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Music Playlists
Listen to a streaming playlist from Freegal Music, Naxos Music Library, Naxos Jazz Music Library, Hoopla or Music Online from Alexander Street free with your library card. Alexander Street will ask for an academic institution, use Glendale Public Library.
Today's recommending listening is H.E.R., Dr. John, Pentatonix, and Frank Stokes.
Classical Music to Explore for Black History Month
Here is a February 2020 Naxos podcast for Black History Month with harpist Ashley Jackson discussing the music of composers Margaret Bonds and Florence Price. For more background, check out this podcast introducing Symphonies 1 & 4 of Florence Price and read this blog article about Margaret Bonds by KUSC’s Brian Lauritzen.
Stream these albums from Naxos Music Library to explore more music by these gifted American composers:
Music Podcasts
KCRW Lost Notes Podcast. As described in their website “A collection of the greatest music stories never told.” This seasoned poet and cultural critic Hanif Abdurraquib explores the year 1980 with episodes on Grace Jones, Minnie Ripperton, Stevie Wonder and many others.
David Walliams's Marvellous Musical Podcast explores classical music and is aimed at all ages. Episodes include John Williams and the Chamber of Star Wars, the Greatest Schumann and Maverick Musicians.
Read About Music
Oxford Music Online includes the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the Oxford Dictionary of Music and the Oxford Companion to Music. It is the world’s premier online music encyclopedia, offering comprehensive coverage of music, musicians, music-making, and music scholarship. Check out this Grove article on American drummer Tommy Benford.
Art Online
Reckoning: Racism & Resistance in Glendale is a multi-dimensional and multi-faceted virtual exhibition, public art installation, and community engagement project that examines and responds to Glendale’s racist history, the resistance to that racism, and our current moment of reckoning. Presented by Brand Library & Art Center and ReflectSpace Gallery,
Reckoning is part of Glendale Library, Arts & Culture’s Be The Change series, focused on inclusion, diversity, equity and anti-racism. The exhibition is sponsored by Glendale Library Arts & Culture, with support from the Glendale Arts and Culture Commission, the Glendale Library Arts & Culture Trust and the Brand Associates.
Contribute to the Pandemic Graphic Archive. Today, Coronavirus signs are often dismissed and perceived as an enforcement. However this now everyday visual language of our lives globally communicates the new “normal.” The online pandemic graphics archive is an ongoing project and collation of Covid-19 signs. Get involved and submit images to the archive.
Time in This Time. A time capsule for the present as told by artists and creatives. Check out 9 artists and creators whose practices include time-based works, with works on time in this time. An online exhibit to shine a little light on, and help us make our own sense of time in a year that has gone by many names.
Explore the Oakland Museum of California “All Of Us Or None” (AOUON) archive project, started by Free Speech Movement activist Michael Rossman in 1977 to gather and document posters of modern progressive movements in the United States. Though some early works are included, its focus is on the domestic political poster renaissance that began in 1965 and continues to this day.
Artist Studio Visits
From the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (ICA) explore videos and audio recordings including exhibition previews, fascinating artist interviews, studio visits, and talks between artists and curators.
Check out Shelter in Studio virtual tours from the San Francisco Center for the Book. Half hour studio visits with SFCB staff, instructors, and community members where they open up their studios and take their lunch break together. Grab a sandwich and stop on by every Thursday at 12:30pm Pacific time. Registration for each event opens one week prior. Watch past tours on Vimeo.
Brand Library Staff Reviews
Chick Corea Trilogy 2. On February 9, 2021 we lost Chick Corea, one of the great innovators and giants of jazz. Corea, along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner, Keith Jarrett and Bill Evans are the jazz piano virtuosos of the last 60 years, and in the case of Chick and Herbie, major proponents of electric keyboards in jazz as well.
Chick Corea’s musical output was huge, recording more than 70 studio albums and 23 live albums since 1968. Trilogy 2 is an acoustic, double live album recorded in 2019. Even though Chick was already 77 at the time, he was still at the peak of his improvisational powers. With Brain Blade on drums and Christian McBride on bass he had some serious sidemen on stage with him on that night in Bologna, Italy.
The record begins with an old Irving Berlin standard called “How Deep is the Ocean.” Chick plays solo for a few minutes before bringing the band in for a medium swing stroll through a melody. Next is one of Corea’s compositions from back in his Return to Forever days. “500 Miles High” was originally sung by Flora Purim but this instrumental version is just as lively. Two Thelonious Monk tunes follow giving Brian Blade an excuse to show why the Wayne Shorter sideman is such a unique voice on the instrument. He almost never plays the expected grooves or phrases we hear every other jazz drummer play. -CV
A Tuba To Cuba (2018 film). This film is a documentary on the Preservation Hall Jazz Band’s two week tour of Cuba. Ben Jaffe is the narrator of the film and is the tuba player/bassist/leader of the Preservation Hall Jazz Band. His father, Allan Jaffe, managed Preservation Hall beginning in 1961 and built it into an institution with an international reputation. The film covers the racial issues in the Jim Crow South when Allan converted an art gallery into a concert venue with a house band and a record label. Allan passed away in 1987 when Ben was young but Ben was determined to bring the band to Cuba which was his father’s dream. They vividly illustrate how the music of New Orleans is interconnected with Cuban music through their shared African musical roots. Their travels to Cuba are heartwarming with the Cuban musicians welcoming collaboration with the Americans. I didn’t realize the vast musical and cultural differences between the cites of Havana, Santiago and Cienfuegos which is covered in the film. Some of the concert venues they played at are amazing and I was particularly struck by the Teatro Tomás Terry in Cienfuegos. Also the film provides insight into the daily lives of Cuban musicians and how important music is in the country. The soundtrack is also available on Hoopla. You’ll be glad you saw this film. -BW
Covid-19 Resources
Reliable information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) is available from the World Health Organization, the California Department of Public Health, the Los Angeles County Public Health Department, the City of Glendale, and the Library, Arts & Culture department.
Resources for Music Businesses And Industry Workers, Playing for Change, Sounding Point LA
Resources for Freelance Artists, California Arts Council, Americans for the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts