Trauma of the Brain and Heart Affects a Musician's Creative

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Trauma of the Brain and Heart Affects a Musician's Creative TRAUMA OF THE BRAIN AND HEART AFFECTS A MUSICIAN'S CREATIVE OUTPUT BRIAN JUDE DE LIMA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS GRADUATE PROGRAM IN MUSIC YORK UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, ONTARIO SEPTEMBER 2011 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A 0N4 Canada Canada Your file Votre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-88632-8 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-88632-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distrbute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriete du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in this et des droits moraux qui protege cette these. Ni thesis. Neither the thesis nor la these ni des extraits substantiels de celle-ci substantial extracts from it may be ne doivent etre imprimes ou autrement printed or otherwise reproduced reproduits sans son autorisation. without the author's permission. In compliance with the Canadian Conformement a la loi canadienne sur la Privacy Act some supporting forms protection de la vie privee, quelques may have been removed from this formulaires secondaires ont ete enleves de thesis. cette these. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. Canada iv Abstract The purpose of the following paper is to investigate whether musicians who have experienced brain or heart trauma subsequently experienced an altered creative output. Examples discussed include the correlations between species of trauma such as physical, emotional and mental stress, as well as the side effects as a result of taking medications. The primary source of study will be my compositions derived shortly after a concussion and myocardial infarction. Since these compositions contrast greatly from my previous works, investigations have been taken to see if the various species of trauma have had a profound influence on my creative output. Various medical specialists in the fields of neurology and cardiology have contributed their expertise via interviews. Other notable musicians such as Bud Powell and Louis Armstrong have been investigated for their validity to the subject as a result of paralleling their trauma to my own. V Acknowledgments I would like to thank first and foremost my supervisor Professor Christina Petrowska-Quilico as well as my technical supervisor Professor Jay Rahn for their expertise and guidance. I would also like to thank the team of doctors, especially Dr. David Rosen, Dr. Paul Fedak, Dr. Andre Douen, and Dr. Ryszard Kowalewski, who graciously gave up their time in order to provide me with the information necessary to formulate this thesis. I must acknowledge the musical genius of Bud Powell, Louis Armstrong and Frederic Chopin; their works have and will always serve as an influence on my own. My performance teachers, James Tweedie and Dr. Barry Harris deserve credit for being great messengers of the truth. I would also like to thank my parents and wife, Tanya de Lima, for always supporting and believing in my ambitious endeavours. Finally, I would like to give and dedicate this thesis to the artists mentioned in this paper for their achievement of self efficacy through the experience of mastery. They are the vehicle for all to learn and live by for their lives are fundamental to the human condition. vi Table of Contents Title Page (i) Copyright Page (ii) Certificate Page (iii) Abstract (iv) Acknowledgments (v) Table of Contents (vi) List of Figures (ix) Introduction 1 Primary and Secondary Sources 2 Preliminary Investigations 3 Thesis Statement 5 Chaotic Structures 7 Creativity as a Coping Mechanism 8 Artist Projection 10 Art Mimics Life 11 Powell's Epilepsy and Creativity 12 Music and Speech Disorders: Modularity of the Brain 14 Amusia vs. Aphasia 15 Compositions of the Author 18 Post-Heart Attack 20 Mental Dlness: Depression, Anxiety and Mania 24 Drugs and Creativity 29 Neuroplasticity 33 Gestalt Principles 35 Memory 38 The Musical Lexicon 40 Motor Learning 41 Perceptual Training 43 Sleep 45 Natural Evolution 46 Conclusion 48 Disclaimer 61 References 91 VIII List of Figures Fig. 1. Anterior Corpus Callosum in Musicians / Non-musicians 51 Fig. 2. Corpus Callosum Measurements 51 Fig. 3. Anterior Corpus Callosum in Musicians with Early Training 52 Fig. 4. Planum Temporale Size Differences 52 Fig. 5. Thinking Changes 53 Fig. 6. Physical Changes 54 Fig. 7. Personality and Behavioural Changes 54 Fig. 8. Frontal Lobe Functions 55 Fig. 9. Temporal Lobe Functions 55 Fig. 10. Parietal Lobe Functions 55 Fig. 11. Occipital Lobe Functions 55 Fig. 12. Cerebellum Lobe Functions 56 Fig. 13. Brain Stem Functions 56 Fig. 14. Effects of Injuries of the Right Side of Brain 56 Fig. 15. Effects of Injuries of the Left Side of Brain 57 Fig. 16. A Modular Model of Music Processing 58 Fig. 17. Myocardial Infarction 59 Fig. 18. Angioplasty 59 Fig. 19. Stent in the Left Anterior Descending Artery 60 ix List of Musical Examples The BUDist Monk 62 The Immaculate Deception 65 Lima Beans 66 Dementia 5 Bud's Bowells 71 Hamburg Helper 75 Subperverse 77 Oscar the Grouch 80 Prosodaic Cues 83 Neuroplasticity 85 My Cardinal Infarction 88 1 Introduction In February