#FreeburgPianos #podcast #MitchHampton #steinway “A Conversation with Joann, Keith and Levi Freeburg of Freeburg Pianos on Pianos, Music and More”Inside this Episode with your host, Mitch HamptonThe inspiration for this particular episode came in the form of the charismatic master piano tuner Keith Freeburg when he swaggered into my home like a Cowboy Piano whisperer, with nothing but a beautiful, smallest of wooden tools, the clothes on his back, and powerful ears. Originally when I had the idea to have an episode on this marvel of a music store in the area in which I live it was going to be a single guest, Joann Freeburg who I was told was the outgoing talker of the business. We began this episode with the whole family or most of them and this was the most pleasurable surprise. Special thanks to Levi Freeburg for joining us!What the Freeburg family does for music in many respects makes possible the best kind of musical life for anybody who cares for and loves music. *Special note- there is much to know and enjoy about Freeburg Pianos and their journey, live events. Many services and more- for the full scope please visit their website, here: www.freeburgpianos.comMore about Freeburg Pianos:Welcome to Freeburg Pianos“A Grand Experience.”It is our pleasure and privilege to serve you.  Freeburg Pianos provides New and Pre-Owned pianos for sale and complete related Services.  For over 40 years, Keith Freeburg (RPT – The Piano Technicians Guild) has been serving thousands of discerning pianists: concert artists, church and home musicians, teachers, and students.   #music #classicalmusic #jazz #rock #gospel #pianolesson #pianotuning #tone #toneproduction #wood #steel #metal #transportation #yamaha #kawai #bosendorfer #steinway #baldwin #digital #mountains #south #midwest #minnesotta #minneapolis #northcarolina #beethovenfestiva #beethoven #choir #chorus #faith #newyorkcity #education #pianomover #concerthall #recitalhall #nightclub #church #temple #florida #southbeach #thehamptons #humidity #belly #engineer #technician #felt #acooustic #bass #doublebass #percussion #drums #strings

#podcast #jazz #jazztubeIn the, the second and final Part of my discussion of two jazz books I go into more detail of the prose of both the authors and their reflections on the passage of time, changes of taste and the effects on America's art form.More on this stream ( part 2 of 2), here:For the second and final episode of my jazz book lunches I gave myself an impossible, maybe silly task: pick only one album for each of the three master musicians of Bill Evans John Coltrane and Miles Davis.

One thing I will say notwithstanding it probably not having to be said is that all three albums here are great on their own merits but do not reflect the traditional or canonical view especially among the musicians themselves, never mind scholars or critics. For Miles Davis I did not pick Kind Of Blue, for example and for John Coltrane I did not pick A Love Supreme. Again those two albums may very well be greater than the ones I personally have chosen and prefer in some Platonic sense but my interest here is getting listeners interested in and excited about less famous but at least equally valuable releases.Bill Evans:Consecration: The Final Recordings (Note: not only is this album not one of the typical ones used to represent Evan's work; it didn't even come out until 1989 in Japan and then in the US in 2002)! For me it reflects Evan's triumph and is my favorite trio of his. This is Bill Evans at his most romantic, even wild, and I love the performances for that. (It is also from performances at the very end of his life).   • Bill Evans Trio - Re: Person I Knew (Offic...  John Coltrane: The 1961 Village Vanguard recordings   • John Coltrane - Live At The Village Vangua...  This selection is one with which so many musicians and critics alike would agree: an incredible document of Trane and his great quartet in performance at the greatest of jazz rooms. There is some additional Eric Dolphy on one selection too. You can also hear McCoy Tyner's harmonic and pianistic innovations in fullest display on this one.Miles Davis:Filles De Kilamanjaro (1969)   • Frelon brun  I so love this album of Miles: it is so many things. It has a lot of traditional jazz styles language in it from the great quartet of Herbie Hancock, Ron Carter and Tony Williams and yet it is also funky, soulful sometimes like rock n roll at the same time. And then there are sections that are like classical or modern chamber music. A must.

