Suspended in nothing too dramatic

As it turns out, I couldn't make it up to Boston for NEC's farewell to Lee Hyla (and missed the following day's absurdities, courtesy of Boston's Keystone Kops, America's Worst Mayor, and Fox News). But Andy H-D of The Black Torrent Guard was there, and has an excellent writeup.

One excerpt:

The second half of the concert consisted of the Boston premiere of his saxophone quartet "Paradigm Lost" and his big hit "Pre-Pulse Suspended". Hyla himself marks "Pre-Pulse" as a turning point in his career, the mythical fusion between concert music and rock and fucking roll. I don't think it rocked as hard as the concerto, mind you, but the glimmers of light are definitely present. Written for twelve instruments, the uniting force was a nervous ostinato quickly tossed back and forth between all of the strings. Generally it was a stream of sixteenth notes, the ultimate punk bass line, but often each player would take liberties with either the pitches or rhythms. These twists in the line reverbated throughout the ensemble like stone dropped in a pond. Similar to "Basic Training" the proverbial stones got bigger (rock, Buick, small moon) and the ensemble became more and more unhinged until the stones stopped and everything reverted.

Read the whole thing.

In other Boston news, Pat reports from the Dave Douglas masterclass at NEC.

Comments

[pat]

1.

I'm not in the habit of sticking up for mayor Mumbles (especially after this mess) but with Ray Nagin and anyone named Daley in the running, I don't think he even comes close to nation's worst mayor... Thanks for the attention, as always.

[DJA]

2.

Given the level-headededness and grace under pressure Hizonner Menino showed in dealing with the Attack of the Lite-Brite Mooninites, does that really inspire much confidence in his ability to handle a Katrina-sized disaster?

And then there's, you know, the Big Dig.

[Jazz Lunatique]

3.

As someone who grew up in Boston and now lives in New Orleans, Mumbles Menino has a long way to go before he comes close to C. Ray? (not lately) Nagin of the still great city of New Orleans

[Pat]

4.

The NY Times (who now owns the Boston Globe) is reporting that Massachusetts has negotiated a $2M settlement with Turner and the ad agency involved in the fiasco in question to pay for the civic inconvenience that the Aqua Force campaign caused... I think Mumbles is having a pretty good day. Imagine what the state of Massachusetts could do to Iraq contractors. And believe it or not, the city of Boston really has no say in the Big Dig- it's entirely a state-run fiasco. Did I mention that the gov who under-saw a lot of that mess, including a woman dying in an literally undersupperted tunnel is currently running for president?

[Andy H-D]

5.

The Phoenix (who I believe are owned by the Village Voice conglomerate?) has a pretty good writeup this week now that the fallout is getting weirder and weirder.

And thanks to infinity for the link (and excerpt? I'm honoured.), It has been wonderfully validating since all I did for the first month or so I blogged was parrot your posts.