RIP João Gilberto.
‘Saudade’ is more than just a word; it’s a mindset.
Here’s the song that started it all.

‘Surfer Girl’ is a schlocky, heartfelt ballad of unrequited teenage love, Brian Wilson clawing his way out of the gooey larva of his California pubescence. Paul Simon works his magic on it, tapping the genius that is Brian, elevating it to a work of great beauty.

This week we talk about the United States’ bar mitzvah, how we discovered Bach, the history of The Swingle Singers, the marvels of Scandinavian a cappella festivals, and older people falling in love.

Joni Mitchell’s songs can be deceptive, because they’re so darn attractive. But she is also a mistressful artisan who happens to possess a magnanimous soul. Her works aren’t merely moving – they’re also marvels of craft.

Four Boys and a Guitar. The Mills Brothers sounded so much like a jazz band back in the early 1930s that the company wrote on their record labels “No musical instruments or mechanical devices used on this recording other than one guitar.” And they sang great scat, and great tight harmonies. And they had class, In abundance.

I’ve just returned from the Aarhus Vocal Festival, the most moving musical gathering I’ve been at since Woodstock.

Ten albums that have shaped my life.

So much of The Band’s essence can be found in the instrumental introduction to ‘Tears of Rage’—the lead voice of the guitar so integral to the whole; the floating sustained organ; the interplay of the bass and the drum and the rhythm piano providing an implicit rhythm created as much by the gaps as by the beats, as intimate as lovers, as self-effacing as monks, as synchronized as guys who have been on the road together for six years.