music

New Resource: The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music Online

NU Libraries is proud to announce our subscription to Alexander Street Press’s The Garland Encyclopedia of Music Online which is now available to the NU Community on or off campus. This comprehensive resource on the study of world music provides access to scholarly content, includes images, and a nine-volume CD collection. Search and browse through a range of genres and indexes, utilize playlists, and create your own playlists. Go to this link to learn more http://0-glnd.alexanderstreet.com.ilsprod.lib.neu.edu/. For best performance Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.0 or Firefox 3.5 or higher are recommended. Snell Library has also retained the print version of the Encyclopedia, which is housed in the Reference collection on the second floor of the library. For questions or for more information, please contact Debra Mandel at d.mandel@neu.edu or 617-373-4902.

Listen to Grammy Award Winners

There were some surprises last night at the Grammy Awards, and you’ll be surprised that some of the award-winners and their recordings can be found at the Snell Library, too! The best new artist of the year, Esperanza Spalding, is featured on a 4-DVD set available at the Snell Library called “Icons Among us: Jazz in the Present Tense.” For pop and r&b artists, we may not have the winning recordings but we do have some CDs and DVDs featuring Jeff Beck, Eminem, John Legend, and Neil Young. Intriguingly, we happen to have a recording by the Nor’easters, Northeastern’s a cappella group, of a Lady Gaga medley. In the classical category, you can find the multi-award winning Metropolis Symphony and Deus Ex Machina by Michael Daugherty (Best Engineered Classical, Best Orchestral Performance, Best Classical Contemporary) streaming online from Naxos. I admit I have my issues with contemporary classical but I really liked Metropolis (which is based on the Superman Comics) a lot; it has great energy and is modern in the best sense, with echoes of Gershwin. Naxos also streams the Parker Quartet’s Ligeti’s String Quartets Nos. 1 and 2 (Best Chamber Music Performance) and P. Jacobs’ organ recording of Messiaen’s Livre du Saint Sacrement (Best Instrumental Soloist). We’ve also got recordings by these award-winners: If watching the Grammy Awards made you want to expand your horizons, scratch that itch at the Snell Library!

Wed. Dec. 8: Fixation Collaboration at the DMDS

A week from today, on December 8th, the Digital Media Design Studio will celebrate the opening of a new student photo exhibit. The photography collection, Adverse Collaboration, will be unveiled and on display through February 2011 and will feature the work of Joyce Lin and Misha Thomas, two student photographers with very different styles.  Their pictures will display contrasting world views and lifestyles through images of New England and Ghana. Accompanying the unveiling will be a performance by the Nor’easters who are releasing their new CD, “Aural Fixation.”  The Nor’easters are the premier co-ed a capella group at Northeastern University, and also the oldest student group on campus.  “Aural Fixation” is 100% Northeastern-made, recorded in Northeastern University studios with the help of other NU students.  All of the photography and promotion for the CD has also been made through the efforts of the Nor’easters, their fans, and fellow students. Be sure to attend this special event, Fixation Collaboration, and support the work of your peers! It’s all happening on Wednesday, December 8 from 11:45am to 1:30pm in the DMDS, located at 200 Snell.  Refreshments will be served.

Musical Talents of Snell’s Own David Jachimiak

David Jachimiak, a staff member of Snell Library, is also an extremely talented and experienced musician. Jachimiak studied music education and received his bachelor’s degree from SUNY Fredonia in 2006, and later went on to receive his master’s degree in jazz performance from the University of Miami in 2009. Additionally, he is an alumnus of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts’ jazz residency program, Betty Carter’s Jazz Ahead. He specializes in saxophone, and has played with a plethora of musical acts over the years, including The Drifters, Steve and Lindley Band, Michael Thomas, Troy Roberts, Michael Feinberg, Gary Keller and Adonis Rose. He also volunteered a jazz performance with his group, the Dave Jachimiak Quartet, at afterHOURS for Northeastern’s Music & Entertainment Industry Student Association’s (MEISA) Jazz Night.  Most recently, Jachimiak has spent his time writing songs and playing bass with Opal Puckett, a new upstart rock band.  Visit YouTube to watch some of Jachimiak’s performances.

RIP Joan Sutherland

We were saddened to hear about the death of the famous Australian soprano Joan Sutherland last week, at the age of 83. She was known for her big voice and mastery of bel canto repertoire. I first heard her by accident, on a recording of the works of Elgar, which I loved for Jacqueline Du Pre’s playing of the Cello Concerto. Anyway, on that same disc, you can hear Sutherland singing Elgar’s “Sea Pictures,” a lovely introspective and quite modern-sounding suite of songs. A biography of Sutherland is available in Grove Music Online, and you can stream recordings of Sutherland singing with Luciano Pavarotti, with Sutherland’s husband Richard Bonynge conducting, in Naxos Music Library online.