Music I’m Listening To


      Just for fun:

   Céline Dion was my wife’s favorite female singer. She listened to her CDs constantly. It wasn’t until I came across a live version of this song on YouTube that I realized how dynamic if not out-and-out physical her singing voice was:

   The clip below is taken from the British film Brassed Off (1996), starring Pete Postlethwaite, Tara Fitzgerald and Ewan McGregor.

   From Wikipedia: “The film is about the troubles faced by a colliery brass band, following the closure of their pit. The soundtrack for the film was provided by the Grimethorpe Colliery Band, and the plot is based on Grimethorpe’s own struggles against pit closures.”

   Through the magic of movie making, the flugelhorn solo was by Paul Hughes, not by Tara Fitzgerald’s character, Gloria Mullins.
   

    

   To my mind, this Norwegian singer has one of the most beautiful voices in the world:

   A duet from Georges Bizet’s opera Les pêcheurs de perles (The Pearl Fishers). How many other songs written in 1863 have endured from that date to this?

         

   Gunhild Carling may be the greatest trombone player you never heard of:

   “Crossroads” was the first track on the live half of Cream’s Wheels of Fire double album, released in August 1968 by Polydor Records in the UK and Atco Records in the US. I bought a copy the same year, and I think I played the grooves off it. No more Ferrante and Teicher for me!

   Back when the Bee Gees were recording hit after hit, I was never particularly a fan, but when I recently found an acoustic version of this song on YouTube, it knocked my socks off.
   

WARNING: This is the 12 minute version. Wait until you have time to listen to it from beginning to end.

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