Author: Don

Ernie Freeman plays the piano. The dancers are Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers in the 1941 film Hellzapoppin’. Rinsky-Korsakov is grimacing in horror.

Intermediate Zappa, with soloist Jean-Luc Ponty.

Alkan may have been the one pianist who could intimidate Liszt, but not everything he wrote was a superspectacular hypervirtuosic showpiece. Here’s a relatively simple piece, “Héraclite et Démocrite,” in which two ancient philosophers butt heads.

It’s been a while since I last posted any Gentle Giant.

One of the more absurd projects that Carl Stalling worked on. You can watch Porky in Wackyland here.

Music your grandparents loved. I don’t know about the dancing, though.

Some Scottish harp music. Kinnaird occasionally turned up on the old Thistle and Shamrock radio program. She had the most melodious speaking voice I’ve ever heard. She made Fiona Ritchie sound plain.

I got thoroughly sick of “Spinning Wheel” a century ago, but some of Blood, Sweat and Tears’ other tunes are not bad. Singer David Clayton-Thomas died last month.

Update: I’m not the only one who remembered this song on this day.

Dave Greenslade, keyboardist with Colosseum and Greenslade, died last month.

IF was a British jazz rock band that never quite hit the big time, despite extensive touring. They formed in 1969 and disbanded in 1975, but I never knew that they had existed until I got online around the turn of the century.

From the soundtrack of the horrifyingly kawaii anime Binchou-tan, composed by Taku Iwasaki. The show has never been released in the West, but the foolhardy can find it online.

Bach with pure intervals, via the moveable frets on a microtonal guitar.

Let’s spend a few minutes with Elana and the boys.

I’ve linked before to the wildly eccentric Jun Togawa’s “Mushi no Onna” as an antidote to Pachelbel’s inescapable, interminable canon, but that’s relatively mild for her. This creepy science-fiction tune is more representative of her art.

Continue reading “Tune of the day #285”

William Henry Joseph Berthol Bonaparte Bertholf Smith, better known as Willie “The Lion” Smith, was, along with James P. Johnson and Fats Waller, one of the developers of the “stride” piano. He was part Jewish, and later in his life he was a Hebrew cantor for a Harlem Black Jewish congregation.

Eccentric prog rock from Quebec in 1975. At various times in their music I can hear influences from fusion, Gentle Giant and the Canterbury school, but they don’t fit neatly into any single category.

There’s no escape from “Smoke on the Water,” so we might as well get it over with. Here’s Red Foley’s take.

From the Dennou Coil soundtrack, composed by Satou Tsuneyoshi.

Symphony Sid Page gets to show off in this one.