Amici Degli Uffizi

Ciao Tutti!

I am still too sick, sad to say, and it's been keeping me from sleeping well. Monday is a bad day for me; I have classes from 10:30 until 8:00 with a break just large enough for me to grab food, so that wasn't very good for healing, and on top of that, Tuesday classes start with a 2:45 long history class at 9:00, which is a big deal because of the 45 minute commute up Via Bolognese. (Sigh) I'll try and get some sleep tonight.

I was bestowed free tickets for Madame Butterfly, the only opera I had ever seen before, so I knew what was going on even though it was all in Italian. I got to see Florence's famous Teatro Comunale. Did you know Florence is actually the birthplace of opera? I didn't until last Thursday, but I think that's a stretch because Florence is actually the birthplace of dramatic theater, which isn't exactly the same thing. Even so, it was a beautiful production with the best set for any kind of performance I have ever seen, and even in Italian it made me want to cry at the end. Belisimo! I should have brought my camera.

My roommate still hasn't shown up. I guess that means I don't have a roommate, which is pretty lucky. I was the last in our suite (there are 6 - I mean 5 of us total) to get here, and I got the room with the low ceiling, no closet room for clothes, and no door. But the advantages totally outweigh the occasional bump on the head accompanied by words most people wouldn't expect me to know. I am in a loft, a floor above everyone else, which is good for privacy, despite the no door. I have a balcony that looks out on our street, Borgo Pinti, though not much else. It gives good natural light during the day, as do the sky lights. I also have a bathroom and shower all to myself. That's the best part, I think. Even if I did have a roommate, there's a curtain separating it from the rest of the room. Whatever works. ;)

This is my apartment:



Even though I'm sick and I'm tired (Ho febre e ho sonno) I decided that I need to treat myself after the last fourteen hours of work and holding off sneezes or coughs at the same time, so I was determined to spend my first of many trips to the Uffizi museum. I have a special student card from NYU that gives me free trips to a bunch of different museums and gardens, and I plan to use it enough times to pay for the vibes or oversaturate myself with art, whichever comes first.

On the way, I decided to be a tourist. I paid a visit to my favorite Duomo and the only one I could walk to:



And also the Palazo Di Signoria (the town hall):



I had only intended on spending an hour or so in the Uffizi and then getting back to my apartment to get some rest, but it was impossible. Sculpture is bewitching, and the Uffizi hall is blanketed in it. That's a good adjective, too, because most of the robes are so delicate that they look to be made of blankets rather than marble. No pictures allowed, though, but I'll remember it in my mind. I viewed the art in chronological order, starting with a million or so depictions of the Madonna and Child, and it was very hard to tell them apart except one Florentine painting in the middle where the robes she was wearing actually had folds; there was actual perspective. As we moved on in time, more and more perspective was being added until Botticelli's room, which blew everything before it away with its intricacy, amazing use of light, even more detailed attention to perspective, and a much more attentive depiction of human forms. It was amazing, as if someone had flipped a switch. It was like there was everything before Botticelli and everything after, like he was the crutch in Renaissance art. He was the man, in other words. I'm not even talking about The Birth Of Venus or even La Primavera. I like La Primavera a lot, but The Birth Of Venus was just okay compared to his others in the room. There was an exquisite dark portrait of a woman pouring a pitcher of water from next to her head all the way to a tea cup on her knee, the glistening stream of water making a perfect arch across her face and body as it made its way to the water, almost too thin and detailed to see but too central and unconventional to miss. Yeah, Botticelli was the man. Da Vinci was pretty good, too, but by then I was on art overload and I had to get out.

The Uffizi put me in a good mood and made me want to be more of a tourist, so I visited the old bridge (Ponte Vecchio) and practiced taking night pictures:




There are balconies on the buildings on the bridge and a woman was talking on her phone in her living room, and I was thinking that that bridge would be quite a cool place to live someday.

