MLC Music - Matthew Cannon

Today marks the release of a Podcast that I have done for Pandora, my bread and butter for the last 3 years, on the subject of dynamics in music. I join host Kevin Seal in the studio with the marimba to illustrate some basics on Quiet and Loud. Please give it a listen and perhaps leave me a comment!

Shame on me! I should have written of my massivly successful art opening before now. I am truly apologetic faithful readers for this oversight. First of all, I have to say that I feel as though I have completed a Southern Rite of Passage by selecting and preparing recipes from the “Freezes Beautifully” section of my Baton Rouge Junior League cookbook. It really does make a drastic difference in your stress level if you prepare everything beforehand. Well, that, two friends and a couple of beta blockers

My menu included the following:

Plantation Iced Tea-a delicious blend of black tea, mint, lemonade and pineapple juice.
Sloe Gin Fizzes-a surprising concoction of sloe gin, powdered sugar, lemon juice, vodka and club soda.
Matty’s Sausage Balls-savory sage, pork sausage, cheese and baking mix have made this a favorite of mine since childhood.
Cocktail Quiches-a decadent melange of swiss, bacon, chives and egg in a homemade tassie cup.
Tea Time Tassies-miniature pecan pies. SO delicious!!
Lemon Curd Tassies-miniature lemon pies. Tart and tangy!
Queso Infamoso- A wicked blend of cheese, stewed tomoatoes and peppers. Irresistable!

I can not forget to mention the absolutely wonderful staff at Sproos. They were so very supportive and they provided all the healthy food. Fruits, vegetables, hummus and not to mention loads of beer and wine. Truthfully, every single base was covered.

When it was all said and done I would have to say I had about 30 or so guests (most of which stayed the whole time!) and I SOLD 6 PAINTINGS! I am floored. I am interested to see what will be happening for the remainder of the exhibit. How many more will sell, and how many commissions will come it?? I have already had inquiries for about 3 commissions, so we will see how they pan out.

I would like to thank everyone at Sproos Salon, especially Cindy and Kate. Sincerest heartfelt thanks to Jessica and Darrel for helping me so graciously prepare for, set up and clean up the show (I couldn’t have done it without you two!). I would also like to give a big hug to my mom, Sherry Cannon, for helping me compile the recipes and her undying encouragement. A shout out to Robert Cannon for the absolutely arresting image of Sophia Loren. She was a show-stopper! Lastly, but certainly not least, a huge round of gratitude for all of my lovely, wonderful, outrageous friends. Your support means everything to me!

May is going to see a Matthew Cannon explosion! Next month I will be hosting my very first art gala at Sproos salon in the exclusive Laurel Heights area of San Francisco. I am extremely excited by this. I will have 17 BRAND NEW paintings to witness and gush over. For those of you reading who won’t be able to make it to San Francisco for the gala, I will be posting some high resolution images of my new works in the Art Gallery section of my site. Please take a look and tell me what you think. I am anticipating them being available for your viewing pleasure in early May.

Cotton Candy will be exploding all over the scene in May as well. In a recent CNN.com article, Marcus Selby (a very popular and successful San Francisco jazz musician) gave his top 10 venues to hear good music in the City. On the list were Amnesia and The Red Poppy Art House. I am happy to report that we have performances at both locations this month and I highly recommend attending either of them. Both venues have their charms and are very intimate indeed. Lastly, but certainly not least, is Martuni’s-a lovely martini/piano bar in San Francisco. Kielbasia will be opening for us, and we always enjoy playing with her. Come by for a Manhattan and get your Cotton Candy fix in an elegant and sophisticated setting.

So readers, I emplore you: Come support all things Matthew Cannon in May. I would greatly appreciate it!!

Hello faithful readers,

Sadly, this Fecalgram fiasco has gotten out of hand. Even though I would love to know who sent it, they aren’t interested enough to come forward, so it’s time to move on now. Luckily I have just the thing to take your minds off of feces: the marimba!

My duo partner, Brandy Moylan, and I are putting together a duo marimba recital hopefully for mid-June. We are taking a step away from the traditional progamming that might be used in this scenario and are instead making our own arrangments from piano literature for your listening pleasure.

