Two New Favorite Artists

Ezra and I went to the fabulously wonderful Fall Free For All last weekend and discovered two new artists:

Paul Rucker

His artist statement:

Early on, I found myself mentally linking visual and audio when I learned to play double bass in elementary school. Each beautifully shaped note represented a pitch; every dash and dot directed articulation. The scores became maps that I not only enjoyed reading, but also found fascinating to look at even during a time when I had limited musical knowledge. Today, I use musical notation to create graphic artistic representations of compositions.

All my work is inspired by that which moves me. I’ve created art inspired by the sanitation workers in Memphis who went on strike because of discrimination and poor working conditions, by the horrific syphilis experiments of the Tuskegee Incident, by the exponential growth of the U.S. prison system, by Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s words in the Declaration of Sentiments that proclaimed, “All men and women are created equal,” and by the simple joy and sustenance found by a child catching raindrops.

He's currently working on a piece to commemorate the 1968 Mother's Day Riot in Tacoma!!!!!

I love listening to the cello because I love the sound of the instrument, but I also loved how he manipulated the cello and was so innovative with playing around with sound and art.








The Portland Cello Project

I love cello. I love covers. I love making classical music more accessible to an increasingly disinterested audience. PCP was fabulous for all of the above reasons. I'd love to see them again, especially now, after researching them a bit. I love their "about" section online:

No two shows are alike, with a repertoire now numbering over 800 pieces of music you wouldn't normally hear coming out of a cello. The Cello Project's stage setup ranges from the very simple (4-6 cellos), to the all out epic (which has included 12 cellos playing with full choirs, winds, horns, and numerous percussion players).

The Cello Project's mission is three-fold:

1. Connection. To bring the cello to places you wouldn't normally hear it. They've performed everywhere, from touring with heavy metal guitarist Buckethead, to sports bars in Texas, to punk clubs in Boston, to halftime at Portland Trailblazer games, to music festivals focusing on everything from rock, folk, classical and... pure noise...

2. Innovation. To play music on the cello you wouldn't normally hear played on the instrument. Everything from Beethoven to Arvo Pärt to instrumental covers of Kanye West and Pantera.

3. Collaboration. To build bridges across all musical communities by bringing a diverse assortment of musical collaborators on stage with them. The PCP has collaborated with musicians such as Peter Yarrow (Peter, Paul and Mary), The Dandy Warhols, Mirah, Laura Gibson, Thao, Eric Bachmann (Crooked Fingers), Matt Haimovitz, Dan Bern, among many others...