♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪♫♪

[robman]

..

[robman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKBSIyK_GSE&feature=related
.

[robman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0hk6un_VTg&feature=related
.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

The world's biggest musical instrument sited in Macy's Centre City department store in Philadelphia being played....



The complete instrument that this console plays weighs more than 600 tonnes and has the power of eight symphony orchestras!

[Newtown-Fella]

Organist Eric's just like a fine wine

on election day i had to do a trip to check how things were going at the polling place behind St Barnabas Church on my way out i heard the oragn being played in the church so snuck in and had a listen ... Eric was playing said hi with a wave and i stood riveted to the spot as he filled that old church with music that after some 15 minutes sent me happily on my way

its a fabulous old church

[Alicat]

NF - if you get a chance, check out the Wellington Convention Centre Website. They are having free Sunday afternoon Organ Recitals in the Wellington Town Hall. The concerts start at 3pm and run for an hour. They're aren't every week, but the website will give you the details. They are well worth attending.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Chorus dawns like no other

The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Monday, 22 June 2009

        

UPRIGHT AND GRAND: A 44-piano performance swings into action at the Piano House in Wellington (left).
                               SHINE: Pianist Jonathan Crayford conducting the performance (right).
                                                       — ROSS GIBLIN/The Dominion Post.

Forty-four Wellington pianists pooled creative talents for an innovative performance captured by French film-makers.

Playing 44 grand and upright pianos in the Piano House on Cambridge Terrace, music professionals and keen amateurs jammed under conductor and pianist Jonathan Crayford.

Crayford, sitting at a grand piano on a mezzanine floor in the shop, conducted the performance, which he described as scored but also improvised.

A third of the pianos were grands, which faced each other, with the uprights "satellited" around them.

The "spontaneous creation" included staccato, legato, ascending and descending sections, unison chords, big dynamic changes and the sound the earth is believed to spin at E flat, he said.

"It was ‘let us do something unique’, seize the moment and see what it is like.

"We did not work from music. I basically composed it on the spot, gave simple directions with my fingers playing in the air."

The pianists were given directions including playing favourite bird calls, a dawn chorus and the piece they played to themselves at home.

It was shot for a yet-to-be-named French film directed by Vincent Moon, and will be shown on Crayford's website.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/2521519/Chorus-dawns-like-no-other

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Orchestra matches magic of soloists

By JOHN BUTTON - The Dominion Post | 10:03AM - Monday, 22 June 2009

WHAT: New Zealand Symphony  Orchestra conducted by Pietari Inkinen  with Kari Kriikku (clarinet).

MUSIC BY:  Tchaikovsky, Tiensuu and Rimsky-Korsakov.

WHERE: Michael Fowler Centre, Saturday  night, 20th June.

This, the second concert featuring the Finnish master clarinetist Kari Kriikku, was possibly even more brilliant, and more instructive, than the first.

The piece by Jukka Tiensuu — Puro for Clarinet and Orchestra - was a mind- boggling interplay between soloist and orchestra. Completely individual and tautly constructed, this piece required the orchestra almost to match the wizardry of Kriikku, and this it achieved in a display of seamless virtuosity.

But Kriikku was the magician. He produces sounds one would have not thought possible from the clarinet, and in his encore — a piece of klezmer meets Hungary — he not only dazzled but showed a wickedly seductive sense of humour as well.

Like the Lindberg concerto from the first concert, Kriikku's playing, and the works he played, showed just how modern music can be both of the highest quality and engage audiences at the same time.

The other works were much more conventional, but their familiarity showed just how superbly the NZSO is playing these days.

The 1812 Overture is usually a cannon-dominated piece beloved of outdoor concerts, but, as Inkinen and his players showed, it also is a very fine piece of music, here presented with poetry and brilliance in ideal balance.

Scheherazade is Rimsky-Korsakov's most popular work. It is a musical travelogue that must have playing of supreme polish and elan to work, and that, most assuredly, is what it received here. This was the way to hear a work that can easily outstay its welcome.

Vesa-Matti Leppanen played the role of Scheherazade superbly, and the other soloists from the orchestra were all supremely characterful and polished.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/entertainment/reviews/2522168/Orchestra-matches-magic-of-soloists

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Aivale of Tawa says goodbye

By ESTHER LAUAKI - Kapi-Mana News | 5:00AM - Tuesday, 30 June 2009



ONE VOICE: Kiwi opera singer Aivale Cole from Tawa will sing her
final show in Wellington next month before moving to London.

Tawa's Samoan soprano Aivale Cole has performed on stages around the globe, but her upcoming Wellington concert will be one of the most important.

Cole will bid a fond farewell to her home audience at the Town Hall on July 16, as she performs her final New Zealand concerts before moving to London in November.

"It's going to be a very special concert for me. A lot of my old friends and my family, all the people who have supported me over the years, will be there."

The concert, Leontyne 'n' Ella, brings together her two passions, opera and jazz, and is inspired by Cole's two favourite singers, Leontyne Price and Ella Fitzgerald.

"I love jazz and I also love opera. Sometimes when I'm doing a concert I'll often sing a jazz song as an encore. Just to show some variety in my voice."

She says audiences can expect "two divas, two styles, one voice".

Born and raised in Wellington, Cole recently found international success after winning the Lexus Song Quest 2009. The prestigious song quest has launched the careers of Dame Malvina Major, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa and Jonathan Fa'afetai Lemalu.

