Do you like data? Do you like jazz? Then you’ll love Linked Jazz, a project based at the Pratt Institute School of Information and Library Science.

What is Linked Jazz, you say? I’m glad you asked.

Linked Jazz is a project investigating the potential of the application of Linked Open Data (LOD) technology to enhance the discovery and visibility of digital cultural heritage materials. More specifically, the project focuses on digital archives of jazz history to expose relationships between musicians and reveal their community’s network. The goal of this project is to help uncover meaningful connections between documents and data related to the personal and professional lives of musicians who often practice in rich and diverse social networks. Furthermore, the tools and methods under development as part of this project have the potential to be applied in many different contexts.

We’ve developed a variety of tools that have the potential to be applied in manifold contexts to describe specific social relationships within networks of people. These tools include a name mapping and curation tool, a transcript analyzer, and a crowdsourcing tool that allows jazz experts and enthusiasts to classify relationships among jazz artists.

Linked Jazz has enjoyed a recent surge of activity. We were recently highlighted on the SemanticWeb.com blog. We also recently submitted the above video to the LODLAM Challenge in the hopes of having the chance to attend LODLAM 2013.

This means if you’ve decided that you like Linked Jazz, you can help support us by liking us on the LODLAM Challenge Entries page, or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Thanks for your support!

Related Posts

• Electronic Visualization and the Arts
• Digital Humanities 2012: July 16-22
• How Talking Together Can Enhance Your Life and Your Learning?
• Introduction: Colleen Stewart
• Gettysburg College Collects Blogs for Special Collections

Title:

Author: Greil Marcus

Publisher: Holt Paperbacks, 1998

Call Number: ML420 .D98 M16 1997

From the Publisher:

Greil Marcus has been called “simply peerless, not only as a rock writer but as a cultural historian” (Nick Hornby). It’s appropriate, then, that he should choose to explore one of the most defining moments in American music: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes.

It was 1967–the Summer of Love. Bob Dylan and five other musicians (later known as The Band) met in a bungalow in Woodstock, New York, and wrote and produced music that ignored the psychedelic sounds of the time, songs that would eventually become known simply as “The Basement Tapes.” The group mined the history of American music and their own talents to produce legendary tracks that were bootleg issues before appearing in official release.

That is the alchemy that was practiced in the Basement Tapes laboratory, and “in that alchemy,” Marcus writes, “is an undiscovered country, like the purloined letter hiding in plain sight.” Marcus explores this music and the cauldron of the American experience in which it was formed in a book that illuminates America, then and now.

About the Author:

One of America’s most original and incisive critics of pop music and pop culture, Greil Marcus is the author of Double Trouble, Dead Elvis, Lipstick Traces, and Mystery Train. He lives in Berkeley, California.

On the Web:

Greil Marcus (on Wikipedia)

Greil Marcus’s liner notes for The Basement Tapes

Bob Dylan’s website

Related Posts

• Examined Lives: From Socrates to Nietzsche
• Just kids: From Brooklyn to the Chelsea Hotel: A Life of Art and Friendship
• The Value of Nothing: How to Reshape Market Society and Redefine Democracy
• Pancakes, pancakes!
• Title: Teacher Man: A Memoir

Here’s a reference resource you might not realize is available to you through Gottesman Library: The Guns N’ Roses Encyclopaedia.  Chock full of meaty details and color photos of the band and their friends, The Guns N’ Roses Encyclopaedia is a treasure trove of facts and stories.  Did you know that Dave Abbrusseze, former Pearl Jam drummer (his time with them was short-lived) also played for GN’R on Chinese Democracy?  You would know this if you read the first entry in the Encyclopaedia.  Organized alphabetically (as most encyclopedias are) this reference work collects all people, subjects, places, and bands closely or tangentially related to our fearless tattooed rockers (featured prominently in numerous photos throughout).  For instance, you might not expect Shaquille O’Neil to have an entry, but he does; he rapped a bit on Chinese Democracy.  According to the entry, Shaq enjoyed the work.  “’It was the first time I’d ever performed with a rock band, and it felt good.’ Shaq later admitted.” (p. 187) Entries read like lively magazine profiles.  Consider this description of the band’s ill-fated use of Persian heroin:  “Although Slash hadn’t partaken in the Persian, he’d knocked back enough Jack Daniels to fell a buffalo….”  Mayhem ensues, including an emergency room visit for Motley Crew member Nikki Six.  He recovered, and the incident inspired the song, Kickstart My Heart. (p. 222)

This is not the only reference resource for Guns N’ Roses enthusiasts.  Teachers College also holds Guns N’ Roses: The Band That Time Forgot in its collection, an unauthorized biography by Paul Stenning.  Although the author was not able to interview Axl Rose, and suggests that Rose probably doesn’t know his book exists, Stenning claims that inside is “a view of into the psyche of Axl Rose and a large part of the book concentrates on what exactly he has done for the last decade, creating a highly personal and probing profile previously unwritten or explored.” (p. 7) Indeed, chapter 11, “Estranged,” focused on Axl’s life from 1993 to 2003.

