IJD, 2024

Yes, we will be celebrating IJD this year.

Stay tuned for updates!

International Jazz Day, Peterborough – 2024

Yes, it is almost time to celebrate International Jazz Day this year.

There is a lot happening the last weekend of April.

Friday, April 26 – @ Market Hall – Featured band: Jane Bunnett and Maqueque, with Rob Phillips and Carling Stephen opening

https://tickets.markethall.org/default.asp?searchdate=4/26/2024

 https://tickets.markethall.org/default.asp

Saturday - Steve Holt Quartet - @ the Black Horse Pub, 9 pm – 12.

Saturday – “Dine with Jazz” - venues TBD

April is also Jazz Appreciation Month, so there is even more jazz that month! See the Black Horse Pub’s April calendar for more info. https://www.blackhorseptbo.com/entertainment

John Cage and that organ piece

Some time in the past, I posted about the “As Slow as Possible” experiment in Germany. 

Recent news: There was a chord change yesterday - first since February 5, 2022. Next one will be in 2026.

For more info, here is the project’s website.

Music and the Heart

3d human heart medical anatomy

This came to me today via Delancey Place. It is about a cardiologist, Dr. Sean Wu, who is using cymatics to generate heart tissue.

And there is more here about all sorts of sound research at Stanford. Dr. Wu’s work is section two, with a short video showing cymatics at work.

Plants and Music

Another person has taken the journey into creating music via plants. Apparently, since plants are mostly made of water, when you touch a plant, it changes its electrical resistance. (Webb).

Steven Webb is a musical arts student at U of T. During the pandemic days, he focused on ways of connecting plants to a microcomputer to generate sounds.

You can read about his work here. There is a video too! (Thanks to RKC for the tip!)

Rural Eden in Switzerland, Interrupted

There is a small uprising in Switzerland over cow bells. Not those used in Cuban bands, but those that hang from the necks of cows. The town of Aarwangen is a rural place, with few residents and a number of cows. Newcomers from the city have complained about the multitudinous bells clanging away outside their windows. And they have filed a formal complaint. And the town is in turmoil. They will vote on this issue next month.

You can read more about it here.

If you watch this video, you will see that cows, and their bells, still play a significant role in rural Swiss culture. Yet again, we have a clash over the role of sound/noise in a society.

And you can watch this video to get a sense of how the bells sound. These are NOT small tinkly things! Some of them are really big!!!

Rooms with no echo

Every year or so, someone writes a good article about these rooms.

Maybe some day I will get to visit one.

Check out this latest article.

Toronto

ARF sent me this article. (Thanks!)

Yep, the challenge of noise in big cities. I am not sure there is any solution. He calls for better bylaw enforcement. Doubters.

Music in ‘odd’ places

I am not sure if you will be able to read this NYT article about a recent event in NYC. I hope so.

It is about a concert performed on the water outside and inside a drainage tunnel on the East River. The concert was part of a series of events by Tideland Institute, which encourages New Yorkers to treat their home as a maritime city, reimagining how various waterways might be used.

“The water in New York has just kind of become a backdrop to the city,” Ms. Butler said. “When actually, it is the why, and the how, of how the city was made — and how the city still functions.”

I hope you can read the link.

International Jazz Day is back!

Finally, in 2023, we are going to again celebrate IJD in Peterborough!

“Dine with Jazz” will happen again. Four downtown restaurants will have local jazz musicians on Saturday, April 29, from 6 – 8:

La Hacienda; Amandala’s, Nateure’s Plate; Curry Village

Then, starting at 9, the Black Horse Pub has Denielle Basells (No cover!)

Sunday, April 30 – IJD itself – Time Warp at Market Hall, from 2 – 4. Tickets available at: https://www.markethall.org/

Stay tuned for more info.