"It's pretty much the highest accolade for an opera singer in New Zealand. I've been in it three times. I've been in it and not made the semifinals, then I tried again and I made the semifinals and the finals, but didn't win. This time I won."

As a 16-year-old at Wellington East Girls' College she wanted to sing, so she joined the school chorus choir. "All us Island girls who wanted to do musical performance would say ‘Shame, I don't want to be in the choir’. We wanted to sing like Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston."

She says she remembers the pivotal day when her music teacher, Mrs Jones, took her and a group of girls to the Wellington National Opera.

"I was really overwhelmed by that and thought, ‘I really want to do that’."

As at-home singing on stage with an orchestra as she in in her own backyard, Cole's talents extend to acting too.

"Acting is really important for an opera singer, to be able to project what the song is about."

• The concert at Wellington Town Hall is on July 16 at 7:30pm.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/communities/kapi-mana-news/2549433/Aivale-of-Tawa-says-goodbye

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Big singers to take on the competition

By MICHELLE DUFF - The Manawatu Standard | 12:42PM - Wednesday, 01 July 2009



PICTURE PERFECT: Palmerston North Boys' High School's OK Chorale get in some after-school practice ahead of the nationwide
Big Sing choral competition in Dunedin in August. Choir director Graeme Young conducts. — MURRAY WILSON/Manawatu Standard.

Forget everything you've ever learnt about schoolboy choirs.

Though their voices might sound heavenly, Palmerston North Boys' High School's OK Chorale is anything but the norm.

With songs featuring dead cats, melodies from Star Wars, and a Queen song trilled by Freddie Mercury at his most camp, they're unlikely to be mistaken for conservative choral singers.

"The idea is always to do different stuff, and not to be the stereotypical choir," said choir director Graeme Young, as the boys took a break from their hectic rehearsal schedule. "We do a lot of parody."

Things are about to get serious for the elite 16-member choir, who have been selected to perform at the nationwide Big Sing choral competition in August.

The group out-sung 10 other Manawatu choirs to qualify for the finals and will travel to Dunedin to compete against 19 other choirs from throughout New Zealand.

Each choir must perform two 10-minute recitals, spanning a range of musical styles.

Giving a song extra emotion makes all the difference, Mr Young said.

"We just have to dissect it. The music has basic direction but it's got to live, it's got to be entertaining. It's about getting people to believe it.

"For some of them, their voices just broke a year ago ... sometimes the voices go a bit wobbly, because the instrument is still developing."

Choir leader Matt Wilson, 17, said they had been training up to eight hours a week in preparation for the big event. "That's what we have to do if we want to make it.

"It sounded pretty rubbish before [during practice] but when we get it right it sounds pretty mean."

The choir has a "really nice, warm sound," and with a bit of fine-tuning they could be in to win, he said. "I just have to keep them focused... sometimes they get a bit rowdy."

Keep an eye out for buskers around town in the coming weeks, as the boys launch a fundraising campaign to get them south to Dunedin for the festival.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/manawatu-standard/news/2555047/Big-singers-to-take-on-the-competition

[Alicat]

I've just got home from going to STARLIGHT EXPRESS at the TSB Arena in Wellington.

The show is magnificent. It's a fast moving show on roller skates. I loved it.

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Perfectionists ready for Big Sing

By FELICITY ROOKES - Taranaki Daily News | 5:00AM - Saturday, 04 July 2009



      OH GEORGE: The Sacred Heart Girls College Tenners are the guest choir at the Big Sing finals in Dunedin next month.
                                                                          — MARK DWYER/Taranaki Daily News.

It's been quite a week for the Sacred Heart Girls' College Tenners.

First the choir was selected as a guest act at the Big Sing in Dunedin next month, then they had a special song to sing.

The performers were chosen out of 210 other choirs to perform alongside one other at the Big Sing national finale in late August.

Sacred Heart Girls College music teacher Krissy Jackson says the girls screamed in delight when they heard the news.

"The Tenners have only been together in this group for a year and they have been working really hard," she says.

"They are very excited."

The Big Sing is a group singing competition for secondary school students.

During the regionals last month, judges selected their top 20 choirs and two guest choirs to perform at the show.

The Tenners will perform three songs, a New Zealand piece, an ancient piece and one of their own choice which Mrs Jackson says will be a gospel piece. "These girls are our top students and are perfectionists so they will make sure the sound is great."

Mrs Jackson says now all they need is sponsorship for the trip.

"We need to raise $15,000 so we are looking for sponsors and will be doing a lot of fundraising in the coming weeks including a concert."

While the choir was perfecting its high notes, New Plymouth man Ted Normanton was writing a song about former Pukekura Park curator George Fuller's crusade to save a 400-year-old puriri tree at Brooklands Park. Mr Normanton spent five hours writing George Fuller Is His Name to the tune of The Wild Colonial Boy.

Yesterday The Taranaki Daily News took the song to the Tenners and in 20 minutes flat they had it perfected.

Mrs Jackson says although it was short notice the choir was up to the task.

"It was a lot of pressure but they did well," Mrs Jackson says.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/news/2564707/Perfectionists-ready-for-Big-Sing

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Invercargill composer's 80th commemorated

By AMY MILNE - The Southland Times | 5:00AM - Monday, 13 July 2009

Abour 200 people gathered on Sunday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the death of Invercargill's world famous composer Alexander Frame Lithgow.

Organised by the International Military Music Society and held at First Church, Invercargill, the commemoration included a tribute from society researcher Gavin Marriott, of Christchurch.

Lithgow was from a musical family and was taught the cornet, before joining the local brass band and then writing the Invercargill March in 1901.

Mr Marriott said the music had been rated as one of the top three marches of all time by the United States military but sadly Lithgow was less well recognised by the city the song was written for.

"I think the people of Invercargill just don't realise how famous the march is."

The city was very lucky to have a march like that, Mr Marriott said.

Lithgow was born on December 01, 1870, in Glasgow. His family moved to Invercargill when he was six years old. Lithgow moved to Tasmania in 1894 to conduct the Launceston St Joseph's Band.

He composed more than 200 marches, in addition to pieces for jazz band, orchestra, piano and voice. He also formed a military band for the Australian army.

He died in 1929 in Launceston and was buried in Carr Villa cemetery. The town has a memorial plaque and a band rotunda in honour of Lithgow.

Mr Marriott said it was sad Invercargill had no public display to pay tribute to its "most famous son".

http://www.stuff.co.nz/southland-times/news/2587367/Invercargill-composers-80th-commemorated

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Glacier gig ‘ices’ up world tour for muso

VICKI ANDERSON - The Press | 11:26AM - Thursday, 16 July 2009



THE BIG CHILL: American musician Mike Scala
performs at the Franz Josef Glacier on Monday.
— Picture by LAURENCE HOY.

New York-based musician Mike Scala came to New Zealand to chill out.

He took that to extremes when he performed in an ice cave on Franz Josef Glacier on Monday. "It's cool," he said, without a trace of irony.

He said the gig was the highlight of his world tour and was inspired by his desire to embrace New Zealand's reputation for extreme activities.

"I thought, ‘I'm going to this beautiful place where there are so many adrenaline-fuelled activities and extreme sports — I'm going to do an extreme gig’."

Playing to an audience of five shivering punters, the most allowed under the Department of Conservation's safety and environmental constraints, Scala's guitar held up under the strain, "mostly" remaining in tune. "The natural acoustics were amazing. My guitar went in and out of tune and my fingers were freezing, but it was so much fun," he said.

Scala is a self-taught musician who first performed at jazz and rock venues in New York and Los Angeles aged 17. His Soldier's Cry was featured in the Wounded Warrior Project, which aids veterans and their families affected by the war in Iraq.

"I've been told my music is different and hard to define. It has been described as a cross between Jack Johnson and Pearl Jam," Scala said.

He uses a portion of the proceeds from each concert to raise funds to help young people.

Scala will perform in Christchurch this week at The Bog Irish Bar tonight, at Fat Eddie's tomorrow night and at the Dux de Lux on Saturday.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/news/2598580/Glacier-gig-ices-up-world-tour-for-muso

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Beautiful and brilliant music on the theme of B

By JOHN BUTTON - The Dominion Post | 10:19AM - Monday, 27 July 2009

WHAT: Vector Wellington Orchestra, conducted by Marc Taddei, with Michael Houstoun (piano), Benjamin Makisi (tenor).

MUSIC BY: Bernstein, Beethoven,  Britten and Brahms.

WHERE: Wellington Town Hall, Saturday evening, July 25.

There is no doubt about it, the Wellington Orchestra under Marc Taddei is definitely gathering a following, and the large audience for this concert was further evidence of the fact.

The programme was thematic, but beyond the composers' names all beginning with B, it was a bit obscure to me.

What was not obscure was the quality of the music-making. Right from the ebullience of Bernstein's brief suite from his show On the Town, and finishing with as vital a performance of Brahms' Variations on a Theme of Haydn as one could wish, we were treated to music-making of the highest quality.

Michael Houstoun continued his journey through the Beethoven Piano Concertos with a superb performance of the Third Concerto. Beautifully balanced, relaxed yet pointed, this was Beethoven-playing out of the top drawer.

So good was it that I am inclined to suggest that this was Houstoun playing Beethoven as never before, and he was solidly backed by Taddei and his appropriately sized orchestra.

The surprise packet, however, was Benjamin Makisi's singing of Benjamin Britten's 1939 song cycle Les Illuminations, to poems by Arthur Rimbaud. Originally composed for, and premiered by, soprano Sophie Wyss, this marvellously atmospheric work has been more often since sung by a tenor, and, apart from a moment or two of insecurity and some interesting French, this was a wonderfully sprung performance.

Makisi, sounding nothing like an English tenor in general, or Peter Pears in particular, caught the extravagant world of Rimbaud's poetry beautifully, and the wonderful string writing was beautifully managed by the orchestra's excellent strings.

The audience responded enthusiastically all evening to a concert that was not only superbly performed, but, with its balance between content and guest performers, had its heart in the right place.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/entertainment/reviews/2675855/Beautiful-and-brilliant-music-on-the-theme-of-B

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Calming classics send teens packing

By PAUL EASTON - The Dominion Post | 5:00AM - Thursday, 30 July 2009



SOUNDS DIFFERENT: Brenden McCarthy, 18, left,
Caity Randall, 17, and Matt Ashford, 18, check the
mall music police say is reducing trouble.
— ROBERT KITCHIN/The Dominion Post.

Police have enlisted the help of Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Vivaldi to drive troublesome teens from outside a Lower Hutt shopping mall.

