When I was 12 years old, I discovered the music of Emerson Lake and Palmer, and with it, new powers of imagination, beauty, and creativity. ELP became both my refuge and my strength as I battled my way through the awkwardness, confusion, and loneliness of adolescence. So you can only imagine my surprise when I was contacted earlier this year by Carl Palmer’s tour manager asking whether we might host his final North American Tour performance. On November 21st, yet another dream became reality as Carl Palmer performed and recorded in front of a live studio audience.
This week we got permission to post the first of several videos we will be releasing over the coming months from that event: Welcome Back My Friends (Karn Evil #9 for the nerds).
Earlier this year Moogfest, which was born in Asheville, made its debut in Durham. The event was a world-wide sensation, bringing 10,000 people a day, for four days, into the funnest, funkiest, most fabulous venues in Durham to share and experience electronic music innovations and inventions. It created an estimated 1.3 billion media impressions and earned a very encouraging New York Times review.
But the heartbeat of Moogfest doesn’t stop after four days of performances and partying. It simply goes underground and travels around in the form of dial-tones events. These events bring Moog leaders together in cities around the world, connecting performers with educators, entrepreneurs with artists, community leaders with community creators.
Normally, Dial-Tones events are held in large cities, but the Moogfest team was so impressed with our space that they decided to host an event close to home. It was a great success! Here’s a little mosaic of images showing the events of the day, from the get-together before Mary Lattimore‘s performance, some words from the Moogfest team, a wonderful performance, and a chance for people to talk with Mary after the performance.
We are so proud to have co-hosted this event, and look forward to more exciting collaborations with the Moogfest community!
In my book, the greatness of Dylan’s genius is not that it stands alone, but that it supports the work of other geniuses, such as Taylor Mac and Wayne Krantz. Their ability to take the familiar and make us experience it completely new ways gives us insights, hopes, and confidence that we, too, can take our familiar selves and change the goddamn world. That’s not only an exciting message, but it’s an empowering and transformative experience!
If you live anywhere in the RTP area, you can see what this all means for yourself by purchasing tickets for the event we are recording Oct 19th at 7pm at the studio from this eventbrite tickets link for the Wayne Krantz Undercover Pop Tour. AbstractLogix (Wayne’s label) is running a special for their customers, so hit them up if you want their very special discount.
Once upon a time, there existed a very special kind of music that cast a magic spell upon its listeners. Beyond sheer beauty and raw excitement, this music bestowed powers of creativity beyond imagination, revealing a transcendent possible beyond any conventional reality. I first encountered such music when I was 12 years old, in the form of Emerson, Lake, and Palmer’s Tarkus. I had grown up in a music family and had listened to a wide range of music all my life, but this album challenged and inspired me like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was magic for me. Continue reading “Carl Palmer’s ELP Legacy Tour 2016”
Wayne Krantz first visited The Miraverse February 15th, 2015 after receiving the All Clear from Jimmy Herring and others. That night we recorded Wayne playing with long-time collaborator Keith Carlock on drums and Grammy-winning legend Anthony Jackson on bass. And we have the video to prove it:
It was an incredible evening, listening to a mix of older songs as well as several new selections from his just-released album Good Piranha / Bad Piranha. These new songs were an exploration of what might happen if Wayne used some well-known hooks as the kindling for his virtuoso pyrotechnics. Songs like MC Hammer’s “U Can’t Touch This” and Ice Cube’s “Check Yo Self” never sounded so progressive!
So here’s the exciting news about Wayne’s return to The Miraverse on October 19, 2016:
This week the legendary baritone Sherrill Milnes visited the Triangle, sharing his wealth of knowledge and experiences through a series of lectures, dinners, and Master Classes. Yesterday he gave a Master Class at UNC Chapel Hill for (college-aged) voice students, and today he gave a Master Class at the studio for (graduate-level) fellows of the AJ Fletcher Opera Institute at UNC School of the Arts. The event drew participants all the way from Winston-Salem to Raleigh, with a goodly number coming from Chapel Hill, Durham, and, of course, Pittsboro. Continue reading “A Master Class with Sherrill Milnes”
Guitar virtuoso and teacher Wayne Krantz and his trio are coming to the Miraverse February 15, 2015, and we are so excited! I first learned about Wayne from the AbstractLogix catalog. My love of the music created by John McLaughlin, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Herring, and others of that sort predicted I would like Wayne’s music. Not because he imitates them–he most certainly doesn’t! But because he is as boldly original as they are, bringing together an exciting mix of classic and alien, funky and beautiful, harmonic and angular. I bought the self-titled album Krantz Carlock Lefebvre and it spent weeks in the player as I listened to it over and over and over again.
