Category: Album Reviews
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Midweek Musings: Music, Memories, and More ‘Reunion: Coda’ Royalties!
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in Alex Diaz-Granados, Amazon, Creative Writing, Kindle, Kindle Create (Publishing App), Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP), Kiri Sings Kern, Kiri Te Kanawa (Dame Kiri), Life in Florida, Life in Miami….Again, Life in New Hampshire (December 2023 – October 2024), Music, Reunion Duology, Reunion: A Story, Reunion: CodaAfternoon, Wednesday, May 14, 2025, Miami, Florida Hello, Dear Reader! It’s a splendidly sunny late spring day here in southeast Florida. The temperature has climbed to 88°F (31°C), and with the humidity sitting at 52% and a gentle west-southwest breeze wafting at 5 MPH (8 Km/H), it feels closer to 95°F (36°C). Yes, it’s one…
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Late Night Reflections: Writing After Dark
Night, Sunday, April 27, 2025, Miami, Florida If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. It’s almost 10 PM here as I write this, the second blog post on this last Sunday of April 2025. I rarely do this so late; I may have done it a few times when I lived in Tampa,…
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Music Album Review: ‘Kiri Sings Gershwin’: A Swinging Tribute to Timeless Classics
Kiri Sings Gershwin (1990) Label: EMI Records Genre: Standards/Crossovers Artists: Kiri Te Kanawa (soprano), John McGlinn (conductor), New Princess Orchestra Release Date: October 25, 1990 Regular readers of this blog won’t be surprised. Still, I seem to follow the beat of a different drummer because I prefer older musical styles to contemporary ones, especially when…
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Music Album Review: Dame Kiri Te Kanawa Shines in Kiri Sings Kern
Kiri Sings Kern (1993) Label: Angel/EMI Records Genre: Crossover/Standards Artists: Kiri Te Kanawa (Soprano), London Sinfonietta (Orchestra), Jonathan Tunick (Conductor/Arranger) Release Date: March 16, 1993 Jerome Kern (1885-1945) remains one of the most influential composers in American popular music. Alongside legends like Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers, the New York-born Kern…
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More of My Top Fives: A (Hopefully) Self-Explanatory Set of Five ‘Favorites’ Lists
More of My Top Fives: A (Hopefully) Self-Explanatory Set of Five ‘Favorites’ Lists For my friend Patti Aliventi. Music Albums – Movie Soundtracks Music Albums – Classical Music Albums – Pop/Rock Music Albums – Jazz/Standards Music Albums – Miscellaneous
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On Writing & Storytelling: Music that Inspires Me While I’m Working on ‘Reunion: Coda’
Late Morning, Wednesday, September 20, 2023, Lithia, Florida Hi all. As you know, I love listening to music when I write. It doesn’t matter what I’m writing; it could be a blog post such as the one you’re reading now, or a first draft of a screenplay, or a prose story, but unless I have…
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Music Album Review: ‘I’ll Remember You: The D-Day Darlings: VE Day Celebration Edition’ (2020)
I’ll Remember You: The D-Day Darlings VE Day Celebration Edition Release Date: March 26, 2020 (Original version released on November 9, 2018) Record Label: Sony Music UK On Friday, November 9, 2018, Sony Records released I’ll Remember You: The D-Day Darlings, the recording debut of The D-Day Darlings, a British “wartime choir” of nine women…
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Music Album Review: ‘West Side Story – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack’ (2021)
West Side Story: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack Label: Hollywood Studios Release Date; December 10, 2021 Formats: Compact disc, vinyl LP record, digital Genre: Movie soundtrack On December 10, 2021 – the same day that Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story began its theatrical release – Hollywood Records dropped West Side Story: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack in…
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Music Album Review: ‘Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)’
On June 4, 1982, Atlantic Records released Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (Original Music Soundtrack) on vinyl LP and audiocassette. It featured music composed by a 29-year-old James Horner for Nicholas Meyer’s Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. It was not, by any means of the imagination, a long album; it consisted…
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Music Album Review: Runnin’ Wild: Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra Play Glenn Miller
Runnin’ Wild: Keith Lockhart and the Boston Pops Orchestra Play Glenn Miller (1996) Performed by: The Boston Pops Orchestra, Keith Lockhart, conductor Guest Artists: John Pizzarelli and The King’s Singers As Keith Lockhart points out, the Boston Pops is “the ultimate crossover vehicle from the symphonic world.” So what better subject than Glenn Miller for…
A Certain Point of View, Too 