of 2006, I suffered a concussion. Immediately following the concussion, I began to have feelings of anxiety and anger and subsequently became depressed. The depression was largely a result of an inability to manage more than 30 minutes of practice as a result of pain and lack of concentration: a significant drop from practicing 8-10 hours a day. Composing then became a major focus for me, and I hoped that perhaps new creativity might be manifest after the incident. The songs composed shortly after the concussion did convey the frustration and pain of the ordeal. Harmonically, the compositions were none like I had composed before, reflecting the landscape of my emotional state. Besides physical pain and mental distress, could there be other factors affecting my compositional process? The doctors did not administer any pain killers or blood thinners; therefore medication in this case was not an influence on my music. What I later found out was that brain chemistry is quite volatile and will react to a concussion by releasing an overabundance of chemicals. Further investigations of the brain when injured and its role in the creative process will be discussed later in this thesis. In March of 2009,1 suffered a major heart attack (myocardial infarction). At this time I was bedridden for five days in the hospital. As in the case of the concussion, I experienced feelings of frustration and depression over the matter, and decided the next step was to write a body of music depicting the heart attack since I was not physically strong enough to play. The creative process had begun to take form even while I was bedridden. When I was released from the hospital, I immediately tried to work out the musical progressions which had been churning in my head. The harmonies were much 2 more experimental than in my other works, perhaps for the following reason: in this second, more severe medical trauma, I was administered powerful medications in the hospital, one of them morphine, for pain. Medication would have to be taken into consideration as a plausible contributor to the creative process. Other considerations to be taken into account as a contributor to the creative process are physical and mental stress, as well as cognitive and perceptual changes and memory construction. Another consideration would be the amount of practice and performance hours accumulated from a young age that had sharpened my skill in improvisation, which can be viewed as a facet of creativity. A final, plausible cause for such a creative outcome might simply be attributed to the natural evolution of artistic maturity as a musician. Although there are innumerable bodily injuries and afflictions that can influence a musician's creative process, this thesis will concentrate only on the injuries from which I suffered personally and the corpus of music derived from those injuries. As the two main injuries were a concussion and a heart attack, my objective will be to investigate these two types of medical traumas in relation to the creative output of a musician. Primary and Secondary Sources The primary sources include both the traumas and the compositions. The music I composed shortly following the traumas will exemplify the changes in creative output with regard to harmony, tonality, rhythm and performance. This exemplification in creative output will be contrasted against my first body of work, INhER Demons, composed at a time when I was perfectly healthy. This contrast of pre-trauma and post- trauma works, the medical information provided by the various doctors (i.e., cardiologist, 3 neurologist, general practitioner and anaesthesiologist) and the biographical studies will serve to support the hypothesis presented.
Recommended publications
  • Cognitive Processes for Infering Tonic
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music Music, School of 8-2011 Cognitive Processes for Infering Tonic Steven J. Kaup University of Nebraska-Lincoln, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/musicstudent Part of the Cognition and Perception Commons, Music Practice Commons, Music Theory Commons, and the Other Music Commons Kaup, Steven J., "Cognitive Processes for Infering Tonic" (2011). Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music. 46. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/musicstudent/46 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Music, School of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Student Research, Creative Activity, and Performance - School of Music by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. COGNITIVE PROCESSES FOR INFERRING TONIC by Steven J. Kaup A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Music Major: Music Under the Supervision of Professor Stanley V. Kleppinger Lincoln, Nebraska August, 2011 COGNITIVE PROCESSES FOR INFERRING TONIC Steven J. Kaup, M. M. University of Nebraska, 2011 Advisor: Stanley V. Kleppinger Research concerning cognitive processes for tonic inference is diverse involving approaches from several different perspectives. Outwardly, the ability to infer tonic seems fundamentally simple; yet it cannot be attributed to any single cognitive process, but is multi-faceted, engaging complex elements of the brain. This study will examine past research concerning tonic inference in light of current findings.
