![]() Me in 1975 |
Music |
| "Researchers have scanned musicians' brains and found that the 'chills' that they feel when they hear stirring passages of music result from activity in the same parts of the brain stimulated by food and sex." — Drake Bennett, Survival of the harmonious |
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My musical history |
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Music has always been one of my greatest passions. I grew up playing music, and by the early 70s I had developed into a jazz bassist, so I
studied at Berklee College of Music in Boston. You might say that before I was a programmer
I was more in touch with my right-brain
(but jazz is very technical and also uses a lot of left-brain activity). Although I'm not actively performing anymore, music is still
one of my first loves and I can often be seen with my iPod's distinctive white earbuds in my ears. I have broadened my tastes beyond the
jazz I loved so much at one time, but improvisational music will always be my favorite style, and jazz is the ultimate form of that because
there are no boundaries to the influences on jazz musicians. For my current musical choices see a list of the songs I listen to on my iPod |
![]() iPod songs |
![]() Musically educated |
Studying music greatly enhances one's appreciation and performing abilities, but it can also "unsynchronize" you with a majority of the public's awareness of music. This priceless video says so much about the unenlightened views one encounters in life after a musical education. (Read the great comments on YouTube!) |
| I don't know if that is the appropriate term, but I want to make it clear that while I still enjoy music as much as I ever did it is almost entirely as a listener, not a player. I no longer have a bass but I still have a piano, which doesn't get as much attention as it deserves (my son, a very talented keyboardist, plays it when he visits). This was not planned, it just evolved. |
| "The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain. . . . Music expresses only the quintessence of life and of its events, never these themselves." — Arthur Schopenhauer |
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| I get serious |
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After several years of playing a variety of improvisational types of music on guitar, |
| Loft jazz |
My perspective on things has frequently leaned towards the cutting-edge so my taste in music ultimately evolved into the avant−garde style
that was being performed in the 70s in the jazz lofts. This very non-commercial style of music had a serious following among musicians and some
fine recordings of it can be found on the Wildflowers series. When these musicians came to Boston, they
usually didn't play in the big name clubs of the day like the Jazz Workshop and Paul's Mall, or even the smaller ones
like the 1369 Club and Debby's, but they did find that, like New York, Boston had a loft scene. Some of the best music I
heard when I was in college was performed in the jazz lofts. In an Atlantic Monthly article, "Jazz − Religious and Circus", Francis Davis writes about how many of
us viewed the 1970s as the "Golden Age" of jazz. Alan Douglas, who recorded the Wildflowers sessions, says, "I think the loft jazz period
was the last time that significant changes took place in jazz."
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| Jazz fusion |
Much of the jazz I listened to over the years was produced before I was into it so being a contemporary person my tastes evolved
quite naturally into jazz fusion, a mixture of Jazz & Rock or
Jazz & Latin music that took off in the 70s. Some of my favorites in this genre are Mahavishnu Orchestra, Return to Forever (Chick
Corea's group), and Tony Williams Lifetime (Williams
was Miles Davis' drummer in the 60s). My all-time favorite album is Bitches Brew by Miles Davis, recorded in 1969 (see a Bitches Brew video
below) and featuring some of the best musicians of the time including Chick Corea (keyboards), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Dave Holland (bass),
John McLaughlin (guitar), Airto Moreira (drums and percussion), Wayne Shorter (sax), Lenny White (drums), and Joe Zawinul (keyboards). Many of
these artists went on to have their own fusion bands. An album I consider one of the best ever recorded is Wayne Shorter's Native Dancer,
released in 1974 and featuring a lot of Brazilian jazz musicians. And one of the best fusion albums came out in 1969, Miroslav Vitous's Mountain in the Clouds and featuring Vitous (bass),
John McLaughlin (guitar), Herbie Hancock (keyboards), Joe Henderson (tenor), and Jack DeJohnette (drums).
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| By the end of the 70s, although my interest in jazz remained very intense, my desire to play music for a living had lessened, so I basically reached the end of that pursuit. Since that time my creative energy has been consumed by computer programming and though some might find it hard to believe, I get some of the same fulfillment as a programmer I received from being a musician. I have heard that these two interests involve the same parts of the brain. |
| Today |
Both of my sons have been actively involved in music. Alex took piano lessons for several years, and in high school and college has sung in a rock band. Ben is also quite accomplished on piano (I love to hear him play songs like Scott Joplin's The Entertainer) and is a great singer. He has taken voice lessons, and he sang in the high school chorus and performed in school plays. When he was in high school he participated in a yearly performance by the Southeast Region District Chorus, which has the top singers from all the school choruses in the area. We love to go to live Broadway musicals when they are in Boston. We often buy the CDs of these shows and the boys have grown up listening to this music, like Rent and Phantom of the Opera. It may appear that I have abandoned jazz, but I prefer to think that I am just not actively involved at the moment. Is jazz dead? On Sunday, August 4, 2002, there was an article in The Boston Globe, "Off the record", describing how the recording industry may think so. I hope not. |
and albums . . .
