The best free cultural & educational media on the web
The best free cultural & educational media on the web
≡ Category: Music, Technology | ≅ 12 Comments
Neil Young made headlines last week when he appeared at the Wall Street Journal’s “D: Dive Into Media” conference and voiced his disapproval of the way music is being heard these days. “We live in a digital age,” Young said, “and unfortunately it’s degrading our music, not improving it.” Young is deeply dissatisfied with the [...]
≡ Category: Art, Music | ≅ 1 Comment
Last night, Philip Glass celebrated his 75th birthday at Carnegie Hall, attending the US premiere of his Ninth Symphony. His long and illustrious career continues. But today we’re bringing you back to 1979, when Glass wrote a composition to accompany “Geometry of Circles,” a four-part series of animations that aired on the beloved children’s show Sesame [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
Kisses On The Bottom — it’s Paul McCartney’s 35th post-Beatles album, his most provocatively-titled album to be sure, and a great stroll down memory lane. The album features covers of jazz standards, mostly written during the 1920s and 1930s. It’s the music that McCartney’s father loved to play on the family piano, giving the younger McCartney [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 6 Comments
Here Comes the Sun — it’s one of George Harrison’s contributions to Abbey Road (1969). And, among the many great Beatles’ songs, it’s my sentimental favorite. While we’re feeling sentimental, let me bring you this — Dhani Harrison, the son of the late guitarist, returns to the recording studio (presumably at Abbey Road) with George Martin, the [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 1 Comment
In December, the alternative rock band Wilco played a special series of hometown shows called the “Incredible Shrinking Tour of Chicago.” The tour kicked off on December 12 at the majestic Civic Opera House and continued over the next four nights, moving to successively smaller and more intimate venues: the Riviera, the Vic, the Metro, and [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 2 Comments
Fans of Leonard Cohen, you’ve waited patiently. Seven long years. Now it’s finally here. Cohen’s new album Old Ideas officially hits the streets next week. But it’s now streaming online for free courtesy of NPR. It will only last a limited time. So settle in now and listen to the ten tracks, which as Guardian critic [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 1 Comment
“When I’m singing blues,” Etta James once said, “I’m singing life.” Hers was a difficult life. The legendary singer, who died this morning at the age of 73 after a long struggle with leukemia, was born Jamesetta Hawkins on January 25, 1938, to an unwed 14-year-old girl, and her life was marked by drug addiction [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
One of the catchiest grooves from the rhythm and blues of the late 1950s is “Willie and the Hand Jive,” by Johnny Otis. In this lively scene from his early TV show, Otis performs the song as Marie Adams and the Three Tons of Joy demonstrate the hand jive. Lionel Hampton joins in on the [...]
≡ Category: Art, Books, Music | ≅ Leave a Comment
Music and comic book art are the two passions of Robert Crumb’s creative life. In this video from W.W. Norton, Crumb talks about his obsessive interest in the old-time blues, folk and country music of the 1920s and 1930s. “I think it’s neurological,” he says. “Some quirky types of nervous systems are just attracted to [...]
≡ Category: Music | ≅ 3 Comments
December 2, 1997. Exactly ten years after his first visit to Moscow, jazz legend Dave Brubeck returned to perform before the faculty and students of the Moscow Conservatory. During his concert, an audience member asked him to improvise on the old Russian sea shanty “Ej, Uhnem.” About two minutes into the improvisation, a young violinist rose from his [...]
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