How can you get access to these two resources quickly?  Here:

Guns N’ Roses Encyclopaedia

Guns N’ Roses: The Band That Time Forgot

This year has already inspired a lot of great music.  I decided I would write about my five favorite albums of 2011 (so far).  Not that I am by any means an authority on what “great music” constitutes.  But if you have a weakness for beautiful lyrics or just simply songs that are so good they bring tears to your eyes, read on!

1) Adele - 21

No great surprise here, I’m sure at this point most of us have heard Adele’s hit song “Rolling in the Deep” on the radio or on Glee, or any other number of places.  But the whole album really is beautiful, deeply painful and somehow empowering at the same time.  I find that Adele seems to have a way of expressing her pain, without asking us to cry for her.  Instead, we cry with her, all the while marveling at her strength.

My Favorite Song: Someone Like You

2) The Civil Wars – Barton Hollow

Joy Williams and John Paul White make up this beautiful singing duo.  I’ve never heard anything quite like them before.  They sound like they are from another time completely, and their voices harmonize together beautifully.  At first, I assumed they were a romantic couple because of how connected and intimate their songs feel and I was pretty surprised when I learned they’re just friends.  But you almost get the sense you are listening in to a lover’s conversation sometimes in their songs, particularly in “Poison & Wine.”  If you haven’t had the pleasure of hearing them before, I strongly recommend checking them out.  And you can download one of their older albums for free on their website: http://www.thecivilwars.com/music.php

My Favorite Song: Falling

3) Radiohead – The King of Limbs

Thom Yorke is probably one of my favorite singers of all time, so pretty much any album Radiohead creates will always make my “favorites” list.  The King of Limbs for me was not quite as brilliant as Ok Computer, and some of the songs on this album are a bit too abstract for my taste (as mentioned above, I am a huge lyrics fan so if the song doesn’t have lyrics that grab me, I stop paying attention).  However the beauty of “Codex” and “Give Up the Ghost” still made me fall in love with this album.  There is something so eerily beautiful about “Codex” that I can’t decide if it reminds me of living or of dying but either way, it’s worth checking out.  And “Give Up the Ghost” makes my heart bleed every time I listen to it.

My Favorite Song: Give Up the Ghost

4) Death Cab for Cutie – Codes and Keys

I’ve always been a Death Cab fan, not only do I love their sound, but they also have some of the most beautiful lyrics I’ve ever heard.  But this album surprised me; it’s noticeably more upbeat than their other albums.  And it’s a welcome change actually.  I don’t mean to give this album the wrong impression: it still grapples with questions about death and the struggle with trying to find a sense of belonging.  Death Cab’s darkness is still ever present in this album; you just get the sense that they’re also seeing some flickers of light now amidst the dark.  “Underneath the Sycamore” beautifully sums up the merger of light and dark present in this album.  And since I happen to be a Zooey Deschanel fan, I can’t help but wonder if her romance with lead Death Cab singer Ben Gibbard may have played a part in this more optimistic album.

My Favorite Song: Monday Morning

5) David J. Roch – Skin and Bones

So I confess, I heard this singer on “So You Think You Can Dance.”  But I’ve never been more thankful for that show than after hearing David J. Roch’s song “Skin and Bones.”  Beautiful, painful, and moving.  All my favorite criteria in a song.  And was I even more intrigued when I found out that this musician also happens to work as an undertaker?  Absolutely.  Even though I get the sense he may be over promoting his occupation to sell us on his pain and darkness, I’m still buying it!  Only problem is this album doesn’t seem possible to purchase yet in the US.  But while I impatiently wait for the full album to be available, I did settle for the EP released a couple months ago entitled This Is For You Whether I’ve Met You Or Not.

My Favorite Song: Skin & Bones

I hope you’ve enjoyed my list.  And hopefully 2011 continues to provide us with more beautiful music.

Related Posts

• Spotlight on Alumni: Erik Holmgren
• Spotlight on Music & Music Education Alumni Haakon and Martha Smith
• Special Issue of the Journal of Negro Education Co-Edited by TC Professor Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz
• Library Your Way Around Town, Part 2
• Learning through Cultural Immersion

For those of you new to the country (or planet) Dylan is an America icon. Objectively, Dylan (born Robert Allen Zimmerman) is a native Minnesotan, who moved to NYC in 1960 and quickly rose to fame as a bohemian singer-songwriter.

