CD vs Digital: It's (probably) not what you think

I've always believed that part of the power of music to communicate its message is rooted in its tangibility. We not only hear music, we - literally - 'feel' it. Part of the sensation of 'feeling' in wrapped up in touch: when we are moved by something, for instance, we say that we are 'touched'. To be 'moved' by something is to be 'touched' by it.

Paul Resnikoff's article '40 Years of Music Industry Change, In 40 Seconds or Less...' is a must-read. I was stunned while watching the featured & fascinating time-lapse pie chart showing the fluctuation in CD sales since 1973. 

That CDs are still enjoying healthy sales will no doubt come as a surprise to most. This graph demonstrates that it's not a 'this OR that' scenario for listeners; it's more about choosing this AND that. With multiple options, listeners do not have to choose sides.

While Vinyl still offers the best option in terms of audio quality and album art, as well as a physical immediacy which embodies a more direct connection to the artist, the portability, fuller sonic range and durability of the CD offers the next best thing. Digital downloads offer convenience, economy and speed, 3 essential considerations.

Black & White scenarios make good headlines, but the truth lies somewhere in those intermediate realms which often belie our beliefs. Sometimes, it's worth stopping to consider that our commonly held assumptions are likely to be disrupted by one individual with the imagination and tools to question it.  

I say, Cheers to that!

~ V

Nature is a Dirty Word: The Limits of Language

 

Each of us has a unique perspective and angle, a distinct lens through which we view the world. It's not possible for two people see a thing exactly as another sees it.  While everything is relative, there are certain modes, manners and memes which we adopt, often without question.

 My work has a lot to do with language, how we attempt to approximate how we feel through the words we use, always coming close, but seldom communicating the full range of our emotions.  I'm equally interested in the words we don't use.

Today is Mother Earth Day, and while the idea in principle is a supremely noble one, it's important to remember that Nature has a right to exist separate and apart from ourselves: it has become out moded, out dated, and seemingly, nearly obsolete. While the words 'Environment', 'World', and 'Earth' are commonly used, the word 'Nature', it seems, is a dirty word.

The persistent use of a certain word in favor of another, over time, will often replace it completely. As a result, what is lost is not only the word itself, but the attendant emotional connection previously associated with it. Let us, through language and song, celebrate Nature as much and as often as we do the Earth, the Environment, and the World.

XV  
 

IN PERFORMANCE AT THE WHITE HOUSE | Jack White "Mother Nature's Son" | PBS

 

Happy [Post] B-Day Billie Holiday!

"[April 7th] would have marked the 98th birthday of Elanora Fagan aka Billie Holiday. Perhaps no single Jazz vocalist has had the impact on the genre of Jazz music then she did. From her humble beginnings of singing along to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith records as a child to her untimely death at age 44 and the success and hardships she had in between, there is no question that Holiday was (and still is) one of the most well known Jazz performers." Flea Market Funk

Billie Holiday co-wrote few songs, but those she had a hand in penning are amongst the greats:

"Critic John Bush wrote that Holiday "changed the art of American pop vocals forever."[5] She co-wrote only a few songs, but several of them have become jazz standards, notably "God Bless the Child", "Don't Explain", "Fine and Mellow", and "Lady Sings the Blues"." Wikipedia

Of the 2 songs I've covered, one was Billie Holiday's 'Don't Explain' on 'Slow to Burn'. Stream it on Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/vanessadaou/dont-explain

Its terse language and melodic highs and lows communicate its message succinctly & beautifully. Trademarks of a great song......

My acrylic portrait of Billie accompanied 'Don't Explian':

 

Billie not only sang The Blues, she transformed its message - Her singing of 'Strange Fruit' was a socially transformative and immensely radical act ::::

I count Billie the first amongst my earliest influences. My father had a small but selective collection of Jazz records. What were his Billie Holiday LPs soon became mine. The sound of her voice, her intonations, timbre and phrasings were soon embedded in my heart, soul & mind, and have never left:

"Built on piano, synthesizers and Daou's mesmerizing, Billie Holiday-like vocals, Zipless strikes an exquisite balance between pop and jazz by weaving together the strengths of both styles." TIME

Happy B-Day Billie! Here's to your eternal Spirit & infinite Artistry ......

Jennifer Monson, Bird Gerhl

Benjamin Norman for The New York Times

I saw Jennifer Monson at The Kitchen last night perform her "Live Dancing Archive". Rather, I should say; We watched her. We heard her. We, the audience, experienced the sublime angles of her beautiful - at times brutal - angles of her intense physicality. 

Dance is the only art that is rooted in the body, movement being at its core. Whether preplanned or improvised, a dancer does more than 'move'. With each move, there are layers upon layers of meaning, heaped on, in, and around that motion is space. A conglomerate of notion, implication, embodiment, invitation, invocation, Contemporary Dance reminds us that we are alive, living, breathing, sentient, continuously unfolding, searching for meaning and understanding, for (dare I say) a "meaningful" connection to ourselves, to each other, to one another. 

Dance is the one art that brings us back to the fact that while there might be 'intention' on the part of the Artist/Dancer, that 'intent' is always open to our interpretation. And, while a dancer might appear to be still on stage, our minds move around her. Dance is the one art that reminds us that there is no such thing as 'meaning', there is only motion.  