    [Show full text]
  • TOSHIKO AKIYOSHI NEA Jazz Master (2007)
    1 Funding for the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program NEA Jazz Master interview was provided by the National Endowment for the Arts. TOSHIKO AKIYOSHI NEA Jazz Master (2007) Interviewee: Toshiko Akiyoshi 穐吉敏子 (December 12, 1929 - ) Interviewer: Dr. Anthony Brown with recording engineer Ken Kimery Dates: June 29, 2008 Repository: Archives Center, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution Description: Transcript 97 pp. Brown: Today is June 29th, 2008, and this is the oral history interview conducted with Toshiko Akiyoshi in her house on 38 W. 94th Street in Manhattan, New York. Good afternoon, Toshiko-san! Akiyoshi: Good afternoon! Brown: At long last, I‟m so honored to be able to conduct this oral history interview with you. It‟s been about ten years since we last saw each other—we had a chance to talk at the Monterey Jazz Festival—but this interview we want you to tell your life history, so we want to start at the very beginning, starting [with] as much information as you can tell us about your family. First, if you can give us your birth name, your complete birth name. Akiyoshi: To-shi-ko. Brown: Akiyoshi. Akiyoshi: Just the way you pronounced. Brown: Oh, okay [laughs]. So, Toshiko Akiyoshi. For additional information contact the Archives Center at 202.633.3270 or [email protected] 2 Akiyoshi: Yes. Brown: And does “Toshiko” mean anything special in Japanese? Akiyoshi: Well, I think,…all names, as you know, Japanese names depends on the kanji [Chinese ideographs]. Different kanji means different [things], pronounce it the same way. And mine is “Toshiko,” [which means] something like “sensitive,” “susceptible,” something to do with a dark sort of nature.
    [Show full text]
  • Saxophone Colossus”—Sonny Rollins (1956) Added to the National Registry: 2016 Essay by Hugh Wyatt (Guest Essay)*
    “Saxophone Colossus”—Sonny Rollins (1956) Added to the National Registry: 2016 Essay by Hugh Wyatt (guest essay)* Album cover Original album Rollins, c. 1956 The moniker “Saxophone Colossus” aptly describes the magnitude of the man and his music. Walter Theodore Rollins is better known worldwide as the jazz giant Sonny Rollins, but in addition to Saxophone Colossus, he has also been given other nicknames, most notably “Newk” because of his resemblance to baseball legend Don Newcombe. To use a cliché, Saxophone Colossus best describes Sonny because he is bigger than life. He is an African American of mammoth importance not only because he is the last major remaining jazz trailblazer, but also because he helped to inspire millions of fans and others to explore the religions and cultures of the East. A former heroin addict, the tenor saxophone icon proved that it was possible to kick the drug habit at a time in the 1950s when thousands of fellow musicians abused heroin and other narcotics. His success is testimony to his strength of character and powerful spirituality, the latter of which helped him overcome what musicians called “the stick” (heroin). Sonny may be the most popular jazz pioneer who is still alive after nearly seven decades of playing bebop, hard bop, and other styles of jazz with the likes of other stalwart trailblazers such as Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Clifford Brown, Max Roach, and Miles Davis. He follows a tradition begun by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Charlie Parker. Eight months after overcoming his habit at a drug rehabilitation facility called “the farm” in Lexington, Kentucky, Sonny made what the jazz cognoscenti rightly contend is his greatest recording ever—ironically entitled “Saxophone Colossus”—which was recorded on June 22, 1956.
