two.

Glasper is classified as neo-soul or R&B.  He typically has a core band and many guests.  The first song is “Trust” which features Marsha Ambrosius on vocals and it is everything I dislike in R&B.  While she has a lovely voice, she does all kinds of trills and vibratos and frippery that turns the 6 minute song into an endless excursion (although everyone else in the room loves it, so it’s obviously just me).

The other two songs are instrumental and fare much better.

The first is called “NPR Tiny Desk Jam (Part 1)” and is an improvised piece. He talks to the other guys and they agree to “Make up something funner than playing something we know.” I love the bass sound on this song.  And for much of it bassist Derrick Hodge, is playing the main part (Hodge has his own albums out too).  When Glasper throws in the little splashes of keys they work really well too.  And the drummer Mark Colenburg, is doing some amazing things with just a snare drum and some bells.  It’s a great 7 minute jam.

  The final song”F.T.B. (Gonna Be Alright)” is one that he has done as an instrumental and with vocals.  Thankfully this version is instrumental.  Although after the opening notes he sings “hey, yeah” which makes the rest of the band laugh and stop.  As the song starts off, much to Bob Boilen’s delight, Glasper grabs the Tiny Desk gong and the drummer uses it in the song.   It’s another good jazzy song with some more excellent bass playing.  I might wind up calling this the Derrick Hodge Experiment instead.

[READ: July 6, 2016] “Seeing Double”

The May 16, 2016 issue of the New Yorker had a series called “Univent This” in which six authors imagine something that they could make go away. Since I knew many of them, I decided to write about them all.  I have to wonder how much these writers had to think about their answers, or if they’d imagined this all along.

This uninvent essay is about mirrors.  I enjoyed the opening of the essay in which Kleeman talks about the superstitions behind mirrors–things I didn’t really know about.  A Victorian superstition claims that a mirror captures a portion of one’s soul, which is why breaking a mirror is bad luck–it injures the soul.

And after someone died, mirrors were covered to prevent the soul from becoming trapped.

But Kleeman is more concerned with the surface level engagement we have now because of mirrors. (more…)

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Lee Child–“Telling Tales” (New Yorker, May 16, 2016)

Posted in Afro Blue, Essays, History, Lee Child, New Yorker, Saber-Toothed Tiger, Tiny Desk Concert on July 11, 2016| Leave a Comment »

may16 SOUNDTRACK: AFRO BLUE-Tiny Desk Concert #331 (January 13, 2014).

afroblueAfro Blue, a nine-member a cappella troupe from Howard University in Washington, D.C.

They sing three African American spirituals.  “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” is done very slowly, and you can really hear the power in the words of this often ill-used song.

“Motherless Child” I know from Richie Havens, but this version is much slower and impassioned.  The chorus is much different from any version I’ve heard before.

“Ain-a That Good News” is a song I didn’t know.  It has their most powerful chorus of vocals and ends the Concert in a great way.

[READ: July 6, 2016] “Telling Tales”

The May 16, 2016 issue of the New Yorker had a series called “Univent This” in which six authors imagine something that they could make go away. Since I knew many of them, I decided to write about them all.  I have to wonder how much these writers had to think about their answers, or if they’d imagined this all along.

Child says that he saw his 92-year-old father who was in very poor health.  Lee told him that he had been a good man (which was not true).  He says that his father probably said the same thing to his own father (which may or may not have been true).

He says that it is language (and syntax and grammar) that helped us become what we are–we could now plan and theorize and speculate. (more…)

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Lars Jansson–Moomin: Volume Nine (The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip) (2014)

Posted in Adventure, Animals, Boredom, Children's Books, Circus, Cute, Drawn & Quarterly, Evening News London, Funny (ha ha), Lars Jansson, Lily & Madeleine, Magic, Moomin, Sports, Supernatural, Surreal, Tiny Desk Concert, Tove Jansson on July 9, 2016| Leave a Comment »

moomin9SOUNDTRACK: LILY & MADELEINE-Tiny Desk Concert #330 (January 7, 2014).

lilmadLily & Madeleine are a duo (surprise!).  But for a real surprise, they are sisters and at the time of the recording Lily was 16 and Madeleine was 18.  They sing beautiful folkie rock with fantastic harmonies.

