Cyndi Lauper: Memphis Blues

When I thought of Cyndi Lauper, songs like 'Time After Time' and 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun' came to my mind immediately. She sang some of the most memorable pop songs ever. I had no idea she did a blues album, actually quite recently (2010. What have I been listening to!?), until I searched for the great blues harmonica player Charlie Musselwhite on Rhapsody (who has a new album with Ben Harper on Concord, from which I received newsletter) Cyndi Lauper's song that featured Musselwhite came up as the 'Top Matching Track' there. I probably won't listen to the album if it didn't have Cyndi Lauper's name on it, which was not to say that her voice did not match the genre. After all, it's the blues. Everybody has the blues sometime, right? I especially enjoy the track "Down Don't Bother Me." The strange thing is that listening to her, even though by accident, was the continuation of the theme from last week: 80's star revisited. Similar to those bands, I didn't pay attention to any of her music after the 80's even though she kept releasing new albums (3 in the 90s, 4 in the 00s) Her 2008 album actually featured decent dance pop.

星期日音樂檔案

今晚在家吃印度菜，播了些Norah Jones的名曲，實在「應景」。Jones是印度音樂大師Ravi Shankar的女兒；之後又播了Shankar另一個女兒Anoushka的作品，一首Solea揉合Flamenco及印度風情，十分夠味道。

下午去了SF Civic Symphony這個西岸最老牌的社區樂團，在SF Union Square古色古香的Sir Francis Drake Hotel內，舉行的免費音樂會，第一首是小史特勞斯這個我不甚欣賞的作曲家的作品，玩得熱熱鬧鬧，氣氛甚佳；第二首則是學小提琴的朋友不會感到陌生的巴哈Double Concerto。壓軸作品是Cesar Franck的唯一一首交響曲，指揮很用心講解曲中幾個多次出現的主題，我們一家都覺得最後一個movement比頭二個出色。

今早要做柴可夫，週日九時甚少聽古典台KDFC，原來在該時段有Baroque by the Bay專播（理所當然的）Baroque，其實我雖然甚為喜歡該時期風格的音樂，但除了巴哈及韋瓦弟之外卻聽得不多；打頭陣的是Alessandro Marcello的雙簧管協奏曲，現在重温一下。