“Utviklingssang” is a Bley original that sounds like a Scandinavian folk song (the title means “Development Song” in Norwegian). She’d been asked by a promoter to write a piece with a Nordic flavour for a tour with the Scandinavian All-Stars, and refused, “but the piece came out of me anyway.” The piece was titled after Bley witnessed an Oslo protest march against the building of dams to generate more energy for Southern Norway which, it was said, would adversely affect wildlife in Lapland. It must rank amongst the prettiest of protest pieces. Stereophile magazine once hailed it as “a hushed, modal masterpiece.” “Utviklingssang” was first heard on record played by a nine-piece band on the Social Studies album (1980), then appeared on Duets with the irreducible core team of Bley and Swallow in 1988, and in an octet version on 4 x 4 (with Shepherd as one of the sax players) in 1999.
Sunday, January 3, 2016
Carla Bley trio - Utviklingssang - Cully Jazz Festival 2012
“Utviklingssang” is a Bley original that sounds like a Scandinavian folk song (the title means “Development Song” in Norwegian). She’d been asked by a promoter to write a piece with a Nordic flavour for a tour with the Scandinavian All-Stars, and refused, “but the piece came out of me anyway.” The piece was titled after Bley witnessed an Oslo protest march against the building of dams to generate more energy for Southern Norway which, it was said, would adversely affect wildlife in Lapland. It must rank amongst the prettiest of protest pieces. Stereophile magazine once hailed it as “a hushed, modal masterpiece.” “Utviklingssang” was first heard on record played by a nine-piece band on the Social Studies album (1980), then appeared on Duets with the irreducible core team of Bley and Swallow in 1988, and in an octet version on 4 x 4 (with Shepherd as one of the sax players) in 1999.
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"Stereophile magazine once hailed it as “a hushed, modal masterpiece.”
ReplyDeleteStereophile? That rag? Just an ad flyer -- hell, an issue in 2010 featured the cover line "The Posies Revisit Power Pop."
http://www.longplay.lt/_ld/15/1570.jpg
An obvious piece of shit.
I thought that you'd find that annoying. It's why I included it.
DeleteToo many big words, I'm guessing.
DeleteEschew obfuscation, as we say in the editing biz.
ReplyDeleteI'm prepared to believe your career in, um, journalism was based on 1960s era bumper stickers as advertised in Saturday Review or, more likely, in your case, some bogus lefty rag.
DeleteTranslation: "Anything over the 1000 most common words is elitist. And too hard!"
Delete