That’s Lily on guitar and Madeleine on keys (and higher harmonies).

They play threes songs.  The first one, “Devil We Know” is amazing.  Their harmonies start off the song and it’s a beauty.  It’s an uptempo song that has a gorgeous verse.

“Paradise” features each sister singing an individual verse before the other chimes in with a harmony.  And while their individual voices are nice, when they harmonize it’s really something.

“You Got Out” sounds like a folk song from long ago–with the chord structure and harmony “ooohs.”

The duo is really great and they have just released a new record this year.

[READ: March 19, 2016] Moomin Volume 9

Moomin Book 9 and every subsequent book is made entirely of strips written and drawn by Lars Jansson.  These stories originally ran in the Evening News, London 1960-1975.  I have more or less caught up with the Moomin series at this point.  Book Ten has been released but my library does not have it yet.

This book tends to veer away from the Moomin family a little bit.  Of course they are still present, they just aren’t always the focus, as you might be able to tell by the chapter titles:  “Damsel in Distress” “Fuddle and Married Life” “Sniff’s Sports Shop” “Mymble’s Diamonds.”

(more…)

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Lars Jansson–Moomin: Volume Eight (The Complete Lars Jansson Comic Strip) (2013)

Posted in Adventure, Animals, Boredom, Children's Books, Circus, Cute, Drawn & Quarterly, Erik Satie, Evening News London, Funny (ha ha), Lars Jansson, Magic, Moomin, Supernatural, Surreal, Tiny Desk Concert, Tove Jansson, Van-Anh Vanessa Vo on July 8, 2016| Leave a Comment »

moomin8SOUNDTRACK: VAN-ANH VANESSA VO-Tiny Desk Concert #329 (January 4, 2014).

voOne of the things I love about the Tiny Desk Concerts is that they expose listeners to artists that we’d never encounter anywhere else.  As a person who loves rock, there’s no way I’d encounter this artist who plays traditional Vietnamese music.  Even though I think she;s amazing, I’d have no exposure to her otherwise.  So this is a wonderful treat–even more so to see her play in such a small space.

Van-Anh Vanessa Vo is a Vietnamese born musician living in America.  Typically the field of Vietnamese traditional music is dominated by men, but she fought to learn and here she demonstrates her skill on three very different instruments.

The first song “Three-Mountain Pass” is played on the Hang.  The Hang is like a steel drum with different sounds at all of the flattened indentations.  There’s also a tone in the middle which resonates nicely.   It is played with the fingers rather than mallets.  It’s a cool instrument to be sure.  For this song she also sings a Vietnamese song that is very breathy.

For the second song, she has taken Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 3 and arranged it for dan Bau, the traditional 9th century Vietnamese monocord. The instrument (“invented by beggers on the street”) has a single string, but by bending it with a kind of whammy bar made from a water buffalo horn.  Despite having one string the bar allows her to go 5 steps up and 1 and a n half octaves down.  She plays a backing track of a while playing the main melody line on the dan Bau.  Watching her play this one string and get ting so many interesting sounds out of it is very cool.

“Go Hunting” is an original composition played on the dan T’rung, a bamboo xylophone from Vietnam’s south highlands. This instrument, which looks a bit like a skeleton, is struck with double-headed mallets.  She says on the album she has a taiko drum, but there is no drum here.  But she doesn’t need it as the song begins slowly but grows faster and faster with the crowd offering some extra percussion.  She plays some amazingly fast melodies as the song reaches its climax.

[READ: March 19, 2016] Moomin Volume 8

Moomin Book 8 and every subsequent book is made entirely of strips written and drawn by Lars Jansson.  These stories originally ran in the Evening News, London 1960-1975.

The story is much more reflective of Lars now.  His art is slightly different is subtle ways, but you can see him using his sown style rather than trying to exactly mimic Tove’s.

The chapters are “Moomin Family Robinson,” “Artists in Moominvalley,” “Sniff’s Holiday Camp” and “The Inspector Nephew” (more…)

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Lewis Trondheim–Kaput & Zösky (2002 ) [translation 2008]

Posted in #10yearsof01, Charles Lloyd, Edward Gauvin, Eric Cartier, Jason Moran, Lewis Trondheim, Tiny Desk Concert on July 7, 2016| Leave a Comment »

kaput SOUNDTRACK: CHARLES LLOYD & JASON MORAN-Tiny Desk Concert #544 (June 28, 2016).

lloydCharles Lloyd is a saxophonist and Jason Moran is a pianist and that’s pretty much all I know about them.

