Netflix gave me a short biography of Igor Stravinsky. Which is appropriate because Stravinsky stood 5′2″. When it was over I fired up the iTunes and found Stravinsky’s ballet Apollon Musagéte (Apollo, Conductor of the Muses.) Just gorgeous music, neo-classical and modern.

Listen:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuDR0nTeDsU]

bebop: a style of jazz playing, fast eighth-note lines weaving through rapidly changing chord progressions, popular in the mid-late 40’s. Think Charlie Parker. Exciting, intellectual, difficult.

Be-Bop Buffet is a tremendous accordion duet of mostly bebop tunes. Simone Zanchini (Italy) on the left channel and Frank Marocco(America) on the right. Comping and playing time for each other as they rip through the changes. Fast, fun, great playing.

From the king of bebop and all jazz, Charlie Parker, to the father of hard-bop, Horace Silver, to standards and more modern compositions by Charlie Haden and Marocco. These guys can play bebop to anything.

The Flintstones: The most famous of all bebop chord progressions is the string of chords to Gershwin’s I Got Rhythm. This set of chords has been used countless times in both jazz melodies and popular tunes: Indiana, Straighten Up and Fly Right, Cottontail, Oleo to name a few. It is also the chrord progression of the theme to the cartoon The Flintstones. Which is the tune that wraps up this disk.

I agree with Vittorio Lo Conte when he says in his  All About Jazz review:

Be-Bop Buffet is a disc that is heard throughout a breath, in which the genre in which they chose to express themselves is restored to the fullest. I due sembrano fatti l’uno per l’altro, simbiotici, come si dice, così che alla fine ci si pone la domanda: a quando la prossima incisione insieme? The two seem made for each other, symbionts, as they say, so that finally there is the question: when the next recording together?

Be-Bop Buffet è un disco che si ascolta tutto di un fiato, in cui il genere musicale in cui hanno scelto di esprimersi viene ridato al meglio. I due sembrano fatti l’uno per l’altro, simbiotici, come si dice, così che alla fine ci si pone la domanda: a quando la prossima incisione insieme? Valutazione: 4 stelle

Be-Bop Buffet

Wide Sound Records

2006

Acc: Simone Zanchini

Acc: Frank Marocco

What if you ran away with the circus . . . and regretted it? A mix of death-defying circus performances, live music, and original story, Cirque-ular tells the story of a bitter ringmaster whose career comes full circle when he meets an optimistic young juggler who dreams of joining his circus.

The 2009 Fringe Fest show from David “One Man Sideshow” Smith. Features amazing juggling, fire eating, aerialist routines, mystifying mime and more. All with a musical score by me. Its in rehearsal now, so put it on the calendar.

Four Shows: 9/11, 9/12 ,9/18, 9/19

Germantown Juggling Studio

6122 Greene St. Germantown, PA

Tickets are available at the Philly Fringe Fest Website

I came across this interesting upcoming web concert. Apparently Argentina’s public performances have been shut down by Swine Flu. But singer Gicela Méndez Ribiero has come up with an online web concert to bring musicans and audience together.

Thanks to the Brazilian website Chamamé:

Due to the crisis in the music of Argentina, according to the epidemic of Influenza A, so that people are trapped in their homes as a result, suspending all its presentations, thereby causing injury to music class – comes a new novel idea of performing a show promoted by singer Correntina Gicela Méndez Ribeiro and whole, which will be led by Filmmaker Marcel Czombos.

The online concert will be held on Saturday July 25th at 10p Buenos Aires, Argentina/ 9p EST

To watch the concert go to www.gicelamendezribeiro.com.ar

You can read more at Chamamé.com.br

Fantastic, I can’t get enough of listening to it. The debut album, Confluences, by French accordionist Jean-Louis Matinier. Fast-moving melodic lines and ostinato figures, shining melodies, brilliant ensemble work and some very nice improvising. You can listen to a bit of it here.

Held together by a lacework of body-moving rhythms and made creative by real compositions which work with the rhythms but change and grow. Dancing back and forth between various feels. If any genre that I have at hand, I would call this chamber-jazz. Although that term is imperfect. It has most to do with composition and improvisation and I feel a particularly baroque sensibility, like much of jazz composition.

The orchestration is superb, many times sounding like more than the four pieces which are present.

In particular I am enamoured by the work of the flutist Bobby Rangell. These flute melodies could not have been played better. The playing on this record is really world class. Bravo Jean-Louis! You are an inspiration and an artist.

Jean-Louis Matinier

Confluences

Enja Label

Personnel:

Accordion/Composition: Jean-Louis Matinier

Flute: Bobby Rangell

Guitar: Nelson Veras

Bass: Renaud Garcia-Fons

With so much amazing stuff out there on Youtube, I decided to select a few of my favorites.

Bandoneonist/Composer player Dino Saluzzi in his kitchen.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQnAtfaqlOQ]

Brief French promotional film for Richard Galliano’s Love Day recording. Shows Galliano, Rubalcaba and Haden in the studio.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxiOGkQOp_0]

How do you make an exciting video of two men sitting playing accordion? Skip to the halfway point to see where it gets really interesting.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj1hZg8KaYk]

You can also find my videos and become my friend on Youtube, just look up my name.