    [Show full text]
  • History of the School of Cognitive Science at Hampshire College
    Stillings: History of CS 1 3-5-21 A history of the School of Cognitive Science at Hampshire College Neil Stillings Spring 2021 Preface I started teaching at Hampshire in the fall of 1971, the second year the college was open. I retired in June 2018, 47 years later. I write as a nearly founding faculty member of the college, as a founding faculty member of the School of Cognitive Science (CS), and as the School’s longest-serving member. In the fall of 2018, shortly after I retired, I began writing this history in the hope that it might inform or inspire future faculty and students as Cognitive Science approached its 50th anniversary at Hampshire. As I began writing, a series of events unfolded that threatened the survival of the college.1 In the aftermath about half of the college’s faculty left, either permanently or for indefinite “leave.” In particular all but two of 17 faculty members in Cognitive Science left the college, leaving the program with no faculty in its core areas of psychology, neuroscience, linguistics, philosophy, and computer science.2 As of Spring 2021, in the current national environment of higher education, it is extremely unlikely that Hampshire, at the moment with less than half of its former student body, could rebuild Quickly enough to re-establish Cognitive Science. Further, the faculty who remain on campus have chosen to redesign the educational program in a way that suggests that they will no longer be organized into Schools. Thus, this document has become a history of the School of Cognitive Science from its beginning to its probable end, and, I hope, a source for anyone who does research on Hampshire’s history in the future.3 What were Hampshire’s Schools? Hampshire was founded to foster students’ intellectual curiosity, independence, and initiative, to demand their active engagement with ideas, and to de-emphasize the passive memorization of textbook material and the unQuestioning acQuiescence to external expectations in the Quest for grades.
    [Show full text]
  • Lee Morgan Chronology 1956–1972 by Jeffery S
    Delightfulee Jeffrey S. McMillan University of Michigan Press Lee Morgan Chronology 1956–1972 By Jeffery S. McMillan This is an annotated listing of all known Lee Morgan performances and all recordings (studio, live performances, broadcasts, telecasts, and interviews). The titles of studio recordings are given in bold and preceded by the name of the session leader. Recordings that appear to be lost are prefaced with a single asterisk in parentheses: (*). Recordings that have been commercially issued have two asterisks: **. Recordings that exist on tape but have never been commercially released have two asterisks in parentheses: (**). Any video footage known to survive is prefaced with three asterisks: ***. Video footage that was recorded but appears to now be lost is prefaced with three asterisks in parentheses: (***). On numerous occasions at Slugs’ Saloon in Manhattan, recording devices were set up on the stage and recorded Morgan’s performances without objection from the trumpeter. So far, none of these recordings have come to light. The information herein is a collation of data from newspapers, periodicals, published and personal interviews, discographies, programs, pamphlets, and other chronologies of other artists. Morgan’s performances were rarely advertised in most mainstream papers, so I drew valuable information primarily from African-American newspapers and jazz periodicals, which regularly carried ads for nightclubs and concerts. Entertainment and nightlife columnists in the black press, such as “Woody” McBride, Masco Young, Roland Marsh, Jesse Walker, Art Peters, and Del Shields, provided critical information, often verifying the personnel of an engagement or whether an advertised appearance occurred or was cancelled. Newspapers that I used include the Baltimore Afro-American (BAA), Cleveland Call & Post (C&P), Chicago Defender (CD), New Jersey Afro-American (NJAA), New York Amsterdam News (NYAN), Philadelphia Tribune (PT), and Pittsburgh Courier (PC).
    [Show full text]
  • Duke Ellington 4 Meet the Ellingtonians 9 Additional Resources 15
    ellington 101 a beginner’s guide Vital Statistics • One of the greatest composers of the 20th century • Composed nearly 2,000 works, including three-minute instrumental pieces, popular songs, large-scale suites, sacred music, film scores, and a nearly finished opera • Developed an extraordinary group of musicians, many of whom stayed with him for over 50 years • Played more than 20,000 performances over the course of his career • Influenced generations of pianists with his distinctive style and beautiful sound • Embraced the range of American music like no one else • Extended the scope and sound of jazz • Spread the language of jazz around the world ellington 101 a beginner’s guide Table of Contents A Brief Biography of Duke Ellington 4 Meet the Ellingtonians 9 Additional Resources 15 Duke’s artistic development and sustained achievement were among the most spectacular in the history of music. His was a distinctly democratic vision of music in which musicians developed their unique styles by selflessly contributing to the whole band’s sound . Few other artists of the last 100 years have been more successful at capturing humanity’s triumphs and tribulations in their work than this composer, bandleader, and pianist. He codified the sound of America in the 20th century. Wynton Marsalis Artistic Director, Jazz at Lincoln Center Ellington, 1934 I wrote “Black and Tan Fantasy” in a taxi coming down through Central Park on my way to a recording studio. I wrote “Mood Indigo” in 15 minutes. I wrote “Solitude” in 20 minutes in Chicago, standing up against a glass enclosure, waiting for another band to finish recording.