Classical music wafted from speakers installed in Bunny St outside Westfield Mall yesterday, to the horror of Dane Collins, 17.

"It's disturbing. They need to change the DJ, they should be blasting out Tupac and Bone Thugs," he said.

The idea, used to varying success in other areas, was adapted by community constable Paula Harris.

Youths hanging out outside the mall had become a problem for security staff and people waiting for the bus, she said.

A "core group" were trespassed from the mall but came back almost daily.

Speakers were installed outside the mall in November last year to play "classical and calming" music at the youth hangout.

The move was backed by Hutt City Council, police and Westfield Queensgate.

Repeat trespassers were arrested as a further deterrent.

"So far, there's been very positive feedback about the music and the decreased numbers of youths congregating in the area," Ms Harris said.

Similar schemes have worked in other centres. Beethoven calms waiting passengers at Australian train stations.

In Christchurch, the dulcet tones of Barry Manilow were played in Stewart Plaza to scatter youths involved in littering, tagging and fighting.

Lower Hutt teens were divided on the merits of the musical assault yesterday.

Meg Burt, 20, said the classical music had driven him across the street. "It's sleeping music."

Discontent with the music spanned the generations. June Waldron, 77, said it was "very dull". "You want something you can get up and dance to."

However teenager Caity Randall, 17, liked it. "It kind of reminds me of a carnival, it's nice and calming. It adds a touch of class to the area."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/2701980/Calming-classics-send-teens-packing

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

How would you like something like this in your house?



It wouldn't fit in mine, and what you see here is only the “remote control” — otherwise known as the console....

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Tui gives the gift of music

By CLAIRE CONNELL - The Marlborough Express | 1:00PM - Tuesday, 11 August 2009



TREASURED GIFT: Marlborough Girls' College student
Sophie Murphy, 15, left, 92-year-old Tui Parsons and
Belle Davenport, 14, with the 60-year-old cello
Mrs Parsons donated to the school orchestra.
— SCOTT HAMMOND/The Marlborough Express.

When 92-year-old Blenheim resident Tui Parsons donated her 60-year-old cello to the Marlborough Girls' College orchestra she was just pleased it was going to a good home.

Mrs Parsons, an accomplished cello and piano musician and teacher, decided to donate her treasured instrument after a visit to the school.

"I can remember being in the school orchestra myself and they always needed instruments. So I thought, if there's someone interested in playing ... why not give it to the school?"

The former Marlborough Girls' College music teacher bought the cello in Brisbane while at a music school there over 60 years ago.

Mrs Parsons has been actively involved in the Marlborough music scene since she arrived from Wellington in 1972 to marry husband Raymond, a Wairau Valley farmer.

She has been involved in the Operatic Society, spent 12 years as a church organist for the Nativity Church, and until two years ago, regularly played at rest homes around the province. She retired from music teaching 15 years ago.

Her talent has taken her all over the world to music festivals. She has played on BBC radio and for the New Zealand Broadcasting Service as a accompanist.

Now a resident of Ashwood Park Retirement Village, Mrs Parsons began learning the piano as a seven-year-old. At Wellington Girls' College she learned the cello and joined the orchestra.

"There were some surprised faces when I brought a cello home it was such a big thing to carry."

Touring as a pianist with the New Zealand Ballet in the 1950s rid her of nerves about performing, she said. "The pieces were so difficult but you just had to do them. It prepared me well."

Marlborough Girls' College head of music Robin Randall said the cello was "fantastic it's still in a new condition. It is a good quality instrument".

http://www.stuff.co.nz/marlborough-express/news/2740101/Tui-gives-the-gift-of-music

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Kiri Te Kanawa farewells opera

AAP | 11:36PM - Wednesday, 12 August 2009



DIVA: For her final performance in Cologne, Dame Kiri will play
the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss.

The opera world is about to lose one of its brightest stars, New Zealand's Dame Kiri Te Kanawa.

The world-famous soprano has announced that after 40 years she will give up operatic performances because she finds performing too exhausting.

She plans to perform her operatic swansongs in New York in February and the German city of Cologne in April.

"(Cologne) will be my last," the 65-year-old told Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper on Wednesday.

"It's not as if I want to do it on a regular basis now, because it's exhausting.

I think certainly our voices change; opera is mainly for young people."

For her final performance in Cologne, Dame Kiri will play the Marschallin in Der Rosenkavalier by Richard Strauss.

In New York, she will take on the role of the Duchess of Krakenthorpa in Donizettis La Fille du Regiment at the Metropolitan Opera.



Dame Kiri Te Kanawa performing in the Auckland Domain last year.
 — Photo: Martin Sykes.

Dame Kiri, who performed at Prince Charles' wedding to Lady Diana Spencer in 1981, has not sung opera since she sang in Samuel Barbers' Vanessa at the Los Angeles Opera in 2004.

She said while many people had believed she had retired, this was not the case.

"The press retired me," she said.

"I have not been singing opera very much but I still sing a lot of concerts."

Dame Kiri said she had no plans to give up singing and would continue to tour, with shows planned in Sydney, Beijing, Spain and the United States later this year.

"I'm extremely busy with all sorts of things," she said.

Dame Kiri plans to bring three of her students from the Solti Academy and Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation to London to perform alongside her at the Tower of London in September.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/music/2746590/Kiri-Te-Kanawa-farewells-opera

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times

Les Paul dies at 94

Guitarist whose innovations paved the way for rock 'n' roll

The virtuoso picker influenced a generation of guitarists and had a series of hits in the '50s with wife Mary Ford. He invented an early solid-body electric guitar and pioneered new recording methods.

