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Andrew Combs: Tiny Desk Concert Hotney 3 Streams • 4 years ago

Tom Huizenga | March 15, 2023
The concept of our Tiny Desk is to capture artists up close and personal, a design that couldn't be a better fit for Andrew Combs' recent music. He and his band loaded in the standard drums, bass, guitar and keys — even a saxophone or two — behind the Desk, but Combs deploys the instruments sparingly in transparent arrangements that delicately undergird his soft, high tenor and falsetto vocal stylings.

He is a risk-taker in his singing, songwriting and even in his visual art. The Nashville-based artist boldly moved away from his Americana pigeon-hole on his album Ideal Man, brilliantly flirting with rock and pop. His latest, Sundays, which this Tiny Desk set relies heavily on, was another left turn. Inspired by his personal struggles amid the height of the pandemic, Combs recorded the album in mono, giving these contemplative songs the intimacy of living room performances.

Combs builds this set artfully. He starts with the incantatory "Shall We Go?" inspired by Samuel Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, sliding right into "Anna Please," based on Ingmar Bergman's devastating film Cries and Whispers — two theatrical works exploring the absurd nature of life and the quotidian horror of death. That a song like "(God)less" follows, should be no surprise. "It's about finding beauty in the chaos," Combs says.

And then, as if to remind us that not all is lost, he ends with a love song so sweet and pure it could take your breath away. Combs is an artist who keeps challenging himself and us. And isn't that what great art is supposed to do?

SET LIST
"Shall We Go?"
"Anna Please"
"(God)less"
"Like A Feather"

MUSICIANS
Andrew Combs: vocals, electric guitar
Caleb Hickman: piano, sax
Dominic Billett: drums, electric bass, vocals
Jerry Bernhardt: electric guitar and bass, vocals

TINY DESK TEAM
Producer: Tom Huizenga
Director/Editor: Maia Stern
Audio Engineer: Josh Rogosin
Series Producer: Bobby Carter
Creative Director: Bob Boilen
Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Keren Carrión, Kara Frame
Audio Assistant: Alex Drewenskus
Production Assistants: Sofia Seidel, Jill Britton
Tiny Desk Team: Suraya Mohamed, Marissa Lorusso, Hazel Cills, Ashley Pointer, Pilar Galván
VP, Visuals and Music: Keith Jenkins
Senior VP, Programming: Anya Grundmann

#nprmusic #tinydesk #andrewcombs

The Naghash Ensemble: Transcendent Armenian Classical Music | Music Interview 2023 Hotney 4 Streams • 4 years ago

Our co-founder, Darek Mazzone, spoke to John Hodian, the composer behind the Armenian Ensemble, Nagahash. We at SAMA love Armenian classical music. The range and emotional power of the form creates a transcendent state in the listener.

John Hodian is an Armenian-American composer who is known for creating and leading The Naghash Ensemble. The ensemble is a group of Armenian musicians and singers who perform classical Armenian music, specifically the poetry of the medieval Armenian poet Mkrtich Naghash. Hodian was inspired to form the ensemble after hearing the voice of Hasmik Baghdasaryan singing medieval Armenian spiritual music in an ancient pagan temple outside of Yerevan, Armenia.

The band is starting their US/European Tour in March of 2023

The Naghash Ensemble's Members
Hasmik Baghdasaryan • soprano
Tatevik Movsesyan • soprano
Arpine Ter-Petrosyan • alto
Harutyun Chkolyan • duduk
Emmanuel Hovhannisyan • duduk
Aramayis Nikoghosyan • oud
Tigran Hovhannisyan • dhol
John Hodian • piano/composer

John's BIO:
John Hodian is a composer, conductor, and pianist who has worked in a wide variety of idioms—from classical to jazz, and traditional to avant-garde theater. The soulful intensity and intricate rhythms of his music reflect both his Armenian roots and his formal classical training.
Hodian received Masters degrees in composition and conducting at The Philadelphia College for the Performing Arts. John also spent several summers at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado where he studied piano and improvisation with Art Lande, Ralph Towner as well as literature and poetry with Allen Ginsburg and William Burroughs.
While teaching composition and music theory at the University of the Arts, John was conductor of the Philadelphia New Music Ensemble.
John has collaborated with leading theater figures such as Anne Bogart and Israel Horowitz and is the founder of “The Naghash Ensemble” and “Epiphany Project”.

About SAMA:
Seattle Sacred Music & Art (SAMA) curates, produces, and collaborates on an immersive series of music and art performances that share the healing power of global sacred music. New videos presented every Thursday. We are dedicated to share with you the best and most compelling artists in the world.

SAMA was launched in 2019 as a way to foster understanding and dialogue through global music during a time of extreme political and cultural polarization. Co-founders Darek Mazzone and John M. Goodfellow, both long-time Seattle residents, have created SAMA in order to help expand global sacred music’s impact on the human spirit.

“We want to open people’s hearts,” says Mazzone, a KEXP DJ and Polish immigrant who moved to the US as a child, “that’s what imbues our sense of humanity.” SAMA aims to help bring as many outstanding international artists to the Pacific Northwest to perform as possible as life resumes in public spaces. Through musical performances, global artists have the power to challenge out preconceived notions of what “the other” thinks and feels.

Follow SAMA below:

⇢ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/samaseattle/
⇢ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/samasacred
⇢ Twitter: https://twitter.com/SeattleSama
⇢ Website: https://www.seattlesacredmusic.com

#thenaghashensemble #johnhodian #armenia #armenianmusic #samaseattle #classicalmusic #classic #darekmazzone #music #international #global #globalmusic #musicinterview #dhol #duduk #oud #oud_music #livestream

Thanks for watching the video: The Naghash Ensemble: Transcendent Armenian Classical Music | Music Interview 2023 on SAMA: Seattle Sacred Music and Art.

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