Listening

Required Listening: Stop Making Sense

03.28.2012 Listening

Here’s another Required Listening (and watching!) recommendation from Andrew Marvin. ___________ The first time I saw Stop Making Sense, I was riveted from the moment the opening credits began to roll. The film had me dancing in my seat for 88 straight minutes. I’d never heard — or seen — anything like it. To say [...]

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Required Listening: Rit

03.21.2012 Listening

Today’s Required Listening contribution comes from my friend, Steve Kramer. Steve is himself a musician and deeply knowledgable about music. He has a great choice for this week. Randy ___________ “Rit” – Lee Ritenour (1979) Oh c’mon… it was the eighties. Music was going through a change. The love affair with 60’s leftover bands (e.g., [...]

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Required Listening: Aaron Copland: The Music Of America

02.29.2012 Listening

Even if you claim not to like orchestral music (and I believe that you probably do like it, even if you don’t know it), you know bits and pieces of Aaron Copland’s work. It’s very difficult to avoid. Copland’s work has become a touchstone for film and television soundtracks. Copland wrote many himself, including one [...]

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Required Listening: Hot Fives and Sevens

02.22.2012 Listening

I have never understood how people who claim to love rock or pop can also claim to hate jazz. Jazz and blues are the source of virtually all American popular music. And the source of all that is mostly contained in a little set of records called Hot Fives and Sevens. Louis Armstrong did not [...]

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Required Listening: Music For Airports

02.15.2012 Listening

I find this album difficult to write about. It is, essentially, an experience. It is very much music, and yet, it’s also about the act of listening. Brian Eno was the person who coined the term, “ambient music,” and this was the first album of its kind. I know that for many, ambient music has [...]

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