Although decades have passed, some of my greatest musical euphorias were experienced in the mid-70s. One of my favorite groups will always be
the Mahavishnu Orchestra of those days. I still can get chills listening to some of their
performances. As a music aficionado I acquired an extensive
collection of recordings by John Coltrane, who was always my favorite improvising musician, and I spent many hours listening to Trane and other tenor players
who were greatly influenced by him, like Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp, and Wayne Shorter. One of my favorite albums at that time (and still one
of my favorites) was Shorter's Native Dancer ,
which introduced me to Milton Nascimento, the great Brazilian
vocalist. Some other Brazilian musicians I enjoyed were drummer & percussionist Airto
Moreira and his wife, vocalist Flora Purim, who had many records of their
own and also appeared on the first two albums by Chick Corea's group Return to Forever (Return to Forever and Light as a Feather). Another member
of that group I really liked was reed & flute player, Joe Farrell, whose album Moon Germs was one of the best albums of that era. Bassist
Miroslav Vitous got an outstanding group of musicians together—John McLaughlin (guitar), Herbie Hancock (keyboards), Joe
Henderson (tenor), Jack DeJohnette (drums), Vitous (bass)—for his album Mountain in the Clouds (aka Infinite Search).
John McLaughlin (guitar) and John Surman (sax) recorded an album in 1969, Extrapolation, which still remains one of my favorites.
One of the best concerts I ever saw was the duo of Miroslav Vitous (bass) and John Surman (sax) at Jonathan Swift's in Harvard Square
about 1975. One of the best albums recorded in the 70s was a concert Keith Jarrett did in Germany called The Köln Concert. The encore from that concert, named Part II c
by Jarrett on the album, has been transcribed and put in fake books
(something used by many musicians) under the name "Memories of Tomorrow." One of my favorite recordings is a song named
Moody Modes on a Billy Cobham album, A Funky Thide
of Sings. The album was a little "funky" for my taste, but this song, a big-band style arrangement, has fabulous solos by
Milcho Leviev (piano), Randy Brecker (trumpet), and Alex Blake (bass)!
All these albums have such musical virtuosity that decades later I still enjoy listening to them immensely (now ripped to my iPod) and I consider
this some of the best music ever recorded! Click on the album to go to its page on Allmusic.com
where you can sample the songs.
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| Listed below are some of the people who have really moved me through the years. The musicians listed by instrument are jazz musicians; non-jazz musicians and groups are listed at the end. Some of the groups may no longer exist and sadly, some of the musicians have passed away (see below), but I still want to list them here because they will always rank as some of my favorites. There are also some musicians listed below under 60s music. Photos of many of these artists can be seen at DowntownMusic.net. See videos by many of these artists at Music videos. |
| I have included a link to each artist's page at All Music Guide for the discographies, cross-reference links, and song previews. Periodically AMG reorganizes their website and some of these links stop working. I try to correct them when I notice this. Please email me if you encounter a bad link. | |||
| I have links to some of the artist's videos on YouTube | |||
| (vid) | Click to see artist's video(s) below | ||
| Below is an In Memoriam section with more info on some of the artists who have passed on. |
| Reeds, flute |
| Bass |
| Keyboards |
| Brass |
| Drums, percussion |
| Guitar |
| Singers, groups, and others |
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Sadly not every artist whose music I love is still with us. Here are some of those who have passed on in my lifetime, many that I had the
privilege of seeing perform live. Long live their legacies. The names are links to Wikipedia. Hover over name for more info. |
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| Reference & reviews |
| Jazz |
| Festivals |
| Education |
| Purchasing sites |
| Assorted links |
| Windows Media |
| Streaming audio (see Stream an audio file for more on streaming) |
| I love the freedom ringtones give you to personalize your cellphone, so when someone calls you know it is your phone ringing. You can
even have different ringtones for different callers. Try to use ringtones as unique as possible so you immediately recognize them because you
don't want to think your cell is ringing when someone else's is. There are many websites that allow you to purchase and download ringtones
directly to your phone, but if you want a really unlimited selection you can make your own from any song on your PC and transfer them to your
phone (see below).
Here are some ringtones I made from songs I like (I use Goldwave, a shareware audio editor). They are small segments of the original songs (hopefully this prevents copyright infringement)—some are the intros to the songs and some are instrumental sections I cut and edited—I didn't include any singing because I don't like voices on phone rings. I usually like ringtones that start softly and build so they are not startling when they go off. The ones listed here are typically 15-20 seconds long (saved as 96kbps and mono to decrease size) and they will loop on a cellphone so the end should segue into the beginning. Keep them small because there may be a size limit on your cell. Click on a song to play it—to copy a song to your computer right click on the title and choose Save Link/Target As. |
| Pop/Rock |
| Jazz/Fusion |
| Other |
There are several ways to put a ringtone from your PC on your cellphone:
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(find more 60s links on the Favorites page)|
Because I was a teenager in the 1960s, the music of that time played a big part in my life. Like many young
people of that era I was in a rock band that existed primarily for our own entertainment, although
we did play a few gigs at fraternities and sororities on campus. In Seattle
I went regularly to concerts by the top West Coast groups of the day at the
Eagles Auditorium, and in 1968 (the year before Woodstock) I
joined 20,000 other "social revolutionaries, hippie communalists, psychedelic evangelists, musicians, and music fans" to attend one of
the
Here are some more links to that music.
