The Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association shares a wide array of free, on-demand concerts with terrific players on their Facebook page. .
The Arts Coast Journal’s classical music correspondent Kurt Loft shares his thoughts on the bold new paths The Florida Orchestra explored during a year of pandemic restrictions – creating beautiful and precious live performances. You can read his story here, with vivid details of the concerts – and enjoy the orchestra’s digital performances here. Free, donations welcome.
June-August – The Metropolitan Museum of Art hosts a monthly series of site-specific electronic music performances recorded in the unique spaces of The Met Cloisters. Created for digital platforms, Sonic Cloisters emphasizes the look, feel and sound of the peaceful and medieval Cloisters setting as the inspiration for new electronic music. Freed from the confines of the dance floor, these artists interact with the Cloisters’ collection, architecture and environment to explore new creative territory and compositional approaches. Free, available on-demand after the livestream performance. More here.
NEA Jazz Master and three-time Grammy award-winning drummer, composer, producer and educator Terri Lyne Carrington is the 2021 Library of Congress Jazz Scholar. Accompanied by pianist Kris Davis, bassist Linda May Han Oh, saxophonist Tia Fuller and guest artist Devon Gates, Carrington’s all-women-composer program, “The New Standards,” features songs written by stellar musicians including Esperanza Spalding, Maria Schneider and Geri Allen. More here.
. . .
Kandace Springs Trio give a vivid and spinetingling demonstration of Vocal Improvisation in jazz, gospel, rhythm & blues and pop. . . an inspiring exploration of Jazz Swing for Beginners. . . and explain Storytelling and Emotion in songs, all thanks to the Library of Congress..
The Metropolitan Museum of Art shares a wide range of free filmed performances by virtuoso musicians, from jazz and classical to Senegal’s acclaimed Baaba Maal, Argentina’s JP Jofre on bandoneon, and an opera with libretto by Gertrude Stein. Find videos here.
WUSF Jazz 89.7 offers on-demand video performances by Whitney James, James Suggs, Jeremy Carter and Ona Kirei recorded live at The Palladium Theater. More here.
Lincoln Center shares films of full-length concerts for free – from boogaloo to chamber music, the Harlem Renaissance Orchestra, Emmylou Harris and Amanda Palmer. Find shows here.
BlackCulturalEvents.com shares sources for livestream performances of jazz, R&B, Motown, rock and more. Find the schedule here. You can explore talks, performances and workshops in a range of arts here.
The Library of Congress hosts free online concerts ranging from a mini-fest of Latinx composers, the world premieres of three new Library of Congress commissions and a 250th birthday celebration for Beethoven. More here.
The St Pete Opera shares on-demand livestream performances of Rigoletto, La Boheme and more, including Gianni Schicchi, Puccini’s only comedy and one of the greatest in the opera repertoire. Tickets here.
Explore the glorious music of the Isango Ensemble – South Africa’s powerhouse vocal group, performing large-scale work ranging from Grand Opera to Shakespeare. More here.
Find a range of filmed music and dance performed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, from classical to the Black Rock Coalition here.
Embrace the breathtaking, riveting passion of jazz singer Cécile McLorin Salvant and pianist Sullivan Fortner, featured on NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts and all over YouTube, filmed at jazz clubs and festivals and even at an airport (which is why Paris put a piano in theirs)..
The Suncoast Jazz Festival offers free performances from artists including Nate Najar, La Lucha, James Suggs and Professor Cunningham. More here.
St Petersburg Opera Online
on the St. Pete Opera’s
A Divergent War
Songs for the Pandemic
NYC’s Ma-Yi Theatre shares performances of Filipino songs of Resistance, Yearning, Tomorrow, Cleansing & Distancing, and Poverty. With English text translations.
Listen here
New Hip Hop Scholarship
. . .
A.D. Carson’s “i used to love to dream” represents a new medium for hip hop scholarship — the music itself.
Professor of Hip-Hop at the University of Virginia, Carson discusses his “mixtap/e/ssay,” recently released in a free open access format on Fulcrum, with Critical Excess author J. Griffith Rollefson.
“i used to love to dream” is a mixtap/e/ssay that performs hip-hop scholarship using sampled and live instrumentation; repurposed music, film and news clips; and original rap lyrics.
As a genre, the mixtap/e/ssay brings together the mixtape — a self-produced or independently released album issued free of charge to gain publicity — and the personal and scholarly essays. “i used to love to dream” names Decatur, Illinois—the author’s hometown—as a reference point for place- and time-specific rapped ruminations about the ideas of growing up, moving away, and pondering one’s life choices. At the same time, the tracks attempt to account for moral, philosophical and ethical dimensions undergirding unease about authenticity, or staying true to oneself and to one’s city or neighborhood, as well as the external factors that contribute to such feelings.
