Dr. Bob Prescribes Sergei Prokofiev, Piano Concerto No. 2
September
6th,
2022
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) ca. 1920 Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) was a prodigiously gifted pianist and composer. All in all, he composed 5½ piano concerti. (That was not a typo; an explanation will follow in a bit.) The first two of his piano concerti were composed while Prokofiev was still a student at the Petrograd/Saint Petersburg Conservatory,…
Music History Monday: Fire
September
5th,
2022
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953) circa 1913 We mark the premiere on September 5, 1913 – 109 years ago today - of Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 2. Prokofiev (1891-1953) composed the piece while still a student at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory; it was completed in April of 1913. (For our information, Prokofiev still had another year…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Charlie Parker
August
30th,
2022
Charlie Parker (1920-1955) in 1947 The Way He Lived and Played In the parlance of the sports world, Charlie Parker “left it all on the field.” The unstoppable, overwhelming intensity with which he played the saxophone was mirrored in the way he lived his life as well. When he died in the New York City…
Music History Monday: Bird
August
29th,
2022
Charlie Parker (1920-1955) performing at the Three Deuces in New York City in 1947 We mark the birth on August 29, 1920 – 102 years ago today - of the alto saxophonist and composer Charlie Parker. The trumpet player (and one-time member of Charlie Parker’s quintet) Miles Davis (1926-1991) famously said: “You can tell the…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Claude Debussy
August
24th,
2022
An unhappy Claude Debussy photographed in Rome in 1885, at the age of 23 Picking Up from Where We Left Off from Monday’s Music History Monday . . . Claude Debussy (1862-1918), preternaturally talented little cocker that he was, entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1872 at the age of ten. He remained there for twelve…
Music History Monday: Debussy
August
22nd,
2022
Claude Debussy (1862-1918) in 1902 We celebrate the birth on August 22, 1862 – 160 years ago today - of the French composer and pianist Claude Debussy. Born in the Paris suburb of St. Germain-en-Laye, he died in Paris on March 25, 1918, at the age of 55. Let’s tell it like it is: Monsieur…
Dr. Bob Prescribes: Woodstock: 3 Days of Peace and Music
August
16th,
2022
Indulge me, please, the musings of a 68-year-old baby boomer. Aging sucks. Like you needed me to tell you, right? I’m not just talking about our knees, shoulders, fingers, hairlines and waistlines; sagging, spotted skin; sore hips, fatty livers, and forgetfulness; and the terrible knowledge that our physical discomfort notwithstanding, our time on this earth…
Music History Monday: Woodstock: A Triumph of Locational Branding!
August
15th,
2022
We mark the opening of the so-called “Woodstock Festival” on August 15, 1969 – 53 years ago today - “so-called” for the following reasons. “Woodstock.” Even without considering the original festival that bears its name, “Woodstock”, as a placename has a homey, countryside-like quality to it. And a beautiful, quaint town it is, with a…
Dr. Bob Prescribes Miles Davis – Kind of Blue
August
9th,
2022
Miles Davis Sextet performing live circa 1959; left-to-right Bill Evans, Paul Chambers, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Julian “Cannonball” Adderley; not in photo, Jimmy Cobb We must contemplate the weighty. Jazz is, by its very nature, a conversational and dynamic art form, in which performers improvise on a chord progression or on a series of scales…
Music History Monday: Abbey Road, and This and That
August
8th,
2022
August 8 is a great day, a signal day, an epic day for both good and bad reasons in the history of popular, rock, and jazz music. We’d observe a few of today’s date-related events before moving on to our featured story. First, with heads respectfully bowed, we would note some of those who have…