Music of Africa

The International Collection is not just books, it's also music!  ABC Libraries' music selectors have added a plethora of international titles to the catalog recently, including increasing the selection of music from Africa.  I can't claim any expertise on the wide & varied array of music coming out of Africa, but here are some artists & genres represented in the catalog:

CDs:

King Sunny Adé and his African Beats: they play "spacey, jamming sort of Juju, characterized by tight vocal harmonies, intricate guitar work, backed by traditional talking drums, percussion instruments, and even adding the unusual pedal steel guitar and accordian", according to the African Music Encyclopedia,

Musiques métisses: Le mandingue, empire de la musique - Mandingo music of Mali and Guinea

In the Heart of the Moon, Ali Farka Touré & Toumani Diabaté (Mali)

Soro, Salif Keita (Mali)

Angélique Kidjo: deemed "Africa's premier diva" by Time Magazine

Hugh Masekela: performed with Paul Simon on Graceland

Jive & Soul: The Best of Mahlathini & the Mahotella Queens: South African mbaqanga supergroup in the 1960s-1990s

Danger, Lijadu Sisters:

The Lijadu Sisters, Taiwo and Kehinde Lijadu, are identical twin sisters from Nigeria who were an important music duet from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. They achieved success in Nigeria and had modest influence in the United States and Europe

Amadou & Mariam: musical duo from Mali

Desert Crossroads, Etran Finatawa: nomad's blues from Niger

Cesaria Evora: queen of the morna, a soulful genre sung in Creole-Portuguese

Rendez-vóus Barbès, Orchestre national de Barbès: a French group which plays a fusion of several genres from the Maghreb, such as the chaâbi, the raï, & the music of Gnawa.

Au Racines de la Mémoire, Kaluwo:  "Blues from the Sahel, African rumba, Congolese soukous… Aux Racines de la Memoire from Kaluwo takes us , taking us from the West Africa of Christophe Bégaud to the Central Africa of Marlène N’Garo, presents music that lively and full of warmth, on the border between traditional and modern," according to their press release.

Stars of Afropop: includes tracks by Zap Mama, Manu Dibango, Esther Wahome, Franco, Ricardo Lemvo and his group Makina Loca, and Hanitra.

Aksil, Élage Diouf - the artist was born in Senegal, but now lives in Canada.  His music reflects both his African heritage & his Canadian roots.
Afrobeat:

Afrobeat is a combination of traditional Yoruba music, jazz, highlife, funk and chanted vocals, fused with percussion and vocal styles, popularised in Africa in the 1970s.  Its main creator was the Nigerian multi-instrumentalist and bandleader Fela Kuti, who gave it its name.  His son Femi Kuti continues to perform in this genre.

Chimurenga:

Chimurenga music is a Zimbabwean popular music genre coined and popularised by Thomas Mapfumo. Chimurenga is a Shona language word for struggle.

Mbalax:

Mbalax (or Mbalakh) is the national popular dance music of Senegal and The Gambia. Mbalax is a fusion of popular Western music and dance such as jazz, soul, Latin, and rock blended with sabar, the traditional drumming and dance music of Senegal.  Youssou N'Dour helped to develop this style.

Book:

African Music: A People's Art by Francis Bebey

For children:

Gift of the Tortoise: A Musical Journey through Southern Africa, Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Discovering the Music of Africa

The Music of Africa: An Introduction by Fred Warren with Lee Warren

DVDs:

Umm Kulthum: A Voice like Egypt

Useful links:

ABC Libraries New Music LibGuide: International Collection

The African Music Encyclopedia

African Music Radio

African Music on the Internet

A Toast to Santa Fe Opera 2012!

For some New Mexico residents, the beginning of summer means opera season.  The Santa Fe Opera opens its season on June 29, and continues over July and August, with operas performed several times a week.  The hills of Santa Fe make a perfect backdrop and the real storms often seen around the edges of the stage enhance dramatic performances.  The setting is one of the things that make SFO one of the most sought after opera venues in the world.  Performers, singers, musicians, choreographers, directors, set designers, apprentices, and patrons come from all over the world to be part of the magic of SFO.

