Green Book, Detroit. The real Don Shirley and The Donald. The ‘N’ Word, Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor, Abraham Lincoln, Uhura and Star Trek. Obama, Marc Maron and WTF. The Bruce Lee School Of Race Relations. Rent? Really?

Roger CortonSo why are we still talking about Detroit when you’ve got a whole new album and opera about Ireland?

JCHWell, a while back I mentioned that I was still getting some interest in Detroit. And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this coincides with Black History Month. I went back and checked and duuuhhhh, all the initial inquiries about the score seem to have occurred around this time of year. I just never put two and two together before. What got me really thinking about it was that movie ‘Green Book’. Did you see it?

RCI did see it.

JCHWhat did you think?

RCI liked it it. It was a little cheesy but that’s OK. I […]

Songs From The Boats: AVAILABLE NOW. Free if you have no conscience. But there are vinyl and CD versions for decent folk. We discuss the cover. Shortest. Rant. Ever.

Roger CortonCongratulations. I’m looking forwad to some vinyl.

JCHSucker.

RCOh don’t be that way. The cover looks fantastic. I wanted to get the LP for that alone.

JCHYeah. It’s a great shot. Ya know I never thought I’d find any art that would say what I wanted.

RCIt’s not a common idea. So the thing looks like a skeleton, right?

JCHRight. We’d see skeletons like that occasionally when I was a kid.

RCWhat does that have to do with the theme? Is the story really that depressing?

JCHI think it had to feel that torn apart. You know what I wanted? I wanted the tone to feel like a tornado had gone through the village. It’s not literal. But you know, man. When you lose a job. […]

Songs From The Boats: Another opera, another album. Available April 1, no fooling. Free if you have no conscience. But there are vinyl and CD versions for decent folk. We discuss loudness. LUFS vs. dBs. Score printing. Authentic Frontier Gibberish. Next steps. St. Anthony, finder of lost objects.

Roger CortonIt’s been a while. Again. Happy New Year?

JCHSame to ya fella.

RCWe have a new record coming!

JCHWell, it’s not some big surprise.

RCIt’s essentially all the snippets we’ve been going through over the past…

JCHThree hundred and ninety four years. Seven months. Fourteen days. Annnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd. About three minutes.

RCWhat’s that joke you always tell?

JCHOh yeah, the Lenny Bruce. (Indian accent) “Oh great Swami, if I don’t smoke or drink or consort with bad women will I really live forever? No, but it will certainly seem like it!”

RCThat’s the one. It just seems like we’ve been talking about this opera forever.

[…]

The official video for totally epic The Solid State Siren.

Roger CortonWe haven’t talked in a while. Is it time to get back to new music?

JCHNot yet. Still dealing with some nagging health issues.

RCSay no more. OK, so why this video now?

JCHWell, aren’t you the one who’s always after me to keep the site (cough) ‘fresh’? A lot of people don’t get a chance to hear the whole piece just from the ‘snippets’.

RCYou mean the people who you often describe as “wanting something for nothing” (laughs).

JCH. Yeah. Those people. But after a while, the vast majority of sales that are to be made have been made. So it makes sense to present the thing as it was meant to be heard.

RCAnd you’ve gotten good results from doing this with Progress, right?

JCHRight.

RCOne thing I think matters is how the three pieces […]