As promised, I'm offering readers a chance to promote their own projects—music, writing, business, charitable, whatever. So jump in, and give us your best elevator pitch.
Nov 23, 2022·edited Nov 23, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
My hobby for the last few years has been transcribing liner notes and reviews of jazz albums. Succinctly put, my goal is for digital listeners to have the same access to knowledge as analog listeners once did. I've found that the best place to publish these notes is at Rate Your Music, a popular music database that's been around for 20+ years. I've learned a lot from typing out the notes, and I've had several people reach out and thank me including someone who was able to use the liner notes in their doctoral dissertation on politics and jazz in the 1960s.
As a second generation used bookseller, I love this kind of project to preserve ephemera. When we grew up in the 90s, we just assumed everything would one day be scanned, categorized, and searchable on the internet. That is becoming less and less the case. Projects like this are so important.
The liner notes for the same 100 or so jazz albums will live on, as long as it makes sense for labels to keep reissuing them. Beyond that, though? Things seem grim. There's no incentive for labels to keep obscure back catalogs available for streaming, let alone develop new technology that incorporates basics like credits, liner notes, and session photos into the music. There's only so much I can do in my spare time, but doing something is better than nothing at all.
My hats off to you, there's nothing better than spending a rainy afternoon exploring the nooks and crannies of a well-stocked used book store.
Thank you, and yes. This is something me and my Dad go back and forth on for hours and hours. We live in Houston, TX where it is very humid, but we have two garages full of boxes and filing cabinets with "ephemera" like what you're talking about: old maps, old cards, meetings from trade shows, price lists, all kinds of cool stuff.
We unfortunately don't have time to digitize it, we barely have time to catalog it for sale (which is a sort of digitization, I guess), but keeping everything organized and dry is a constant battle. I really admire what you're doing because keeping things preserved is really the end goal, and I wish I could do more of that. But in the end I realize that if I were to TRY to digitize and preserve everything in one of those file cabinets, it could be years of my life--and that's even if I knew the context for everything and where I would put it once digitized, and I don't.
So we do our small party by doing the 'minimum viable digitization' and making it searchable and available to people who can buy it and preserve it. Look the store up if you're ever in Houston: www.beckersbooks.com (website a work in progress, lol).
I am fortunate enough to have a local all day, all night Jazz station at 91.1 KCSM.org. A very small station housed at the College of San Mateo and previously known as KJAZ (I think). Exists mostly on donations. I volunteered there but the pandemic caused a change in their business model and tons of internal changes were made specifically to the DJ line up. Still, each DJ does all their own programming and there’s a diverse spectrum of Jazz to be heard. It was my intro to my, now, love of Jazz.
Sherry - very familiar with KCSM. a very good station. i hope they can survive the many obstacles that modern radio stations face in the coming days. i worked in Bay Area radio for nearly a decade at KFOG. my stream comes out of my little house in Sebastopol. cheers!
I love the idea of a diverse group of people programming the Jazz that's important to them. You'd get a much wider spectrum of interesting music that way. Bravo to you for volunteering, and I hope you get to again in the future!
Nov 23, 2022·edited Nov 23, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
I'm a huge fan Ted! Yours was one of the first Substacks I paid for. I write a weekly newsletter called Thought Bananas: www.thoughtbananas.substack.com where I cover a lot of different stuff. This is my best stuff so far:
> Making, Not Finding, Your Way: Review of The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd https://thoughtbananas.substack.com/p/reflections-on-the-pathless-path Are we are jobs? Paul Millerd things not and I'm inclined to agree--but where does this leave us in how we define ourselves, successes, failures, worth, and all?
"A Requiem for Sean in D Minor" broke my heart in a good way. Highly recommend Charlie's writing! It takes me through all the emotional highs and lows, the main street and the offbeat.
Requiems and Dirges. Lots of music happening, @Charlie. I love your writing. It informs as well as entertains. My favourite was your reflection on becoming a parent.
