Tag Archives: music

Poetry Wednesday 06/17/09: Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz

Laura's Blogs Posted on by

Link: www.ronmccurdy.com Jazz Montage: A Multimedia Concert Performance of Langston Hughes’s Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz The Langston Hughes Project is a multimedia concert performance of Langston Hughes’s kaleidoscopic jazz poem suite. Ask Your Mama is Hughes’s homage in verse and music to the struggle for artistic and social freedom at home and abroad at the beginning of the 1960s. It is a twelve-part epic poem which Hughes scored with musical cues drawn from blues and Dixieland, gospel songs, boogie woogie, bebop and … Continue reading →

Mary Travers

Laura's Blogs Posted on by

BOSTON – Mary Travers, one-third of the popular 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary who were perhaps best known for their hit “Puff (The Magic Dragon),” died in a Connecticut hospital after battling leukemia for several years. She was 72. The band’s publicist, Heather Lylis, said Travers died Wednesday at Danbury Hospital. Bandmate Peter Yarrow said that in her final months, Travers handled her declining health with bravery and generosity, showing her love to friends and family “with great dignity and without restraint.” “It … Continue reading →

The Incredible String Band

Laura's Blogs Posted on by

One of the most engaging groups to emerge from the esoteric ’60s was the Incredible String Band. Basically the duo of Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, its sound was comprised of haunting Celtic folk melodies augmented by a variety of Middle Eastern and Asian instruments. Heron was a member of several rock bands in England in the early ’60s, while Williamson and Clive Palmer played as a bluegrass and Scottish folk duo. Heron was asked to join as rhythm guitarist, and the trio named itself … Continue reading →

The Fillmore East

Laura's Blogs Posted on by

When I was growing up in the sixties, I lived a few blocks from the shabbiest neighborhood you could imagine. It was on 2nd avenue and east 6th street in New York City. If you look at the picture left, you could see that there didn’t seem to be anything special about it. But there was. On that street was a theater that was the most historical in rock history. It was the Fillmore East. At the time, I was too young to hang out … Continue reading →

Cream

Laura's Blogs Posted on by

Disraeli Gears was one of my favorite albums of the sixties. It was the second album by Cream. It was originally released in November of 1967, and it was their American breakthrough. The album featured two of my favorite singles, “Strange Brew”, and “Sunshine of Your Love”. At this time, Cream was veering away from their blues roots and indulged in more of the psychedelic sounds. The title of the album, Disraeli Gears, was actually an inside joke. Eric Clapton had been thinking of getting … Continue reading →

Renaissance

Laura's Blogs Posted on by

Carpet Of The Sun by Renaissance Come along with me, down into the world of seeing, Come and you’ll be free, Take the time to find the feeling. See everything on its own, And you’ll find you’ll know the way, And you’ll know the things you’re shown, Owe everything to the day. See the carpet of the sun, The green grass soft and sweet, Sands upon the shores of time, Of oceans mountains deep, Part of the world that you live in, You are the … Continue reading →

James Taylor

Laura's Blogs Posted on by

One of my more mellow favorites growing up was James Taylor. I had to be in a really mellow mood to listen to him. James Taylor was born on March 12, 1948 and lived in Belmont, Massachusetts. His father, Isacc M. Taylor was the dean of the University of North Carolina Medical School from 1964 to 1971. He spent his summers on Martha’s Vineyard. When he was a child, he learned to play the cello, but later switched to the guitar in 1960. His early … Continue reading →

The Doors

Laura's Blogs Posted on by

I have done many blogs on The Doors, so I don’t want to get too wound up about them because I’ll be here all day. I saw many Doors concerts when I was about 15 years old, so I remember them very well. I think I was a special kind of rock fan because I actually did go to rock concerts to hear the music. I was not a screamer. I was a serious listener of music. The only thing that I didn’t like about … Continue reading →

Jimi Hendrix

Laura's Blogs Posted on by

They say the good die young. Maybe they’re right. Especially in this case. Well, Jimi Hendrix died young and he was good. As a matter of fact, he was the greatest, perhaps of all the guitarists put together. In 2003, Rolling Stone magazine named him number 1 on their list of The 100 Greatest Guitarists of all time. If you ever got to see Jimi Hendrix perform, consider yourself blessed. He was truly one of a kind. He was a self-taught guitarist. For someone who … Continue reading →