3/22/2010 Listening Lounge

MESH:

Hip Hop Pep Band by Mary Rose Madden
Baltimore's Morgan State University is home to The Magnificent Marching Machine, the college's 100+ member marching band. With a remarkable field presence, the band incorporates the latest hip hop hits as well as r&b classics into its repertoire. There are many challenges re-making modern, electronically mixed sounds into the big band compositions you'd traditionally find at halftime and the MMM tackle each piece differently.

Punk Rock Kabuki Play by Eli Halpern
"Early Kabuki was like totally transgressive and politically subversive... just like pinning safety pins to your leather jacket." So what would happen if you mixed the ancient Japanese art of Kabuki theater with the in-your-face power of punk? Would it say anything about how rebellious art forms eventually become co-opted by mainstream society? The Two-Headed Calf Theater took their adaptation of Chikamatsu's classic "The Drum of the Waves of Horikawa" on the road and we catch a glimpse of the action.

Siberian Throat Singing Blues by Jonathan Mitchell
Songwriter Paul Pena has been singing the blues since he was a kid. He even had a hit with "Jet Airliner." But after an unexpected encounter with the throat-singing tradition of Tuva, the blind blues singer recharted his entire life. He studied, practiced, and then flew all the way to Central Asia to master the technique of Tuvan throat singing. Happily, Pena's full-throated Kargyraa rumble fared very well over there.