Nov 23, 2022·edited Nov 23, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
I’d love to share stuff I’m working on — but first and second I want to thank Ted for so many things: sharing his curiosities, erudition, and humor with the world, being an attentive yet seemingly voracious listener, generously giving to others (such as in creating these open mics!).
I’m a jazz pianist and here are some recent fun creations:
Wow I love your arrangement of Soundgarden on piano. I agree with some of the comments on the video that say that it really adds texture to the original.
Hi Stephen! I would like to make a higher quality recording but haven’t scheduled that yet — great to know there is some demand for it so I very much appreciate you saying this :)
Ruby My Hero is terrific. I love the albums on the left. I suspect Chopin would have loved Monk. Chopin's father? Well, maybe not so much. Beautiful chromatics! Wonderful treatment.
Nov 23, 2022·edited Nov 23, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
I'm 50-years-old and recently released a debut album ("Timothy Bailey & the Humans") after decades of living under a rock because of serious mental illness. My work revolves around searching for hope amidst that darkness. The record was co-produced by Chad Clark of Beauty Pill, and was made with the generous help of my city's best jazz and rock musicians. Comparisons to Mark Eitzel, Scott Walker.
I'm currently on the lam—running from the Jazz Police!
I am not great at describing music (ironic for someone who likes Ted's newsletter I know). However, I like your stuff. Great Man Singing has a little Bruce Springsteen and a little LCD Soundsystem in it--and I mean that as a compliment because I love both.
"Weird Animal" - such nice guitar intro like you got Nene Tshakou to play for a few seconds. Unique instrumentation and arrangements - and a very nice tune. Congratulations on making such beautiful music.
Thank you, Tomas. It's incredibly meaningful to hear that kind of feedback from musicians as gifted as yourself. I am enjoying the beautiful work on your website.
Thank you! I subscribed to your newsletter, and I love the links you posted. I wish someone would tell me what the precise magic of those hooks in "Black Hole Sun" is made of.
Count me in with those who can sense some type of cosmic depth in that song … blessings to C. Cornell. Thank you for listening <3 I’m digging your song Perfect Letdown, and love the sun-breaking-through-clouds in the middle.
Hi Ted, thanks for this opportunity. I really enjoy your in-depth essays and analysis!
My Substack newsletter How About This is almost 7 months old.
The tagline is: notebook nerdery, creativity, reading, writing, and realizing, with a dash of current events and pop culture, cooked in a curious Atlantic Canadian sauce.
I publish Juke, an arts journal (poetry/music/essays/art) with dirt in the corners. We're at https://www.juke.press/.
I'm always looking for new contributors, and I love to help promote the work of other Substack writers. Anyone who's interested: check out the page first and then if you think you're a good fit, send me an email at tonyajuke@gmail.com.
Thanks, Ted, for the thread! And thanks for all the work you put into this page. I've only been reading for a couple months, but I look forward to receiving each of the emails.
I wish I were an artist, but my creative endeavor is a nonprofit devoted to helping highly and profoundly gifted kids and their families build community. We are www.BRIGHTLinks.us
I'm one of the co-founders, and we're based in the Triangle NC area. We don't charge more than a teeny yearly fee to cover liability insurance and for that, we host in person events, game days, field trips, clubs, and we teach homeschool classes that most kids could never otherwise get (soldering your own radio kit at 8? Sure! Learning computational linguistics at 11? Yes! Ready for algorithmic game theory at 13? Why not!) and provide support and advocacy for families whose kids are so bright yet struggling to find friends or get their needs met in school.
Considering homeschool but overwhelmed at the prospect? We will help! Want to find another family whose kid is 10 and builds his own drones but can't be bothered to learn to tie his shoes? Btdt! Need a place for your kid to learn special relativity even though she can't remember to stay seated in class and melts down when her pencil breaks? We get it, and we want these kids to succeed.
