Author: ericdano

Polymath, musician, awesome.

Tom Dowd and the Language Of Music

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I finally got around to watching some of the things that had been piling up from Netflixs. One of them was Tom Dowd and the Language Of Music. The description is a little misleading:
“Rarely do we get a chance to see a feature-length documentary about a true unsung hero. Tom Dowd was an innovative music producer and recording engineer. Historical footage, photographs and classic music tracks underscore how Tom Dowd altered the course of contemporary music via his many technical achievements. Features appearances by Ray Charles, Eric Clapton, the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Les Paul and Aretha Franklin.”

This video is WAY more than that. This is THE GUY who recorded Coltrane. He recorded just about every good jazz album out there. ON THE FLY (the way they did it back then). He also recorded a guy name Ray Charles as well. And a bunch of others, like Eric Clapton…..

Did I mention he was also part of the Manhattan Project and was involved in the Bikini Atoll nuclear weapons tests as well? This video is an amazing look into how recording were made, and how a true legend made them. Check out Tom Dowd’s Wikipedia entry as well.

Reviews, Videos

Possible Downtime?

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This site, and my others (jazz-flute, jazz-clarinet, jazz-oboe, etc), will probably be down sometime over the weekend. Basically, this is due to be deciding to retire my huge old Dual Pentium III server with a smaller, more efficient Atom powered computer. I’m not anticipating any problems but……you never know. I think it will be rather painless and hopefully things will be faster and better on the Atom powered computer (MSI Wind PC to be specific).

For the geeks and nerds out there, I’m probably going to put Ubuntu Server 8.1 on it. The current server is running FreeBSD. That might maybe be a possibility as well. I just need PHP5, Apache 2.2, and MySQL on it. We’ll see what happens. The only real issue I think will be exporting the databases, though, since I moved everything to WordPress, that should be simple. It will be interesting to see exactly how much quieter (the current beast is really loud) and faster it will be. The only thing is that I’ll be losing the RAID backup that I have on the current system. Not that it really has ever failed, once in almost 10 years. That is pretty damn good. At some point, the new Atom server will get a SSD (Solid State Disk) so it will be totally efficient and pretty much silent. Well, hopefully.

UpdateComputer comes tomorrow sometime. I am going to put Ubuntu Server 8.1 on it. I don’t think it will be an issue at all moving stuff over. Just tar it, ftp it to the new computer, untar, etc, etc. Reading up on it, the Atom computer should make a ton faster than the dual pentium III 450s I have.

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What To Use To Remove Neck Buildup

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Ok, this is nasty. My tenor and alto have like mineral deposits in them now. We aren’t talking GOLD or anything, but like…….yuck stuff. What really works in getting rid of this stuff? I’m thinking maybe white vinegar (they use this for removing buildup in irons).

This video however, by the Village “Expert” says just to use the brush thing. I dunno….

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Sennheiser Headphones – How They Are Made

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Doing well in this economy? Need a pair of cans (headphones)? Got $1500 to spend. Then perhaps you need to check out the Sennheiser HD800 headphones.

Want to know why they are that expensive. Look here.

The review of it pretty much sums them up “If you want the most inspiring, mouth-wateringly gorgeous and stunning personal audio on the planet, these are the headphones you want to try out.”

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Louie Bellson Dies at 84

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Sad news today:
Louie Bellson, a jazz drummer and bandleader who combined remarkable instrumental virtuosity with far-ranging compositional skills, has died. He was 84.

According to his wife Francine, Bellson died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications of Parkinson’s disease following a broken hip in November.

Got to play with him a bunch of times while in College as he was living in San Jose at the time (I think). He looked frail back then, but as soon as he sat down at the drums he was like a little kid…….and was simply amazing.

News

Gerry Niewood Dies In Plane Crash

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Lohud reports:
“Rochester native Gerry Niewood, whose jazz saxophone was a familiar sound for four decades in venues ranging from the downtown Rochester Shakespeare Lounge to “Saturday Night Live,” was among the victims of Thursday night’s Continental Airlines crash.

Niewood, who was 65, was on his way to Buffalo to play in last night’s Chuck Mangione concert at Kleinhans Music Hall. The two had known each other since childhood, both growing up in the Clinton and Joseph avenues area.”

AllaboutJazz and MSNBC also have stories on this as well.

Damn tragic story.

News

TIME: Why Pop Music Sounds Perfect

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Time Magazine has an article about the abuse of AutoTune. Another reason why the “Pop” music industry sucks. It is a dangerous tool………obviously prone to abuse. And some “singers” would not have the stardom they have without it.

Or……..some people can use it to ingeniously mock

Of course, nothing sounds better than someone who doesn’t need any help

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Interesting Music Stand

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Barry Wood has finally put up his NAMM 09 Oddities page. There was this interesting item.
pageturner-d
The QiVinci s is modelled on the classic music stand and was conceived especially with performing and learning string- and wind-musicians in mind.
With QiVinci s, the musician can dedicate his full concentration to the music, rather than interrupting the flow of his performance at the end of every page. By means of a foot switch, the pages are turned automatically, silently and inconspicuously. Whether learning or in the midst of a concert performance, the QiVinci s provides musicians with an elegant, stress-free way of playing from one page to the next. QiVinci s not only opens a new repertoire to the concert musician, it also accelerates the practice process for the music student.

Who said paper is dead?

News

EWI Wars Over?

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One good way of judging how good or bad something is doing is by looking at the press it is receiving. For example, the Microsoft Zune. When it was launched, it garnered a lot of press. Office Depot even had it in their weekly ads and even had in store displays. Now……..nope. Their weekly ad has a SansDisk Fuze player, and iPod accessories.

This week, I received a catalog from American Musical Supply. It usually, towards the back with the keyboards, has the Akai EWI 4000s and the Yamaha WX5 on a page. This issue…..the WX5 wasn’t listed. *Gasp*

Could this be a sign that the EWI wars are over? That Yamaha might can the WX line? I’m not too sure, but when sellers are not advertising it, but rather a competing product……one might get a little worried. Though I think we will see Microsoft kill the Zune line well before Yamaha kills the WX.

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