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Music in the Works
Navigation
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Favorite Links - Musical or otherwise.
Former unknowns, and MAJOR influences on my musicianship:
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A website to the incredibly innovative writing team of Partridge and Moulding. Founders of the English band XTC...There was one other time in my life when a band from England had this kind of impact on me...Hmm, what was their name?...er..."Beagles?"...no...um... "Beamers?"...Oh I'll get it eventually!
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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Various Frank Zappa Sites - At Random~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
One of countless MANY sites I could easily thrust upon you concerning the genius of Frank Zappa! That's okay...We'll start with this one, for no particular reason.
Lyrics...yes, but not just lyrics. This site contains tour listings, history, information on unreleased projects and a "neat" graphics page displaying cover photos/art from albums and books celebrating this modern day composer. But, through no fault of it's own, it falls short, because the walls of one site alone cannot contain the body of work generated by Frank Zappa.
...But here is another stab at it...the official site copyrighted by the Zappa Family Trust. GREAT SITE!
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Speaking of genius...Come witness the splendor that is BIRD! Click on the text above for one site, click on the photo for another.
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I cannot say enough about this man, and the effect his style and phrasing has had upon me. He is easily the main influence on my playing as a bassman. Visit this site and learn more about the man from Florida...The "High Plains Drifter" of bassists.
Yet another tribute site.
Skillful precision, clean execution, mathematical complexity, innovation, graceful speed, and beauty... and that's STILL not enough wording to describe his mastery on guitar! Having grown up in the Philadelphia area and lived there a good portion of my life, I became familiar with him early on. He is Legend, and continues to amaze!
Another powerful influence on my writing, my playing, and my musical sense. To say Donald Fagen is a good writer is a gross understatement. To me, this band embodies everything that is "cool" musically. Fagen, with writing partner and guitarist Walter Becker, keep taste and impeccable arrangements alive! Their style is timeless, and always fresh.
Mahavishnu Orchestra Photo Gallery
Again; another huge influence on my musical sense...And again, I could dump a lot of related sites about them on you, but we'll start with this. Fans will thrill to these photos!
...and speaking of Mahavishnu Orchestra; Another MONSTER musician! Rolling thunder on percussion! The expression "you can't touch this" comes to mind when I think of Billy's prowess on drums!
Love this writer's ability to "turn a tune." A much underrated pianist, and a GREAT composer. If you're a fan of "Film Noir," you might recognize him from a number of classics.
Listening to her style evolve and flower into many permutations through the years has been nothing less than a joy...
Joni Mitchell is a songwriter, singer, musician, poet and painter. Her output of 21 albums over 30 years is widely regarded as one of the most significant and consistent collections of work by any artist of her generation. Her unique interpretation of divergent styles creates an intriguing, often unclassifiable musical landscape, captivating music lovers and keeping pundits guessing.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Two Gentle Giant Pages~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A marvelous ensemble of fantastic songwriters/musicians whose impact upon me is immeasurable! Along with the likes of King Crimson and Yes (although never really achieving the success of the aforementioned bands), Gentle Giant help set an even more technically challenging pace for the Art Rock, or Progressive Rock movement... an epoch in musical trends which I miss TERRIBLY!
Once again, there are plenty of other sites about GG I could point you to, but these two sites have links of their own.
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Maddy Prior
A joyful marriage; a fusion of traditional folk from the British Isles, Renaissance/medieval/early music, with an electric progressive pop twist. Maddy Prior is simply phenomenal through most of their history as the lead "wench" vocalist (please, I mean no disrespect m'lady), and then Gay Woods took the mic. Their line-up is in the midst of changing, but they are still going! Steeleye Span has spanned the decades since 1970!
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Worldwide Internet Music Resources
A veritable cornucopia of musical links. A wealth of information including on-line studies in harmony and theory.
One of the BEST in the world...and my home town! Some people root and cheer for their home town sports... football teams, baseball clubs, hockey teams...Me? Orchestras! And I'm DAMN proud of it...Of course, it does irritate the conductor when I begin bellowing, "Adda Boy! Dats de ol' peppa" during soft passages...
But now, closer to home (for me, that is), another orchestra which fits into that category [ of being one of the best in the world ]. Great conductor, great repertoire...
The Rochester (MN) Orchestra & Chorale
Jere Lantz, Music Director and Conductor
Even closer to my home. In fact, it happens to be my home presently (I'll spare you all the 'Boy! Is it cold in Minnesota, or what?' jokes!)... The orchestra's HOT,
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An after-thought Link
A nice...I mean...FAR-OUT collection page of mid to late 60s album covers and information from the Psychedelic genre...Yes, that is the Ultimate Spinach 1968 album "Behold and See" pictured above.
Here's one of my favorite songs from that era...One of my favorite songs of all times, for that matter. It's by a band called Bubblepuppy, who formed in 1967 and toured with everyone who was anyone!
I think this band was way ahead of it's time! The song is fast-paced, it utilizes odd time signatures, and changes are abundant throughout!
Hot Smoke and Sassafras 1968 - mp3 file 2.40 MB
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