Eliot was wrong; May is the cruelest month, at least here in the Center of Universe this particular year.  Lingering winter infirmities, a miserable San Francisco spring and, of course, the mixed blessing of having passed that peculiar threshold where one becomes officially old.  I am now a card carrying member of the Medicare set; I am invisible to young women; the next fishing license I buy will not expire until I do.  When I was younger–which seems about 20 minutes ago–I subscribed to that great philosopher Neil Young’s credo:  “It’s better to burn out than it is to rust.”  Now, I’m thinking rusting has a certain appeal; it works for Richard Serra.  Fair warning to all; I plan to be a rage, don’t whine kind of old person.

You know who I think is underrated?  Terry Riley.  A lot of people think of him as a one-hit wonder but I’ve been listening to a lot of his stuff lately and it brings me great pleasure.

Ralph van Raat’s wonderul Naxos recording of The People United Will Never Be Defeated! (Naxos 8559360) has been getting some great press lately but (you know how cranky you folks are) some people have complained that the CD didn’t contain the timings for the variations.   Take heart, gentle listener, all is revealed here.

Curious item by Daniel J. Wakin buried deep in the bowels of Saturday’s New York Times, the jist of which appears to be the fact that absolutely nobody is upset because Bang on a Can has programmed  Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Stimmung” as the culminating piece of a 12-hour marathon ending early on the morning of June 1 at the World Financial Center Winter Garden. 

Why might they be?  Well, apparently Stockhausen made one of his nutty comments about 9/11 being “the greatest work of art that is possible in the whole cosmos.”

Call me crazy, but having studied and been in this journalism game for a very long time I’m of the opinion that if the dog didn’t bite the man and the man didn’t bite the dog, you really don’t have much of a story to work with.  I know the cable channels love to gin up this phony controversy crap, but the New York Times…

Speaking of Rzewski (and aren’t we always), he’ll be at Zankel Hall on Thursday night when the Opus 21 Ensemble presents an all-Fred birthday bash, highlighted by the world premiere of Natural Things, a major new work written specifically for Opus 21, co-commissioned by Carnegie Hall, the Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, and Opus 21 (with support from the Chamber Music America Commissioning Program).

Also on the program are Spots (1986), War Songs (2007-08) – NY Premiere, Attica (1972) and a two-piano performance of Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues (1980) with Stephen Drury manning the other piano. Festivities begin at 7:30; the composer’s actual birthday was April 13.

UPDATED:

The kids at Newspeak noticed that in one of my increasingly frequent senior moments I forgot to mention that they are presenting a concert at the Brooklyn Lyceum on Friday night, May 2, called Which Side Are You On- Music By, For, and Against Frederic Rzewski. Says here that the concert is “one part tribute to Rzewski, one part torch-passing, and one part challenge.” The program includes works by some young political composers, including Ted Hearne who just premiered his work the Katrina Ballads at Greenwich House in NYC a few weeks ago. The concert will be hosted by WNYC’s Evening Music host, Terrance McKnight, and there will be a moderated discussion between Newspeak director and composer David T. Little and composer Frederic Rzewski. For those of you who may not know, Newspeak is an eight-piece amplified ensemble, which fuses rock and classical traditions. Brooklyn Lyceum, (718) 857.4816

The New York Times noticed today that Henry Brant had died.

I saw him play three times–twice with Herman and once at some dreary little club downtown whose name I’ve forgotten in front of an audience of me, a friend and the bartender.  It didn’t seem to bother him much; he played like he was in front of a full house at Carnegie Hall. 

Giuffre played sweet tenor, great clarinet, and, of course, he wrote one of the all-time big-band masterpieces–Four Brothers.  Doug Ramsey has a splendid writeup and a link to the unusual video below which proves conclusively, one mo’ time,  that Giuffre will live on forever everywhere musicians get together for the purpose of swing.   

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Frank has details.

Sequenza21 blogger Charles Griffin is having the World Premiere of his Concerto for Chamber Orchestra on May 3 by the Westchester Chamber Orchestra.  The concert is scheduled to begin at 8 pm  at Christopher J. Murphy Auditorium in the Murphy Science Building, corner of Summit and North Avenues, on the campus of Iona College in New Rochelle.  There is a short conversation between the composer and WCO Artistic Director Barry Hoffman here. 

In another part of the forest, Aguavá New Music Studio, run by our amigos conductor Carmen-Helena Téllez, composer Cary Boyce and flutist/producer Alain Barker, are staging a concert called Of Love and Courage at 8 pm on May 8 at Williams College.  The concert will be selected from works by  Louis Andriessen, Cary Boyce, George Crumb, Geoffrey Gordon, Larry Polansky, Antonio Borges Cunha, Kaija Saariaho, and Carmen-Helena Téllez. The concert also features a new work especially composed for the group by faculty member Ileana Pérez-Velázquez.

Here’s a sample from Aguavá’s educational project with Indiana University’s young Contemporary Vocal Ensemble.

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No longer so newlywed Molly Sheridan has a new baby…well, actually, it’s a blog, but it’s almost the same thing.  Check it out.