Here is a video of Jalikebba Kuyateh (who is a griot from The Gambia) playing an instrument called a Kora.
Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Jalikebba Kuyateh plays the Kora
Monday, July 27th, 2009Octopus New Media
Friday, June 26th, 2009My friends in Octopus New Media just launched a new website. It’s all shiny and nice.
They do all types of design including print, web, animation and video.
I Met the Walrus
Monday, May 25th, 2009In 1969, a 14-year-old Beatle fanatic named Jerry Levitan snuck into John Lennon’s hotel room in Toronto and convinced him to do an interview.
38 years later, Levitan, director Josh Raskin and illustrator James Braithwaite have collaborated to create an animated short film using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. I Met the Walrus was nominated for the 2008 Academy Award for Animated Short.
Jamie Lidell Saves Funk Music
Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009Jamie Lidell is a funk/soul singer from the UK. His songs are so funky they wouldn’t sound out of place on a Sly Stone of Stevie Wonder album.
A lot of people try to play funk but never quite get the dirty sound and rhythm that is essential. Jamie Lidell not only has a great voice but he obviously knows how to make a band sound great. Reports from his live gigs say that he’s even better on stage than recorded. Which is quite a feet.
Here’s Jamie performing at the Royal Festival Hall. I think this is what Sly Stone would be doing today if he hadn’t snorted his brains out.
John Martyn Dies Aged 60
Friday, January 30th, 2009John Martyn died yesterday aged 60.
I first heard him when I bought the album ‘London Conversation’
Here’s a video of John playing the song “May You Never” on the The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973.
Acoustic Guitarist Blog
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009I just stumbled across this blog dedicated to acoustic guitar. Written by Tony Hogan, it features video clips and free guitar lessons. Well worth a look if you play acoustic guitar.
Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is made up of all ukulele players (and an acoustic bass guitar). The ukulele playing is impressive, but the vocal arrangements are also a highlight. Their show also includes comedy, which is very dry, English, “Dad” humour. In fact, if you’re reading this Dad, check them out, you’d love them.
This is a video of them playing an arrangement of the theme from”The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” by Ennio Morricone.
Glen Campbell - “Galveston” live
Sunday, January 25th, 2009This is impressive because of the guitar solo Glen plays. Also nice hearing a full live orchestra behind him.
Switching to Linux
Friday, September 12th, 2008I started using the Ubuntu operating system about a month back. I wanted to try and get away from using Windows.
Ubuntu is part of the Linux family of operating systems. It’s completely free to download and install and is built by a team of volunteer programmers working worldwide. This system of many people building non-copyright softare is called open source.
I had heard a lot of bad things about using Linux, such as it’s only suitable for techies and is not very user friendly. Having now used it myself, I’ve found this to be completely untrue. In fact, Ubuntu seems a lot simpler to use than Windows.
Disadvantages
The only disadvantage I can find with using a Linux operating system, is that some pieces of professional software won’t run on it. I use Sibelius to edit music scores. No other software comes close to Sibelius in terms of speed. Most people who use their computer for high-end professional work such as graphic designers, architects, sound engineers need specialised software that currently only runs on a Mac or Windows. There are some very good free alternatives to a lot of commercial software but if you’re using it day in day out, then you will still depend on the commercial software and operating system.
Luckily you can install both Windows and Ubuntu on the same machine. This means I can switch back to Windows when I need to use Sibelius. Everything else, I can now do with Ubuntu.