Even if you’re not a fan of opera, being a part of the Santa Fe Opera scene just once is a pretty amazing experience.  The opera parking lot in the hours before a performance is a sight to behold.  Tailgate parties are very popular at SFO.  Some tailgaters pull out all stops bringing hibachi grills, crystal stemware, fine china, beautiful floral centerpieces and elaborate meals.  The rest of us make do with homemade sandwiches, eaten off paper plates, sitting in the bed of a truck, but enjoy the atmosphere nonetheless.  While dressing up is not a requirement at the opera it is always fun to see what New Mexicans will pull out of their closets to wear to an opera.  Sometimes it’s jeans and a t-shirt, sometimes an evening gown.  Sometimes it’s bright pink Converse worn with a tux, sometimes it’s a diamond tiara and a fur coat.  People-watching at the Santa Fe Opera is never boring. 

You also might be interested in taking a backstage tour at the theater to see how these performances are put together and get a close up look at the sets and costumes.  In the summer these tours are offered daily and don’t require reservations.  Adults have to pay a five dollar fee, but kids up to age 17 can join in for free.  Click here for more details.  The Prelude Talks, which are free to ticket holders, before every opera performance are a good way to get in the opera mood, with information and history about the operas being staged. 

If tickets are sold out, which sometimes happens months before a performance begins, take a look at santafeopera.org for suggestions, as well as information about tailgating and the opera shuttle service to and from Albuquerque.  There are lots of ways to ease yourself into opera without actually sitting through a performance.  Even when the official opera season is over Santa Fe Opera offers concerts, lectures, and other performances, shown both at the opera site just outside Santa Fe and at performance spaces around the state.  SFO’s Community Concerts, which feature singers from the Apprentice Program, are even free, although still require reservations.  Sign up to receive emails from SFO to be up to date on the very latest and always make sure you make your reservations or buy your tickets well in advance as events are booked quickly! 

Santa Fe Opera also tries to get kids interested in opera at an early age by selling tickets for Family Nights or Youth Nights. These tickets are usually for dress rehearsal performances and are available to families with children, to give kids a chance to see an opera performance.  Be sure to call well in advance.  Like all other opera performances these tickets sell out fast.

Even from home you can appreciate opera.  Check out the library for CDs, DVDs and books about opera, including some wonderfully illustrated ones for children.  Page One Bookstore will be hosting a book discussion with Desiree Mays, author of Opera Unveiled, a book that talks about the operas being performed in Santa Fe this year, on June 25. 

Opera CDs:

The Miracle of the Voice

Romantic Arias

Great Tenors of the Century


 Opera DVDs:

La Traviata

Turandot

The Tales of Hoffmann


Opera books:

Opera by Robert Cannon

Fantastic Opera: The Great Operas by John Martinez

The Santa Fe Opera: An American Pioneer by Phillip Huscher


Opera books for kids:

The Random House Book of Opera Stories retold by Adele Geras
Aida as told by Leontyne Price, based on the opera by Giuseppe Verdi

Carmen: An Urban Adaptation of the Opera by Walter Dean Myers


Some of the unique fun of living in New Mexico is discovering the opera.  Come see for yourself one of the reasons why our Land of Enchantment becomes world-famous every summer.  Here's a toast to the opera!

Jazz Appreciation Month

Did you know that April is Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM)? JAM is sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution, which "...collects artifacts, archival materials, and oral histories; is home to the nation's jazz orchestra, the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (SJMO), so designated by congressional appropriation; curates exhibitions and traveling exhibitions; offers research fellowships; produces recordings and videos; publishes books and jazz music editions such as the recently launched Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology; offers lectures and seminars for adults; and develops educational offerings for students".

