Of late I have been trying to keep track of storefronts that play classical music in San Francisco. They make for excellent locations for classical music lovers to loiter. So far I have found two, briefly videoed in this Youtube clip. (more…)
Tag Archives | #hybridhighbrow
On W.C. Fields and Cowboy Bebop
Second Inversion radio has an interesting interview with pianist Nadia Shpachenko. She has a new album that includes a composition by Peter Yates called “Epitaphs and Youngsters.” The piece requires output from a “singing pianist,” who, among other tasks, meditates on W.C. Fields’ famous comment that “On the whole, I’d rather be in Philadelphia.” Apparently Fields hoped […]
National Underwear Day unites all musical forms
Today is National Underwear Day, and radio station WWOZ-FM of New Orleans notes the occasion with a terrific video of the city’s Nat’l Underwear Day celebration from 2016: The New Orleans National Underwear Day Parade rolls again Sunday at 7p, starting and ending at 3610 Toulouse pic.twitter.com/7VoQW2tqk9 — WWOZ 90.7 FM (@wwoz_neworleans) August 5, 2018 […]
Radio remembers Lorraine Gordon, impresaria of The Village Vanguard
Lorraine Gordon has died. She operated the world’s premier jazz club, the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village, for almost 30 years. Gordon ran the place like clockwork. The New York Times obituary gives you the picture: Ms. Gordon, often nursing a glass of vodka, presided over the scene with a personal brand of tough love. […]
Minnesota’s classical safe harbor hour; cellos and weddings (sacred and profane)
On Wednesday, into my classical/radio newsfeed fell this notification about Minnesota Classical Radio (MPR)’s playlist for May 23, 2018. Through the day you get the usual stuff: Schubert, Elgar, Vivaldi. Then the 10 PM hour arrives, and . . . KABOING: Refuge Baljinder Sekhon Robert McCormick McCormick Percussion Group Gumboots David Bruce Carducci Quartet Julian […]
Classical music, fear, and the radio
The New York Times has published a nice essay urging people to get over their fear of classical music and just enjoy the genre. The piece does not say anything that doesn’t get said once every five years or so in some prominent venue. But it does say it well. Miles Hoffman notes the existence of […]
If I could crossover the world . . .
Good grief is there ever a lot of crossover classical stuff going on, much of it in the United Kingdom. Let’s see . . . The Classic FM online service is teaming up with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and PlayStation to present a show titled PlayStation in Concert, billboarding “the very best in video game music.” […]
On the year 1933 when it’s 3:33 pm . . .
I have started something called the “Hybrid Highbrow Network.” It is at this point mostly only a figment of my imagination, a matrix of people who don’t know they’re in the matrix but who mix classical, jazz, showtunes, world music and whatever into whatever comes out the other end, radio-wise. Undaunted by the fictional nature […]
Hybrid Highbrow podcast #4: Why jazz loves Béla Bartók
The fourth installment of my Hybrid Highbrow podcast gets at a musical phenomenon that I have wanted to explore for a while: the affinity that the jazz world has for the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók. In pursuit of this nexus, I’m serving up some wonderful tracks by Richie Beirach, Tabula Rasa, Oliver Haynes, the Peter […]
Down the Highway One with Second Inversion radio
I enjoy one of the best driving commutes of anyone I know. I drive from San Francisco, California down the Highway One to the University of California at Santa Cruz, where I teach. Usually I drive down the coast on Mondays, and back up on Thursdays. This week I downloaded King-FM’s application onto my iPhone […]