This blogger, Richard Gehr, is not an employee of AARP. The opinions expressed in the blog are not necessarily the opinions of AARP and AARP assumes no liability for the content posted by Mr. Gehr or any other participant
Richard Gehr | July 27, 2007
Joni Mitchell will release her next album, Shine, on Starbucks' Hear Music label on September 25. Unhappy with the handling of 2002's Travelogue, the painter-songwriter had been threatening to leave the music business altogether. But Hear Music's success with Paul McCartney's Memory Almost Full seems to have changed her mind. Titling the album the same as this flop, however, may not have been the wisest decision.
Several radio stations are webcasting this year's Bayreuth Festival, which kicked off yesterday with a new production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger.
[via Sounds & Fury and The Rest Is Noise]
Jimmy Page will tour with a version of the Yardbirds this fall. But not Jeff Beck.
A trio of singing contortionists' nineteen-fortysomething tribute to potato salad is one of the stranger yet somehow most endearing musical clips ever YouTubed. [via Boing Boing]
American composer William Duckworth is writing what he calls an "iPod opera," based on the myth of Eurydice and Orpheus. iOrpheus will be presented in Brisbane, Australia's Southbank Parklands late next month. The work will use PitchWeb software to transform cell phones into virtual musical instruments alongside traditional instruments. "We're just trying to get it all back to where people aren't afraid to participate," Duckworth told ABC News, "so we've created instruments where you can't really make a mistake, but you can tell the difference between when someone's doing a good job and an okay job."
Wondering what the difference between Latin jazz and salsa is? The Latin Jazz Corner explains it all for you. Here's a sample:
Both Salsa and Latin Jazz share common roots in Caribbean dance rhythms, but the two traditions diverge in their musical function. Salsa prioritizes the dancer and musicians perform dance floor-ready consistent creations. Salsa exists within the popular realm, so musicians aim recordings at commercial consumption. Although Latin Jazz contains danceable qualities as well, musicians create it as a means of expression. Latin Jazz artists want to sell records too, but new releases serve as snapshots of their current artistic development. The two styles serve different functions and the intention behind their creation follows divergent paths.
The Microscopic Septet, a great New York jazz group that blissfully blurred the distinction between "outside" and "inside" music for a dozen years before calling it quits in 1992, has posted some fine unreleased tracks on their MySpace page. Their Seven Men in Neckties: The History of the Micros, Vol. 1 and Surrealistic Swing: The History of the Micros, Vol. 2 are well worth checking out, too.