Are you a jazz aficionado?  Consider browsing our catalog for our jazz collection!  The ABC Libraries' catalog features music on CD, DVDs, & books on the subject for you to enjoy.

You can support jazz locally by checking out the NM Jazz Workshop, the Outpost Performance Space, or local jazz clubs like Jazzbah.

Frank Sinatra is featured on this year's JAM poster.  Past honorees have included Mary Lou Williams,  Dave Brubeck,  Benny Goodman, & Ella Fitzgerald.

My Inner Music Nerd

I know a lot of guys who are into music.  I know a lot of guys who are in bands.  Not so many girls, in my limited experience. That's why I am so glad we have books in the system such as: Record Collecting for Girls: Unleashing Your Inner Music Nerd, One Album at a Time by Courtney E. Smith; Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground by Maria Raha; Girls Rock!: Fifty Years of Women Making Music by Mina Carson et al.; & The Girls' Guide to Rocking: How to Start a Band, Book Gigs, and Get Rolling to Rock Stardom by Jessica Hopper.

I have been thinking about women in music a lot lately, since I saw the inspiring movie Girls Rock!  a few years ago, about Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls.  (The camp that started it all is in Portland, OR, but there are now camps all over the U.S., in Canada, & in the U.K.) So, when I read the Library Journal article Music for the Masses: Q & A with Courtney E. Smith, the author of the latest of the books listed above, Record Collecting for Girls, I knew I had to check it out.

I have not been disappointed!  Courtney Smith's book starts out with a reference to one of my favorite books/movies, High Fidelity, & "the art of the Top Five List"-because, as Nick Hornby's book declares, for lots of music snobs, "what you like is what you're like". Smith offers hints to creating your own Top Five lists-her example is her Top Five artists. Always a fun time-waster.

Smith then moves on to covering topics such as "Where Have All the Girl Bands Gone?", a little slice of musical history; music blogs & sites like last.fm; movie soundtracks; "Guilty Pleasures" (every music snob has them);  break-up songs mirroring the stages of grief; from Madonna to Lady Gaga & M.I.A.; rock 'n' roll consorts; and possibly my favorite chapter in the whole book, "The Smiths Syndrome", with its classic advice, "Never date a guy who likes the Smiths too much...men who are afflicted by the Smiths Syndrome tend to embody [Morrissey's] angst in an unfortunate way".

There is also a short chapter on actual record collecting, which features a discussion on "it isn't just the format of available music that have changed-everything about the way we listen to and consume music has changed as well." Do you need to own a physical copy of an album?  Does that make you a traditionalist? What makes listening to music on vinyl special? The only thing I thought this section lacked was a discussion of alternate audio file formats-I know there's more than MP3s out there, but that's what I hear about most.

Record Collecting for Girls is an informal & anecdotal look into the world of music by women (although it's "for girls", I think those born in the '80s or later might miss some of the references). I hope it will join the ranks of Songbook, Love is a Mix Tape, But Enough about Me, Fargo Rock City, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life & other books that, aimed at music geeks like myself, seem to make music a character in their story.

'Tis the Season for...New Holiday Music!

The ABC Libraries' music selectors have been ordering plenty of seasonal music for your holiday enjoyment!  Here are some new offerings:

Yeshiva Boys Choir Chanukah

Song of Solstice, Jennifer Cutting's Ocean Orchestra

Joy to the World, Pink Martini

The Singing Saw at Christmastime, Julian Koster (of Neutral Milk Hotel)

Baroque Christmas

Welcome Yule: An English Christmas Revels

Savoy Christmas Blues

Audite, Silete!, Divina Musica

As It Fell on Holie Eve: Music for an Elizabethan Christmas, Julianne Baird & Parthenia

For more new music, holiday or otherwise, visit the New Music LibGuide.

Also, if you are a fan of holiday music, make sure you check out these library system events in November & December:

Stylings of the Season at Taylor Ranch
Lyndon B. Johnson Middle School Advanced Chamber Ensemble performs seasonal music!