Out of nostalgia, I crossed the bridge and followed the tunnel above it the Medici had used to escape mingling with commoners, a tunnel I had walked through with the Berkeley High Band before. I remembered it led to this amazing sculpted cave fashioned by Michelangelo (The Grand Grotto), which was one of my favorite parts of that year's band tour. I found it in Palazo Piti, which turns out to be right outside Piti Palace, the Boboli Gardens, and Fort Belvadere. It also turns out that the Grotto is a part of the Boboli Gardens, and, as luck would have it, I have unlimited visits to the Gardens for the semester. How convenient! I'll be back soon. If I wasn't sick right now, I might be there at this very moment, but alas. I have time.

This weekend I will be going to visit Venice with a friend. We'll be staying overnight, which is why I'm writing the blog now instead of on Saturday like usual, because I don't think I'll be in town for Saturday. Plus on Tuesday I'll be taking a day trip to Rome to a see a concert with the music program in "the most important venue in Italy" according to Antonio Vanni, the music director here. Next time I write I'll have a lot to say!

Music Announcements

I finally finished formatting the music from the October 29 concert, which was a little looser than my tastes, though it was still a lot of fun. The recording quality is not as good as the Jazz School concert from July 15, nor is it as well rehearsed, but Peter Apfelbaum plays on it and I play better in that show than I'm used to playing. I can't play that well now, that's for sure. Anyway, I will be loading some of the hi-lights from the show onto the Facebook application iLike, and I will be putting Song of the Siren #3 on my myspace page, which is:

http://www.myspace/samgoldsmithvibes.

If you haven't visited, you should go to listen to Filling the Gap, Rite of Passage, and Unraveling for free. If you already have the CD, you'll only need to hear Filling the Gap (for all I know), which you should listen to if you haven't already had the chance. Rite of Passage and Unraveling are on my CD, "Summer Victory Dance," and once you listen to those songs you'll probably find yourself buying a CD. I hope. But seriously, listen to Song of the Siren #3 and Filling the Gap if you haven't yet, and listen to the others if you don't have the CD. They're good.

The music department here in Florence is trying to hook the jazz ensembles up with gigs in Siena and a gig in Terni, and possibly some others as well, including maybe a trip to my favorite Teatro De Salle. I don't have my portable recorder with me for a variety of reasons, and we don't know specific dates yet, but I'll try and find some way to get recordings of the music, so keep your eyes on the blog for eventual dates for shows. Or, if you just happen to be in town...

CD Review of the Week

Untrue by Burial

Those of you who know me will be surprised at how much I like this CD, and I am a little myself. Anonymous London-based artist Burial is the first artist I've heard from a style called "dub-step." I don't know what that means, but I like it.

This music is very electronic and very atmospheric, so I wouldn't quite call Burial a DJ. Actually, nothing like it. He makes beats and he samples, and everything have very low tone, sounding like it's coming from the other end of a tunnel a mile long. He alters his voice, but not in a distortion way, but more of a changing of the tone and slicing it with other takes or his female or ambiguous singer singing the same lyric.

That's my attempt to describe dub-step. The harmonic content of the CD are nothing new or even that exciting, especially after listening to an entire CD's worth, when we start wishing for the occasional major key or brighter sound. The melodies can be interesting, but very repeatative, forcing themselves into the background of whatever your mind is on, even if you're listening closely. Still, they are catchy, and Burial rarely repeats a theme so much as to wear it thin.

But the main reason I like this CD so much are the beats. This CD will change the way you think about rhythm. I bought this CD at the same time as I bought the acclaimed new Daft Punk CD, "Alive," as well as some jazz CD's, and Burial makes all of them sound like quarter notes to me. These beats are indescribable. They are both bound to the beat, landing on "3" almost every measure in a normal pulse, yet strangely unrestricted by it at the same time, slowing down or speeding up whenever Burial sees fit, always aligning with the indistinguishable vocals and managing to stay on beat. I can't tell how to even begin transcribing the rhythms, even though they sound simply to be fast compared to the melody and driving hard. It's more than that. It's something more than that I can't place exactly. All I can say is that rhythm is flexible for Burial, but not in the sense of rubato. Rhythm is flexible within the beat, within the tempo. These beats are mesmerizing, stealing the focus from the melody and the harmony, and after listening to a full CD of Burial it is impossible to listen to anything else without feeling somehow unsatisfied by the rhythms. I don't know if all dub-step is like this, but reviewers of "Untrue" don't seem to think so.