When Wayne released a book (An Improviser’s OS), I found myself falling down a rabbit hole of nearly infinite complexity. And infinitely beautiful. And that’s how I learned that in addition to being a creative composer and master player, he is also a teacher.
So it is fitting, then, for him to come to the Miraverse both to play, and to teach…and you can attend his lessons and/or performances by clicking here.
Still reading? Then here’s some more motivation to come…
Last week we hosted a benefit recital for two fellows of the A. J. Fletcher Opera Institute, Jaclyn Surso and Megan Cleaveland. These two talented sopranos needed to raise money to offset costs to travel to Italy for the summer to study and perform under renowned soprano Renata Scotto, and we saw a perfect opportunity to help.
I have been talking for some time about the virtues of kickstarter funding for music recording projects. The indie album Move by Matt Phillips and the Philharmonic could not have been made without kickstarter funding. But the more I learn about the world of music kickstarters, the more I see there is to learn.
The Set Chopin Free project reached its $75,000 goal scarcely two weeks into its seven week funding schedule. It is already more than $5,000 above its funding goal, and could well surpass $100,000 by the time its funding window closes. And the Open Well-Tempered Clavier project (launched by Robert Douglass) has already reached 50% of its $30,000 fundraising goal from more than 450 supporters in its first 5 days! That kind of strong start virtually guarantees funding success, and leaves us only to wonder whether it will achieve 160% (like Open Goldberg Variations), 200% (like Fractal Journeys and the Twelve Tones of Bach), 350% (like the Well-Tempered Clavier Tour), 600% (like Musopen’s Set Music Free) or more than 1100% (like Amanda Palmer did in her amazing 2012 record). The possibilities are quite wide open. But real questions remain: how did this happen? what does it mean?
A press release today invites the press itself to consider some more pointed questions:
If both Open Goldberg and Musopen succeed with their Kickstarter campaigns, collectively raising over $100,000 for new recordings of standard repertoire, it is probably worth asking “Who is holding classical music in shackles?” and “Why do so many people feel it is so important to set Bach and Chopin free?” Continue reading “Success Stories”
This week we have been given a gift. Two of the most talented members of the Jazz fusion community are making a record at Manifold Recording. And they are trying something new: the co-production model of The Miraverse. If you are within 40 miles of Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, or Pittsboro, you might want to consider becoming a co-producer on Friday, or at least having dinner with these artists and hearing what Alex Machacek and Gary Husband have been creating.
A lot has changed in the recording industry since John McLaughlin started recording with Miles Davis, but a few things have stayed the same: the laws of physics that govern acoustics have not changed, and the challenge of making a great record–from the technical practice to the acoustics to the critical decisions during tracking and mixing–remain challenges no matter how much technology one has available. The co-production model is a new approach geared toward helping artists produce their art at the highest level, using both the most advanced technologies available and the most organic acoustic spaces in which to give their music life, and to do so in an economically sustainable way.
One major task of making a great recording is the recording process itself. This process has its own magic, its own mystery, its own moments of enlightenment to offer. And it is a process that is usually hidden from view, inaccessible to all except those directly connected to the process. But what about those who love not only the music itself, but the process of producing the music? In the world of local food, chefs are teaming up with farmers, bringing the restaurant to the field so that diners can experience food in a more complete and holistic way that just what is served on the plate. Other artists are inviting people into their studios to witness the process of creation. Why not do the same for the recording arts?
We are thrilled that Gary and Alex are trying new things. And we hope that you might try something new as well and support the work of these artists in a new way. It is quite something special to hear our 9′ concert grand piano in the Music Room. It will be quite something special to hear Alex playing through our locally-made Carr amplifiers. And if you decide to make a day of it and spend time not only hearing them play live, but participating in the recording process.
Leonardo DaVinci once said “Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.” Which means that art is defined by the choices made by the artist. By seeing those choices being made, by understanding how those choices can be discerned in a recording, you might just find that you have a whole new appreciation for your existing library of recordings as you hear nuances (choices!) you’d never heard before.
Tickets for those who wish to attend are being handled by AbstractLogix here.
BREAKING NEWS: There is now an option to join only the post-dinner concert. Contact AbstractLogix to check on availability of these $99 tickets. We hope to see you Friday, either for the whole day, for dinner, or for the wrap-up performance. Thank you for helping these artists produce the next milestones in Jazz recording.
Manifold Recording / The Miraverse 
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