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| Multimedia search engines |
| These search engines allow you to search for songs on sites like mine (or like mine used to be). The results typically provide the ability to listen to songs from the sites where they are found. If the link to play the song goes diredtly to the song file, to save a copy of the song put the mouse pointer on the link and press the right mouse button, and from the context menu choose Save Target/Link As. If the link goes to a webpage or player and not directly to the song, you can look in your browser cache after the song has played and you may be able to copy it from there. Sometimes you have to rename it and put an extension (usually .mp3) on it. |
| Peer-to-peer (p2p) |
| These MP3 search applications, pioneered by Napster, allow you to find shared files offered by others using software that you install on your PC. They are the best way get your own copies of audio files, although the RIAA is forcing the government to crack down on this process (I had to stop sharing). Also, some are rumored to install spyware (hidden software tracking your web-surfing habits) on your PC, and you can also download viruses, so be cautious. If you do frequent downloads, it is always a good idea to run anti-virus and anti-spyware programs regularly to keep your system clean. Many of these are clients of Gnutella, a large open protocol distributed file-sharing network. |
| MP3
songs below |
"The real threat of MP3 music piracy—to listeners and, conceivably, democracy itself—is the music industry's reaction to it."
— Charles C. Mann, The Atlantic Monthly
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The above quotation is from an article, "The Heavenly Jukebox",
that includes a history of the MP3, which is one of the digital formats for music that has become very popular on the Internet. Because they are
ubiquitous and you can download them for free, MP3s have the Recording Industry Association of America
(RIAA) all freaked out. In 2001 the RIAA took peer-to-peer file-sharing company Napster to court and put them out
of business, and in 2003 they started going after individual "major offenders", those who offered more than 1,000
songs to others for downloading. The RIAA has the rather short-sighted view that being able to download MP3 songs
for free will keep people from purchasing the CDs. MP3s actually provide a great way to sample songs before buying
a CD, and people will continue to make purchases if the music is good. As far as MP3s being a threat to the
royalty income the musicians receive from CD sales, according to the previously mentioned Atlantic Monthly
article, if it exists at all this income is miniscule.
This is from the testimony in the trial of a Minnesota woman which resulted in her being fined $222.000 for sharing music. It looks like the RIAA are even bigger idiots than imagined. One can also be introduced to a new artist via MP3s, especially someone esoteric like Tin Hat Trio, who lacks the heavy marketing of the more commercial artists. I discovered them almost by accident (on a music system in Starbucks no less), yet I still purchased Tin Hat Trio's CDs, even though I knew I could download some of their MP3 music for free. Or suppose you have a song on a CD that you want to share with someone who lives far away from you. You can convert the song from the CD (rip it) to an MP3 file and send it as an email attachment, which may even encourage that person to go out and buy the CD, thereby increasing sales. |
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| MP3 tips |
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I don't know where the MP3 litigation will ultimately end up, but in the meantime MP3s provide some interesting technical
solutions. For instance, when I wanted to put a song I liked on a cassette tape to listen to in my Walkman (the old days), I could only
locate it in the MP3 format (it was also made on 7" vinyl but I couldn't find that). To get my MP3 on tape I had to
burn it to a CD, which I then played on a regular stereo system and recorded it to tape. For mobile music I use an
iPod now so I still convert many individual songs to MP3s from CDs or vinyl recordings
(see Convert a record or tape) to load them.
As MP3 usage and the software to do things with them gets more common, some of the tips I put here are no longer needed, and I will try to keep this section up−todate. Many of these tips make reference to various software I use (names in green italics). See see MP3 tools for more on these. |
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These are some of the tools I have used to manipulate MP3s. Some shareware/freeware may contain spyware, so use caution when installing them.
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MP3 songs
info & tips above |
| For years I had playable MP3s listed here, until I received the following in an email from my web-hosting provider. I have complied to prevent my website from being shut down. | |||||||||
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I have moved my website to another hosting company since receiving that threat, but to play it safe I am still not sharing music here, and it appears I removed these songs and my iPod songs just in time, because a week later I read this story about a woman who was found guilty of sharing music "illegally" and fined $220,000! My music has always been one of the big draws to my website, so I am taking away something that people loved, and after awhile the music search engines will no longer show me having these songs, so I know the number of my visitors will decrease. I am still sharing ringtones, which I believe is still safe because they are only snippets of songs. Thank you RIAA, for improving the quality of our lives. Some (or all) of these songs are cached on SeeqPod and Project Playlist (which make them appear to still be on my website). Search those sites to listen to them. |
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| These are NOT PLAYABLE songs. I am keeping them here for the reference links and information I have provided. | |
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Jazz |
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Jazz
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Chick Corea's Return To Forever | (from Return To Forever, 1972) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Joe Farrell | (from Moon Germs, 1972, Stanley Clarke on bass) |
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Wayne Shorter | (from Native Dancer, 1975, Milton Nascimento on vocal) |
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Milton Nascimento | (from the album Milton) |
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Milton Nascimento | (with Chico Buarque, from the album Geraes) |
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Milton Nascimento | (with Chico Buarque, from the movie Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands) |
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Flora Purim | (from 500 Miles High, 1974) |
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John McLaughlin | (from Electric Guitarist, 1978) |
