Two Music Firsts: Grammys and Super Bowl

So here’s good news in the music world. One expected. Since the Grammys are all about exploring the present music scene, a new award is always welcome. The other is totally unexpected. And oh so cool. The Super Bowl is exploring beyond their comfort zone. Check it out.

Here’s a really cool Grammy award. It’s a new one. And if you loved your music teachers as much as I loved mine, you’ll dig this news. The GRAMMYs are recognizing for the first time ever the significant role music teachers play in shaping students’ appreciation of music with the Music Educator Award. The first recipient is Kent Knappenberger of Westfield Academy in Western New York – “Mr. K” to his students.

“I think it’s my job to try to approach children in a way that I can try to find something musical in them and sometimes in the kid you think shouldn’t have some musical gifting. If you start looking – wow, it’s there and amazing things happen.”

It will be presented to Mr. K at the Special Merits Awards Ceremony during GRAMMY Week. Congrats, Mr. K! Do you know a great music teacher? The deadline to nominate next year’s music educator is March 31. Applications are at GRAMMYMusicTeacher.com.

At the Super Bowl, we’re accustomed to hearing huge popular artists take the stage. At half-time and before the game. In groundbreaking and truly great Super Bowl news, the national anthem will be sung by opera star, Renee Fleming. The winner of four Grammys and the National Medal of Arts, she is such a perfect choice. If you’ve ever been at a performance or event where she is the host, you know how down-to-earth and gracious this brilliant soprano is. And what a voice! Usually performed by pop and country stars, it’s not an easy song to sing, but Ms. Fleming will nail it. And I bet she will win over a lot of new fans. Hey NFL, outstanding!

 

 

 

Sources:
Grammy quotes: Official Grammy website
Kent Knappenberger pic: CBS News
Renee Fleming pic: Decca/Andrew Eccles

October Newsletter: A Review of the Month’s Culture, Arts + Trends

OCTOBER’S COOL IN EVERY WAY

Did you check out the colorful Melt to Earth metal sculptures by Aaron Curry that are planted all over Lincoln Center?…And the interesting docs keep coming. Three more to consider. HBO’s Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight looks at his Supreme Court battle about being a conscientious objector during the Viet Nam war…AKA Doc Pomus tells how Jerome Felder turned into the hit-making songwriter of Save the Last Dance for Me, This Magic Moment, and A Teenager in Love…And Film at Lincoln Center had a one-night only showing of Following The Ninth about four people whose lives were transformed, repaired, and healed by Beethoven’s Ninth’s message: “All men will be brothers.” Lest we forget, the Berlin Wall came down as Leonard Bernstein performed the Ninth as an “Ode To Freedom” in December 1989…Milk Gallery presented Ali: Photographs by Thomas Hoepker…Maestro Gilbert led the NY Phil in Beethoven’s Ninth (you’ve heard of it?) that included a finale featuring Manhattan School of Music’s Symphonic Chorus…Paul McCartney’s new album is called, wait for it, New. New songs that celebrate “the idea that pop music can still invigorate, inspire, and surprise – even if you had a hand in inventing it.”…At 92Y Talks, the great Boz Scaggs (did ya know he has a vineyard? Rosé, anyone?) talked with Anthony DeCurtis about his music, old and new. Heard Memphis yet? He’s still got it…So Alec Baldwin has a talk show on MSNBC and already peaked with Billy Joel. Will he top that?…Missed chances, lost time. Ah, Edith Wharton’s Age of Innocence as only Martin Scorsese could do it. Hope you caught it at Film at Lincoln Center’s NY Film Festival. A piece of art…Back when I produced an alternative music college radio show, Soul Asylum and Evan Dando kindly sat in. I was happy to hear that they played Webster Hall…Good news, guitar lovers! The NY Guitar Festival just announced its return in January for three weeks. Stay tuned for more…The first opera produced through the Met/LCT New Works program, Nico Muhly’s Two Boys is a modern tale with modern music. Is the Met taking up the slack since the loss of the NYC Opera? Maybe…But from out of the shadows we also have the Gotham Chamber Opera, whose 12^th season just opened…Totally sad news under the Big Bummer category, we lost Lou Reed. He left us with plenty to keep us busy, thinking, and appreciating. And y’know that Doc Pomus movie I mentioned? Passages from Doc’s private journals are read by his close friend, Lou Reed. All the more reason to check it out.

