The Lincoln Center gig has been fantastic, insofar as audience footage is concerned.  I already posted a few different videos, but add to that quite a number of outside blog posts, many of which include pictures.  Some of them are:

• A blog post that mentions some of the excellent African music concerts in NYC over the summer.
• A blog post about the horses Saratoga Springs that also includes a 0:41 clip of us at Lincoln Center (”Abet, Abet!”)
• Some wonderful photographs of the Lincoln Center gig.  The shots of Mahmoud Ahmed and Alemayhu Eshete are particularly great.  Oh, and I guess that wasn’t Bill Laswell after all.
• We were reviewed in the New York Times.  But you already knew that.
• Same photos as above, same publisher, but some great comments here.
• A personal fave of mine comes from Brooklyn Vegan, a fantastic blog that has turned me on to tons of great music in the past couple of years.
• The blog at WNYC.org has an excellent video of Mahmoud singing Ere Mela Mela.  I love this song.  Note the audience singing along…
• A thoughtful review of the concert.
• Here’s a fab preview, provided after the concert, from the Village Voice.

I also stumbled across an interesting review of the DVD we did (Either/Orchestra) with Mahmoud Ahmed last year.

There are tons and tons of pix on flickr.

• Here’s the Ethiopiques tag on flickr.  No, not all 289 shots are of us, but a surprisingly large number of them are - that is to say, pages 1 through 6 have a huge number of shots, with nothing else on later pages.
• Here’s the Mahmoud Ahmed tag on flickr.  Again, not all are of us, but many are.
• In particular, I like many of Irene Trudel’s shots.
• Excellent shots from Redheadwalking of our gig in Ireland.  If I am right, this particular photographer had a hell of a vantage point: she sat on stage for most of the show.
• And last, but not least (check out picasa too!), my favorite shot of the Lincoln Center concert, courtesy Heartonastrick (via Flickr):

Ethiopiques at Lincoln Center

Enjoy, R.

Overview

The information you need, along with the forms you download vary slightly depending upon which program you enter.  The Preparatory (or Prep) school is designed for 8-18 year-olds, and the School of Continuing Education (or SCE) is for anyone older than 18 years of age (although it is true that in some cases, SCE and Prep students mix).

Preparatory School

To start, please download these documents:

• Information packet (88KB) - this document will answer most questions you may have about the program, classes, schedule of events in coming weeks (auditions, when classes start, etc.), registration, etc.
• Audition form/schedule (10KB) - Should you, or should you not, audition?  See below.  Please bring a completed form to auditions.  If you are not auditioning, please scan and email a copy to dzoffer@newenglandconservatory.edu or fax your form to the Preparatory office at NEC.  The number is 617-585-1135.  It is crucial that a completed form is in David Zoffer’s possession by 9/8, in order to begin scheduling classes.

Also, if you are interested in taking Jazz Theory and/or Jazz Stylistic Analysis, please download the theory quiz (2.3MB).  As with the audition form, please be sure that a copy of your completed quiz is in David Zoffer’s possession by 9/8.

To schedule an audition, please call the Preparatory School at 617 -585-1130.  Auditions will take place on Sat., Sept 6th, from 9AM until 5:00PM. If you are not able to be present at the Sat., Sept. 6th audition, there are a limited number of slots available on Sun, Sept. 7th starting at 12PM, and Mon., Sept. 8th starting at 4PM. If it is not possible to meet at NEC on Sep. 8th-Sept. 10th, then please leave a message for Jazz department chair David Zoffer at 617-585-1100 ext. 5709.

To register, please defer to NEC’s site, where registration forms can be downloaded.

School of Continuing Education

To start, please download these documents:

• Information packet (87KB) - this document will answer most questions you may have about the program, classes, schedule of events in coming weeks (auditions, when classes start, etc.), registration, etc.)
• Audition form/schedule (9KB) - Should you, or should you not, audition?  See below.  Please bring a completed form to auditions.  If you are not auditioning, please scan and email a copy to dzoffer@newenglandconservatory.edu or fax your form to the Preparatory office at NEC.  The number is 617-585-1135.  It is crucial that a completed form is in David Zoffer’s possession by 9/8, in order to begin scheduling classes.

Also, if you are interested in taking Jazz Theory, Jazz Composition and Analysis, or Jazz Arranging, please download the theory quiz (668KB).  As with the audition form, please be sure that a copy of your completed quiz is in David Zoffer’s possession by 9/8.

To schedule an audition, please call the Preparatory School at 617 -585-1130.  Auditions will take place on Sat., Sept 6th, from 9AM until 5:00PM. If you are not able to be present at the Sat., Sept. 6th audition, there are a limited number of slots available on Sun, Sept. 7th starting at 12PM, and Mon., Sept. 8th starting at 4PM. If it is not possible to meet at NEC on Sep. 8th-Sept. 10th, then please leave a message for Jazz department chair David Zoffer at 617-585-1100 ext. 5709.

