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Tag Archives: music

Garland and Gold – Bri Murphy

10 Friday Dec 2021

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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artist, Bri Murphy, Garland and Gold, music, Nashville, singer, songwriter

Bri Murphy

From Bri Murphy:

Last year on Christmas Day, Peter and I drove out to my parents’, where my mom had set up a distanced gathering for us on their front porch. We sat down and she brought us blankets straight out of the dryer to stave off the unseasonably cold (for Tennessee) temps in the low 20s. We sipped on hot cocoa and nudged gifts across an invisible dividing line of safety. The pandemic made for a truly strange holiday season, and it’s likely the understatement of the century to say it was hard for everybody.

Even though things aren’t back to normal, even though we still have uncertainty swirling, even though many of us are still riding waves of grief, many of us are going to be able to travel and spend time with family, whether blood or chosen, this year. This song is about renewed joy and hope, and about the impossibly radiant feeling of going home, especially when you haven’t been able to in a while.

Sending this out into the universe today with the warmest of wishes for everyone’s holiday season.

Written by Bri Murphy & Peter Ferguson
Guitars, BGVs, B3/Wurly: Peter Ferguson
Piano: Reed Pittman
Bass: Zach Witcher
Drums: Kyle May
Mixing and Mastering: Bobby Ferguson
Album art: Bri Murphy
Recorded at Plant City Studio, Nashville, Tennessee

“Madam (Vice) President” March

17 Sunday Jan 2021

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Brian Dix, Inaugural, Kamala Harris, Madam (Vice) President March, music, Vice President

Kamala Harris (D) [2019 file photo].

“Madam (Vice) President” March – Major Brian Dix

SAN DIEGO — Retired Major Brian Dix, Director Laureate of the United States Marine Drum and Bugle Corps, will debut his recent work “Madam (Vice) President” in a performance by an all-volunteer, all-female orchestra hailing from the state of California. Appropriately scheduled in time for the 59th presidential inauguration, the virtual concert honors Vice President-Elect Kamala D. Harris.

Last year, Dix was in discussion with the Rhode Island Philharmonic to debut this symphonic march, originally titled “Madam President,” until the COVID-19 pandemic suspended live performances and the work had to be shelved. Following last year’s historic election, Dix was inspired to rededicate the march to both the first woman vice president and all of the extraordinary women who enter the American political arena.

“When the Associated Press called the election on November 7, several colleagues said, ‘You’ve got to change the title!” Dix said. “Just as the vice president of the United States is also the president of the Senate, this march can pull double duty.”

Dix then assembled an all-volunteer orchestra featuring musicians from professional, semi-professional, college and community orchestras. “This performance is not only for women, but by women,” Dix said. “I want to pay tribute to their hard work over the past 100 years and to inspire younger women to march forward with their dreams, where becoming Madam (Vice) President is the ultimate brass ring.”

So, this happened this evening

19 Thursday Nov 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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music, The Poetry of Protest, Virtual concert

What we have become

29 Monday Jun 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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#resist, Aurora, Colorado, Elijah McClain, memorial, music, peaceful protest, police violence, violin

On Saturday in Aurora, Colorado at a memorial vigil for Elijah McClain, a violinist.

Video from : Something Witty

Apparently, string instruments and music and art are considered dangerous weapons. But we’ve always known that, just not in the sense that authority believes them to be.

The courage of those string players, to keep playing while exposed to tear gas or pepper gas and authority in riot gear, is astounding.

Just so non-musicians understand – string players consider their instruments sacred, not only as a vessel for expressing the art of music in the now, but as an intergenerational calling to be handed from the past through the present to the future.

As an example, my cello is approximately 110 years old, it existed before me and will continue long past my lifetime.

For authority to threaten and desecrate not only a peaceful memorial, but musicians and those instruments, with their violence and threats of violence is a crime against humanity, culture, and the future.

Chronologue: Inevitability

06 Monday Jan 2020

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Chronologue, Colorado, Denver, Inevitability, music

…the band wields a fierce, contemporary sound that draws from jazz, electronic, and rock, and pop music. Referencing artists from Esperanza Spalding to Bruno Mars, Chronologue explores a sonic space that is rhythmically complex, yet groove-driven; their harmonies are rich, yet approachable. Palatable songwriting and fiery improvisation make Chronologue a band to keep an eye on…

With Bobby Ferguson on drums, Parker Murphy on bass, Solomon Chapman on Keys, Alex DeVillier on guitar, and Yasmina Bradley-Belcaid on lead vocals.