BOOKS THAT MATTER 

There are 650 letters to be discovered in The Leonard Bernstein Letters, a new book that affirms his love of composing…I discovered Humans of New York when a friend shared their blog posts on Facebook. Now comes a book! That these pics and stories are all too human, well, that’s the point. Because we are them and they are us. And everyone has a story…In time to commemorate Kristallnacht, re-reading Viktor Frankl’s Man’s Search for Meaning which confirms the sanctity of memory. And how one can positively move forward from atrocity…Mary Oliver’s Dog Songs, poems and pictures about the special love between, aw, you know. So here’s a taste. “Steadfastness, it seems, is more about dogs than about us. One of the reasons we love them so much.” Here’s another. “Said Ricky to me one day, ‘Why is it you don’t have a tail?’ Well, I just don’t.”…Media alert! Under the OMG category, just, just, just out is Mark Lewisohn’s Tune In, the first volume of All These Years, the possibly definitive bio trilogy about all four Beatles.

PLENTY OF GOOD DEEDS

Hoping to draw attention to humanitarian concerns in Russia, violinist Gidon Kremer sees his To Russia with Love concert in Berlin as, “a kind of a personal statement against injustice, expressed together with friends and everlasting music.” He goes on, “…we should for sure lend support to all discriminated people worldwide in peaceful actions using our abilities and art…After all, art is designed to bring people closer to each other and not to split them.”…The first Muhammad Ali Humanitarian Awards, celebrating individuals who have made significant contributions toward the attainment of peace and social justice, honored President Jimmy Carter, Christina Aguilera, and Michael Bolton. The Awards were inspired by the six core principles that have guided Ali’s life: confidence, conviction, dedication, giving, respect and spirituality. And yeah, The Champ did the presentin’!…Yo-Yo Ma’s 15^th annual Silk Road Ensemble, a peace-through-music project, at Carnegie Hall. And there’s a new album that he calls A Playlist Without Borders, demonstrating that with sounds and ideas from musicians from all over the world, there are no barriers for those approaching music with an open mind…Buddha did his part, too. Visiting seniors, he spread the love…Mitzvot abound.

THERE’S THIS BLOG, SEE…

Posts on Yvette Perry’s Blog include Lou Reed, Veronique Sanson, Underdogs, Okkerville River’s video game, Sherlock Holmes’s violin, Close Cover Before Striking, Cause Marketing (there’s wine and a dog), Mark Knopfler, and Yoko + Peace + Love…Also posted there is this newsletter so you can easily share it with your friends. Just click on any of the share buttons below each post.

Soundtrack to this Issue is Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side
Lou Reed with Andy Warhol at the best place ever,
The Bottom Line, July 1978.

Buddha, stay. Good dog. 

“…live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”  (Buddha)

Sources:
AKA Doc Pomus pic: Documentary film poster
New quote: Kyle Anderson, EW
Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton: St. Martin’s Press
Dog Songs by Mary Oliver: Penguin Press
Gidon Kremer: Interview, NY Times
Concert in Berlin for Human Rights In Russia: To Russia with Love, October 7, 2013
Lou Reed pic at The Bottom Line: Ebet Roberts/Redferns

September Newsletter: A Review of the Month’s Culture, Arts + Trends

SEPTEMBER BRIMS WITH HEART + MUSIC

Did you know September is Piano Month? Celebrate the great instrument. Listen to the piano opening on Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water…There’s Yamaha’s new stringless piano. WWVCD. What would Van Cliburn do?…Boston rolled out 75 pianos all over town for people with skill or not, to play on and enjoy…Yoko Ono’s new album, Take Me to the Land of Hell, features Questlove and Lenny Kravitz. The ever peace-promoting Yoko took a NY Times full-page, as is her custom, posting the lyrics to Cheshire Cat Cry. “I’m rolling in your dreams, listening to your screams…Stop the violence, stop all wars.”…A Night With Janis Joplin concert musical opens on Broadway…Elton John and Sting released new music…The San Francisco Opera premieres Stephen King’s downright operatic story Dolores Claiborne. “With a Stephen King novel you find a person in extreme situations, and I was drawn to the psychology of that, of how we cope, how we feel,” says librettist J.D. McClatchy…The NY Phil played the score to Kubrick’s great 2001: A Space Odyssey, while the film played on a screen behind the Orchestra…Stevie Wonder, Alicia Keys, John Mayer, and Bono helped fight poverty at the Global Citizen Festival in Central Park…Renee Fleming sang, yes, sang the Top Ten List of opera lyrics on David Letterman’s Late Show…The US Postal Service honors Ray Charles with a stamp, released on his birthday, September 23. Also offered is a CD of his greatest hits. Honor this true music icon, buy his stamp. By the way, the stamp sheet looks just like a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve. Very cool…And Cher sang and talked everywhere upon the release of her new album, Closer to the Truth. Cher on Cher: “I’m serious about my work, but I don’t take myself seriously.” The single, I Hope You Find It, is pure Cher – all heart…The good news is Maestro James Levine returns to the Met Opera after a terrible fall which kept him away too long…And at the Met Museum, musicians performed period music that complemented the art in the European Paintings gallery…Alas, there is not good news for the NY City Opera company. This “people’s opera” is in need of money, lots of money, to survive. Losing an arts institution is in no one’s interest. The place Beverly Sills called home needs a benefactor who cares, really cares. In the meantime, there’s a Kickstarter campaign…The One Day University offered classes in Beethoven’s Ninth (The Story Behind the Masterpiece) and Gershwin, Ellington and the Search for an American Sound…Music plays a role in two new documentaries. Muscle Shoals about that Alabama city’s huge musical legacy. And Metallica Through the Never, a concert film. Bring your earplugs…Sir Paul, y’know the Beatle, released the single, New. “All my life, I never knew what I could be, What I could do, Then we were new.” Could it be a (silly) love song?…Finally, noted in the NY Times under In Memoriam: Isaac Stern, July 21, 1920-September 22, 2001, Fiddler.

