I was listening to KPFA’s Sunday morning classical music show yesterday, and suddenly they played Igor Stravinsky’s Histoire du Soldat and I thought: maybe there are two kinds of Stravinsky for two kinds of public radio stations. For the big grand classical music stations like WQXR-FM in New York City, the pre-World War I ballets with […]
My friend Sherry Gendelman played one of Maurizio Pollini’s recordings the other day on her Piano radio show on KPFA in Berkeley. It was Pollini’s version of the Chopin Preludes and reminded me of when he came to New York City in 1979 and played Carnegie Hall. This was a huge deal since he was […]
By popular demand I have produced my second Hybrid Highbrow podcast. It’s all about jazz and classical pieces that conform to the “arabesque” format. Arabesques are often but not always written for the piano. Robert Schumann and Claude Debussy composed the most famous arabesques. But I also hear the arabesque spirit in the the work […]
Hybrid Highbrow podcast #1 is out! Ta daaaaa! The maiden episode focuses on the similarities between two early 20th-century “talking machine” singers: blues shouter Mamie Smith and opera star Enrico Caruso. Both sang in the middle ranges, alto and tenor, rather than the high or low registers. This made them perfect for acoustic recording. Both […]
There are all kinds of reasons why I love my neighborhood in San Francisco, and Thrillhouse Records is definitely one of them. It is an excellent little community based record store situated on Mission and 30th street, just below the climb up to scenic Bernal Heights. Thrillhouse describes itself as so: “Thrillhouse Records a volunteer […]
After covering the comeback of the live streaming radio platform Live365 two episodes ago, listeners asked us to check out MixCloud, which offers free streaming of music radio shows, DJ sets, mixtapes and podcasts for anyone, including radio stations and independent producers. So this week we talk with Xanthe Fuller, Head of Community for Mixcloud. […]
Many wonderful music programs come out of radio station WPRB-FM of Princeton, New Jersey. Marvin Rosen’s program Classical Discoveries ranks high among these offerings. He’s been celebrating new music and living composers over the airwaves since 1997, and on May 29 will note the show’s 20th birthday. “Classical Discoveries would not be possible anywhere else but here […]
Alas, I made it a day late for the inaugural launch-party broadcasts. But I have signed myself up for boxout.fm’s impending new online community radio service. India Today has an interview with the founders. “Initially,” says one of the progenitors: ” . . . we will start off with 4-6 hours of daily live shows hosted by […]
Catch Alice’s Restaurant on the 2023 radio dial. See our latest listening guide. Happy early Thanksgiving! After a particularly contentious Presidential election, many families are anxious about upcoming holiday gatherings. Some are banning political conversations, whereas others are setting ground rules for polite discourse. Perhaps the long-standing radio tradition of listening to Arlo Guthrie’s […]
This week Stereogum’s Managing Editor Michael Nelson penned an in-depth piece called CMJ Sure Seems to be Over. So How Come Nobody is Talking About It? In the article, he outlines the history of college radio stalwart CMJ (it dates back to 1978, when it began as a college radio chart report called College Media […]
