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Articles by Michael Stuart

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About Michael Stuart

After university, Michael spent twelve years working for MELODY MAKER before going freelance. He claims to keep doing it because it is all he knows. More Posts

A moment in time

Like I suspect many Rusters I have spent of the period since the 2020 coronavirus era hit the UK continuing to do that which I did before, viz. tootling around on the internet in search of entertainment and/or enlightenment. This is the first of an occasional series on music-related items that [...]

July 15, 2020 // 0 Comments

And another thing …

I got up this morning to greet a sunny day, so here’s another offering from Tuba Skinny to get everyone in the mood. As usual, they’re playing at their usual pitch on Royal Street, New Orleans in February of last year (hence the wintry clothes), and in typical style – note the [...]

May 27, 2020 // 0 Comments

A hard choice to make

Spotted today, a choice by Clemencé Michallon of essential Bob Dylan’s songs that everyone needs in their lives, selected upon the occasion of his 79th birthday – see here – THE INDEPENDENT Whenever making a musical list, it’s sometimes a tough and subjective task to choose [...]

May 25, 2020 // 0 Comments

A pleasing find

It’s a fact of life that when you have some time on your hands and access to the internet you can come across some interesting or fun stuff. Shaye Cohn Today – as the first in an occasional series – I’m going to feature Tuba Skinny a busking jazz band previously unknown to [...]

May 23, 2020 // 0 Comments

Creative paradoxes

Donald Macleod on BBC Radio 3 has been presenting an excellent programme on the life and music of Ludwig van Beethoven. Perhaps the most significant aspect of a composer widely acclaimed as the greatest of all was that from 1814 he was totally deaf. Not only could he not hear his music but it’s [...]

May 22, 2020 // 0 Comments

If Elvis was The King, he was The Emperor …

Little Richard was a force of nature and an all-time popular musical great who influenced teenagers the world over and set thousands of pop and rock musicians/singers on the paths that led them ultimately to either lasting glory or oblivion. Whatever was bugging you in life, nobody could Rip It Up [...]

May 10, 2020 // 0 Comments

Private Passions/Radio 3: Hannah Rankin

As previously noted here, if you seek the formula of interview coupled with musical choice Private Passions, not Desert Island Discs is for you. Yesterday the subject was Hannah Rankin who combines two unusual accomplishments: she is the IBF Super Welterweight  boxing champion and a concert [...]

May 4, 2020 // 0 Comments

Something for the weekend?

The American pianist and entertainer Liberace (1919-1987) was famous for … well … er … apart from being Liberace, making a spectacle of himself and being a showy but – many highbrow critics alleged – pretty average to useless piano player and an increasing butt of [...]

April 24, 2020 // 0 Comments

Cosi Fan Tutte/streamed from Royal Opera House

As part of the collective arts effort to continue to operate in the face of social distancing and then the lockdown, the Royal Opera House are streaming opera on Friday night. Last night was Cosi Fan Tutte, the last co-operation of Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Ponte. Opera goers and lovers [...]

April 11, 2020 // 0 Comments

Back in the day …

In the past I have joked that I have listened to – or should that be “noticed in any real sense”(?) – very little new music since about 1984 so today Rusters should perhaps prepare themselves to be taken back to the halcyon days of the 1960s and maybe just a little beyond. [...]

April 10, 2020 // 0 Comments

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