Here are interesting music-related items that appeared online this week and new music. “After Slice” is from Ivory Waves (above) and “No...
The Daily Music Break’s first video chat features Jeff Claassen, a trumpet player and Associate Professor of Harmony at the Berklee School of Music. Jeff...
Making the call on which video to use for the top of this post was easy. Most obviously, “Keep on Growing” is a great song. Beyond that, it offers...
I was putting together his top ten list of Van Morrison songs during the week that Fats Domino passed away. The irony is that the song “Domino” is...
The song “We’ll Meet Again” has turned up many times. Three instances are particularly significant and memorable. The song was written by Hughie Charles and...
Singer, songwriter and guitarist Ani DiFranco was born in 1970 in Buffalo. She moved out of her parents’ house when she only was 15. Before that – when she was...
The first paragraph of the 1969 obituary of Coleman Hawkins in The New York Times puts him right where he belongs: Alongside Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington...
New York has a lot of great music radio stations. Three of the finest are WBGO (a jazz station that actually is in Newark), WKCR and WFUV (the radio stations...
There isn’t much else to write about Tom Petty that hasn’t been written since his passing. Somebody dying young is just a profoundly sad thing...
…and it’s a good thing. The David Scott Weaver Band performed last week before an audience of German Shepherds, Corgis, Labs, mutts and a few...
Reading Music
The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.
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Here are some books to check out.
Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.
What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.
The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").
David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.
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