Subjectively, he has been a counter-culture hero for two generations. He is perhaps best known for his unparalleled ability to craft astute, socially-conscious story-songs, and sing them while strumming his guitar and playing harmonica. He is not known for his almighty voice, his technical proficiency or his ability to annunciate, but his fans don’t care. Bob Dylan is one of the most important contributors to American music; his messages permeate our culture in too many ways to mention.

Okay, I’ll mention one way– his influence is so great, that in 2008 his lyrics were cited (by John Roberts Jr. no less) in a supreme court case.

allmusic says “Bob Dylan’s influence on popular music is incalculable.”

Bruce Springsteen has called him “the father of [his] country.”

Bono said “In short, all my life, Bob Dylan has been there for me.”

I don’t know that Bono and I have much in common but I,  undoubtedly as millions of others, feel similarly. Dylan’s written songs that range from observations on the more  quotidian aspects of life to documenting grave social and legal injustices. For me, there’s a Dylan song about most things that happen, or have happened. And he says it better than most ever could. Here are some of my tops, in no particular order.

I Threw It All Away: getting dumped

Don’t Think Twice It’s All Right: doing the dumping

To Make You Feel My Love: all the times inbetween

Tangled up in Blue: anytime at all, really

Shelter From the Storm: bailing out a friend, or being bailed out

Like a Rolling Stone:  revenge

I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight: you know

Subterreanean Homesick Blues: college

If Not for You: dancing with my husband at our wedding

Forever Young: dancing with my brother at his wedding

Mr. Tambourine Man: Ah, maybe this one is better left to your imagination.

Bob has famously said “Just because you like my stuff doesn’t mean I owe you anything.”  There is no shortage of love, fanfare or birthday celebrations for Bob Dylan but in a weird way, I kind of feel like I owe him a little something.

Related Posts

• Invisible Republic: Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes
• What to Read Next- Biography/Memoir
• National Library Week
• Credits
• Congratulations to the 2012-2013 Grant Recipients!!

The other super exciting feature on this website is the Victrola Book of the Opera which is a digitized and interactive copy of an opera compilation book published in 1919. You can page through the text and then listen to recordings of the arias on the National Jukebox. I’m super enthralled with the Jukebox. The music is streaming only and not available for download, so for now it’s missing the versatility and play-withability that make the Internet Archive’s historical recordings so rich and fabulous.  It will hopefully and probably evolve from the straight digital archive it currently represents, but as it stands it’s solid, huge and fun to explore.

Related Posts

• What’s in a subject heading, anyway?
• Guns N’ Roses Encyclopaedia
• Post-Pandora? Human Music Advisory services
• A Visit to the Library of Congress
• Teaching with Zombies

A way to find new (or old) music without having to sweat it out late night in Bburg? Without having to subject yourself to pretentious music store clerks?  For free? Even if I don’t have access to that library? Yup. No commercial algorithms. No weirdo Amazon recommendations based on the Civil War book you bought your dad three Christmases ago. Just a few librarians trying to hook you up with music you like. But how good are they?

Pretty darn good, as it turns out. I am always looking for new electronic music and recently, I’ve been on a heavy metal kick. (I blame the Mets.)  These librarians delivered.
Read more. Check it out.

**Please note this service exists to connect citizens of  Jacksonville with their public library’s music collection; the recommendations are somewhat influenced by what they have at their library.**

Related Posts

• Library of Congress National Jukebox
• An e-guilt e-update
• Library Link: Redefining the Academic Library
• Guns N’ Roses Encyclopaedia
• Teaching with Zombies

Background

Sophie and I met at a course in CCTE at Teachers College. At first I was drawn to Sophie’s story because of her improvisational band, Forma. As I got to know her she told me about her classical piano training. I decided to focus on her evolution as a musician: in particular, I was interested in how someone goes from classical piano to improv performances.

Teaching with the Video

This video could be used in a classroom to initiate a discussion on the relationship between formal training and experimentation. Does someone need a period of formal training before she begins experimenting? Does one’s formal training make one better at improvising? Do the answers to these questions vary across domains: writing, the visual arts, dance, sport? This video can also be used to illustrate the significance of adaptivity, encouraging students to think about how they can take skills that they think only apply in one setting and use them in new settings and in new ways.

Extended Interview

When did you start learning to play music?

When I was really young, my mother signed me up for a music conservatory. From 5-15 I was part of a rigorous classical music-training program. I practiced an hour everyday, lots of scales, arpeggios. I used music books for developing your technique. I’d go to my lesson and before I had my lesson, I would hear my teacher practicing.

How is learning classical piano different from learning to play improv on the piano?

You learn one line at a time, different notes on the keys, then the notation and how it relates to the notes. It’s easy, like learning how to read. First you learn the letters and that’s analogous to a chord. After words, small sentences, that phrase is repeated later. Chords repeated.

It’s like being an athlete. You have to do the boring and dull exercises that actually strengthen your body and hands and give you the facility to actually play a game.