Rocky Mountain Cowboy Christmas with "Buffalo Bill" Boycott
Join "Buffalo Bill" Boycott as he offers Holiday songs, poems, and entertaining skits in the festive spirit of the cowboys and pioneers of the Old West. Buffalo Bill performs on the fiddle, banjo, mandolin, and guitar!

Nutcracker Ballet Demonstration
Young dancers from the New Mexico ballet company will be demonstrating selections from the holiday favorite, The Nutcracker. Their presentation will also include some information about ballet dancing as well.

¡I ♥ Globalquerque!

I was lucky enough to get a ticket to last night's ¡Globalquerque!, New Mexico's annual celebration of world music & culture.  Wow!  I just kept asking myself, "Why haven't I ever attended this event before?"

For two nights, last night & tonight, the National Hispanic Cultural Center is taken over by this festival.  Each night, ten bands from all over the world play on three different stages (I'm happy to say I caught 9 out of 10 of last night's bands, though some, regretably, only for a song or two).  There is a Global Village, with vendors featuring international food & crafts (I heard the pad thai was amazing, but I had already eaten).

During the day today, there is a FREE Global Fiesta, featuring poetry, workshops with some of the performers (based on last night's show, I would be at South Pacific Dances with Te Vaka & West African Dances with Burkina Electric if I didn't have to work!), an art exhibit, an International Game Zone, & more!

Run, don't walk, to tonight's ¡Globalquerque! events!  It was such fun-just like a big party, with people dancing in the aisles, kids running around, everybody having a good time.  If you are a world music fan, you won't want to miss it!  Tonight you can sample the stylings of:

Burkina Electric (Burkina Faso)
DePedro (Spain)
Frigg (Finland/Norway)
Gaida (Syria)
Frank McCulloch y Sus Amigos (New Mexico)
La Excelencia (New York)
Nawal (Comoros)
Buffy Sainte-Marie (Cree)
Te Vaka (New Zealand/South Pacific)
Cedric Watson & Bijou Creole (Louisiana)

Here's a sample from Te Vaka, one of my favorite acts from last night! Even groggy after their 18 hour plane ride, they put on a mesmerizing show!



Don't forget to visit our New Music LibGuide to check out all the library system's world music offerings!

Britpop: True Confessions of a Fangirl

In the early 1990s, Nirvana & Pearl Jam dominated the American music scene & all anybody ever talked about was Seattle & grunge.  I missed that scene.  Instead, Anglophile that I am, I was head over heels with the music coming out of England-Britpop, from Blur & Oasis to Elastica & Sleeper.

It was with this musical history in mind that I picked up Britpop!: Cool Britannia and the Spectacular Demise of English Rock by  British journalist John Harris. It's a fascinating study of the scene, when "UK rock rediscovered its confidence, tapping back into the spirit of The Beatles and Stones" [from the book's blurb], including plenty of snarky anecdotes & tales of squabbles & feuds amongst its major players. Watch the author talking about Britpop on YouTube-a 4 part series-to get a feel for what the book has to say:





Here is a list of some Britpop-related music that you can find in the library catalog (including influences from the '80s, shoegaze, & the Madchester scene):

Music from Glastonbury: The Film

Years of Refusal, Morrissey

Hatful of Hollow, The Queen is Dead, & the Sound of, The Smiths

Be Here Now, Oasis

Demon Days & Plastic Beach, Gorillaz (musical project created in 1998 by Damon Albarn of Blur and Jamie Hewlett)

The Best of  Joy Division

The Complete Stone Roses

We are the Night, The Chemical Brothers

Blue Lines, Mezzanine, & 100th Window, Massive Attack

Loveless, My Bloody Valentine

Spooky, Lush

Black Holes & Revelations & The Resistance, Muse

OK Computer, Kid A, In Rainbows & King of Limbs, Radiohead

We don't have any Elastica albums in the library catalog (Justine Frischmann is no longer making music), so enjoy this video of one of their best tunes:





If you are a music fan, make sure you check out the New Music LibGuide! There you can see, by genre, all the music that the library system has acquired in 2011.

