Led Zeppelin‘s Stairway To Heaven, sung by Nancy and Ann Wilson of Heart performed at the Kennedy Center Honors ceremony on Dec. 2, in front of the three remaining members of the legendary British rock band.
 

We're gonna go where we can shine... from his first album of 1993, 'A Century Ends' www.davidgray.com
 

Saltarello (s.XIV/14th century) performed by Artefactum. Images: Allegory of Good and Bad Government, Palazzo Pubblico, Siena.
 

Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa perform I'll Take Care of You at Beacon Theatre, NY.

I know you've been hurt
By someone else
I can tell by the way
You carry yourself

But if you'll let me
Here's what I'll do
I'll take care of you...
 

Mariachi Connecticut performing for a beluga whale at Mystic Aquarium, where they were performing during a wedding!

A medley of their favorite songs from the past 900 years. They definitely enjoy contempoary music over historical pieces, but nicely done.

11th century- Salve Regina 
1600s- Canon in D - Pachelbel
1800s- Symphony No. 5 - Beethoven
1910s- Danny Boy - Frederic Weatherly 
1920s- Old Man River - Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein II
1930s- Minnie The Moocher - Cab Calloway
1940s- Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy - The Andrew Sisters
1950s-
I Walk The Line - Johnny Cash
La Bamba - Ritchie Valens
1960s-
Stand By Me - Ben E King
Barbara Ann - Beach Boys 
I Want To Hold Your Hand - The Beatles
Respect - Aretha Franklin
1970s-
ABC - Jackson 5
Bohemian Rhapsody - Queen
1980s-
Celebration - Kool & The Gang
Don't Stop Believin' - Journey
Thriller - Michael Jackson
1990s-
Can't Touch This - MC Hammer
...Baby One More Time - Britney Spears
Say My Name - Destiny's Child
I Want It That Way - The Backstreet Boys 
2000s
Hey Ya! - Outkast 
Drop it Like Its Hot - Snoop Dogg
Crazy - Gnarls Barkley 
Hips Don't Lie - Shakira
Single Ladies - Beyoncé 
I Kissed A Girl - Katy Perry
Bad Romance - Lady Gaga
I Gotta Feelin - Black Eyed Peas
2010s-
Baby - Justin Bieber
We Found Love - Rihanna
Some Nights - Fun.
Somebody That I Used To Know - Gotye
Gangnam Style - Psy
Call Me Maybe - Carly Rae Jepsen

www.ptxofficial.com
www.twitter.com/ptxofficial @ptxofficial
www.facebook.com/Pentatonix

 

The 1965 classic "Rescue Me" is widely regarded as the greatest record Aretha Franklin never made. The song in question was instead cut by singer Fontella Bass, who like Franklin channeled the power and passion of her gospel roots to create some of the finest music of soul's golden age. Born in St. Louis on July 3, 1940, Bass was the daughter of gospel vocalist Martha Bass, a longtime member of the renowned Clara Ward Singers. Her grandmother Navada Carter was also a professional gospel performer, and it was inevitable that Fontella follow suit, making her church choir debut at age five. Nevertheless, during the mid-'50s she rebelled against tradition, sneaking out of the house to sing secular R&B at local fairs and nightclubs. By 16, Bass was the house pianist at the St. Louis nightspot the Showbar, and in 1961 she joined local blues great Little Milton Campbell, later marrying the band's trumpeter, fledgling jazz titan Lester Bowie. Bass first earned notice for her vocal on Little Milton's 1962 hit "So Mean to Me," soon followed by her Bobbin label solo debut, "I Don't Hurt Anymore." But when Campbell and his pianist Oliver Sain parted ways, Bass exited along with Sain, who named her lead vocalist of his Oliver Sain Soul Revue. Her second single, the Ike Turner-produced "I Love the Man," followed on Turner's Prann label in 1963. Bass then cut "Poor Little Fool," a duet with Tina Turner issued on the Vesuvius imprint. And when she wasn't performing with Sain and his group, she moonlighted as a solo act, playing gigs across East St. Louis under the alias "Sabrina."

After the 1964 release of the Oliver Sain Soul Revue's debut effort, "Heavy Sugar," the pianist escorted Bass and singer Bobby McClure to Chicago, where he produced their duet, "Don't Mess Up a Good Thing," for Chess Records' Checker imprint. The single proved a Top Ten hit, and even after Bass left the group to mount a solo career, Sain remained a close collaborator. She relocated to Chicago in 1965 and late that same year scored the biggest hit of her career with her solo debut, "Rescue Me." A buoyant dance classic made memorable by Bass' impassioned, gritty vocal as well as the percolating bass of Chess session mainstay Louis Satterfield and Gene Barge's dynamic horn arrangement, the single topped the R&B charts for a month and crossed over to the pop Top Five. One of the biggest-selling records in Chess' storied history, "Rescue Me" remains an unqualified classic of the era and is a staple of oldies radio to this day, although many listeners now mistake the record as the work of Aretha Franklin, who ironically enough did not even enter the popular consciousness until two years later. Worse, Bass never received proper credit or financial remuneration for co-writing the song, and her subsequent battles with Chess execs earned her a reputation as a malcontent. The "Rescue Me" soundalike "Recovery" followed in early 1966, reaching the R&B Top 20, but Bass' run as a hitmaker proved frustratingly short, and after scoring a minor hit late that same year with "Sweet Lovin' Daddy," she never returned to the U.S. charts again.