We do it all for free, and our goal is to help families feel less alone, and for their kids to have the social and emotional growth that comes from finding peers of whatever age. We welcome more families to join us--we don't look at test scores, we trust if your judgment on it have a need for your kids to find peers like us. and we are (sigh) yet again looking for a new location for spring classes--so if you have a lead on space, I'd be forever grateful.
Side note: music is one of the only places these kids are allowed to be challenged to their intellectual level regardless of age. It's so difficult to get most education environments out of the "we serve these ages/grades." But talent and interest in curiosity still matter in music, and it has been such a blessing to find music teachers and bands who support homeschoolers. If you're in the triangle NC area and homeschool, there are music people and orgs to help.
Has a record of amazing accomplishments in boosting public health access in rural places around the world. Publishes up-to-date medical information in dozens of languages. Specializing in training community health workers. All for free.
I've been enjoying reading your book as each new chapter appears in my inbox. Thanks for this opportunity to let people know what I've been doing. I've written about music (and other things) for 43 years now, and two or three months ago I got on the substack tip to create Steve Pick's Writing Place. There I post record and song reviews, TV reviews, and book reviews (many about music). The latest post is on RJ Smith's fantastic new Chuck Berry biography. https://stevepick.substack.com/p/i-read-a-book-chuck-berry-an-american
Nov 23, 2022·edited Nov 23, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
Hi Ted, thank you for all the work you do! I picked up your book Healing Songs several years ago and am happy to say it has played a major role in my life and career trajectory. I am a recovering ex-public school music teacher. I am currently in pursuit of my master's in Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in expressive arts therapies, particularly the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music. I am a level 1 Sound Healing practitioner and church choir director. I'm looking to meet and connect with people who value the transformational potential of Music as healing medicine, whether in a clinical, educational, or religious setting.
--and since I missed the last open mic, I have to encourage everyone to explore the music from the band Cloud Cult and also Nahko and Medicine for the People. Both bands affirm the transformative power of music through their lyrics and extra-musical works and mission.
Wow thank you for the suggestion of Nakho and Medicine for the People. I just listened to a couple of their songs on YouTube and it is really refreshing.
Nov 23, 2022·edited Nov 23, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
I have a music substack that's mostly just a collection of artists I like... old stuff, new stuff, stuff I'm currently listening to, stuff I used to listen to, etc. I don't do a lot of flowery descriptions or intellectualizing why you should listen to something. It's really just: I like this, maybe you will too.
I have lots of ideas for actual "articles" to write: about topics in certain songs, or surrounding the music industry in general, but I never get around to writing them and wind up posting listicles instead. I'm not really a writer, so the ideas are a lot easier for me to come up with than they are to explain in text.
Assuming I have Ted's attention: I have a post about Y-OTIS... as someone who's not really "into" jazz, I'm wondering what someone with more insight would have to say about it, because I love it: https://flume.substack.com/p/y-otis
Nov 23, 2022·edited Nov 23, 2022Liked by Ted Gioia
hi there, during the first lockdowns in 2020-1 I started an international arts project called (c)ovid’s metamorphoses, with more than 130 awesome participants, such as the late lee scratch perry, arcade fire’s richard reed parry, bill morrison, etc … see
… I’m still looking for funds, but we‘re probably releasing next year: large book with 7 cds and 2 dvds … yay!!! … and kudos to Ted for giving us this opportunity … you‘re incredibly inspiring, Ted!
I play jazz standards on piano with a vocalist and bassist in senior living facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area. These are very satisfying gigs, helping keep these great tunes alive while bringing cheer to folks who grew up with this music. Here’s a sampler from one of our performances: https://youtu.be/DoR4kYs1D88
Thanks, Ted! I appreciate all the work you put into The Honest Broker, and I'm glad to support your work here.
