Jazz/Blues
EXCLUSIVE: 2015 MATA Festival Interview Spotlight - Wang Lu on 'Urban Inventory', Curious Chamber Players of Sweden and China's 'Little Trumpet Broadcast' Theme
EXCLUSIVE: Robert Sirota on 'Spindrift' with Sandbox Percussion, Concerts in Park Slope and Why He's Not Going on Nadia's 'Meet The Composer' Podcast
With both European bona fides (that Watson fellowship with Nadia Boulanger in Paris) and studies with composers that can sound European (those PhD lessons with Leon Kirchner at Harvard), American composer Robert Sirota remains precisely that: a quintessentially American composer. In his mature works, thorny chromaticism often plays nicely within rounded, deliberate forms. And there's always a true economy of means -- no motive where none intended. European-inspired, maybe, but his is a curious blend, no doubt informed by Sirota's many academic appointments up and down America's eastern seaboard (NYU, BU, Peabody, Manhattan School of Music). Not that Robert Sirota is an ivory tower, himself. Case in point: Sirota's brand new, beguiling work for Sandbox Percussion, Spindrift. ICYMI: Roomful of Teeth 'Render' Album Trailer, Angela Lansbury Finally Wins (Supporting) Olivier, Meredith Monk's Excellent Weirdness, Jazz Wrestling Videos
Roomful of Teeth's sophomore album, 'Render,' is out April 28 via New Amsterdam Records. And, quote, "this video is about slow bubbles in Florence and the release of Roomful of Teeth's sophomore album, Render." So, watch the beguiling two-minute album trailer above, go watch the Classicalite premiere of RoT's first-ever music video for William Brittelle's "High Done No Why To" and then, of course, pre-order 'Render' on Bandcamp.