On An Overgrown Path

My iPod soundtrack for this morning's sunrise was Trilogie de la Mort by Éliane Radigue , a composer whose music never ceases to amaze and inspire . Gil Fronsdal's translation of the Dhammapada also never ceases to inspire; it is essential reading for anyone still searching for a better Way. Photo was taken outside my tent deep in rural Lincolnshire. The small Buddharūpa was bought in Plakias on the south coast of Crete and later gilded by me. New Overgrown Path posts are available via RSS/email by entering your email address in the right-hand sidebar.

On another fun-filled occasion Artie Kornfeld and I went to Electric Lady Recording Studio, owned by Jimi Hendrix at 52 West 8th Street in Greenwich Village... When I arrived, I heard strange sounds coming from an adjoining studio. I slowly crept into the room. There he was Jimi all by himself, making guitar-like sounds with his voice and his fingers replicating those very sounds on his guitar. I could not tell one from the other. Different than songs you expect from him, this one had a slow jazz feel. He must have felt my presence. he looked at me, nodded his approval of my existence, and kept right on playing. Not knowing what to do next, I nervously said, "You were great at Woodstock." "I try," he politely answered. That reminiscence comes from Frank & Charli: Woodstock, True Love and the Sixties by Frank Yandolino . Quite understandably the 50th anniversary of the Woodstock Festival will be receiving considerable media attention this summer. Among the cel...

I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. That quote is from Will Rogers (1879-1935). His biography on the official Will Rogers website takes up a story which is painfully relevant to contemporary politics on both sides of the Atlantic: Will Rogers called politics “the best show in the world” and described Congress as the “national joke factory.” His folksy humor and honest, intelligent observations about the government and America earned the respect of the nation. Eventually, Will roped in some nominations of his own. He declined a nomination to be governor of Oklahoma and became honorary mayor of Beverly Hills in 1925. For the 1928 election, Life magazine formed the Anti Bunk Party, in the hope that their nominee for the Presidency of the United States would not talk “bunk,” as other politicians did. Will’s no-nonsense spin on the political “show” made him the obvious candidate for the spoof campaign. Will, promising that he would resign if he won, ...

In response to my post Sufism, Islam, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid a contributive reader draws my attention to the album seen above which was released last week. Born in Switzerland to a British-Turkish family, pianist Joanna Goodale studied at the ​Haute Ecole de Musique de Genève with Dominique ​Weber , who in turn was a pupil of Léon Fleisher . ​Passionate about multidisciplinary projects, her first album unites Bach’s music with her own arrangements of Sufi chants from Turkey and Iran: its title 'Bach in a Circle' refers to the whirling of Turkish followers of Rumi. Watch an informative video which illustrates her use on the album of prepared piano sounds à la John Cage via this link . More on this admirable exercise in challenging classical comfort zones when I have lived with it for a while. New Overgrown Path posts are available via RSS/email by entering your email address in the right-hand sidebar. Any copyrighted material is included for critical analys...

Over the years On An Overgrown Path has argued the case for classical music embracing the visual as well as the auditory, with one post arguing with tongue only half in cheek that sleeve artwork changes the sound of CDs . Classical music's de facto spokesperson Norman Lebrect has turned textual click bait into an Olympic sport . Yet Slipped Disc , which is supported by all the major classical labels and is acknowledged as the state-of-the-art classical website, has decidedly amateurish graphics - see typical example below. As the information age morphs into the experience age , visual cues are playing an increasingly important role in the overall experience. To quote an authoritative source : The human brain can process images seen in just 13 milliseconds... Given that most information transmitted to our brain is visual, and the brain processes images faster than text, it is crucial that websites, blogs, and social media posts, use effective visuals, images, and graphics, ...

Once upon a time in Goa parties were held on the beach. The local people and the freaks lived in harmony then, and no one got in another one's way. The freaks bought seafood from the fishermen and fruit and vegetables from the locals. Everyone was happy. Hippies and freaks sunbathed naked on the deserted beaches, danced at the parties, smoked, and spent the money selling charas [handmade hashish found in India] to the locals. Thriving quickly, the local population pulled down their primitive huts and built beautiful two and three-story houses in their place. The strange, hairy white people were pleased to pay a lot of money to rent these houses, making it possible not to fish or grow rice. No one other than hippies wanted to visit wild and undeveloped Goa. All of progressive humanity preferred comfortable hotels and beaches with no cows or pigs on them. In Goan villages, there were neither cars, nor paved roads. There was nothing. The hippies helped the locals to open small ...

