Teatru Unplugged 9 ....Some good vibes.

Yesterday evening I watched the Teatru Unplugged concert and I stood amazed because of the good quality live music I watched. I really regret not attending the magnificent concert at the Manoel.

All the artists(Chasing Pandora, Ira Losco, Brikkuni, Muzzle, Gianni and Rug) did a good job in presenting their style to the present audience. Gianni and Rug performed some italian songs, the 1st one being Con Le Mani by Zucchero(the myth) and then sang two cartoon tracks...the famous "Holly e Benji" and the "Sampei" track(currently made more famous locally in the clubber scene by the remix created by U-Bahn)). Well I am biased since I really love Gianni's radio programmes and live performances however I think the audience loved them too when I watched their applause and participation. The last track performed by Gianni and Rug was 50 Special by Lunapop (previous band of Cesare Cremonini).

I must admit that unlike what I said 2 or 3 blogs away, Chasing Pandora have a unique sound when performing acoustically and live. However my critic on that blog was on recorded music. I think that the singer(Melissa Portelli) has an awesome stage presence. As regards Muzzle they handled the audience quite majestically. Ira Losco did well Live as always and last but not least come "Il-Brikkuni". One of the earliest...it not..the earliest performance of this band with a difference. The song performed by the Brikkuni was a fast Maltese melody...I don't remember its name. The Brikkuni members come from different areas of music however the amalgamation of their styles comes out really great.

I included no video today since I don't have much time to find a good one.

Tristan b... WTF???

Have you heard his diction? intonation? sharpness? i.e. have you noticed that this dude hasen't got the basic stuff an amateur singer must have? Maybe his future in the showbiz can be in a modelling competition but please leave music alone dude.
(This short blog was initiated by me watching snippets of a supposedly "concert" of this guy. I'd have loads and loads of comments on the "concert" but I don't think this guy's singing deserves so much attention after all.)

Yesterday (25-12-06) the great Soul king died. Mr. James Brown left this world at the age of 73 of heart failure after being reported to suffer from severe pneumonia. May this great artist's soul rest in peace with disregard to his previous social problems. Please watch his most famous "I Got You (I Feel Good)" presented at last year's live8 concert.

The pBMAs (playback BAY MUSIC AWARDS)

Have you enjoyed the BMA's from the luxury of your home or went to the Eden Arena to enjoy the show? Well if you were blind I would've said it would have actually been better if you put on the same tracks on your great hifi system at home and listened to the music without having to pass through those many people present.
The usual stage miming of the so called "great" maltese artists actors and "performers" was also present at this years' BMAs. Presenters, compares etc call these people artists and performers. Well if there acting capabilities were judged most of them would've surely acquired a distinction however what we as audience want is to judge them as singers. How can we actually do that if the only voices of the singers we hear have passed from loads of computer software and have been mastered and remastered when produced? Well I get really furious knowing that the crowd present were all screaming and enthusiastic of listening to a track played on cd or even worse mp3....

I don't know if it's only mine of impression but I have to say that all songs seem to be actually the same song....I dunno maybe the lack of local production companies and/or producers. Well I really didn't enjoy myself to listening to the music presented because the sounds are to similar, especially for Wintermoods, Filletti & Friends, Bitterside, Scream Daisy. Amazingly enough I noticed that all those 4 bands mentioned had a sound similar to the Scar of some years ago but the Scar of yesterday had surely a different sound than what we are used to.

As regards newcomers, Chasing Pandora did well but as I already said for other bands....their sound is not original. Jay Omaro (never had seen this guy before)...is not inspired by Justin Timberlake, he is a wannabe Justin Timberlake imitating everything of the artist (lacks a lot of voice though unlike Mr. Timberlake). Hence I can never call this dude an artist at least till now.

To say something about the visuals, graphics and computer designed stuff, I think this years' was a breakthrough however when compared to other countries and awards ceremonies of the same type it lacked guys....it really lacked....especially when considering that other countries have been doing something of the same sort already from the 80's with more visual effects. I know that Malta is limited in space and everything but just to note that we haven't gone avant garde or anything like that.


