Concert last night by one of our own - J

[t-bob]

I went to a free concert featuring San Francisco Conservatory students and graduates last night at a church in Novato. The performer was J.

He played his new guitar plus his just intonation resonator and was flawless as usual, or he can cover up missed or wrong notes better than anyone. Pretty sure it was the former.

He played mostly modern classical music, Taraffo, Lennon/McCartney, Yocoh, Iannarelli, Fiore, Villa-Lobos, Hosokawa, Lou Harrison (reso), and Larry Polanski (reso)

The reso guitar sounds much like East Indian music, and is oddly soothing once you get used to the tuning. Two pieces he did by Lou Harrison sounded like morning and evening ragas. J sang during the piece by Larry Polanski.

One of the pieces (Hosokawa) was so discordant (to me) that I was able to plan my next week's activity and also remember J's girlfriend's name. Before he played the piece, J told the audience to take a nap if they wanted.

J made his guitar sound like a koto in the piece by Yocoh.

I meant to write more but I'm lazy, and also need to mow my lawn, which is over 12" high.

Overall great performance - of course - with some pieces I really liked, and one I hope to never hear again. Villa-Lobos is not one of my favorite composers either. But J didn't choose his material based on my preferences. As I said, this was a modern classical concert, not playing stuff from dead for 200+ years guys.

Great job, J! I'd glad I came to see and hear you.

[Doug]

He keeps missing all the good material. I keep trying to get him to throw in Itty Bitty Tittie. I bet they wouldn't sleep through that.

[RickW]

I have not spent enough time with the modern repertoire. I like some things, a lot I don't. A lot of it seems to be from people pushing too hard, doing musical experiments instead of making music. But then, there's a lot of junk in any genre - the old classical stuff has just been well honed over the centuries.

Sounds like a great concert, though. Would have been an opportunity to hear some new stuff, very well played.

[j]

Thanks for coming out Bob! It was great to see you. I'll give you "Hosokawa alerts" for the following concert...it's staying in my program for the foreseeable future

[Village Idiot]

I'm not to hip on modern classical either, but I can play Cage's 4'33" pretty well. Sounds like a good concert, J. Congrats.

[Marshall]

Bravo !