Tonight, as I write this, I am swinging to sounds of WPI's fantastic stage band under the direction so Rich Falco. This is the first shooting for WCCA's special music series: BAND EDGE.

Groovy cool big band sounds the way nature intended it.
Awesome, we can't wait to get this on cable and on line for you. Yeah Baby! Swing it man!

Read what Richard Tabnik has to say about how Bud Powell, influenced Lennie Tristano, in an article he had written titled "On Zen and Jazz". You can understand how a musician, or really any artist, can easily transition into the field story telling, video production or communication. I have stated many times before, that the art of video production, including TV and public access producers, is to communicate. Tabnick offers a powerful and organic perspective on how an artist can communicate through such tools as intuition and feeling.
He writes, "The question of Intuition and Jazz goes back to Lennie Tristano, who based his entire artistic and pedagogical existence on Intuition and Feeling! Even though he went through a lifetime of exhaustive study and practice of music, and recommended it for his students, one of the basic, important, and profound differences in Tristano's scene was that everything had to come from feeling and intuition, not intellect [although he was accused of being intellectual], chops [although his were phenomenal!], theory [although he was a genius of innovative music], or style ["To me, jazz is not a style; jazz is a feeling"]. The idea with getting with something was to stretch out with your feeling and intuition, not "build up your chops". Tabnick continues, "In 1975, Lennie spoke about Bud Powell's influence on him:" Tabnick then gives us Lennies account. "without Bud's example, I don't think I could really have arrived at what I have arrived at in my teaching. I was striving for that, but since I hadn't heard it, it was difficult to get to it. But after I heard Bud, that changed everything. Because it simply meant that if you were really going to portray your feelings, your fingers had to be able to duplicate what you heard and felt. Every note...Every note Bud played..." ( you've got to read more)...
After reading Lennie's words it struck me very clearly why I was attracted to video production. As a life long musician, I was always sharing through music. There is a process of finding and losing yourself in the moment when improvising or performing any music. A transcendence occurs. That also happens most of the time when we produce TV in the right environment. Production task such as interviewing others, designing specific lighting for a set, and editing all come together for the purpose of communicating something. In both the process of production and in the "on Camera" action, the combination of design, process and content including the spoken words, resonate, all together, in a type of harmonic physics, that initiate thoughts that create a dialog and meaning for all involved in the process, including the viewer or listener. Sometimes a multitude of meanings and reactions.For this to work properly it has to be in a nurturing environment. One that is free from negativity, ego, repression, depression, and stress. Just like good Jazz. It helps us transcend ourselves and the rest of the gravity this world binds us to. If only for a moment or a solo passage. Like Jazz it's about playing. As Lennie said "it must be done with everything you have." For a city to have strong and vibrant WCCA TV public access center, it has to ensure the station has it's "chops" (encouragement, funding, support and the freedom to create without burden or bureaucracy). There is no room in the Zen and Jazz experience for those negative elements as I mentioned above. Once the chops are there be prepared for an expansive symphonic (community)groove .

This weekend tune in to part one of The Lennie Tristano Symposium taped by WCCA TV at WPI on April 15th, 2007.

Lennie Tristano was a fine jazz pianist and also regarded as one of the first to teach the fine art of jazz improvisation. Lenny began his professional career in Chicago in the 1930's and quickly rose to the top in New York City.

Tune in to Part ONE: The Lennie Tristano Symposium on WCCA TV this:
Friday at 9:30pm
Saturday at 10:00am and midnight
Sunday at 7:30pm
Monday at 11:30am

Part TWO will air these same times next weekend, Friday, May 4th-Monday, May 7th.

We thank our WPI partners for giving us an opportunity to video tape and present this cultural event to be seen on WCCA TV 13, "The People's Channel"

Yeah Baby !

Photo: Metronomepic

This weekend WCCA TV cameras were on hand at WPI's Alden Hall capturing a four hour symposium on the legendary Lennie Tristano. Lennie was a jazz pianist and teacher of jazz improvisation, who began his professional career in Chicago in the 1930's, and when he emerged as an original voice in the New Your jazz scene in the 1940's, he was considered a prime representative of "progressive jazz" by many critics and musicians.
The symposium included primary source speakers including his son and students of Lennie's and a presentation by a well noted Jazz historian Eunmi Shim. WCCA will soon feature this event on cable channel 13 and it's website.It will also be linked on the New England Jazz Database site. Stay tuned. Man it's outta sight!
You can catch the last Jazz symposium WCCA captured at the New England Jazz History Database

Drew Wilson talks about the successful campaign to switch WPI's cafeterias to cage-free eggs. He also mentions the website vegworcester.com.

Video: Download the mp4 video (67MB) or see other formats. You can subscribe via Democracy and see all WCCA videos as they are posted.

Audio: Download the mp3 or listen to other formats. Podcast feed.

This campaign is part of a larger effort by the Humane Society of the United States.

For footage from one of New York state's largest egg farms, which uses battery cages, see this movie.

New York Times, March 28, 2007:

In what animal welfare advocates are describing as a “historic advance,” Burger King, the world’s second-largest hamburger chain, said yesterday that it would begin buying eggs and pork from suppliers that did not confine their animals in cages and crates.

See also The Onion's take.Manchester Guardian, March 13, 2007:

Film shows neglect of pigs, turkeys and ducks sold under ethical label

Popular ethical food labels which claim to reassure consumers of high standards of animal welfare are criticised tonight in a TV programme which shows shocking scenes of neglect on some farms including ducks being punched, kicked and thrown around by staff.