By GEOFF BOUCHER and CLAUDIA LUTHER | Friday, August 14, 2009



    Inventor and guitarist Les Paul was featured on “American Masters: Les Paul: Chasing Sound.” He died at 94.
                                                                           — Photo: Chris Lentz/PBS.

Click to open a photograph gallery at the Los Angeles Times website

Les Paul was often called rock royalty, but for the people who knew the man before his death Thursday at age 94, that term often inspired a gentle chuckle.

Born in Wisconsin in 1915, Paul was a Midwestern jazz man who went on to make high-polish 1950s pop recordings, a style of music that was snuffed out by the reckless energy of rock 'n' roll. Still, the rock demi-gods of the 1960s and '70s adored Paul for what he handed them, the Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, a beast of an instrument that has endured through the years whether the band on stage was Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols or Green Day. The six-string became such an American institution that, like Levi Strauss, Jack Daniel's and John Deere, it became more a symbol than a mere brand name.

Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen and Slash are just some of the players who have raised and praised the guitar during their careers. Richards, of the Rolling Stones, said Thursday that "all of us owe an unimaginable debt to his work and his talent," while Joe Satriani, whose searing solos sound like cosmic noise compared with Paul's vinyl hits, put the nonagenarian's passing in terms that even the youngest music fan could understand: "He was the original guitar hero."

Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in New York, according to a spokesperson for Gibson Guitar Co. Paul had been in failing health for some time, but he had soldiered on, amazingly, with his weekly Monday night performances at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City until earlier this year.

James Henke, the chief curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, went to a show in May and, backstage, it was apparent that Paul was ailing. "But he still played two shows that night and sounded great," he said.

Artist, inventor

Paul's legacy is a broad one. Part artist, part inventor, Paul was "that rare person who was artistic and scientific at the same time," as Henke put it. Paul was a master picker, one of the best of his generation, and was often cited as a major influence on other more famous guitarists, including Chet Atkins, who called Paul "one of my idols."

Still, it is Paul’s innovations that put him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They include an early solid-body electric guitar as well as new ways to create multiple tracks and echo effects for recordings, which he applied with memorable effect to his recordings with his then-wife Mary Ford. Through the years, the guitars with Paul's name on them became so popular that he was routinely — and wrongly — cited as the inventor of the electric guitar, an error that spoke to the ubiquity of his brand.

"When most people think of the electric guitar, they think of Les Paul," said Dan Del Fiorentino, historian for the National Assn. of Music Merchants, a trade group for the music-products industry. "He wasn't the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, but he certainly made it famous."

Well-known pioneers were looking to amplify a guitar as early as the 1920s, among them Doc Kauffman, Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp, whose "Frying Pan" is considered the first solid-body electric guitar. None of those names would become as famous as Les Paul, who was born Lester William Polfuss on June 09, 1915, in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Always curious, Paul would tinker with his mother's upright player piano, re-punching the piano roll to make new notes. By age 9, he had taught himself the harmonica by listening to earthy blues and country hits on the family radio.

His first guitar was a model from Sears, Roebuck & Co. that captured his imagination, and by his late teens he had dropped out of school to pursue music.

That path led to Chicago. During the day, he would play country music using the name Rhubarb Red; at night he would jam in the jazz clubs with a more enduring moniker, Les Paul, with Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt as part of his style heritage.

Paul crafted his own crude version of an amplified guitar as a teenager. His goal was simply to be better heard. To amplify the sound, he tried using a phonograph needle, a telephone mouthpiece and a radio speaker. The sound did get stronger, but, as Paul would recollect in Modern Guitar magazine in 2005, "I ran smack into the problem of feedback."

He realized that the acoustic guitar's hollow body — which was designed to reverberate and amplify the string sound — probably wasn't needed if the instrument was hooked up to power. He filled the hollow with socks and shirts and even plaster of Paris, which, not surprisingly, created some problems.

In the 1930s, his experimentation continued in a new direction. He attached electronic pickups and strings to a 4-by-4-inch piece of pine that was about 18 inches long. It worked well enough but didn't have the graceful look of a guitar. So, in the name of aesthetics, he sliced a regular guitar in half lengthwise and bolted it to the wood. He dubbed the contraption "The Log." It gave Paul the sustaining power he had been seeking — he playfully boasted that he could play a note, go out, grab a bite to eat and come back and the same note would still be sounding.

Essential figure

Stones guitarist Richards said Thursday that Paul's leaps of invention and insight made him an essential figure, on par with Leo Fender, the engineer who in 1951 began mass-producing the solid-body Broadcaster (later renamed the Telecaster), the instrument that would soon revolutionize popular music.

"Les Paul, along with Leo Fender, is the most important developer of the electric guitar," said Richards, who marveled at Paul's youthful quest. "He actually taught himself to play guitar in order to demonstrate his electronic theories. Wow!"

The famed guitar company Gibson also designed a solid-body guitar and, in 1952, released an instrument that was endorsed by Paul, who had by then made a name for himself in music. Various models of Gibson Les Pauls are still in production.

Electrifying the guitar took the instrument from one used for simple background rhythm to an up-front driving force in country music, blues, R&B and rock. Even the feedback Paul tried so hard to eliminate became a new language for guitarists who wanted to push into the sonic frontiers that Paul in many ways mapped out.

