Frank Miller was the principal cellist of the Chicago Symphony for many years. I met him once on a High School field trip to the CSO. As I was a bludgeoning, I mean burgeoning, cellist, I was star-struck upon meeting this legendary player. He was kind to us dazed and confused teenagers and I vowed that one day I, too, would have a back stage locker with my name on it at the CSO.
Well, that didn't happen, but I still love the cello and it's beautiful, soulful sound. There is a ton of recorded music for cello. The Library owns dozens of CDs and even a few DVDs of the great players sawing away making exquisite music. Here are some I'd recommend:
Then, for a change of pace, try this.
That's good old Pablo Casals playing the well known Elgar and Dvorak concertos. Fantastic stuff!Then there's the Cello Ambassador of the Solar System, Yo-Yo Ma. We have over 50 Ma recordings to choose from. I love his collaborative work, especially the Appalachian music, but since this is a classical blog I'll steer you towards this sweet collection of Baroque music.
Of course we do own some nice anthologies like 
Masters of the Bow. On this type of album you'll get a little bit of this and a little bit of that. Perfect for the easily distracted listener.And finally, here's the aforementioned Mr. Miller playing the Brahams Double Concerto with Mr. Mischakoff (violin) under the sublime direction of Arturo Toscanini.
No post would be complete without a plug for Freegal where you can get free downloads of Yo-Yo, Pablo, Rostro, and 2Cellos (2 guys who play pop music on their classical cellos).
Why not add some cello to your day?
The Classical Lassie
The Grammy Awards were just on this weekend, and I'm sure the first thing that sprung to mind after every winner is: "Does the library own that?" You can rest easy now though, for we've compiled a list of all the winning albums that we currently own, and who knew the library had so many albums?
Adele (deservedly) went home with an armful of Grammys, and if you haven't given her superb album 21 a listen, you definitely should make that your next order of business. If you don't want to wait until it comes in though, you can always download tracks off the album for FREE through our FREE music database FREEGAL. FREE! All the albums on the list that can be found on FREEGAL are in BOLD below:
- Adele, 21 (Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Best Pop Solo Performance, Best Pop Vocal Album)
- Bon Iver, Bon Iver (Best New Artist, Best Alternative Music Album)
- Foo Fighters, Wasting Light (Best Rock Performance, Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance, Best Rock Song, Best Rock Album)
- Skrillex, Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites (Best Dance Recording, Best Dance/Electronica Album)
- The Civil Wars, Barton Hollow (Best Country Duo/Group Performance, Best Folk Album)
- Taylor Swift, Speak Now (Best Country Solo Performance, Best Country Song)
- Lady Antebellum, Own the Night (Best Country Album)
- Kanye West, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (Best Rap Album, Best Rap Song, Best Rap/Sung Collaboration)
- Jay-Z and Kanye West, Watch the Throne (Best Rap Performance)
- Cee Lo Green, The Lady Killer (Best Traditional R&B Performance, Best R&B Song)
- Tony Bennett, Duets II (Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album)
- Corinne Bailey Rae, The Love E.P. (Best R&B Performance)
- Chris Brown, F.A.M.E. (Best R&B Album)
- Pat Metheny, What's It All About? (Best New Age Album)
- Corea, Clarke & White, Forever (Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Best Improvised Jazz Solo)
- Le'Andria Johnson, The Awakening of Le'Andria Johnson (Best Gospel/Contemporary Christian Music Performance)
- Kirk Franklin, Hello Fear (Best Gospel Song)
-
Chris Tomlin, And If Our God Is Not for Us... (Best Contemporary Christian Music Album)-
Time Without
Consequence by Alexi Murdoch
Time Without Consequence is an album comprised of some of the most epic folk compositions ever penned. The songs are cinematic, and don't veer into "rock" territory. It cannot be a coincidence that film director Sam Mendes used Alexi Murdoch songs almost exclusively to score his (criminally underrated) film Away We Go. This is the kind of album that can make the most mundane tasks seem profound due its highly meditative atmosphere. Standouts include his wandering confessional "All My Days" and when he is waxing poetic in "Orange Sky." Alexi Murdoch creates folk music for the soul, while singing from the heart.
