Friday, January 29, 2016

Be Brave, Then Merry



Once was that Winter called for genuine perseverance and endurance, the stuff that made us (Wisconsinites) tough. When January rolled into February it was typically time to pull up the long-johns, grab the jumper cables, and remind yourself that March might be a little warmer and April was only two months away.

Well, January is still with us and we’re expecting a week of above-freezing temperatures. It just ain’t right.

News of the Zika virus should give pause to any idiot who welcomes the warming trend we humans have initiated on our planet. Winter may seem harsh to some, but it’s very useful when it comes to keeping insect populations in check.

The World needs a lot of work, and none more important than fixing the mess we’ve made of our climate. Let’s stop whining and get to it. Eh?

And, as with any work, eventually you need to take a break. Time out for beer and music is truly the Wisconsin Way. Do it!

On Thursday, February 4, they’re back at their regular haunt (TheEssen Haus).
On Friday, February 12, it’s an all-Blues/Rhythm & Blues show at The Knuckledown Saloon. (Hey! Facebook friends get a drink on Big Wes.)

Monday, January 18, 2016

Ahhhh!



Ahhhh! The mercury drops into negative numbers and, at last, winter in Wisconsin feels like winter in Wisconsin! Pull on your longjohns and come down to The Essen Haus, where it’s always warm and the band is always rockin’ (at least on Thursday nights of the odd numbered weeks of the month).

If you can’t do that, at least visit the new Big Wes Turner’sTrio facebook page and click on the "like" button. It’s the least you can do, and it makes us look good, something that otherwise requires a lot of work in Photoshop.
 

Coming up!
Jan. 21, BWT3 at ye olde Essen Haus.
Jan. 23, with The Cash Box Kings at the KnuckledownSaloon.
Feb. 4, BWT3 at ye olde Essen Haus.
Feb. 18, BWT3 at ye olde Essen Haus.


Thursday, January 7, 2016

Post New Year's Ponderings

I've been pondering "Art" lately, in particular the artistic elements of music. My musings are alternately inspired and confounded by Alva Noe and his book Strange Tools:  Art and Human Nature.

Semi-obsessed as I seem to have become, just about any piece of music, newly heard or long since a part of my cultural DNA, becomes grist for closer scrutiny or reconsideration. 

Apropos of all this is firsthand experience of Williamson Magnetic Recording Company, the new analog recording studio in Madison. Mark Haines, one of the principles there, passed along this link to an article by Renato Repetto called Maximize Tape’s Limitations& Embrace Music’s Humanity. I offer these excerpts for your consideration.

The primary reason I record to tape is that it disarms you of the tools required to wander far from the truth. It captures the artist as they currently are, stripping away the ability to separate their performance from the moment in which it was recorded. The limitations inherent in a linear medium like tape naturally preserve human information – tiny flaws which give you an insight into the character of the artist. These flaws make up a large part of what we perceive.

...The last 30 years of music technology have been about the removing of constraints – the liberation of the artist. Yet some of the most influential pop albums of our time were crafted on four tracks or less. Working within the constraints of a modest track count forces you to make creative decisions early in the recording process. It relieves you of the temptation to plug every hole with sound, a hallmark of over-production.

...Every artist wishes to be free. Free of the chains of limitation that impede the realization of their works. But true freedom lies not in the breaking free of these chains, but in the ability to accept one’s constraints and find peace within them. Analog tape offers a finite set of tools to achieve your vision. And if the enemy of art is the absence of limitations (Orson Welles), then a tape machine would be a very good friend indeed.


And don’t forget! Big Wes Turner’s Trio at the Essen Haus. TONIGHT! (January 7, 2016)