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Bruce Brubaker on all things piano

Digging to France

July 24, 2017 by Bruce Brubaker

When I tell a U.S. colleague about several concerts I’m playing in France he says: “You’re Jerry Lewis!” The French, it’s true, have a long tradition of appreciating U.S culture, and yes, that silly American comedian/auteur was highly venerated in France, perhaps more so than in the U.S. The French public have had a great love of jazz from America, and American movies. Earlier, there was a taste for ragtime, and minstrelsy. Today, American-style hamburgers are prized!

After the sandbox was removed from behind my childhood home in Des Moines (even the name of my hometown shows the influence of the French) — a habit or pursuit or obsession descended in the far corner of our backyard. I started digging a hole. It wasn’t a very big hole. At age eight or so, I could sit on the edge of the excavation with my feet touching the bottom. It never got much deeper, though I kept digging, changing the slope, the contours, shaping miniature hillside roads where I could drive my metal toy trucks and cars.

In the United States, when someone digs a big hole it’s common to say “I’m digging to China.” (China is on the other side of the planet, at least.) When I was asked about my destination, I always answered: “I’m digging to France.”

France seemed unbelievably and desirably sophisticated. In the biggest department store in downtown Des Moines, the fanciest women’s clothing was found on the top floor in “The French Room.” A good dry cleaners in town was called “French Way Cleaners.” Around the time of the digging, I recall seeing a television program about Brie, a cheese unavailable in Des Moines. The Sunday newspaper carried ads for trips to Paris, a city to which no one I knew had ever been.

In the last five years, I have played many concerts in France, in classical music festivals (La Roque d’Anthéron, Folle Journée in Nantes), and nightclubs (Café de la Danse), in large concert halls, and theaters in small towns (at the Theater of Glass near the Brie region, for example). Often I have played music by Philip Glass and other American music. Frequently, I am overwhelmed by the intense reactions of French audiences — by the palpable physicality of interaction between public and performer. Very fortunately, I made the acquaintance of the team at InFiné Music in Paris. This label has released a lot of new electronic music and they had the idea of doing remixes of piano pieces by Glass played by me. (Further projects are underway.) I continue to play many performances in France.

I know that many American musicians discovered their America — their American sound or character — while studying and working in France. Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Mr. Glass. I’m leaving for Paris again next week…

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Aaron, American, American movies, Copland, Des Moines, digging to China, France, Francophile, French, Glass, InFiné, Iowa, jazz, Jerry Lewis, midwest, minimalism, minimalist, minstrelsy, Nadia Boulanger, Philip, Thomson, U.S.A., Virgil

Comments

  1. Gregory says

    July 25, 2017 at 12:30 pm

    French have a fascination with Les Américains born in great part from having been liberated in 1944. Like all true love it is often missunderstood and blind. We see the U.S. through an East-Coast New York centric intellectualism which also find itself inextricably bundled with the guilty pleasures of Dynasty, Dallas, CHiPs and Baywatch and the beautiful bling culture of rap music videos. As a small country we have a fascination for the big open spaces of films like Thelma & Louise or anything le Grand Canion. We equate Chicago with Al Capone, Los Angeles with Chaplin, Marilyn and Jim Jarmush, the South to Dixieland Jazz and slavery. While Chinese take out and pizza are staples of the American diet few in the U.S. have thoughts of the Orient or the old country while devouring. Le hamburger to us French is more than a sloppy excuse for a fast meal, it is a symbol of modernity, a now dining paradigm, a classlessness society of the New World. Yet the French believe that food in the U.S. is terrible which of course it is not. Calling an elected official Américain is the greatest of insults. We loved Bill Clinton, were dismayed by the Bush years, welcomed Obama as the messiah and are amused that anyone who was not in on the joke would vote for Trump.

