Who knew that music has the power to help stimulate the memory of patients with Alzheimer’s disease; help Parkinson’s patients learn to walk again; reduce blood pressure; help restore speech to a patient who has had a stroke? . . .
As a child, I found nothing strange about the fact that, despite our being Jewish, we had a huge tree, hung with lots of sparkly decorations, with a panoply of presents underneath. We were Americans. We loved Christmas. So did everyone else.
Even if you don’t enjoy listening to Björk’s otherworldly music as you are cooking dinner or running in the park, you owe it to yourself to try to appreciate one of the most original pioneers of contemporary culture alive today.
Jenny Burton's new album includes soaring inspirational anthems that seamlessly blend the spiritual with R&B, Motown, and musical theater. “I want to stand up with all my life experiences and put it into songs and put it on that stage," she says. "I want to let it go out and help heal, give clarity and joy."
“I wasn't sure I had something that someone would want to listen to," Grace Haggerty says, "but that fear subsided, and I decided that whether or not someone liked it or someone didn’t like it, I had to do this for myself."
"Ghostlight" is a disarmingly intimate collection of songs, spanning several decades and a breadth of genres—a carefully curated mix ranging from Irving Berlin to Mary Chapin Carpenter, Jacques Brel to Tom Waits. It was designed to transport you to "a mysterious, smoky place."
On singing traditional carols at Christmastime: Even if we are not, all of us, faithful, we can still be joyful and triumphant.
Her mother was taken to Treblinka and her husband to Dachau. Neither survived. Herz-Sommer and her son, Raphael, who was then 6, were among the lucky ones (if you can imagine using that phrase to talk about anyone persecuted during that period). They were taken to Theresienstadt.
After an impulsive bid at a New York City charity silent auction, I found myself in possession of four tickets to see Justin Timberlake at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. I have never been a huge fan of Justin’s musical genre—but his showmanship at the MTV Music Awards was exciting enough to compel me to pick up that pen and sign my name on the auction list.
Oh, that contralto sidling into view singing confidently while flourishing a huge fish! Once again, part of the fun of watching a video like this is trying to figure out which of the customers eyeing the veggies is going to burst into song.
Fluid writing, modesty about her accomplishments, and a light touch make this book a fun read. I have always admired Linda Ronstadt’s singing; now I admire her intelligence and style, in both the literary and the musical sense.
The music we blasted at age 12 defined who we were. Not only that, but I believe that your first 45 record suggests something about who you still are, or at the very least contains important clues to your character, in a way that’s every bit as significant as your birth order, Zodiac sign, or response to a Rorschach or Scientology Personality Test score.