Videos

Phineas Newborn Jr. – Lush Life

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The blogosphere has been on a serious dry spell of great Phineas Newborn Jr recordings, and I am here to change that. His rhythm was infallible, his sound was implacable, and his style was undeniable. Recently, I came across this video of a live performance of Lush Life which he featured on his album, A World of Piano!. 

His playing aside, I was also immediately enamored with the introductory turn of phrase in this video where he is described as performing "…the durable Billy Strayhorn melody…". What a wonderful setup to a beautiful performance. Please take a moment today and enjoy  the dulcet piano playing of Phineas Newborn Jr.

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Album Reviews

The Farewell Drifters – Echo Boom

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As Kyle wrote yesterday, today is a big day for music releases. One of those is the album Echo Boom by the Farewell Drifters from Nashville, TN. I dig it and think you should definitely consider getting your hands on this one if you're looking for some good music from some talented guys.

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New Releases

Epic Tuesday Release Day

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Tuesday, June 7, is shaping up to be an epic release day in the music world. Some of my most anticipated releases of the year are dropping tomorrow, and I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl. Step inside to see what I'll be picking up.

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Picture In A Frame

New Feature: Picture In A Frame

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I'm somewhat of a digital collector of totally random, music-related photographs. They can be of anybody at anytime but the presence of a certain aesthetic quality makes me eat pictures right up. So here's a new feature called Picture In A Frame (named after that Tom Waits tune) where I arbitrarily and inconsistently post awesome pictures I've found with very little background information. Cheers!

First up is a picture of Bob Dylan. On a wooden boat. Two of my favorite things combined.

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Videos

A Tribe Called Quest – Beat, Rhymes, and Life Documentary Trailer

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A trailer has surfaced for Michael Rapaport's suddenly controversial A Tribe Called Quest documentary, Beats, Rhymes, and Life. A couple things to note here. First, Q-tip is by far one of my top 5 MC/producers ever, and ATCQ is untouchable, so I'm seeing this flick no matter what. Second, Tribe's beef here seems to be pretty technical and superficial, so I'm assuming the overall content will still be truthful and engaging. Lastly, why the fuck did Michael Rapaport, of all people, end up making this film?

The movie is set for limited release July 8 barring any delays.

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Gigs We Dig

Atlantic Guitar Quartet Concerts

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The Atlantic Guitar Quartet is comprised of four musicians, all alumni of the esteemed Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, that share a desire to perform and promote music by living composers. The quartet seeks to heighten the concert experience for its audiences by merging art forms, performing educational outreach concerts, and offering a fresh, new perspective on classical chamber music.

You've previously seen the AGQ on TWD here as promo for a recent concert at the Engineers Club of the Garrett-Jacobs Mansion in Baltimore MD. Well they're at in again with a series of concerts over the remainder of the week in Baltimore and NYC. Read on for the complete concert information and then get your music-loving butts out of the house and take in a show.

The AGQ also happens to feature TWD's author Dave (lower left in the picture) and this shameless self-promoter would love to see a few members of the Dig Nation out at a show. We'll have a glass of wine at the reception.

All AGQ happenings can be found via Facebook and/or Twitter. Concert tickets can be purchased here or via NYDailynews.com here.

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Scenes and Songs

This is Spinal Tap

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Tonight I'm posting the third and final installment in a series of three devoted to the music-based films of Christopher Guest & company: This is Spinal Tap (1980s heavy metal), Waiting for Guffman (stage musical), and A Mighty Wind (1950s/1960s folk). They are some of my favorite movies, and with music so funny and so well done, I thought they'd be great for further discussion as part of the Scenes & Songs feature. This one goes to 11!

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