T. A. Zook's Page

Clips of my music and the music by the projects I'm involved with are posted at the sites listed below. Enjoy!

http://www.myspace.com/tazook (solo experimental music works)

http://www.myspace.com/tazookbasscello (solo basscello)

http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsmusic ("Lost Civilizations I" CDR: duo recordings with reeds player Mike Sebastian)

http://www.myspace.com/morelostcivilizations ("Lost Civilizations II" CDR: more duo recordings with Mike Sebastian)

http://www.myspace.com/merellasebastianzook ("Lost Civilizations III" CDR: live recording with Mark Merella)

http://www.myspace.com/sebastianandzook1 (first half of a December 6, 2008 session with Mike Sebastian) & http://www.myspace.com/sebastianandzook2 (second half of a December 6, 2008 session with Mike Sebastian)(together, the "Lost Civilizations IV" CDR)

http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsatorpheus ("Lost Civilizations V" CDR; an April 11, 2009 live performance with Larry Gomez on percussion)

http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsvi ("Lost Civilizations VI" CDR; a June 14, 2009 performance at Artomatic 2009's Cabaret Stage)

http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsvii ("Lost Civilizations VII" CDR; a July 5 session)

http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsviii; ("Lost Civilizations VIII" CDR; a July 15, 2009 performance by the Lost Civilizations experimental music project, with a guest appearance by Larry Gomez on percussion, at a benefit for Autism held at the historic Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, Virginia.

http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsix; ("Lost Civilizations IX" CDR; an October 13, 2009 performance of the Lost Civilizations experimental music project, joined by Jason Mullinax (aka "Pilesar" (http://www.myspace.com/pilesarmusic ; http://pilesarmusic.com/)) at the Velvet Lounge in Washington, DC.

http://www.myspace.com/lostcivilizationsx ("Lost Civilizations X" CDR; an October 25, 2009 performance at the Bossa Bistro & Lounge in Washington, DC, with guest artist Emre Kartari on percussion.

http://www.myspace.com/xxichamberensemblepartone ("Twenty-first Century Chamber Ensemble I" CDR)

http://www.myspace.com/martinandzook (live performance with Aaron Martin, Alto Saxophone, at the Warehouse Theater. )

http://www.myspace.com/chimiakgomezmartinzook (live performance with Emily Chimiak (violin), Larry Gomez (percussion) and Aaron Martin at the Warehouse Theater.)

http://www.myspace.com/zookfieldrecording (field recordings of rural street music in southwestern Virginia)

http://www.myspace.com/zooksounddesign (field recordings of nature sounds)

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I am forever indebted to my teachers Sophocles Papas (classical guitar) and Frank Mullen (jazz guitar) and my mentor, David Darling (music; improvisation)(see links posted below). I am equally indebted to Mr. Papas' teacher, the great Andrés Segovia, whose insight into the essence of music is revealed in the following:
". . . sonority and its infinite shadings are not the result of stubborn will power but spring from the innate excellence of the spirit."

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Here are a couple of my favorite quotes from David Darling:

"Music is the only source of energy that I have known in my life that gives humans a chance to be instantly transformed into spirit."

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"The Spiritual Significance of Music: I believe that the the spiritual significance of music is an intelligence, and consciousness that we are all given by our life. Babies in the womb respond to music and as our ears our emptied of the water at birth sounds/music begin their profound influence on our life. Music is the highest spiritual entity that I know about in my life. Music transforms our daily life moment by moment. We walk, run, dance, sing, chant. whistle, hum, groove to music our entire life. We are moved to tears by music and of course it is the key element in all rituals of the human experience. We are born into musical sound, and we pass to the next dimension with music as our friend and guide.

One of the sadness I feel about modern civilization is that the birth right to be musical has been taken away from many humans who have suffered from very narrow minded and uninformed teachers of music as well as society in general when there is criticism of any human of failing to sing or groove to some artificial standard.

What we know about music is that it comes to each individual in a personal way and when our outpouring of singing or grooving is approved of and encouraged great things happen for each individual. All of us succeed when we are surrounded by love rather than negative action."