My passion project (as opposed to my day-job/career running a pharmaceutical industry trade association) is The Virtual Memories Show, a weekly podcast featuring my conversations with cultural figures: writers, artists, cartoonists, musicians, critics, publishers, translators, and lots of other fascinating folks. It's on all the standard podcast platforms (incl. an audio-only YouTube feed) and you can find a lot more about it at the main site: www.chimeraobscura.com/vm
I've been making the podcast since 2012 and passed 500 episodes this summer. I think you'd dig it, and I hope to record with you sometime, nudge nudge. Some of my past guests include Harold Bloom, Roz Chast, Jules Feiffer, Clive James, Thomas Dolby, Milton Glaser, Peter Schjeldahl, Lori Carson, Posy Simmonds, Drew Friedman, Celia Paul, Jerry Saltz, Rebecca Mead, Moby, David Thomson, Stoya, Jen Silverman, JD McClatchy, Barry Blitt, Wayne White, Michael Tisserand, and many more (incl. Greil Marcus, who I'm supposed to record with in a week or two). I hope you & your readers take a moment to check out The Virtual Memories Show, because I've managed to build a really great archive of conversations with cultural figures over the years, and I love sharing it.
(It's all free, no ads, etc. That's what I mean by passion project; the day job is what allows me to do this.)
Let me know what you think! (I've been doing a free weekly e-mail around the show via MailChimp and am planning to move it here, with a paid tier that includes episode transcripts & other bonus-y stuff)
My hobby for the last few years has been transcribing liner notes and reviews of jazz albums. Succinctly put, my goal is for digital listeners to have the same access to knowledge as analog listeners once did. I've found that the best place to publish these notes is at Rate Your Music, a popular music database that's been around for 20+ years. I've learned a lot from typing out the notes, and I've had several people reach out and thank me including someone who was able to use the liner notes in their doctoral dissertation on politics and jazz in the 1960s.
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/grogg/the-liner-notes-for-this-jazz-album/
Thanks for the opportunity, Ted.
As a second generation used bookseller, I love this kind of project to preserve ephemera. When we grew up in the 90s, we just assumed everything would one day be scanned, categorized, and searchable on the internet. That is becoming less and less the case. Projects like this are so important.
The liner notes for the same 100 or so jazz albums will live on, as long as it makes sense for labels to keep reissuing them. Beyond that, though? Things seem grim. There's no incentive for labels to keep obscure back catalogs available for streaming, let alone develop new technology that incorporates basics like credits, liner notes, and session photos into the music. There's only so much I can do in my spare time, but doing something is better than nothing at all.
My hats off to you, there's nothing better than spending a rainy afternoon exploring the nooks and crannies of a well-stocked used book store.
Thank you, and yes. This is something me and my Dad go back and forth on for hours and hours. We live in Houston, TX where it is very humid, but we have two garages full of boxes and filing cabinets with "ephemera" like what you're talking about: old maps, old cards, meetings from trade shows, price lists, all kinds of cool stuff.
We unfortunately don't have time to digitize it, we barely have time to catalog it for sale (which is a sort of digitization, I guess), but keeping everything organized and dry is a constant battle. I really admire what you're doing because keeping things preserved is really the end goal, and I wish I could do more of that. But in the end I realize that if I were to TRY to digitize and preserve everything in one of those file cabinets, it could be years of my life--and that's even if I knew the context for everything and where I would put it once digitized, and I don't.
So we do our small party by doing the 'minimum viable digitization' and making it searchable and available to people who can buy it and preserve it. Look the store up if you're ever in Houston: www.beckersbooks.com (website a work in progress, lol).
This is great! I’m going to take some time and read through this. Thanks for posting!
As a Jazz fan and stream programmer, I say a big Thank You!
Benson at THE JAZZ STATION - https://thejazzstation365.com
I am fortunate enough to have a local all day, all night Jazz station at 91.1 KCSM.org. A very small station housed at the College of San Mateo and previously known as KJAZ (I think). Exists mostly on donations. I volunteered there but the pandemic caused a change in their business model and tons of internal changes were made specifically to the DJ line up. Still, each DJ does all their own programming and there’s a diverse spectrum of Jazz to be heard. It was my intro to my, now, love of Jazz.
