Category: Music Reviews
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Musings & Thoughts for Thursday, December 30, 2021, or: That’s a Wrap for ’21 – Part One
Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s late morning here in Lithia, Florida, on Thursday, December 30, 2021. It’s a cool, gray winter day. Currently, the temperature is 71˚F (22˚C) under cloudy skies. With humidity at 92% and the wind blowing from the south-southwest at 6 MPH (10 KM/H), the feels-like temperature is 70˚F (21˚C). It’s going…
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Musings & Thoughts for Wednesday, December 29, 2021, or: Carefully Watched Amazon Packages – The Saga Continues
Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in Lithia, Florida on Wednesday, December 29, 2021. It is a hot early winter day in the Tampa Bay area. Currently, the temperature is 82˚F (28˚C) under mostly cloudy skies. With humidity at 60% and the wind blowing from the southwest at 9 MPH (14 KM/H), the…
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On Music: Meet My Latest Musical Find – ‘Spotlight on John Williams’
Hi, there, Dear Reader. It’s early afternoon here in Lithia, Florida on Tuesday, December 28, 2021. It is a warm winter day in the Sunshine State. Currently, the temperature is 77˚F (25˚C) under partly sunny skies. With humidity at 66% and the wind blowing from the south-southwest at 7 MPH (12 KM/H), the feels-like temperature…
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Music Album Review: ‘The Essential Glenn Miller’ (2005)
He was neither an outstanding soloist nor showman nor an original composer. Instead Miller’s personality combined idealism with a formidable work ethic in a soul that was deeply musical. – Mike Plaskett, in the liner notes for The Essential Glenn Miller Boy, the way Glenn Miller playedsongs that made the hit parade…. – Charles Strouse…
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On Music: My 10 Favorite Songs by Glenn Miller
“One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.” ― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship Boy, the way Glenn Miller playedsongs that made the hit paradeGuys like me we had it madeThose…
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On Music: But…But…I LIKE Oldies!
When I was in my early teens – way back in the late 1970s – I knew that in a world where Funk, Soul, R&B, Pop, Hard Rock, Soft Rock and Disco were the dominant music genres, I was an odd duck. Even as a child growing up on two continents – I was born in…
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On Music: My Top 10 John Williams ‘Star Wars’ Themes
I have been a fan of John Williams’ symphonic scores ever since I saw the original Star Wars – aka Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope – in the autumn of 1977[1] For me, Williams’ swashbuckling, neo-Romantic themes and action cues sold the rest of George Lucas’s out-of-this-world space-fantasy about “a boy, a girl,…
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On Music: Happy 89th Birthday, John Williams!
John Williams “So much of what we do is ephemeral and quickly forgotten, even by ourselves, so it’s gratifying to have something you have done linger in people’s memories.” Hi, there, Dear Reader! It’s early afternoon here in New Hometown, Florida on Monday, February 8, 2021. Currently, the temperature is 75˚F (24˚C) under cloudy skies;…
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Music Album Review: ‘Saving Private Ryan: 20th Anniversary Limited Edition’
In 2018, La-La Land Records released Saving Private Ryan: 20th Anniversary Limited Edition, a commemorative – and slightly updated – reissue of John Williams’ 1998 soundtrack featuring most of his score for Steven Spielberg’s widely-acclaimed World War II drama set amidst the backdrop of the June 6, 1944 Normandy landings and the first week of…
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Music Album Review: ‘Saving Private Ryan: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’
On July 21, 1998, Dreamworks Records – the now defunct label founded by Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg, and David Geffen in 1996 as a subsidiary to their film studio Dreamworks SKG – released Saving Private Ryan: Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack, a one-hour-long soundtrack album with music composed and conducted by John Williams.…
A Certain Point of View, Too 