October 22, 2021 - Issue #18 - Past Issues

Welcome to the Uncaged Bird newsletter. This issue comes after one week off for a family vacation. It’s a roundup of some of my favorite recent recordings and some music-related news I found interesting. Uncaged Bird also offers in-depth articles on singing, which you can find here.

Latin heat

I recently had the pleasure to hear Venezuelan singer Maria Alejandra Rodriguez perform live. She plays the quatro and sings with an impossibly well-balanced mix between head and chest registers.

In the moment

Gelsey Bell is a multi-faceted singer and composer who lives in New York City. Earlier this evening, she performed at Trefoil Arch in New York’s Central Park. If you are planning a visit to NYC, I highly recommend her soundwalk of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery.

My favorite, again!

I promised myself I wouldn’t write about Sting two newsletters in a row, but this was just too interesting: Questlove cites the Police as a formative influence.

British perennials

Duran Duran’s Notorious was the soundtrack for the fifth grade crush I had on my next door neighbor. It’s hard to believe that, 35 year later, they’re still going. Their newest album, released today, is Future Past, and lead singer Simon Le Bon sounds fresh as a daisy.

A human god

A recent episode of Song Exploder bucks their usual focus on living song writers and instead uses archival recordings of John Lennon to tell the story of his song “God.” It’s almost eerie to hear him improvising in the middle of a session, forgetting lyrics.

Have a lovely weekend!

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