Music is the River of the World

...That's my tagline at another Web site where I blog about music: Low_Reed Riffs on Music.

(Thanks for the HTML tip, Blogger Buddy Caitlin!)

It's a variation on a Tom Waits song title: Misery is the River of the World, from his Blood Money album. I love Tom Waits, in general. I love this album, in particular, for two reasons:

1) "It's Waits' treatment of Georg Buchner's 1837 socio-political play, Woyzek which premiered in 2000 in Copenhagen. It's a dark morality play performed in a style where a barker from a medicine show is mysteriously transported to the Weimar Republic via Tin Pan Alley." (Quoted from Amazon.com's album description, italics mine.) Weimar Republic? Tin Pan Alley? Check it out, Bremner Duthie (Whiskey Bars) and other Kurt Weill lovers. (You know, it occurs to me that Tom Waits is the quintessential life-long Fringe performer! Does anyone have any hot tips on how to get the lowdown on his concert appearances? I hear it's really hush-hush. Write to me -- click on Wanna talk? here, or in the description below my picture. )

2) FOUR of the songs on this album have bass clarinet in the instrumentation! How could I not love it?

Speaking of things musical (how did I get on that topic? :>), I saw Dona Quixote yesterday. The music and dancing were wonderful! I've seen this troupe perform before. Really good stuff. It started kind of slowly, with a back story about being stuck in a Minnesota winter, but once they were transported to Spain and began to dance and play (and sing -- check out the amazing Maria Elena 'La Cordobesa' ) in earnest, it was great!

Recollect the Snow was next - a gripping portrayal of a man clutched in the dual grips of hypothermia and memories. Jane's comment this morning: "That show made me thankful that you're not a Minnesota man!" ( OK, I'm a zealous 20-year immigrant who loves it here -- but I don't fish!). Very well done.

Next I heard a delightful set of stories by five local authors at Agog!, part of the Spoken Word Fringe at MCTC Whitney Studio. Funny, moving, and very entertaining.

And speaking of Ochen K., who did the soundtrack for Agog!, I am now listening to David Byrne's "Grown Backwards", whose music was featured in Everything and Nothing All at the Same Time, which I saw on Monday and then blogged about. I had seen a preview for this show at Ball's Cabaret last Saturday night, and asked Ochen (who is the tech director there) about that album. He said I should really check out the tune "Tiny Apocalypse", which he loved. Well, Ochen, I just heard it, and it was instantly familiar and wonderful. Have I perhaps heard you play that song before?

And speaking of Jon and Blythe and the gang at Everything and Nothing..., I just found out that Blythe knows Jeff King, an outstanding local sax player and teacher. I've been taking lessons from him on and off for five years, and really like his music. He's having a fairly rare public gig at Bunker's (716 N. Washington, Mpls.) this Friday evening, with the Kurt Jorgensen band, playing "a mix of original pop music with some cool covers". So I've invited aliens #1-5 (and the Big Guy) to come hear Jeff with me tomorrow night (after Fringing, of course!). [Jon Ferguson -- if you read this, be sure to ask Blythe to check her Walker e-mail!]

I'm about to stop speaking and start listening and watching: my schedule today includes Mary Kelly Sunshine Box (surreal), Buckets and Tap Shoes (high energy dance and music), Before Dark (cello, off-kilter dance, and more), and Splotches of Spain (flamenco dance and music, seasoned with Miles, Coltrane, and beat poetry!). See you around!