To register, please defer to NEC’s site, where registration forms can be downloaded.

Auditions

Posted above are instructions for auditions: how to schedule one (call NEC at 617-585-1130), when they are, and which form(s) to bring.  In the Information packet is a section on auditions that highlights other aspects of the audition.  But one might wonder whether or not an audition is necessary.  The answer depends on a few factors:

• Are you new to the program?  Or have you been away from the program for a year or two?  Yes, you should audition.
• Are you a continuing student who has evolved tremendously over the summer?  Yes, you should audition.
• Switching instruments?  Yes, please audition.
• Do you have questions that were not answered by the information packet?  Would you like to spend some time talking with the Department Chair about the program?  The best way to approach this is to schedule an audition.

Looking forward to hearing you.

Best, R.

The nice thing is that I don’t really have to start over, since I have this super groovy blog happening.  But there still is quite a lot of work to be done.  For the moment, if you are dying to read up on me, you’ll have to check a smattering of places, including (sadly) the old site.  So here goes:

• My bio in its most updated form is on the blog.  Look at the top of the page and click About (or click here).  A far better place to find far too much information on me (as if I’m really this important - please) is on LinkedIn.
• I’m working on dealing with gigs/itinerary and the like.  For the moment, there are a couple of options.  If you are looking to get on my mailing list, then make a comment to this page. I won’t approve it, so it won’t go to the virtual world.  But until I can get an actual contact form up and running, it’s the best way to go about this.  If you are just wondering about where I played when, then you’ll have to check the old itinerary.  It is correct through the February of 2008.
• The gallery was never what I wanted it to be anyway.  So let’s say that you were looking for groovy pix of yours truly.  Well, I recommend the Google Image search.  Put my name in quotes.  Add something like bass or music to the search.  I’m not bald (yet), don’t live in Canada or California, and have never been a sheriff or a volleyball star.  So pick the shots of a nerdy guy playing a bass.

That about does it.  Stop back for more soon.

Best, R.

Last Thursday, just before I left for Logan Airport, I managed to post something about our Lincoln Center gig.  Again, it was unbelievable, and deeply gratifying.  It turns out that Nate Chinen (excellent music journalist at the New York Times) thought it was pretty great too.  On Friday, the NY Times published his review of the concert.  It is here.

And much to my surprise, there are four additional videos of our concert on Youtube.  Let’s watch them together (I haven’t even seen them yet, I’m just posting first, listening later).

Here is the first one.  Starts with Addis Ababa Bete (”Addis Ababa is my home” - about a beautiful girl in “my” neighborhood):

The second one starts with Alemayhu’s rock tune ”Mekeshyn Selawq”:

Up third in Youtube land is Mahmoud Ahmed with “Atawurlegn Lela.”  I asked him about this tune yesterday at breakfast and he said that the lyrics - “Atawurlegn lela, Keswa zena beker” - mean something like “I don’t want to hear any news about her.”  Apparently, it’s another tale of heartbreak:

Lastly, my all-time favorite Mahmoud Ahmed song, “Ere Mela Mela.”  This was so powerful on this gig, and to have a huge crowd of fans singing along is something from another planet (or at least, another country!):

Again, excellent camera angle…

Best, R.

It captures the excitement wonderfully, and in my own humble opinion, was shot from the ideal camera angle:

[flash
alemayehu eshete & mahmoud ahmed w/ the either/orchestra (nyc) from acid marshmallow V on Vimeo.]

Many thanks to acid marshmallow for posting this video awesomeness.

Best,

Rick

Best, R.

Totally inspired and dying to see more? Try my previous posts (like this one, and this one, and this one. Why not try this one? Or this one?).

Enjoy, R.

Here are some of the shots he managed to get:

Click to view Chris Burbul's pix (E/O starts at 139)

Best, R.

Bass Playing

• Ron Carter: Building Jazz Bass Lines (Hal Leonard)
• Simandl: New Method for Double Bass (Carl Fisher)
• Charlie Parker: Omnibook (Alfred Publishing)
• Todd Coolman: The Bass Tradition (Aebersold)
• John Goldsby: Jazz Bowing Techniques for the Improvising Bassist (Aebersold)

Jazz Improvisation

• Jerry Bergonzi: Inside Improvisation (Advance Publishing) - N.B., I think that Vol. 6 is the best book out there on jazz improvisation
• Mark Levine: The Jazz Theory Book (Sher Music)
• Andy Jaffe: Jazz Harmony (Advance Music)

Best, R.

Here’s another Youtube video (audience recording) of the Either/Orchestra playing with Mulatu Astatke at the Harbourfront Centre in Toronto. It starts in the middle of Charlie Kohlhase’s brilliant solo on Yegelle Tezeta, the third movement of Astatke’s Broken Flowers Suite (arranged by Russ Gershon).

Enjoy, Rick