He Knew All The Words

Right — I was ten when this song came out. I remember begging my mom to buy me a magazine at the grocery store that had the lyrics in it. And since sometime in my college years — maybe 10 or 12 years after it’s original release — this song has always had summer written all over it for me. Is it the great guitar riff? Is it Pat’s snarling vocal? I don’t know. But I do know this a great live recording of it. She can really sing (no autotune for this diva!)….

Okay. So, that’s done. Can summer please go away now?

Last night I returned to Bargemusic for the first time in many years. I’d gone to hear chamber music on this old boat once or twice before, but that was over a decade ago. Now, living so close, I am happy to have my eyes re-opened to it. Scott and Carter and I met there to hear The Voxare Quartet play the second of three programs dedicated to composer Terry Riley in honor of his 70th birthday.

The setting is a 100-foot steel barge, docked at the Brooklyn landing of Fulton Ferry, nestled in between the River Cafe and the new Brooklyn Bridge Park Pier 1. The view is of the lower Manhattan skyline. The music is intimate, and gently rocking with the waves.

The Voxare Quartet created a unified and well-sequenced program, beginning and ending with Riley, and slotting Nico Muhly, Philip Glass, and David Lang between. The Muhly piece — Stride — was terrific, with the slowly breathing opening chords evoking an accordion or a distant harmonica. In her introduction to piece, violinist Emily Ondracek made note of the “beautiful cello solo” it features, and she was right. Cellist Adrian Daurov played with gusto throughout, and he made the most of this wonderful moment in the work. The Glass piece, Company, is one I know well, though this was the first time I ever heard it performed live. Voxare plays with all the bright sound and furrowed brow you’d expect from a young ensemble, and it made Company come alive for me in a way recordings rarely can.

The focus of the concert, and the highlight, was the second half: a soulful, passionate, and inspired reading of Riley’s Cadenza on a Night Plain. The work contains a wealth of musical styles and opportunities, with wonderful solos for each player, song-like bluesy passages, and fierce ensemble moments that require good communication between the players and an unerring sense of meter. It seemed like an very difficult piece to play. Voxare exceeded the challenge. It was a rousing, exciting performance.

But it’s too goddamned fucking hot on the subway platforms.

I’ve sung Elizabeth Warren’s praises many times before. I just watched a lecture she gave in Berkeley in 2007 that made me cry. It’s an hour long, but I urge you to take the time to watch it. She reveals the insane breakdown of the middle class that has come to pass in the last quarter century. It’s disturbing to hear her lay out the underlying details of the economic realities that we’ve come to accept as inevitable. And she’s talking about how this destruction of the middle class is breaking our country, how it could permanently rip the very fabric of our nation, and how it could eventually lead to a political instability that could destroy us. It’s that big. She’s that good. This video is worth every minute of your time it takes.

After being introduced Warren takes the stage at the 5 minute mark, if you want to skip ahead to when she begins: