La Befana Records

22/12/2023

Experience Sun Ra’s Space is the Place from 1974. Otherworldly, influential and ahead of the times, Sun Ra is an intergalactic artist who cannot be ignored! Sun Ra was a true inspiration when Skafish when he was growing up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgz-iQ5lSw4

you're music too.

21/12/2023

The 1960 album Giant Steps is one of John Coltrane’s enduring masterpieces. Its legacy has been monumental, eventually became one of fifty recordings chosen by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry catalogue in 2004.
http://amzn.to/2H5mgDh

Amazon.com: Giant Steps : John Coltrane: Digital Music

21/12/2023

You can really help me out! If you have enjoyed my holiday jazz album,
let your voice be heard by leaving a review online. This will get the
music heard by others who are looking for something musically unique for the holidays!!! Please do so on Apple Music! It is appreciated!

Album · 2006 · 13 Songs

20/12/2023

Recorded in 1 take, my arrangement of Away In A Manger is quite
different than what everyone is used to. Instead of the recording being
similar to a playful nursery rhyme, my version is dark, bluesy and
moody! I wanted to capture the pain of Mary, foreshadowing her loss to
come.

To buy, stream and download Tidings of Comfort and Joy - A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas:On Amazon: http://amzn.to/2gb3xw6On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/al...

20/12/2023

Kind Acts Matter! Discover the Retirement Home for Elderly Musicians Created by Giuseppe Verdi: Created in 1899, It Still Lives On Today!!!

http://www.openculture.com/2018/04/the-retirement-home-for-elderly-musicians-created-by-giuseppe-verdi.html

Among my works, the one I like best is the Home that I have had built in Milan for accommodating old singers not favored by fortune, or who, when they were young did not possess the virtue of saving.

19/12/2023

Watch the World’s Oldest Violin in Action: Marco Rizzi Performs Schumann’s Sonata No. 2 on a 1566 Amati Violin!
http://www.openculture.com/2017/07/watch-the-worlds-oldest-violin-in-action-marco-rizzi-performs-schumanns-sonata-no-2-on-a-1566-amati-violin.html

Most of us are acquainted with the sorrowful sound of the world’s smallest violin, but what of the world’s oldest? The instrument in the video above dates back to 1566.

19/12/2023

♪ Tidings of Comfort and Joy: A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas is streaming on Spotify:

Skafish · Album · 2006 · 13 songs.

19/12/2023

Get some Skafish holiday jazz under your tree! Find it at Bandcamp! https://skafish.bandcamp.com/album/tidings-of-comfort-and-joy-a-jazz-piano-trio-christmas

18/12/2023

17/12/2023

Here is one of the most unusual concerts ever! Listen to when Sun Ra and John Cage played together live! http://www.openculture.com/2016/08/when-sun-ra-john-cage-played-together-in-concert.html

It's hard to imagine two figures more representative of two disparate directions experimental music took in the 20th century than John Cage and Sun Ra. Cage's aleatory arrangements and instruments improvised from radios and TV sets left much to the discretion of the performer.

17/12/2023

If you connect with my holiday jazz album “Tidings,” please take a
moment to leave a written review online! It really helps to get this
music out there to everyone who can resonate with this wonderful record!
Here is a link to do so on Amazon!

Amazon.com: Tidings Of Comfort And Joy: A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas : Skafish: Digital Music

16/12/2023

La Befana Records has its own YouTube channel. Subscribe now. There is new material coming soon!

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

15/12/2023

David Bowie & Bing Crosby Sing “The Little Drummer Boy”: A Wonderful Christmas Chestnut from 1977!

We like to bring this chestnut back from time to time. Watch it, and you'll know why. In 1977, just a short month before Bing Crosby died of a heart attack, the 40s crooner hosted David Bowie, the glam rocker, on his Christmas show. The awkwardness of the meeting is palpable.

15/12/2023

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane! Check Out This Immaculately Restored Film Lets You Revisit Life in New York City in 1911!

http://www.openculture.com/2018/04/immaculately-restored-film-lets-you-revisit-life-in-new-york-city-in-1911.html

Other than one or two of the world's supercentenarians, nobody remembers New York in 1911. Plenty of living historians and enthusiasts of the city have paid intensive attention to that booming time period when the city's population fast approached five million, but none experienced it first-hand.

14/12/2023

The International Music Score Library Project is a crowdsourced website that indexes hundreds of thousands of public domain classical musical scores. This is a free library for all!
http://www.openculture.com/2011/02/classicalscores.html

Worth a quick mention:

14/12/2023

My holiday album is 68 minutes of pure piano trio jazz! Listen on Spotify! https://open.spotify.com/album/5qzLL2o4x0nlP3js1vOXu1

13/12/2023

12/12/2023

Like the music? Follow Skafish on Spotify! https://play.spotify.com/artist/0yoFH9DRw0Z0SetrmP8T9F

11/12/2023

I Always Loved Blues. I Used to Ditch High School and Drive All Over Chicago and Gary, Indiana by Myself to Search for Blues 78's and 45's to Buy!!!! Check Out The Women of the Blues: Hear a Playlist of Great Blues Singers, from Bessie Smith & Etta James, to Billie Holiday and More!!!!

http://www.openculture.com/2017/10/the-women-of-the-blues.html

Everybody gets the blues but not everybody gets the blues the same. Women get some serious blues. Black women get some very serious blues.