Anybody who has been around the classical music industry for some time will be struck by the remarkable similarity between the portrait of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla on the cover of her first release for Deutsche Grammophon and Siegfried Lauterwasser 's brooding photo of Herbert von Karajan used on Deutsche Grammophon's 1979 vinyl release of the Beethoven Symphonies seen below. I tread on very dangerous ground here as expressing anything other than effusive praise for Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla simply prompts the usual social media tongue lashing . So let me make it clear right now that this release of symphonies  by the neglected Mieczysław Weinberg is very laudable . Moreover, let me also make it clear that there has never been a single artistic or personal criticism of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla on this blog. But what I have expressed several times are reservations about the way that classical music's next big things are marketed . That Beethoven cycle by Karajan was released f...

Hopefully the canard that music is haram in Islam was has been laid to rest . But misconceptions linger on, so I hope this thread - or rather golden braid - which stretches from a Muslim master musician born in Vadodara, India in 1882 to a newly released CD from an adventurous Western contemporary ensemble featuring, among others, the Iranian classical singer Haleh Seyfizadeh, may bring some light into an increasingly dark world. The great teacher and musician Hazrat Inayan Khan , who was instrumental in bringing the mystical strand of Islam known as Sufism to the West , was born in Vadodara in 1882. My first three photos show his son Pir Vilayat Inayat Khan . He studied at the École Normale de Musique where his cello teacher was Maurice Eisenberg . Eisenberg was a long-term pupil of Pablo Casals and lived next door to the great Catalan cellist in Spain for fourteen years. Born in the States to German emigré parents, Eisenberg had been the youngest person ever to play in an ...

Igor Stravinsky's music features on two of Alice Coltrane's albums and in both instances she conducts her own transcriptions with devastating effect. Lord of Lords released in 1972 by Impulse was her first essay into Stravinsky transcriptions. She reported that her take on the Firebird - listen via this link - was recorded after a ghostly visitation by its composer who offered her musical and spiritual advice, and blessings. In her sleeve note Alice reported that Stravinsky brought her a vial of clear liquid, which she drank, explaining that “Divine instruction has been given to me throughout the entire arranging of this music.” She referred again to these visitations in the note for her 1976 album Eternity seen above: Stravinsky has once again wonderfully inspired me. The infinite sound of the eternity permeates his music. I am truly grateful to Stravinsky for his offerings, and for the sharing of his gifts with us; and for the channel through which he communicates to me...

Slipped Disc claims more than 164,000 daily page hits , and there is no doubt that Norman's blog accurately reflects the classical zeitgeist . So two Slipped Disc stories that are currently trending with the classical cognoscenti are worth drilling down into. The story below reports how in the programme for the newly-refurbished Fairfield Halls in the London suburb of Croydon "there is hardly any orchestral music in what was once a cornerstone concert hall". Despite self-identifying as 'a leading cultural commentator' Norman makes no attempt to explain why orchestral music is in short supply in Croydon and elsewhere. But the tone of the story implies there is a conspiracy abroad in south London to short-change classical audiences. Which fits neatly with the widespread conspiracy theory peddled by classical music's great and good that dark forces are persecuting their beloved art form. Now cut to the story seen in my header image . This was publish...

As classical music continues its increasingly frantic search for a new and larger audience it is worth revisiting the success of the K-Tel label's Classic Rock albums in the 1970s and 80s. The simple formula of a world class orchestra - the London Symphony - playing skillfully crafted arrangements of rock albums could not fail; to sample the flavour of Classic Rock watch the retro TV commercial via this link . The first album in the series was released in 1978 and included arrangements of Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds, A Whiter Shade of Pale, and Bohemian Rhapsody. It reached number 3 in the album chart - no specialist music charts in those days - and remained in the best seller lists for a remarkable 39 weeks, achieving platinum disc status. Classic Rock may not have been to the purists' tastes, but the project cleverly combined integrity with commercial flair: the first album was recorded at EMI's iconic Abbey Road studio and the organist on A Whiter Shade of Pale w...