Kiwi Symphony's Errant Scat Music

They had been expecting Wagner; instead, they got "Wee on My Face."

When subscribers to the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra used Internet-based media players to listen to CDs sent to promote the orchestra's musical offerings next season, the playlist was not exactly classical music. [read more]

thanks to boingboing

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Miles Davis' Missing Years
Maybe his final albums weren't such a bust after all.

For those who hesitate to commit the money ($250 retail) or shelf space to a 20-disc box, try the single-CD Live Around the World (released in 1996, five years after his death), a compilation of performances, at various clubs and arenas, from 1988 to 1991. His take of "Time After Time" on June 6, 1989, in Chicago is more exquisite than any of the nine versions at Montreux. Yet the Montreux box supplies the you-are-there thrill of a complete live performance—and so many of them—by a band whose music was believed to have been so scarcely preserved. (And, by the way, the sound quality is superb.) "Time After Time" may not be "My Funny Valentine," and The Complete Montreux isn't the Complete Plugged Nickel. But this is legitimate jazz, exciting music, a fresh look at an unjustly dissed chapter, a satisfying document from a hidden archive revealing that the great Miles Davis did not fade out with a whimper. [read more]

Rhapsody has Live Around the World. I've never listened to it, nor to any of his recorded music of this period, although I did see him live in 1985 or 1986. I listen to the album about 6 times today. Wonderful.