Some of the featured repertoire will include:
Ravel–Alborada del Gracioso
Joplin–Solace
Piazolla–Tango Suite
Barber–Excursions

We’re both looking forward to having a chance to shine on what we believe are some excellent pieces for marimba duo and we also have a question: What would be a very interesting venue at which to present said recital? We were originally thinking Community Music Center, but it doesn’t really fit into the ‘interesting’ category. I wouldn’t mind a beautiful church, but Brandy isn’t too keen on the idea. Does anyone have some other avenue we might consider? It’d be greatly appreciated!

I thought that perhaps a couple of weeks would be enough for the perp of the fecalgram to announce their identity. I was wrong. Still just a couple of messages with unctuous vocabulary with very smug undertones. A few things I believe: This isn’t from someone in my group of friends. This isn’t some admirer with a shy streak. This person isn’t going to come forward. In fact, all I’ve got is another half-assed attempt from someone trying to ‘connect’ with me. Let me give you a clue, if you like me, tell me. I don’t bite that hard. If you don’t like me, then get some starch in your backbone and let me know about that too. A $25 box of fake poo certainly hasn’t gotten any of your intentions across and, much like my interest in this, the poo has faded and become discolored.

The final challenge: Announce your identity by Friday or the poo and my interest will find a permanent home in the trash can.

I have been playing a musical at the School of the Arts for the last two weeks. It has been a particularly grueling affair, as musicals tend to be. Lots of timing and LOADS of rehearsal time. I mean it really can seem endless.

City of Angels is a particularly complex “show-within-a-show”. Several perspectives, characters playing multiple roles-the whole shebang. The score is in the 1940’s jazz style with many soap opera overtones. It is very intricate and nuanced and requires a lot from the pit orchestra.

For this production, the orchestra is mainly composed of students from the high school. They are all sincerely talented and have been very inspiring to me. This evening’s preformance was excellent. The students peformed with sensitivity and really drew the audience and vocalists in. It was very exciting for me to see these emerging musicians perform with such polish. They really sold it!

I am hoping for the last two shows tomorrow that we can really bring it home, really be musical with the performance. I think that these students have what it takes to leave the audience with the sense of, “Wow, that was really something!”.

Let’s break a leg!

After a rather wonderful excursion to the DeYoung Museum with my dear friend Nathan, I returned home to find a rather non-descript brown package at my door. It was from Missouri and offered no information as to its sender.

I went inside to unopen this unexpected delivery. To my surprise, there was a rather elegantly wrapped gift box on the inside. I opened it, and inside was a delicately coiled turd. I stared at it. “Are you real?” I asked
myself. I was in disbelief.
Had someone actually sent me a box of poo?

The underside of the boxtop revealed more. “Go to fecalgram.com. Enter your 12 digit serial number and there you will find a message.” Naturally, I go to my computer. I find the site and enter my serial number. When I arrive, it asks me to enter a reply message before I receive any other information. Another rather cryptic element. After I enter my reply of, “Well, I guess shit really does happen”, the message left for me comes onto my screen. Here is what it said:

From an admirer, in honot [sic] of your artistic originality, humility, sensitivity, tolerance, honesty, unfailing support of glazier’s silvering, facial flexibility, and unerring ability to put your friends’ needs above your own.

Keep spreading it around in ‘06.

There was no name attached to this message. I have questioned everyone I know and I have no one claiming ownership of this action. Is this good natured? Is it a passive agressive insult? Is someone coming on to me? Should I change the locks? In addition, it also apparently costs around $25 to send someone a box of feces.

To the person that sent this: declare yourself! I will be unable to sleep properly until you do so. Will the Perpetrator of Excrement please rise!

(note: The poo was manufactured in a facility that made have processed dairy and nuts)

(twidling thumbs a la Monty Burns)

Drumroll please: Matthew Cannon has his first solo art exhibit!

Last week while at a party celebrating one of our friends becoming an ancient, my friend and personal stylist, Kate Narron, and I were having a conversation. She was mentioning to me that her salon, Sproos, was looking for an artist to fill out the space right now. She mentioned me to her Salon Manager, Cindy, and I was delighted to stop by the salon and show her my portfolio.

So this Tuesday, I stopped by Sproos and showed Cindy my work. She was so excited about it that she wants me to do a solo show there in May! Then she proposed doing an art opening event where everyone could meet me and (hopefully) buy all my art and commision tons of new pieces from me.

