Music

Yehuda Hanani, cellist, educator and artistic director of Close Encounters With Music (CEWM), has returned countless times to the Bach Suites for Unaccompanied Cello — what he calls a musical “Mount Parnassus” (home of mythology’s Muses).

Sometimes it’s hard to find the “click” with a new singer, one whose work isn’t presented to you on a platter by the radio, or a streaming channel or your kids or a friend or… And without someone to help you make a link to a song or a performer, sometimes you never find your way in.

Steve Katz is probably most famous as a founding member of the 1960s/1970s mega group Blood Sweat & Tears. He’s not unwilling to share stories about those wild years as a rock and roll superstar — he does so ably in his autobiography, “Blood, Sweat and My Rock ’n’ Roll Years,” published in 2015.

One thing we know for sure is that a majority of us will spend this New Year’s Eve at home. 

But there’s no reason why that can’t be festive and fun. No doubt in the weeks to come there will be any number of “virtual” concerts announced for the night of Dec. 31.

I’ve already chosen my concert, though. 

As soon as the Thanksgiving table is cleared, I feel liberated to start singing along to Handel’s epic oratorio, “The Messiah,” and to practice for the annual sing-alongs in Great Barrington, Mass., and Kent, Conn.

On Nov. 4, the Hudson Jazz Festival decided to postpone its online concerts until the spring of 2021.

The harp isn’t an instrument you normally associate with improvisational jazz, free jazz, avant garde jazz, bebop or … well, you get the idea. 

Lucinda Williams kind of epitomizes what we think of as American country music: Sassy, twangy and a little weary. 

It’s the 50th anniversary of an iconic Grateful Dead album, and the Bardavon in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., is celebrating with a free online show on Sunday, Nov. 1, at 8 p.m. featuring covers of songs from the album and the general Dead song list.