Perhaps even more important than Paul's role in the electric guitar were his recording innovations.

To get a fuller sound on some songs, Paul tinkered with one of the first tape recorders to figure out how he could record one track at the same time he was playing back another track. It was the beginning of multi-track recording and sound-on-sound — an essential approach to modern music-making.

"I'll never understand why I chased sound all my life," Paul said in a 1997 interview for the Smithsonian Institution. "But I was there chasing it constantly, saying it's got to have a little more of this and a little more of that." He told The Times' music critic Robert Hilburn that his inventions were "conveniences" designed "to help me get the sound I had in my head on record."

Paul's musical odyssey in life took him to St. Louis and Chicago and then on to New York, where the Les Paul Trio played for several years on Fred Waring's radio program and, in off hours, Paul went to Harlem to sit in with greats such as Art Tatum and Charlie Christian.

In the 1940s, Paul's career was ramping up. He performed with Nat "King" Cole and recorded with his idol Bing Crosby on "It's Been a Long, Long Time," which quickly hit No. 1 on the charts.

Paul signed with Capitol Records in 1948 and his crisp, smooth sound and small-combo approach was red hot. He was still a wizard: Paul began melding live and recorded tracks and playing with the tape speed. The instrumental "Lover (When You're Near Me)" in 1947 layered eight guitar parts, an early step toward the later studio alchemy practiced by the likes of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.

With Mary Ford

Paul built a studio in his Hollywood home, where he recorded the 1946 hit song "Rumors Are Flying" with the Andrews Sisters. By then, Paul had met singer-guitarist Colleen Summers, to whom he later gave the stage name Mary Ford.

After a serious car accident in 1948 and a career-threatening arm injury (Paul persuaded doctors to set his broken limb in a bent position that allowed him to still pick), the couple had mastered the sound that opened the door to their huge popularity.

"How High the Moon," which was made with a dozen overdubs, stayed at the top of the charts for more than two months in 1951. The "new sound," as Paul called it, allowed fresh renderings of songs like "Mockin' Bird Hill," "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" and "Tiger Rag," as well as another big hit, "Vaya Con Dios."

At one point, 13 consecutive Paul-Ford tunes sold more than half a million copies. The couple became so popular that from 1953 to 1960 they hosted a five-minute weekday TV show from their home.

The great success ended abruptly with the arrival of rock 'n' roll. Dave Dexter, a Capitol Records executive, said: "It didn't just taper off, the way it did with Crosby and hundreds of other artists. It just absolutely stopped."

As Mary Alice Shaughnessy wrote in her 1993 book Les Paul: An American Original, "The electric guitar that Les had done so much to popularize was becoming the instrument of his professional doom. Les and Mary's sweet sound and down-home stage patter were simply too quaint for modern tastes." The couple divorced in the mid-1960s; Ford died in 1977.

Paul continued to record, earning a Grammy in 1976 for "Chester and Lester," recorded with Atkins. But Paul was more famous as a brand name than as a recording star by then.

In 1974, for instance, a youngster named Steve Jones admired a Gibson Les Paul with a sunburst paint job that sat in the window of a Shaftesbury Avenue music shop in London. Jones liked the guitar so much he stole it and began a music career. As the guitarist for the Sex Pistols, he ushered in another new generation of players.

"I had no idea there was a guy named Les Paul when I got that guitar from the poor sod that owned the shop," Jones said Thursday. "It was years before I found that out and then more years until I found out that he was a guitar player and this cool old guy.... That guitar of his, it was the only one for me. You know when you pick it up where it's going to go."

In 1984, when Paul was nearing 70, he returned to the stage, appearing in New York clubs. Richards, Tony Bennett and Paul McCartney were among the icons who joined him at his weekly shows.

In 2005, Paul released his first studio album in 27 years with guests such as Steve Miller, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton and Sting.

Paul's original Log is housed at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville; a replica sits in the Rock Hall in Cleveland.

Paul is survived by three sons, Lester, Gene and Robert; a daughter, Colleen Wess; five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; and longtime friend Arlene Palmer. A private service will be held in New York.

In 2005, Paul told NPR that he remembered even his bad times with warmth.

"Every setback might be the very thing that makes you carry on and fight all the harder and become that much better," he said. "And I'll probably play until I fall over and that's the end."

• Claudia Luther is a former Times staff writer.

• geoff.boucher@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-les-paul14-2009aug14,0,7958371.story

http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-les-paul14-2009aug14,0,7958371.story?page=2

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

From the Los Angeles Times

Les Paul's disciples

The master's disciples

By TODD MARTENS | Friday, August 14, 2009

Les Paul helped make the electric guitar sound clean, and in his experiments with multitrack recording, he also made it sound grand — the perfect tool for the guitar virtuosos who followed.


CHET ATKINS
The guitar is renowned as a rock 'n' roll instrument, but Atkins magnified its country soul. Atkins' crisp finger-picking put the pop in country and was an early showcase for Paul's invention.

JEFF BECK
A new breed of musicians lay claim to roots rock with the pure Les Paul tone, even as they roughed it up. Beck was one, and he also shared Paul's penchant for stretching the boundaries of the guitar, letting it stand in for a host of instruments.

