From Lee Hildebrand's article about R&B artists Sunny and Jamie Hawkins:

The couple prefers the term "inspirational" to "gospel" for their music. They feel its appeal is broader than just to gospel fans, and indeed, the CD has gotten play on some adult-contemporary stations. "There are definitely other people besides Christian artists doing inspirational music," Sunny says. "I'm not sure what religion India.Arie embraces, but her music definitely has a spiritual quotient."

On Sunny and Jamie Hawkins web site at CD Baby (click here), you can listen to clips from their latest album, "More of You". The tracks I listened to were bright, energetic, grooving, and soulful.  ¶ 1:26 AM

"MIDI Blogging" is a new idea I just came up with. The idea is that someone will frequently make a MIDI recording of their piano practice, and use a tool similar to Blogger to upload it to their web site with a brief description. An example where this would be very useful is my piano practice recordings page, which is cumbersome to maintain. I think I will write a PHP-based MIDI Blogging system in the near future (if you would like to help me, please let me know!). I will also write a signed Java applet which will accept MIDI input, thus eliminating the need for extra MIDI sequencer software such as Cakewalk. Come to think of it, I think I am quite likely the first MIDI blogger in the world! I started MIDI blogging over a year ago and I think I will continue doing it for the foreseeable future.  ¶ 1:59 AM

I present to you "Intelligent MIDI sequencing with hamster control" (described by Majikthese).

It's a system created by Cornell University student Levy Lorenzo which uses 6 hamsters to compose original MIDI music. On the project web site (click here) you can see photos of the system in action, watch a video of the composing process, and listen to clips of music that the system composed.  ¶ 1:55 AM

I know this is not music related, but I just wanted to share a photo of an omelette that I cooked and ate 20 minutes ago.



  ¶ 6:54 PM

Flautist Bradley Leighton is a native of Tacoma, who currently resides in San Diego. He spent several years on Seoul, South Korea, playing with an army band, and also remained there after his discharge from the army to teach and perform. But he eventually returned to the Seattle area, and "worked in bands that accompanied such legendary artists as Bobby McFerrin, Clark Terry, Dizzy Gillespie and Patti Kim". His latest album, entitled "Just Doin' Our Thang" features Leighton on alto flute, playing a variety of well known tunes, some in a more smooth-jazz style, and others more straight-ahead. You can listen to 2-minute clips from all 12 tracks on the album at CDBaby.com (click here). Or visit Leighton's web site (here). If you're in Seattle, go and check out his performance on Wednesday, July 20, at The Triple Door (more details here).  ¶ 1:44 PM

Regarding singer Will Downing's performance at the Eastman Theatre in Rochester last night, John Pitcher (from the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle) writes:

He's a baritone who specializes in songs and ballads that are sometimes romantic and that are almost always downright erotic. As Downing himself quipped to all the guys in the hall who kept turning red, "Hey, I know this is a tough concert for you guys to attend."

In an interview with Right Track Entertainment, Downing attributes some of his early career success in the UK to pirate radio stations, of all things! He says,

When I started out, R&B music wasn’t very prevelant on mainstream radio in the UK and they had pirate stations. Like local stations and everyone would try to tune into these pirate stations to hear the new music or to hear mainstream R&B/soul music. I must have gone to at least 50 pirate stations around the country and they were really hot on the record. Sometimes, it would be in someone’s bedroom in their apartment. It was nuts. But they had a signal that would reach thousands of people and that’s how the music got out. When the pirates started playing it, the mainstream stations picked up on it as well and it kind of caught on.

Links: Will Downing's official web site  ¶ 3:50 AM

For those Trekkies out there, I have found a web site which has streaming MP3 versions of some songs from the original Star Trek series (click here). Some of that music is well written and quite exciting (even for someone like me who is not a true Star Trek fanatic).  ¶ 12:56 AM

My friend AC pointed out this cool link, on how to build your own phonograph (click here). Sounds like a good project for those science buffs out there.  ¶ 12:06 AM