Way back in July, I invited one of my more recent favorite groups Bowerbirds to perform at the NPR Music offices for a Tiny Desk Concert.
Many, many (MANY) months later, after getting buried in an almost insurmountable backlog and actually having the raw HDV tapes go missing for a few weeks, the video has finally gone live, produced and edited by yours truly. This is my second real foray into video editing, but I think the video looks pretty good.
— A Blog Supreme: The Decade In Review: Jazz And The Mash-Up (In which I considered Norah Jones, Ornette Coleman and Floratone — among others — as helping define the decade in jazz.)
My first real foray into video editing went live today on NPR Music. A Tiny Desk Concert from this past summer with Sondre Lerche. Sure there are some issues with lighting and title sequencing, but overall I think it works quite well as a first effort.
Here are links to two different promotional audio slideshows I made for NPR Music’s upcoming 50 Great Voices series. They are my two first multimedia projects to go live on NPR.org so they’re a tad rough (though the second one is substantially better than the first effort).
Functionally, these two videos were intended to let our audience hear a few teases of music and interact with some of the great musical voices in recorded history. Personally I don’t think they’re a complete success in the goal interaction because the user is more or less tethered to the viewing experience of rather static images for the duration of the video.
But the music mixes do give an effective sense of flow between the different iconic voices.
Anyway, take a look (click on the images below to go see the videos):
So I had the noble task of hearing the new album from The Flaming Lips, Embryonic, about a month ahead of time and then getting to write a short entry about it for NPR Music.
My cohorts over at NPR Music’s jazz blog A Blog Supreme have been curating a series of lists of some of the best jazz records from the last decade as a means to introduce new people to jazz. In the process we’re also sort of introducing a new modern canon of classic jazz records.
Now entering it’s second week, my list — which features MMW, Dave Holland, Marc Ribot, Dave Douglas and John Zorn — finally went up. Check it out here.
Here’s a new Song of the Day essay, looking at John Vanderslice’s “Too Much Time” from his new album, Romanian Names. To read the full review and hear the song click here!
On the All Songs Considered blog I wrote a quick bit about a new Beck project, where he and bunch of musicians and friends will start covering albums in their entirety, starting with the classic The Velvet Underground and Nico. You can read that, and see the first song “Sunday Morning” here.
Since I heard Beck cover this song, I have been revisiting this album, and even learning to play “Sunday Morning.” It’s such a great simple pop song. Check out this cool, rare footage video of an early version of the song:
Papercuts’ ‘You Can Have What You Want’ is out now. (Courtesy of the artist)
Here’s a new Song of the Day essay about Papercuts’* song** “You Can Have What You Want” from its new album, You Can Have What You Want. To read the full review and hear the song click here!
UPDATE 3/2: For those who care to watch Sir Tom Jones in action, video is now up.
I think Robin’s write up is incredibly accurate: While Jones has accumulated quite a reputation as schlock and cheesey moves over the years — not to mention spoofed by Carlton on the Fresh Prince — there is no denying why this incredibly talented guy rose to the top. Even in this intimate setting I think he really sounded great, was very genuine and was quite the showman.
