Totemism

This blog is dedicated to the first rate performer, singer and musician Diamanda Galás. Diamanda Galás (born August 29, 1955) is a Greek-American avant-garde composer, vocalist, pianist, performance artist and painter. Known for her expert piano as well as her distinctive, operatic voice, which has a three and a half octave range, Galás has been described as "capable of the most unnerving vocal terror". Galás often shrieks, howls, and seems to imitate glossolalia in her performances. Her works largely concentrate on the topics of suffering, despair, condemnation, injustice and isolation. She has worked with many avant-garde composers, including Iannis Xenakis, and Vinko Globokar. Greatness exists independent of most peoples judgement or opinion. We only listen to the wise. The fools have no vote, this is not a democracy. Photos are published by the kind permission of the artist. Her official website: http://diamandagalas.com/

The Thrill Is Gone

Kategori: Diamanda Galás, Music

The Thrill Is Gone (Music: Ray Henderson | Lyrics: Lew Brown, 1931)
 
Diamanda's rendition of the song is not just the story about a love grown cold. Her
interpretation suggests something beyond the obvious. To mention one detail out
of many; how she sustains the first syllables in "thrill" and "gone" and adjusts her
timbre to depict and underline a vast void. The thrill is gone, but so are you. It works
in both directions. The ingenious way she uses and stretches time in both her playing
and singing is a spell caster.The piano part is exquisitely played with subtly shaded
dynamics and colors. There's quite nothing like a classically trained pianist and
singer who never gets academic, but who knows how to "feel in time" and project
sonorities that matches mood and expression. Her art of recomposing and
constructive abilityhas a firm intellectual support, which shows in the interplay of
thesinging and playing. Her musical intelligence is always vividly present, even in
the darkest hours.This recording is unreleased.

 
[“The Thrill Is Gone” has been recorded by Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald,
Stan Kenton, Chet Baker, Julie London, and Stan Getz, to name a few. The
version popularized by B. B. King was written by Rick Darnell and Roy Hawkins in
1951. King's version is a slow twelve-bar blues notated in the key of B minor in
4/4 time, but this is a really different story]
 
 
 
Photo: Kristofer Buckle
 
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