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John McLaughlin | (from Extrapolation, 1969, John Surman on soprano) |
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John Surman, John McLaughlin | (from Where Fortune Smiles, 1970) |
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McLaughlin / DiMeola / de Lucia | (from Friday Night In San Francisco, 1981) |
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Mahavishnu Orchestra | (from The Lost Trident Sessions, 1973) |
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Mahavishnu Orchestra | (from The Inner Mounting Flame, 1971) |
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Mahavishnu Orchestra | (from The Inner Mounting Flame, 1971) |
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Stanley Clarke, Al DiMeola, Jean-Luc Ponty | (from Rite of Strings, 1996) |
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Sylvain Luc and Biréli Lagrène | (from Jazz in Marciac, 2000) |
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Jean Luc Ponty | (from Individual Choice, 1983) |
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John Coltrane | (from Live At The Village Vanguard Again!, 1966) |
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McCoy Tyner | (from Plays John Coltrane - Live At The Village Vanguard, 1997) |
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Henry Threadgill | (from the Wildflowers sessions, 1976) |
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Randy Weston | (from the Wildflowers sessions, 1976) |
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Gateway (John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Jack DeJohnette) | (from Homecoming, 1994) |
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Chick Corea | (from A.R.C, 1971) |
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Chick Corea | (from A.R.C, 1971) |
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Music Inc. | (from Music Inc. & Big Band, 1970) |
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Billy Cobham | (Cobham with a big band, from A Funky Thide of Sings, 1975) |
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Pharoah Sanders | (Leon Thomas on vocals, from Karma, 1969) |
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Keith Jarrett | (live, about 1973, with a couple of very brief glitches) |
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Pat Metheny | (from Pat Metheny Group, 1978) |
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Pat Metheny | (from Pat Metheny Group, 1978) |
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Tin Hat Trio | (from Helium, 2000) |
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Tony Williams Lifetime | (from Believe It, 1975, Allan Holdsworth on guitar) |
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Yusef Lateef | (we danced to this at our wedding) |
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Miroslav Vitous | (from Infinite Search, 1969) |
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Sarah Vaughan |
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Nina Simone |
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Louis Armstrong |
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Earth, Wind, & Fire | (I think I recorded this from an EWF album about 1978) |
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Toots Thielemans (live, Toots whistling and playing guitar) |
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Don Pullen | (from Milano Strut, 1978) |
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Charles Earland | (from Intensity, 1972) |
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Doug & Jean Carn | (from Infant Eyes, 1971) |
| ...excerpts (see extract for tips on how I created these) |
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Stanley Clarke | (bass solo from the song on the Return to Forever album, 1972) |
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Keith Jarrett | (his outstanding solo from the song on the Miles Davis album Live-Evil, 1970) |
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Joe Bonner | (his beautiful solo from the song on the Pharoah Sanders album Love in Us All, 1973) |
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Stanley Clarke | (bass intro from his song on the Joe Farrell album, Moon Germs, 1972) |
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Alex Blake | (bass solo with extensive use of double-stops & chords; entire song above) |
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Archie Shepp | (from There's A Trumpet In My Soul, 1975) |
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Maynard Ferguson | (Bruce Johnstone on bari, from Live at Jimmy's, 1973) |
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Rhoda Scott | (one of the great Hammond organ players, from Live at the Olympia, 2002) |
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Pop/Rock/etc.
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Pink Floyd | (from the 1987/1988 tour, released as The Delicate Sound of Thunder) |
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Buffalo Springfield |
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Bonnie Raitt | (live) |
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Bob Dylan | (from Blonde on Blonde, 1966) |
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The Traveling Wilburys |
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Lou Reed |
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The Fleetwoods | (1959) |
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The Fleetwoods | (an a cappella version of this beautiful song) |
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Sheryl Crow | (voice and electric piano) |
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GrooveLily | (listen to more of their music at GrooveLily.com) |
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The Sundays |
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The Eagles | (live) |
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Roberta Flack |
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Steve Miller Band |
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Electric Light Orchestra |
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Leon Russell |
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Mike + the Mechanics |
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Neil Young |
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Blind Faith |
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Jimi Hendrix |
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Jimi Hendrix |
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Jeff Beck |
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Nancy Sinatra | (from the movie Kill Bill) |
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Jorma Kaukonen | (from Jefferson Airplane's Surrealistic Pillow, 1967) |
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Everly Brothers |
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Harold Melvin & The Blue Notes |
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The Youngbloods | (a real anthem of the peace & love era) |
