Can a good scientist be a bad writer? The answer, in my opinion, is nope. Here is the story.
The registrator office at the Karolinska Institute has recently received a request to release the full texts of several of their successful grant applications to the European Research Council (ERC) as well as the texts of their respective evaluations and referee comments. ERC grants are both generous and prestigious awards that have come symbolize the success of the European scientific elite. Under Swedish freedom of information legislation, the Karolinska Institute -which is ultimately under state jurisdiction- is obliged to release these documents, as astonishing as this may sound. (A topic that surely deserves a post of its own.) Needless to say, such a request has come down as nothing short of controversial among the scientists involved, since grant applications contain unpublished data and detailed confidential information about their future research programs. Who could have made such a preposterous request?Read more...
Polish trumpeter Tomasz Stanko visited Fasching along with his scandinavian quintet inlcuding Alexi Tuomarila on piano, Jakob Bro on guitar, Anders Christensen on bass and Olavi Louhivuori on drums. Much of the “Dark Eyes” (ECM 2115) repertoire was played with Stanko’s more introspective mood shown in his latest recordings. Soaring trumpet from Stanko solidly supported by Christensen and Louhivuori with Tuomarila and Bro adding color.
It happens once in a while that top tier international jazz groups come to Fasching. The visit of the Dave Holland Quintet was one of those precious occassions. Veteran bassist Dave Holland, of Miles Davis fame (e.g. In A Silent Way & Bitches Brew), alongside Chris Potter on saxophone, Robin Eubanks on trombon, Steve Nelson on marimba and vibraphone, and Nate Smith on drums. This quintet, albeit with different drummers, has been playing for a very long time now and recorded over half a dozen disks as quintet and as many as the core of larger ensembles. Astonishing energy, incredible playing, telepatic communication. Clearly one of the most important musical events of this year in Stockholm. Watch the videos featured at the end of this post.Read more...
Assiduous visitor of Stockholm’s Jazzklubb Fasching, Bobo Stenson appeared with his trio of ECM fame this past September. The all-Swedish trio includes Bobo Stenson on piano, Anders Jormin on bass and Jon Faltt on drums, now reportedly with their second ECM recording on the making (before Faltt, Jon Christiensen and Paul Motian sat at the drum kit of the trio). Along with the recently deceased Esbjorn Svensson, Bobo Stenson is perhaps the best internationally known Swedish jazz pianist. Less well known at home, his trio has been acclaimed abroad for many years for their beatuiful ECM recordings. In its ample repertoire, the jazz tradition intermingles with Swedish folk music, Cuban and Argentinian music and classical composers from Henry Purcell to Alban Berg.Read more...
Young Swedish pianist Mathias Landaeus got a check and flowers as recipient of one the 2010 Jazz Stipends awarded this past 21st of September at Jazzklubb Faasching, Stockholm. After a simple ceremony, the concert followed with Landaeus at the grand piano alongside veteran bass player Palle Danielsson and raising star Jon Faltt on drums. Mostly orignals from Landaeus in an intimate session which also paid tribute to several of his musical heroes, such as Thelonius Monk, and the Scandinavian folk tradition. Faltt as usual having a great time playing his percussion trickery, as can be seen in the video clip. For additional photographs of the concert, visit the the photo gallery.Read more...
Swedish pianist Lars Jansson performed with his trio at Jazzklubb Fasching, Stockholm, on September 13, 2010. Along Jansson were Christian Spering on bass and Anders Kjelberg on drums. They played both standards -such as the lovely Bill Evans tune featured on the video clip below- and originals from both Jansson and Spering. Superb technique from Jansson who still finds lots to say with tunes from the standard repertoire. The Scandinavian touch that characterizes most pianists from these latitudes is always present, at times folksy and with a pensive touch. A selection of the photographs taken during the concert (with Canon EOS 7d and the new 70-200mm f/2.8 L II lens) are available from the Photo Galleries and also HERE.Read more...
Intuition is as important in science as it is in the arts and any other creative activity. Intuition can allow the formulation of novel ideas or solutions to complex problems that would otherwise be difficult or improbable to reach via conventional, logical reasoning. Although the popular term “gut feeling” would appear to indicate that intuitive processes take place outside the brain, it is a misplaced metaphor, as intuition is very much a mental activity.
As in conventional reasoning, intuitive thinking computes the odds of competing ideas or solutions. Unlike the former, however, the intuitive process is largely unconscious. We are only aware of the result of the computation but not the process by which it was obtained. It is nevertheless a mental calculation like any other: it utilizes data stored in memory to deduce connections, predict missing bits of information, or generate new hypotheses.Read more...
Scenes with very high dynamic range (containing very bright and very dark sections) are difficult to capture in a single shot without either blowing out the highlights or underexposing the shadows. Although common sensors in current DSLRs have 7 to 8 stops of dynamic range, many natural scenes would normally have a much greater dynamic range, too large to be captured accurately, even though they would look perfectly normal to our eyes. This is because each photoreceptor in the retina can adjust its gain independently (or almost independently) of each other, while an ISO setting in the camera applies equally to all pixels in the sensor. HDR imaging is a way to extend the dynamic range of a capture by taking sequential exposures of the same scene with bracketed settings. High-end DSLR cameras can do this automatically after dialing in the desired bracketing sequence and interval. Typically one shot is taken at the “correct” exposure indicated by the metring system, while additional shots are taken above (say +1, +2 or +3 EV) and below (say -1, -2 or -3 EV). The trick is to get all highlights and shadows correctly exposed in at least one of the exposures in the series. The images in the series are then combined to generate an HDR image using specialized software. Later editions of Adobe Photoshop can do this. Dedicated HDR software, such as Photomatix, is however easier to handle and yields very nice results.Read more...
Here is one classic Pompei shot with Vesuvius in the back. Midday sun, crowds all over the place, too bright sky, poor contrast:
Cropping (in Camera Raw) allows focusing on the center temple and eliminates the worst part of the crowd:
Here is the Raw conversion: mainly tone curve for added contrast, graduated filter to pull back the sky and adjustment brush to bring back top of the building and columns that were too dark after the grad filter:
Here are the histograms before (left) and after (right):
One final clone tool in Photoshop removes the unwanted visitors. Voilá:
Master guitarrist Ralph Towner’s book “Improvisation and Performance Techniques for Classical and Acoustic Guitar” published by Hal Leonard in 1985 has been out of print for at least 20 years. A must read for any classical and jazz guitarrist with an inkling to improvisation, it reveals many of the inner workings of the unique sound developed by Towner over 40 years of guitar playing. Chapters cover several techniques, including damping and chordal plucking, finger combinations, left- and right hand techniques, arpeggio, harmony, scales and voicing. Over 60 exercises and the scores of several of Towner’s most famous compositions, including Distant Hills, Zephyr and Beneeath An Evening Sky, are also included. In the introduction, Towner writes that “the intention of this book is to provide you with musical instruction and material to assist you in learning improvisation, along with fundamental tone production and performance techniques. It is my hope that the content is accessible to a wide range of player skills, including those with minimal experience on the classical or acoustic guitar”. An important element in Towner’s music and playing technique is what he calls polymetrical rhythmic groupings: the implication of two or more time signatures occurring simultaneously. Many of the exercises in the book deal with this concept and its many variations. This is a phenomenal volume, highly recommended to any guitar player and all enthusiasts of Towner’s music.Read more...