Well just as a final note and to emphasize the fact that the BMA's weren't so visually extraordinary please watch the following video of the Guns Performing "Welcome to the Jungle" LIVE at the MTV VMA's of 18 years ago.

Under that watch also the great acoustic Performance by Jon Bon Jovi and guitarrist Ritchie Sambora of "Livin' on a Prayer" and "Wanted Dead or Alive" at the 1989 MTV VMA's.

Music, Assignments and revisiting the blog...

alo alo ppls... i just decided to blog myself out this cold saturday afternoon after some time of blog repose. (Hope that there is someone going to read my blog hehe). Loads of stuff has changed from my last blog though am not going to mention that sort of stuff...
Let me just export some of my present musical tastes at the moment, to start with....

As regards the alternative genre I am thrown out of this world by the great album Gang Of Losers by the Canadian Indie Rock Band "The Dears". The Guardian comented on this album stating "The Dears have never sounded so comfortable in their own skin." Besides its somewhat humerous meaning I totally agree with the paper and think that to all those alternative lovers out there, these tracks are a must.

Next awesome album out recently is I'm not dead by Alecia Beth Moore (more known as Pink) which released a multi style variation track list containing some soft acoustic touches, some blues, some rnb, and the pop/rockish style usually associated with the artist. What I greatly appreciate in Pink is the originality and authenticity of her style and lyrics. Well this album is not to miss.

Last but surely not least is some classic jazz of Ella Fitzgerald....in my opinion...the Queen of the Swing/Jazz Genre. I have her gold album which has a beautiful swing character much associated with the artist. I just hope that everyone deep in music has some music of Ella Fitzgerald since her songs are not to be forgotten throughout the years.

As regards other stuff....I have finally started to drive my precious Hyundai Getz.... :) (ga adda kwazi xahar) and I really enjoy going for a drive, especially alone, listening to some hot musical vibes on the sound deck (Pioneer mp3 player....Ehim...).... This week is also the giving-out-of-assignments week where every lecturer liberates his vengeance and we receive the marvellous essay titles or Projects to carry out.
That's all fowks... please watch the following video of the famous (78 year old song) "Mack The Knife" interpreted exceptionally by Ella Fitzgerald with some wonderful improvisation.

Festival of the Golden Flute...

This end of week, I'm participating in the festival of the golden flute organised by the malta flute society which started today. The organised events were a competition of musicians playing works by Mro. Charles Camilleri @7 and a Jazz music concert @9.

I had my exam @ 4.20 which finished at around 4.45. Since I don't drive I thought it simpler to spend about 2 hrs looking at some shop windows rather than returning home with a minimum of 1&1/2 hr for both ways using ix-xarabank.

Well with some effort and an amazonic temperature (u fawra tal-beati) 2 hrs passed and I headed straight to St. James to attend the competition. Well 1st person I met when I went told me the greatest of news....the competition had been cancelled due to some ilness of a participant/teacher(dunno which one). Well...(you can imagine my fertile maltese language adjectives describing the situation(enclosed in my soul)). Biex mantawwalx ax j in-nghas...ha naqleb ftit al malti...skuzawni imma ek inhaffef iktar...spiccajt amilt satej ohra em..az-z***. :)

Flahhar mill ahhar jibda dal kuncert fid-9...kuncert ta veraaaa... jazz pur b'daqxej laqta passjonali... Interessanti kien il fatt li rajt il flute jigi intuzat bhala strument ta jazz..xi haga li mhux soltu narawha. Minn naha l-ohra ma nistax nifhem ghala l-attendenza ma kinitx numeruza ax it-talent ta Kris Spiteri(Piano), Fiorella Camilleri(Flute), Joe Vella(Bass) u Alex Debono(Drums) kien xi haga impekkabli specjalment ghal xi hadd li jhobb dan listil spontanju u modern. Nghid prosit kbira lis-sur Spiteri al bicca xoghol li kiteb huwa stess b'interpretazzjoni tal-genn.