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Skeeter Davis |
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The Doors |
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The Velvet Underground | (from 1967, Lou Reed on vocal and guitar) |
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Moby Grape | (a great San Francisco band of the 60s) |
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Moby Grape |
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Johnny Lee | (from the movie Urban Cowboy) |
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Johnny Rivers |
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The Animals |
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Procol Harum | (the original mono recording, looking for stereo re-mix) |
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The Zombies |
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Ike & Tina Turner |
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Joe Cocker |
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Sons of the Pioneers |
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Soggy Bottom Boys | (from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?) |
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Nitty Gritty Dirt Band |
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Ian & Sylvia | (from Northern Journey, 1964) |
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Ian & Sylvia | (in their folk-rock phase, 1968) |
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Eric Weissberg & Steve Mandell | (from the movie Deliverance) |
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Clarence White | (from his bluegrass days) |
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Bill Monroe & The Bluegrass Boys | (Bill Keith on banjo) |
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One-hit wonders
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The Fendermen | (1960, artist info) |
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King Harvest | (1973, artist info – this song is often mistakenly attributed to Van Morrison) |
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Gene Chandler | (1962, artist info) |
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Paul & Paula | (1962, artist info) |
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The Kingsmen | (1963, artist info) |
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The Trashmen | (1964, artist info, "Pa Pa Ooh Mow Mow") |
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The Standells | (1966, artist info) |
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Napoleon XIV | (1966, artist info) |
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Mason Williams | (1967, artist info) |
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The Crazy World of Arthur Brown | (1967, artist info) |
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Blues Magoos | (1967, artist info) |
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Vanilla Fudge | (1968, artist info, a remake of The Supremes 1966 original) |
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The Amboy Dukes | (1968, artist info) |
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Iron Butterfly | (1968, artist info) |
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Richard Harris | (1968, artist info) |
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Thunderclap Newman | (1969, artist info) |
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Shocking Blue | (1970, artist info) |
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Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen | (1972, artist info) |
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Skylark | (1973, artist info) |
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Maria Muldaur | (1974, artist info, I loved her with Jim Kweskin) |
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Minnie Riperton | (1975, artist info) |
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Thelma Houston | (1977, artist info) |
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Alicia Bridges | (1978, artist info) |
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Kim Carnes | (1981, artist info) |
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Dexy's Midnight Runners | (1982, artist info, has a great Ska remake) |
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Bow Wow Wow | (1982, artist info) |
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Katrina & The Waves | (1983, artist info) |
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Michael Sembello | (1983, artist info) |
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Murray Head | (1984, artist info, some interesting trivia) |
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a-ha | (1985, artist info, has a great Ska remake) |
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Bobby McFerrin | (1988, artist info) |
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Edie Brickell & The New Bohemians | (1989, artist info) |
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| Reggae/Ska |
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Bob Marley & The Wailers | (the original recording from Natty Dread, 1974) |
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Bob Marley & The Wailers | (great Marley guitar on this up-tempo version) |
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Jimmy Cliff |
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Mighty Mighty Bosstones |
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Reel Big Fish | (a cover of the A-Ha song) |
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Save Ferris | (a cover of the Dexy's Midnight Runners song) |
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| Other |
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Karl Jenkins (a great new age piece by composer Jenkins - watch video) |
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Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole | (the great Hawaiian singer) |
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Midori | (one of Paganini's 24 Caprices) |
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Midori | (one of Paganini's 24 Caprices) |
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Dave Apollon | (a mandolin variation of Paganini's Caprice No. 24) |
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Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | (from Carl Orff's Carmina Burana) |
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Michael Nyman | (from the movie The Piano) |
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Winton Marsalis |
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Buckwheat Zydeco |
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The 5.6.7.8's | (from the movie Kill Bill) |
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Nico | (from Chelsea Girl, 1967, used in the movie The Royal Tenenbaums) |
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Elaine Paige | (from the Broadway musical Cats, see the video) |
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Leo Kottke |