Lloyd has been playing since the 1960s.  I have no idea what he used to play like, but in this Tiny Desk, he couldn’t possibly look more like an “old man.”  In what is one of the more disconcerting Tiny Desks I’ve watched, Lloyd sits in a chair and doesn’t take off his big puffy coat or his toque for the whole performance [I don’t know when this was filmed, so maybe it was cold that day, but come on].  Nor does he move, wave, acknowledge anyone or even smile (except once at the end).  Since he never takes his sunglasses off, he could be asleep (except that he really wails on the horn).

Moran is the youthful member of the duo and his piano playing is a lot of fun to watch.  In addition to playing some very lovely sections, he also plays some intensely dissonant parts as well.  This is free jazz in all its glory

“Hagar’s Lullaby” (by Charles Lloyd) has a pretty (but not lullabyish) melody on sax—a simple 8 note melody which is constantly in danger of being overtaken by some wild riffing.  About 4 minutes in Moran plays super fast and loud–almost a drone for a minute or so.

“Prayer” (by Charles Lloyd) opens as a more mellow piece with occasional moments of Moran’s louder piano. After about three minutes in, it turns into utter chaos as Moran is all over the piano with rumbles of dissonance–it’s really noisy (and cool) before returning to the main melody.  Since I don’t know anything about these songs, I don’t know how much is improvised.  I have to assume a lot, but I don’t really know.

Lloyd’s only reaction comes when Moran starts playing the loud, fast intro notes of the final song, “Sand Rhythm” (by Charles Lloyd & Jason Moran).  He smiles at Moran.  The song is pretty dark and intense with some wild riffing on the piano.  About 2 minutes from the end, Moran does something to the piano to really impact the overall sound—it sounds more than deadened, but it really give anew tone underneath Lloyd’s skronking.

While I’m sure that Lloyd is the main draw in this duo, I was far more interested in Moran’s playing.  There’s was nothing wrong with Lloyd’s work at all, but the presentation was so flat that I had to keep looking elsewhere.

[READ: February 15, 2016] Kaput & Zösky

Lewis Trondheim is a prolific cartoonist.  I had only seen his book A.L.I.E.E.E.N before so I didn’t know what to expect from a book with real words.  I certainly didn’t expect this collection to be filled with short “skits” and one page interstitial (translated by Edward Gauvin).  Eric Cartier is also credited in the book, although I don’t know what for.

Kaput and Zösky are alien creatures bent on destroying everything and ruling the world.   Pretty much each strip has them landing on a new planet with the intent of destroying it. Typically the short, rounder one, Kaput is ready simply to destroy everyone while the taller one with yellow ears, Zösky, seems to wan to take a more reasonable approach.

In the first one (only one page) they land on earth and are intimidated by a spider.  The second one involves a bureaucratic nightmare which is quite funny.  The third one is very funny as the creatures on the planet literally do everything K&Z say (that must have been hard to translate). (more…)

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Glenn Eichler & Joe Infurnari–Mush! Sled Dogs with Issues (2011)

Posted in #10yearsof01, Advice, Brandy Clark, Dogs, First Second :01, Glenn Eichler, Graphic Novel, Greed, Joe Infurnari, Tiny Desk Concert, Unfunny, Violence, Yuck! on July 6, 2016| Leave a Comment »

muashSOUNDTRACK: BRANDY CLARK-Tiny Desk Concert #542 (June 20, 2016).

brandyCountry is pretty much the only genre I really don’t like, and, sadly for me, the genre seems to be seeping over into areas that I like (such as what happened in the alt-country movement in the 90s).  The one saving grace, (and actually major draw), of a lot of this new country is that the songwriters are exploring new lyrical territory.  And in particular, the women are writing sassy, funny, ass-kicking songs.

Brandy Clark (in black leather pants no less) has written for many other singers and finally decided to do her own stuff.

