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Elizabeth Joan Kelly is a New Orleans-based electronic composer. She uses found sounds and MIDI to create lush soundscapes at the epicenter of synthpop, industrial, ambient, darkwave, and classical music. Her new album, Farewell, Doomed Planet!, released October 25, is about the apocalypse. And Chernobyl wolves. Pollution. And space travel. Existential dread. And whales.
https://elizabethjoankelly.bandcamp.com/
There is a new record out by a band that is made up of a former student and sometimes colleague. It is quite good. The record is very well produced slightly quirky pop music. Not my usual space, but I really like it. I was going to write a short review and encourage you all to go listen to it. I prefer to link directly to a band’s website, so they can control how their work is presented, instead of a facebook or youtube page. I finally found this band’s website, even though a search of the band’s name and music did not easily get me there.
When i got to the website, I realized I could not listen to the band. The media page only hosts pictures. There is a link to an Instagram account, but no bandcamp, youtube, spotify, apple music…nothing. The pictures are really good, but I am trying to help people HEAR THE MUSIC!!!! Why is hearing the music not the easiest thing to do on your website?
It is kind of a bummer, because the music is pretty good. Hopefully the next thing that catches my ear will have a website with sounds…
I am calling this one Episode 10. It will make sense when you listen.
Links mentioned in the show: jeffalbert.com, https://store.b4d-records.com/album/unanimous-sources, https://www.deezer.com/ucps
WWOZ is playing sets from past Jazz Fests during the times that Jazz Fest would have been happening. Tune in at 90.7 FM in the New Orleans area or www.wwoz.org. Full listings are here: https://www.wwoz.org/640011-jazz-festing-place-cubes
You can hear me at 12:30 pm on Friday, April 24 on the 2018 Luther Kent & Trick Bag set, and at 4:30 pm on Thursday, April 30 on the Delfeayo Marsalis and the Uptown Orchestra set from 2015. There is a two week archive as well
It is almost like having gigs…ok, not really, but it is better than nothing.
I really hope this does not just turn into a blog of obituaries. I just read that music producer Hal Willner has died. I did not know Mr. Willner well, but I did get to work with him once. It was a very fun session, and he was a nice dude. I feel lucky to have had that chance. Peace and love to his family and loved ones.
I just learned of the passing of Ellis Marsalis, Jr., the great pianist and teacher. There will be many greater eulogies and histories across the internet, so I just want to tell one story. I got my MM from the University if New Orleans when Ellis taught there. He conducted the Concert Jazz Orchestra and was on my graduate committee. The jazz orchestra took a trip to Salvador, Bahia, Brazil right as I was graduating, and I was the de facto road manager for the band as part of my assistantship. There are many great stories from that trip, but my favorite has to do with a music school that was up the hill in the favela. The father of an exchange student at UNO ran the school and Ellis and the band visited one afternoon. When Ellis asked the folks in the neighborhood if they were coming to our concert on Friday night, people laughed. We did not know that a ticket to our concert downtown in the theater was more than one month’s salary for most of the people in this neighborhood. When Ellis heard this he immediately said, “oh, well then we will come play a concert here Saturday afternoon.” We did, and the joy of Brazilian children dancing to Thad Jones’s “Groove Merchant” is forever burned into my memory. That is the great man I remember. RIP Mr. Marsalis.