Category: Tune of the day

This early Roy Wood tune was the first song played on Britain’s Radio 1.

Some space music: the final piece of George Crumb’s Makrokosmos I. The score is below if you would like to play along.

Written by Ross Bagdasarian, a.k.a. “David Seville,” and William Saroyan, and first recorded in 1951 by Rosemary Clooney, who hated it. Dan Hicks installed the trampoline.

Some Elvenmusic composed by Anton Brejestovski.

Gatton declared he was too fat to ever play metal. Instead, he created a virtuosic synthesis of country, jazz and rock. Keyboardist DeFrancesco isn’t too shabby, either. I believe the album this is from was the last Gatton released during his lifetime.

Music from the Final Fantasy games arranged for chamber ensemble. I couldn’t find an unabbreviated video of the tune I wanted, so here’s the entire album. The playback should start with the seventh track, “Gold Saucer” from FF VII, but it’s all good. Most of the tunes were composed by Nobuo Uematsu.

Some good old-fashioned Irish hard rock, with electric guitars and uilleann pipes.

Alicia de Larrocha’s recording of Iberia is one of the most-played albums in my vinyl collection.

Luckey Roberts was the first of the Harlem “stride” pianists to record, in 1916. However, the technology of the time wasn’t capable of handling his dynamic playing. He did record again toward the end of his life, after strokes and an automobile accident in which his hands were shattered, and he still sounded pretty good. In his prime he must have been overwhelming.

A comprehensive introduction to the music of Frank Zappa. It’s also very silly, which is a good thing with Frankie.

While eccentric musicians can be found everywhere, Finland must have the highest concentration on the planet — Laika and the Cosmonauts, Steve ‘n’ Seagulls, Ensemble Ambrosius, etc. And Värttinä.

Most recordings I’ve heard of the complete L’ Histoire Du Soldat suffer from stunt casting, e.g., Rudolph Nureyev as the soldier.¹ The suite fortunately is entirely instrumental.

I haven’t posted any Celtic music yet, and I need to remedy that. We’ll start with a medley of Carolan tunes by The Chieftains.

John Renbourn, a Renaissance dance tune, and (modified) Heath Robinson art.

Another medieval/modern hybrid.

GG, MM and BB venture into Eric Johnson territory.

Piccio Dal Pozzo is probably the outstanding Italian example of the Canterbury school of prog rock. This is from their 1976 debut.