Beautiful People: The
Greatest Hits of Melanie by Melanie
Melanie's music is a wonderful artifact from the '70s,
seeing that I doubt that anything quite like "Brand New Key" could be produced
in today's world. Her lyrics are earnest, but as they are sung over some of the
most infectious choruses, it is easy to mistake her music for just another pop sensation.
Her sunny disposition paired with her extremely catchy melodies is a match made
in heaven. So if you haven't listened to her since you had her single "Brand
New Key" on 45, then do yourself a favor and rediscover one of the best pop
artists of all time.
Instead of letting this passion languish like a wallflower at her first middle school dance I thought I'd periodically blog about classical music. Starting today, starting with Boccherini.
Don't you love that name! BO-KER-EE-NEE. Luigi (love that name, too) Boccherini lived at the time of Mozart and Haydn though he never achieved the same rock star status. Maybe it was the cello. There's something inherently nerdy about the cello -- until you hear it played and it becomes the most soulful of all instruments. And that's a fact. Boccherini wrote a lot of great music. His quintets for guitar and strings are particularly fabulous (downloadable from Freegal) or check outtable from the Library (CD 785.7 BOC).
Well that's it for The Classical Lassie for this week. I sure hope somebody hasn't already claimed 'Classical Lassie' as their 'Handel'. Jane
Drive (Original Motion
Picture Soundtrack)
Critics were divided over the film Drive last year, some raving and others hating, but there was one opinion that was universal: it had the coolest soundtrack in recent memory. Keeping in tune with its '80s visual aesthetic, the soundtrack bounces from synths to dancehall slow-jams at full throttle. The opening track (of the film and album alike) "Nightcall" blasts through your speakers, effortlessly transporting you to the more sleazy side of Los Angeles nightlife that the film lives in. "Under Your Spell" plays out as a touching yet disturbing love ballad (much like the film itself) and pushes the dancehall rhythms merrily along. The apex of the album is "A Real Hero," featuring some of the most earnest lyrics ever sung on top of a head-thumping bass. Cliff Martinez, a frequent music composer on Steven Soderbergh films, rounds out the rest of the album with his indelible score, mixing orchestral grandeur with electronic pulses. I don't think I have to drive (pun intended) the point home any further; this soundtrack is phenomenal.
Take Me Home Tonight
(Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
When Topher Grace made the film Take Me Home Tonight, he was trying to emulate the sweet and silly films from the '80s (for which John Hughes gets all the credit). Of course, to make a film seem like it was made in that decade, you have to load its soundtrack with pure '80s tunes, for better or for worse. Better than any actual '80s album compilations, the soundtrack covers all areas of the decade in just 12 songs. If you were in high school or college in the '80s, you will have no doubt heard these songs from a boom box or two back in the day. Such hits include: "Video Killed the Radio Star," "Hungry Like the Wolf," "Safety Dance," and what '80s nostalgia trip would be complete without: "Straight Outta Compton?"
Have you been waiting for Adele's '21' album? Still on the list for Glee's Holiday CD? Spent all those iTunes gift cards? Well, listen to this: 1000's of free, downloadable tracks are just a few clicks away when you log into Freegal, the St. Charles Library's music subscription service.
Our deal with Freegal allows every St. Charles Library cardholder 3 downloads per week! That's 3, count 'em 3! downloads per week. That's like having a gift card worth $156.00. And the fine print gets even finer because every cardholder in the family is entitled to 3 free downloads. So, moms and dads, you can use your kids' cards to get those Bangles tracks you've been pining for.
Getting started is easy. Just have your library card
number and PIN handy and then start loading up, or downloading up, or uploading
your downloads. It's free, it's legal, it's Freegal.
Full disclosure: Freegal is the entire Sony Music Collection - any artist, any genre, past or present who is on the Sony label can be had from Freegal.