Sherry - very familiar with KCSM. a very good station. i hope they can survive the many obstacles that modern radio stations face in the coming days. i worked in Bay Area radio for nearly a decade at KFOG. my stream comes out of my little house in Sebastopol. cheers!
I love the idea of a diverse group of people programming the Jazz that's important to them. You'd get a much wider spectrum of interesting music that way. Bravo to you for volunteering, and I hope you get to again in the future!
wonderful project!!!
I'm a huge fan Ted! Yours was one of the first Substacks I paid for. I write a weekly newsletter called Thought Bananas: www.thoughtbananas.substack.com where I cover a lot of different stuff. This is my best stuff so far:
> A Requiem for Sean in D Minor https://thoughtbananas.substack.com/p/requiem-for-sean-in-f-minor This is an essay about friendship, shame, addiction, helping the ones we love, and living with complex regrets. (TW: addiction, suicide)
> A Dirge for Eastern Redwoods https://thoughtbananas.substack.com/p/a-dirge-for-eastern-redwoods A meditation on family and how who came before us shapes who we are, told through the lens of an homage to the extinct tree that built America.
> The Masculine Urge to Visit a Psychic Giraffe in Khartoum https://thoughtbananas.substack.com/p/the-masculine-urge-to-take-marzipan An original short story in the magical realism genre inspired by a Twitter bot.
> Making, Not Finding, Your Way: Review of The Pathless Path by Paul Millerd https://thoughtbananas.substack.com/p/reflections-on-the-pathless-path Are we are jobs? Paul Millerd things not and I'm inclined to agree--but where does this leave us in how we define ourselves, successes, failures, worth, and all?
> What Becoming a Father Taught Me About Self Care https://thoughtbananas.substack.com/p/what-becoming-a-father-taught-me A reflection on how learning to love a child made me re-cast my own role in my life as someone who needs to "take care of himself."
"A Requiem for Sean in D Minor" broke my heart in a good way. Highly recommend Charlie's writing! It takes me through all the emotional highs and lows, the main street and the offbeat.
Beautiful writing Charlie - I really enjoyed Sean in D minor and I look forward to reading the rest of them in a few days.
Requiems and Dirges. Lots of music happening, @Charlie. I love your writing. It informs as well as entertains. My favourite was your reflection on becoming a parent.
I’d love to share stuff I’m working on — but first and second I want to thank Ted for so many things: sharing his curiosities, erudition, and humor with the world, being an attentive yet seemingly voracious listener, generously giving to others (such as in creating these open mics!).
I’m a jazz pianist and here are some recent fun creations:
T.S. Monk + Chopin mashup — “Ruby, My Hero” — https://youtu.be/6LtTo01bqJc
Travel Poems . Chapter 2 . The night sea (piano solo/trio mixed with soundscapes) — LP at https://album.link/travel
Foot of the Carpathians (photo roman music video, especially for fans of Chris Marker’s La Jetée) — https://youtu.be/QIhPhxYTXUg
Lullabies of the Pleiades (solo piano a.k.a. transcribed exoplanetary musicological research :) — https://ericpan.bandcamp.com/album/lullabies-of-the-pleiades
Soundgarden’s Black Hole Sun reimagined for solo piano — https://youtu.be/_dSRPHYdogk
I’m launching a Substack next week, would love to see some of you there! Look forward to seeing everyone’s creations here 🍀☀️
This is such beautiful music.
my deep gratitude to you, Tim 🌌
Wow I love your arrangement of Soundgarden on piano. I agree with some of the comments on the video that say that it really adds texture to the original.
A second thumbs up for Black Hole Sun, one of my favorite songs!
