It's hard to believe, but the day is finally here! The most important day of the year: it's SAXOPHONE DAY!!

Composer John Williams is 80 years old today.

Flash mob at Copenhagen Central Station. Copenhagen Philharmonic playing Ravel's Bolero.

Today's Google Home Page features an interactive guitar, in recognition of Les Paul's 96th birthday. You can even record yourself playing. Here's my first attempt.

Drummer Jimmy Vincent with Louis Prima

The classical arm of Colorado Public Radio is having a used instrument drive to obtain instruments for donation to local school kids. The gentleman who is responsible for cleaning up and restoring the instruments before distribution reported that they sometimes find strange items inside the instruments, especially the larger ones like tubas. Examples: fruit, crumpled up homework papers, coins, and, once, a round of live ammunition!

Posted for no reason other than it's upbeat and peppy

A tribute to John Denver is coming to the 1stBank Center in Broomfield.

It's the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in Salzburg, Austria (1756). His whole life was devoted to music. He was a child prodigy: by the time he was five he could perform difficult pieces on both piano and violin. He made a name for himself as a composer when he was in his teens, and he went on to write some of the most popular operas of all time.

He died at the age of 35, while he was in the middle of composing his last piece, Requiem in D, which he wrote as his own funeral march. New research indicates he may have died of a strep throat infection (called "severe military fever" in his day) which would be easily treatable now.

Today is the 90th birthday of jazz great Dave Brubeck.

Here is a link to a Denver Post article about up-coming chorale events in the metro area. The group I sing with (Arvada Chorale) got a picture included, and I'm in it!

Language Log: The sounds instruments make

It's the birthday of conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein, born in Lawrence, Massachusetts (1918). His father was a Russian immigrant. He bought and sold beauty supplies, and he discouraged his son from being a musician in favor of taking over the family business. When he was 10, his Aunt Clara was going through a divorce, and she sent her piano to the Bernstein home, and Leonard became a pianist. He got an assistantship with the New York Philharmonic. And on a Sunday afternoon, November 14, 1943, when the conductor Bruno Walter got sick, Leonard Bernstein filled in and got a great review on page one of The New York Times. He became a celebrity at the age of 25.

The Prakticello. It folds up small enough to fit in an airplane's overhead bin.

"You can learn a piece of music. You can practice scales. You can practice arpeggios. You can do everything you need to do when you're practicing the cello," one professional musician says, adding that it's been especially useful on international trips, when she is often without access to her regular cello for one or two days at a time.

Shel Silverstein set to music.

Chopin's Bicentennial

With a Polish mother and a French father, Frederic Chopin asked that his heart be buried in Warsaw and the rest of his body in Paris.

The winner of Apple's iTunes 10 billionth song contest is a 71-year old grandfather. He was downloading a Johnny Cash song!

It's the birthday of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, born in Salzburg, Austria (1756). His whole life was devoted to music. He was a child prodigy: by the time he was five he could perform difficult pieces on both piano and violin. He made a name for himself as a composer when he was in his teens, and he went on to write some of the most popular operas of all time.

He died at the age of 35, while he was in the middle of composing his last piece, Requiem in D, which he wrote as his own funeral march.

"Auld Lang Syne" has become a classic song for ringing in the New Year. The Scottish poet Robert Burns heard an old man sing "Auld Lang Syne" in rural Scotland, and he revised it, added verses, and published it as a poem in 1796. But "Auld Lang Syne" didn't gain prominence as a New Year's song until 1929, when the bandleader Guy Lombardo played it at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City, and it became an American tradition.

Boulder participates in electronic caroling.

Today is the birthday of Dave Brubeck, American jazz pianist and composer. He was born in 1920 in Concord, Calif. and began studying piano at the age of four. In 1951 he organized a jazz quartet with alto saxaphonist Paul Desmond. His music, influenced by modern classical composers, is distinguished by complex harmony and the use of meters not typical in jazz.

Our friend Rich Chiaraluce has a new website up and running: clearlightjazz
I'm guessing his wife, Ruth Ann, had a lot to do with creating it!

Singing the National Anthem.

The cat who plays piano.

Radio D J and music personality Casey Kasem has taped his final broadcast. Famous for counting down the top tunes each week, Kasem has been in the music business for 39 years. He ended with his famous quote:

"Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars."

Dave Brubeck's classic "Take Five" is 50 years old.

The stereotype plays out where the "band" is ridiculed by the football team. The quarterback is never in the band room, the painter is never in the weight room, but the musician...the musician, I have found, has become the bridge between what we consider "art" and "sport" making them one in the same.