2011 was a fantastic year in music, and with the year coming to a close, we thought we'd go ahead and recommend 20 (err, 22) of the year's best albums.Chamber Music by Ballake Sissoko and Vincent Segal
The King is Dead by The Decemberists
Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars
The King of Limbs by Radiohead
Femme Fatale by Britney Spears
Nine Types of Light by TV on the Radio
So Beautiful or So What by Paul Simon
Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes
Let Them Talk by Hugh Laurie
The Book of Mormon, book, music and lyrics by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, and Matt Stone
Bon Iver by Bon Iver
Alpocalypse by "Weird Al" Yankovic
Sky Full of Holes by Fountains of Wayne
Watch the Throne by Jay-Z and Kanye West
Strange Mercy by St. Vincent
Father, Son, Holy Ghost by Girls
Drive (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) by Cliff Martinez and Various Artists
The Whole Love by Wilco
Hurry Up, We're Dreaming by M83
Smile by The Beach Boys
Take Care by Drake
El Camino by The Black Keys
With Thanksgiving just around the corner, there's no better time than the present to give thanks. But if you're anything like me (which I know, is very likely) then I'm sure you'd rather sing it than say it!
"Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" by Sly and the Family Stone
Let's all be thankful that Sly and the Family did not become English teachers and stuck to what they did best: gettin' funky.
"Thank You For Being a Friend" by Andrew Gould
I highly doubt that Andrew Gould had four silly senior women living under roof on his mind when he wrote this song.
"Thank You For The Music" by ABBA
Thank you for not making music videos like this one anymore.
"Thank You" by Dido
Eminem still needs to send Dido a thank-you card for letting him use this song in one of the most critically acclaimed songs of his career. He then needs to send her an apology letter for letting Elton John steal her part at the MTV VMAs when the song made it big.
"Thanks, That Was Fun" by Barenaked Ladies
One of the coolest music videos ever made, and not just because it's Barenaked Ladies. In a song written exclusively for their greatest hits album, the song acts as a retrospective both in its lyrics, and the way it utilizes footage from their past music videos to go along with this new song. You can thank me later for showing you this one.
Let Them Talk by Hugh Laurie
Hugh Laurie was mastering sarcasm and elaborate wordplay 
on
television long before House went on
the air, but, he was doing so across the sea. With his comedy partner Stephen
Fry, he hosted a short-lived but seriously funny sketch show titled A Bit of Fry and Laurie, which invaded
innocent British households on a weekly basis. It was during that show that
viewers were introduced to the lesser-known side of Laurie: a musical side. In
almost every episode, Laurie would perform an original song in various styles
that were often as hilarious as they were catchy (I'm still waiting for him to
make a real recording of the very politically-correct "Protest Song," a song
that is equal parts silly and satirically astute). Never having released a
proper album, Hugh Laurie has corrected that with Let Them Talk, a blues album comprised of well-known classics. The
album opens with "St. James Infirmary," a haunting interpretation of an old
English folk song. Another highlight is his take on "Winin' Boy Blues," which
is proof alone that Hugh Laurie is much more than his on-air persona. Let Them Talk is a wonderful endeavor in
New Orleans blues, and makes a strong case that not all actors-turned-musicians
are necessarily a bad thing.
Barton Hollow by The Civil Wars
The Civil Wars' Barton
Hollow is the stuff of magic. Two 
completely earnest singer-songwriters,
Joy Williams and John Paul White, have joined forces simply for the sake of
good music. No Fleetwood Mac backstage drama, for this relationship is strictly
platonic between two people and their love for music. Their debut album, Barton Hollow, is nothing short of pure
bliss. The music is being marketed as country, but due to their fondness for
plucking their strings instead of strumming them, they technically fall into
the folk category. They are a powerhouse duo who realizes that the strength of
their act lies in the combination of their voices, and not in their individual
performances. "I've Got This Friend" is a highlight on an album full of them,
and it plays to their winning chemistry as they sing about their "friends" who
would be perfect for one another. The song is a wonderful embodiment of the
perfect interplay the two have developed. Now let's just hope they don't ruin
it by making it "real."
