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The monarch butterfly: a profound life cycle, and ‘a rainbow of chaos’
It’s a big question. But how might it be answered in song lyrics? Not merely through broad definition or metaphor, but also through philosophy, practical advice or experience. See many inspirational ideas here, but it’s also time to let your answers take flight …
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Sketching out … Miles Davis and Gil Evans
It’s an artful arrangement in itself: classical to jazz, pop to prog, the parts unfold and come together beautifully in these playlists picked by this week’s guest magicman, drawn from hundreds of suggestions from last week’s topic
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Two of the greats. Ray Charles, also a great arranger as well as performer, with composer and arranger Quincy Jones
From full orchestration to carefully stripped back, this week let's consider work where in originals or later versions, added instrumentals, vocal parts, melodic fills, changing tempo or keys, have made a great song even better
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There’s more than one way of having in ball in New York. The 1930s …
It’s the city of the world that never sleeps, but this week let’s explore what kind of music, particularly instrumentals, but also lyrics, capture the particular spirit, culture, feel and rhythms of its extraordinary five boroughs
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The silver-tongued Cole Porter entertains friends in the 1940s
Tin Pan Alley to the Great American Songbook, blues, jazz standards, show tunes, gospel or folk, this week we escape the modern era to find songs of exemplary craft, performance or pertfectly capture their era
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