In many ways this episode is one I really loved because it was like a homecoming of sorts as she had a journey into Boston as did I many decades earlier. Here was a woman who really knows jazz and how to sing it and has the deepest connections with some of the greats in the music. Hearing her stories about her many accomplishments (did I say she is also a therapist and psychologist?) and, above all, seeing and hearing the great achievement of her album, a simply beautiful work of art that literally appears to singlehandedly bring back the record album era made for an episode that was joyous.  This episode is what our podcast is all about.More about the magnificent Vivienne Aerts:Dutch New York-based vocalist, conductor, and composer with a focus on electronics, chocolate, and multi-sensory experience design, as well as a clinical psychologist and faculty at Berklee College of Music in Boston. ( Extended bio available on her beautiful website -www.vivienneaerts.com )Social Links to Ms. Aerts and her new album: www.vivienneaerts.nl/links The story of her new album Current The journey of this album started a couple of years ago. When the world ground to a halt in 2020, I bought a small 1951 mahogany sailboat to disappear into for a while. I renamed it 'De Vouw' which is Dutch for 'The Fold'; a nod to origami, but also to folding the water when it moves. During our early outings, I quickly found out that there is a stillness on the water that could be used as a living studio. There is a natural reverb that I found appealing - it gave a very vivid signature to a recording.In the summer of 2025, we set out to record this album on that same little sailboat. I grew up in this region of the Netherlands, and water has always been around us. My husband grew up on these waters and is an avid sailor, so he knows them like the back of his hand. During this two-week process, I got to use that natural reverb that started it all, but I also learned about the wind, the sun, reeds and all the different birds around me. I learned about my own country by returning to its root: the water. And, I got to know myself a little bit better in the process; who I am, what I need, how my creativity flows, and how much of it I can actually control. Just the two of us on a tiny boat in the middle of the lake, surrounded by nature, feeling both free and strangely stuck at the same time.We traveled from our hometown Leiden, to Lake Braassem, all the way up to Amsterdam and back. Along the way, we met up with saxophonist Susanne Alt on the side of Beatrix Park, and we recorded harmonica player Hermine Deurloo in a secret spot on the canals in the oldest part of Amsterdam. We carried Adinda Meertins’ double bass onto De Vouw and drifted into the middle of the lake, where it also ended up serving as a wind blocker. We met friends and family at the small water lock in Roelofarendsveen, the mysterious photographer John Brussel, who lives hidden away in a little cabin on the shores of De Kaag, and we even found a few original Amsterdammers as well.I set out to make an album on the water, but in the end, I made an album with the water, guided by the current. Because when life becomes difficult, sometimes the only thing you can do is move with it. This album is a journey through where my music is right now, a love letter to Dutch waters, and the beginning of a new chapter in my artistry. This is me. This is Current.#jazz #vocalist #singing #kennywerner #piano #effortlessmastery #berkleecollegeofmusic #meditation #selfcompassion #selfesteem #selfcare #selfhelp #lifelonglearning #psychology #improvisation #sound #engineering #choir #chorus #women #feminism #music #alcohn #zootsims #joecohn #billieholiday #boston #nyc #digital #analog #album #shirleyhorne #dominiqueeade #ocean #sea #water #experiemental #belgium #netherlands #chocolate #bakery #baking #food #cuisine

#maryoliver #podcast #poetry #mitchhampton #film #documentary

Inside this episode: An American Poet: A Conversation with filmmaker Sasha Waters on Mary Oliver, Documentary Film and the ArtsWhen the subject of a film is no less a figure than Mary Oliver, not only one of the greatest of 20th Century American Poets but also one who wrote of and from the natural world as much as the human and cultural world, it might seem that the visual dimension is as important as the spoken or written word. Sasha Waters has, incredibly, accomplished this in her film Mary Oliver: Saved By The Beauty Of The World, a film that approaches in image some of what Oliver did in her words.

I enjoyed speaking with Sasha about her process in making her film as its universality and particularity speaks to us now in 2026 in ways that feel most relevant.

Sasha Waters Bio:Sasha Waters is an American documentary and experimental filmmaker, feminist and educator. She has produced and directed twenty films, most of which were shot on her 16mm Bolex. Her films have screened at the Brooklyn Museum, the Museum of the Moving Image, the Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival and DOC NYC. She is a Professor of Photography and Film at VCU School of the Arts in Richmond, Virginia. She has been a Fellow in residence at MacDowell, Yaddo, and at Millay Arts.Synopsis of Mary Oliver: Saved By The Beauty Of The World:If poetry had a pop icon, Mary Oliver would be it. Celebrated bestseller, Pulitzer Prize winner, lover of dogs and long walks in the woods, openly queer but intensely private, Oliver was America’s unlikely contemporary mystic, stalking the ponds and forests of Cape Cod for nearly 50 years in order to open herself – and her readers – to the known and unknowable world. From a lonely childhood to literary fame, Oliver’s life was shaped by devotion to nature, paying attention, and the long journey toward learning to love and to be loved. Her poems inspire liberals and conservatives, atheists and believers, naturalists and urbanites, speaking directly to contemporary anxieties about attention, presence, and the human relationship with the natural world – issues that feel especially pressing in an era of climate crisis, digital distraction, and social fragmentation.

Featuring interviews with her close friends, including John Waters, never-before-seen personal photos, notebooks, and correspondence from her archive, and recitations of her work by Stephen Colbert, Lucy Dacus, Steve Buscemi, and Oprah Winfrey, Mary Oliver: Saved by the Beauty of the World considers the poet’s long lifetime of work in context, capturing the uniqueness of her world and the natural beauty that inspired her.

