Famous in China
Last month, Mobtown Modern presented Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night and we were fortunate to have Voice of America China on hand to cover the event. The story they did is below. Our portion starts at 3:28. Hope you know Mardarin!
Sounds Like Now
A blog by saxophonist Brian SacawaArchive for Interviews
A Home Grown Countdown, So To Speak
Next month, Mobtown Modern will present Home Grown, a retrospective of recent works by super-cool Washington D.C.-based composer Alexandra Gardner. As a way of helping the audience get to know some of the musicians who’ll be performing on that show, Alex has begun posting a series of interviews with them over on her blog. The first one, hot off the presses, is with yours truly. Warning: I admit something quite shameful.
I’m working on my diabolical laugh
A couple weeks ago, I was contacted by Jason Policastro, a freelance writer for the website BmoreMedia.com. He was writing an article about “young Baltimore innovators” and wanted to include me in the story based on the work I’ve done with Mobtown Modern. Flattering, to say the least! The story is up today and you can check it out here.
Mobtown Morning
Mobtown Modern takes to the radiowaves! Tune in to Maryland Morning with Sheilah Kast on WYPR 88.1FM this Wednesday at 9 a.m. to hear Erik and I talk with Tom Hall about the series and our upcoming concert.
Signal audio
Audio from HGP’s segment on WYPR’s The Signal is now available for download. Many thanks to Aaron Henkin for making us sound smashing.
HGP on The Signal
Tune in to The Signal on WYPR this Friday at 12 p.m. (repeat at 7 p.m.) to catch Hybrid Groove Project in conversation with Signal producer and host, Aaron Henkin. The program will also spotlight the upcoming performance of Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night in Batlimore.
Update: The line-up for Friday’s Signal broadcast is up on their blog.
In conversation
Hugh Sung puts me on the spot for an interview following our Ocean Grove performance.
Branford on sax appeal
One of my favorite shows on Saturday NPR is Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me!, the weekly humorous NPR news quiz. In a portion of the show called “Not My Job,” host Peter Sagal invites prominent guests on to answer questions about esoteric topics they mostly likely have no knowledge of whatsoever. Back in December, Peter’s guest was none other than jazz saxophonist and perennial whipping boy for sullen classical saxophonists, Branford Marsalis. Bantering about before the quiz portion of Branford’s interview, Peter tried to get to the heart of an important issue, which is fitting for a Valentine’s Day post:
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Peter Sagal: We heard a rumor, and I want to see if you can confirm it, that the ladies like the saxophone for some reason.
Branford Marsalis: Oh, man, that’s not a rumor. What makes you think that’s a rumor? I mean look at all the movies. As soon as the guy gets near the girl, what do you hear? Saxophone. There’s a reson for that. But at the age of 14 or 15 when I really wasn’t getting any girls and wasn’t hip to that, I’ve often said, in jest, you know I had to switch to the saxophone, because you can get women with the saxophone. And I will concede that you stand a much better chance playing the saxophone than you do playing an electric piano.
Charlie Pierce: Just the lack of hernias alone would be . . .
BM: There you go.
Roxanne Roberts: Well, wait, wait. Let me ask then: what makes the saxophone so sexy?
BM: I have no idea. It’s not that I made the decision. It’s just that you play it and women go, “Ooh, I like the saxophone.” I don’t know why. I’ve just never heard a movie, or a show, or in real life a person come and say, “You know what really turns me on? Fender Rhodes. I just love this guy. Electric keyboards? Oh, the DX-7 is just so sexy.” It doesn’t happen. I cannot tell you why, but I’m glad it’s the way it is.
CP: Apropros of nothing, is it true that all oboe players are virgins?
BM: You know that might be true. I don’t know if it’s true but I would understand why if it were.
CP: It is as someone once said: an ill wind that nobody blows good.
BM: There you go.
PS: I was just thinking about the accordian player watching you with a woman swooning around. The accordian player’s thinking, “I’ve wasted my life.”
(N.B. Download the complete audio here.)
FOX news loves me
This year’s performance of Unsilent Night in Baltimore generated a great deal of interest, especially in the media. There was the CityPaper feature, the article in the Sun, and day-of morning interview on the FOX45 Morning News. FOX also saw fit to send out a mobile cameraman/reporter to film the event and produce a story for their evening newscast. The story, shown above, was shot, written, and edited by Josh Miller of FOX45.
(N.B. Clip info: Unsilent Night - FOX45 News Story on Vimeo)
A life in music
“You can only live in music, as it were, if you have other interests, if you see the parallels with literature, if you see the parallels with painting, if you see the parallel with the development of political process, and if you have an interest, and then you have the ability to deduce, then all this becomes part of your innermost being; and this comes out in the music; and therefore, music really becomes your life.”
Daniel Barenboim, Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society
