Thursday, January 14, 2010

... who danced with the Prince of Wales

You know the song?
I've danced with a man who's danced with a girl, who's danced with the Prince of Wales.

I sometimes hear people talking about their piano teachers and their piano teacher's teachers, so I looked up the teacher of my teacher and discovered that my musical great-grandfather is Alexander Glazunov, because my piano teacher Neta Maughan's teacher, Alexander Svergensky was one of his pupils.

Doesn't change much, but.

Friday, January 01, 2010

Deja vu all over again ...

I miss our old 5-CD changer. It gave us good service for maybe 8 years, but then began misbehaving.

I used to enjoy putting in several CDs and then clicking the random button and having my own private radio station.

It worked well for the double CD Daydreams set by Jean-Yves Thibaudet, which has combined his recordings of arrangements of Bill Evans and Duke Ellington tunes.

The second CD [the Edward Kennedy Ellington set] has plenty of variety and is fine to listen to on its own, but while the individual tracks on the first CD are all wonderful, they don't work as a set, as the mood rarely varies, and is mostly subdued.

But randomise the set, perhaps by adding another jazz pianist, and Bob's your uncle.

I must have bought this set about 7 or so years ago, but I have exactly the same reaction now as I had back then. Hence, as Justin would say, hence the title.