Using the local to ask questions about the global, “i used to love to dream” highlights outlooks on Black life generally, and Black manhood in particular, in the United States.
The tracks are presented along with liner notes and a short documentary about the making of the mixtap/e/ssay, and accompanying articles to provide context for the tracks for listeners both in classrooms and outside of them.
The text and music are available for download here,
thanks to the University of Michigan press.
In Tune with Art
The Florida Orchestra and the Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg team up for a new video series, In Tune with Art.
This free series pairs inspiring works of visual art with music. Here Principal Bassoon Josh Baker takes you to the San Francisco coast with La Mer by Claude Debussy and Untitled (1964) by James Weeks.
Subscribe to the series on YouTube
Conversations with
NEA Jazz Masters and More
The National Endowment for the Arts’ Art Works podcast series offers in-depth conversations with a range of musicians including NEA Jazz Master and famed radio host Dorthaan Kirk and National Heritage Fellow William Bell, the first male solo artist signed by Stax Records.
Find these episodes and many more at
arts.gov/podcasts
Palladium Livestream Performances
Enjoy your favorite Palladium performers and shows without a visit to the theater. Palladium Live! brings home audiences a high-quality, intimate concert experience, shot with four cameras and mixed with world-class audio.
Find Livestream Tickets at
mypalladium.org
Side Door at the Palladium on WUSF
First Friday of the Month at 10 pm
Side Door at the Palladium is a monthly concert series featuring jazz recorded in the Palladium’s intimate Side Door Cabaret, broadcast the first Friday of the month at 10 pm on WUSF 89.7 FM’s All Night Jazz.
The show is also available on wusfjazz.org‘s live stream and as a podcast.
The program includes interviews with the artists, hosted by Executive Director Paul Wilborn.
Master Chorale of Tampa Bay
The acclaimed Master Chorale of Tampa Bay is creating special monthly performances to share with online audiences, since we all need music more than ever.
Measure By Measure is an interactive live-streaming concert experience that’s free and family-friendly. Each episode is about an hour long.
. . .
Find the schedule and videos at
masterchorale.com/measure-by-measure
Concerts at the Louvre
. . .
The Louvre in Paris is sharing live and recorded classical performances at the museum.
Find the videos here
Live Every Day
from The Kennedy Center
In collaboration with arts organizations from coast to coast, The Kennedy Center’s #ArtsAcrossAmerica series presents free, online programming available on Facebook Live, YouTube and right here on our website, five days a week at 4 p.m.
Enjoy live jazz, flamenco, hip hop, rock – and a wide range of and traditional and cutting-edge music from performers around the globe. Recordings are available anytime for on-demand viewing.
kennedy-center.org/digitalstage/arts-across-america
Kennedy Center Honors Online
Find videos on YouTube
Floridian Social Club Concerts
. . .
The State Theatre, now known as the Floridian Social Club, is bringing local music straight to your home, working with local artists to stream concerts on Facebook.
Find the schedule here.
Online Music and Composition
Classes for All Ages
The Florida Alliance for Arts Education is partnering with The Interactive Academy to offer online arts classes for school-aged students and adults.
The Interactive Academy is a safe digital format for students wanting to study dance, music, theatre, visual arts, even Capoeira or Yoga. Current sessions include a live pirate-themed musical theatre workshop for kids and a Composer’s Lab for all ages.
Classes can be scheduled for anytime, from any device, and participants can invite up to 3 other friends to take the class with them interactively for as little as $5 per session.
Here is a sampler of some of the classes.
Details and registration can be found here.
Suggestions for Classic Listening
Music in an Age of Anxiety
Explore Kurt Loft’s thoughtful gathering of classical works that area performers, conductors, radio hosts and fans turn to for solace and inspiration.
creativepinellas.org/magazine-items/music-in-an-age-of-anxiety
What The World Needs Now
NPR produced a spine-tingling feature on quarantined students and a senior composition major at the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and Berklee College of Music, who collaborated on a passionate online performance of Burt Bacharach’s classic, “What The World Needs Now is Love.”
A beautiful creation, from gifted young artists connecting as they perform alone in their homes. Stay tuned through the credits, to see all the dancers.
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates
Recommended by Nan Colton
A Gift from the Montreux Jazz Festival
“Montreux Jazz Festival would like to bring a little magic into your home! We have made over 50 Festival concerts available to stream for free, including performances by Ray Charles, Wu-Tang Clan, Johnny Cash, Nina Simone, Marvin Gaye, Deep Purple, Carlos Santana and more. We hope that a little music and soul will brighten up your day!”
montreuxjazzfestival.com/en/50-concerts-to-stream/
The Missing Sounds of New York
MOMA recommends the New York Public Library’s “understandably popular” Missing Sounds of New York: An Auditory Love Letter to New Yorkers.
