Music - interesting facts

For almost 20 years I ran a pub quiz and for our American friends a "pub quiz" is a popular form of entertainment whereby regulars in the local pub (bar) answer trivia questions, usualy for a prize.

The idea for this topic came about after reading about Winifred Atwell, a popular pianist from the 1950s, she was technicly the very first British person to have a number 1 hit at Christmas in the UK, Winifred was born in Trinidad and was extremely popular in the UK, Europe and Australia.

Her Christmas number 1 in the UK was "Let s Have Another Party" which topped the charts in December 1954, as a matter of interest her 1954 success meant she also became the first black person to reach number 1 in the UK.

After appearing at a Royal Command performace, Winifred was invited by Queen Elizabeth to perform at a private party where the monarch herself asked for an encore and requested "roll out the barrel".

Wasn't Winnie a tinkler of the ivories, rather than a singer?

If you're in Show Biz, the standard response is, "Don't knock it - she's working!"

Winnie had her own radio prog for years in Britain.
Her main music was ragtime.
Her catch phrase was I will now go to my other piano.

Music is an appropriate accompaniment to many human activities.

Even casting your vote in the General Election on June 8th. 2017 may have its theme.

If you customarily have the iPhone buds in your ears most of the time, this may be the appropriate background to that occasion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imamcajBEJs

What do you reckon?

Good choice

It was either that or The Dead March from "Saul"!

How reliable is auditory memory? The BBC Proms is today broadcasting American Jazz Music from (roughly) the 1940s. It's a very good simulation, the excellent musicians are playing from written music which they have rehearsed.

But having heard the original, (from the American Forces Network broadcasts), the 2017 version from the Royal Albert Hall is not quite how I remember it. Am I simply confused, or is it really impossible to re-create accurately today, with digital audio, the original sound from 72 years ago?

Continuing that theme, Cutting Edge readers may be amused to learn that I have unwittingly become trendy.  In a recent visit from family the third-generation were deeply impressed by our enduring possession of a collection of music on 12-inch vinyl (and the appropriate turntable upon which to play them).

Respect!

Hold on to your 78s / cassette recordings / video disks / VHS tapes and 8-tracks folks, if you want to go with the flow.  Analogue isn't quite dead, apparently.