Your Library is So Punk Rock

Yesterday's passing of Poly Styrene, formerly of X-Ray Spex, has put me in a pensive yet punk mood this morning.  I am a latecomer to punk-in the '70s, I was a child listening to ABBA & my mom's show tunes-but I began reading about & listening to punk a few years ago & I just got caught up in it.  Poly Styrene was one of my favorite artists of that era. Her new album, Generation Indigo, just came out.

Most of my punk research was actually done under the auspices of the library.  Here are some of my favorite reads:

Punk by Stephen Colegrave & Chris Sullivan

Cinderella's Big Score: Women of the Punk and Indie Underground by Maria Raha

We Got the Neutron Bomb: The Untold Story of L.A. Punk by Marc Spitz and Brendan Mullen
 
Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain
 
Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978-1984 by Simon Reynolds
 
Also consider checking out Rob Sheffield's wonderful memoir Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time, where "Rob, now a writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs on fifteen mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with Renée...a hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl," as the publisher writes.  It's not really about punk, but the way Sheffield uses music to remember & reflect is really well done.
 
The library system has some punk media offering as well, most notably:
 
The Clash Live: Revolution Rock (DVD)
 
American Hardcore (DVD)
 
The Filth & the Fury (DVD)
 
ABC Libraries' catalog also features a smattering of punk rock CDs.
 
More about X-Ray Spex:

Looking for new movies? New music?

We get a lot of questions about borrowing media, especially DVDs & music CDs. How many can you check out on one card? (Ten DVDs. Up to 15 audiobooks & music CDs, combined.) How do you find them? (Most non-documentary films are filed by title. Non-fiction movies & music CDs are filed by call number.) Do you have a list of all the movies at this branch? (No. You can look up in the catalog a featured list of all the movies in the system, but it's a long list. You can do a keyword search with the word "videorecording" & limit to a branch instead of "view entire collection", but it's still pretty unwieldy for browsing purposes.)

To find movies in the catalog, you can search by title, director, & actors, or subject headings such as "Comedy films". To find music in the catalog, you can search by artist name, album title, song title, or subject headings like "Rock music". Also check out our Search Tips for more catalog searching tricks, or just stop by any Reference Desk & ask for assistance.

A lot of times, though, you're probably wondering if ABC Libraries have the latest blockbuster, an indie film you missed because it only showed here for a week, or an album by a band you just heard on the radio. Something that just won an Oscar or a Grammy. In short, you want to know what's new. What the library system just added.

Now you can! We now have New on DVD & New Music guides that customers can access to see what the library system just ordered. New on DVD will feature the latest adult & children's movies that we've acquired, updated monthly. New Music shows you the music CDs that ABC Libraries have ordered in 2011, divided into genres like "Pop/Rock" & "Latin/World". The New Music guide will also be updated monthly, so keep checking back for new titles!

We hope you enjoy these new guides. Don't forget, you can also suggest a purchase if there's an item (book, DVD, or CD) that you would like to suggest! (This is not a guarantee that it will be purchased.)

Today in Music History

Today in 1858, Giacomo Puccini, Italian composer, was born! Here is a clip of Maria Callas performing Puccini's opera Tosca.



For more Puccini operas, check out the library's DVD selection!

The Church of Beethoven

Last Sunday I went to see local poet Joy Harjo perform at the Church of Beethoven. This local institution has been going on for a few years now, & I had been once before. However, now that I work Sundays, it's a bit of a stretch for me to attend. I'm so glad I didn't miss this!