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Kingston Trio | (we have the CharlieCard in Boston now) |
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Johann Pachelbel |
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Ludwig van Beethoven |
| ...excerpts (see extract for tips on this) |
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Yma Sumac | (from an Inca love song) |
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| Spoofs have been moved to the Humor page under Audio humor |
| 1 | This audio file is located on a remote server and still playable. | 2 | I ripped this from an analog audio tape or LP. | 3 | I originally tape-recorded this from radio (WBUR, WERS) in 1973-1975. | |||||||||
| These MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) files are digitized, instrumental versions of the original songs. |
| Jazz |
| Pop/Rock |
| Other |
Music videos
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Jazz favorites |
| Here are some great music videos by various artists. Most of these are in the FLV format, which streams, and you may need to install the Adobe Flash Player plugin (a quick and simple install). |
| Jazz favorites |
| Miles Davis |
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![]() Bitches Brew, 1969 (52 min.) |
![]() Splatch |
![]() Isle of Wight Festival (35 min.) |
![]() Hannibal |
![]() Human Nature |
![]() Footprints |
![]() So What |
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![]() You Know You Know |
![]() You Know You Know |
![]() The Noonward Race |
![]() Dance of Mya |
![]() Meeting of the Spirits |
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![]() A Lotus on Irish Streams |
![]() 4 songs (hover for names) |
![]() You Know You Know |
![]() One Word |
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| Jerry Goodman |
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![]() Introduction (The FLock) |
![]() Frenzy Soli |
![]() Perputuum Mobile |
![]() Solo |
![]() Kat Food (The Dixie Dregs) |
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| Return to Forever |
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![]() Spain |
![]() 500 Miles High |
![]() Romantic Warrior |
![]() Beyond the 7th Galaxy |
![]() Vulcan Worlds |
![]() Space Circus |
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| Milton Nascimento |
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![]() Milagre dos Peixes |
![]() Nada Será Como Antes |
![]() Lilia |
![]() Lilia |
![]() O Que Será (w⁄ Chico Buarque) |
![]() Cravo e Canela |
![]() Acustico Na Suica |
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![]() Travessia |
![]() Don Quixote |
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| Airto Moreira and Flora Purim |
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![]() Shoulder |
![]() Harvest Jazz series 1982 |
![]() Jazz Summit Hollabrunn, 1985 |
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| John Coltrane |
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![]() Naima |
![]() Afro Blue |
![]() My Favorite Things |
![]() Impressions |
![]() Impressions (w/ Eric Dolphy) |
![]() I Want To Talk About You |
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| Richard Galliano |
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![]() Waltz For Nicky (w/ Birelli Lagrene) |
![]() Tangaria |
![]() Mozartango |
![]() Libertango |
![]() La Valse a Margaux |
![]() Mozambique (w/ Michel Portal) |
![]() Tchaikovsky 1st Concerto (1972) |
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| Anthony Braxton |
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![]() Impressions |
![]() Iridium |
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| Weather Report |
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![]() Black Market |
![]() Elegant People |
![]() Birdland |
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| Rock & Pop favorites |
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![]() It's Alright Ma (I'm Only Bleeding) |
![]() Maggie's Farm Newport '65 Dylan goes electric |
![]() Like a Rolling Stone Newport '65 |
![]() Bob Dylan and Suze Rotolo |
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![]() Us and Them (1988) |
![]() Brain Damage (1994) |
![]() Another Brick in the Wall (1980) |
![]() Shine On You Crazy Diamond (1990) |
![]() Time (1988) |
![]() Money (1989) |
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![]() Cymbaline (1970) |
![]() Grantchester Meadows (1970) |
![]() Green is the Colour (1970) |
![]() Atom Heart Mother (1970) |
![]() Comfortably Numb (1980) |
![]() Wish You Were Here (1988) |
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![]() Live 8 (2005) |
![]() Us and Them (David Gilmour) |
![]() Us and Them (Rick Wright intro) |
![]() Shine On You Crazy Diamond (David Gilmour, 2007) |
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![]() MTV Rockumentary |
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![]() Oh Well |
![]() Albatross |
![]() Man of the World The Peter Green Story |
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![]() Teach Your Children |
![]() Long Time Gone |
![]() Helplessly Hoping |
![]() Southern Man |
![]() Down By The River |
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| Joni Mitchell |
– | a 1979 tour backed by Pat Metheny, Lyle Mays, Michael Brecker, Jaco Pastorius, and Don Alias; some of the songs have film clips edited in at Mitchell's direction |
![]() Free Man in Paris |
![]() In France They Kiss On Main Street |
![]() Raised On Robbery |
![]() Black Crow |
![]() Edith and The Kingpin |
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![]() Imagine |
![]() Woman |
![]() Yer Blues |
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![]() Stroll On |
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![]() Baby, I Love Your Way (1976) |
![]() Show Me The Way (1976) |
![]() Baby, I Love Your Way (2000) |
![]() The Geico commercial (2007) |
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![]() Secret Garden |
![]() Dancing in the Dark (Courteney Cox dancing) |
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![]() Hazy Shade of Winter |
From the movie, Less Than Zero |
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| Psychedelic rock | ||
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![]() Section 43 |
![]() Not So Sweet Martha Lorraine |
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![]() Nature's Way |
![]() Nature's Way (environmental theme) |
![]() I Got a Line on You |
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| Ska | ||
| When my son Alex was in high school he turned me on to this great Jamaican music. | ||
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![]() Take On Me |
I saw them perform this in concert with Alex |
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![]() The Impression That I Get |
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![]() Come On Eileen |
This is the commercial video but it's a great song |
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| Keyboard players |
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![]() Fort Yawuh, Berlin '73 |
![]() 'Round Midnight, Japan '87 |