I am floored! I will be doing 10 to 15 new pieces for the show and I am very excited to have my work up at a place that has a regular traffic flow of people who have money to spend on reasonably priced genius.

So mark your calendars folks. May 19th you’ll be hob nobbing with one of San Francisco’s emerging pop art mavericks. Tell your friends and bring your checkbooks, things are gonna be moving fast!

It seems that I have forgotten to report on one of the more fascinating developments in my life in the past couple of months. Through a very interesting turn of events, the bass player in Cotton Candy, Tom, became the personal assistant of one of the most distinguished conductors of our time–Michael Tilson Thomas.

Being the absolute classical music nerd that I have grown to embrace, I have always been fascinated by this one degree of separation. After all, MTT is widely known to have been a protege of Leonard Bernstein, personal friends with Aaron Copland and Igor Stravinsky–HUGE names in the world of music.

Now, as fate would have it, being an internationally acclaimed celebrity and musical god is a lot of work. I mean, the team of people necessary to keep such a person’s schedule/life moving smoothly is amazing in and of itself. So naturally, when I was offered to be a part of this vast machine, I graciously accepted.

I was brought on to help out Tom and Deanna with various archival projects that, when completed, would help them have a better grasp on the vast backlog of recordings, press clippings and photos that they have been too busy to begin. I began in late December going through about 20 years worth of MTT’s press clippings from Burrelle’s. I found it to be amazing that this agency will find any mention of a set of keywords that you set for them to find in any printed or online media–worldwide. While engaged in this meticulous process, I had the privledge of helping myself to MTT’s vast library of recorded material. Box sets of complete Beethoven and Stravinsky works, rare premiere recordings, bootleg rehearsal/performance material…you name it! Not to mention the fact that I was listening to it on a state-of-the-art $20,000 stereo system. Ah, luxury…

From there I began another project of doing a complete organization of MTT’s personal recordings of his performances and compositions. There I found many early recordings with the Buffalo Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Orchestra. I also had the endlessly engaging opportunity to hear 1st edits, mixes and final versions of the San Francisco Symphony’s Mahler cycle. WOW! It was captivating to hear the differences in the versions of the recordings and made me realize what a true genius this man is. From the recorded live performance to the final edit you felt like you were sitting in the orchestra. It sounded so alive and you could hear every single last voice. It was and is true perfection. While listening to their recording of Mahler’s Second Symphony, I felt like the man in the Maxell ads when he turns on the stereo and the gale force winds sweep his hair back. Every single follicle was standing on end.

I believe that next on the agenda is trasferring all of the cassette recordings to CD, which will have to be in realtime. Lucky me!! I feel blessed somehow to be given the opportunity to spend time in a living legend’s home. What’s more is I am trusted completely there and that feeling is just golden. It seems that ever so gradually I am stepping into a circle that could be very inspirational and benefical to me and my artistic endeavors.

Lord, I feel like it’s been ages! How ya’ll durrin’? Things with me have been well. On Thursday night I sold my first piece of art! I love the feeling of cash in the hand. I think I enjoy it more than silk. A man named Webster purchased Audrey Hepburn for his girlfriend. They saw it while at Mighty one evening, and he decided to surprise her with it. How sweet.

I finally now have pictures of the other painting I did over Christmas. If you will notice to your left THE power bitch Alexis Carrington Colby Dexter Carrington. I did this for my brother Phillip for two reasons: a) he’s a very driven and determined person and b) we think she’s funny as hell. So from now on, good ole Alexis will be watching over him with an arched eyebrow.

For Mike, I also chose an authority figure: Principal Blackman. For those of you that are unaware, Principal Blackman is a character from Strangers With Candy, an after school special spoof comedy starring Amy Sedaris and Stephen Colbert. Principal Blackman is the egomaniacal principal whose image is stenciled everywhere in the school–on maps, paper towels, lunch trays…you name it. So I thought the school bus yellow was a nice touch and I wanted it to be a stencil just like it is on the show. I’d say it was a success.

Lastly, but certainly not least, for my friend Rene I painted Annie Lennox. Originally I was going to do Stevie Nicks for him, but after an exhausting search, the appropriate image just couldn’t be found. And that’s when it hit me–it’s got to be Annie Lennox. Once I set my sights, finding a great shot of her was easy. It is the smallest one I’ve done so far, measuring somewhere around 10″x14″. Rene loved it