When Aretha subbed for Pavarotti at the Grammys

Aug 17, 2018 | All Posts

Pavarotti was too ill to perform. The story goes that Ken Ehrlich, producer of the 1998 Grammys, approached Aretha in her dressing room with a cassette. In Ehrlich’s words: “When she heard it, she said, ‘Yeah, I can do this.'” For one aria, the...
The Sackbut

The Sackbut

Aug 7, 2018 | All Posts

  The trombone is quite the instrument. It’s a real favorite with the kids wherever the New West Symphony Music Van comes around. And it has a fascinating history, nearly falling into obscurity and once going by a name like “sackbut.” Extremely...
Is Jacob Collier our century’s Beethoven?

Is Jacob Collier our century’s Beethoven?

Aug 1, 2018 | All Posts, Food For Thought

Jacob Collier, 23-year-old vocalist and multi-instrumentalist from London, has taken music by storm in recent years with his radical jazz reharmonizations and other-worldly music theorization. Known for his “Super-Ultra-Hyper-Mega-Meta-Lydian” scale and...
Fugue…on themes by Michael Jackson?

Fugue…on themes by Michael Jackson?

Jul 27, 2018 | All Posts

Everybody loves a good fugue. Well okay, maybe not everybody, but at the very least a fugue is a dazzling display of intertwining lines, harmonious counterpoint, and melodic invention. Which is why it’s so interesting to hear familiar melodies from the King of...