Every Friday night we smooth our way into the weekend with music, the universal language. These selections demonstrate that despite what is being passed off as art today, there is plenty of really good music available. Come along and enjoy!

It’s always a good time for music, but especially at the official start of summer.

Summerfest, the World’s Largest Music Festival, is now underway on Milwaukee’s fabulous lakefront.

And today is World Music Day, founded in France in 1982 by the then-French Minister of Culture, Jack Lang, composer Maurice Fleuret, and a radio producer. Musicians and singers come together in public spaces like parks or on streets to honor the power of music.

This week, music about music.

We open with the very gifted Edgar Winter.

“People have always stared at me,” said Winter in a 1974 interview. “They still do, but now they have a better reason.”

Winter is legally blind, more than 85% due to his albinism. As a youngster he couldn’t play sports or sight-read music.

“I didn’t have many friends. You know the way kids naturally are if you’re fat, crippled or in any way defective. They tend to leave you out. So music became my identity and replaced the normal activities that otherwise would have filled my life.”

Winter’s blindness allowed him to develop an ear where he could listen just one time to almost any tune and then play it. He’s a talented keyboardist, saxophone player, drummer, and singer.

“Being albino always gave me a very real sense of individuality” he said in 1974. “Today, in music, a lot of people will do anything to themselves just to set them apart. I guess I’ve had a natural edge on them.”

Winter’s older brother, the late guitarist Johnny Winter is referenced in this early 70’s song.

So I packed up and I made it up to New York
Where my brother was a great big star
Yeah he was doing funky music
Singing and playing guitar

Johnny was making the big time
Everything was going his way
But way back in my mind
You know I could hear the people say

Keep playing that rock and roll
Keep doing what you been told
Save your money up for when you get old
Got to keep playing that rock and roll

Edgar Winter and Rick Derringer…

How cool is slinging a synthesizer around your neck!

Edgar’s tribute album to his brother won the Grammy in 2023 for Best Blues album.

Winter is still touring with Ringo Starr’s All-Star Band.

“I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it.”
– Igor Stravinsky

Milwaukee’s Summerfest is a music lover’s paradise featuring variety galore.

Matt Wild, editor and co-creator of “Milwaukee Record” told WI Public Radio “It’s aiming for a very wide, very diverse audience, from metal bands to hip hop, to classic rock, to more modern stuff, to country. It’s all kind of in there, and that kind of makes it a glorious, really interesting mess to me.”

The O’Jays hit #5 in 1975 with their ode to “any kind of music.”

Singer-songwriter Daryl Hall performed with his band and various guest artists at his home in Millerton, New York in an online series called “Live From Daryl’s House.”

The O’Jays appeared as guests in May of 2016…

In 2005 the O’Jays were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

“Anyone who loves music can never be quite unhappy.”
– Franz Schubert

NEXT…a number that would have been perfect for last week and Father’s Day. Originally it was an untitled instrumental first recorded in 1939 that band members referred to by its place in their books of arrangements. Apparently no one could come up with a better title.

This baby really swings, and the 1961 album is from my father’s collection.

What’s the tune they like the best
When the jive becomes de-luxe
What’s the number one request
Seven-twenty in the books

When the band begins to play
You should see the dirty looks
If the leader doesn’t say
Seven-twenty in the books

Lots of big bands did this tune. The biggest name to vocalize “720” was Ella Fitzgerald.

“When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest of times, and to the latest.”
– Henry David Thoreau

Time to slow things down.

As an intro to our next very interesting selection, Georgian concert pianist Khatia Buniatishvili performing a Chopin prelude reportedly written between 1835 and 1839. This one was played at Chopin’s funeral at his request.

German composer Hans von Bülow called the dark prelude “suffocation” because of its tone of despair.

Remember our theme is music about music.

In the mid-1970’s Walter Murphy scored a huge hit single with his disco version of Beethoven’s 5th Symphony that was featured on an album with other contemporary takes on classical pieces.

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” –
Friedrich Nietzsche

That’s it for this week.

Goodnight.

Sleep well.

Have a great weekend.

We close with one of Mozart’s most famous compositions, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, or A Little Night Music from 1787 that’s been called a “supreme mastery in the smallest possible frame.”

This upbeat serenade is a testament to Mozart’s immense talent. Indeed, how could he compose such a jubilant piece? At the time Mozart was short on work, out of money, and had recently lost his father. The work was never performed while Mozart was alive. His wife sold the score to a publisher after his death.

Today the composition remains one of the most recognizable pieces ever written. 

Andre Rieu and his orchestra in Vienna…