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Archive: 2016 (15 Posts)

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Nothing Compares to Prince

Posted by: Pat Padua

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 …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

They Will Survive: the 2015 National Recording Registry

Posted by: Pat Padua

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 …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Sheet Music Spotlight: Leap Year Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

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 …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Tap Dance in America Launches Today!

Posted by: Pat Padua

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 …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Thunderbirds are GO! Tonight in the Mary Pickford Theater

Posted by: Pat Padua

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 …

Woman with dark hair, fancy dress and pearls with eyes closed and mouth slightly open, singing

Sheet Music of the Week: Winter Polka Edition

Posted by: Pat Padua

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 …