To anyone who still needs (or knows someone who needs) an appointment to be vaccinated, for example college students & teenagers: The huge FEMA drive-through vaccination site (at Roosevelt school in Gary, which is on 25th, right off I-94) is not very busy, and is a breeze toRead More

Eddie Van Halen, the great, the dearly missed, played on Michael Jackson song “Beat it”. That guitar solo will be remembered for ever.  Read More

Did you know that Frank Sinatra, after somewhat neglecting his voice, started doing warm-ups and exercises once he had Quincy Jones as his arranger and the orchestra of Count Basie to back him up? A wonderful recording is “Frank Sinatra at the sands”, a legendaryRead More

Chick Corea is no longer with us. He passed today, February 11th 2021. This man was a giant.   In 1987, during my first year at Berklee, everyone was talking about the new album Mr Corea had just put out. It was Elektric band with a star line-up of Dave Weckl on the drums,Read More

Music is not a descriptive art. Unlike painting or photography, it cannot carve the lines of a city or display the face of a stranger in a crowd. Music cannot paint with pictures, instead it is forced to evocate or to suggest. And when you have a very precise mental picture ofRead More

This was the trivia question: Which composers composed themes based on children songs? Answer: Beethoven and Miles Davis. Now, for Beethoven, we all know which piece of music I’m talking about. You don’t? Yes, you do. Did you play the recorder when you were in school?Read More

Trivia: which composers composed themes based on children songs?   Do you want me to give you some time to think about it?   All right. The answer is in the next blog.   Here’s a clue:Read More

Some festivals have a lot of band in one day, especially during the weekend. That’s where you meet some of your fellow musicians, those guys that, just like you, crisscross the territory to entertain the crowd. Some are great, with an impeccable act, tight as a .. drum (punRead More

Learning an instrument is not easy. People look for lessons everywhere, and, more likely than not these days, on the internet. The grand wide web has, so far, answered most of their questions about life: learning to play them drums should be no exception. They look for lessons.Read More

Trivia: Who were the guys in piano and drums who used to destroy instruments just for the fun of it?   Answer: Ludwig Van Beethoven and John Bonham.   Both of these gentlemen, when they were young, took a sick pleasure in playing so hard the piano or the drums wouldRead More