Recently I discovered an incredible documentary called: Touch the Sound: A Sound Journey With Evelyn Glennie, and one of the things that I’ve found so appealing about this film was the fact that Evelyn Glennie is deaf since her childhood, but she’s also a remarkable percussionist. Through this documentary you can come to understand her silent life and her perspective on how she, literally, touches the vibrations of sound and how, despite her incompleteness, she has become a renowned musician nowadays. The director Thomas Riedelsheimer made a fantastic filmmaking work showing us her vision of this world in a unique and suggestive way.

She also has made contributions with some other artists in which Evelyn appears to be listening to every note on their performances because she made perfect synergy with them. From the crowded streets of New York City to a relaxing garden in Japan, She travels through, not only an amazing journey around the world, but also a deep journey into herself by which music lovers, like myself, are happily delighted.

Featuring:
Evelyn Glennie & Fred Frith. (this video)
Evelyn Glennie & This.
Evelyn Glennie & Za Ondekoza.
Evelyn Glennie & Roxanne Butterfly.
Evelyn Glennie & Jason “The Fogmaster”.
Evelyn Glennie & Horazio “El Negro” Hernández.
Among others.

Recently I traveled for the first time to Newcastle and Gateshead and near the River Tyne, just in front of the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, you can find The Sage Gateshead which is an impressive edifice and a center for performances, musical education and conferences, built by Sir Norman Foster and Mott MacDonald. It has the best in acoustic performance, and sustainable architecture and besides the usual concert and conference activities, in this magnificent space you can also see soundchecks, rehearsals and workshops in progress.

You can find inside a striking public library that focuses mainly on music with technological equipment, stocking books, a CD library with listening stations, current music magazines and computers with free internet access, subscriptions to music websites, music software and midi controllers, so you can borrow music books and scores, learn and compose using music software, or even find a music tutor in North East England.

It is open 7 days a week and this year’s upcoming performances will include: Bon Iver, Roots Manuva, Eddi Reader, Brad Mehldau Trio, Elbow, Michelle Shocked and Herbie Hancock. The Ticket Office telephone is: 0191 443 4661.

Since such a long time I was planning to write a post about one of the most enigmatic voices of Latin America: Ymac Sumac. She was born on the 13th of September, 1922, in Peru. Apparently she was a direct descendant of Atahualpa, the the last emperor of the Incas. In her prolific singing career she had extensive achievements, including her performance at Carnegie Hall and other prominent efforts. I would suggest you to read her complete story or you can also watch this French documentary film and find out how her simple life was quickly turned into a worldwide phenomenon.

But this time we are going to focus on her uncommon voice, although she had no formal training, neither could she read musical notes, she was able to stagger her voice through 5 octaves, starting from a real low tone, almost like the tones on Barry White’s voice, up to high frecuency tones, just like a bird, in fact, in one interview she claimed that she learned to sing by trying to imitate the sounds made by birds, and certainly her voice, on some of her recordings, sounds like made by something other than a human, she was able of producing such tones, so clean and so deep, that today she continues being a mystical legend.

After listening to all the available Sumac recordings, I got very intrigued about those singers that exceed the standard of 80 Hz to 1100 Hz for men and women altogether that translated on a musical scale means from E2 to C6, this graphic will help you to identify the values between Hertz and a common piano scale, remember, one Hertz is equal to one vibration (one cycle) per second, therefhore for a regular singer it is really challenging to make so many vibrations per second.

According to the Guinness Book of Records these are the current records:

For Females:
Eight octaves, G2 to G10 (25,087 Hz), Georgia Brown, from Brazil. Picture this: how can she made a note so high producing an ultrasound, that she can’t even listen to? maybe she was trying to comunicate with dolphins or trying to see through complete darkness like a bat, anyway, you must watch this video of a TV presentation, some notes are so high and long that we could presume that there is a synthesizer sounding along.

For Males:
Greatest range: Six octaves, Tim Storms, from the USA, watch this video and discover why he is also an internet phenomenon.
and finally the highest male vocal note, a C#8 by Adam Lopez, from Australia.

Nowadays there are so many talented singers that they prefer singing for pleasure and to integrate their vocal spectrum on a fine made recording than competing for a silly world record, nevertheless we think that both options are just fantastic.

I want to show you this amazing video on which the legend, Oscar Peterson (1925-2007) plays the piano in a magnificent way, it is just a excerpt of Peterson’s work, he was one of greatest and most prolific jazz musicians ever, in fact I’m convinced that he traced a whole new path for modern jazz.

With six decades of work and over 200 albums he left us a huge musical heritage, his best moments were as a supporting musician for singer Ella Fitzgerald, singer/trumpeter Louis Armstrong and trumpeter Roy Eldridge.

There is a vast list of facts from Peterson’s life, you might, as well, read his wikipedia entry.
Happy 2008 from LaSuite303.

Storing your music in an USB flash drive is nothing new, releasing a USB album is sort of new, but making it appealing! now that’s the novelty!

