This post constitutes an attempt to bribe myself into writing more about music by devising a concept which involves drinking. There are a number of studies that show that music affects our perception of wine (see this article in Decanter Magazine), and there's certainl...

Welcome to my new blog. I'm planning to write from time to time on a few topics:

-improvisation

-writing music

-production and recorded sound

-growing grapes and making wine

-cooking and eating

Most of you will come here from a musical perspective and may be wondering about...

What makes a great cyclic riff? You know the kind - you can't stop playing it, singing it, dancing to it...it's addictive.I've taken three great examples and had a look at what makes them tick.

1. Q-Tip 'Gettin' Up' (sample of Black IvoryYou and I)

This is an interesting...

"sounds good.....maybe too good....?"

Here are two statements that paraphrase views about jazz recordings I've heard quite a lot over the years;

1) I just listen a lot more to the older jazz records - I like the sound of them

2) ECM records have too much reverb

These opini...

Grape varieties are a lot like musicians (stay with me). They have distinct characters which people like or dislike. Sometimes they're good in a band, sometimes they're solo artists. They can change their character simply by being put in a new environment. There are te...