With her career mired in neutral, Bass exited Checker in 1969 and with husband Bowie -- now a renowned avant-garde player best known for his work with the Art Ensemble of Chicago -- relocated to Paris. There she collaborated with the group on an LP, the acclaimed The Art Ensemble of Chicago with Fontella Bass, but otherwise focused on raising a family until returning to St. Louis in 1971, renewing ties with Oliver Sain and signing to the Shreveport, LA-based Paula label. The superb single "Who You Gonna Blame" anticipated the 1972 release of the Sain-produced Free, a remarkably soulful set that is by far the most memorable LP of Bass' career. Attention from radio and retail was negligible, however, and after subsequent singles including "Now That I've Found a Good Thing" and "It's Hard to Get Back In" flopped, she exited Paula in 1974, not resurfacing until three years later with the Epic single "Soon as I Touched Him." Apart from occasional guest appearances with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, she spent the remainder of the 1970s and most of the 1980s as a homemaker, confining her musical pursuits to her Baptist church choir, but in 1990 she teamed with her mother and brother David Peaston for a gospel LP, Promises: A Family Portrait of Faith. Bass continued her return to spiritual music with the 1995 Nonesuch release No Ways Tired, touring Europe regularly in the years leading up to the 2001 appearance of her follow-up outing, Travellin', a collaboration with the Voices of St. Louis gospel choir issued on the Canadian indie Justin Time. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
 

All the rowboats
In the paintings
They keep trying to row away

But the most special
Are the most lonely
God I pity the violins
In glass coffins they keep coughing 
They've forgotten 
Forgotten how to sing
They will stay there 
In their gold frames
For forever, forever and a day
All the rowboats
In the oil paintings
They keep trying to
Row away, row away....

First there's lights out
Then there's lock up
Master pieces serving maximum sentences
It's their own fault
For being timeless
There's a price to pay
And a consequence
All the galleries
The museums
They will stay there
Forever and a day
All the rowboats
In the oil paintings
They keep trying to 
Row away, row away...

 

Wadada Leo Smith "Ten Freedom Summers," recording released May 22, 2012, an expansive jazz work that memorializes 10 key moments in the history of civil rights in America, fusing composed and improvised passages into powerful, eloquent music. Wadada Leo Smith: Composer/trumpet. (Cuneiform Records)

Above video: "Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott: 381 Days" is one of 19 instrumental tracks included in the landmark four-disc "Ten Freedom Summers" box set released by Wadada Leo Smith in 2012. The music thematically covers a decade (ten freedom summers) in the Civil Rights Movement. Highly recommended. Visit the artist's website at wadadaleosmith.com to learn more.

 

This is the final movement in Aaron Jay Kernis' Symphony in Waves. The work truly brings the ocean into one's ears.

Performed by New York Chamber Symphony, Gerard Schwarz conducting. Label: Phoenix USA.
 

Pulitzer Prize for music, announced April, 2013.

Awarded to Caroline Shaw for "Partita for 8 Voices," recording released on October 30, 2012, a highly polished and inventive a cappella work uniquely embracing speech, whispers, sighs, murmurs, wordless melodies and novel vocal effects. (New Amsterdam Records)

Above video: Caroline Shaw's "Passacaglia" (the fourth piece of Parita) performed by the singing ensemble 'Roomful of Teeth' at Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA). Brad Wells directs. June 2009. Video by Steve Spinelli and Augusta Caso.

A mosaic of old and new, chant, hymms and talk, cultures and tech....

See the music and words here: carolineshaw.com

Listen to the complete piece here: carolineshaw.com/o/hear/partita
Listen to the album @ newamsterdamrecords.com

There's a million mouths to feed
And I've got everything I need
I'm breathing
And there's a hurting thing inside
But I've got everything to hide
I'm grieving

Hey Hey I saved the world today
Everybody's happy now
The bad thing's gone away
And everybody's happy now
The good thing's here to stay
Please let it stay

grinding skeptics into the soil
 

Playing for Change - Live Outside series featuring Baby Ndombe, Mermans Mosengo and Jason Tamba live in Kinshasa, Congo singing Together Forever. We may not all speak the same language but with music we speak directly from our hearts!! www.playingforchange.com

The great American leggiero tenor, Lawrence Brownlee, sings Bellini's A Te, O Cara from the opera I Puritani. Moscow 21.12.2012.

Bon Iver - Holocene (Official Music Video)

Director: NABIL.com
Producer: Jill Hammer

boniver.org

They've been processing food, and now they're processing...you! The Process (R) is part of the Unjunk Yourself (R) music video library intended to enlighten and empower young people about their health, and how to take control of it through better use of their feet, and their forks. Not to mention spoons...

Produced & Sponsored by:
Dr. David Katz, Turn the Tide Foundation (www.turnthetidefoundation.org)

Created, Written & Directed by:
Kellee McQuinn, KidTribe (www.kidtribe.com)

A boy must escape a world where the processed food is killing his neighborhood -- literally. Food Fiight - featuring Stic.Man of Dead Prez. Intended to teach kids who is behind it, and how to escape. Visit SOSjuice.com/foodfight for School Curriculum + Song Download.

Alisa Sadikova - 9 year old harpist - performs A. Hasselmans - Fileuse.
May 2012, Düsseldorf, Germany

Hugh Laurie performs Unchain My Heart from Ocean Way Studios as part of ITV's 'From The Heart' campaign which took place during Valentine's Week to raise awareness of organ donation and the NHS Organ Donor Register.

A self-admitted, white, middle-class English actor, openly trespassing on the music and myth of the American south.

Follow Hugh Laurie on:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/hughlaurieblues
Website: hughlaurieblues.com