Bela Fleck, Edgar Meyer, and Zakir Hussein in a Mini-Concert

Every time I go to the NPR Music website, I find something new and amazing. One ongoing series they produce is called the "Tiny Desk Concerts," in which major league musicians from all genres are invited to squeeze into the cubicle of music host Bob Boilen and perform a short set for the cameras. In this installment, banjo player Bela Fleck, bassist Edgar Meyer, and tabla master Zakir Hussein perform two pieces that are part jazz, part Americana, and part worldbeat. The instruments represent four different continents (banjo from North America via Africa, bass from Europe, and tablas from India), but the players couldn't be more "in tune" with each other. The interaction is tight and the musicians obviously love playing together. The close-range camera shots give us great views of all three players' technique, especially exciting when they zoom in on Hussein's hands as they become a blur of motion on the drum heads. Check out the video here. They even have an mp3 that you can download of the concert!

Summer Mailing Now Available

The summer letter that you've come to know and love will not be mailed home this year. Instead, it is posted on the band website. Click here to find out everything that's going on this coming year! Included is a calendar of all band performances, information on SB/WE/JB curriculum, and everything you need to know about the Warrior Marching Band. Check it out today!

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Websites for Great Music Listening

If you know me, you know that I hold a pretty dim view of illegal downloads. Being in the music business from the education side of things, I believe it's important to teach my students that artists and songwriters should get paid for what they do. That being said, there are a number of websites that give you the opportunity to listen to great music via streaming. In other words, it's like listening to a radio instead of owning a CD--you can listen to the music, but you can't download it. Here are some of my favorites:

Palmetto Records is a great jazz record company. They have a jukebox-type player on their front page that has full length tunes from their catalog.

NextBop is a blog about contemporary jazz by artists like Ben Allison, Christian Scott, and Medeski Martin and Wood. Click on the "radio" tab to hear a stream of today's jazz with a decidedly rock influence. You can also click on individual artists to just hear their tracks. I recommend Darcy James Argue and his hip big band, Secret Society.

My favorite rock music station is WXRT 93.1FM Chicago. I've been listening to them since the 1980s when I was discovering Elvis Costello, Prince, and the Talking Heads. One of the bands that they helped to put on the map was REM. You can hear a live stream of their incredible album, Fables of the Reconstruction, here. It's one of the only albums I love enough to own on both vinyl and CD.

National Public Radio (NPR) has a ridiculous amount of web content for music lovers. They have blogs, archived concerts, new music samplers, interviews, and get-to-know-the-music pages for every style imaginable from classical to rock to jazz to world music. I'm currently listening to Bassekou Kouyate, a performer from the African country of Mali.

So check these out. Let me know if you have other sites you enjoy, and I'll post them here.

Hey, have you practiced lately?

(BTW--I was on this ill-fated boat cruise in Boston while on a mission trip with the high schoolers from our church. Ask me about it sometime.)