Marvelous Music - Day 2

Have you guys seen this commercial yet?

So while the blatant capitalist agenda (ie. tropicana wants to make $ off of this) takes a bit of the poignancy away from this I have to admit that it is brilliant P.R. and just a really cool idea.

But, of course, what slapped me in the face when I first saw this was: "Hey, just wait a second... they're playing Patrick Watson!!!"

[the song is "The Great Escape"; apparently it was also used on the TV show "Grey's Anatomy"]

Patrick Watson is a good Canadian boy who I first heard on the 2007 Juno awards here in Saskatoon:

I was pumped when I saw this because here was someone who had the audacity (& artistic integrity?) to play a whacked out psychedelic anthem (and most of it is in 7/8 time!) at a "popular" awards show.

The fact is that Patrick is a true musician. He is a phenomenal, classically trained pianist who in true "post-rock" fashion (like Sigur Ros and fellow Canadians, Bell Orchestre) has blended classical music and rock music together and in doing so has helped inject some much needed creativity into our bland musical landscape.

In this one he plays 3 songs from his newest album:

1) Beijing; 2) Big Bird in a Small Cage (@ 3:45); 3) Wooden Arms (@ 7:56)

Don't you just love his worn out CBC t-shirt?

You can tell that Watson has been really influenced by the classical "minimalist" movement, in particular, Philip Glass. In fact, Patrick Watson toured with Philip Glass. For those of you who don't know, Philip Glass is a classical composer/film-score composer.

Compare the piano arrangements from the beginning of Watson's "Beijing" (1st song of the above video) and this song "Glassworks" (composed by Philip Glass and performed by Branca Parlic):

While, of course, the songs are completely different you can see the stylistic similarities and how Philip Glass has influenced Watson's playing.

This is a little bit more on the "fringe" than yesterday's Charlie Winston.

So, what do you think?