Rob Bowman Archives | Research & Innovation

Ike Turner's Rocket 88, first rock'n'roll song, turns 60 but remains obscure in music history

fmaquito — Wed, 25 May 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Sixty years later, many historians consider [Rocket 88 by Ike Turner] the first-ever rock 'n' roll song, and musicians revere the tune, as well as the band's livewire performance, :

And yet, most regular people don't know that the track even exists.

"If I went to my local grocery store here and stopped 20 people, if I found one who knew about it, I'd be shocked," said Grammy Award-winning 91��ɫ music Professor Rob Bowman [Faculty of Fine Arts], who's been lecturing about Rocket 88 since 1979. "It's definitely not as well known as Elvis's hits or Jerry Lee (Lewis)'s big hits, or Rock Around the Clock. This is (before) the massive explosion.... You don't hear it as a golden oldie. You listen to oldies radio, and you'll hear Hound Dog, you'll hear Great Balls of Fire, you'll hear Maybellene by Chuck Berry, you'll hear Little Richard's Tutti Frutti – you won't hear Rocket 88.”

Other elements of the song were different as well.

As Bowman explains it, the song's whole groove is underpinned by riffs, which were derived from the blues tradition and became a crucial element in rock music.

"(The song's) significance on white teenagers in '51 probably wasn't huge, but it was a huge record on the black charts," Bowman explained. "I mean, some white hipsters who were listening to black radio at the time did hear it, and I think it had a big influence on those musicians."

"Besides its significance historically, it's just an unbelievably great, exciting record," Bowman enthused. "This record's got distorted electric guitar, it's riff-based, it's got the honky tenor sax tradition encoded within it, it's got boogie-woogie piano, it's got lyrics that are a series of sexual automotive metaphors, and it's at a souped-up tempo.

"What's not to love?"

Posted by Elizabeth Monier-Williams, research communications officer, with files courtesy of YFile – 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post Ike Turner's Rocket 88, first rock'n'roll song, turns 60 but remains obscure in music history appeared first on Research & Innovation.

Music professor on how Justin Bieber leveraged digital media to became a global sensation

fmaquito — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Keeping up that intense feeling of personal connection via the Internet is incredibly important in marketing to the Justin Bieber demographic, says Rob Bowman, who teaches popular music in 91��ɫ’s Faculty of Fine Arts, wrote The Globe and Mail May 29:

“You’re appealing to a certain adolescent group who’ve got fairly innocent notions of romance,” explains the specialist in soul music and Grammy award winner for best album notes. “These 12- and 13-year-olds...it’s a huge part of the bonding aspect, this innocent crush.”

As his popularity has ballooned, the singer has cultivated that crush. Plenty of celebrities have discovered the Internet, and its power to let them tell strangers what they had for breakfast. But in this case, the payoff is more tangible. Bieber fanatics have proved eager to help market him, fuelling his sales as well as his celebrity.

It likely takes him a matter of minutes to copy a message such as this one sent by fan @GillianLovesJBx to his Twitter home page – “@justinbieber Do u respond to a simple I Love You? :)” – and then reply, for all the world to see, “I love u 2...i love all u ladies :).”

. . .

Those millions of young fans are attracted by the same characteristics as other teen heartthrobs, says Bowman, citing such boy band predecessors as the Backstreet Boys and ’N Sync. “That’s following in a trend that started about 10, 15 years ago, where you have white groups packaging R&B but in a very safe, homogenized way.”

Rob Bowman is an associate professor in the Department of Music. The rest of the article is .

The post Music professor on how Justin Bieber leveraged digital media to became a global sensation appeared first on Research & Innovation.

91��ɫ music professors spread the word about their research

fmaquito — Fri, 21 May 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The research and creative work of 91��ɫ music professors spans a wide range of genres and media formats. Disseminated through recordings, print publications and live performances, it’s reaching growing audiences at home and around the world.