— David Darling, October 2008

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Alberto Ludwig Urquieta: "El universo es tremendamente creativo, lo que nos obliga a abrirnos a lo desconocido…" (The universe is tremendously creative, which obliges us to open ourselves to the unknown . . .)

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A Bill of Musical Rights --- Developed by David Darling/Music for People

-Human beings need to express themselves daily in a way that invites physical and emotional release.

-Musical self-expression is a joyful and healthy means of communication available to absolutely everyone.

-There are as many different ways to make music as there are people.

-The human voice is the most natural and powerful vehicle for musical self-expression. The differences in our voices add richness and depth to music.

-Sincerely expressed emotion is at the root of meaningful musical expression.

-Your music is more authentically expressed when your body is involved in your musical expression.

-The European tradition of music is only one sound. All other cultures and traditions deserve equal attention.

-Any combination of people and instruments can make music together.

-There are no "unmusical" people, only those with no musical experience.

-Music improvisation is a unique and positive way to build skills for life-expression.

-In improvisation as in life, we must be responsible for the vibrations we send one another.

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A very thought-provoking observation shared by Renato Ciunfrini: "Life is more ancient than death".

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LaDonna Smith: "Every human being should have a musical instrument."

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From "The New Atlantis" by Sir Francis Bacon (written in 1624!)(http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/bacon/atlantis.html) with thanks to Sound on Sound's April 2008 issue and in tribute to the late Daphne Oram of BBC's The Radiophonic Workshop:

"We have also sound-houses, where we practise and demonstrate all sounds and their generation. We have harmony which you have not, of quarter-sounds and lesser slides of sounds. Divers instruments of music likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have; with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We represent small sounds as great and deep, likewise great sounds extenuate and sharp; we make divers tremblings and warblings of sounds, which in their original are entire. We represent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps which, set to the ear, do further the hearing greatly; we have also divers strange and artificial echoes, reflecting the voice many times, and, as it were, tossing it; and some that give back the voice louder than it came, some shriller and some deeper; yea, some rendering the voice, differing in the letters or articulate sound from that they receive. We have all means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances."

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An excerpt from address to parents of the incoming freshman class at Boston Conservatory, given by Karl Paulnack, pianist and director of the music division at Boston Conservatory (brought to my attention by the incomparable oboist, english horn player and singer-songwriter Marianne Oisel):

"The first people to understand how music really works were the ancient Greeks. And this is going to fascinate you; the Greeks said that music and astronomy were two sides of the same coin. Astronomy was seen as the study of relationships between observable, permanent, external objects, and music was seen as the study of relationships between invisible, internal, hidden objects. Music has a way of finding the big, invisible moving pieces inside our hearts and souls and helping us figure out the position of things inside us."

(source: http://amandamichellewhite.wordpress.com/2009/02/21/speech-by-karl-paulnack-of-boston-conservatory/)

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Snæfellsjökull

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David Darling:

http://www.daviddarling.com

http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608003038/David-Darling.html

http://www.darlingconversations.com/

http://www.pandora.com/music/artist/david+darling


http://www.windovertheearth.com/Mdarling.html

http://www.windovertheearth.com/Movie/Chi%20Web%20Short%204-2.mov

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0201350/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gy8TL6yPz9g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlekWKfdfjg

http://www.kientalerhof.ch/cms01/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=37&Itemid=82%3C&lang=en_GB

http://www.starsend.org/daviddarling.html

http://www.innergameofmusic.com/inspiration/artists-darling.html

http://rv-films.com/projects/salim.html

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Sophocles Papas:

http://comusco.com/sophocles_papas.en.html

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Frank Mullen:

http://www.bluelinejazz.com/mullen/learn.html

http://www.bluelinejazz.com/mullen/sounds.html

http://www.bluelinejazz.com/mullen/sounds/TapsMiller.mp3

http://www.bluelinejazz.com/mullen/sounds/OutofNowhere.mp3

http://www.bluelinejazz.com/mullen/sounds/Prelude.mp3

http://www.bluelinejazz.com/mullen/sounds/Goodbye.mp3

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Andrés Segovia:

http://www.classicalguitar.net/artists/segovia

http://www.cumpiano.com/Home/Articles/Transcriptions/Segovia/Segovia.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG7y_CD9rMg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9efHwnFAkuA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b8EDpJ-aIM8

