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We’ve all known someone who had one significant accomplishment, and then on the basis of that one achievement they enjoyed notoriety and reputation based on that one achievement, though they never managed to come close to achieving anything on that scale again, right? Yes, I’m talking about the Ides of March. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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Continuing an exploration of Black Music of the 1970s, we have Minnie Riperton today. Riperton was a native of Chicago who tragically hit it big with her soprano voice, enormous range, and an airy tone that gave her songs an ethereal tone and then died of breast cancer when she was just 31. Her legacy endures, not just because of her music, but because of her influence on artists after her like Michael Jackson and Tupac Shakur. Her legacy also endures because her daughter is famed actress and comedian Maya Rudolph. Here is Minnie Riperton’s biggest hit, “Loving You”.  ShareDown the rabbit hole….

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Jonathan Bailey Holland is a composer originally from Flint, MI who is currently the Dean of the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University. According to his bio, he has had music performed by ensembles all over the world, and he has taught at a number of universities as well as at many music festivals and arts schools. And like many of the other composers in this ongoing mini-series of mine, I never heard of him until now. I have thus far only heard the work presented below, so I can’t discuss Dr. Holland’s general approach, but this work isDown the rabbit hole….

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I’ve been featuring Donna Summer the last few weeks, and then the other day The Wife and I were driving around doing errands and we were listening to 70s On 7 on SiriusXM, where a string of selections made me decide to expand the Donna Summer focus (and I’ll be back to Donna Summer!) to Black Singers of the 1970s. Why? Because a whole damn lot of really good music falls under that description. We’ll start with a one-hit wonder that’s so infectiously good, and sung so well, that every time I hear it, I wonder why this guy–a singer from Jamaica–onlyDown the rabbit hole….

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I couldn’t decide which of three pieces to feature today, so I said to myself, “Why limit myself to one?” That’s right, you get all three. Composer and flautist Valerie Coleman has had a deeply impressive career already. A native of Louisville, KY, Coleman was steeped in music from an early age, and her trajectory seems to have mainly pointed in one direction her entire life, as far as I can tell: up. She has been an accomplished performing flautist as well as a highly-regarded composer; her work Umoja–which began as a work for woodwind quintet but then was re-arranged by theDown the rabbit hole….

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We were at the Burchfield Penney Art Center yesterday. This lovely museum, smaller than the AKG and dedicated to Western New York artists, is always a delight to visit. Art museums have become my favorite places to visit. What an interesting development…I always had a hard time with the visual arts until recently. I have some thoughts on this, but they are forthcoming…. Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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Most times these quizzes are themed in some way. Not this week! These questions are random as shit! Here we go! 1. Did you/will you have coffee or some other form of caffeine today?  I literally just downed the last sip of Coffee Number One. Shortly I will get up to brew Coffee Number Two. And later on, when we have Sunday Popcorn, I will wash it down with a lovely Coke Zero. (Sundays tend to be a lazy day for us, when we do household stuff like laundry and a bit of cleaning and maybe some food prep and stuff…in theDown the rabbit hole….