Eva / Louis: What a wonderful world
My favorite rendition of this classic of 1967/68 is Eva Cassidy’s last performance at the Bayou. Did you know the message was political? I was thinking of her music this past weekend, when we had the second half of our intercultural train the trainer course with Judith Mader and Rudi Camerer of ELC, and I […]
Space Oddity/ Chris Hadfield
Commander Chris Hadfield, the Canadian astronaut, returned home on 14 May. He rerecorded David Bowie’s Space Oddity in flight… and describes the landing. David Bowie (and Chris Hadfield’s changes) Ground control to Major Tom Ground control to Major Tom Take your protein pills (lock your Soyuz hatch) and put your helmet on Ground control to […]
Herbie Hancock: Watermellon Man
I love, love, love how Herbie Hancock tells the story of how he composed Watermellon Man. Link to Woodie Herman’s hard bop version of 1962 Link to Mongo Santamaria’s hit of the same year Link to Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters’ funky version from the 70s The intro to that version played on a bottle, […]
Merz: The Starlight Night
The lyrics of this marvelous song by Merz (1999), are by Gerard Manley Hopkins, 1844–89, an English Jesuit and innovative poet who experimented with metre and developed what he called ‘sprung rhythm’, anticipating free verse. The Starlight Night Written Feb. 24, 1877. Published 1918 LOOK at the stars! look, look up at the skies! O […]
Margaret Thatcher – Elvis Costello: Tramp the Dirt Down
The death of Margaret Thatcher has led to an outburst of celebration in the UK that has been absolutely astonishing to someone like myself, who grew up in the USA and was on the outside looking in. I had no idea that her policies could excite anything like these emotions so many years later. What […]
Come, wanton spring!
This has been the coldest spring on record. They say temperatures are going up to 9 degrees this week. Come, wanton spring! Talk Talk – April 5th from The Colour of Spring, 1985/6 Here she comes Silence in her sound Here she comes Fresh upon the ground Come gentle spring Come at winter’s end Gone […]
Kishi Bashi
Wow. Kishi Bashi. I hadn’t seen the ads, instead discovering him through Paste Magazine. All that attention to detail, craftsmanship and polish. Animal Collective meets Andrew Bird and classical Japanese music. They are hosting a video-based riddle contest for idioms like wearing _ _ _ _ h _ _ _ _ _ _ your _ […]
