Time to Get Our Gamelan Groove On!

[njperry]

The Dallas Symphony has the program notes in their webpage:

[url]http://blog.dallassymphony.com/page/Program-Notes-Premiere-Percussion-(Feb-3-5).aspx [/url]

[rhoeckel]

Thanks a lot, conroy!
Cheers from Germany,
Rüdiger

[moonstone]

Despite being unable to catch the cough that's going round I have much enjoyed reading about all your adventures.
I'm so glad it worked out in the end and you all got to see the show after a pretty crap start due to weather.

[quote="luna_virgo"]after 11 hours in the car sitting on a bruised butt (apparently I can drive on ice but not walk on it)[/quote]

That would be me too. Hope your bum is recovering well luna_virgo.

[Divemistress of the Dark]

Did anyone happen to look up at the box seats where Stewart was and see another band member sitting with him? Oysterhead, folks, not The Police.

WH.....AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTT?????!???!??! Somebody better spill some beans pretty goddamned fast. B/c I am going to need to start hocking things to buy tour tickets if there's anything happening on this front...

SO glad you all had an awesome time. I have enjoyed it greatly vicariously. Just couldn't make it happen this time - Mr. Dive's bday was yesterday (and there's all the business expenses & stuff). Anyway, I'm sure glad the Gamelan Flu is being passed around handily...

It's not the sliding escapades that get you, it's the sliding Escalades. And if you really want sliding with style, skip the escapades and go straight for the Ice Capades.

No fooling. And - sigh - if you get into an accident, take photos of everything - both cars including the passengers - and get phone numbers for witnesses. I'm finding out the hard way what happens when the person who hits you is investing a significant amount of effort in committing insurance fraud. (email me or FB for more details)

[Throb]

So glad it all came together Saturday night.

WOOOOOOO HOOOOOO!

Conroy, as usual, rocks. Can’t wait to “cough” this week while I work.

Hope this show goes on the road.

Two words for you

LA JOLLA

[sockii]

So glad it finally all came together for even just one night - sounds like this was NOT the last that will be heard of this piece, at least hopefully not. (Hey, Philly's got a pretty damned good orchestra, come play up this way!)

[njperry]

[quote="sockii"]So glad it finally all came together for even just one night - sounds like this was NOT the last that will be heard of this piece, at least hopefully not. (Hey, Philly's got a pretty damned good orchestra, come play up this way!)[/quote]

Preferably in warmer weather.

Of course, Philly can handle snow, unlike Dallas.

[copeland_girl5]

YIKES!... what an adventure... glad everyone is safe and sound, and the show finally went on Sat. night. Happy to hear all of you had some time with Stewart... he's great and so appreciates the "nutters". Thanks for all of the reports, look forward to more with pics, etc. Now I must take care of this "cough" I just came down with (thanks, Conroy - it's the best medicine).

Oh and Hint - Hint...Reading, PA has a couple of nice venues that would suit...

Sovereign Performing Arts Center
http://www.sovereigncenter.com/udp.php?id=76

The Miller Center for the Arts
http://www.racc.edu/MillerCenter/

And...rumblings of OYSTERHEAD...ahhhhhh....fingers crossed

[conroy]

Here's a great review of the show:

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/201 ... erform.php

I was sitting close to the stage where I thought D'Drum's sound overpowered the orchestra. This is why I'm bummed that I only got to see them once because I wanted to experience it from multiple points of view (both visually and sonically). I agree with the author that it would be cool to hear this with a small chamber orchestra, but I'm glad I finally got to hear Stewart's music performed by a full orchestra and hope to hear more!!!

Here's another review also positive:
http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2011/02/a ... -concerto/

[thedaner]

These reviews are being added to the D'Drum Facebook page. Thanks to those who are posting. I've been searching the web myself. Some newspapaers require an online subscription which is both crap and understandable but I just want to find links to reviews.

Trey Anastasio made it to Dallas to join Stewart and his wife for the premiere. Thought that was very cool. If Les Claypool had been there as well my mind would have been blown. I was half hoping for Andy to show up, but I'm sure he's uber busy.

[luddite lady]

[quote="conroy"]Here's a great review of the show:

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/dc9/201 ... erform.php

I was sitting close to the stage where I thought D'Drum's sound overpowered the orchestra. This is why I'm bummed that I only got to see them once because I wanted to experience it from multiple points of view (both visually and sonically). I agree with the author that it would be cool to hear this with a small chamber orchestra, but I'm glad I finally got to hear Stewart's music performed by a full orchestra and hope to hear more!!!

Here's another review also positive:
http://frontrow.dmagazine.com/2011/02/a ... -concerto/[/quote]

Great reviews, and very accurate in my opinion. In the first review, the stupid question referred to had to be the one from the man who asked when Stewart would "get together with the other guys again and play another show in Dallas." Stewart, quick witted as ever, affably replied, "Other guys? The guys in D'Drum? Oh, I'd play with them any time!" As for the overpowering orchestra, I found I could hear both D'Drum and the DSO players just fine from my seat in the centre of the second tier. I wonder where the journalist was sitting?
In the second review, Stewart is even compared (favourably, of course) to Dvorak and Tchaikovsky. Wow! That must be way more gratifying than coming out in a list of top ten drummers in yet another inane music mag. readers' poll. (OK, sure. I still vote in 'em.) Very impressive, Monsieur Copeland!
Oh, and then there's this from the second review..."Although many of the effects were related to live performance, one can also imagine that the work could be recorded very effectively." Personally, I can't imagine that at all. How about you, conroy?

[jeffseitz]

The Dallas Morning News Review:
http://www.dallasnews.com/entertainment ... ncerto.ece

If your not registered. Here is the text.

Dallas Symphony finally premieres Stewart
Copeland percussion concerto
The audience fairly exploded Saturday night in the most uproarious ovation I can remember at a Dallas
Symphony Orchestra classical concert. It came at the end of a new work for “world percussion” and orchestra
by Stewart Copeland — yes, that Stewart Copeland, former drummer of the rock band The Police.
Titled Gamelan D’Drum , the 37-minute, three-movement piece was commissioned by the DSO for the local
percussion ensemble D’Drum. In addition to DSO percussionists Doug Howard and Ron Snider, the group
includes John Bryant, Jamal Mohamed and Ed Smith.
Saturday’s performance, at the Meyerson Sympony Center, was the only one of a program whose Thursday
and Friday dates were cancelled because of unusually wintry weather. It’s a tribute to DSO musicians and
music director Jaap van Zweden, as well as D’Drum, that a tricky piece was capably assembled on a
shortened rehearsal schedule.
The Meyerson’s stage extension was filled with a wide variety of drums, gongs, marimbas, even a cimbalom
(a hammered dulcimer), representing ethnic traditions as varied as Balinese, African, Turkish and Hungarian.
Having studied D’Drum’s complement of instruments, Copeland gives the players plenty to show off, including
opportunities for improvisation. The music sometimes echoes Javanese and Balinese gamelans, with their
hypnotic patterns on hung and kettle gongs, sometimes the intensity of African drumming. Mohamed put on a
particularly brilliant display of drumming at the start of the third movement, the placement of his hands varying
both pitch and timbre.
Repetitive rhythms and jabbing syncopations whip up tremendous energy, and many a head in the audience
could be seen enthusiastically bobbing. The second movement, by contrast, opens with tropical-jungle
rustles, rattles and bird calls.
Although Copeland has composed numerous film scores, a ballet and a couple of operas, like most film
composers he has largely left his orchestrations to others. This time he did his own, and much of the time the
orchestra seems an afterthought. Balances go awry, as when strings bow busily to no audible effect behind
percussive boom, clatter and clang. Too much of the orchestral writing consists of mere three-, four- and
five-note motifs.
Brasses do rise and shine, in jazzy gestures that owe something to West Side Story Bernstein. Brief but
telling solos were beautifully played by guest concertmaster David Kim and principal cellist Christopher
Adkins. (The program insert might have mentioned that Kim, concertmaster of the Philadelphia Orchestra,
was formerly senior associate concertmaster of the DSO.)
Incompletely realized though it is, the piece is energetic and fun and full of exotic sounds. The audience loved
it.
In the Mendelssohn Scottish Symphony van Zweden mostly gave the music high spirits and bold contours.
But the first-movement introduction plodded at a tempo much slower than its marking (Andante con moto, 72
beats per minute). The scherzo, on the other hand, was a hair too fast, turning a dance into a scramble. 

[thedaner]

Thanks, Jeff!

[jeffseitz]

I don't want to spoil SC's fun, if he is planning a posting, but he related to me that most of the balance problems that were mentioned in the reviews were due to a lack of rehearsal time which is crucial to the performance of new composition. The weather was the main contributor to the lack of rehearsal time as were other internal issues.

[empty]

Con and I were in the first row next to one another (might be my toe tapping cough.sorry.) through the weird coincidences of the Myerson box office squad- who now all know the Nutters well.

From where we were, D'Drum were VERY audible (and the BELLS, oh, those ecstatic Bells!) and the orchestra a wonderful accompaniment.

Many have posted, and professional reviewers. Waiting for the Maestro to comment. I'll just say it was well worth the time, effort and missteps of the week. Goofy gestures, waves, points and being recognized by the D'Drum guys ("OH! You guys are the Nutters!") was priceless.


Never want to get snowed in in Dallas again. Not a window scraper to be had for love or money. The town has no snowplows. Not kidding. But if you have to be snowed in in Dallas, you want to be snowed in in a crap motel with Nutters. And Natty Light.

And when no cabs will come, you can count on Nutters to chase them, and commandeer limos in order to get to dive bars and BBQ when even the locals won't go out. However, Nutters don't skate very well (owwww.)

just sayin.