The website says "Not church . . . more than Beethoven. Arrive early and enjoy the complimentary espresso bar. Our one-hour program of ensemble music and poetry begins promptly at 10:30 am. We usually open with a short work— something out of the ordinary— followed by a reading by our poet of the morning. Intermission is a two-minute celebration of silence and we close with a substantial work of chamber music." The Church of Beethoven was founded in 2008 by musician Felix Wurman, who has since passed away, to showcase ensemble music, poetry, & performance. It takes place at The Kosmos & attendance ranges around 100-140 "enchanted listeners", even with tickets at $15 a head.

For Sunday's event, because Joy Harjo is a poet & musician (she played at least 3 instruments at the Church of Beethoven), the show began with the amazing Ikuko Kanda on violin as the only other performer besides Ms. Harjo & the musicians who accompanied her. Ms. Kanda performed the Adagio & Fugue of Bach's Sonata in G Minor. I found the Adagio especially compelling, but Ms. Kanda performed both brilliantly.

For the rest of the time, it was Joy Harjo's event. Accompanied by Larry Mitchell & Tony James, she performed many of her poems in song with music, although her latest piece she chose to read while music played because she hadn't gotten the rhythm down yet. Her songs included "This is My Heart", "Equinox", & "Goin' Home". Ms. Harjo also read from her children's book, For a Girl Becoming. Whether singing or reading, it was a truly inspiring performance. For other works by Joy Harjo, check the library catalog.

Don't miss next Sunday the 19th, when Vivaldi's The Four Seasons will be performed in its entirety, interspersed with readings of sonnets originally created for the work!

Living French

I am wellnigh obsessed with France. I like to read about France, watch French movies, & listen to French music. If only I spoke French, my life would be complete. (Someday, maybe I'll actually take a class at Alliance Française d'Albuquerque.) In the meantime, here are some of the France-related items that have helped me maintain my joie de vivre.



Books about France
Almost French: Love And A New Life In Paris by Sarah Turnbull

Entre Nous: A Woman's Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl by Debra Ollivier

C'est La Vie: An American Conquers the City of Light, Begins a New Life, and Becomes-Zut Alors!-Almost French by Suzy Gershman

Bringing Home the Birkin: My Life in Hot Pursuit of the World's Most Coveted Handbag by Michael Tonello (technically not about France, but the Birkin bag is by Hermès, a French high fashion house)

Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't be Wrong: (Why We Love France but Not the French) by Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow

French by Heart: An American Family's Adventures in La Belle France by Rebecca S. Ramsey



Books by the French
French Women Don't Get Fat byMireille Guiliano

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery

I Wish Someone were Waiting for Me Somewhere by Anna Gavalda

Suite Française by Irène Némirovsky

French movies
Summer Hours

Man on Wire

Séraphine

Paris

I've Loved You So Long

Tell No One

Persepolis

Paris, Je T'Aime

La Vie en Rose

2 Days in Paris

The Page Turner

Avenue Montaigne

French music
One Step Forward by Les Nubians

Comic Strip by Serge Gainsbourg

Dimanche à Bamako by Amadou & Mariam (they are from Mali, but sing mostly in French)

For Kids of All Ages

Also consider the Asterix & Tintin graphic novels; both are translated from the French.

Happy 70th Birthday, John Lennon!

Spring Creek Concert

Last Friday the bluegrass band Spring Creek played in our outdoor performance area! They drew quite a crowd.

I missed their show myself, but to check out their song stylings visit their website or the video below! They'll make you want to dance!

This Week in Music History

This week marks the anniversary of the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, which was held August 15 to August 18, 1969. To find books & DVDs about this event, do a keyword search in the catalog with the word "Woodstock". Other music festival related items in the library's catalog include: Telluride Bluegrass Festival: 30 Years (DVD); Festival Express (DVD); Recorded Live at the Monterey Jazz Festival by John Hardy (CD); Great Festivals 2 (DVD); New Orleans Jazz Fest: A Pictorial History by Michael P. Smith (book); At the Montreux Jazz Festival by Bill Evans (CD); & Music from Glastonbury: The Film (CD).