Then the last song of "Untrue," entitled "Raver," utilizes the least interesting of Burial's beats (which is still more interesting than most other beats I've heard) but unleashes a monster Harmony-Melody combination, the perfect contrast to leave a complete feeling when the CD changes.

The thing to keep in mind with "Untrue" is that it is very dark, and it's great to listen to when you're in need of some alone time. It's not the music to put in your stereo after getting a promotion, winning a Grammy, starting a semester in Florence, etc. At least, not for me. But here I am in Florence listening to Burial. Go figure.

Innovation: A
Musicianship: N/A
Entire CD: B-
Individual Songs: B
Overall: B+

First Week in Italy

Buongiorno, tutti!

I've now been in Italy long enough to get over the jet lag, just in time to deal with a timely cold and sore throat. That's not enough to dampen my mood, but it is enough to keep me in for a Saturday night. But, then again, what isn't?

It is absolutely gorgeous here, the only place in the world that gets better weather than the San Francisco Bay Area. It's been cloudless and clear most days, and you can see the downtown area from the villa, including the dominating Duomo. I also discovered that NYU has one of Italy's largest renaissance gardens on campus, 7 acre's worth! It in a 10-year renovation plan (this is the 9th year), so technically we're not allowed to see it, but that hasn't stopped me so far! That was the "aha" moment for me, when I realized for the first time I was actually in Florence! It was so beautiful, neither the pictures nor the words really do it any justice. But, yeah, I have a renaissance garden essentially to myself. What a great place to beat loneliness, or to realize that being lonely isn't so bad after all.

I went to Terni with the music program over the last weekend to see the Ed Simon trio with Scott Colley and Brian Blade. It was a wonderful show, even though we almost didn't get in because we weren't even allowed to reserve seats despite the fact that we were special guests (not special enough...), we we got to stand the whole time, which was the only way for me to fight the jet lag anyway, even though the music was actually phenomenal. As per my request at dinner, Ed Simon played "The Impossible Question," which sounded quite different as a trio but also opened up a ton of new possibilities. I got to talk briefly with Ed Simon afterward, and then I helped Brian Blade break down his drum set and we talked for fifteen or twenty minutes, and he gave me advice for breaking jet lag's grip on me, though he didn't know how to make my life with the vibes easier.

The next day we saw a completely artificial waterfall which is still one of the tallest in Italy. The power company owns it and uses it for hydrolic power, and they turn it on at 12:00 every day, which was kind of weird. But the thing was still quite pretty, despite the fact that we couldn't see the tall part of the falls because of all the mist and the sun being right over the top of it. But I didn't care. Waterfalls are the most beautiful things to look at in the world. It made me care a lot less that we took the wrong train connection on the way back and we had to wait another 2 hours for the next one.

Classes seem to be good, too except Music Theory II which is taught by a man who speaks little English and still tries to teach well beyond the scope of the class and drills us constantly with useless repetition for 2 1/2 hours. But the other classes are going to be quite exhilarating. My private composition teacher wants me to write movie scores, something I've never done before, so naturally I'm quite excited. I'm nervous, too, because I don't watch many movies, so I don't quite know where to begin, but maybe that will give me a unique, untainted perspective. My teacher liked my CD, so he knows I know how to write, but he also knows I have only done jazz so far, so he knows I have to work on my knowledge of "classical" instruments (eg. anything I haven't used before).

My renaissance history class should be good, and we all know I like history quite a lot. We'll be able to see the history we're studying up close, and the professor seems to be a very knowledgeable person on the subject he teaches. He's a native Florentine, but he speaks English with the same ease as me, and it's easy to tell he's a well-seasoned intellectual. As all history classes aim to do, this class will probably challenge my perspective on how I thought things work.