There’s been several album publications on USB flash drives, like Matchbox 20’s Exile on Mainstream, Barenaked Ladies’ Barenaked on a Stick, Bob Marley’s Exodus, The Rolling Stones’ Rolled Gold or even Jennifer Lopez’s Brave.

There has been delightful designs on the drives as well, like the Sushi drives or the Twig drives, now, combining both ideas, and the plus of having great music, is something you should consider to be annexing to your Christmas wishlist. The down side is, as usual, the price tag, but if you consider them as collector items or even (why not?) art, the price is not that monstrous.

Meg & Jack White Limited Edition flash drive set

Containing the White Stripes’ Icky Thump, recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and that keeps the eclectic sensibility of Get Behind Me Satan, an overall well crafted album. The drives come packed in two red tin cans, the set includes both Meg and Jack characters, you can buy it here.

Radiohead 4 GB Limited Edition USB flash drive

Containing the whole Radiohead discography (except for In Rainbows), that is: Pablo Honey (from 1993), The Bends (from 1995), OK Computer (from 1997), Kid A (from 2000), Amnesiac (from 2001), Hail To The Thief (from 2003) and also the 2001 I Might Be Wrong: Live Recordings, you can buy it here.

This is the first edition of a La Suite 303’s Podcast, in our debut as podcasters we will try to hand over some of the best tunes from our collection. Podcasts are the perfect excuse to share our musical fondness and through these podcasts we will try to open doors to new and unconventional music.

The first podcast is named JAZZCLUB 00, in the whole selection I’ve tried to include the sounds of those black-rooted old jazz clubs, but taken out of context and expanded with more contemporary sounds. I don’t pretend to be an outstanding DJ,

I just want to share this finely integrated playlist on which I put some effort, time and care, just for your enjoyment.

I hope you’ll be pleased with my selection and I also want to mention that we host our podcasts using Divshare, I make this comment because it was quite difficult and tricky to find a free podcast hosting.

Tracklist:

01 - Muro - Beat Stalker (Intro)
02 - Bitman & Roban - Después de Almuerzo, Parte 3
03 - Kero One - In All The Wrong Places
04 - Flevans - Loose Gardener
05 - The ParanormL (featuring Fat Hed) - Experience
06 - Belleruche - Minor Swing
07 - Mocean Worker - That’s What’s Happenin’ Tonight
08 - Art Blakey - The Midget (Art Konik Remix)
09 - Zero dB - Anything’s Possible
10 - Xploding Plastix - Treat Me Mean, I Need The Reputation
11 - Skalpel - 1958 (Skalpel Remix)
12 - Stockholm Jazz Beat Project - Big Band Frenzy
13 - Smoove (featuring The Bukky Leo Quintet) - Rejoice In Righteousness (Smoove’s Nu Jazz Remix)
14 - Ecripse - Sleep Walker

You can suscribe to our podcasts by copying this url
feed://lasuite303.com/pruebas/xml1.xml

 

 JAZZCLUB 00: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I humbly vow to Their Robotic Majesties, who gave one of the best shows my eyes and ears have ever experienced.

In a really cold week, wednesday arrived with a slightly warmer climate, it was October, 31st and the adopted and highly disseminated Halloween costumes were everywhere, but this particular time many of the costumes looked like robots.

As we rushed towards the outdated and grotesque Palacio de los Deportes, Ángel, a friend and collaborator, told us that Sussie 4, the electro rock music assemble from Guadalajara, were the opening act, we instantly slowed our pace, I mean, they are an OK band, but nothing to be speeding up about. When we arrived the band was about to finish their carelessly equalized performance, when they did, their last words were: “…and now the really good stuff, Daft Punk!” the crowd, who wasn’t still at full size, cheered and a black courtain closed upon them.

The background music, involving mainly old-school rap, was setting the mood and, suddenly, Suspicious Minds by Elvis Presley bursted. The time had come, the lights were killed, the musical silence was overwhelmed by the ovation of a now totally crowd-stuffed venue. The notes from the main title of Close Encounters of the Third Kind started the show.

The courtain opened and there they were, wow! …in the heart of an outer-space pyramid you could see Guy-Manuel De Homem-Christo and Thomas Bangalter inside their leather jumpsuits, designed by Hedi Slimane, filling our hearts and minds with sizzling music and unbelievable lights. From that moment on the experience was simply phenomenal, like nothing on the face of this earth.

The music and their hits were assembled and mixed live with almost two hours of ever-shocking and completely synchronized audiovisual extasis, that finished over a house encore and whoa! …those magnificent red lights all over the LED helmets, created by the company LED Effects, along with the reminder that Their Robotic Majesties are human after all. We can outline Daft Punk’s spectacle in just one word: Exquisite.