Monson's performance hinges on one question: What does it 'mean', to be a 'Bird'? To embody beauty but live in fear, to be stripped to the core by the sound of a roaring engine; to be at the mercy of live wires, extreme, excruciating frequencies, cataclysmic winds, infiltrated by toxins, covered in crude. A bird is fragility, freedom, fear, flight. A bird is prey, preyed upon, at the mercy of the  environment, exposed to the elements. A bird is a flinching, fertile, being, forgotten in the night.
 
While the word 'Bird' might be defined as:

"any warm-blooded vertebrate of the class Aves, having a body covered with feathers, forelimbs modified into wings, scaly legs, a beak, and no teeth, and bearing young in a hard-shelled egg"

to be sure, a Bird is more than the sum of those words.
During Monson's full-hour immensely fleshy performance, not a flash, click or ring of cell phone punctuated the performance. Barely a cough or sneeze. We were there to be enlightened, enticed, entranced, intrigued, energized, illuminated, subsumed. One thing was clear, in the age where 'American Idol' and 'So You Think You Can Dance' have equated Dancers and Musicians with Entertainers, I'd wager to bet, no one attending Monson's performance was there to be entertained.

Mid-way through, Monson dons a blonde wig and bright lipstick, and sways to 'Bird Gerhl' by Antony and the Johnsons, reminding us, once again, of that inextricable connection we have with each other, as artists, as audience. Hers is a singular dance, one that we — watching her, BE-ing her — without question, understand the meaning' of.

Monson goes far beyond emulating a bird or evoking 'Bird-ness'. Stripped down to her own impenetrable core, as far and as deep as she can physically and philosophically go, she reminds us - beautifully, brutally - of that invisible, essential, primal connection: empathy.

What has always made Contemporary Dance unique in the (Art) world, is that it eschews the gratuitous spotlight. It prefers, rather, to lurk in the shadows, and linger in the margins — by nature, oblique in its angles, and happy to be so.

_______________________________________

Link to Jennifer Monson @ Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Art Nature and Dance

Link to blog created for my SVA lecture: Degrees of Freedom, Gravity & Spontaneous Sculptures @ SVA for Suzanne Anker's Digital Sculpture class

SPEAKEASY | THE MOONSHINE Mixes — 7 weeks @ #1 Electronica on TRAXSOURCE

 VANESSA DAOU Speak/Easy: The Moonshine Mixes (‘Joe Sent Me’ Revisited) held the #1 spot in Electronica Downloads for 7 weeks @ Traxsource

Many thanks to all involved: OUTSIDER MUSIC | KID RECORDINGS & the brilliant produces who spun their magic in the mixes.

Buy @

TRAXSOURCE

iTUNES

& all digital outlets

Speak/Easy: The Moonshine Mixes ['Joe Sent Me' Revisited] featured as one of Traxsource's "What's Hot This Week"

 Endorsed: “Lovely to hear Vanessa Daou back in action. New remix album coming out. If you’re digging this, keep an eye out for @dusk, a new lounge night at Chicago’s Downtown Bar starting in December. ” — Endorse, Not Endorse

Vanessa Daou ‘Speak/Easy: The Moonshine Mixes ['Joe Sent Me' Revisited] is featured as one of Traxsource’s “What’s Hot This Week” in Lounge/Chill Out releases and has several selections in their Essential 20 Lounge tracks and is #3 in their Essential 20 Lounge tracks for the week!

Congrats to all the great producers involved!

XOV

---

ABOUT THE MOONSHINE MIXES:

VANESSA DAOU closes the chapter on her sixth studio album, JOE SENT ME, with the release of the remix companion SPEAK/EASY: THE MOONSHINE MIXES [‘JOE SENT ME’ REVISITED]. The 16 track set assembles a cherry-picked collection of new and previously released mixes culled largely from her string of successful remix single releases – “Consequences”, “Black & White”, “Once And A While” and “Heart Of Wax” – that bring into focus Daou’s intrinsic love of sonic experimentation and diverse musical genres.

Featuring an all-star cast of international, dance and electronic music, innovators including BLANK & JONES, MARK REEDER, CHARLES WEBSTER, TERRY LEE BROWN JR., ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ, JORI HULKKONEN, GANGA, SLEEPTHIEF, RALPH MYERZ and DJ HEN BOOGIE, the release effortlessly flows from smoky nocturnal jazz and pastoral chilled-out grooves to deep, dark and sultry house and radiant synth-pop with a seamless fluidity.

It’s a satisfying soundtrack ideal for clubs, lounges, late-night drives or intimate “back to mine” sessions that will undoubtedly please DJs, as well as, Daou’s legion of loyal fans while introducing a new generation of mature music lovers to the artist’s sophisticated and eclectic pedigree.

'Frankenstorm' Sandy & Climate Change| History Does Not 'Write' Itself

Wondering if 'Frankenstorm' Sandy will generate more than hashtags and RTs, but a substantive & well informed conversation about Climate Change.

Proof, it seems, is in the numbers, and the stark truth is the previously unimaginable is now becoming the norm.A bit of graphing shows it's quite possible discussion will be limited to the billions in damage, Tumblr pics, NY Stock Exchange, Tunnels & Subways closing, and so forth.... 

 

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History does not 'write' itself, it is up to us - We must be guided by those twin forces, Science and common sense. Getting that message across is the challenge and the imperative in times like these.