Radio Tania

Music, Electric Style

This week I spoke with Academy Award winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (also the director of An Inconvenient Truth) about his latest film, It Might Get Loud. This film centers on the history, evolution, and artistry of the electric guitar through three of the most significant guitarists of our time: Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (The White Stripes). Blending concert footage with interviews with the musicians, Guggenheim highlights three unique approaches to the electric guitar.

The legendary Jimmy Page,an undeniable influence on all of today's musicians, equates playing guitar to having sex, likening the curves of the guitar to those of a female body and comparing the progression of "Stairway to Heaven" to making love, gradually building in sound and intensity to the equivalent of a guitar climax.

The Edge, real name David Howell Evans, has a sound that is at once melodic and abrasive, focusing on heavy distortion, delay and effects pedals to create more of the arena rock sound that distinguishes U2 from other bands.

Known for his minimalist rock sound, Jack White articulates the influence that old blues musicians have had on his sound and style. One scene shows White playing the song "Blue Vein" with his band The Raconteurs and he seems to be engaged in a violent struggle with his guitar, playing it so hard that his hands visibly bleed all over it.

In the film, Page, The Edge and White come together for a meeting (which ends up being a jam session) perfectly exemplifying how the electric guitar can produce varying sounds and effects based on the techniques with which it is played, and that it is a language onto itself.

 

Next week I will be speaking with Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the director of the film, "Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love." The film focuses on world-renowned singer Youssou N'Dour, who is credited with popularizing mbalax, a genre that combines traditional griot percussion, praise-singing and Afro-Cuban arrangements. The film documents the frustrations that N'Dour has with the world's misconceptions of  Islam as a violent and dangerous religion. In an attempt to convey to the world the positive messages found in Islam, N'Dour released "Egypt" in 2004, a heavily spiritual album that found success with Western audiences but stirred up a big pot of controversy in his home country of Senegal for what many said was a blasphemous integration of sacred Muslim themes into his songs. Vasarhelyi follows N'Dour from Senegal to Paris to New York and every in between to capture the artistry and charisma that is Youssou N'Dour.

Warhol, The Oscars, Fame

For the past couple of weeks, I have aired pieces played earlier this year—two interviews with two directors up for Academy Awards. Those directors were Ari Folman of Waltz with Bashir and Laurent Cantet of The Class. Neither won the Academy Award and, in light of Mickey Rourke's loss, I wonder what value the Oscar has (even Sean Penn seemed shocked when he got the award against Rourke). The point being that both these films were great surprises. The Class continues to be chronicled, reviewed and revered in well respected publications across the globe. Waltz with Bashir was a groundbreaking work and well worth the fiscal sacrifices Folman took to create the film. While neither walked away with a gold statue, I still would have voted for them and, in my heart, they won. So after two weeks of repeats, I have just posted a new piece about Warhol and his relationship to music. The interview was with respected curator Tim Burgard, who restructured my thoughts about Warhol. Like many, I saw Warhol as an aloof, self interested, blown up artist but the truth is that he brought portraiture back into modern art, he is one of the most important and prolific filmmakers of our time and he was able to revive the communal aspect of art making by bringing people together to create great work. His open door policy and his keen eye changed people's lives and that is the best thing you can do while alive, make a difference. Check the interviews out and listen to the podcast, Sight Unseen, on iTunes.

 

no music day

nothing more to say about this....except what would you do if there wasn't music in your life? here are some answers....oh and click on no music day.

my country my country?

Laura Poitras, a Peabody award winning filmmaker, who credits her vision to that of Frederick Wiseman and the brilliant Armenian filmmaker Atom Egoyan, travelled to Baghdad on her own, without protection, contacts or knowledge of the language, to make a documentary about the elections there. She got inimitable access—in one scene, she is filming a black market arms deal between an Australian mercenary and a Afghani.