Yo! Check it out!
A brief post in praise of the New York Public Library, a great resource for music explorers. The library's catalog is on-line at the branches as well as the internet and if you're a member, you can request any reservable item (non-research or rarity) to be sent to your local branch; once there, you're notified via email (or snail, if you're without a computer). Their collection has the kinds of peaks and valleys you'd expect – great classical selection, good jazz and world/ethnic, decent blues, and spotty but interesting pop/rock/r&b. There are lots of ways to search, and links for following up on performers, composers, or groupings. If you live, work, or go to school in New York State, you can apply for a card good for the branch libraries in Manhattan, Staten Island, and the Bronx. If you're in the neighborhood, joining up is free and a no-brainer (Brooklyn and Queens have their own library systems, a relic of their pre-1895 independence and the famous library in midtown - the one with the lions – is a non-circulating research library, open to everyone). If you're not, check out your local library system and see what kind of music catalog they have – you could be pleasantly surprised.
And remember, listening is fun-damental!
And remember, listening is fun-damental!
posted by DJStan at 8:01 AM
2 Comments:
Re Tuning In:
One of the artists was Kanye West, who did a choir-backed rendition of his own "Jesus Walks". We were both knocked out by both the song and the powerful performance.
One of those coincidence things: I've finally started looking at the research for this 3,000-word biography I have to write by Thursday (and I have a day-long meeting tomorrow!) about Israeli-born Miri Ben-Ari, "the hip-hop violinist," whom I'd never heard of, and I learn that she shared the 2005 Grammy for Rap Song of the Year with Kanye West and C. Smith for that very song, "Jesus Walks."
So I had to say so. Bye now. Got some typing to do.
Update on Ben-Ari: I got sidetracked from the writing in my determination to play detective. Recent sources put her birthdate circa 1978, but older ones put it circa 1972/3. That, or the review dated 1990 that mentioned the 18-year-old violinist was wrong, and she was really 12 when she played that concert. What I think is, she started to get famous and subtracted five years. Which would be why some of the dates in the more recent articles and interviews just didn't seem to add up. I couldn't figure out, for example, when, exactly, she would have fit in that mandatory Israeli army service, unless she was maybe 16 or 17 when she did it, which I guess is possible . . . but likely?
I don't want to be a freelance writer anymore. I want to be a freelance P.I.
Hey. I'm a freelance writer! A paid one, I mean. Oh my gosh. It just dawned on me.
At least, I will be if I ever finish this blessed thing.
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