10/12/2023

Got holiday stress? This one is reflective and relaxing. IT CAME UPON A MIDNIGHT CLEAR, cut in two takes!

To buy, stream and download Tidings of Comfort and Joy - A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas:On Amazon: http://amzn.to/2gb3xw6On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/al...

10/12/2023

Master Violinist Itzhak Perlman gives us his five ultimate pro-tips for practicing:
http://www.classicfm.com/artists/itzhak-perlman/practice-tips/

Itzhak Perlman is one of today’s greatest violinists – so who better to ask for advice on how to get the most out of your practice and tackling nerves? We spoke to the brilliant musician in London’s Savoy Hotel, ahead of the UK leg of his European tour.

09/12/2023

It's real holiday jazz with real musicians, all cut in 1-4 takes! http://amzn.to/1QqFTqz

08/12/2023

Skafish had never met the bass player and drummer. Twenty minutes later on take 2, they cut JOY TO THE WORLD.

To buy, stream and download Tidings of Comfort and Joy - A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas:On Amazon: http://amzn.to/2gb3xw6On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/al...

08/12/2023

It is so rare that a bona fide jazz piece becomes a crossover pop hit, but that’s what happened with Dave Brubeck’s Take Five, originally released in 1959. It also became the biggest selling jazz single ever. We salute the Dave Brubeck Quartet for capturing such a timeless and universal spirit! https://youtu.be/PHdU5sHigYQ

Dave Brubeck - Take Five ( Original Video)

07/12/2023

Incredible!!! Download 10,000 of the First Recordings of Music Ever Made, Thanks to the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive!

http://www.openculture.com/2018/03/download-10000-of-the-first-recordings-of-music-ever-made-thanks-to-the-ucsb-cylinder-audio-archive.html

Long before vinyl records, cassette tapes, CDs and MP3s came along, people first experienced audio recordings through another medium: through cylinders made of tin foil, wax and plastic.

06/12/2023

NASA Creates a Visualization That Sets Breathtaking Footage of the Moon to Claude Debussy’s “Clair de Lune!”

http://www.openculture.com/2018/08/nasa-creates-visualization-sets-breathtaking-footage-moon-claude-debussys-clair-de-lune-moonlight.html

From NASA's Ernie Wright comes 'Moonlight (Clair de Lune),' a visualization that takes beautiful images of the lunar terrain and sets them to Claude Debussy's 1905 composition, Clair de Lune (1905). Here's how Wright describes the project:

05/12/2023

How did music notation actually begin?

http://www.classicfm.com/discover-music/how-music-notation-began/

Crotchets, quavers and staves are the product of centuries of evolution and refinement. But who started it all - and how different did music look a couple of thousand years ago?

05/12/2023

Follow us on our Skafish Holiday page! https://www.facebook.com/skafishholiday/ Give us a like!

Official page for Skafish Holiday album releases, performance/appearance dates, videos, and

05/12/2023

Look at those magic hands! See the promo video for Tidings of Comfort and Joy: A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas

This promo clip for "Tidings Of Comfort and Joy -- A Jazz Piano Trio Christmas," was filmed on December 3, 2005 at Chicago Recording Company in Chicago, Illi...

04/12/2023

So Many Have Been Inspired by John Coltrane! Check out John’s Handwritten Outline for His Masterpiece A Love Supreme!
http://www.openculture.com/2013/09/john-coltranes-handwritten-outline-for-his-masterpiece-a-love-supreme.html

The great jazz saxophone player John Coltrane was born 87 years ago today. To mark the occasion we present this rare document from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History: Coltrane's handwritten outline of his groundbreaking jazz composition A Love Supreme.

03/12/2023

What a jazz treat! Watch Thelonious Monk playing his classic ‘Round Midnight in this incredible solo piano performance from December 15, 1969!
https://youtu.be/xC68NtEmAcc

Monk performing his tune "'Round Midnight". Recorded December 15th 1969

03/12/2023

♪ Holiday Jazz time! You can buy autographed Skafish holiday music & merchandise on Bandcamp! skafish.bandcamp.com ♪

03/12/2023

Fascinating! Learn the science and history why violins have F holes! http://www.openculture.com/2016/01/why-violins-have-f-holes-the-science-history-of-a-remarkable-renaissance-design.html

Before electronic amplification, instrument makers and musicians had to find newer and better ways to make themselves heard among ensembles and orchestras and above the din of crowds.