The Tizona Group (Free subscription) | 11/26/2009
Bolt Ruffugees (thx, Rabz!) will be accustomed to clicking on contributor Elsie’s musical links in the daily Forum post there for their daily sanity break and relief from all things political. As it is the anniversary of the premiere in 1942 of the movie Casablanca, today Elsie gives us jazz violinist Stephane Grappelli playing the theme, [...]
Digital Meltd0wn (Free subscription) | 11/15/2009
Stephane Grappelli...born January 26, 1908 in Paris, France. Stephane was the son of a philosophy teacher of Italian origin. He first worked as a pianist, accompanying silent films in a cinema to help his father pay the bills. Outstanding jazz violinist with a swinging, sweet-toned style, great technique & finesse, very tasteful. He studied as a classical violinist early in his career & turned...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
By Tad Hendrickson...
PopMatters Music (Free subscription) | 11/12/2009
Lost at Sea is fun enough, but it mainly serves as a placeholder until the band's new material sees the light of day. When the Squirrel Nut Zippers emerged from Chapel Hill, North Carolina in the mid-'90s as the unwilling face of the swing revival, they also found themselves at the center of a debate between fans, who found the band's take on '20s and '30s hot jazz to be refreshing, and purists, who...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 11/07/2009
The liner notes imply that this is the Christmas album {{Django Reinhardt=10635}} and {{Stephane Grappelli = 7175}} might have made, had they made one. Certainly the The Hot Club of San Francisco is a virtuosic group that specializes in conjuring that era (see their masterful Bohemian Maestro for a recent example). But there's a wealth of delicious humor here that goes beyond anything that legendary...
Geezer Music Club (Free subscription) | 09/30/2009
The French have had their share of musical stars through the years, and seem to have been especially strong in instrumental pop and light classics, a genre sometimes called Easy Listening. A while back I wrote about Paul Mauriat, and another good example would be his friend and frequent collaborator, Franck Pourcel. Pourcel was the son [...]
Blogcritics: Music (Free subscription) | 09/30/2009
A success in multiple genres and on both sides of the Atlantic.
Record of a baffled spirit (Free subscription) | 09/26/2009
Sometimes you do things, and things happen. I bought a second hand violin in a Swansea junk shop. I think it cost me seven shillings and sixpence (pre-decimalization) 45 pence, new money, or about 75 cents. I bought it because it had the same tuning as the mandolin, which I could play; beyond that I had no idea why. It’s just sometimes good to listen to your voices. A few years passed and I was...
PopMatters Music (Free subscription) | 09/24/2009
The Hot Club prove again that the western swing pioneered by Bob Wills was a vitally modern music that has yet to exhaust its sophisticated vocabulary. While the Hot Club of Cowtown have been a regular live presence around the globe in recent years, appearing at the Glastonbury Festival among other places, the group have not released a studio album since 2002's Ghost Train. Wishful Thinking finds them...
All About Jazz (Free subscription) | 09/24/2009
{{Django Reinhardt = 10635}} and {{Stephane Grappelli = 7175}} never recorded an album of holiday music, but the Hot Club of San Francisco--who’ve long been inspired by those gypsy-jazz pioneers--always wished they had. “What Would Django Do?,” the Hot Club’s guiding principle, led happily in this case to the creation of Hot Club Cool Yule. It’s the...
The One-Line Review (Free subscription) | 09/16/2009
France/Italy Feature Film Director: Louis Malle Writers: Jean-Claude Carrière, Louis Malle Cinematographer: Renato Berta Composer: Stéphane Grappelli Cast: Miou-Miou, Michel Piccoli, Michel Duchaussoy, Bruno Carette, Paulette Dubost, Harriet Walter, Martine Gautier, Rozenne Le Tallec, Jeanne Herry-Leclerc, Renaud Danner, François Berléand, Dominique Blanc Pitched somewhere...
Denver Post (Free subscription) | 08/20/2009
If you ever dreamed of gathering all your favorite female vocalists for one night and spending the evening listening to their signature numbers while you sat back and nursed a drink, then you'll be interested to know that local chanteuse Lannie Garrett has the same dream.
NTU 07-10 (Free subscription) | 08/01/2009
The latest Sci-Fi movie; Battle For Terra will be available from 22nd September this year. It looks really good from the trailer. I don't think there has been a very good Sci-Fi movie for a long time and there is a possibility that this is breaking the barrier for 3D films so it could make its mark. David Cross is in this too, so there might even be some comedy! :) Here is the trailer for the new movie...
It's Eclectic! It's Eccentric! It's RadioNowhere's... (Free subscription) | 07/19/2009
Listen to this episode Poison Ivy - The Coasters Deadly Nightshade - The Only Ones Bella Bella Donna - Vico Torriani Bella Donna - Ed Harcourt Rhythm & Booze Part 1 - Jason Stone The Praties They Grow Small - Clark Jones Bluebells - Jehst Daphne - Stephane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt, Michael Warlop & Eddie South Memo from Turner - Mick Jagger Highweeds & Hemlock - Jon Wilcox Chew Tobacco...
Violinist.com (Free subscription) | 07/15/2009
By Graham Clark: The weekend after next I will be going to a weekend workshop dedicated to jazz guitar. One tutor is John Etheridge, esteemed jazz/rock guitarist, who has worked with (inter alia) Soft Machine, Stephane Grappelli, and currently has a duo with British jazz violinist Chris Garrick. The other is Peter Oxley, who, as well as being a superb jazz guitarist, makes bows. They are a fiddle friendly...
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