I found a fascinating interview with Cuban pianist Bebo Valdés (click here). Bebo Valdés is regarded by musicologists as a preeminent descendant of the nineteenth-century Afro-Cuban composers such as such as Saumell, Cervantes and Romeu. He is also heavily influenced by Spanish music and flamenco. From the interview:

When you play bulerías, tanguillos and other styles, how do you adapt them to the piano?

In the most basic aspect, in the style, I don't change anything; I try to maintain the form. I might change the harmonies a bit to embellish them. I'm learning a lot from the flamencos. Between Dieguito (El Cigala), Niño Josele and El Piraña, I'm entering their world and they're entering mine. Look, they gave me this as a present - he proudly shows us a medal he is wearing on his right wrist -, it belongs to a gypsy brotherhood in Almería. They tell me I'm one of theirs and I tell them they're also one of mine (he pauses). The incredible thing is that they're very musical. Look, for example, at Niño Josele; he never went to the conservatory and he's one of the best concert performers.

At the BBC 2005 World Music awards, Bebo Valdés and flamenco singer Diego (El Cigala) won the Boundary Crossing category for their album entitled "Lagrimas Negras". Garth Cartwright writes that Bebo and Diego's album is "the most compelling Spanish flamenco album since Camaron de la Isla died in 1992 and the best Cuban piano album since Ruben Gonzales' World Circuit 1997 debut 'Introducing . . . How so?'". He writes:

Diego "El Cigala" is a Spanish Gitano (Gypsy) who has made his mark over the last decade as a fine flamenco singer. Bebo Valdes is a noted Cuban jazz pianist, one long appreciated in Europe as he has lived in Sweden since 1960. Combine the two of them, as producers Fernando Trubeca and Javier Limon did, and the result is the astonishing "Lagrimas Negras" (Black Tears). The initial collaboration came about when Javier Limon took on the role of producer for Diego's album "Corren Tiempos De Alegria". He was an admirer of Bebo’s and drafted the pianist in Bebo to guest on a couple of tracks. The response to their performance together was one of such powerful emotion that both Javier and Fernando Trunbeca, who was sitting in on the session, determined they must make an album together.

You can listen to a full length version of a track from this album at the BBC World Music Awards (click here and then click on Listen to a Track).  ¶ 1:21 AM

I recently composed a new song called Balance in All Things. I'm going to be featuring it in some of my upcoming live shows, and hopefully on an album too.

For the musically inclined, I have provided the lead sheets for the tune, in PDF format below. Feel free to learn this tune and perform it (but if you are going to record it please ask me first, as I would very much like to know about how my music is being played!)

Lead sheets:
Balance in All Things (PDF) - Concert Key

Balance in All Things (PDF) - For Eb Instruments

Balance in All Things (PDF) - For Bb Instruments  ¶ 1:43 AM

I played around with a free notation system called Lilypond, and created some lead sheets for my arrangement of My Favorite Things.

Here are the lead sheets in PDF format:
My Favorite Things Concert Key
My Favorite Things Eb Instruments
My Favorite Things Bb Instruments

My conclusion about the Lilypond system is that it is quite difficult for this kind of work, because it takes about 1 minute to generate the output every time you make an update to the lead sheet. That makes the whole notation process quite slow, unless you are very rigorous in checking for errors before trying to generate the output. I am going to eventually buy the Finale Notation System which is much easier to use and more musician-friendly. However, because Lilypond is free, and it does produce nice looking output, I am going to stick with it for a while.

Here are the Lilypond source files if you are interested:

my-fav-include.ly
my-fav.ly
my-fav-ees.ly
my-fav-bes.ly  ¶ 1:42 AM

I found a bunch of old radio shows (click here) featuring big bands lead by the famous Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and Tommy Dorsey. Many of these recordings are from the so called "Radio Years" of the 1930's. From the Radio Lovers home page (click here):

Before the days of video games, shopping malls, MTV, and the Internet, families used to sit in their living room each night to listen to radio shows such as Abbott and Costello, Superman, Groucho Marx, The Avenger, Gunsmoke, Sherlock Homes, and many others. When TV become popular in the 1950's, most of these shows went off the air, but they now live on at websites such as this one and on weekly nostalgia radio broadcasts worldwide.

  ¶ 2:04 AM

In the Fat Jazz big band (in which I play piano), one of the tunes we are working on is called Poppin' Fresh by Les Hooper. It turns out that Les Hooper is a prolific composer and arranger who also does work for TV, Movies, Cartoons, Commercials, and more. His web site has some incredible and amazing sounds samples. If you don't have time to surf around, just listen to his Cartoon track (click here) and you'll get an idea of his amazing composing skill!

It's actually my dream to one day write music for movies and TV. I've been slowly putting together a portfolio. Click here to listen to a one minute orchestral intro that I wrote for a friend's indie movie. Also listen to my Piece of Quiet composition (click here) which I think is very suitable for an emotional climax to some kind of romantic movie.  ¶ 3:01 AM