Intuitive Music

Elizabeth Carpenter is one the most touching and moving artists that we have had the pleasure of knowing this year. She is a vocalist and song writer in the tradition of artists like Joni Mitchell, Rickie Lee Jones and Nick Drake. People with something soulful to say who say it in a personal, intimate and touching way.

Not only she has the skill of making you feel warm and comfortable with her voice and an acoustic guitar, but she has formed one of the most interesting ensembles in Seattle with a group of wonderful jazz-oriented musicians including Conlin Roser (guitar), Erik Anderson (drums), Jon Markel (double bass), Tobi Stone (saxophone and flute), Amy Denio (sax, accordian), Dave Carter (trumpet, flugel horn), Ty Baillie (keyboards), Jeff Busch (Latin Percussion) and Paul Rucker (cello). With this wonder team, Elizabeth has put into the same pot a combination of blues, jazz, rock, rhythm and blues, latin, folk and oldies sounds to bring a timeless charming music style.

Elizabeth talks with us about her influences and music recommendations for the new year. She is one of the most culturally enriching people to talk to that we know, so you might take good note of her hints.

- My last discovery album:

Charlie Beresford’s “The Room Is Empty”. I found him through Myspace and he is on my Top 24 list there. His music is perfect for cold wet winter days and nights. I love the dissonance, the guitar rhythms, his voice as part of that bridge between melody and rhythm. I like the tensions, the melancholy, the drama and passion that emerge intermittently. This is gorgeous, sad, rich, sensual music with killer guitar, amazing rhythms; I love the dynamics, the chords, the sparseness, and the intimacy of it. He reminds me a bit of Nick Drake, who I worship.

- The song I always wanted to cover:

“Lush Life”. One of the most complex, interesting songs lyrically and musically – damn hard to carry off vocally and dramatically. It is very much a torch song for a person whose fire went out a long time ago. The nostalgia and resignation in it suit my take on life. I am a tender cynic.

- The song that always makes me cry:

Jefferson Airplane “Comin’ Back to Me”. I discovered this song through Rickie Lee Jones and it always makes me cry. I think it is one of the saddest songs ever, I love sad songs. It’s the melody that breaks my heart, but the lyrics are so beautiful, too.

Lyrics for Comin’ Back to Me

The summer had inhaled
And held its breath too long.
The winter looked the same,
As if it had never gone,
And through an open window,
Where no curtain hung,
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

One begins to read between
The pages of a look.
The sound of sleepy music,
And suddenly, you’re hooked.
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

You came to stay and live my way,
Scatter my love like leaves in the wind.
You always say that you won’t go away,
But I know what it always has been,
It always has been.

A transparent dream
Beneath an occasional sigh
Most of the time,
I just let it go by.
Now I wish it hadn’t begun.
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

Strolling the hill,
Overlooking the shore,
I realize I’ve been here before.
The shadow in the mist
Could have been anyone
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

Small things like reasons
Are put in a jar.
Whatever happened to wishes,
Wished on a star?
Was it just something
That I made up for fun?
I saw you, I saw you,
Coming back to me.

- My best musical experience with another musician:

Playing with my band members, recording my last CD “Flirtingâ€?. I am blessed to work with some of the best musicians in Seattle (most are in the jazz/experimental field). I should also say that even though he is the recording engineer, Mark Clem, counts as part of the band when we made “Flirtingâ€?. He was such an inspiration and guide that helped keep me calm, focused and positive. The magic of playing with gifted musicians who truly love my music and add their own parts and improvisations to each song is always most gratifying. I’m more excited by collaboration and seeing what they can add to each composition. The energy they provide helps me perform better, as well.

- The artist I’d like to work with:

Waldemar Bastos. He is one of my all time music Gods. I saw him play at WOMAD in ‘98 and I’ve been devoted to listening to him ever since. I was lucky to meet him after his show at The Triple Door in 2005 and have a friendship now. So, that’s one of the best connections I’ve been so lucky to have. He is an Angolan now living in Lisbon, Portugal (for years he lived in exile from his country for political reasons – but now can visit without fear). His newest CD has many songs devoted to his feelings for Angola. I love all his work, but his CD “Preta Luz” is one I have played over and over for years without ever tiring of it. David Byrne produced that one, a man of supreme taste, yes?!

- The concert I always wanted to attend:

Any gig with John Coltrane, that would have been truly stellar. Of course, he is king of improv and of turning a known melody inside out and beyond. I can’t think of any other player, performing live, that could be a better choice for this wish.

- Recommended album from my career:

Well, I have 3 CD’s. “Emergency Love” may have to be the ONE. It expresses more of my melancholic side, which is my essence. This CD has my 2 best songs – “The Brooklyn Bridge” and “Emergency Love”, so that may be why I side with it. But I love my recent CD “Flirting” too. I tried to write more pop/soul/positive songs for it. This is hard for me to say. I like both, like two children I’ve given birth to. It’s hard to choose.

