arrange • compose • conduct
Every year I’m excited to do a roundup of the favorite recordings that either came out, or were first heard by me, that year. In addition to audio recordings, I’m including a few other types of recordings – films, shows, and live performances that stuck with me. Recorded Music Is […]
Books remain at the heart of the media I consume – not perhaps the most significant by volume, but certainly by the effect they have on my life. I finished 16 books in 2022. It’s a step forward from my 12 in 2021, but nowhere near the 30-40 I want to […]
Are you looking forward or backward? It’s a time of reflections and resolutions. I know some who focus on reflections – working to understand and learn from their successes and failures. I know others who focus on resolutions – looking ahead to what they hope and intend to do in […]
It’s poetry time. Let the prose wait for a week. A celebrate quote from former New York governor Mario Cuomo states, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” I don’t know about the work of politics, but I do think that prose and poetry do have seasons. The week […]
How are you choosing what you listen to this Christmas? I’ve long advocated for ditching the radio when it comes to Christmas. That goes for the popular playlists on streaming services, too. So for this Christmas morning, if you’re looking for some listening that ditches the songs you hear too […]
On blackbirds, silences, and eves. I do not know which to prefer, The beauty of inflections Or the beauty of innuendoes, The blackbird whistling Or just after. Wallace Stevens, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, V. Wallace Stevens gave us two choices, but I’m not sure that I don’t prefer the third option: […]
The idea of musical genres are a convenient fiction. Program accordingly. Some argue that the very idea was created as a way to better market music by segmenting listeners into different genres. I think genres arise more organically than that – we need a word to describe all the music […]
Things can be difficult for wildly different reasons. Don’t let that surprise you. I solved a 67×41 crossword puzzle in the last few days. It’s huge. There were 782 distinct clues and it took up 3 entire newspaper pages. It took awhile, but the truth is, it wasn’t that difficult. […]
Want to feel productive and conscientious this Winter Break? Ultra Delay Send. I just sent a work email that won’t arrive until the first day back from school after New Year’s. I got the email off of my to do list, and it won’t go onto my colleague’s to do […]
With a vocal jazz quartet, you can’t have someone sick with COVID and still go on. That’s precisely what happened to Shades of Blue a few weeks ago, scuttling our performance at GRCC Jazz Night. We conspired, planned, and got support to put on a Family and Friends Concert after […]