Tag Archives: Something For Thursday

Here’s a bit of film music, by the underheard (at least by me) composer Basil Poledouris. This, from the movie The Hunt for Red October, is “The Hymn To Red October”. This cue opens the film as we get our … Continue reading →

A change of pace today, I think. Over on Twitter today we were discussing the great 1980s geek comedy Real Genius, in the context of Sheila O’Malley‘s piece about director Martha Coolidge. Real Genius somehow wasn’t a big hit when … Continue reading →

Concluding a celebration of Black History Month by way of music, we have a selection performed by musical prodigy Philippa Duke Schuyler. Schuyler lived from 1931 to 1967. She was an enormously gifted musician who spent much of her youth … Continue reading →

Despite my best efforts in high school and college–and I did make a lot of efforts–I never did become a “jazzman,” as the term was back then. (I have no idea if the jazz world has adopted a more inclusive … Continue reading →

It’s Black History Month, so why not feature a man who I consider to be one of the four greatest voices* in the history of pop music? I’m talking about the astonishing, amazing, absolutely one-of-a-kind Sam Cooke. Every time I … Continue reading →

Featuring black musicians this month in honor of Black History Month, here’s a good one. If your spine isn’t tingled by this, I don’t know what to do for you. Here is William Warfield singing “Ol’ Man River” from Showboat. … Continue reading →

Listening to this piece might lead one to assume that it is perhaps a movement from a larger sacred work for baritone, chorus, and orchestra, but it is not: It’s a piece of film music, composed by Patrick Doyle for … Continue reading →

As noted the other day, conductor and pianist Vladimir Ashkenazy has retired from public performance. Ashkenazy was born in 1937 in Russia, but in the 1960s he emigrated to the West where he has lived ever since, starting with London … Continue reading →