[Music] Dire Straits – Sultans of Swing (Old Grey Whistle Test, 1978)

/ Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

I never could understand the fascination my friends in Eastern Europe had with Dire Straits. I saw them as nothing more than a white-boy blues band trying to act cool, yet I never bothered to give their early work a chance. After hearing this, I think I get it now.

I was a fan of guitarist Mark Knopfler’s work outside of Dire Straits, especially his collaboration with Chet Atkins. I can finally appreciate his roots now.

[Music] Iconoclasta – Suite Mexicana Part 1 : Mestizaje

/ Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Mexico is known for great garage rock bands, avant-prog, and neo-prog bands. But my favorite is the symphonic prog band, Iconoclasta. This piece comes from their crowning achievement of an album, Soliloquio, long out of print, unfortunately.

Much respect to my friend, Domenico D’Alessandro, for reminding me of how good an album this truly was, and what a crime it is to know that it’s still out of print.

[Art] Paintings With Angels, by Arrington Dionysio and His Mother

/ Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

Painting angels with mom, part three (my picture) - Arrington de Dionyso

11750986_10152866965256432_716236537_o

Arrington de Dionyso is a composer and musician whose work first caught my attention when he played with the band Old Time Relijun. He continues to produce amazing, eclectic music, but it seems his talent is inherited. He and his mother worked on these two gorgeous works of art, reminding one of the works on a more psychedelic Byzantine icon, or the religious works of Marc Chagall.

May both mother and son find comfort in these difficult days.

[Music] Uri Caine/Ksawery Wójciński/Robert Rasz – Plays Wladyslaw Szpilman

/ Rudy Carrera / Leave a comment

A warm thanks to MultiKulti for posting this. Here are their notes (follow them, please!):

Editor’s info:

Uri Caine plays Wladyslaw Szpilman — a special project of Tzadik Poznan Festival 2013
Marek Edelman once said, “Szpilman is the symbol of all those, who survived, since there must have been dozens of unlikely, wondrous circumstances to survive.”

The music of this composer and pianist — a student of the Fryderyk Chopin Conservatory in Warsaw under the tutelage of Jozef Smidowicz and Aleksander Michalowski and later the Academy of Arts in Berlin, where he studied under Arthur Schnabel and Leonid Kreutzer (piano) as well as composition under Franz Schreker — is know around the entire world thanks in large part due to Roman Polanski’s movie, The Pianist.
This cultural and artistic project is devoted to the figure and oeuvre of a prominent composer, the creator of classical music and many unforgettable songs that have become permanently ingrained into the cultural history of the 20th century.

Uri Caine performed on Tzadik Poznan Festival with Polish musicians Ksawery Wójciński on the double bass and Robert Rasz on the percussion. The musicians together presented authorial interpretations of Szpilman’s compositions.
Uri Caine, one of the great innovators of contemporary music, will pay tribute in this way to the Polish composer and pianist.