![]() Tokyo '84 Encore |
![]() Solar |
![]() Funky Tonk solo (w⁄ Miles Davis) |
![]() Umbria Jazz Festival, Perugia, Italy '74 |
![]() Free jazz solo, '67 |
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![]() 'Round Midnight |
![]() 500 Miles High (w/ some RTF) |
![]() Why Wait (w/ some RTF) |
![]() L's Bop (w/ some RTF) |
![]() Spain (w/ Hiromi Uehara) |
![]() Mozart Allegro (w/ Keith Jarrett) |
![]() Sometime Ago |
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![]() Giant Steps |
![]() Mr. P.C. |
![]() Moment's Notice |
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![]() Person I Knew |
![]() Gloria's Step |
![]() My Romance |
![]() Waltz For Debby |
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![]() 'Round Midnight |
![]() Don't Blame Me |
![]() Blue Monk |
![]() Straight, No Chaser |
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I love watching his fascinating instructional videos on YouTube, many with a MIDI keyboard above the one he is playing on showing which keys are being pressed. Roger was at Berklee at the same time I was, and in addition to being an outstanding piano player he is also a doctor. See also Lot2learn Jazz Piano. |
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![]() 2009 Inauguration (w/ Ma,Perlman,McGill) |
![]() Paganini Duet (w/ Martha Argerich) |
![]() Joropo |
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| Guitar players |
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![]() Rio Ancho McLaughlin, de Lucia & Di Meola |
![]() Rio Ancho Di Meola & de Lucia |
![]() Rio Ancho Paco de Lucia (the original) |
![]() Meeting Of The Spirits McLaughlin, de Lucia & Coryell |
![]() Guardian Angel McLaughlin, de Lucia & Coryell |
![]() Solo videos Al Di Meola |
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![]() Spain McLaughlin, de Lucia & Di Meola |
![]() Callejon del Muro Paco de Lucia |
![]() In a Silent Way John McLaughlin & Joe Zawinul |
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![]() Have You Heard |
![]() Phase Dance |
![]() Lone Jack |
![]() Bright Size Life |
![]() Acoustic Medley |
![]() Waltz For Ruth (w/ Charlie Haden) |
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– interview containing Kenny G remarks, the same way I see it. See more here. | ||||||||
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![]() A duet with Sylvain Luc (Live in Marciac 2000) |
![]() Vienne Song |
![]() Dinello (w/ Dominique Di Piazza) |
![]() Mediterranian Sundance (w/ Al Di Meola) |
![]() age 13 at Montreux |
![]() Guitar 1 CD-rom |
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![]() 'Round Midnight |
![]() Stella By Starlight (w⁄ McCoy Tyner) |
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Jeff Beck (one of a kind) ![]() Cause We've Ended as Lovers |
Luis Moreno (guitar hammering) ![]() Fusion |
Mason Williams (a pop classic) ![]() Classical Gas |
Paul Simon (and his brother Ed) ![]() Anji |
Charo (a suprise?) ![]() Malaguena |
| Bass players |
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![]() School Days (Live at Montreux) |
![]() School Days |
![]() Jam |
![]() Duals |
![]() Song To John |
![]() Solo and interview at Newport, 2003 |
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![]() Saratoga Jazz Fest, 2008 |
![]() Romantic Warrior |
![]() The Thunder Tour at the Hollywood Bowl (more info) |
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![]() Club A38, Budapest, 2007 |
![]() 2-hand tapping jazz solo |
![]() San Sebastian Jazz Fest, 2006 |
![]() With Flecktones at San Sebastian |
![]() Amazing Grace (Flecktones concert) |
![]() Amazing Grace (Bass Day 1998) |
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![]() Norwegian Wood |
![]() Slapping & tapping, brother Regi on guitar |
![]() A Chick From Corea (w/Steve Bailey) |
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![]() Agitation (w/ Stanley Clarke) |
![]() Freedom Jazz Dance (w/ Stanley Clarke) |
![]() My Foolish Heart |
![]() Solo with Jan Garbarek |
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![]() Homecoming |
![]() Metamorphose |
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![]() Bass solo at Village Vanguard |
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![]() Ornette Coleman clips |
![]() Lonely Woman |
![]() Body and Soul (w/ Richard Galliano) |
![]() La Passionara |
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![]() A Portrait of Tracy |
![]() Slang |
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![]() Brother Wind March |
![]() Why Not Brazilian |
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![]() Mario Theme |
![]() Bach |
![]() Every Breath You Take (w/ Yves Carbonne) |
![]() Nuclear Rabbit information |
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![]() SF Concert Medley
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![]() Star-Spangled Banner |
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![]() Little Sunflower |
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![]() Little Rose |
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| Other |
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![]() While My Guitar Gently Weeps |
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![]() Vivaldi Summer III |
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![]() Greenwood Sidie O |
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| Adiemus |
– | I love this New Age piece by composer/conductor Karl Jenkins.
The vocals are used as instruments, with the words made up by Jenkins. See Adiemus Unofficial Website, The Adiemus Singers, Adiemus Profile, and Adiemus - Wikipedia for more. |
Miriam Stockley![]() Original recording 1995 |
Karen Melis
![]() Night of the Proms 2001 |
Various choruses![]() |
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![]() Anastasia Volochkova |
![]() The Alchemist M – Indy Parkour |
![]() Delta Commercial (French) |
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| More . . . |
![]() Carmina Burana |
Seiji Ozawa conducts the Berlin Philharmonic and the Shin-Yu Chorus of Japan performing O Fortuna and Fortune plango vulnera, the first two pieces in the Carmina Burana, a collection of 24 poems set to music by Bavarian composer Carl Orff. |
![]() Bobby McFerrin |
Bobby McFerrin demonstrates the power of the pentatonic scale at the 2009 World Science Festival. |
![]() Stand By Me |
Recorded by artists all around the world, from the award-winning documentary, Playing For Change: Peace Through Music. |
![]() Video Games Live |
This is the trailer for the first video game concert tour, featuring the music of Christopher Tin and other game composers. See the website for more. |
![]() Tico Tico |
Cecilia Siqueira (Uruguay) and Fernando Lima (Brasil) play a really incredible guitar duet at the 2009 Brazilian Music Institute. |
![]() Rainbow Connection |
Kermit the Frog sings from The Muppet Movie |
| House music |
|
House M.D. is one of my favorite TV shows and it has some great music, particularly in the closing scenes of many episodes. Whoever
is in charge of music for the show does an excellent job of matching existing music to drama. These are some of the songs I have enjoyed.
