Tag - high-notes

 
Menu
Search
 
April 30, 2024
 

Today's print edition

Home Delivery
Subscribe for more access

HIGH NOTES

CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 2, 2001
'The Facts of Life': Black Box Recorder
Artists who harbor ambitions that outstrip their talent often try to pre-empt accusations of pretentiousness by hiding behind surface ironies. Luke Haines called his first rock band the Auteurs, thus placing quotation marks around whatever they produced, which was mostly literary-minded rock descended from the Bowie-Reed school of decadent narcissism.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 2, 2001
Brian Lynch
Brian Lynch startles less with technique than overall approach. There's no shortage of craft, but it's wrapped in layers of intelligence, intuition and passion. His trumpet playing incorporates the innovations of past players, but melds them into a directness of sound that moves easily from be-bop hot to cool blue without pretense. His tone has a soft, rounded fullness that's all the more impressive for not trying to impress. Solos pour out with an unassuming mindfulness.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
May 2, 2001
Low
Listening to Low's new album, "Things We Lost in the Fire," it's easy to imagine what next week's gig in Harajuku will be like: They'll be sitting on stools, wearing sensible gray sweaters and won't be smiling much.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 25, 2001
Tokyo Leaders Big Band
Concert Preview by MICHAEL PRONKO Several nights of jazz is just the thing to clear out the spring allergies, Golden Week hangovers and dread of the rainy season. Here's a roundup of some picks for the week.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 25, 2001
Baaba Maal
In 1989, Senegalese singer Baaba Maal released an album with blind guitarist Mansour Seck titled "Djam Leeli." A mix of two acoustic guitars, a dash of percussion and Maal's intense singing, it was simple but hypnotic and, for many, a revelation to hear the connection between West African guitar and American blues.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 25, 2001
Nick Cave
Nick Cave has never been one to just "get on with life," to wander through it blind, intent on getting to the end with the least trouble. He needs to know why we are here and what happens to us when we've gone. And, like the rest of us, he'll never know, at least not in this life.
Japan Times
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 25, 2001
Radiohead
Concert Preview by PHILIP BRASOR If you are conflicted about going to the trouble of obtaining tickets for Radiohead's autumn shows without first hearing their new album, "Amnesiac," which doesn't hit the stores until the end of May, you may be reassured to know that the material was recorded during the same sessions that produced "Kid A."
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 18, 2001
Natalie Choquette
Believe it or not, opera can be fun and you don't need to deplete your bank account to pay for tickets. On June 24, Natalie Choquette is coming to Tokyo to prove it.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 18, 2001
Tight
Event preview by SUZANNAH TARTAN Turntablists are to the new century what lead guitarists were to the last: explorers of new sonic frontiers. The edginess comes not from gangsta rap-style posing but the heady exuberance of beats cut fast and fine.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 18, 2001
The Japan Blues Carnival
Some things in life are constant: the power of good music, the satisfaction of spicy food, the cathartic effect of a plainly told story. The annual Japan Blues Carnival will bring all that wrapped up in the blues for two great, long outdoor shows, plus three gigs at smaller indoor venues.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 18, 2001
Mogwai
I've made my ex-girlfriend cry a few times, but this is the first time I've been proud of it.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 11, 2001
Hara's crackling horn
Jazz has always been "retro." Outstanding jazz players develop their sound through an immersion in past innovations. The important thing, of course, is not to get stuck in them. All too many players end up as archivists, or technicians. Not trumpeter Tomonao Hara.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 11, 2001
Hang on the Box's 'Yellow Banana'
All-girl Beijing band Hang on the Box is one of the few punk rock bands right now who literally wear their credentials on their sleeves, dressing the part as well as playing the music. They wouldn't look out of place in 1976 London. It's all a bit naff, you might think. But remarkably, Hang on the Box's debut album, "Yellow Banana," is the freshest record I've heard this year.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 11, 2001
Goldie
Goldie is a dark angel of drum 'n' bass. His sonic tricks swoop into the listener's consciousness, twisting time and space before rumbling onto the dance floor in a crescendo of breakbeats.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 11, 2001
Emmylou Harris' 'Spyboy'
Emmylou Harris left one subsidiary of Warner Bros. (Asylum) in the mid-'90s before being picked up by another (Nonesuch) last year. During those five years she released an excellent but overlooked album with Linda Ronstadt and toured the world with a three-piece band called Spyboy (named after the jester that leads a Mardi Gras parade), perfecting the darker folk-rock sound she and producer Daniel Lanois developed for 1995's "Wrecking Ball," an album of heavy-weather atmospherics and glum songs.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 4, 2001
Jijijyujyu
What do you get when you mix classical ballet and modern dance with traditional Indonesian gamelan and dance, a vocalist with a 31/2-octave range and monochrome works of art designed for a small performance space that was once a storage room?
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 4, 2001
Gorillaz
As half of Handsome Boy Modeling School, producer Dan "the Automator" Nakamura watched Prince Paul receive most of the laurels, and though Deltronic 3030 would have been nothing without him, it was assumed to be the baby of rapper Del Tha Funky Homosapien. So, of course, Blurmeister Damon Albarn is considered the leader of Gorillaz -- a project that morphed from Deltronic with most of the same members (Del, Dan, Damon, DJ Kid Koala) -- simply because he commands the largest fan base.
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 4, 2001
Talvin Singh's "Ha"
As an accomplished tabla player, there's no doubting Talvin Singh's percussion skills, and as a producer he's clearly in command of the vocabulary of modern electronic dance music (as evidenced on his debut album "Calcutta Cyber Cafe"). The question is -- like with any session player-turned-solo artist -- can he come up with the tunes?
CULTURE / Music / HIGH NOTES
Apr 4, 2001
The Royal Crown Revue
The neo-swing boom was shorter than the original swing era, which, according to experts, lasted only as long as World War II did. Nothing so momentous accompanied the '90s explosion of zoot suits and horn sections, which may be why it sounds so empty of ideas. Big bands with "daddy" in their names, like Cherry Poppin' Daddies and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy (playing in Harajuku on Sunday, by the way), sound OK until you compare them to a true original like Keely Smith, who at the age of 69 just released an album of reconfigured classics from her youth that not only blows away every under-40 hepcat presently honking away on either coast, but rocks harder than a lot of recent punk.
When will Japan intervene to support the yen?
Finance Minister Shunichi Suzuki has reiterated the government's readiness to take an appropriate action as the yen continues to slide against the U.S. dollar.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Raising kids in Japan as a single parent? It takes a village.
Making things work as a foreign, single mother in Japan isn't easy, but these tips and tricks can help you through the hardest parts.
Yen rebounds strongly after first slide past ¥160 since 1990
The yen dropped to ¥160.245 per dollar on Monday before heading into the other direction to ¥155.01 amid speculation of an intervention by Japanese currency authorities.
JAL cancels international flight after captain gets drunk at Dallas hotel
A Japan Airlines' flight from Dallas to Tokyo was canceled last week after its captain got drunk at a local hotel.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.

Podcast

From easily navigable train stations to the helpfulness of its municipal staff, Tokyo has earned high praise for its commitment to accessibility for disabled travelers.
[Rebroadcast] Japan is doing better on accessibility than you may think

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree
By Alex K.T. Martin

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima
Students ‘study abroad’ on island of Suo Oshima

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS note

Read more

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER