Researchers who study birds know that the quality of the birdsong is a good indicator of fitness. Evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk, writing in the entertaining Riddled With Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are, describes how disease and parasites drive the evolution of showy colors, structures and behavior. She and a colleague theorized that female birds use these features to select males who are more parasite-free, and thus species with more parasites should have evolved flashier colors and songs to distinguish the fittest males. [Read more →]
Four years ago I encountered an unusual CD that immediately grabbed my attention: Frank Bretschneider’s Looping I-VI (And Other Assorted Love Songs). Not music in the conventional sense, it was more a collage of periodic, abstract electronic sounds reminiscent of the kinds of sounds scientists have recorded from outer space sources such as other planets and pulsars. [Read more →]
Essays warning about the danger of certain kinds of music stretch back at least 2350 years to the time of Plato and Aristotle. The concept of “ethos” ascribed certain ethical characteristics to each of the different Greek modes. Plato believed the Dorian would positively mold character because it helped make men stronger, but he warned against the Lydian mode because it enfeebled the mind. [Read more →]
Attempting a different kind of music video to reflect its unique take on cyber jazz, Gemini Soul this week released a radical version of the song “Radical.” According to JazzReview.com, “The keyboard driven “Radical” is a vast release of energy.” The video aims to capture the dynamic thrust of the music with genre-breaking images.
The song appears on the 2008 CD “The Nefertiti Xperience.” In keeping with the theme of the album, the band is filmed in some shots amidst graceful Egyptian columns. But this is not your ordinary jazz music video. “We want to redefine jazz for a new generation,” says band leader and bassist Ajamu Akinyele. This video may do just that.
Researchers who study birds know that the quality of the birdsong is a good indicator of fitness. Evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk, writing in the entertaining Riddled With Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites That Make Us Who We Are, describes how disease and parasites drive the evolution of showy colors, structures and behavior. She and a colleague theorized that female birds use these features to select males who are more parasite-free, and thus species with more parasites should have evolved flashier colors and songs to distinguish the fittest males. [Read more →]
Four years ago I encountered an unusual CD that immediately grabbed my attention: Frank Bretschneider’s Looping I-VI (And Other Assorted Love Songs). Not music in the conventional sense, it was more a collage of periodic, abstract electronic sounds reminiscent of the kinds of sounds scientists have recorded from outer space sources such as other planets and pulsars. 
Attempting a different kind of music video to reflect its unique take on cyber jazz, Gemini Soul this week released a radical version of the song “Radical.” According to JazzReview.com, “The keyboard driven “Radical” is a vast release of energy.” The video aims to capture the dynamic thrust of the music with genre-breaking images.