Hugh Laurie, the British actor who plays Dr. Gregory House with a pretty good American accent ("I just do the best that I can, gets tough at the end of a long day."), can also play comedy and was in a hilarious series in England in the 80s, Blackadder. Laurie actually performs some of the songs below on piano. |
![]() The Down Low |
- Maggot Brain by Funkadelic (Eddie Hazel on guitar) - Just after they tell a drug dealer (really an undercover cop) he is dying this mournful song begins to play, and at the same time the drug raid he was working on goes down. When I watch this clip, the way the guitar seems to work around the story it almost appears the music was written for the episode. |
![]() Wilson's Heart |
- Passing Afternoon by Iron & Wine (Samuel Beam) - This is one of the heaviest House M.D. stories (perhaps one of the heaviest TV shows I have ever seen) involving Amber's death in an eposide where House and Amber (who is Wilson's girlfriend and also a doctor) are involved in a serious bus accident that results in the failure of her major organs. The video begins with House and Amber in a dream sequence experienced by House in a coma, then continues as House awakens and several loose ends are wrapped up, including Thirteen learning that she has Huntington's Disease. |
![]() Black Hole |
- A Whiter Shade of Pale by Hugh Laurie (House) - Laurie, who is actually a musician, plays a Hammond B-3 organ given to him by his colleague and roomate Wilson. |
![]() All In |
- Hymn To Freedom, Hugh Laurie (House) plays the Oscar Pederson song - A 6-year-old boy is dying of the same ailment that killed a 73-year-old woman twelve years before. House is obsessed with solving it this time. |
![]() Unfaithful |
- Cuddy's Serenade, Hugh Laurie (House) plays his own composition - A priest who runs a homeless shelter is having a multitude of symptoms and becomes a patient of House. The episode ends with Cuddy wanting to invite House to the baby naming ceremony for her daughter. |
![]() Saviors |
- Georgia on my Mind, Hugh Laurie (House) - An environmental activist is treated by House's team for a variety of symptoms, which end up having a natural cause. At the end of the episode Chase proposes to Cameron. In the final scene, the deceased intern, Amber, in one of her many appearances, returns to haunt House one more time. |
![]() Autopsy |
- Beautiful by Elvis Costello - House stops the hallucinations of a very brave young girl with terminal cancer. |
![]() Clueless |
- Love and Happiness by Al Green - The patient has a breathing attack during rough sex. After the diagnostic team treats him for a number of things, including food allergies and lupus, with no results, House is sure it's heavy metal poisoning, and all signs point to the wife. The video begins with Cameron paying off a losing bet to House. Wilson is staying with House until he can get his own apartment, but House is not sure he wants him to leave because he enjoys his cooking. |
![]() Spin |
- None of Us Are Free by Solomon Burke - A bicycle racer, idol to thousands, uses blood-doping to improve performance. In the closing scenes Cameron is dreaming about an ex-flame, her late-husband's best man, and House is accessing the psychotherapy records of his ex-girlfriend and current colleague, Stacy. |
![]() Don't Ever Change |
- Waiting on a Friend by The Rolling Stones - House solves the kidney problem of a former music producer who had recently converted to Hasidic Judaism and collapsed at her wedding. This conversion defies House's philosophy that people cannot change. On the video he makes a tongue-in-cheek jab at Thirteen who is bisexual. |
![]() Cane and Able |
- Gravity by John Mayer - A seven-year-old boy is born with 2 sets of DNA because he was the product of "In Vitro Fertilization" that created twins that merged in his body. When his lesser twin awakens he thinks aliens have invaded his body. |
![]() No More Mr. Nice Guy |
- You Keep Me Hangin' On by The Supremes - A subplot in this episode is the battle between House and Amber for the companionship of Wilson, who is House's best friend and Amber's boyfriend. Their disagreement gets pretty intense and is referred to by Cuddy as a "custody battle." |
![]() Top Secret |
- Superfly by Curtis Mayfield - House diagnoses the condition of an ex-marine after his 2nd tour of duty in Iraq. As the episode ends House and Cuddy are in their usual confrontation with sexual overtones. In the closing scene he encounters Chase and Cameron making out in a storage closet. |
![]() The Greater Good |
- Brand New Day by Joshua Radin - A renowned cancer researcher is House's patient. The episode ends with Taub and his wife discussing having children, Forman and Thirteen living together after working out some things, and Wilson taking the first step in dealing with the death of his girlfriend by finally washing her coffee mug. |
![]() Both Sides Now |
- As Tears Go By by The Rolling Stones - The episode begins with the team treating a man who has alien hand syndrome, an ailment that makes him lose control of his actions. At the end of the episode Chase and Cameron are getting married, and house has finally accepted that he has a drug problem and checks himself into a psychiatric hospital. |
![]() 5 to 9 |
- Shine On by Eric Bibb - The episode is about a day in the life of hospital director Cuddy. Besides having a sick child at home and an employee who is ripping off the hospital to deal drugs, she is negotiating a new contract for the hospital with the insurance company and she wants a 12% increase. They offer 4%, then come up to 8% which she refuses, but at the end of the episode they finally agree to her 12%. |
![]() Words and Deeds |
- Season of the Witch by Donovan - The main story in this episode is a firefighter who has heart attacks because he has unrequited love for a female colleague, and the only way to stop these attacks is to "restart" his brain. The episode ends with House in jail for contempt of court for walking out on the hearing about his illegal drug acquisitions, which he has continued to receive while he is in jail. |
![]() Control |
- Baba O'Riley by The Who - There are 2 main stories in this episode. House's patient is a 32-year-old CEO of a cosmetics company who needs a heart transplant because she has the eating disorder bulimia and has been taking ipecac to throw up, which has destroyed her heart. The other story is the new chairman of the board at the hospital (a wealthy donor) and House do not like each other. |
![]() Acceptance |
- Hallelujah by Jeff Buckley - A death row inmate starts seeing hallucinations of people he killed and passes out. House is sent to the prison as a consult and manages to get him transfered to Princeton-Plainsboro hospital, where it is discovered that for years the inmate has had a tumor that randomly dumps adrenalin into his system causing his violent behavior. The tumor is removed surgically and he is sent back to death row. Cameron has to tell a patient who came in for a routine physical exam that she is dying. In the last scene House is erasing the whiteboard that lists the 5 stages of death: DENIAL, ANGER, BARGAINING, DEPRESSION, ACCEPTANCE. |
![]() Games |
- Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum - House's patient is a punk rocker whose brain appears to have been destroyed by drugs. It turns out he has measles, which they can cure with steroids. House has fired two of the doctors trying out for his team, Amber and Thirteen, but in the last scene Cuddy intervenes. |
![]() DNR |
- What A Wonderful World by Louis Armstrong - Legendary jazz musician John Henry Giles has previously been diagnosed with ALS, a deadly disease. House disagrees and cures him. |