    [Show full text]
  • SMPC 2011 Attendees
    Society for Music Perception and Cognition August 11­14, 2011 Eastman School of Music of the University of Rochester Rochester, NY Welcome Dear SMPC 2011 attendees, It is my great pleasure to welcome you to the 2011 meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition. It is a great honor for Eastman to host this important gathering of researchers and students, from all over North America and beyond. At Eastman, we take great pride in the importance that we accord to the research aspects of a musical education. We recognize that music perception/cognition is an increasingly important part of musical scholarship‐‐and it has become a priority for us, both at Eastman and at the University of Rochester as a whole. This is reflected, for example, in our stewardship of the ESM/UR/Cornell Music Cognition Symposium, in the development of several new courses devoted to aspects of music perception/cognition, in the allocation of space and resources for a music cognition lab, and in the research activities of numerous faculty and students. We are thrilled, also, that the new Eastman East Wing of the school was completed in time to serve as the SMPC 2011 conference site. We trust you will enjoy these exceptional facilities, and will take pleasure in the superb musical entertainment provided by Eastman students during your stay. Welcome to Rochester, welcome to Eastman, welcome to SMPC 2011‐‐we're delighted to have you here! Sincerely, Douglas Lowry Dean Eastman School of Music SMPC 2011 Program and abstracts, Page: 2 Acknowledgements Monetary
    [Show full text]
  • The Jazz Scene”—Various Artists (1949) Added to the National Registry: 2007 Essay by Tad Hershorn (Guest Post)*
    “The Jazz Scene”—Various artists (1949) Added to the National Registry: 2007 Essay by Tad Hershorn (guest post)* Original album cover When “The Jazz Scene” was released in 1950, Norman Granz had significantly reshaped the jazz world in his image. Jazz historian and senior “Down Beat” editor John McDonough emphatically summed up Granz’s achievements when he wrote, “Two mavericks changed the face of jazz in the 1940s. Charlie Parker changed the way it was played. Norman Granz changed the way it was sold.” By this time, Granz’s popular seasonal national tours of Jazz at the Philharmonic (JATP), jam session concerts of jazz superstars, had gone on since 1945 after their debut in his hometown of Los Angeles the previous year. In 1949, Ella Fitzgerald joined JATP in what turned out to be a nearly 45-year relationship with Granz, who both managed her career and had her recording contract. Oscar Peterson began a similar long-term relationship with Granz when he joined JATP in 1950, when Granz likewise managed and recorded him over the decades. Granz also distinguished himself as an unyielding champion of racial justice, who had anti-segregation clauses in his contracts from the very beginning, and also offered top pay, travel and accommodations for those working for him. Two years later the jazz impresario began annual tours of Europe, where JATP proved to be as popular there as it had been in the United States. In 1953, Granz and his tours and recordings on his independent labels were beginning to crest. Around 500,000 people packed his concerts worldwide, including tours of Europe and Japan, while he also produced half the jazz records in the United States.
    [Show full text]
  • New World NW 271 Jazz Historians Explain the Coming of Bebop—The Radically New Jazz Style That Established Itself Toward
    Bebop New World NW 271 Jazz historians explain the coming of bebop—the radically new jazz style that established itself toward the end of World War II—as a revolutionary phenomenon. The motives ascribed to the young pioneers in the style range from dissatisfaction with the restrictions on freedom of expression imposed by the then dominant big-band swing style to the deliberate invention of a subtle and mystifying manner of playing that could not be copied by uninitiated musicians. It has even been suggested that bebop was invented by black musicians to prevent whites from stealing their music, as had been the case with earlier jazz styles. Yet when Dizzy Gillespie, one of the two chief architects of the new style, was asked some thirty years after the fact if he had been a conscious revolutionary when bebop began, his answer was Not necessarily revolutionary, but evolutionary. We didn't know what it was going to evolve into, but we knew we had something that was a little different. We were aware of the fact that we had a new concept of the music, if by no other means than the enmity of the [older] musicians who didn't want to go through a change.... But it wasn't the idea of trying to revolutionize, but only trying to see yourself, to get within yourself. And if somebody copied it, okay! Were he able, the other great seminal figure of bebop, alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, would probably amplify Gillespie's opinion that the new music arose from inner needs rather than external factors.