My Italian professoressa is a wonderfully energetic person. I already know more than I should from studying on the train to Terni with the other music students, and as always I have been very interested in the language. At this point, all I need is a clear, energetic teacher and I'll be on my way to speaking fluent Italian. I hope. I did buy a melodica without speaking a word of English in the music store. It makes me want to take all sorts of language classes back home and become trilingual, but there's probably no time. All this professor needs to do is facilitate my own energy, and she's been doing a wonderful job this week.

Music History, well, we'll have to see how that goes, but the class got me a free ticket to Madame Butterfly, so no matter what happens I've already got a lot out of that class. Jazz Ensemble is still a big question mark. The leader is a killer trumpet player who would give Billy Buss a run for his money (did I actually just say that?), and it's got that sextet instrumentation I like. I just hope we can get away from head-solos-head-out. Last time we played 5 or 6 tunes and only one sounded like a song rather than a bunch of solos. Maybe we'll get better at this as time goes on, giving songs shape and form on their own. If not, I don't know how I'll survive.

Music Announcements

I am currently writing, outside of class, of course, an epic piece. I intend on making the thing a suite that, provided I get the Jazz School gig again this summer, will last an entire set of music. It didn't start out that way, but it sort of just unfolded as a single piece with a unified story line despite many threads. I call it "Guest Artist" and I'm arranging it for the Inspiration Sextet. I am very excited about this piece. It should be the hardest I've ever worked on a single musical project. I hope I have enough time between visits to the Uffizi to work on it! (Oh, by the way, I get infinite free visits to the Uffizi and other museums as long as I'm in Florence, and I get to skip the lines. !!!!)

CD of the Week

Jason Lindner: Live at the Jazz Gallery

This is probably the most innovative big band sounds I have heard since Peter Apfelbaum released his new Hieroglyphics CD, possibly even more so, sorry, Peter. I have always said the Jazz Gallery is the best jazz club in New York, and this is because they regularly employ musicians like Lindner and his compatriots, Miguel Zenon, Dwayne Eubanks, Anat Cohen, Omer Avital, and others. The only complaint about the club is that it is not very good for recording a live show, and the trumpet section suffers The two disc set is pleasantly melodic and off-beat at the same time. Lindner has a wonderful feel for rhythm, though the melodies take charge of the show, as well as the virtuosity of his soloists. He has a pristine ability to balance modal vamp sections with melodic diversions, ideas that aren't what we expect but still make sense and propel us in a new direction.

The reason I bring this album up in particular is that Jason Lindner is not just a wonderful composer but an outstanding arranger as well. One thing that bothers me a lot in jazz is when people use solos as an arrangement escape, inserting a solo where it sounds right according to the tradition of jazz without actually considering other options. Many composer/arrangers also fall prey to letting good thematic ideas simply sit undeveloped in the listener's ear, opting for more improvisation instead that either does or doesn't do anything to give the piece shape and flesh out the main themes. Jason Lindner falls prey to neither of these faults. He uses the themes he presents and continually develops them through his arrangements, getting the most out of every idea. This sounds so trivial, but trust me, it takes some searching to find someone who is willing to put this kind of work into this kind of arranging, especially for the big band he uses. Sometimes his endless manipulation of the themes backfires on him, and most times he seems to not know where to begin or end his thoughts (the beginnings and endings often leave something to be desired). On the whole, however, each piece represents a well-thought-out meditation on a theme, and very few do this as well as Lindner does.

As far as I am concerned, the only complaints I have other than the recording quality are these: 1) The ballads are nice pieces, but they don't command the same kind of attention as the other pieces, perhaps because he doesn't manipulate rhythm the same way. 2) Lindner plays an electric keyboard using sounds I don't like very much more than he should. Luckily, he sticks to the the baby grand during ensemble sections, opting for electricity only for his own features. Still, that's more than he should use the keyboards, though I am not blown away by his individual performance nearly as much as his guests.

All in all, I thought this was a great CD, and it has certainly given me inspiration when it comes to my own composing and arranging goals. At a time when most jazz is either trite or overly ambitious, this hits the spot. Besides David Binney and Ed Simon's "Oceanos," this is my favorite jazz CD of 2007.

Innovation: A-
Musicianship: A-
Entire CD: B
Individual Pieces: A-
Overall: A-

-Sam goldsmith

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