RIP Junior Byles, you are remembered.

Needed some rousing and whimsical Rossini. Thieving Magpie did the job nicely.

A solo piano performance of a piece called ‘Castaglia’ by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto (1952-2023). He originally wrote it in 1979 for the album ‘Solid State Survivor’ by a Japanese synth-pop trio called Yellow Magic Orchestra which he co-founded. Ryuichi Sakamoto subsequently became a noted film score composer. His credits  included “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” (1983) in which he also played an acting role as Captain Yonoi. “The Last Emperor” (1987), and “The Revenant” (2015) which was his final film score.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFDJzj12T7M&list=RDwFDJzj12T7M&start_radio=1

My heart goes out to those in Lisbon who died or lost loved ones in the terrible funicular accident yesterday. This famous song was composed to commemorate the opening of the first funicular on Mt Vesuvius - I'm not posting it frivolously or to make light of a tragedy, but just as a musical nod to the history of the funicular and the love that it inspires.

I'm a huge fan of jazz so right now I have John Coletrane's 'Giant Step' playing on the headphones. Almost as good of an album as 'A Love Supreme.' which I consider his best work.

Kula Shaker

Texan singer Sarah Jarosz performing an Appalachian style version of ‘Ireland’s Green Shore’ by Tim O’Brien, with Sam Grisman (son of David Grisman) on bass, and virtuoso Alex Hargreaves on fiddle - something of a dream team if you happen to be a modern country/bluegrass music fan.

My daughter and I are both bluegrass fans, and she has played professionally in a bluegrass band, along with a varied career in music and music teaching. I like Jarosz's clawhammer style and use of a banjitar, a custom instrument I think is superbly suited for bluegrass. I played a banjo (standard 5 string w/resonator) for a time in my early twenties, but the call of the keyboard pulled me away. Now I want to go back and take another crack at it, maybe with an Irish tenor banjo, a 4 string with GDAE tuning (which I call "Australian tuning," due to a bad pun, viz "G'dae, mate!"). 🙄

5 hours ago, TheVat said:

My daughter and I are both bluegrass fans, and she has played professionally in a bluegrass band, along with a varied career in music and music teaching. I like Jarosz's clawhammer style and use of a banjitar, a custom instrument I think is superbly suited for bluegrass. I played a banjo (standard 5 string w/resonator) for a time in my early twenties, but the call of the keyboard pulled me away. Now I want to go back and take another crack at it, maybe with an Irish tenor banjo, a 4 string with GDAE tuning (which I call "Australian tuning," due to a bad pun, viz "G'dae, mate!"). 🙄

Known as a "Fifths Tuning" because you are tuned in perfect fifths from the bass string upwards. Some tenor banjo players recommend using C.G.D.A instead - they say the fingerings flow slightly more naturally if you are playing fiddle tunes.

38 minutes ago, toucana said:

Known as a "Fifths Tuning" because you are tuned in perfect fifths from the bass string upwards. Some tenor banjo players recommend using C.G.D.A instead - they say the fingerings flow slightly more naturally if you are playing fiddle tunes.

Presumably because GDAE is how a violin is tuned, I seem to recall from when one of my brothers used to play.