Minn ghada jibdew il-masterclasses...ha naraw xinu j... wish me luck ppls...

Info about festival: http://www.di-ve.com/dive/portal/portal.jhtml?id=237354&pid=67

Music video for today, Mr. Mark Richter playing the 1st movement of BWV 1030 Sonata. (Bare in mind that Mr. Richter is not a full time flutist and hence the performance has some mistakes)

O yeahhhhhh....

Mela mela mela...exams finished finally. Phewwwww.

Next target is my flute exam later this month. I'm really enjoying my waking up at 11 everyday with no worries and everything and am looking forward for the revisiting of the various night outs we did last year. For those ppl who don't know me...well..last year me and my (coolest)peers, had this "tradition" of spending a night in various beaches in Malta, Gozo and Comino.

These nightouts all began the same but incredibly enough all ended differently. We all met near the "tal-halib" kiosk in Valletta at around 5p.m. and then headed on to Ghadira, Ghar Lapsi, Cirkewwa (for Gozo and comino). A common feature of all nightouts is that we had to take some food to cook with us but a feature unfortunately not that common was that the food didn't remain so pleasant after it was cooked. Well let me not mention the details for your digestive health.

Luckily we had the decency of taking some video clips of these nightouts cause some occasions are really not to be forgotten. This year we are organising these nightouts once again starting next friday and I'm so really eager about that.

To me...Summer is also synonymous with music. In these days i'm meeting with some guys to try and formulate some sort of good music. As regards this subject...just a note, if there happens to be a drummer and bassist(or double bassist) out there with some talent please contact me on my email, Thanks.

To conclude this blog, I have this thing constantly tickling my brain which is the fact of several Maltese "artists"..."singing" in playback....I totally HATE IT!!. In my opinion, it is an offence on the general public to be shown people just moving their lips as if nobody could mime a scrappy song like theirs!!! I think that people must be given the real substance of a capable musician with balls and not just pushing the play button on some piece of s#1t. And the thing that mostly urges me to do revenge on these "singers" is that 99.999% of the people watching them really don't know that the "artist" isn't actually singing so..Please...SAY NO TO PLAYBACK SINGING!!!

A real 360degrees artist who really is capable of performing greatly is by no doubt, Alex Britti, an Italian guy which previously was a guitarrist with an Italian band and now (these past 8 years or so) is performing solely also as a singer. Here is a clip of his video of "La Vasca" released back in 2000....



P.S. The "" used in this blog are utterly important emphasizers;)

The final showtime.

Exams nearly finished, just OOP/algorithmics remaining on Wednesday... Must say that I didn't do so bad in discrete and neither in today's OS exam.

The World cup has just started!!! YIPPIEEE!!!!......Yesterday was supposed to be a tough day howwwwwwwever....it was extremely relax. The day started @10.30 with a 30 mins flute practise after b'fast. I've got the exam in 3 weeks time hence the practise incorporation every day is a must now. Then I did about an hour studying and off to valletta for flute lesson.

After that I arrived home and surprise surprise I switched on the tv for a supposedly 15 mins tea time break and omg omg omg...the World Cup opening was on. Am I to miss it??? It happens once every 4 years??? Well surely not. After watching that another suprise surprise... the Germany vs Costa rica game...Asking myself...Am i too miss the 1st game of the 2006 World Cup????...Well surely not lofl...And I watched that also.

Soccer apart, at 8 I began studying for today's exam. I must say it was worth it not to put so much effort in studying since some lecturers are so dumb they just copy the same exam paper year after year. Next and last exam is Wednesday so...the classical phrase I am so concerned with..." U FADAL!!!!" applies...lol.

As regards music, during this final exam period I put on some U2 stuff mainly the album "Achtung Baby" released in 1991. Here I attached the video of their live in Mexico, playing the track "One" which is one of the band's most famous.