Brand from Home | September 23, 2021

Brand Library Plaza Series

SEPTEMBER 2021

FRIDAYS AT 7:00PM

Join us for eclectic live music on the Brand Library lawn!

September 24 Reckless Night Ensemble (Swing & Jazz)

Join us for eclectic live music outside on the Brand Library lawn! Concerts run 60 - 90 minutes without intermission. Visitors are welcome to bring a chair or blanket and picnic on the lawn. Seats are not provided.

The Brand Library Plaza Series is sponsored by the City of Glendale Arts & Culture Commission through funding from the Urban Art Program, with support from Glendale Library, Arts & Culture and the Associates of Brand Library.

Join us for our last concert of the 2021 Plaza Series on September 24 at 7:00PM with The Reckless Night Ensemble.

Members of the Reckless Night Ensemble come from vastly diverse backgrounds, both musically and culturally. They will perform the compositions of Raymond Scott, a composer, inventor, pianist, engineer, and electronic music pioneer, whose singular style set him apart as a maverick of 1930s & 1940s swing/jazz. In addition, RNE performs the songs of Lalo Guerrero, the Father of Chicano Music, who combined swing, Latin, rhythm & blues and rancheras into a style that is truly Mexican-American. Vocals by Lalo's son, Mark Guerrero, himself an acclaimed East L.A. music figure.

222 East Concert

OCTOBER, 2021

SATURDAYS AT 4:00PM

Join us for eclectic live music outside on the Artsakh Paseo! Visitors are welcome to bring a chair and enjoy the music on the paseo. Seats are not provided. Performances run 60 minutes without intermission.

The 222 East Concert Series is sponsored by the City of Glendale Arts & Culture Commission through funding from the Urban Art Program, with support from Glendale Library, Arts & Culture.

Join us for the first concert of the 222 East Concert Series Saturday, October 2, 2021 at 4:00PM with Paris Chansons

Paris Chansons is a French band with a global twist based in LA, featuring original renditions of French favorites from Aznavour, Dassin, Piaf, Macias, Adamo, Dalida to contemporary artists like Zaz! and some of the most beautiful Russian & Italian classics.

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.

New CDs

Read About Music

New Music Books

New Music E-Books

Music Podcast

Twenty Thousand Hertz is a sound design podcast about "the world’s most recognizable and interesting sounds". The podcast delves deep into the world of sound design. Host Dallas Taylor has been involved in sound design for years and is the Creative Director of Defacto Sound. Recent topics have included video description, sonic bubbles and sound design for appliances.

Art Calls

The Glendale Citywide Public Art Landmarks RFQ is now open. As part of the City of Glendale’s initiative to become a prime arts and culture destination, up to ten long-term to permanent artwork installations will be commissioned, developed and established over the course of the next few years. These landmark installations will be strategically placed throughout the City in locations that focus on public accessibility and encourage public engagement and interactivity. Artists age 18 or older may apply as an individual or as a team. The RFQ is open to all and not restricted to any geographic location. Deadline to apply: September 24th, 2021

Art Exhibit

The Happiness You Deserve is a lightweight, abstract, suspended installation was created for the Adams Square Mini Park Gas Station and is intended to uplift and inspire passersby. The artwork will be illuminated from its interior for evening viewing by solar-powered LED. Renae Barnard’s full portfolio of art can be viewed here.

Glendale Library, Arts and Culture and ReflectSpace Gallery presents You Can’t Arrest an Idea, an exhibition by Sheila Pinkel, that brings together an important selection of the artist’s social and political work never before shown together. “You Can’t Arrest an Idea” runs September 21 to November 5, 2021 at ReflectSpace Gallery in the Glendale Central Library at 222 East Harvard Street

BRAND 49 Works on Paper Exhibition, juried by Marvella Muro of Self-Help Graphics, captures the artistic pulse of a nation in transition. The works on paper featured in Brand 49 have an astounding range and intimacy on the page and in virtual space. On view through October 29 at Brand Library & Art Center.

The last Sunday of every month, Leimert Park Village hosts an all-ages, free artwalk! This Sunday, September 26, the focus is Afro Futurism at the Artwalk. Afro futurism fashion is encouraged, and the event will include guest speakers and music including an afro sonic drum circle with free bucket drums and sticks.

Films Online

In 2014, illustrator Andrew Fox published a series of minimal calligraphy animals that were drawn with his Pilot Parallel pen. In 2017, Fox worked with London-based animator Steve Kirby to create Calligraphy Animals Animated, a short in the signature style that he’s continued to develop.

The Art of Hermann Zapf. In 1967 Hermann Zapf, a German type designer and calligrapher, visited Hallmark Cards to give a demonstration on the purpose and techniques of calligraphy.

Checkout some books on calligraphy, writing and illumination from the library .

Brand Library Staff Reviews

SIGN PAINTING: A Practical Guide to Tools, Materials and Techniques. This books is an absolute essential piece for anyone just starting out in sign graphics, and a nice reference book for working painters and letterers. With lessons, tool lists and typographic designs, Mike Meyer has put together a fantastic how-to for the curious that is easy enough to follow along with. As well as introducing fundamentals, Meyer adds his well-traveled old sign painter tricks and tips. For me, even his tips on what to use to clean certain surfaces was mind-blowing. I’ve already painstakingly copied the Housemaster lettering chart (thanks to designer Ashley Willerton) and Carla Hackett’s Fruity Script lettering. Lots of sign painting books will teach you EVERYTHING, and they are weighty. There’s plenty of lettering books that are only charts and no how-to’s. Mike Meyer’s book is a hefty balance of both, and if you’re curious whether you want to give sign painting a try, this book should be your first stop. -GG

Rhiannon Giddens & Francesco Turrisi: They're Calling Me Home (released April 2021). Whenever I hear about a new Rhiannon Giddens release, I know it is worth listening to. This is probably her best album to date. She started her rise to fame as a founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops. She is very contemporary in her multicultural influences - her music is a mix of folk, country, blues, bluegrass, opera, Irish, Italian with other folk influences from around the world. This album also features her husband - Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi. Rhiannon’s voice is front and center with a tapestry of acoustic sounds underneath. The duo play a fascinating assortment of instruments including accordion, viola, octave viola, cello banjo, mistrel banjo, chitarra battente, Irish flute, frame drum, tombak, gourd banjo, uilleann pipes and calabash. They cover bluegrass musician Alice Gerrard’s They’re Calling Me Home and Pentangle’s When I Was in My Prime. She sings in Italian on Nenna Nenna and Monteverdi’s Si Dolce è'l Tormento. A couple of the pieces are written by Giddens et al but most are arrangements of traditional tunes. The album ends with a wonderful vocalize of Amazing Grace with frame drum and uilleann pipes. This is probably even better than their 2019 album There is No Other which is still a fantastic album. It’s available from Brand Library via Naxos Jazz and they include a PDF of the booklet. Check out the official video of Si Dolce è'l Tormento with Francesco accompanying Rhiannon on the cello banjo. -BW

Covid-19 Resources

Reliable information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) is available from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the California Department of Public Health, Los Angeles County Public Health Department, City of Glendale and the Library, Arts & Culture department.