Tag Archives: music

Reviews

Adrian Holovaty

It turns out Adrian Holovaty, the co-creator of the open-source Django Web framework, also plays the guitar. My wife found a few videos of him on YouTube and sent them to me. The videos aren’t recorded professionally — it’s him in front of a webcam, with a small mike placed on the table close to his guitar, but his music is great. From the looks of the background in some of his videos, it looks like some are recorded in his office at work — when you think about it, it’s pretty cool when you can play guitar at work, right?

Adrian creates his own arrangements for various songs, video games and TV shows, like Duck Tales (which I love, btw).


Adrian Holovaty – Duck Tales theme song

There’s also an acoustic version of the Super Mario Bros. theme.


Adrian Holovaty – Super Mario Bros. theme song

He’s got plenty of serious stuff if you’re not into cartoons and video games. For example, there’s his rendition of Beatles’ “Yesterday”.


Adrian Holovaty – Yesterday

Or how about “Hit the Road Jack”?


Adrian Holovaty – Hit the Road Jack

He also did the Monkees’ “Daydream Believer”.


Adrian Holovaty – Daydream Believer

Sometimes he does multitrack videos, like his rendition of Nola, a 1915 ragtime piano piece by Felix Arndt. Here he used the original Les Paul arrangement from the 1950s, where he recorded the lead guitar at half time, then sped it up 200%, to give it the classic high pitched sound.


Adrian Holovaty – Nola

While I’m on the topic of multitrack videos, he also did a gypsy jazz rendition of the Super Mario Bros. 2 theme song.


Adrian Holovaty – Super Mario Bros. 2 theme song

I love gypsy jazz, which Django Reinhardt popularized. Adrian did a multitrack gypsy jazz version of “All of Me”, which I think is great.


Adrian Holovaty – All of Me

I’m going to close with Adrian’s rendition of Django’s “Tears”. He plays it with four fingers, unlike Django, who played it with two. Did you notice the Django Web framework shares someone’s name? Methinks Adrian is a big fan of the legendary guitarist.


Adrian Holovaty – Tears

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Reviews

Comfortable by Frankel

This is a song called “Comfortable” by a West Coast folk/pop band called Frankel. Courtesy of Elliot Glass, who’s been going out and recording various cool bands in their homes, as they play laid-back versions of their songs. There are more videos like this at Elliot’s Vimeo account. Know what else is cool? Frankel’s latest CD is available in vinyl on their website. You can listen to more Frankel songs on their MySpace page.

I like the clarity of the song (voice and music both), and the unexpected twists in the melody. I also like the video’s color grading.

http://vimeo.com/5939849
Frankel – “Comfortable” from elliot glass on Vimeo.

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Reviews

Tommy Emmanuel CGP

I found about about Tommy Emmanuel recently, from a YouTube video that showed him playing a wild and incredible version of “Guitar Boogie”. That particular video was afterward removed from YouTube due to a copyright claim from an entertainment company. Still, thanks to someone from that same entertainment company (see comment #1 below), I found another clip of him playing that same song. Try to follow the incredibly complicated fingerwork if you can. The amount of dexterity and virtuosity this man possesses is amazing.


Tommy Emmanuel – Guitar Boogie

Tommy Emmanuel

Photo used courtesy of tommyemmanuel.com

Tommy’s been playing guitar professionally for over 40 years, and is huge in his native Australia. He started playing at the age of 4, by ear, without formal instruction. Two years later, he was already working pro gigs. He plays guitar differently from most, using all ten fingers. He calls it “finger style”, and I’m sure you appreciated it on the version of “Guitar Boogie” shown above.

I found two other really nice videos with him, recorded when he did a show on Korean television. The first is “Since We Met”, and the second is “Angelina”. These are quieter songs, but the man’s talent is readily apparent. These two songs, instead of impressing with virtuosity, relaxed me, and that’s worth more to me than a little excitement. (I’m somewhat tightly wound, as regular readers might have found out by now…) The final proof of Tommy’s talent came when I showed the videos to Ligia (who is Conservatory-trained in voice and piano) — and she immediately said they’re great.


Tommy Emmanuel – Since We Met


Tommy Emmanuel – Angelina

Want to know what the CGP in his name stands for? It’s “Certified Guitar Player” — a title given to him by the legendary Chet Atkins in 1999, for his lifetime contribution to the instrument. Awesome, don’t you think?


Tommy Emmanuel – Questions

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Places

Grauseeli time lapse

Beautiful time lapse video from Tobias Straka, taken at night from the Grauseeli lake in the Bernese Alps, near Gimmelwald, Switzerland. It’s amazing how much a soundtrack can liven up a video. In this case, the music adds a whole other dimension to it.

http://vimeo.com/5843652
Grauseeli from Tobias Straka on Vimeo.

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Thoughts

Luna by Malajube

Cool music video that involves synchronized swimming and hallucinations induced by a near-drowning experience. I’m making it sound weird, but it’s very nicely done. The band is Malajube, and the song is called “Luna”. With Nicolina Tokic and the Synchronized Swimming Club of Montréal-Nord, Aquana.

Malajube || Luna from Dare To Care Records on Vimeo.

You can download the full HD video if you click through. And there’s also a “making of” video.

Malajube || Dans les coulisses du vidéoclip de Luna from Dare To Care Records on Vimeo.

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