JOHN COHEN: Past Present Peru

John Cohen's "Past Present Peru", recently published by Steidl, combines two clothbound hardcover books, one with photographs spanning fifty years, one album with 3 CDs of recordings of Andean Music and another album with 5 film DVDs housed in a slipcase. Photograph (c) John Cohen/All Rights Reserved

Peru, 1956
Photograph (c) John Cohen/All Rights Reserved

"Past Present Peru" published by Steidl
Photograph (c) John Cohen/All Rights Reserved

"Past Present Peru" published by Steidl
Photographs (c) John Cohen/All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) John Cohen/All Rights Reserved

"John Cohen is a photographer, musician and filmmaker who has cultivated a fifty-year long fascination with the people, cultures and landscape of Peru. Cohen took his first photographs in Peru in 1956 and has returned many times since to continue documenting. He began recording music in Peru in 1964, using a portable tape recorder to capture performances wherever he could: at festivals, in villagers’ homes, even waiting at a bus stop. Cohen’s photographs, stored for years in boxes in a barn near his home, and the music, today archived at the Smithsonian Institute, have not been published in their entirety until now." Steidlville.com

John Cohen

"Past Present Peru"

JEFF BRIDGES CRAZY HEART: Stephen Bruton Tribute

Photograph (c) Jeff Bridges /All Rights Reserved

Photograph (c) Jeff Bridges /All Rights Reserved

Bruton Tribute Video

Stephen Bruton, with music collaborator and fellow Texan, T-Bone Burnett, created the original 'classics' for the film Crazy Heart.

JEFF BRIDGES won the Best Actor SAG Award and the Best Actor Golden Globe Award for his amazing performance in Crazy Heart...and he received lengthy standing ovations both nights! This week you can view Bridges must-see photographs he took while making Crazy Heart here. More about Crazy Heart's soundtrack and video's here. More about Jeff Bridges Wide-lux Camera here.

STING: St. John The Divine Rehearsal

Sting Rehearsal with Ira Coleman on bass, St. John the Divine Cathedral
Photograph (c) Eleonora Alberto

Performing at Rehearsal, left, Kathryn and Peter Tickell on fiddles,
Sting, Ira Coleman on bass, guitarist Dominic Miller
Photograph (c) Eleonora Alberto

Sting Rehearsal with Music Director Robert Sadin and the Newark Boys Chorus, St. John the Divine Cathedral Photograph (c) Eleonora Alberto

"Winter is about inspiration and imagination"–Sting
+ + +

STING Winter Concert Rehearsal. St. John the Divine Cathedral's medieval architecture was the setting for Sting's private "family and friends" winter concert rehearsal last night. (I was a lucky friend of a friend). The Gothic/Romanesque backdrop of the Cathedral only added to the haunting beauty of the songs performed from Sting's album "If On A Winter's Night" that included madrigals to traditional Gaelic folk music.

Sting was accompanied by an ensemble of 35 musicians, including friend and long time colleague, guitarist Dominic Miller, Ira Coleman (double bass) and four remarkable musicians from his hometown (Sting called them "Geordies") in Northeast England, near the Scottish border : Kathryn Tickell (fiddle and Northumbrian pipes) and brother Peter Tickell (fiddle) Julian Sutton (melodean) and Mary MacMaster (metal string Scottish harp). With Robert Sadin as Music Director, the guest artists included Vincent Ségal (cello), Daniel Hope (violin), Chris Botti (trumpet), Ibrahim Maalouf (trumpet), Cyro Baptista (percussion), Bijan Chemirani (percussion) and the three fabulous backup singers from NYC and Australia. The Newark Boys Chorus joined all of them for a beautiful chorus. I'm sorry to those I've left off. The evening was unbelievably beautiful and perfectly conjured up the seasons holiday Spirits.

Photographer Eleonora Alberto was there to photograph the performance which included her husband, Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista. She was gracious enough to allow me to post some of the evenings highlights. Many thanks to Susan Forristal for the invite.

CHAMBER MUSIC: Tom Chambers Photograph Inspires Indie Rock Song Writers

Black Dog's Retreat, 2002. Photograph (c) Tom Chambers

TOM CHAMBERS photograph Black Dog's Retreat was chosen by musicians Chris Walla of Death Cab for Cutie and J. Robbins of Jawbox and Burning Airlines to inspire and create Mercury, a soaring song inspired by Chambers cataclysmic image. Video's documenting the songwriting process and performance of "Mercury" here. About Tom Chambers.
Tom Chambers WEBSITE