The New York we know and love is one click away: cabs honking, pigeons cooing, bike messengers whizzing by, strangers gossiping, the hum of a local library. Anywhere you are can now become the city—all you need is Missing Sounds of New York, The New York Public Library’s new album.
A new immersive experience, the album is a collection of audio landscapes that evoke some of the sounds of New York City. Missing Sounds of New York, a partnership with creative agency Mother New York, is a love letter to NYC, connecting New Yorkers around the familiar sounds of urban life that they love and miss during this unprecedented time of social separation.
Each track uses a combination of sounds to create familiar, ambient canvases on which mini stories are placed: a glass breaking in a bar, a dance performance on the subway, an overly enthusiastic baseball fan. Missing Sounds of New York reminds us of what makes New York so special for so many people.
nypl.org/blog/2020/05/01/missing-sounds-of-new-york
Saved By Streaming
Tampa Bay musician Noel Rochford shared this chance to listen to live music online — and help musicians who are cut off from their audiences.
He writes eloquently about the challenges that performing artists are facing.
“Recent events have taken their toll on the entertainment industry, and many performers (myself included) find themselves without spaces to perform. My friend Katie Talbert has started a new online concert series to keep live music going strong — DTSP: Saved By Streaming, hosting two artists nightly in her home studio to share their songs and stories.
“. . . I’d love it if you could tune in, request a song, or even leave a tip if you can spare it. Many performers have been left without any income, so anything you can do to help is appreciated — even sharing the stream when it goes live.
“This is about more than paying bills and putting food on the table. None of us pursued music for the money; we followed our deep-rooted desire to create and share something special with whoever will listen. This is about preserving our city’s identity through difficult times and offering an artistic outlet for people who may need one more than ever right now.”
Ornette Coleman
Ornette Coleman & Prime Time feat Jamaaladeen Tacuma – Cologne 1987
Recommended by Matt Cowley
Joe’s Pub
Joe’s Pub, a program of NY’s Public Theater, is an independent, nonprofit music venue, dedicated to supporting performing artists and an active member of New York City’s creative community.
They’re sharing videos of live Joe’s Pub performances from an array of performers – a new show every night at 8 pm.
publictheater.org/programs/joes-pub
Young Musicians Take the Lead
As part of the global #KeepMakingArt movement, South Sudanese young people have initiated creative projects aimed at creating awareness of preventive and life-saving measures against the virus.
Most of these projects are meant to sensitize the local population through creative content in a range of local languages spoken in South Sudan, presented through both audio and video.
So far over ten songs have been recorded, produced and disseminated in South Sudan to create awareness about the virus.
Find out more and take a listen at creative-generation.org.
Arts Coast Journal writer Margo Hammond shared this life-affirming performance from a high school a cappella group whose concert was cancelled. Cheers to these wonderful singers and a hip rendition of “Over The Rainbow.”
Read more at
Ruthless school choir stages direct assault on human heart, performs canceled concert remotely
Streaming Tips and Techniques for Musicians
I Care If You Listen offers a guide for musicians new to streaming, with concrete tips on how to stream and techniques for getting good audio and video.
Online Concerts
Check out NPR Music’s constantly-updated list of online concerts. . . jazz, rock, Americana, classical, experimental, reggaeton, electronic and more.
Opera and Classical
Culture Vulture’s thoughtful feature on streaming opera and classical concerts,
with links to many options, is available at
vulture.com/2020/03/best-metropolitan-operas-to-stream-free
NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert series
is amazing and wide-ranging proof that all you need to make wonderful music is wonderful musicians and skilled broadcast engineers.
Cuba’s Cimafunk live
npr.org/series/cimafunk-tiny-desk-concert/
Smooth Iranian-Swedish singer Snoh Aalegra
npr.org/2020/02/18/805478361/snoh-aalegra-tiny-desk-concert
Nairobi soul singer J.S. Ondara
npr.org/2020/01/24/798749979/j-s-ondara-tiny-desk-concert
UK R&B singer Yola
npr.org/2020/01/17/796067790/yola-tiny-desk-concert
Grammy-nominated DC rapper Wale
npr.org/2020/01/21/797320923/wale-tiny-desk-concert
Opera singer Joyce DiDonato sings Italian love songs with a jazz band
npr.org/2020/01/15/795977663/joyce-didonato-tiny-desk-concert
Elvis Costello
Live at Woodstock 1999
Lou Reed
Live at the Capitol Theatre
Passaic NJ 1984
Los Lobos live at
the Ritz in NYC 1987
A Flash Mob orchestra in Spain, performing Ode to Joy
In a 2005 BBC survey of musicians, Queen’s set at Live Aid in 1985 was voted the Best Concert of All Time. Enjoy.
Aretha Franklin
Live at Montreaux 1971
Stevie Wonder
Live in London 1989
