Tracey Dey

Only an Expert

admin — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 02:55:55 +0000

Do yourself a favour and listen to the full 7+ full minutes of “Only an Expert” on Laurie Anderson’s latest work “Homeland”, in fact the whole album is worth your attention. This is work so clever and so inspiring, I was totally immersed, delighted and stilled while checking out Bob Boilen’s First Listen on NPR (an excellent program!).
Here is the link: First Listen: Laurie Anderson, ‘Homeland’

and another to my favourite tune: Only an Expert

Fusio Group

admin — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:07:36 +0000

So, I am in this class at the Royal conservatory called FUSIO. It is taught, organized and conducted by Bill Parsons whose choice of music is eclectic and right up my alley. We jam on these tunes below with creatively mixed rhythms and orchestration. We are learning to play as a group, most of us from solitary lessons and practice situations… we are comin’ along just fine, with time.
Here is a you tube playlist of our repetoire, enjoy:

Roc Raida – R.I.P turntable king

admin — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 20:45:05 +0000

All forms of music fascinate me. There is some crazed drive in us that hears and feel rhythms and melodies in our everyday motions. I wonder who made the first scratch “mistake” while deejaying late one night at a drunken party, and then proceeded to fine tune it to become a music of its own. While surfing, I came across old news of the passing of a beloved master of turntable arts. It is fascinating how Roc Raida is “speaking” through this combination of previously recorded sounds and instruments that are basically an old sound making technology.

Take a listen and here is a link to more information about Roc Raida.

Miles Smiles

admin — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 20:21:47 +0000

Can’t say I know much about Miles Davis and his music, but I sure was inspired a couple weeks ago when I headed out to the drop-in life drawing class at the Gladstone. We had the most excellent model with incredible balance on difficult poses. I like drawing at the Gladstone because you can have a glass of your favourite beverage while trying get your sketch just right…. okay well, while I was humming along on a gentle liquid buzz, there was a great soundtrack playing into the foreground, it seemed to be mirroring the process looking and rendering, looking and rendering. The teacher told me it was a Miles Davis album called Miles Smiles. I have attached a link to information about this great drawing music, so enjoy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miles_Smiles

Funkadesi

admin — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 23:27:09 +0000

Funkadesi at Yonge Dundas Square

Wow, what a bass player that Rahul Sharma is! His solo blew me away across the street, I smacked against the Eaton Centre and bounced back to the square beside my favorite gal on earth, who was busting some of her newly acquired moves from bollywood class. Funkadesi is a mixed party band, I can relate to the mixy part! They get the crowd groovin and movin with indian, african, jazz, funk, and latin sounding rhythms. Fun and Free.. whaaat else do you waaant?

http://www.funkadesi.com/

Rock Steady!

admin — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 17:02:12 +0000

Hi there,
last night a friend and I went to see a really inspiring movie about the roots of reggae music. The movie is called Rocksteady: the roots of reggae. I came away thinking about what an elusive, pervasive and magical form of communication music can be. Here is a trailer, check it out.

Rocksteady: Roots of Reggae