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February 2010

Sunday in the Funk (with George)

 PfunkThe Godfather of Funk, George Clinton, has landed in town with the P-Funk All Stars, and is currently gearing up - by whatever means necessary - for one of his marathon sets tonight at B.B. King's. (Tickets, at the moment, are still available.) Clinton was also up in Toronto last Sunday, which just happened to be Valentine's Day. ( I was up to other things) In anticipation, Clinton offered up this jewel of a Q&A to Toronto's Now Magazine:

How do you celebrate Valentine’s Day?

Damn. I haven’t thought about that in so many years! I dunno. Soon as you asked me the question, first thing I thought about was breasts!

How do people in outer space celebrate Valentine’s Day?

They give each other a box of candy that reads “Dees nuts!”

How will we celebrate Valentine’s Day in the future?

Oh man, with wrinkles. They gotta give each other hard candy. That’ll keep ’em real hard.

What's your advice to folks who might be seeing you for the first time tonight?

There’s gonna be lots of booty-shaking. Tell everyone to bring an extra booty.

(Show starts at 8p; tickets available at the door.)



Quartets - Pt. 1

 10.2.18 001I didn't have high expectations - didn't have any expectations, really - when I went to see the MIVOS Quartet at The Tank on Thursday. (I went at the suggestion of a composer friend.) But, right out of the gate, it was clear that this young quartet (Violinists Olivia De Prato and Joshua Modney, violist Victor Lowrie, and cellist Isabel Castellvi) were a cut above the increasingly-crowded quartet field. Wolfgang Rihm's Quartet No. 4 (1981) was maddeningly difficult, full of aggressive, intense phrases, drastic dynamics, even extended periods of silence. John Cage's strikingly different Quartet in Four Parts (1950) was slow and atmospheric, almost hypnotic in its minimalist motifs. And Roulette (2007), by the young British/Brooklyn-based composer Anna Clyne, called upon the players to speak and make other sounds in coordination with Clyne's carefully interspersed electronics, which she controlled from a soundboard near the stage. Best of all, their presentation was approachable without being casual: like some kind of post rock event, without the lights. (More pics below.)

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