#poetry #queer #nature #massachusetts  #newengland #documentary #pbs #healing #spirituality #recovery #trauma #wilderness #botany #biology #family #conservation #literature #sharonolds #elizabethbishop #Emerson #thoreau #robertfrost #transcendentalism #religion #faith #boston #virginia #iowa #writer #garywinogrand #normanmailer #newyork #romanticism #robertlowell #biography #america #feminism #lesbian #gay #bookstore #johnwaters #stephencolbert #oprahwinfrey #bookclub #youth #education #pinkflamingos #multiplemaniacs #baltimore #maryland #ptown #provincetown #divine #drag #lucydacus #stevebuscemi #helenabonhamcarter #season #summer #winter #spring #fall #jessewelles #1950s #1960s #1870s #1980s #1990s #2000s #dogs #dogmom #animals #modernism #postmodernism #1800s #20thcentury #1700s #tseliot #annesexton #maysarton #sylviaplath #ornithology #birds #forest #woods #bear #sufriedrich #lynnesachs #fredwiseman 

More about us:Our podcast is a comprehensive examination of all matters aesthetic, all the arts and humanities, how they connect us, a celebration of the creative process across all of the arts and most of all, what it means to be human. Mitch Hampton is a neurodivergent journalist and pianist who composes for film, television, commercials, live concerts.

In this inauguration of Season 8 (!) I reflect upon this work aesthetic and my nominal identity as an "aesthete", diving into some classic - and not so classic - texts on the subject.

Listeners, we had a blast bringing you our summer jazz trio concert featuring the smoking hot Mitch Hampton Trio!

We will be back soon with more tunes and jams as well as our regular podcast programming.Thanks for being the best part of what we do!Enjoy, share, leave a comment- all that jazz.

( See what we did there )

#podcast #jazztube #mitchhamptontrio #livestream #concert

#music #milesdavis #mitchhampton #booklunch #booktube #jazztube #musiceducationMay 26 of this year of 2026 marked the Centennial of Miles Davis' birth. For this book lunch I will review and examine two books on jazz, making this the second time I have covered a nonfiction book on musical subject (Laurie Verchomin's The Big Love on Bill Evans being the other one). I purposely chose two rather different books as a meditation on the many different styles of covering real life subjects; Marc Meyers' Why Jazz Happened and James Kaplan's 3 Shades Of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool. This Book Lunch topic will be the first of two parts on the two books.More on this ongoing series, here:June Book Lunch:” 3 Shades Of Blue and Why Jazz Happened” Part 1May 26 of this year of 2026 marked the Centennial of Miles Davis’ birth. For this book lunch I will review and examine two books on jazz, making this the second time I have covered a nonfiction book on musical subject (Laurie Verchomin’s The Big Love on Bill Evans being the other one.)I purposely chose two rather different books as a meditation on the many different styles of covering real life subjects; Marc Meyers’ Why Jazz Happened and James Kaplan’s 3 Shades Of Blue: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bill Evans, and the Lost Empire of Cool. While the Myer’s book is a utilitarian history suffused with all sorts of important facts about jazz its own genre with its own story, Kaplan’s book is an artful, poetic account of the same era. I will feature excerpts from both and reflect not only on the state of Jazz music but upon the state of prose in social and music hostly in general.Direct Link to our episode with the magnificent Laurie Verchomin and her book on Bill Evans:Please enjoy these supplemental, educational videos for this stream:   • Fine And Mellow   Billie Holiday With Cole...     • Original Dixieland Jass Band - Livery Stab...     • Bennie Moten's Kansas City Orchestra - Mot...  

 **Special Note: Alexandra's current workon view:The Great Mother's Dream: Metamorphosis as Power and Wisdom at Louisa Art Center LA, 7626 Santa Monica Blvd, Los Angeles 5/12-8/17

 I’m always delighted when Alexandra Carter returns to our podcast: not only do we discuss some interesting movies, many of which are titles she recommends but we get to spend time in her studio surrounded by her paintings, some works in progress. 

Alex has an abiding interest in the worlds of the Gothic and Folk-Horror and those are genres which at times appear to have a quite direct relationship to current news and facts in our real world.

More on our series “Travels with  With the Dark: Stories from humans in the “Limit-Experienc Series:

Our new series concerns real occurrences of human beings when they are brought into or more aptly, up against “limit-experience”, a phrase from French and German philosophers that attempts to describe in the most general way what human beings undergo when they are thrust into situations that push them to their limits and conditions of maximum intensity. 

While originally this was intended to be a series in the  “True Crime” genre  I wondered to myself if subject and theme could extended outward. 

It might not even only encompass the most negative aspect of human experience.

