Listen: Tom Johnson – Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for String Bass

I can never be accused of being an early adopter, and I’m pretty sure I’ll look crass jumping on that whole MP3 blog thing. (They’re out of style yet now, aren’t they?)

But one thing I do miss about the old Musicwhore was the audio. It was a pain to maintain, but it was fun to hear music along side reviews.

So I’m going to take a page from those MP3 blogs and occassionally post a file now and then for two weeks at a time.

Back in March, I ripped my entire CD library to MP3. I came across something I hadn’t heard in a long time — Bang on a Can Live, Vol. 1 from the now-defunct Composers Recordings, Inc. label. The first track from that compilation is a rather philosophical piece about the nature of performance practice. Or the lack thereof.

It’s titled "Failing: A Very Difficult Piece for String Bass", and it was composed by Tom Johnson. Robert Black, who would become a member of the Bang on a Can All-Stars, performed the piece live in a New York City venue named The Kitchen back in the early ’90s for this particular recording.

The piece literally speaks for itself.

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