A NEW FILM ON THE 60s TO LOVE

One man follows his dream and is an eyewitness to a noteworthy decade’s highpoints. Documentary filmmaker Chris Szwedo held a private screening of Eye on the 60s, a mesmerizing view of the sometimes serious, sometimes hilarious, and always very interesting photographer, Rowland Scherman. He started out taking pics for the Peace Corps which led to the Kennedys, then RFK’s campaign tour, the March for Jobs and Freedom in DC, and to Life magazine. Barbara Walters, the Beatles, Mapplethorpe and Smith, Janis Joplin, Joni Mitchell, Judy Collins, Arthur Ashe. There isn’t a pic he’s taken that isn’t seared into our collective memories. Scherman’s passion, his love, and his curiosity are displayed throughout his work – and all share his clear-eyed view of humanity. Oh, by the way, y’know that pic of Dylan with his hair in a halo, yeah, the pic on the cover of Bob Dylan’s Greatest Hits, yeah, that one? That’s Rowland Scherman and it won him a Grammy. This film is not only a wonderful look at the 60s, with all the pleasures that come with that. It is a document of an artist’s intertwined life and career. Hope you catch it. I loved it.

…AND BOOKS

Although her singing has been silenced by Parkinson’s, Linda Ronstadt’s voice is open, honest, and sure in her new memoir, Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir. With Heart Like a Wheel playing in my head, her memoir felt as heartfelt as her performance of that song is genuine…Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep arrived. In this sequel to The Shining, Danny Torrance is all grown up. Is he fighting his demons? “Dan didn’t think he’d had such a clear shine in years. It brought a ghost of delight that went back to earliest childhood, before he had discovered how dangerous the shining could be.”…Michael Sokolove’s Drama High about a public high school’s drama program is “the incredible story of a brilliant teacher, a struggling town, and the magic of theater,” and is a testament to the importance of arts education.

ON DOGS AND LOVE 

We can be heroes. Animal Planet’s Hero Dogs of 9/11 is a tribute to the 300 dogs who played an important role in the rescue and recovery efforts at ground zero. “They will literally put their lives on the line for us.”…And heroes were in abundance at the annual AKC Meet The Breeds show. From the Irish Wolfhound to a teeny Chihuahua. Beauties with big hearts all. Alas, the Westies were a no-show at the show. But I had a wonderful visit with David Frei. Host of the Westminster Dog Show, his Angel On A Leash is all about therapy dogs…Along with a new year wish for peace, I leave you with a Rabbi’s sermon on love. “It is not what we feel, but rather what we do…When words of likability come cheap, our deeds matter more. When our emotions become a mere mouse click, our tangible actions define true relationship.” Read it, share it, dig it!

ABOUT A BLOG 

Posts on Yvette Perry’s Blog include lookalike book covers, Neil Diamond’s songwriting process, the Simon and Garfunkel Concert in Central Park, George R.R. Martin’s take on fantasy, and Diana Nyad’s mantra…Also posted there is this newsletter so you can easily share it with your friends. Just click on any of the share buttons below each post.

 Soundtrack to this Issue is Cher’s Believe,
performed live in concert in Las Vegas.
I believe in Cher.

 Buddha, stay. Good dog.“…live in the present moment wisely and earnestly.”  (Buddha)

Sources:
Yamaha’s AvantGrand N3: David Pogue, The NY Times
Dolores Claiborne quote: The Sacramento Bee
Ray Charles stamp: Yves Carrère, photographer/USPS
Cher’s I Hope You Find It: The Today Show
Cher quote: CBS Sunday Morning
Eye On The 60s: Chris Szwedo Productions
Bob Dylan Halo pic: Rowland Scherman
Love sermon: Rabbi Benjamin Spratt