Also, today is the last day of Elvis Week, an annual celebration that includes a meet & greet, fan reception, a benefit, trivia tour, tribute artist contest, & more! To see photos of the 2010 Elvis Week, click here. For a list of Elvis books & media, just search the catalog under the keywords "Elvis Presley". For more information about the King, check out his official website.

ABC Libraries boasts a wide offering of music CDs in our catalog. For a list of some of the newest holdings, click here; for a specific genre, try a keyword search by genre (you might also click on the dropdown menu & change "View Entire Collection" to "Music on CD").

Reading Music

I am a child of the '80s. More particularly, my musical heyday was the '80s. So I was delighted to see that our library system had acquired Please: Music Inspired by the Smiths, the Smiths being one of my favorite bands. Stories are named after Smiths songs like "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now", & the website PopMatters says "many of the best pieces capture a bit of The Smiths' spirit in way that will send you back to listen all over again."

This isn't the first time that fiction has dealt with rock music. Just this year, Nick Hornby gave us Juliet, Naked, about the fictional Tucker Crowe, a has-been American musician, destined to fade into obscurity save for a handful of devoted listeners like the musically obsessed Duncan Thomson.

We only have Music from Big Pink (which I haven't read) in the catalog, but the 33 1/3 book series has some very interesting titles available.

A subject search under "musical fiction" brings up a bevy of titles, including those that might be of interest to jazz aficionados (1929 by Frederick Turner, a story involving Bix Beiderbecke), polka lovers (The Clarinet Polka by Keith Maillard), & opera fans (Anne Rice's Cry to Heaven is fascinating). The Kreutzer Sonata by Margriet de Moor "traces narrative arabesques around the terrible romantic jealousy suffered by a blind music critic" according to Publisher's Weekly. Divine Music by Suruchi Mohan deals with Hindustani music.

On a non-fiction note, Da Capo Press has given us some writings to consider, such as The Show I'll Never Forget: 50 Writers Relive Their Most Memorable Concertgoing Experience & Da Capo Best Music Writing; & I highly recommend music geek Rob Sheffield's Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time & Nick Hornby's Songbook. I can't recommend Patti Smith's new memoir Just Kids highly enough.

Have you read any fiction or non-fiction about music? I'm always looking for recommendations in that direction!

Jazz Appreciation Month

LIVE IT-LEARN IT-LOVE IT

April is Jazz Appreciation Month! Visit the Smithsonian Jazz site to view their Jazz Month events, This Day in Jazz History, & suggestions on how to celebrate Jazz Month, including recommended jazz-themed children's books for kids aged 4-8 like The Jazz Fly by Matthew Gollub and Karen Hanke, The Sound That Jazz Makes by Carole Boston Weatherford and Eric Velasquez, If I Only Had a Horn: Young Louis Armstrong by Roxane Orgill and Leonard Jenkins, & Chris Raschka’s Mysterious Thelonious or Charlie Parker Played Be Bop.

A keyword search of jazz in our catalog will bring up a variety of items in books, music, & movies! Check out the most recent biographies of Thelonious Monk & John Coltrane, both very favorably reviewed. For an interesting listen, check out Melody Gardot's My One & Only Thrill or Worrisome Heart.

Django Reinhardt, Gypsy Jazz Guitarist

Today marks the 100th birthday of European jazz great Django Reinhardt. Reinhardt, a Gypsy jazz guitarist, was one of the first prominent European jazz musicians and remains one of the most renowned jazz guitarists of all time. For more about Django Reinhardt, check out:

Django Reinhardt and the Illustrated History of Gypsy Jazz by Michael Dregni with Alain Antonietto and Anne Legrand

Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend by Michael Dregni

Happy Birthday Django Reinhardt! (Guardian website)

If you'd like to listen to Reinhardt's music, consider:

An Introduction to Django Reinhardt (music CD)