SOUNDTRACK: JEREMY DUTCHER-Tiny Desk Concert #851 (May 22, 2019).
I have seen this photo from the Tiny Desk of Jeremy Dutcher in his shiny purple clothes for a month or so now and I’ve been very curious about just what was going on.
I had no idea that he was a First Nations performer or that this performance would be so intense.
Jeremy Dutcher came to the Tiny Desk with sparkling, purple streams of glitter draped around his shoulders. Then he set his iPad on our Yamaha upright piano, not to read his score as pianists do these days, but to play a centuries-old wax cylinder recording of a song sung in the incredibly rare language of Wolastoq.
Dutcher is
a 27-year-old, classically trained opera tenor and pianist. He’s not only a member of the Tobique First Nation in New Brunswick, Canada, but one of fewer than 100 people who still speak — and in his case also sing — in Wolastoq.
The song that used that wax cylinder recording was “Mehcinut” which begins with lovely gentle piano music by some quiet cello.
Jeremy Dutcher, along with cellist Blanche Israel and percussionist and electronics wizard Greg Harrison, wove that old recording into a remarkably passionate performance that was very 21st-century, with a deep nod to a century past.
Then the song jumps into a faster rhythm and the drums are added. When Dutcher sings he sounds operatic and I assumed that he was singing in Italian. It’s fascinating to learn that it is in Wolastoq. Then I heard the old recording play. I wasn’t watching, so I didn’t know what was happening. That part is even more interesting to know what it is and the way he has based the song melody around that.
His album Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa from which these song are taken won the 2018 Polaris prize.
“Pomok naka Poktoinskwes” [“The Fisher and the Water Spirit”] opens with more beautiful piano melodies and cello drones. After a verse or so, he slams on the piano and the song takes off. The percussion grows loud and heavy with Harrison hitting all kinds of things (acoustic and electronic) with both sides of his mallets and cello sliding up to high notes.
His voice As the song nears the end, he sings into the opening of the piano and you can hear his voice echoing as if from miles and miles away. It’s outstanding.
His Tiny Desk performance illustrates his deep respect for his heritage, even as he sings through vocal processors and looping devices of the very present.
But more importantly, he stresses awareness of a people nearly extinct, to a culture often too steeped in the present.
Introducing “Koselwintuwakon” he says our earth mother is very sick. She will take care of herself. But we must build relationships with each other. These should be built on love and song. He asks everyone to sing a drone–a symbolic and fun gesture that everyone an partake in.
This is a much quieter piece, with his voice looped. It is peaceful and feel magical. Harrison starts bowing something–I can’t tell what it is, but it adds magical sounds and his low thumping drums bring this ethereal song down to earth.
By the end of the piece, all of Dutcher’s voices have been looped and he sits at the piano manipulating the sounds.
It’s an amazingly moving moment and really unites the centuries and the cultures. One can only hope that he inspires others to learn the language as well.
[READ: June 1, 2019] “Remote Control”
This is an excerpt from an interview on the CBC between Megan Williams and Uri Geller, the Israeli-British psychic who I can’t believe is still alive.
I don’t usually post about things like this but I enjoyed this so much I felt it needed to be posted here.
Geller wrote an open letter and made a “threat of sorts” to Theresa May attempting to get her to stop Brexit. (more…)
Read Full Post »
This is another new single from The Flaming Lips’ new, more mellow album American Head.
I Just Read About That... 