The Bobs:  Helmet

The Bobs: Helmet

Continuing this week’s survey of iconic singing groups, I’m drawing again from my youth. The Bobs invented themselves in the San Francisco Bay Area in the late 1970’s. They wrote most of their own material. I was in school at UC Berkeley and one of...
Take 6:  We Sure Do Need Him Now

Take 6: We Sure Do Need Him Now

It’s Tuesday. It’s really hot this July. Tempers are flaring, folks are getting violent (though I’ve read that crime is down 50% over the past 20 years). Politics looks like some wierd version of “Survivor”. What we need is something cool...
Theo Bleckmann:  Duet for One

Theo Bleckmann: Duet for One

I heard Theo Bleckmann perform Duet For One at a Bar Mitzvah, his gift to the initiate.  He is both performer and composer here; the music displays his extraordinary vocal range, not to mention stamina.  Earlier today I played the Duet for Aleba Gartner, who remarked...
Judith Weir:  King Harald’s Saga, Act I

Judith Weir: King Harald’s Saga, Act I

I was twenty-three and living in Cambridge, England. My new soprano friend Amanda Dean introduced me to the music of Judith Weir through a wonderful performance of her 1979 monodrama King Harald’s Saga. “Harald” is described as a grand opera in three...
Burke/Webster:  Black Coffee

Burke/Webster: Black Coffee

“Love’s a hand-me-down brew” in these blues. Who would spurn Peggy Lee when she sings so languorously? Born Norma Deloris Egstrom in North Dakota, Peggy Lee had a voice that to me could do just about anything. But be sexy. At least to me. Not even in...