Cafe Aman

Unruly, indeed.

Courtesy of the Billings, Montana Gazette: The tale of a classical musician on a rampage fueled by a fascinating combination of vodka, ADD medication, and Valium.

According to the article, the pianist, a man by the name of David S. Howell, does not recall threatening to kill a flight attendant or making a ruckus in the plane's lavatory. Instead, the last thing he remembers doing on on his fateful United Airlines jaunt from Chicago to his hometown of Portland, Oregon, was "fingering Rachmaninov's Piano Sonata No. 2."

A composer in common spaces

Yesterday, as Z and I waited to cross a busy Gotham thoroughfare in the dismal drizzle, John Corigliano sped by--or at least his smiling face did, projected large on the side of an MTA bus.

Apparently, Corigliano is now one of the "celebrity" professors being lauded in the City University of New York's current marketing campaign. Well, not so much "celebrity" as "accomplished": fellow Look-Who's-Teaching-at-CUNY highlightees include notables in other fields toiling away in other impressive and noble, if not exactly Page Six-worthy, fields.

Still, I couldn't help but feel at least slightly heartened by Corigliano's presence in our public transportation system. (It also called to mind an episode that someone--Frank, maybe? (I can't find a link right now)--recounted, in which s/he rode on the subway with Steve Reich, who went unrecognized by all other passengers in the same car.

Next stop: Kaija Saariaho?   

Not quite a joke, and not quite funny

A couple of excellent belated April's Fools posts plus various exchanges about Chopin (dead or alive?) on The Amazing Race (I might be the only person still watching this, I know) happened to remind me of a true--honest!--incident which took place several years ago of which I learned second-hand, in which a pop music exec (one well known within industry circles) called his classical colleagues, wanting to set up a meeting with Puccini.

And a further word about Sanjaya: someone of my acquaintance is absolutely convinced that his presence on our TV screens week after week is not attributable to Howard Stern or to Vote for the Worst (or even the hotly sought-after tween audience), but rather a secret cabal of South Asian aunties heating up the telephone lines. Edited to add: And despite whatever else I could (or shouldn't) say about Michael Buble, I will say he can pull off one helluva Dean Martin impersonation. If only he slurred a tiny bit more...

Re-discovering music with Z

One of the most gratifying elements of parenthood so far is the thrill of re-discovery; I still can't get over Z's expression of utter astonishment and delight the first time she ate avocado.

It's like that with music, too. As I've mentioned before, she is quickly marking out her favorites--and believe me, it's obvious when she doesn't care for the disque du jour--but every day or two I'm trying to pull out music that I/we know intimately, but is of course all new sounds to her. So far, her favorite live shows (albeit from a limited roster) were the aforementioned Steve Reich marathon and a Ljova set at Joe's Pub. I think Z finds the viola to be a magical, mysterious vessel of bliss. (Good!)

MMFCC says that he can't wait for Z to hear Cab Calloway, Pictures at an Exhibition (specifically, the Schippers/NY Phil recording, since that was his first record), Led Zeppelin II ("though we might have to wait until Z's a smidge older for that one"), Guys and Dolls, Bob Dylan, Coltrane's version of My Favorite Things, and Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.  (I'm particularly looking forward to introducing her to the Bartok Concerto for Orchestra, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, the Bach solo cello suites, A Love Supreme, and I'd definitely second the Beethoven 7th.)

This leads me to my question of the day: If you were compiling Baby's First Playlist(s), what would you include? (Epilogue: We did indeed take Z to Toumani Diabate's show last weekend. It was too loud for her; she enjoyed the show much more listening via the lobby speakers than she did while seated inside the hall.)