KEITH RICHARDS
Though the Les Paul was one of many instruments in the Richards arsenal, it turned his early blues licks into the Rolling Stones' stadium riffs. Richards shared Paul's love of many genres.

ERIC CLAPTON
Paul's guitar was embraced by a number of British rock giants, and Clapton is one of the instrument's most famous players. He inspired generations to pick up a Les Paul-branded ax.

JIMMY PAGE
Page homes in on the versatility of the Les Paul. Whether focusing in on a note or blasting one out, Page's Les Paul tweaked and bent familiar sounds.

THE BEATLES
Legend has it that George Harrison's Les Paul was known as "Lucy." His bassist partner Paul McCartney sports a custom-made left-handed Les Paul. Long before Beatlemania, the band was covering Paul's '50s hits.

EDDIE VAN HALEN
"Without the things you've done, I wouldn't be able to do half the things I do," Eddie Van Halen once told Paul. Van Halen carried on Paul's penchant for experimentation and manipulation.

SLASH
The Les Paul is the signature guitar of the former Guns N' Roses member, who has praised its lack of limitations — using it to grace a ballad with a flamboyant solo, or launch a ferocious blues-meets-metal attack.

BILLIE JOE ARMSTRONG
As Green Day's sound has become more layered, Armstrong has done it with a Les Paul. He was drawn to its untainted tone, saying it has a "good rock 'n' roll '50s sound to it, but you can crank it with lots of distortion."

• todd.martens@latimes.com

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-les-paul-disciples14-2009aug14,0,2412278.story

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Pianist is London bound

By ROSEMARY McLENNAN - Upper Hutt Leader | 5:00AM - Wednesday, 19 August 2009



THANKSGIVING CONCERT: Sunday's concert by Upper Hutt pianist Amber Rainey
is her way of acknowledging the many locals who have supported her studies.
— ROSEMARY McLENNAN/Upper Hutt Leader.

A concert in the Genesis Theatre on Sunday will help Upper Hutt pianist Amber Rainey fund her advanced studies at a prestigious London music school.

Miss Rainey, 22, has completed a Bachelor of Music degree at Auckland University, followed by first class honours last year.

She has been accepted by the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London for a two-year degree, majoring in piano accompaniment.

The Royal College of Music also accepted her application so it was "nice to have a choice," of what she believes are Europe's top two music colleges.

Her music teacher, Rae de Lisle, is a former Guildhall student.

While she has received some New Zealand scholarships, Miss Rainey is busy saving towards the $NZ60,000 per year all-up cost of her study.

She has been touring New Zealand as part of the Cook Strait Trio with cellist Paul Van Houtte and violinist Blythe Press.

"It was so much fun, there was really good feedback," Miss Rainey says.

This year she has been teaching at Samuel Marsden Collegiate School and has a number of private pupils.

For the past four years Miss Rainey has been playing on a casual basis with the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. Earlier this year she did a performance at the Te Papa Monet exhibition with them.

While further studies are expensive, Miss Rainey says there is always work to accompany soloists and she wishes more people would train in that field.

"A lot of people say there is no money in music but if you know what you are doing there is" and the investment in her career will not be wasted, she says.

Her long-term goal is to become a lecturer.

The Expressions' concert  Miss Rainey's way of thanking her many Hutt Valley supporters  will be on Sunday, August 23, at 2pm in the Genesis Theatre.

She's already tried out the new Steinway concert grand which she describes as a "great piano" in an "awesome venue".

Performing with her will be Mr Press, cellist Sophie Williams, singer Roger Wilson and there will be a piano duet with Donald Nicholson.

• Tickets are $25 and can be booked at Expressions.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/communities/upper-hutt-leader/2763965/Pianist-is-London-bound

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Makeover for a grand set of pipes

By DAVE BURGESS - The Dominion Post | 8:53AM - Wednesday, 19 August 2009



LOVING TOUCH: John Hargraves, managing director of the South Island Organ Company,
with some of the facade organ pipes from St Peter's on Willis Street. The pipes, which
were damaged when they were doused during a fire at the church, are going to
Melbourne for restoration. — ANDREW GORRIE/The Dominion Post.

The historic pipe organ at St Peter's Anglican Church in Willis Street, Wellington, which was damaged in a fire, is set to bellow again.

The organ, installed in 1887, was damaged by smoke and water in an arson attack on the church in April last year, church director of music Dianne Halliday said.

"As a result of the fire, the organ was drowned in about 30,000 litres of water [but] there wasn't any fire damage to the instrument."

An electronic organ has been used since the fire, the Rev Godfrey Nicholson said. "We have still been able to sing ... but it will be a significant day when the organ comes back."

The $688,000 upgrade will see the ornately painted pipes sent to Melbourne, where the paintwork will be restored. The rest of the work will be carried out by South Island Organ Company in Timaru.

Managing director John Hargraves said wooden and vinyl additions made to the organ in the 1970s would be removed.

"We are trying to work out what the original layout was, which is a much more involved process than I expected."

The restoration would not exactly duplicate the original organ but "would greatly respect" its heritage.

The restoration is being largely funded through an insurance payout and a grant from the Lotteries Commission but some fundraising is required.

The organ, made by William Hill and Sons of London, is expected to be back in use by the end of next year.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/wellington/2765349/Makeover-for-a-grand-set-of-pipes

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

Dame Kiri: ‘I'm not retiring’



By MARK GEENTY - NZPA | 3:34PM - Wednesday, 02 September 2009



DAME KIRI: “I don't know why they're trying to retire me.
I'm not retiring.” Inset: John Farnham. — The Dominion Post.

