Blond Coyote

Buffy Sainte-Marie, is a Canadian musician, composer, visual artist, educator, and social activist. Throughout her career in all of these areas, her work has focused on issues of indigenous peoples of the Americas. In any of Buffy’s albums one will find decorous waltzes, among lyrical efflorescences weighted with imagery which grants an occasional glimpse of a steel mind. Her French style torchers have all the gripping qualities of that superannuated mode, combined with unconventional love song lyrics. Other love songs are warmly sentimental, with haughty and forbidding undercurrents. The one quality they all have in common is their lively tension. She was also a capable interpreter of outside material, and to top it off, her idiosyncratic vibrato made large-scale commercial success out of the question. Recently, Buffy adorns her native habiliment as she undertakes a partnership with the RSO seeking to promote a dialogue of truth and reconciliation surrounding the atrocities inflicted upon Native Americans by the white man. The partnership includes a Regina-based concert at the Conexus Art Center on October 11th which I’ve attended, followed by a tour of three First Nations communities across southern Saskatchewan, with a focus on Treaty 4 land. Herein, I will examine two songs Buffy played during her Oct 11th concert and offer an inchoate critique of her performance.

As the music began, I started to move; the pounding of my feet blending in with the melodious sounds of the flute, the ghungaroo(bells) around my ankles, the mridangham (drums), and the blood rushing into my own heart. With the music and my first movements, the fear of being on stage washes away and I am focused on my movements and my expressions—using them to tell a story about my culture, my heritage, and me.

In addition to the elements of music, musical concepts such melody, harmony, and texture are also important to “The Piece of Resistance.” The song’s melody was played in a smoothly, connected manner, which means it is best described as a legato. This smooth melody resulted in a consonance harmony in the piece. There is a distinct main melody played throughout the song played by the drums being accompanied by the other instruments. Ultimately resulting in the different sounds competing for attention, which is a characteristic of the piece’s polyphonic texture.

Adam Mikulicz’s bassoon solo to open the piece captured the audience while Emily Clements added colour and ornamentation with both the flute and piccolo. Jodie Upton on clarinet and Peter Facer on the oboe encompassed style, texture and timbre which broadened the sound of this small ensemble. Conducting on the side, Facer kept the ensemble together in demanding sections. Julia Brooke with her angelic horn sounded like an entire brass section packed into one instrument and finally, Gladys Chua tied everything together with her outstanding

This review is about the Studio Big Band and their performance in the Casa Loma Room at the University of Redlands on Thursday, February 23rd at eight in the evening, under the direction of Prof. David Scott. The concert was made up of the following tunes: “High Maintenance” by Gordon Goodwin, “Four” by Miles Davis (arr. Dave Bardhun), “Nica’s Dream” by Horace Silver (arr. Frank Mantooth), “Witchcraft” by Cy Coleman (arr. Sammy Nestico), “Footprints” by Wayne Shorter (arr. Mat Harris), “Category 4” by Jeff Jarvis, and “Giant Steps” by John Coltrane (arr. Mark Taylor). The music on this program was very relevant for the eras we are covering or will be covering soon in the class, and to this end, the piece I will be focusing on

This orchestra grows rambunctious, rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with primitive fury, rendering it, clawing it until it breaks through to the jungle beyond. I follow those heathen - follow them exultantly. I dance wildly inside myself; yell within, I whoop... My pulse is throbbing like a war drum. I want to slaughter something--give pain, give death to what, I do not know.

Then, it comes out of nowhere. The biggest climax, suddenly brought on like a wave crashing against a cliff’s edge. The oboe melody recurs again, this time less sorrowful than inviting. Come back, it sings. And the flute comes skipping over the sound, the sun rising from behind black clouds. But the melody it plays sounds out of place, lower than and not as bright as what it could be. My fingers twitch, following the flute countermelody as if I were up there playing with them—as I should be.

The music is rebellious and its uncompromising intensity is uncatagorizable for its urgent flooding past genre definitions. Miles’ music of the five-year period is unlike any music that preceded it, and still, 30 years later, so original, so Progressive, and so inadequately described.

The rhythm section consists of the piano by Paul Mertz, drums by Tommy Gargano, and banjo by Howdy Quicksell. Throughout the piece, the cornet, which is accompanied by the clarinet, plays the main tune as the trombone and piano keep the tempo like a bass. The piano plays the chords as the trombone plays consistent quarter notes which helps the whole ensemble keep time.

In this scene, the author describes how people turn from scared to peaceful because of Coss’s melodious voice. Even the terrorists, who are heavily burdened from the stress of the impossible mission, find the singing comforting. The mood transfers from intense to relaxing as music sheds some bright colors into the people’s lives.

In this essay I will attempt to underscore and celebrate Simone’s activist efforts through song and demonstrate the messages in the music about race, gender, and class.

A desperate and hopeless underlying tone is maintained throughout the piece, and is skillfully developed in relation to the surface tone of idle indifference and fascination from the speaker.

Sanlikol demonstrates his vast creativity by putting together a 13-piece jazz combo and a 17-piece big band, and make them sound amazingly well.

Acoustic guitar by Jerry, vocal & piano by Zino Park, bass guitar by Clay Luna, vocal & guitar by Zen, guitar & saxophone by Dan Stark, drum by Skip Mccain, and harp by Monica.

Joyce Spencer is an entertainer whose range of musical genius is demonstrated in her skill as a saxophonist, singer, songwriter, flutist and composer. We listen and wonder what inspiration produces the melodious compilations Spencer creates on her CD’s: “Many Colors, Sweet Dreams” and a beautiful holiday collection, “It’s Christmas Time.” Spencer shares that her muse for creating music comes from a supreme source. “I feel that this passion is a buried treasure that God placed in me and I just have to keep unearthing this treasure. Now, I am His servant, of the ‘food of music’ in the form of Jazz, R&B, Gospel, Reggae, and Blues.”