*Neil Peart was a Canadian and American musician, drummer and primary lyricist of the rock band Rush, known to fans by the nickname ‘The Professor’, derived from the Gilligan’s Island character of the same name.
Johann Bach is remembered as one of the world’s greatest composers, known for orchestral compositions such as the Brandenburg Concertos. But one of Bach’s lesser-known works is Schweigt stille, plaudert nicht (“Be Still, Stop Chattering”) — a humorous ode to coffee popularly known as the Coffee Canata. Written sometime in the 1730s, Bach’s mini comic opera makes light of fears at the time that coffee was an immoral beverage entirely unfit for consumption. In the 18th century, coffee shops in Europe were known to be boisterous places of conversation, unchaperoned meeting places for young romantics, and the birthplaces of political plots. A reported lover of coffee, Bach wrote a 10-movement piece that pokes fun at the uproar over coffee. The opera tells the story of a father attempting to persuade his daughter to give up her coffee addiction so that she might get married, but in the end, she just becomes a coffee-imbibing bride.
“If I couldn’t three times a day,
be allowed to drink my little cup of coffee, in my anguish,
I will turn into a shriveled-up roast goat.“
-Johann Sebastian Bach
*thank you for putting this to music, johann, i feel the same.
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source credits: interesting facts, flypaper, wikipedia, etsy mug
a very moving performance of fado music
in a close setting
soft lighting, candles, silence, just taking it all in
straight from the heart
the passionate, soulful, traditional music of portugal
muito bonito.
“the only thing that matters is to feel the fado.
the fado is not meant to be sung; it simply happens.
you feel it, you don’t understand it and you don’t explain it.”
– Amália Rodrigues, Portuguese activist
Known as the “Rainha do Fado” (“Queen of Fado”), Amalia Rodrigues was a Portuguese singer and actress best known for her passionate and romantic, yet hauntingly tragic, renditions of fado, Lisbon’s traditional form of song. 1920-1999
Known worldwide, Fado was recently considered an Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO because this musical style reflects a large part of the country’s identity. Since the time of the Discoveries, the Portuguese have carried with them a feeling of melancholy that is purged through music.
Fado means ‘fate.’
cowboy singer charley crockett
his low, smoky, smooth voice, like whiskey
vintage cowboy crooner gave a great show.
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‘i think a lot of it has to do with putting your heart into what you do and wanting to entertain people.’
-gene autry, the most famous singing cowboy of all
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royal oak music theater, michigan, usa, summer 2024
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Matthew Charles Crockett (born1984) is an American blues, country, jazz, americana singer, guitarist, and songwriter. He has released twelve studio albums since 2015, with Lil G.L.’s Blue Bonanza peaking at number 11 on the US Billboard Blues Albums chart and The Man from Waco breaking the US Billboard 200
Heathrow Airport launches live music stage
Heathrow Airport has launched a live music stage to give up-and-coming acts the chance to impress industry executives flying into London for the festival season.
Based in Terminal 5, the first show featured performances from acoustic rock band China Bears, folk singer-songwriter The Halfway Kid and R’n’B artist Olivia Nelson.
Heathrow said those performing on the stage have “access to an audience bigger than Glastonbury”, as it expects 30 million passengers to travel through its terminals this summer. The airport recently had its busiest day in its history, with 264,000 passengers – up 6% on last year.
“The Heathrow Introducing stage isn’t just about providing entertainment, it’s about propelling careers to new heights,” said Karoline Komolafe, of music events company Sofar Sounds, which has partnered with Heathrow.
“It’s a game-changer for those aiming to break into the industry, especially with festival season at its peak, offering exposure to execs traveling through. “I think Heathrow passengers are going to have a brilliant time at the gigs.”Heathrow director of services Tonia Fielding said: “We’re proud that we’re providing people from around the globe the chance to experience the best of Britain’s emerging musical talent and a taste of UK culture from the moment they reach the airport.
“We’re gearing up for the busiest summer on record, meaning we can give artists on the Heathrow Introducing stage massive audiences to play to.” Two more shows on the music stage will be held, on 12 and 24 July.
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‘the true beauty of music is that it connects people.’
