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Re: (TV) Verlaine cancelled Krakow tribute show



Thanks for the report Lief. Sounds a blast. Wouldn't have thought Tom would have been a natural choice for that piece but shame you missed it. I've seen a day fest from Bang On a Can before and they were excellent. Everything from a piece by Thurston Moore to Eno's Music for Airports.

Graham

On 25/09/2011 18:44, leif joley wrote:
In a statement, he was cited as saying that he hadn't "revoked any show in 30
years", but he had to do it this time, due to some illness. Too bad it had to
be this one -- especially for me, who had made the effort of travelling from
Sweden all the way to southern Poland to see his participation in the
week-long celebration of Steve Reich's music. Not that the trip to or the
accomodation in Krakow was enormously expensive -- quite the contrary
actually, at least for a Swede -- but I hadn't gone if it wasn't for his
appearance.

Too bad for him too -- this would probably be the time when he would've met
his biggest indoors audience ever. Interested group members can get an idea of
the size and the scope of the event, the grand finale held last Saturday on an
industrial site in Krakow's Stalin-era district Nowa Huta, by taking a look at
this two-part video summary:
http://www.sacrumprofanum.com/en/3/475/485/festival-finale

Afterwards, I didn't regret it for one second. I arrived in the middle of the
week, so I missed Radiohead's Jonny
Greenwood but caught some of the other concerts, among them New York's
Bang On A Can All-stars, which performed a captivating set of one
Michael Gordon's atonal music. And the last night was astonishing. Somehow a
mix of an evening of modernist, repetitive music, multimedia extravaganza with
Eurovision Song Contest-styled taped introductions by Reich and a spectacular
light and laser show, and rave party, all in front of an audience of... I
can't say -- but perhaps about 10,000? This place was huge. The people
attending were in all ages, although, admittedly, some of the pensioners left
during the break, most likely because of the sound volume. And I think that
Reich's amazement was genuine when he closed the evening by wondering if
anyone would really believe that Krakow could be the place for a gathering
like this, drawing such a crowd. Couldn't happen in Sweden, that's for sure.

Spledid performances all around. Verlaine was supposed to perform Reich's
"Electric Counterpoint" together with 22-year-old Polish jazz pianist
wunderkind Piotr Orzechowski, who goes under the artist name Pianohooligan; in
Verlaine's absence, Adrian Utley from Portishead had to sit in (this can be
seen at 2:21 in part 1). Also listen to the fantastic groove of "Four Organs"
(at 7:00 in part 1) or be stunned by Leszek Mozdzer (beginning at 9:05 in part
1 and then continues in the 2nd one) one-man-show when recreates the
originally two-pianist piece "Piano Phase".

Leif J, Sweden
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