Category: Music

In quest of a cultural life we went to the Gulf Jazz Festival first night with the two kids. The musicians were very good. Here’s an interview.

First on piano the Swedish

Then a group came on stage with Ricky Ford the American alto sax player. He doesn’t have much of an up to date web site also!

And there was also the guitarist Jarek Smietana. He has a somewhat better web site!

And spontaneously they had Karen Edwards come up at the end and do two songs. She’s got a nice warm voice and apparently though known as a singer she plays a mean piano.

And on the final night we saw the Rosenberg Trio Three brothers headlined by Stochelo, one of the best guitar players I’ve every seen. Quite enjoyable. Stochelo’s inspiration is Django Reinhardt

No photos of the final night. There were more people as it was Thursday night and we were sitting further back, not possible to take photos with the camera phone. On the first night we were in the front row.

Pearls Before Breakfast
Can one of the nation’s great musicians, Joshua Bell, cut through the fog of a D.C. rush hour?

It was captured by hidden cameras and microphones. You can see it and hear it on the Washington Post site.

No one knew it, but the fiddler standing against a bare wall outside the Metro in an indoor arcade at the top of the escalators was one of the finest classical musicians in the world, playing some of the most elegant music ever written on one of the most valuable violins ever made.

Click here for the full article.

And the article’s author responds here to readers responses, where over one hundred said the article made them cry!

Indialucia is a musical project, which fuses two fascinating styles of music: Indian and Flamenco music. The album expresses both the human and musical fusion of these cultures, which could have had a common ancestor. Improvisation and rhythm are the common elements in both styles and are essential to the continued existence of this music. The recordings were made between 1999 and 2004 mostly in India and Spain. Many great artists from the two continents performed. This album is the result of the years of work, which for the first time demonstrates the common elements of flamenco and its Indian roots fused into one art form.

The album was distinguished with the 1st prize “Best Album of the Year 2005” Wirtualne Gesle and 2nd music critics’ prize at the New Tradition competition for the “Folk Phonogram of 2005” award.

And there is a Facebook page here.

Cool, well, now I need to get the CD! You can download some movie clips of them on their site.

Matt Dusk – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Well, how about that. We were doing Christmas shopping in Marina Mall here in Kuwait on our weekend and heard this music, kind of Sinatra like. Well, Janaki started dancing in the store so we were hooked and bought it. And as I see on Wikipedia, he’s from Toronto!

If you like this style with a big band, it’s fun and a bit cheesy of course.

A print of the only photograph of Mozart’s widow, Constanze Weber, has been found in Germany, according to der Spiegel magazine and BBC International News. The photograph was taken in 1840 in the Bavarian town of Altoetting when she was 78. She died two years later. Mozart and Constanze had six children in their nine-year marriage, only two of whom survived childhood.

The Online Photographer: Photo of Mozart’s Widow Found in Bavaria