Blue-spotted Salamander

Doreen Ketchens is the leader of the group called Doreen's Jazz New Orleans. Their reason for having a band is to spread the culture and the traditional music of New Orleans all over the world. This is what music should be all about. Doreen has a special way to express emotions in her music which touches the hearts of her fans. She is called many things such as "Clarinet Queen", "The female Louis Armstrong", and “Lady Louie”. She has performed with many other jazz players. Ellis Marsalis, Jon…

In 1994, performer Darryl Yeager saw the need for another company in Salt Lake City, Utah to allow the large group of unemployed talents a chance at beginning to work in their field. Thus he founded Odyssey Dance Theatre. He wanted to focus on having dance works that were performed for general audience instead of for people who focus on dance as an elite form. After discovery of this need, Yeager began the choreographic work “Shut Up and Dance” to allow people of all ages and ethnicities to be…

Big Star was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1971 by Alex Chilton, Chris Bell, Jody Stephens, and Andy Hummel. The group broke up in 1974, but reorganized with a new line-up nearly 20 years later. In its first era, the band's musical style drew on the vocal harmonies of The Beatles, as well as the swaggering rhythms of The Rolling Stones and the jangling guitars of The Byrds. To the resulting power pop, Big Star added dark, existential themes, and produced a style…

Joe Smith’s cornet accompaniment relates to Fletcher Henderson’s piano accompaniment by that they both focus on supporting Bessie Smith rather than over powering her voice. This is because blues is more of vocal genre, in the song I noticed that what was being sung and the lyrics was what was dominantly heard. For me, I tended to concentrate on what melody on the song and tone of her voice rather than the instruments playing. Both the cornet and piano accompaniment exemplified the practice of…

A singer, songwriter and classically trained multi-instrumentalist, Alexander Kotz, otherwise known as Elderbrook, developed his love for music at an early age. Building his musical foundations upon the influences of Jazz artists Sam Cooke and Billie Holiday, London-native Kotz would forge his unique vocals with an instrumental knowledge of guitar, bass, piano, and drums. A student of the prestigious Bath Spa University, Kotz began experimenting with his sound, merging his acoustic and…

i. Grip – Slatkin often uses a light grip with the handle of the baton between his thumb and index finger. However, he has held the handle in the palm of his hand, while his thumb and index finger gripped the baton. Occasionally, his pinky finger pops out during cues and powerful sections of the movement. ii. Wrist motion – Slatkin has a natural wrist motion as he conducts and he uses his wrist the most when cuing big entrances. In addition, Slatkin stresses his wrist motion whenever he…

A Negro spiritual is a type of religious song originating among Black slaves in the American south. They are African-American spirituals that emerged from a mixture of the brutal institution of slavery, Christian influences, and African culture. There was a joy of love, mercy, grace, judgment, etc. among the themes enfolded throughout the songs. The Negro spiritual that caught my attention would be “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands”. This song is simple but has a powerful truth. This song…

On October 8th and 9th there will be the 6th Annual Riverside Blues, Brews & BBQ Festival on the Beacon Field in Greenfield,MA. Christy Moore, the director of the recreation department for 6 years said it was started by “a group who watch the Kansas City BBQ competition on a cooking channel and thought it would be cool to bring it to Greenfield.” “2,000 people had come through out the weekend and through the gates.” These people are coming from Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Hampshire,…

Cuban jazz pianist and composer, David Virelles, has been widely solicited by the attentive musicians on the current scene, who immediately recognized his outstanding creative capabilities. In the recent past, he has played key roles in projects led by trumpeter Tomasz Stanko and saxophonists Henry Threadgill and Chris Potter. As a leader, Virelles always brings heritage into the game, and both Continuum (Pi Recordings, 2012) and Mboko (ECM, 2015) received accolades from the specialized media…

To begin, I would like to state that I love and prefer Big Mama Thornton’s version of “Hound Dog” over Elvis Presley’s cover. The forms are not the same when comparing both of the songs. In Thornton’s version it has a slow, sultry, and soulful form and or a moderate tempo to it while with Elvis it felt like he hit the gas pedal making the song move 100 miles per hour. With Elvis making the song faster and more of a rock and roll type of song it lost the soul that the original writer had for the…