Author: Don

Chick Corea in an acoustic mood, with Stanley Clarke, Al Di Meola and Lenny White.

Exploring the Irish roots of Japanese music — or is it the other way around?

An old fiddle tune, done a bit differently.

Some jazz-funk to wake you up. Randy Brecker, sax, and Micheal Brecker, trumpet, were part of Dreams and worked with Todd Rundgren and Frank Zappa, among others.

If I had to pick just one of Schubert’s works, it would be this one.

If you heard a piano on a British record from the later ’60’s, the chances are that either Rick Wakeman or Nicky Hopkins was playing it.

Before there was CCR, there was Dale Hawkins.

I made several hammered dulcimers in years past. Dalglish was one of the musicians I listened to while figuring out how to play the things.

Another forgotten ’60’s band. This one features guitarist Paul Cotton, who would later join Poco.

Carl Maria von Weber wrote “Aufforderung zum Tanz” in 1819. Berlioz orchestrated it in 1841. That orchestration was used by Michel Fokine for the ballet Le Spectre de la Rose.² Karl Tausig, probably Liszt’s most brilliant student, took Weber’s “Invitation to the Dance” and made it a virtuoso showpiece.

I figure most bloggers are posting jigs and reels today, so here are the nocturnes of Irish pianist John Field. The video should start with the “Nocturne in B-flat major, H.37,” which I played when I was first learning the piano, but they’re all worth hearing.

There was no escape from the original back in ancient times, and I’m sick of it. Driscoll, Auger and company make the tune listenable.

… and this makes six months of daily tunes. There are six more months to come.

It’s too soon to say that Mancuso is one of the greats, but he is pretty good and worth keeping track of.

The queen of rockabilly, with Roy Clark on guitar.

The Dutch band Supersister, featuring Robert Jan Stips on keyboards, were among the best exponents of the Canterbury school of prog rock.

It’s an old story: man meets mermaid, and the inevitable happens. It’s not quite like Hans Christian Anderson.

Continue reading “Tune of the day #179”

Szymanowski’s take on the Scheherazade story is quite a bit different from Rimsky-Korsakov’s.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released five albums in 1917, each with a different gimmick. Polygondwanaland‘s is that it’s “name your price,” i.e., free.

Country Joe McDonald, who was named for Joseph Stalin, died Saturday.