Interlude - August 11
August 11, 2020
Talent show compilation, revamped Songbook website, Tiny Desk talents and more
Welcome back to Interlude, your twice-weekly portal to all sorts of fun, enriching and educational material, available free online from local, national and global artists and presenters.
At Home Talent Show brought out the best
We hope you’ve been enjoying the submissions to the Center’s At Home Talent Show, which drew a remarkable range of talents from folks of all ages around Central Indiana and – to our pleasant surprise – across the country. We’ve seen moonwalking, beatboxing, guitar-wailing, ivory-tickling and song-singing of every sort.
If you haven’t seen them, we have conveniently compiled excerpts of each entry all in one place, the long-awaited At Home Talent Show Compilation, which you can watch right now and right here. And then you’ll probably want to see the original performances, all available on the Center’s YouTube channel.
This is entertainment, and he should know
Michael Feinstein – the five-time Grammy-nominated, three-time Emmy-nominated “Ambassador of the Great American Songbook,” founder of the Songbook Foundation and artistic director for the Center -- has another musical interlude for us today, the classic “That’s Entertainment.” Written by Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietz for the 1953 MGM musical The Band Wagon, the song became an anthem for MGM and the entire entertainment industry, especially after Judy Garland included it on her blockbuster 1961 live album Judy at Carnegie Hall.
The Notes from Michael Feinstein video series is sponsored by the Payne & Mencias Group.
Dive into #SongbookAtHome
Our friends at the Great American Songbook Foundation have made some exciting changes to their website to make that much-needed musical content available all day every day! Bookmark TheSongbook.org if you’re interested in:
- Watching virtual masterclasses for young singers and young singers at heart
- Exploring new digital exhibits from Ella Fitzgerald to The Andrews Sisters
- Staying up to date on the Songbook Foundation’s “Album of the Week”
- Uncovering the latest hidden gems from the Songbook Archives
- Accessing The Songbook Blog and educational music resources
Most importantly, the Foundation wants YOU to get involved by Sharing Your Songbook Story. Music has a lasting power because of the memories and feelings people experience when listening to it. Fill out this form to share your music and your story.
Music is good; desk size may vary
NPR just wrapped up another round of its Tiny Desk Contest, which invites unsigned musicians around the world to vie for public media fame by submitting homemade videos performing original songs, much like NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts with famous people. (We can neither confirm nor deny that this idea was borrowed from the Center’s At Home Talent Show, but you can draw your own conclusions.)
Chosen from more than 6,000 entries, this year’s winner is a young NYC singer-songwriter, Linda Diaz, with an uplifting groove called “Green Tea Ice Cream.” You can browse here to see all the entries, or check out the Top 40 entries on the NPR YouTube channel.
If you’d rather watch people who are already famous, folks like John Legend, Lucinda Williams, Lenny Kravitz and many more have been recording Tiny Desk Concerts from home this summer. Watch them here.