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    July 25, 2017 at 5:36 am

    […] Digging to France When I tell a U.S. colleague about several concerts I’m playing in France he says: “You’re Jerry Lewis!” The French, it’s true, have a long tradition of appreciating U.S culture, and yes, that silly American … read more AJBlog: PianoMorphosis Published 2017-07-24 […]

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    […] its $60-million reinvention plan. … read more AJBlog: CultureGrrl Published 2017-07-24 Digging to France When I tell a U.S. colleague about several concerts I’m playing in France he says: […]

Bruce Brubaker

Recordings like the new American piano music albums I make for ECM, InFiné, Bedroom Community, and Arabesque reach millions of listeners, and break through some old divisions of high culture/pop, or art/entertainment. My fans are listening to Billie Eilish, The Weeknd — even the occasional Mozart track! Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube are allowing music lovers to discover music they could not have found so easily before. Live performances begin to reflect what’s happening online. My performances occur in classical venues like the Philharmonie in Paris, the Barbican in London, at La Roque d’Anthéron, at festivals such as Barcelona’s Sónar and Nuits Sonores in Brussels, and such nightclubs as New York’s (le) Poisson Rouge. Read More…

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PianoMorphosis

Music is changing. Society's changing. Pianists, and piano music, and piano playing are changing too. That's PianoMorphosis. But we're not only reacting... From the piano -- at the piano, around the piano -- we are agents of change. We affect … [Read More...]

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BB on the web

“Glassforms” with Max Cooper at Sónar

“Glass Etude” on YouTube

demi-cadratin review of Brubaker solo concert at La Roque d’Anthéron

“Classical music dead? Nico Muhly proves it isn’t” — The Telegraph‘s Lucy Jones on my Drones & Piano EP

Bachtrack review of Brubaker all-Glass concert

“Brubaker recital proves eclectic, hypnotic, and timeless” — Harlow Robinson’s Boston Globe review of my Jordan Hall recital

“Simulcast” with Francesco Tristano on Arte

Bruce Brubaker hosts 4 weeks of “Hammered!” on WQXR — “Something Borrowed,” “Drone,” “Portal,” “The Raw and the Cooked”

“Onstage, a grand piano and an iPod” — David Weininger’s story with video by Dina Rudick

“Bruce Brubaker on Breaking Down Boundaries” — extensive audio interview at PittsburghNewMusicNet.com

“Heavy on the Ivories” — Andrea Shea’s story for WBUR about Bruce Brubaker’s performances and recording of “The Time Curve Preludes” by William Duckworth

“Feeding Those Young and Curious Listeners” — Anthony Tommasini in The New York Times on the first anniversary of the Poisson Rouge

“The Jewel in the Fish” — Harry Rolnick on Bruce Brubaker at the Poisson Rouge

“The Post-Postmodern Pianist” — Damian Da Costa profiles Bruce Brubaker in The New York Observer

Bruce Brubaker questioned at NewYorkPianist.net

“Finding the keys to the heart of Jordan Hall” — Joan Anderman in the Boston Globe on the search for a new concert grand piano

“Hearing and Seeing” — Philip Glass speaks with Bruce Brubaker and Jon Magnussen, Princeton, Institute for Advanced Study

Bruce Brubaker about Messiaen’s bird music, NPR, “Here and Now”

“I Hear America: Gunther Schuller at 80” — notes and programs for concert series, New England Conservatory, Harvard University, Boston Symphony Orchestra

“A Conversation That Never Occurred About the Irene Diamond Concert,” Juilliard Journal

Bruce Brubaker plays music by Alvin Curran at (le) Poisson Rouge

Bruce Brubaker

Recordings such the new American piano music albums I make for ECM, InFiné, and Arabesque reach many listeners, and seem to break through some old divisions of high culture/pop, or art/entertainment. My fans are listening to Cardi B, Childish Gambino, Ariana Grande — even the occasional Mozart track! Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube are allowing music lovers to discover music they could not have encountered so easily in the past. Live performances begin to reflect what’s happening online: this year I play at the International Piano Festival at La Roque d’Anthéron, traditional concert venues in Los Angeles, and Boston — as well as nightclubs in Berlin, Hamburg, Paris, Lyon, Geneva, and New York’s (le) Poisson Rouge.

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