- Recommended oldies album:
Nick Drake “Pink Moon”. This is one of the most perfect CDs ever for those who like lyrical, sad, exquisite beauty. Nick Drake and Chris Whitley are two of my favorite guitarists and composers, so I have to add “Whitley’s Dirt Floor” too. His has a harder, grittier, sexier edge along with the lonely, spare, lyrical qualities I like in Drake’s work. And, both delight in dissonance, which is the corner stone to what I try to do with my chords, as well.

- My MysPace band/artist recommendation:
I have many, so go to my Top 24 and listen to:
Charlie Beresford (England)
Watine (France)
Ory Chalk (Belgium)
Alastair Artingstall (England)
And, I also just bought CD’s from:
Emily Loizeau (France)
Chittlin’ (US)

- My YouTube music video recommendation:
The Young Ones “Anarchy in the UK”. A video of them to the Sex Pistols. It’s damn fun. I may not compose much punk (my only song that approaches it is “Clint Eastwood Dream”) but I am a complete fan of that British TV show and of that song for this wacky short. I like a lot of old punk and new wave music – I spent a lot of time dancing in dives in NYC back in the early 80’s. Oh, I also love the YouTube video of Klaus Nomi singing “Lightning Strikes”, so add that to my top videos along with deliciously bad Bollywood clips from the 60’s & 70’s.

Kimara Sajn is a multi-instrumentalist, mostly known for his Progressive and avant-garde experimental project Polyethylene Pet / +1. The band is an unique improvisational quality music project that features Kimara Sajn on drums, percussion, keyboards, bass, tapes, and vocals, plus a different sets of musicians that includes Chris Diurni (guitars, percussion, tapes, vocals, misc), Peter White (drums, percussion, vocals), B. Susan Johnson (percussion, tapes, vocals, misc), Ed Dickie (percussion, keyboards, vocals), Joe Palermo (drums, percussion, brio), Van Spragins (fretless bass), Peter White (tapes, lights), and Dave Egan (live tape manipulations).
Kimara also runs Precognitive Records, an independent label located in Seattle that hosts the different music projects he is involved in. Polyethylene Pet / +1 is one of the most interesting bands I have lately discovered. A wonderful mixture of Dadaist forms, contemporary tape composition, ambient electronics, musique concrete and avant-progressive rock.

Kimara talks to Intuitive Music about his influences and music recommendations.

- My last discovery album:

I think the most recent exciting discovery for me has been the Rascal Reporters. Never having even heard of them before, I stumbled across a reference to them in a review of something else. It sounded fascinating, so I visited their website. They are like no-one else i’ve ever heard. Brilliant, diverse, highly original and often quite funny music. They have an incredibly unique sense of form and a harmonic language that is both immensely beautiful and sometimes rather dark. My favorite album of theirs – today – is “The Foul-Tempered Clavier” but they’re all quite wonderful. “Happy Accidents” is another favourite.
In the last few years, however, I’ve discovered a number of bands and new music.
Hamster Theatre and Thinking Plague jump immediately to mind. A few years ago, I was fortunate enough to strike up a personal friendship with Dave Willey and Mike Johnson, who shared their music with me. I’ve been a huge fan ever since. “History of Madness” is my favorite Thinking Plague album and the new Hamster Theatre is quite excellent.

- The song I always wanted to cover:

“For All We Know” by The Carpenters, hands down. This is just such a beautiful tune and has a special place in my heart. I was a very big Carpenters fan. This may not be evident from any of my work as “Polyethyelene Pet”. They often had great songs and some of the best writers wrote for them, including the Carpenter/Bettis team. My wife and musical cohort B.Sue Johnson writes some fabulous tunes. She has one called “Beauty Lies” which I’ve often thought of doing. However, I don’t tend to want to cover stuff being primarily a composer myself.

- The artist (alive) I’d like to work with:

Mike Johnson and I have talked about collaborating for years now. That would be fantastic and i don’t doubt that a Polyethylene Pet project may see us together someday. I would also like to work with my good friend Brian Burman someday. He has a lovely arrangement of one of my pieces which I will hopefully use on a project. We share many of the same musical interests and I know that creating some music with him would be a treat! (Note: Brian Burman was interviewed by Intuitive Music in October 2006 and he was actually the one who recommended us Kimara Sajn’s music)

- The song that always makes me cry:

Barbra Streisand’s version of Bernstein’s “Somewhere” is achingly beautiful. Of course, she is an amazing singer (though her material, in my opinion, is all over
the map – ranging from transcendent to hideously awful). She has an album of broadway tunes, though, which has that on it. The whole album is quite good but that song gets me everytime.
I suppose I’m betraying my love of many many things NOT “progressive”. Joni Mitchell has a song called “River” which always has an effect on me, as well as James Taylor’s song “Baby Buffalo”. Another one is Cat Stevens’ “Father and Son”. WOW – what a song. Sometimes it’s the lyric but more often than not the music alone will get me going. Actually, I write a lot of dark and somewhat melancholy music myself and frequently upon playing one, shortly after completing it, I will have a cathartic moment. We don’t want to get sappy or personally over-revealing though – and so let’s leave it at that.