Happy 90th Birthday, Pete Seeger!

You know in Peanuts? The music above Schroeder when he was playing piano? It meant something.

What well-known piano piece was written by a 16-year old British girl named Euphemia Allen?

"Chopsticks"
She called it "The Celebrated Chop Waltz" in 1877 and published it under the pseudonym Arthur de Lulli.

A (possible) record lesson at Red Rocks.

The candidates list their top 10 favorite songs. The only artist they have in common is---Frank Sinatra!

Paul McCartney sings "A Day in the Life", one of John Lennon's songs. Note Yoko Ono smiling in the audience.

Cool weather may have been the cause of the special sound of Stradivarius violins. Due to the chill, trees during his time grew more slowly, with rings closer together. "Narrow tree rings would not only strengthen the violin but would increase the wood's density." Hence the richer sound.

This is your brain on jazz.

A new portrait of Mozart has been discovered.

It's Pi Day!. Have 3.l4l6 pieces, at least.

The second week in March is National Procrastination Week, but, in the spirit of the event, I waited till today to tell you!

Here is the latest in musical trends: Aboriginal Hip-Hop. For centuries the native people of Australia preserved the history of their people orally, through singing. Now that most aboriginies live in the cities, it seems logical that the singing should be in a more urban style--hip-hop.

Khazana recently told me that her class is going on a field trip in November to hear a "sympathy orchestra".

I participated in a drum circle at Eldorado Canyon State Park last night. It was the first time I'd been so far back into the canyon--a very nice setting for drumming.

Sarah has been wanting to take up the flute, so last night we went down to Flesher-Hinton and picked up a rental. Our friend Rich Chiaraluce may be giving her less

Paul Simon has been chosen to receive the 1st ever Gershwin Prize for Popular Song awarded by the Library of Congress. I love his music and feel the award is well-deserved. I definitely want to

On Monday the Colorado State legislature voted to make John Denver's song "Rocky Mountain High" the state's second state song. The first is "Where the Columbines Grow" written in 1915. (Few people know

The Arvada Center Chorale, with which I sing, is having their spring concert tonight and tomorrow afternoon. The concert is titled "In Praise of Music" and features selections that all relate to music or song. Examples include "Fascinatin' Rhythm" by G

Happy 80th Birthday, Harry Belafonte!

Last December the Arvada Center Chorale performed a winter concert with a handbell group called The Rocky Mountain Ringers. That group is creating a cd of Christmas music, and they asked the Chorale to perform a number of songs from the concert with th

A Catholic priest is composing a musical version of Dante's "The Divine Comedy". He has chosen different musical genres to describe the levels of the descent into Hades.

Para

NPR took a poll of their listeners to learn what are the best and worst Christmas songs and "The Little Drummer Boy" topped the list for worst. Singing cats and "Grandpa Got Ru

Here's a really interesting interview with Marin Alsop, former conductor of the Colorado Symphony orchestra, on "Too Hot to Handel" which is performed every year at Christmas

According to "AARP,The Magazine", we all screamed for some musical group. This is their take on WHO. (I can't vouch for the choices from the 40's on down, but the older ones look correct to me!)

If you're in your... Your Elvis is...
90

The Chorale group with which I sing gave their winter concert Friday night and two performances on Saturday. We had a full house at each concert and did a good job with the music over all. Our guest artists were The Rocky Mountain Ringers, a fabulous

Last night I attended a performance of the play "Quilters" at the Broomfield Auditorium. A local women's choir put on the sold-out performance. I first saw this play many year ago in its premier performance at

Denver Taiko will celebrate 30 years of performing at a concert tonight. Listening to the huge drums is a visceral experience--even your bone marrow vibrates!

I have a new Doumbek Drum which I think I am going to enjoy very much. Jason kindly went with me to Drum City Saturday, where we viewed a wide

How to play the spoons.

This Wednesday, here in the United States, at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06

Today Ben and Sarah performed in the Federation of Music Teachers All-Youth Competition. They've been participating in this for the past four years and each year have earned the highest rating. The kids both did really well again this year, too, but we

Rare violin returned to orchestra

A rare Stradivarius violin, worth an estimated £570,000, is to be returned to a US orchestra 21 years after it went missing, presumed st

Today is National Kazoo Day.

Mr. Rogers was one of my heroes, so I was delighted to hear that a group of musicians have taken the songs from his t.v. shows (all written by him) and recorded them, each performer giving the songs their own personal musical style. The cd is titled