Many thanks, Mark — that means a lot especially from someone who already knows the song well :)
Thank you so much Charlie! I just subscribed to your publication, I have a hunch that the psychic giraffe gets me...
Hi Eric
Is your version of Black Hole Sun on Spotify?
Would be cool to plug this into a playlist of non instrumentals (:
Hi Stephen! I would like to make a higher quality recording but haven’t scheduled that yet — great to know there is some demand for it so I very much appreciate you saying this :)
Hi Eric, did you ever get around to this?
I'm checking out "Lullabies of the Pleiades" now and it's absolutely entrancing. So pleased to have discovered your work.
Thank you Tonya, that is the best-ever thing to hear!! So grateful for your support <3
Ruby My Hero is terrific. I love the albums on the left. I suspect Chopin would have loved Monk. Chopin's father? Well, maybe not so much. Beautiful chromatics! Wonderful treatment.
Haha I suspect so too. It’s fun to imagine a “Crepuscule with Nicolas” ... Thank you Rick!
I'm 50-years-old and recently released a debut album ("Timothy Bailey & the Humans") after decades of living under a rock because of serious mental illness. My work revolves around searching for hope amidst that darkness. The record was co-produced by Chad Clark of Beauty Pill, and was made with the generous help of my city's best jazz and rock musicians. Comparisons to Mark Eitzel, Scott Walker.
I'm currently on the lam—running from the Jazz Police!
Album: https://timothybaileyandthehumans.bandcamp.com (You can find it on the streamers, too.)
Website: https://www.timothybaileyandthehumans.com/press
I am not great at describing music (ironic for someone who likes Ted's newsletter I know). However, I like your stuff. Great Man Singing has a little Bruce Springsteen and a little LCD Soundsystem in it--and I mean that as a compliment because I love both.
That is very kind of you. Thanks, Charlie!
Ah the healing power of music, Tim. May you continue on your path to peace. I’m rooting for you!
Very nice! It has a Pink Floyd sort of vibe to me. I enjoyed it!
Mark Eitzel is truly a genius! His work changed my life!'
"Weird Animal" - such nice guitar intro like you got Nene Tshakou to play for a few seconds. Unique instrumentation and arrangements - and a very nice tune. Congratulations on making such beautiful music.
Thank you, Tomas. It's incredibly meaningful to hear that kind of feedback from musicians as gifted as yourself. I am enjoying the beautiful work on your website.
Great work Tim, thank you for sharing !!
Thank you! I subscribed to your newsletter, and I love the links you posted. I wish someone would tell me what the precise magic of those hooks in "Black Hole Sun" is made of.
Count me in with those who can sense some type of cosmic depth in that song … blessings to C. Cornell. Thank you for listening <3 I’m digging your song Perfect Letdown, and love the sun-breaking-through-clouds in the middle.
Congrats! Looking forward to taking a listen.
Hi Ted, thanks for this opportunity. I really enjoy your in-depth essays and analysis!
My Substack newsletter How About This is almost 7 months old.
The tagline is: notebook nerdery, creativity, reading, writing, and realizing, with a dash of current events and pop culture, cooked in a curious Atlantic Canadian sauce.
I recently wrote about a notebook harvest (going through old notebooks and finding the best bits to reuse and expand upon in more detail), at this link: https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/creative-realizer-a-notebook-harvest
I also wrote about our Moon recently and how large it is compared to the size of the Earth, which is unusual in our solar system: https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/curious-realizer-origin-moon-creative-work
And finally, I also reminisced about black and white television and it's impact on me (Gen Xer) growing up: https://howaboutthis.substack.com/p/curious-realizer-monochrome-was-the
I publish Juke, an arts journal (poetry/music/essays/art) with dirt in the corners. We're at https://www.juke.press/.
I'm always looking for new contributors, and I love to help promote the work of other Substack writers. Anyone who's interested: check out the page first and then if you think you're a good fit, send me an email at tonyajuke@gmail.com.