But I wouldn’t have had the language to work in improve had it not been for the classical education.

We think about [improv] in terms of little patterns so the way we play, Mark and I we start with him on keyboards or me on piano and we would start by creating these little repetitive patterns, and then one person would add something harmonic over it, melody over it and from playing these little patterns we formed a vocabulary of patterns.

What sorts of things do you do to prepare for a show?

When Mark plays something, I listen and listening is a huge part of improvisation because a lot of it is responding directly to what one person does. I might play an inversion of that chord, or a relation to that chord. He might play one rhythm punctuate that rhythm. It’s these contrasts, these short small patterns that after a period of time it became easier to produce. It’s patterns. And that’s one form of improvisation because we never know if we’re going to playing a major key. We don’t know where we’re going to start or where we’re going to end.

For improvisation we will practice and practice and practice but we honestly have no idea a lot of times what we’re going to produce. We honestly don’t know until we’re there and so it’s kind of organic.

What have you learned from the improv world?

The tools we use make music accessible, I firmly believe that music should be made accessible. Anyone can play music, and everybody should learn.

Related Posts

• Improv at Teachers College
• Arts and Humanities Students: “Most Likely to Succeed at Changing the World”
• The Death and Life of the Great American School System: A Review
• INSTEP program in English Education
• Learning by Doing

Background

Since high school Phil Gordon has been in numerous bands and each has its own interesting story. I was particularly interested in his band Spinal Tap (before the mockumentary came out). He currently plays in a cover band, the Thigh Highs.

Teaching with the Video

Teachers could use this video in high school classrooms to discuss ideas about the importance of pursuing interests. Phil figured out early on what kind of music he wanted to play and what he was good at doing and stuck with it. It’s not about being famous for him, its about performing and making music.

Extended Interview

When did you start getting interested in music?
One thing I can remember is that we had this piece of furniture that was sort of a lounger, I was sitting on it watching the Ed Sullivan Show. I remember I was young enough. I remember that I was ecstatic, I was jumping up and down on that thing and Mom and Dad were like “what’s going on?” It was the Beetles. It was something different, those harmonies did something to me. It was so new and so different and it just struck such a chord, you know music it does this. Music, when you hear certain things — it does something to you that you can’t put to words.

Why you do this?
I love it, there’s no other reason it’s just…unfortunately sometimes there’s music playing in my head all the time and I’m trying to go to sleep at night. Sometimes that song is driving me crazy because that I can’t stop humming it. I realized that it was one of Jerry’s [the drummer] songs I was humming, oh that’s a good sign. But it’s pure love, I have no interest at all in designing a song or making music to be commercial or to make money out of it. I’m just doing it for the pure love of it for the sake of it. You know what, however many people hear it, it doesn’t matter because it makes us feel great.

How did you learn to play music?
I guess I started taking guitar lessons when I was twelve I think. I wasn’t very good. I started taking lessons from a jazz guitar player on Staten Island where I grew up. He made you read music and it was a good discipline. He made you play bar chords; there wasn’t any open chords. During practice he’d say you didn’t practice, go home! He was tough.

But then after about a year I got bored with it. I was into rock and roll, this wasn’t my thing. Then after that it was just all just teaching myself, whatever I could do and I wasn’t a really good guitar player. I was a good rhythm guitar player but I was never a good lead player. So then I just picked stuff up by ear, and I’d just read chord charts. Alright this is g-c-bb-e minor, twice and then in this part here. I just figured out things and I sort of plunked away on my own and got into a punk rock band in college.

Related Posts

• Do it Yourself
• Moving from the Formal to Informal
• Learning by Playing
• Trends in Ed: Silicon Alley?
• Improv at Teachers College

What is it about bluegrass that drives away the discomfort of a sneeze or a pair of watery eyes and sets the heart singing anytime of the year? A mixture of country, ragtime, and jazz, bluegrass is a form of American roots music that developed in the 1940s. It uses a small set of acoustic stringed instruments, including mandolin, guitar, banjo, fiddle, and bass, often with vocals. It feels natural, spontaneous, and local, much like a grass roots movement which is drawn and driven by the interests of a community.

The Sabre Rattlers is a lively and heartwarming bluegrass ensemble that grew its roots in Austin, Texas under the direction of lead vocalist and guitarist Mark Abernathy, a graduate of Berklee School of Music. The band, whose curious name evokes the percussive sounds of swords, transplanted to New York City under the care of Nate Olson, lead fiddler and Teachers College student/teaching assistant in music.

We can be in Kentucky, Texas, or anywhere in our country, but actually we right here in New York, listening to old style Americana with a sprinkling of Gospel and itching, without allergies, to hear more.

Don’t miss the  Sabre Rattlers play in the Everett Cafe, Wednesday, 6/30, 5-6pm