Calender of Sound - Hermeto Pascoal

I heard some of Hermeto Pascoal's music a few years ago on a long road trip.  Late at night or early in the morning, I can't remember which, the pianist for the band I was playing with popped in Só Não Toca Quem Não Quer.  I thought, "This is a crazy person's music, but it's awesome."

I tried to tuck his name away into the back of mind, but I forgot it and I've only recently rediscovered his body of work for myself.  So I've been listening to Só Não and looking for info on the man and his catalog.  I was astonished to learn that everyday from June 24, 1996 to June 23, 1997, Pascoal wrote a new composition, including an extra one for the leap-day.  Yes, that's 366 new works in one year! 


Let's set aside the "How did he possibly do this" part of the equation and ask "Why did he do this?"  His motive was simple, he wanted to give everyone a unique song for their birthday.  This is the crazy, relentless genius of Hermeto Pascoal!

The collection was published in 2000, but is sadly out of print.  However, and this is a big however, the entire collection is available for free on his website and the project is called Calendário do Som.  It's an incredible resource and an open look into a brilliant composer's music.

A couple of CD's have been recorded that feature selections exclusively from Calendário do Som.  One is Itiberê Orquestra Família's Calendário do Som, which is comprised of twenty-seven days from throughout the year (some of these are available via their myspace page).  The one I'm currently listening to is Fabiano Araujo's Calendário Do Som - 9 Dias.

The beauty of these compositions is stunning, and I'd highly suggest checking them out.  I hope to take apart a few of these tunes and blog about them at some point, but I still have a post on Michael Gibbs forthcoming.  In the meantime, enjoy the song of the day.

Free Scores from Darcy James Argue and Graham Collier's Book on Arranging

If you haven't checked out Darcy James Argue's Secret Society yet, go on over to his site.  He posts a lot of live recordings of his music, which is some of the most original I've heard in a while.

I just noticed tonight that he has two of his scores posted for free download: Desolation Sound and Transit.  I can't wait to dig into these...

He also seems to get get a lot of good discussions going.

Another thing that I'm excited about is Graham Collier's book, The Jazz Composer: Moving Music Off the Paper.  I'm hoping to be able to get this soon.  It looks like a much needed text that will delve more into the Ellington/Mingus/Evans school of writing and arranging!

New Tracks Uploaded

I just uploaded a slew of new tracks onto MySpace. Check it out here. It includes a recording of "Yossarian's Crazy," the composition I included in my previous post about applying Gil Evans's approach to my own writing.

A new post on composer/arranger/trombonist Michael Gibbs is in the works and will be up soon!