More on Alex and her beautiful work: 

Alexandra’s Website: https://www.alexandra-carter.com

Alexandra Carter (b. 1985, Boston, MA) is a San Diego-based artist whose work explores themes of fertility, maternity, and transformation, often drawing on her upbringing on a cranberry farm in Massachusetts. 

She holds an MFA from Goldsmiths University of London (2015) and a BA from Rhodes College (2009). Her recent solo exhibitions include Luna Anaïs Gallery and the Middle Room (Los Angeles), the University of Minnesota (St. Paul), and Oolong Gallery (San Diego). Carter has also exhibited internationally, with solo shows at Fusion Gallery (Turin, Italy) and Projecto’ace Foundation (Buenos Aires). She has participated in numerous residencies, including the Kone Foundation’s Saari Residence (Finland), KulturKontakt Austria (Vienna), Rogers Art Loft (Las Vegas), Qwatz (Rome), Vice~Versa Foundation (Goa, India), and Graniti Murales (Sicily).

Links to recent artist talks & podcast interviews:

“The Explosive Female Body: Artist Alexandra Carter’s Muse in Birth and Beyond” Interview by Kaitlin Solimine for Postpartum Production Podcast 8 May 2024

Alexandra Carter and Christiana Updegraff Artist Talk for their exhibition "Tether," moderated by Alessandra Moctezuma, Oolong Gallery Podcast 2 May 2023

Artist Spotlight: Alexandra Carter Interviewed by Rachel Larraine on the Holistic Interior Design Business Podcast 27 April 2023

"Cranberry, Fertility, and the Performative Body in Painting" Artist Lecture, Rogers Studio Gallery, Las Vegas

From the Cranberry Farm to the Art Studio, our talk with Alexandra Carter Journey of an Aesthete Podcast 6 April 2022. 

Flora and Female: Alexandra Carter and Tiffanie Turner Virtual Artist Talk, Lamont Gallery at Phillips Exeter Academy 17 March 2021

Artist Lecture for “A Sense of Heat in Her Brain” October 2020

#lucaguadanino #horror #dracula #nosferatu #movies #art-horror #folk-horror #gothic #fantasy #religion #christianity #folklore #urban #country #shakespeare #sexuality #motherhood #hamnet #hamlet #tarkovsky #newengland #uk #faith #science #pandemic #aids #publichealth #vampire #monster #musical #belalugosi #garyoldman #franklangella #jackpalance #dancurtis #wescraven #santamonica #losangeles #plymouth #massachusetts #puritans #roberteggars #ariaster #metoo #witch #witchcraft #medicine #grief #birth #death #davidcronenberg #roberteggars #thesubstance #tobehooper #alfredhitchcock 

"All About Aesthetics": Return Guest Madame B in Paris and looking at Art and Culture Through A Gen X lens

I always love when Madame Deb returns to the show; in certain respects this might be the most personal episode between Deb and myself thus far. 

We take the deepest dive into the popular culture that were were raised on from the “Long Seventies”especially made for t.v. movies as well as provocative releases in theaters. 

We discuss the wilder horror art from the period, the sobering education we received concerning a fuller accounting of human nature and how these experiences of those years made us a unique generation in many ways. I hope you enjoy this one as much as we did. 

#wescraven #gothic #waltercronkite #abc #nbc #cbs #snl #nixon #watergate #jaws #theexorcist #antonlavey #billygraham #stagflation #recession A#jimmycarter  #romanpolanski #rosemarysbaby #iralevin #katherineross #suburbia #thestepfordwives #darrenmcgavin #thenightstalker #nightgallery #twilightzone #rodserling #dancurtis #karenblack #leepurcell #1960 #1970s #1980s #millennial #genx #geny #genalpha #babyboomer #charlesmanson #stevenspielberg #dennisweaver #duel #letsscarejessicatotdeath #areyouinthehousealone #themovieoftheweek #nbcsundaymyserymovie #johncassavetes #chrisrtianity #satanism #williamfriedkin #ellenburstyn #chicago #newyorkcity #florida #creaturefeature #networktelevision #hbomax #netflix #davidchase  

#Tomstoppard #booklunch #JoanneDavisWoods #HermioneLee #books #booktube "Book Lunch": Hermione Lee's "Tom Stoppard: "A Life" with Joanne Davis WoodsWhen Tom Stoppard passed this past November we lost one of the genuine greats in the arts. His prolific creations, not only vast (and quite disparate) plays, but work in movies, radio and even significant political activism in real life, for Jews in the former Soviet Union and dissidents everywhere, his considerable erudition in math and science almost as much as in the humanities, his love and wisdom about nature and interest in the tradition of English gardening - these facets are rarely found in any one mortal.Joanne and I discuss Lee's big book, mindful that Lee is herself one of the best biographers writing today, her own interests overlapping with my own in Isaiah Berlin, and an ideal author to present Stoppard's life. Hopefully we will discuss at least some of these topics in the episode.