The entire lyric of “Daughter” is hilarious.  It’s an awesome revenge fantasy which, as the blurb suggests, “knows that fate is likely to do more damage to a cad than a key would ever do to his car’s glossy paint job.”

It’s got the great chorus:

I hope you have a daughter and I hope that she’s a fox / Daddy’s little girl just as sweet as she is hot / she can’t help to love them boys who love to love and leave them just like her father / Yes karma’s a bitch so I hope you have a daughter.

The second song is a sentimental song about her dead father.  The melody is very pretty, but I don’t need to hear songs like this.

But it’s back to the funny with the really sassy “Girl Next Door.”  It takes to task another cheating man:

If you want the girl next store then go next door… [much faster] and go right now and don’t look back and don’t turn around don’t call me when you get bored, yeah if you want the girl next door then go next door.

It’s a genius line and I really like the tone of her voice in this song (less twangy and more angry).  It could make me like country more.

[READ: April 1, 2016] Mush!

The title of this book promised a very funny story.  I really didn’t expect the “issues” to be quite so existential.

This book is broken into 10 chapters, with the first one opening on a man and his sled dogs mushing across the frozen tundra (actually Alaska).  We are introduced to The Boss and his Mate and the six dogs (from the dog’s perspective).  And then we see the dogs talking to each other. The crux of their conversation is that they are bored and wish they were running.  The lead dog, Dolly, loves to run, although she is unsure is she is qualified to lead the other dogs.

For some reason Buddy has a really big nose and is rather dumb.

Then we jump inside the house and see some intense friction.  The man of the house is a loner, a rebel, Dottie.  He hates society and doesn’t even like going into the city to get supplies.  His mate, meanwhile, loves him and wants to be with him–she knows the risks and troubles of doing it off the grid, but she also likes to go into town from time to time.  And she misses apricots.  Frankly, he is such a dick that I can’t imagine why she stays with him. (more…)

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Dominique Roques & Alexis Dormal–Anna Banana and the Chocolate Explosion! (2015) [translated

Posted in #10yearsof01, Alexis Dormal, Chick Corea, Children's Books, Dominique Roques, First Second :01, Funny (ha ha), Gary Burton, Mark Siegel, Tiny Desk Concert, Translation on July 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »

chocolateannaSOUNDTRACK: CHICK COREA & GARY BURTON-Tiny Desk Concert #540 (June 13, 2016).

chickI have known of Chick Corea for decades, although I never really knew anything about him.  I’m sure I’ve heard him play at some point (he’s been around since the 1960s), but never so specifically.  And Gary Burton is an unknown quantity to me (although apparently he has played with Corea for years–they recorded their first album together 44 years ago!).

Corea plays a beautiful, fluid jazz piano.  And while his work is really special, it’s actually Burton who I focused on more (at least at the beginning).  Burton plays the vibraphones–with four mallets!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen vibraphones so up close in action before  Apparently the bar can be lifted (which must account for the vibe).

They play two songs, “Love Castle” which is from 1976 and “Crystal Silence” which is from their debut album (1973).

“Love Castle” begins with some great piano and fun soloing on the vibes.  It’s mesmerizing watching Burton hit these bars.  After 5 minutes of intense vibe playing, Corea takes over for solo section for almost 2 minutes before Burton returns (this time providing more background where as the earlier section was more soloing from Burton).  The song is just the two of them for about ten minutes and it’s really something.

“Crystal Silence” is the first song they ever played together.  It opens with some great vibes and then soars and swirls for another t en minutes.  It’s a really cool piece and the crowd is appropriately jazzily appreciative.

[READ: March 1, 2016] Anna Banana and the Chocolate Explosion

This is another First Second picture book (as opposed to graphic novel).  It’s the second in the Anna Banana series.  Once again, I thought the cover illustration was a little sloppy compared to the inside of the book–for many graphic novels I like cover illustrations better than the interior. But this is a picture book so maybe the rules are different.  Nevertheless, both parts are drawn by Alexis Dormal.

Anna is a little girl with a lot of friends: Pingpong the penguin, Grizzler the bear, Zigzag the bunny, Foxface the fox, Whaley the whale and Fuzzball the, well, fuzzball.

Anna’s friends want her to make them a chocolate cake.  But she says she will teach them how to make their own instead. That sounds like a great idea. (more…)

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