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Archive: May 2010 (14 Posts)

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Memorial Day

Posted by: Pat Padua

In the United States, Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday in May. The day was first set aside in 1868  “for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every …

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Bach and the Bohemian Gypsies

Posted by: Pat Padua

Tomorrow evening, the Montreal group Ensemble Caprice will bring Bach and the Bohemian Gypsies to the Coolidge Auditorium, in a featured concert at the 39th Annual Meeting of the American Musical Instrument Society. This program will illustrate the influence of anonymous gypsy virtuosi on the works of two great Baroque composers.   The Caprice musicians and …

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Of Crooners and Princes: May Birthdays

Posted by: Pat Padua

Last week we celebrated birthdays of a diverse array of musical luminaries. Pianist Wladziu Valentino was briefly known as  Walter Busterkeys before using the name by which we all know him: Liberace was born May 16, 1919. Read about him in the Nevada section of the Local Legacies project in The American Folklife Center. Alexander Warrack’s Scots Dictionary …

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Going for Baroque with Wanda Landowska

Posted by: Pat Padua

Modern music lovers with a penchant for the Baroque may assume that the much-loved timbre of the harpsichord has been popular ever since its development in the 15th century. But according to Grove Music Online, the instrument fell almost entirely out of favor by the early 19th century, owing to the emergence of the piano. …

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Hank Jones (1918-2010)

Posted by: Pat Padua

The jazz world has lost one of its great pianists, Hank Jones, who died yesterday in New York. He was 91. During his long and storied career Jones appeared on countless sessions with legends from all walks of jazz: Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Billie Holiday, John Coltrane, and Rahsaan Roland Kirk. Jazz writer Howard Mandel …

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Tickets still available: The Uri Caine Trio at the Atlas Performing Arts Center

Posted by: Pat Padua

Pianist-composer  Uri Caine has played with a veritable who’s-who of jazz, from hard bop legend Hank Mobley to soul-jazz leader Grover Washington to avant-garde icon John Zorn,  from scat singer Annie Ross to the man who has been described as “James Brown trapped in Don Knotts’ body,” Arto Lindsay.  He  has performed Duke Ellington numbers …

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Shanghai Jazz

Posted by: Pat Padua

  Thanks to Senior Music Specialist Larry Appelbaum for this post. Chinese jazz singers Le Zhang and Coco Zhao recently visited the Music Division, where they were given an overview of the Library’s jazz collections by Senior Music Specialist Larry Appelbaum. They were especially taken by the scores of Charles Mingus and Gerry Mulligan, the …

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To All the Songs I’ve Loved Before

Posted by: Pat Padua

“People talk about song-writing techniques. I have a technique. I sit around scratching myself and waiting for something to crop up. That’s why they call it a gift! Sit there and open up your mind and let yourself be a conduit.” That’s song-writer and raconteur Bill Withers, who so memorably closed a great evening of …