artist spotlight: yo yo ma

so, this week has been a bit on the psychotic side and i have not been taking pictures daily...been more like every other day. hopefully i'll get the chance to post some things tomorrow or tuesday. i did do a lot of shooting this afternoon. i had lunch w/ my mom, brother and sister-in-law for my mom's birthday and then my mom and i went downtown to see if we couldn't catch some of the interesting-ness going on with the people in town for the DNC.

i got a lot of shots of protesters...and buildings (cuz' that's what i do)...and my mom told me about a friend of hers that said that she may be able to get me into one of the sessions on thursday to do some shooting, but that would mean i would need to get my hands on a longer, or at least more versatile, lens. but we'll see. i'll definitely post some of the pics i got today soon.

but i was kind of in the mood to do another one of my artist spotlights since i haven't done one in a while. so here goes...

i've been in a much contemplative mood lately and with a contemplative mood comes the need for contemplative music and for some strange reason, it usually ends up being yo yo ma in some form or another. i love the cello and i think there is no instrument as deep and lovely...and i believe there is no one greater on the cello than yo yo ma. he does not merely play the cello, he is the instrument that the cello sings thru.

i have some of his baroque work that he played on an actual baroque cello. the biggest difference between a regular cello and that of a baroque one is that a regular cello has a balance pin and a baroque does not. which means that the musician then must balance the instrument between their legs...not an easy feat.


incredible.

he also created a work called "silk road journeys" in which he delves into the the cultures that line the silk road that connected asia to europe (including mongolia, china, persia, japan, iran, azerbaijan and turkey). it may not be everyone's cup of tea, but i love the dynamics of the scope of this creation.

then, likely my favorite project, he paid tribute to the amazing italian composer ennio morricone by re-creating some of his most famous works including the soundtrack from "the good, the bad and the ugly" and "the mission".

i'll leave you with a piece on that particular project...it's broken up into two clips, but it's only about 10 min long.