    [Show full text]
  • Lecture Summaries
    HST.725 Music Perception and Cognition, Spring 2009 Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology Course Director: Dr. Peter Cariani Topic Summaries for HST.725 2009 Peter Cariani Overview of the Course .................................................................................................................. 1 Psychological functions of music ................................................................................................... 1 Musical Sound ................................................................................................................................ 2 Auditory System Overview............................................................................................................. 2 Pitch ................................................................................................................................................ 4 Timbre............................................................................................................................................. 5 Consonance & dissonance .............................................................................................................. 5 Scales & Tuning.............................................................................................................................. 7 Melody & Harmony........................................................................................................................ 8 Rhythm.........................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Art Blakey - Jazz in Paris: Paris Jam Session (1959/2000)
    Art Blakey - Jazz in Paris: Paris Jam Session (1959/2000) Written by bluesever Saturday, 05 November 2016 15:57 - Art Blakey - Jazz in Paris: Paris Jam Session (1959/2000) 1. Dance of the Infidels 12:27 2. Bouncing With Bud 11:38 3. The Midget 11:04 4. A Night In Tunisia 07:04 Alto Saxophone – Barney Wilen (tracks: 1, 2) Bass – Jymie Merritt Piano – Bud Powell (tracks: 1, 2), Walter Davis Jr. (tracks: 3, 4) Tenor Saxophone – Wayne Shorter Trumpet – Lee Morgan Drums – Art Blakey This 1959 concert in Paris by Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers has been sporadically available on various labels, but this reissue in Verve's Jazz in Paris series is the best sounding and best packaged of the lot. Blakey's group of this period (Lee Morgan, Wayne Shorter, Jymie Merritt, and Walter Davis, Jr.) is in great form during an extended workout of Morgan's intense blues "The Midget," and Dizzy Gillespie's timeless "A Night in Tunisia" is kicked off by Blakey's an electrifying solo. But it is the addition of some special guests for the first two numbers that proves to be extra special. Bud Powell, sitting in for Davis, and French saxophonist Barney Wilen, on alto rather than his normal tenor sax, are both added to the band for inspired versions of Powell's "Dance of the Infidels" and "Bouncing with Bud." Morgan's trumpet playing is outstanding throughout the concert. This is one of the essential live dates in Art Blakey's rather extensive discography. --- Ken Dryden, Rovi The Jazz Messengers were widely recorded during their stay in Paris..
    [Show full text]
  • Announcements
    Empirical Musicology Review Vol. 1, No. 4, 2006 ANNOUNCEMENTS CALLS FOR PAPERS 17 Nov 2006 Deadline A conference on Language and Music as Cognitive Systems will be held May 11-13, 2007 at the University of Cambridge, UK. The event is structured around four core areas in which the collaboration between music and language has proven to be particularly fruitful: (1) Structural comparisons between language and music; (2) Evolution of language and music; (3) Learning and processing of language and music; and (4) Neuroscience of language and music. Keynote speakers will include Ray Jackendoff (Tufts University), Tecumseh Fitch (University of St. Andrews), Jamshed Bharucha (Tufts University), and Aniruddh Patel (The Neurosciences Institute, San Diego). Submission guidelines may be downloaded from the conference home page at http://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/2006-7/language-music.html 15 Dec 2006 Deadline The 6th Creativity and Cognition Conference will be held June 13-15, 2007 in Washington, DC, USA. Proposals are welcomed from “researchers, developers, artists, practitioners, and policy-makers, including: computer and information scientists; diverse scientists, engineers, and architects; product, graphic, and interaction designers; writers, musicians, and digital artists; creative practitioners, corporate leaders, and educators; social scientists, ethnographers, and anthropologists.” The full call for proposals is available at http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/CC2007/call/index.shtml 15 Feb 2007 Deadline SMPC 2007, the biennial meeting of the Society for Music Perception and Cognition, will take place at Concordia University (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) from July 30 to August 3, 2007. Paper and poster proposals in the areas of music theory, psychology, psychophysics, linguistics, neurology, neurophysiology, ethology, ethnomusicology, artificial intelligence, computer technology, physics, and engineering are welcomed, as are proposals for symposia.
    [Show full text]