Composer and choral conductor Professor Stephanie Martin (left), who serves as music director of Toronto’s historic Church of St. Mary Magdalene, is celebrating the publication of five new choral compositions. Ave Verum Corpus, a song for unaccompanied choir, was recently published by Vancouver-based Cypress Choral Music. Martin directed the Gallery Choir of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene in a performance of the work at the choir’s home church in Toronto and Calvin Presbyterian Church in Kitchener on April 30 and May 1, respectively. Ave Verum Corpus will be heard again later this month, having been selected for inclusion in the performance repertoire of , Canada’s Choral Conference taking place in Saskatoon May 20 to 23.

Martin’s other recent composition publications include Kontakion, an unaccompanied choral piece on a text from the Greek Orthodox liturgy, also released by Cypress; God so Loved the World for choir, oboe and flute, and O sacrum convivium, a Latin communion motet for unaccompanied choir, released by Hamilton’s UtReMi Edition; and Drop, Slow Tears, a choral work set to a text by the 17th-century poet Phineas Fletcher, released by Victoria’s Fairbank Music Publishing.

91��ɫ’s Grammy Award-winning “rock ’n’ roll professor”, ethnomusicologist Professor Rob Bowman (right), has added another release to his long list of popular music reissues. His latest production, , is a 5-DVD boxed set documenting some of the legendary rock artists and greatest hits of the 1960s. Bowman associate-produced the series for , home of the world’s largest library of music footage. Joining a chorus of critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic, the Toronto Star’s Greg Quill hailed the DVD series as “a well-researched and expertly curated package.”

The set includes four titles: Dusty Springfield - Once Upon A Time 1964-1969, Small Faces - All Or Nothing 1965-1968, Gerry & The Pacemakers - It’s Gonna Be All Right 1963-1965, and Herman’s Hermits - Listen People 1964-1969, plus a bonus disc with additional content from the same artists. Rare concert and archival interview footage of the performers in their prime is accompanied by recent interviews that Bowman researched and conducted with Peter Noone (of Herman’s Hermits), Gerry Marsden (Gerry & The Pacemakers), Kenney Jones (The Who and Small Faces) and Ian McLagan (Small Faces), among others.

Bowman attended the launch party for the United States release hosted by the British Consulate General in Manhattan on April 8. While in New 91��ɫ, he got a head start on his next DVD project, conducting a three-hour interview with Graham Nash of The Hollies and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young. Future plans include a trip to England to do more interviews with members of The Hollies and The Pretty Things.

Bowman’s writing also graces the liner notes of two timely CD releases: Canadian blues artist Colin Linden’s recently re-issued debut LP , and an upcoming recording by soul singer Bettye LaVette.

On the jazz front, music Professor Sundar Viswanathan (right) released his latest CD with Sundary Quartet, titled at a standing-room only event at Chalkers Pub in Toronto earlier this season. A collection of jazz standards, the disc features Viswanathan on vocals and saxophone, with 91��ɫ instructor Adrean Farrugia and Dave Restivo on piano, George Koller on bass and Larnell Lewis on drums. Toronto Star jazz columnist Ashante Infantry described Viswanathan’s vocals on the CD as “a cross between Kurt Elling and Chet Baker” and complimented his performance of the material as “as commanding live as recorded.”

Master percussionist Professor Trichy Sankaran is launching his new book, The Art of Konnakkol, on May 27 with a free concert at Toronto’s . The concert starts at 8pm and will feature Sankaran in performance with members of the Indo-jazz fusion band Autorickshaw and other special guests.

The Art of Konnakkol is an authoritative text on the rich tradition of rhythmic spoken syllables of south Indian drumming. The spoken syllables, called konnakko or solkattu, are onomatopoeic to the mrdangam, the two-headed drum of south Indian classical music, on which Sankaran is a virtuoso performer. The spoken syllables can be performed as a call and response to the drum, or simultaneously with the drum beats.

Sankaran’s book, which is accompanied by a CD, outlines in detail the principal rhythmic concepts of this dynamic spoken art form. It can be used as a study guide and will be of benefit to a wide variety of artists, from percussionists and vocalists to composers and dancers, and anyone seeking a greater understanding of rhythm and musical time.

Republished courtesy of YFile– 91��ɫ’s daily e-bulletin.

The post 91��ɫ music professors spread the word about their research appeared first on Research & Innovation.