Dame Kiri Te Kanawa breezed into Sydney and made two things clear. Don't mention John Farnham, or retirement.

New Zealand's world famous soprano, scheduled to sing in two concerts with the Sydney Symphony this week, wasn't best pleased when the Aussie pop icon's name was raised.

Ironically the two are scheduled to perform in Sydney tomorrow night; Dame Kiri at the Opera House and Farnham at the Star City Casino as he kicks off a 31-date farewell tour.

Two years ago, Dame Kiri beat a A$2 (NZ$2.48) million lawsuit by promoter Leading Edge Events in the New South Wales Supreme Court after she withdrew from three scheduled concerts with Farnham — because she was uncomfortable at the prospect of female fans throwing knickers at him.

"Can we just drop that subject, thank you," Dame Kiri told The Australian newspaper.

"This is about music and that's not."

Dame Kiri — whose company Mattase was ordered to pay $A128,000 to Leading Edge in expenses incurred — told the court in 2007 she withdrew after watching footage of Farnham's previous concerts.

"I was concerned about the knickers or underpants and underwear apparel being thrown at him and him collecting it and obviously holding it in his hands as some sort of trophy."

Asked about the coincidence of the pair performing on the same night in the same city tomorrow, Dame Kiri said: "Good luck, can we move on?"

Meanwhile, British reports of her impending retirement were also given the short shrift.

Dame Kiri, 65, was quoted by London's Daily Telegraph last month as saying a concert in the German city of Cologne next April "will be my last".

She cited an exhausting schedule and was quoted as saying opera was "mainly for young people".

But she told reporters in Sydney: "No, I have not announced it (retirement).

"The press might have announced it. I didn't say a thing. I don't know why they're trying to retire me. I'm not retiring."

Dame Kiri said people had been trying to retire her for the past 12 years.

"You don't retire. You just move on to something else if you want. But retiring means you don't do it any more. I'm working morning, noon, and... I mean, I do 20 concerts a year, I do charity... how can I retire?"

She said the door was open to more operatic roles, beyond her performance in Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier in Cologne.

Dame Kiri said she was kept busy through her work developing young New Zealand opera talent.

She planned to bring three of her students from the Solti Academy and Kiri Te Kanawa Foundation to London to perform alongside her at the Tower of London in September.

She also expressed sadness about the trend in opera worldwide to demand young singers be beautiful and slim.

"How can you sing if you're thin? You cannot sing classical music on an empty stomach but a lot of these women think they're not going to get on stage because the managing director thinks they're too fat."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/2827763/Dame-Kiri-I-m-not-retiring

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

String quartet's passion to play

By EMMA GERAGHTY - The Wellingtonian | 5:00AM - Thursday, 03 September 2009



STRIKING OUT: The Aroha Quartet, from left, Haihong Liu, Beiyi Xue, Robert Ibell and Zhongxian Jin, will be performing in Wellington September 05.

Wellington Aroha Quartet will be stringing along audiences once again with an upcoming performance.

Formed in 2004 by four world-class professional musicians, Aroha has earned the acclaim of critics who have described the quartet as accomplished and brilliant.

The Aroha string quartet has become known for their passionate musicality, impressive technique, and multicultural innovations and is firmly established as one of the finest chamber music ensembles in New Zealand Chamber Music.

The Aroha Quartet will play an ensemble of three pieces by Joseph Haydn, Polish composer Karol Szymanowski and Beethoven, for their two-hour concert.

Aroha Quartet violinist Haihong Liu, who won the China National Chamber Music Competition in 1995 with the Beijing String Quartet, said the three choices are old and new favourites.

"Haydn G major. Opus 54/1 and Beethoven Harp have brought us back to some highlighted memories from Chamber music festivals Kim and I attended in Austria 10 years ago."

The Szymanowski Quartet No.2 has become one of their favourites and "has been absolutely fun" working together with their new companion Robert Ibell on cello, she said.

Cellist Robert Ibell, who joined the quartet at the end of last year, said Saturday night's concert would be made up of three contrasting pieces.

Music by Joseph Haydn was chosen to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his death.

"It's a great, piece, very lively, little funny turns of phrase, very witty music."

Haydn was an important figure in the development of the string quartet, his originality and quirkiness is revealed in his quartet.

The second piece by Karl Szymanowski shows Debussy and Ravel's influence on Polish folk music.

Ibell has always wanted to play Szymanowski.

"He is a composer who is little-known. He uses little ideas from folk music in the piece," he said.

The opening of the Szymanowski is a lovely serene melody, first violin and cello accompanied by shimmering tremolo on the second violin and viola, Ibell said.

The last piece is by Beethoven and comes from the middle of his composing career.

It comprises of a pizzicato effect, a technique whereby musicians pluck the strings of their instrument.

"There is a beautiful sweep of notes from low pitch to high pitch, rippling effect through the piece."

Beethoven's Quartet is a work of great contrasts, with themes of beauty and passion, Ibell said.

The performance takes up a lot of energy with only one chance to get it right, he said. "Generally the audience don't notice these things, but we are perfectionists - especially as a professional musician."

• The Aroha Quartet plays at St Andrew's on the Terrace, September 05.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/local/the-wellingtonian/2826253/String-quartets-passion-to-play