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Bill Hanley: Genius
The man who single-handedly invented the concert sound system. File under: amazing people deserving wider recognition.
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The Horrors of the Half-Diminished
The pesky root-tritone relationship in the half-diminished chord — min 7 (b5) — adds an annoying constraint to voicings options. Often chordal players will omit…
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Greasy Dominant Tricks
Continuing the topic of chords (chords, I love chords!!), it’s time to bask in the power of the dominant nine — whether flatted or raised.…
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Luscious Chord Fatness
In the spirit of the previous post, I thought I’d talk about a few more chord tricks. Here the focus is on creating the biggest…
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Ferrante Voicings
The great pianist/composer Russell Ferrante (of the Yellowjackets) has a unique brand of chordal harmony. While much of what he plays is as rich and complex as chocolate…
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Manolo
Last night we ditched a planned movie outing to go wandering through the Galleria. The appeal of the Apple Store is always great, and yet…
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Two More Soundtrack Gems
Continuing the topic of soundtracks, I’d like to add two more films for consideration, both of which are now available on Netflix Instant. “Dhobi Ghat…
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Review: Gretchen Parlato “The Lost and Found”
Gretchen Parlato’s much anticipated third release, The Lost and Found, secures her position as the leading vocalist in New York’s under-40 jazz scene. On this 15-track program, Parlato…
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Predicting File Size of MP3s (and others)
How one calculates the filesize of an mp3/aac/etc given its bitrate and length.
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True Grit: Contraction-Free Zone
Diction was apparently important in the wild west, at least if you believe the Coen brothers whose latest film True Grit envisions a world in which people of every station…
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A Most Interesting Voice
I’m fairly certain that Antony and Johnsons–and singer Antony Hegarty in particular–will never need to worry about becoming pop superstars. Their songs opine melancholy without…
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Farewell Lhasa
Either I’m really out of touch, or the commercial music media is. But here it is September and I’m just hearing that the great Lhasa…
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Versailles and Les Puces
To begin, Versailles was AWFUL. Oh so crowded, absurdly garish, and frankly, a bit weird. Sitting among the Louis XIV opulence were modern Japanese pop art pieces, displayed…
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New Ambient
I went on an expedition today to seek out new ambient music. It was a tricky hunt. Ambient is a misused, misunderstood genre. If you…
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New Zealand on the Tiny Desk
NPR’s excellent music blog includes a running feature called “Tiny Desk Concert” in which bands perform lo-fi sets from within the station’s office. This…
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Parking Integers
There was a time when meaningful internet domain names remained widely available. This bygone era began in pre-web 1985*, if you can imagine, and ran until…
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The Black Orpheus Mystery
Black Orpheus is a beautiful movie with an equally beautiful soundtrack. I recently found a copy of the original LP for $3, which is now…
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The Zachary Breaux Jazz Fest (Jazz Where Least Expected)
Many years ago, guitarist Zachary Breaux took a vacation with his wife and three daughters to the sandy beaches of Florida. As they meandered along…
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The Freakishly Smart President
Which President earns the title Most Freakishly Smart?