Nazi punching music

27 Thursday Jun 2019

Posted by Michael Bersin in Resist

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#resist, 4th of July, Independence Day, music, Nazis

For an upcoming 4th of July Concert:

A reflection of our times.

Xiuhtezcatl – Kansas City – October 26, 2018

27 Saturday Oct 2018

Posted by Michael Bersin in Standing Rock

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activism, Crossroads KC, environmental activism, hip hop, Kansas City, missouri, music, Xiuhtezcatl

Indigenous Hip Hop artist and environmental activist Xiuhtezcatl opened a concert at Crossroads KC last night, the last concert of the season at the open air venue.

The weather was cool, not cold, and the audience was happy and in a festive mood. The venue and the staff were pleasant and very professional.

Xiuhtezcatl – Kansas City, Missouri – October 26, 2018.

Xiuhtezcatl’s music is inventive, infectious, executed with precision, and replete with musical and textual meaning. We’re glad we had the opportunity to cover and attend the performance.

Part of last night’s message from Xiuhtezcatl was participation. Ten days, people, ten days.

Music: Peter and the Wolfe

18 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Belmont University, Jenny Wolfe, music, Peter Ferguson

At Belmont University, Bathroom Session #8, Jenny Wolfe and Peter Ferguson, Tori Kelly – “Confetti” Cover:

We call the conductor "maestro" because he only stands in front of the orchestra to wave his hands

03 Tuesday Jan 2012

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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music, NLRB, orchestra, Union

maestro

Pronunciation: ˈmʌɪstrəʊ

noun (plural maestri /-stri/ or maestros)

a distinguished conductor or performer of classical music: the orchestra was strained after clashes with the great maestro

[….]

Origin:

early 18th century: Italian, ‘master’, from Latin magister

Arturo Toscanini, from The New Grove Dictionary of Opera:  

….Energy, single-mindedness, impetuosity combined with an inflexible will, fanatical perfectionism, and an almost morbid self-criticism were among Toscanini’s most remarkable characteristics. He drove himself as few if any other executive musicians have done; the sheer amount of work he accomplished staggers the imagination. If he was ferocious in his demands on others, and in his criticism of them when they fell short of their best, he was still more dissatisfied with himself, rarely feeling that he had attained the ideal he envisaged. From this, as much as from a naturally dictatorial personality, stemmed the legendary and often terrifying outbursts of rage….

In a 2 to 1 decision the National Labor Relations Board found that orchestral musicians who play in per service orchestras are employees, not independent contractors and are thus eligible to organize. That’s all well and good. It’s the dissent [pdf] that’s really interesting:

….Looking beyond the musicians’ control over where, when, and for whom they will work, I disagree with my colleagues’ conclusion that the musicians’ control over their work ends once they decide to perform with the Symphony. To be sure, at that point, the Symphony controls the conduct of the rehearsals and performances, as well as oversees certain artistic aspects of a performance. But, practically speaking, work by creative profession independent contractors is often performed to the specifications and on the timetable of the hiring party, but that structure does not convert an independent contractor to an employee. See Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, 490 U.S. 730, 750-751 (1989) (Court found a sculptor to be an independent contractor even though the nonprofit association that hired him defined the scene to be sculpted and specified the details of the sculpture’s appearance, including its scale and the materials to be used); and Radio City Music Hall Corp. v. U.S., 135 F.2d 715, 717-718 (2d Cir. 1943) (court found performers to be independent contractors even where the producer controlled the timing and conduct of rehearsals and directed the performers to “weld” together the performance). This is particularly true where, as here, the employer’s artistic control and direction is primarily related to the end product, i.e., the sound and look of the symphony as a whole,not the manner in which the individual musicians providing their services prepare for and perform the work.2 See DIC Animation City, 295 NLRB at 991; Young & Rubicam International, 226 NLRB at 1275-1277; and American Broadcasting Co., 117 NLRB 13, 18 (1957). Thus, based on the above discussion of the right of control factor, I would find that the record evidence weighs in favor of finding the musicians to be independent contractors….

“…This is particularly true where, as here, the employer’s artistic control and direction is primarily related to the end product, i.e., the sound and look of the symphony as a whole, not the manner in which the individual musicians providing their services prepare for and perform the work…”

Try telling that to a freakin’ orchestra conductor, putz.

Oh, yeah, that dissenter?:

….Brian Hayes, the lone Republican member of the labor board….

It figures.

Your almost the end of the year moment of Zen

30 Friday Dec 2011

Posted by Michael Bersin in Uncategorized

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Barks of Yore, music, Paul Demer, Sending Out a Dove

Paul Demer is an 18 year old singer-songwriter from Arlington, Texas….

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