- The most underrated band/artist

Hmmmm… that’s pretty tough – there are way too many artists not getting their due, especially in the more avant universe. Let me just say, we have a number of brilliant musician friends who work multiple jobs and barely find time to produce their music. Except for the brilliant part, I’d include myself in that. Mike Johnson is a monster musician, a great composer and all-around nice guy. Thinking Plague has found a following but the level of recognition and remuneration is pretty low. Others would include Dave Willey (Hamster Theatre) who works multiple jobs; John Curtis, an amazing multi-instrumentalist and writer; the Rascal Reporters (who are barely known but are mind-blowingly good); needless to say, the list is much much longer when it’s not just people I know!
Granted those folks are all somewhat askew. Of the people who are more mainstream “prog”, there are likewise many who can barely, if at all, make a living just doing music. We’re big fans of Advent as well as The Underground Railroad – both of whom I highly recommend to anyone who asks (or not).

- The weirdest music I’ve ever heard:

Well, I’ve heard a LOT of what most might call weird music, so that’s also a tough one. I guess the strangest music I’d ever heard was back when I was at University and got the first exposure to musique concrete and electronic music for tape. This had a big influence on my own work, as may be evident. The composers working in that realm were really charting new territory: Schaeffer, Maderna, Berio, Stockhausen, Wourinen, Varese , et al. It was revolutionary to me, being a student of recorders and recording technology at that time (late ’60s). Following that, I think, in the rock realm, was Frank Zappa who had absorbed many of the same influences and produced rock music from it (so to speak). That turned my head around for sure. He probably had the next largest impact – then Faust and Egg pretty much sealed the deal. So the weirdest music I ever heard was largely the same music that influenced me deeply!

- The underground music in 2010:
That’s less than 4 years away. So I guess much of the same music which is underground now will still be then. Whether that’s good or bad, I can’t say. Some new albums by currently “underground” artists are scheduled to have come out by then. So my prediction is that the new Thinking Plague album may be the underground music of 2010!
Geez – did I say that 2010 is less than 4 years away? That’s a scary thought.

- My Myspace band/artist recommendation:
There are so many great artists there! I’ve made contact with so many. I don’t want to slight anybody so I’ll pick one to recommend : Yugen. Very imaginative and genuinely musical band. With an interesting sound and style. I wish they had longer samples on the MySpace site but their new CD is out and I plan to order it as soon as I’m done here.

ARP Vice president Philip Dodds plays a huge ARP synthesizer in a sequence of Steven Spielberg’s movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1977). In the picture, ARP musician Jean Claude plays the famous five-note sequence to communicate with alien mothership under the supervision of Dr. LaCombe (Francois Truffaut) and Ray Neary (Richard Dreyfuss).

“Close Encounters of the Third Kind” won one Oscar for the Best Cinematography to Vilmos Zsigmond and had 29 nominations, including the Best Music by John Williams.

Keith Emerson from pioneering progressive rock trio The Nice burns an American flag onstage at the 8th National Jazz & Blues Festival in Sunbury, August the 10th 1968. Two months before, Emerson burnt a painting with the American stars and stripes during the band’s appearance at charity event “Come Back Africa” at London’s Royal Albert Hall, 26th June 1968, provoking big controversy. The event was in aid of the International Defence and Aid Fund to commemorate Human Rights Year and South African Freedom Day and was attended by US celebrities, dignitaries and statesmen, including Marlon Brando.

The members from The Nice have later apologized for that on numerous occassions. Ironically, one of the most popular songs from the band is a tribute to the U.S., a version of Leonard Bernstein’s “America”. Keith Emerson has said: “We did the concert as a protest. We were the only rock band in the show and we showed our protest by burning a painting of the American flag. The sounds of the guitar and the drums were crashing all around us from the speakers, and after I finished drawing the flag, I lit it on fire as a sign of protest. This did not go over well at all with the audience… There was no applause at the end of the number, and a great many of them walked out.”
The Nice were banned from ever playing the Royal Albert Hall again, but Keith Emerson played again at the venue 24 years later with Emerson, Lake and Palmer, in October 1992.