Interludes

by Alex

A mix with piano interludes from the Boston School.

*Corn Meal Dance*
William Parker

*Leaving Again/In The Wee Small Hours*
Kurt Elling
_Lyric by Kurt Elling, based on Keith Jarrett’s untitled improvisation form his 1994 trio recording, “At The Blue Note”_

Sleeping / Waking / Crying / Leaving again / It’s morning / I have to go
Though every night pretends / begins in quiet hoping that it never ends / they’re always ending again / breaking another dream / a dream where we could breathe in the heavy curtained prairie air of summer night / watching lightning over wheat fields through a bedroom window /
And the prairie gently rose up with a feeling and embraced us

And when morning found us I pulled you to me and promised to stay
But that was the night / and now day

In the we small hours of the morning / while the whole wide world is fast asleep
You lie awake and think about the girl / and never ever think of counting sheep

And when your lonely heart has learned its lesson / you’d be hers if only she would call
For in the wee small hours of the morning / that’s the time you miss her most of all

*”Foss”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lukas_Foss / For Lenny: Variations on New York New York*

*Ballad of Maxwell Demon*
Shudder to Think
Shudder to Think has always been one of my favorite bands, mostly because Craig Wedren is one of my heroes, vocally speaking. This track is from the soundtrack of Velvet Goldmine, Todd Haine’s movie version of The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust. Here Wedren channels Bowie (iirc) in a late-1990s modality while the performance is personated by Jonathan Rhys Meyers, dripping in desperate androgynous eroticism.

*Caffe-in*
Mario and Peaches

*Back in the Twentieth Century*
The Cutters
I discovered this fun track by accident — its the soundtrack to the preview movie for the virtual world “There”. The video shows beautiful avatars air-surfing and making out while this plays in the background.

*TV Party*
Black Flag

*New Logo*
Channels
(The?) Channels feature a lot of the line-up of Jawbox, another dischord classic. They rock, and this song in particular just demonstrates to me the sort of virtuosity that comes from veteran musicians who know how to rock live. Also the lyrics kick ass.

*”Fine”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irving_Fine / Music for Piano 1: Prelude*

*Old Man of the Sea*
*Little Boy Billee*
*Cape Cod Girls*
These three songs come from the album Rogue’s Gallery, which happened when Johnny Depp decided to spend some karma points getting an album of traditional sea shanties and ballads made. Gore Verbinski flew to LA, New York, and London and holed up in a studio. Famous people came buy, put together the songs, and went nuts. The first and last of this set feature the incomparable Baby Gramps.

*We Both Go Down Together*
The Decembrists

*”Shapero”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Shapero / Sonata No. 1 1. Allegro Preciso*

*Moody / Canticum Canticorum 1. Surge, propera amica mea*
From the Song of Solomon.

*Harvey / Come Holy Ghost*
I sang this for the first time on Pentecost.

*Whitacre / Cloudburst*
Setting an Octavio Paz text, this piece for chorus and a few instruments recreates exactly what it describes. The impulse verges on New Agey, and the implementation verges on gimmickry, but the overall effect is, I think, revelatory.