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Blogarrhea: A True Crime Story Turns Into Great Art...Meet Ochion Jewell

This week's Blogarrhea takes a look at a unique case of almost-tragic true crime turned into great art. Saxophonist Ochion Jewell was the victim of police brutality who sued the NYPD, settled out-of-court and used the proceeds to fund the recording and the self-release of his second CD, 'VOLK.' It just happens to be an uncategorizable pastiche of folk, jazz, classical, prog rock and world, without succumbing to standard fusion or traditional worldbeat.
By Mike Greenblatt

  • PREMIERE: wild Up, Jodie Landau - "as I wait for the lion" from 'you of all things' (Bedroom)

    Premiering here on Classicalite, by their numbers anyways, you'll hear a mix as open and as carefree as Highway 101. Whereas, simultaneously, as intimate, as huddled as the mass of hybrids piled bumper-to-bumper on the 110. Settle in, then, as wild Up founder Christopher Rountree leads the shimmering, beguiling "as I wait for the lion," the eighth track off of you of all things, out today from Valgeir Sigurðsson's Bedroom Community.
    By Logan K. Young

  • John Q. Walker's TED Talk: Gould's Goldberg Variations Go LIVE With Computerized Grand Pianos

    Canadian pianist Glenn Gould would have loved the notion of computerized grand pianos. Notorious for rejecting live performance in pursuit of studio perfection, Gould's Goldberg Variations are a testament to his recording prowess. Yet, according to software entrepreneur John Q. Walker's TED Talk, not all audiophiles accept that studio production has secured complete and total optimization over musical output. Especially with respect to older, scratchier, and poorly mixed recordings, some still regard studio work as a stop-gap measure for the kind of experience only a live performance can give. Still, despite this seemingly anti-tech attitude, it may in fact be technology that restores live performing capabilities to long-departed performers.
    By Steve Nagel