-roy avers
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source credits: heathrow airport, bbc radio london
The music stage is a partnership with music events company Sofar Sounds.
Negishi, whose 1967 “Sparko Box” prototype is among several devices credited with ushering in Japan’s karaoke craze, died from natural causes in January at age 100.
Negishi founded and ran a company that assembled car stereos for automobile manufacturers in northern Tokyo. A regular listener to a singalong radio show broadcast in Japan at the time, he hooked a spare tape deck up to a microphone and mixing circuit so he could hear himself singing over music.
“When I asked the factory engineer, he said, ‘It’s easy,’” Negishi recalled in an account published by the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association, an industry body for Japan’s karaoke operators. “So, I attached a microphone input terminal to the car stereo and created something like the prototype of a jukebox.”
“It works!” he told Alt, recalling the moment he heard his voice coming through the speakers alongside the music. “That’s all I was thinking. Most of all, it was fun. I knew right away I’d discovered something new.”
Marketing the device as a Sparko Box, he sold them alongside lyrics cards and reportedly produced and installed around 8,000 around Japan, mainly at bars and restaurants. By the time Negishi stopped selling the products in the 1970s, several rival machines had been invented and taken to market.
“At that time, it was not customary to sing in stores, so it may have been inevitable that (the Sparko Boxes were) sold as background music,” reads Negishi’s entry on the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association’s website. “Now that I think about it, it’s a bit of a shame.”
The industry body does not credit a single person with inventing karaoke (which literally translates as “empty orchestra”), but instead recognizes several people who independently created machines in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Negishi did not patent his invention, and electronics manufacturers soon began producing and marketing their own versions. By the 1980s, “karaoke boxes” had swept Japan, with private rooms overtaking bars and restaurants as the main venues for Japan’s amateur singers. Subsequent developments, including the introduction of video karaoke and networked karaoke systems, helped the phenomenon spread across Asia and the world in the following decades.
Today, Japan is home to more than 8,000 dedicated karaoke box venues, while 131,500 bars are equipped with karaoke machines — a market worth a combined 387.9 billion yen ($2.6 billion) in 2022, according to estimates from the All-Japan Karaoke Industrialist Association.
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i wonder if they used a karaoke machine at his wake, and if so, what songs did they choose?
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“i was arrested for lip-syncing karaoke.”
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source credits: cnn, oscar holland, mai nishiyama, hiroki yoda
always enjoyed bob marley
the new biopic musical film about him
was a bit disjointed
but
leads were very good
his message stood strong
music was a great bonus
especially loved the real footage at the end.
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“love the life you live, live the life you love.”
-bob marley
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image credit: paramount pictures
who could resist this classic?
happy valentine’s day!
Formed in 1966, The Valentines were a popular Perth band favoring soul and British mod sounds. They had a local hit with Arthur Alexander’s Every Day I Have To Cry. In 1967 they went to the national finals of Hoadleys’ Battle of the Sounds in Melbourne and moved there later in the year. They eventually became national teenybopper idols after the success of My Old Man’s A Groovy Old Man.
The band featured notable co-lead vocalists: Bon Scott (1946-1980), later famous as AC/DC’s lead singer from 1974, and Vince Lovegrove (1947-2012), journalist, TV presenter, booking agent and film maker.
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“there are more love songs than anything else.
if songs could make you do something we’d all love one another.”
-frank zappa
source credit: Ian McFarlane, Encyclopedia of Australian Rock & Pop (1999), pp.660-661
a beautiful, beautiful film
in every way
it will bring you
great music
great joy
great love
great passion
and
will break your heart.
early in the film
felicia, later to be leonard bernstein’s wife
asks him –
“you don’t even know how much you need me, do you?”
and he answers –
“i might.”
through all they endured
together and apart
around the globe and back
they found
the greatest love of their lives
in each other.
brava.
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“a work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them;
and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.”
-leonard bernstein
treat yourself to something beautiful
watch this all the way through and feel the beauty of her voice move the audience to tears
-15 year old emma kok sings ‘voila’ – with andre rieu, maastrict 2023
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“after silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.”
-aldous huxley
I didn't have my glasses on.... 