There have been lots of wonderful examples during lockdown of the musicians from bands and orchestras recording individual parts at home which are then edited together into a combined performance. John linked to this rather pleasing Ode to Joy, for example.
But my favourite so far is from a few days ago: the NY Philharmonic’s version of Ravel’s Boléro. Play it on the biggest screen and best speakers you can manage!
Enjoy!
In case you’re Googling for it, or in case I forget how to do it…
If you search online, you can can find various articles about how to take an MP3 or AAC audio file and make a .M4R-format file which an iOS device can then use as a ringtone. I’ve had a bit of Gilbert & Sullivan as mine for years, and have probably infuriated and/or amused those around me in equal measure when my phone starts announcing that I am the Captain of the Pinafore…
I lost this, though, in a recent wipe and re-install of my phone, after which I discovered that iTunes no longer makes it at all obvious how to put these custom ringtones onto your device. It’s easy if you buy them on the iTunes store, of course, but otherwise no amount of dragging and dropping would get my old favourites into iTunes or onto my phone.
But it turns out that there is still a way, and it’s documented some way down on this Apple page. As a quick summary:
This works fine for me in iTunes 12.7 – no dragging and dropping needed. You should then see your ringtones, and be able to choose them in Settings > Sounds on the iPhone.
Spend 10 minutes with the brilliant Victor Borge.
This, I think, is quite fabulous. A jazz rendition of the Dr Who theme, by Bill Bailey.
How can you take a year and a half to make a 3-minute music video? Like this:
It’s even more amazing when you know how they made it. There are no green-screens here, and every frame is created by hand…
This has been out for a while, of course, but old people like me have just discovered it. (Old people like me might also be reminded of Peter Gabriel’s ‘Sledgehammer’ video, which was pretty amazing a quarter of a century ago…)
Another great track with another impressive rendition by Perpetuum Jazzile.
They’re on tour in Germany next month. More information on their web site.
Lots of people seemed to like the Perpetuum Jazzile video in my last post, so here’s another.
Man, these guys are good! Check back here for one more tomorrow…
Toto was one of my favourite bands, some scary number of decades ago. This is a fabulous cover of their most famous track, by a Slovenian jazz group…
Many thanks to Rob Feakes for the link.
At this time of year, as we know, angels are bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold.
John Naughton is posting links to an amazing interpretation of Pachelbel’s Canon on the electric guitar.
And I’m reposting a link to Jake Shimabukuro, who is bending near the earth in Central Park to touch his ukulele of gold. This piece transformed my view of the ukulele (which, I readily admit, wasn’t very well-developed beforehand!). (Update – that link is now dead. Try here.)
May you all have a musical, happy and peaceful Christmas!
Quentin
A truly fabulous version of ‘While my guitar gently weeps’ played on the ukulele by Jake Shimabukuro.
(Update – that link is now dead. Try here.)
Thanks to the Creative Generalist blog for this and lots of other great stuff.
© Copyright Quentin Stafford-Fraser
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