Their album Alive will see the light in 2008. (photos by André Felipe)

The Day of the Dead is a Mexican celebration to honor people we’ve loved that have died. In music we’ve lost many talented and distinguished personalities and… it is not that we don’t notice the absence of Cobain, Lennon, Harrison, Morrison, Marley or even Gershwin, but in this particular Día de Muertos we celebrate:

1. Elliott Smith
1969–2003
American singer/songwriter and musician.
Notable work: Either/Or

2. Celia Cruz
1925–2003
Cuban-American salsa singer.
Notable work: ¡100% Azucar!: The Best of Celia Cruz

3. Ian Curtis
1956–1980
English, lead singer and lyricist of Joy Division.
Notable work: Substance

4. Johnny Cash
1932–2003
American country/rock and roll singer/songwriter.
Notable work: Man in Black: Greatest Hits

5. Joe Strummer
1952–2002
English, co-founder, lyricist and lead singer of The Clash.
Notable work: London Calling

6. James Brown
1933–2006
American entertainer, singer, songwriter and record producer.
Notable work: 20 All-Time Greatest Hits!

7. Mark Sandman
1952–1999
American songwriter, musical instrument inventor and multi-instrumentalist, lead singer of Morphine.
Notable work: Cure for Pain

8. Ol’ Dirty Bastard
1968–2004
American MC, co-founder of the Wu-Tang Clan.
Notable work: Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

9. Suba
1961–1999
Serbian musician and composer and one of Brazil’s most prominent producers.
Notable work: São Paulo Confessions

10. Juan García Esquivel
1918–2002
Mexican band leader, pianist, and film score composer.
Notable work: Space-Age Bachelor Pad Music

11. Barry White
1944–2003
American record producer and singer/songwriter.
Notable work: All-Time Greatest Hits

12. Miguel “Angá” Díaz
1961–2006
Cuban percussionist.
Notable work: Echu Mingua

13. Compay Segundo
1907–2003
Cuban musician and songwriter.
Notable work: Calle Salud / Buena Vista Social Club

14. Fela Kuti
1938–1997
Nigerian multi-instrumentalist musician and composer.
Notable work: Shuffering and Shmiling / Gentleman

15. Max Roach
1924–2007
American jazz, bebop/hard bop percussionist, drummer, and composer.
Notable work: Jazz at Massey Hall / Percussion Bitter Sweet

16. Ibrahim Ferrer
1927–2005
Cuban singer and musician.
Notable work: Buena Vista Social Club Presents: Ibrahim Ferrer / Buena Vista Social Club

17. And all your loved ones
The people you’ve loved that is now gone, we salute them… (happy Day of the Dead dad!)

Finally some decent competition for iTunes: Amazon’s DRM-free online music store. Though the catalogue is still limited we hope big sales help music companies and independent musicians visualize that the future is here, running them over.

Most songs are between $0.89 and $0.99, and most albums are between $6 and $10 encoded at 256 Kbps. So what are you waiting for? Go there and buy music! We suggest:

Silencio = Muerte: Red Hot + Latin (Redux)
Feist - The Reminder
Manu Chao - La Radiolina
PJ Harvey - White Chalk
The Puppini Sisters - Betcha Bottom Dollar
Peaches - The Teaches Of Peaches
Defragmentation - Self Construct
CocoRosie - La Maison De Mon Rêve
The Knife - Deep Cuts
Yo La Tengo - I Can Hear The Heart Beating As One
Basement Jaxx - Remedy
Hot Chip - The Warning
Lady Sovereign - Public Warning
Bran Van 3000 - Glee
Etienne De Crecy - Super Discount
Pink Martini - Hang On Little Tomato
Amon Tobin - Permutation
Bonobo - Days To Come
Quantic - An Announcement To Answer

A “dream come true” would be not to see the Currently Unavailable notice anymore (like it recently happened with Jorch Mono’s The Orphan Monkey Meets The Acoustic Guitar)

Once again October is almost here and this year the Festival Majors (as we consider them here at Suite 303, because of their innovative lineup) are filled with great performers, film, conferences and more. If you are near one of these three beautiful cities, just go damned!

Pop Montréal, October 3th-7th; Montréal, Canada.
Beastie Boys, Beirut, Bonde Do Role, Caribou, Chromeo, Devendra Banhart, Do Make Say Think, Eric’s Trip, Fujiya & Miyagi, Hot Hot Heat, Pere Ubu, Jonathen Rice, Rilo Kiley, Simian Mobile Disco, Patti Smith, Ron Sexsmith and many more! plus films and contemporary art.

CMJ Music Marathon, October 16th-20th; New York City, USA.
Arizona, Aux Raus, Casper And The Cookies, Coheed And Cambria, Datarock, Del The Funky Homosapien, Eagle*Seagull, Holly And The Italians, Imperial Teen, Jesu, Justice, Le Loup, M.I.A., Mates Of State, The Meat Puppets, Nashville Pussy, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Simian Mobile Disco, Spoon, UNKLE, We Are Wolves, Xiu Xiu and many, many, many more! plus films and interaction with the music industry.

Iceland Airwaves, October 17th-21st; Reykjavík, Iceland.
!!!, Æla, Amiina, Bloc Party, Bonde Do Role, Chromeo, Deerhoof, Gus Gus, Jeff Who?, Múm, Of Montreal, Smoosh, Jenny Wilson, XXX Rottweiler and many more! plus great parties and the chance to take a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis.