This album is sophisticated urban pop played with a combination of acoustic instruments usually found in bluegrass bands. Any further references to blugrass is hard to find on the album.
Radim Zenkl, the Czech-born, California-based magician of the mandolin has been on the road and onstage since he arrived in the USA more than twenty years ago. He recently swung through my hometown of Portland, Oregon and performed his eclectic solo show to a packed house of enthusiastic fans.
Rio Con Brio started out to make one CD. As they recorded tracks, they realized they had two albums on their hands. One is their third choro album, the other is the debut of fado singer Alexandra Coutinho.
Luckily, Alexandra Coutinho and Rio Con Brio decided to make this a stand alone album. The plan was to feature Alexandra Coutinho on some tracks of Rio Con Brio's Caprice.
Caprice is an album by a guitar and mandolin duo playing mostly choro standards. It could be a challenge to make this fly. Rio Con Brio have pulled it off.
If you were there, you’ll agree that the Baltimore host team put on an excellent convention for our quarter-century landmark. With so many people attending, the energy level was high. If you weren’t there, you want to know what you missed. Here are some highlights.
James "Yank" Rachell was the primary exponent of blues mandolin, although he also played guitar, violin, harp and sang expertly well.
To create a violin with the same characteristics as the 1704 instrument known as "Betts," Dr. Sirr worked with professional violin makers John Waddle and Steve Rossow of St. Paul, Minn. They used a CT scanner and a CNC router. Here are a few photos.
Recently, Cheryl Watson released a CD called Watertown. She unplugged her Fender Tele and turned to acoustic guitars. She traded a guitar for her first mandolin. Chloe, her cat, listen with the eyes closed when Cheryl plays the mandolin.
Watertown is an honest low cost production. All tracks but one are signed songwriter Cheryl J. Watson. Fellow musicians helped her by contributing takes from their home studios.
News
Researchers Use CT to Recreate Stradivarius Violin
Using computed tomography (CT) imaging and advanced manufacturing techniques, a team of experts has created a reproduction of a 1704 Stradivarius violin. Three-dimensional images of the valuable violin and details on how the replica was made were presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).
Press release from PR Newswire
Steven Sirr, M.D.
"CT scanning offers a unique method of noninvasively imaging a historical object," said Steven Sirr, M.D., a radiologist at FirstLight Medical Systems in Mora, Minn. "Combined with computer-aided machinery, it also offers us the opportunity to create a reproduction with a high degree of accuracy."
Antonio Stradivari, an Italian who lived from 1644 to 1737, is regarded as history's greatest violin maker. Of the estimated 1,000 violins Stradivari made, about 650 still exist and are highly prized for their unique sound quality. There are many theories but no simple explanation for the superiority of the Stradivarius. Many factors influence a violin's sound, from the qualities of the wood to the instrument's shape, degree of arching and wood thickness.
To create a violin with the same characteristics as the 1704 instrument known as "Betts," Dr. Sirr worked with professional violin makers John Waddle and Steve Rossow of St. Paul, Minn.
"We have two goals: to understand how the violin works and to make reproductions of the world's most prized violins available for young musicians who can't afford an original," Dr. Sirr said.
The original violin was scanned with a 64-detector CT, and more than 1,000 CT images were converted into stereolithographic files, which can be read by a computer-controlled router called a CNC machine. The CNC machine, custom-made for the project by Rossow, then carved the back and front plates and scroll of the violin from various woods. Finally, Waddle and Rossow finished, assembled and varnished the replica by hand.
"We believe this process of recreating old and valuable stringed instruments may have a profound influence upon modern string musicians," Dr. Sirr said.
Of the Stradivarius and other prized violins still in existence, many are housed in museums and are never played. Others are sold for millions of dollars to top professional musicians. The Betts Stradivarius is held in the U.S. Library of Congress.
Dr. Sirr, an amateur violinist, first scanned a violin with CT out of curiosity.
"I assumed the instrument was merely a wooden shell surrounding air," he said. "I was totally wrong. There was a lot of anatomy inside the violin."
After he shared those first CT images with Waddle in 1989, the two spent years scanning more than 100 violins—including 29 valuable instruments pre-dating 1827—and other stringed instruments to better understand their composition.
"Just like human beings, there is a wide range of normal variation among violins," Dr. Sirr said. "When you are looking at an instrument that is hundreds of years old, you will see worm holes and cracks that have been repaired, as well as damage from being exposed to all kinds of conditions, from floods to wars."
For owners of authentic Stradivarius or other prized violins, CT imaging not only provides a definitive form of identification, it helps establish a pedigree that may increase the value of their investment.
"CT is useful in measuring wood density, size and shapes, thickness graduation and volume measurements," Dr. Sirr said. "It also provides detailed analysis of damage and repair."
Finnders & Youngberg, Colorado’s premier Americana quintet, will add yet another honor to their impressive resume: they’ve been chosen as an official showcase act for the International Bluegrass Music Association’s World of Bluegrass conference in Nashville, Tenn., this fall. They are one of just 13 acts invited to perform during the bluegrass industry’s biggest and most important week.
Festival Mozaic has announced its 2012 summer season, which will take place July 12-22 in the most charismatic spaces across California's Central Coast including Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, Chapel Hill in wine country, Hearst Castle overlooking the sparkling Pacific Ocean, and Mission San Miguel . The theme, "In The Footsteps of Giants," will showcase a lineage of masterworks which inspired – and were inspired by – phenomenal composers over the ages.
The San Francisco Mandolin Orchestra with singers Susan Gundunas and Twila Ehmcke will be performing one of the gems of the Baroque music era, Stabat Mater, written in 1736 by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi.
The Newport Festivals Foundation has announced the lineup for the 2012 Newport Folk Festival set to take place July 28-29 at Fort Adams State Park.
A neurological disorder called dystonia is estimated to have ended the careers of at least one member of every major American metropolitan orchestra. Dystonia has claimed the livelihoods of musicians across genres including the acclaimed pianist Leon Fleisher of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, former first oboist of the Chicago Symphony Alex Klein, acoustic guitarist Billy McLaughlin, classical guitarist Liona Boyd, keyboard player Keith Emerson of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer, and others.