Revision of Good Listening July 2026
Preface to revised edition of www.goodlistening.com.br
In July 2026 I decided to update the articles I wrote from 2004 to 2017 under the heading “Good Listening”. These were originally written for the publication of the British Community in Rio de Janeiro called The Umbrella, and they dealt with various themes in the world of music – great recordings, profiles of famous artists or composers, details about instruments – as well as comments about the musical offerings in Rio de Janeiro. At the start, I referenced CDs, but then it became easier to put audio excerpts in the writings, and then eventually to include links to sites where the music could be found. So the updating has changed the original texts very little, but has refreshed the references and links, which hopefully will work for a time.
To find an index to the titles, the number of the article and the month of publication, “Categories”is always present top right of the page, and you can click on “Index”, which takes you to a list of the 85 articles. Then identify the month, and click on that month on the right hand side.
These are my favourites:
GL47 Poetry and Jazz: Red Bird dancing on Ivory – September 2008 has poems by Christopher Logue read with a jazz backing by the Tony Kinsey Quintet. Evocative imagery (inspired by Pablo Neruda’s 20 Poemas de Amor), with the emotion captured perfectly in the music. This is a rare recording, made from the radio broadcast in the 50s, and more complete than an EP that was issued at the time. A treasure from my teenage years!
From GL30 the articles are punctuated with excerpts and links, and some works are dissected – GL34 Beethoven’s 9th, GL44 Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue, GL50 Bach’s St. John Passion, GL 56 Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony…
Some articles focus on extraordinary women: GL 29/30 Maria Callas; GL38 Galina Vishnevskaya; GL 60/61/62 Clara Schumann.
There are articles on pianos, piano music, jazz, the Beatles, and two fascinating pieces about music and the brain: GL42 and 49, from Oliver Sacks.
So I trust you can find something of interest – and wish you good reading and Good Listening!