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Chantal Drapeau -- Musique du Coeur:

http://www.musiqueducoeur.com/

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Antonin

http://www.antoninisnow.com

http://thetaheals.com/

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Suzann Kole:

http://www.suzannkole.com/

http://suzannkole.com/music.html

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Music for People:

http://www.musicforpeople.org

http://www.musicforpeople.org/rights.html

http://classicalimprov.blogspot.com/2006/05/music-for-people-part-i.html

http://www.innergameofmusic.com/inspiration/artists-darling.html

http://www.innergameofmusic.com/articles/ac-inspiration-silence.html

http://www.returntochild.com/

http://www.returntochild.com/rtc_reviews_plain.htm

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Bang on a Can:

http://www.bangonacan.org

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The Improviser:

http://www.the-improvisor.com/

http://www.the-improvisor.com/ladprop1.html

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LaDonna Smith:

http://www.the-improvisor.com/transmuseq/ladonna/" target="_blank">http://www.the-improvisor.com/transmuseq/ladonna/

http://www.furious.com/perfect/ladonnasmith.html

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Loopers Delight:

http://www.loopersdelight.com

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An absolute goldmine of samples: http://freesound.iua.upf.edu/

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Sky Orchestra:

http://lukejerram.com/skyorchestra/Sky_Orchestra.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wX_poZdHsQE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCjaYqymtII

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYAaZSozj4o

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DrKlhUH5WTQ

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Andy Goldsworthy/Rivers and Tides:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TWBSMc47bw

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andy_Goldsworthy

http://www.goldsworthy.cc.gla.ac.uk/

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=36172937

http://www.netflix.com/Movie/60027273?trkid=73

http://www.documentaryfilms.net/Reviews/RiversAndTides/

http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/goldsworthyinfo.shtm

http://www.sculpture.org.uk/artists/AndyGoldsworthy

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/mar/31/art.art

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Gregory Colbert/Ashes and Snow :

http://www.ashesandsnow.com

http://www.wnyc.org/shows/newsounds/episodes/2006/06/28

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Soundmuseum:

http://www.soundmuseum.fm/Home/

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Silophone:

http://www.silophone.net

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SODRE-FM:

I had the privilege of living in Uruguay in the 1960s, and thus became acquainted with its magnificent radio network, SODRE (http://www.sodre.gub.uy.asp1-4.websitetestlink.com/Sodre/). SODRE is now on the Internet, and I would recommend these two stations in particular to non-Spanish speakers:

http://66.231.176.184:9170/listen.pls (SODRE Babel)

http://66.231.176.184:9090/listen.pls (Clásica AM)

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Giovanni Sollima (http://www.giovannisollima.it/):

Sogno ad Occhi Aperti (Daydream) -- an incredibly beautiful work:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldPf3yqq3-8&NR=1 (this is "Part 1");

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3NkQ00_ZbI&mode=related&search= (this is "Part 2" of the same work))

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Alfred James Goodrich

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYY5KHalnCg

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Flash Synthesizers:

http://www.ctrlaltdel.org

http://www.eye4u.com/showroom/websynth/websynth.htm

http://www.eecs.harvard.edu/~nesson/sequencer.html

(I ignore the graphics and enjoy fooling around with the sequencer controls);

http://www.andkon.com/arcade/other/simsynthesizer/

http://www.keyboardmuseum.org/d_machines/vdrums.html

http://lab.andre-michelle.com has a phenomenal collection of synths - which can be opened up in separate windows simultaneously to great effect.

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/wavepole-synthesizer

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/playing-with-pulse-harmonics

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tonematrix

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/karplus-strong-guitar

http://www.hobnox.com/index.1056.en.html

http://www.hobnox.com/audiotool

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/eq-filter

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/particle-explosion

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/jarcase-instant-sampler

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/music-video-with-bitmapfilters

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/scratching

http://lab.andre-michelle.com/tb-303

http://www.sfpg.com/animation/spectratone.html (I don't know if this is technically a flash synthesizer, but it's interesting!)

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http://createdigitalmusic.com/

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