Thanks, Ted, for the thread! And thanks for all the work you put into this page. I've only been reading for a couple months, but I look forward to receiving each of the emails.
Checking you out now! Cheers!
Michael Mohr
‘Sincere American Writing’
https://michaelmohr.substack.com/
Thanks, Michael!
Great work Tonya — I find the earthen nature of these collections quite evocative already upon first readings.
Thank you, Eric!
I wish I were an artist, but my creative endeavor is a nonprofit devoted to helping highly and profoundly gifted kids and their families build community. We are www.BRIGHTLinks.us
I'm one of the co-founders, and we're based in the Triangle NC area. We don't charge more than a teeny yearly fee to cover liability insurance and for that, we host in person events, game days, field trips, clubs, and we teach homeschool classes that most kids could never otherwise get (soldering your own radio kit at 8? Sure! Learning computational linguistics at 11? Yes! Ready for algorithmic game theory at 13? Why not!) and provide support and advocacy for families whose kids are so bright yet struggling to find friends or get their needs met in school.
Considering homeschool but overwhelmed at the prospect? We will help! Want to find another family whose kid is 10 and builds his own drones but can't be bothered to learn to tie his shoes? Btdt! Need a place for your kid to learn special relativity even though she can't remember to stay seated in class and melts down when her pencil breaks? We get it, and we want these kids to succeed.
We do it all for free, and our goal is to help families feel less alone, and for their kids to have the social and emotional growth that comes from finding peers of whatever age. We welcome more families to join us--we don't look at test scores, we trust if your judgment on it have a need for your kids to find peers like us. and we are (sigh) yet again looking for a new location for spring classes--so if you have a lead on space, I'd be forever grateful.
Side note: music is one of the only places these kids are allowed to be challenged to their intellectual level regardless of age. It's so difficult to get most education environments out of the "we serve these ages/grades." But talent and interest in curiosity still matter in music, and it has been such a blessing to find music teachers and bands who support homeschoolers. If you're in the triangle NC area and homeschool, there are music people and orgs to help.
You are definitely doing the Lord’s work Greifer. Thank you.
I'm the co-host of Rock Docs, a podcast about music documentaries. This week's episode is, appropriately, about The Last Waltz: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rock-docs/id1588316475?i=1000587104299
https://www.wiredinternational.org/
Started by a good friend.
Has a record of amazing accomplishments in boosting public health access in rural places around the world. Publishes up-to-date medical information in dozens of languages. Specializing in training community health workers. All for free.
Punches WAY above its funding rate.
I've been enjoying reading your book as each new chapter appears in my inbox. Thanks for this opportunity to let people know what I've been doing. I've written about music (and other things) for 43 years now, and two or three months ago I got on the substack tip to create Steve Pick's Writing Place. There I post record and song reviews, TV reviews, and book reviews (many about music). The latest post is on RJ Smith's fantastic new Chuck Berry biography. https://stevepick.substack.com/p/i-read-a-book-chuck-berry-an-american
The whole shebang can be accessed at https://stevepick.substack.com/
Former St. Louisan, discovered so much music based on your Post Dispatch columns late 80s. Belated thank you! just subscribed.
Thanks so much, Jennifer. Glad to have you aboard!
As a fellow STLer, I've been following your stuff for years. Glad to see you here continuing the work.
Thanks! I love writing about music!
I'm happy to show some of my music:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2qXVRAwRPbnPOTQv9ov0Zq?si=64dea084cdbb4693
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfFO9kWrD_g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inva4UhGulQ
Quite lovely, thank you!
Thank you for hearing my music!
This is wonderful!
Thanks for hearing my music!
Hi Ted, thank you for all the work you do! I picked up your book Healing Songs several years ago and am happy to say it has played a major role in my life and career trajectory. I am a recovering ex-public school music teacher. I am currently in pursuit of my master's in Mental Health Counseling with a concentration in expressive arts therapies, particularly the Bonny Method of Guided Imagery and Music. I am a level 1 Sound Healing practitioner and church choir director. I'm looking to meet and connect with people who value the transformational potential of Music as healing medicine, whether in a clinical, educational, or religious setting.
