Historians believe the first violin dates to sometime in the early 16th Century. Gaudenzio Ferrari’s paintings show a three-string variant as early as the 1530s. As the Renaissance turned Baroque, Classical, then Romantic, the violin became a prominent figure in Western music. Perhaps too preeminent in orchestral settings. When asked to match instruments to a […]
It’s 1941, the world is up in flames, fascism has a chokehold, racism and imperialism are the fundaments of effective governance. Where does that leave artists? What is their role in creation during life-threatening and stressful times? Sullivan’s Travels (Paramount, 1941) was movie director Preston Sturges’ response that year: A comedy? A drama? A faux-documentary? […]
Early on, listening to Led Zeppelin or Jimi Hendrix, jazz was something in another yard, walled-off, and separated from what I was listening to on the radio. It was an idea–segregated by race, primarily, and from behind that wall, everything else in the music stayed hidden. So when I listened to traditional New Orleans jazz, […]
