The music world continues to mourn Prince, who died on April 21 at the young age of 57. The diminutive purple icon was a mad musical scientist who took James Brown and Jimi Hendrix into his lab and concocted something uniquely and unforgettably fabulous. Prince fans come from all walks of life, and he entered …
This year’s selections for the National Recording Registry provide the makings of a typically eclectic mixtape that spans decades and genres. There really is something for everybody. Each year the National Recording Preservation Board advises the Librarian of Congress in the selection of 25 recordings that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and are at …
The following is a guest post by retired cataloger Sharon McKinley. We all know that the concept of occasionally adding a day or more to the calendar to keep the seasons where they belong has been around for a long, long time. A couple of millennia, in fact. I was wondering how long the term …
The following is a guest post by Constance Valis Hill, jazz tap dancer, choreographer, and scholar of performance studies. Her book, Brotherhood in Rhythm: The Jazz Tap Dancing of the Nicholas Brothers (2000) received the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award. Tap Dancing America, A Cultural History (2010) was supported by grants from the John Simon Guggenheim …
For those unable to attend Friday night’s program in the film series Time Capsule: 1966, here’s a guest post by Brian Taves of the Motion Pictures, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Divsion at the Library of Congress. I want to thank Pat Padua for selecting tonight’s program and asking if I would introduce it. He knows …
The following is a guest post from retired cataloger Sharon McKinley. I am such a sucker for a beautiful sheet music cover. I’ve been attracted by pretty women, handsome men, cute kittens, and gorgeous landscapes. So this decorative cover certainly caught my eye while I was perusing some winter tunes. “Winter Polka, or, Recollections of …