--and since I missed the last open mic, I have to encourage everyone to explore the music from the band Cloud Cult and also Nahko and Medicine for the People. Both bands affirm the transformative power of music through their lyrics and extra-musical works and mission.
Wow thank you for the suggestion of Nakho and Medicine for the People. I just listened to a couple of their songs on YouTube and it is really refreshing.
I have a music substack that's mostly just a collection of artists I like... old stuff, new stuff, stuff I'm currently listening to, stuff I used to listen to, etc. I don't do a lot of flowery descriptions or intellectualizing why you should listen to something. It's really just: I like this, maybe you will too.
https://flume.substack.com/
I have lots of ideas for actual "articles" to write: about topics in certain songs, or surrounding the music industry in general, but I never get around to writing them and wind up posting listicles instead. I'm not really a writer, so the ideas are a lot easier for me to come up with than they are to explain in text.
Assuming I have Ted's attention: I have a post about Y-OTIS... as someone who's not really "into" jazz, I'm wondering what someone with more insight would have to say about it, because I love it: https://flume.substack.com/p/y-otis
hi there, during the first lockdowns in 2020-1 I started an international arts project called (c)ovid’s metamorphoses, with more than 130 awesome participants, such as the late lee scratch perry, arcade fire’s richard reed parry, bill morrison, etc … see
https://covidsmetamorphoses.blogspot.com/2022/02/ovids-metamorphoses-broken-telephone.html?m=1
… I’m still looking for funds, but we‘re probably releasing next year: large book with 7 cds and 2 dvds … yay!!! … and kudos to Ted for giving us this opportunity … you‘re incredibly inspiring, Ted!
I play jazz standards on piano with a vocalist and bassist in senior living facilities in the San Francisco Bay Area. These are very satisfying gigs, helping keep these great tunes alive while bringing cheer to folks who grew up with this music. Here’s a sampler from one of our performances: https://youtu.be/DoR4kYs1D88
By the way, our vocalist uses the stories in Ted’s Jazz Standards book to introduce the songs.
Thanks, Ted! I appreciate all the work you put into The Honest Broker, and I'm glad to support your work here.
My passion project (as opposed to my day-job/career running a pharmaceutical industry trade association) is The Virtual Memories Show, a weekly podcast featuring my conversations with cultural figures: writers, artists, cartoonists, musicians, critics, publishers, translators, and lots of other fascinating folks. It's on all the standard podcast platforms (incl. an audio-only YouTube feed) and you can find a lot more about it at the main site: www.chimeraobscura.com/vm
I've been making the podcast since 2012 and passed 500 episodes this summer. I think you'd dig it, and I hope to record with you sometime, nudge nudge. Some of my past guests include Harold Bloom, Roz Chast, Jules Feiffer, Clive James, Thomas Dolby, Milton Glaser, Peter Schjeldahl, Lori Carson, Posy Simmonds, Drew Friedman, Celia Paul, Jerry Saltz, Rebecca Mead, Moby, David Thomson, Stoya, Jen Silverman, JD McClatchy, Barry Blitt, Wayne White, Michael Tisserand, and many more (incl. Greil Marcus, who I'm supposed to record with in a week or two). I hope you & your readers take a moment to check out The Virtual Memories Show, because I've managed to build a really great archive of conversations with cultural figures over the years, and I love sharing it.
(It's all free, no ads, etc. That's what I mean by passion project; the day job is what allows me to do this.)
This sounds really interesting—looking forward to listening.
Let me know what you think! (I've been doing a free weekly e-mail around the show via MailChimp and am planning to move it here, with a paid tier that includes episode transcripts & other bonus-y stuff)
Will do. Listening now to the Mark Wunderlich episode.