This week, while listening to an episode of one of my favorite ambient-focused radio shows, "Echoes with John Diliberto", a reference to Steve Reich's 1988 composition "Different Trains" was made. There was a moment in the broadcast where the host imagined that there is likely a huge number of music listeners/lovers, in this current time/age, that have never heard this important minimalist composition. I realized, in that flash instant, I was one of them. Looking to rectify that musical deficit, I took it upon myself, this week, to take a personal deep-dive (as I am likely to do anyway!) into listening and learning what I could about this ground-breaking work. I shared a bit of that process on this week's show. Below are notes collected from the week focusing mostly on Reich and "Different Trains" and the other "find of the week" George Russell's "Chromatic Universe."
Steve Reich
"Different Trains"
- Steve Reich: Wiki Entry
- Different Trains: Wiki Entry
- Steve Reich, Different Trains (1988)
- Excellent interview: talks about composing/recording "Different Trains" and much more.
- Video interview w/Steve Reich: "Transcending minimalism: the importance of being earnest with the "greatest living composer”"
George Russell
"Chromatic Universe"
- George Russel: Wiki entry
- The Chromatic Universe suite is on "Jazz in the Space Age".
- Russell developed the Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization which was the core to the modal method that Miles Davis later explored on "Kind of Blue." Here is the wiki entry outlining the concept.