Latest Release: "Pale Afternoon"

 The latest release  from Jim  Duffy is "Pale Afternoon," a  collection of 11  moody and bouncy  instrumental pop tunes. Buy CDs here.

Music Available

You can find Jim Duffy's music on CD Baby.

And on iTunes.

And on SoundCloud.

And on Spotify.

And on Amazon.

Some music tracks are now available on YouTube, both here and on the 3dotsmusic channel.

And on the music page of this blog. 

For music licensing inquiries - usage for videos, webcasts, podcasts, corporate uses, films and commercials - please go here or here.

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3 New Records From 3 Friends 

OK, I'm biased, and I am also privileged to be friends with some people who are making fabulous music. Here are three new releases from friends - let me pull your coat in their direction.

Mary Brett Lorson, Themes From Whatever 

Mary Brett Lorson lives in the Ithaca, N.Y., area and has been a prolific and multi-talented artist for many years. She came to prominence in the 1990s as the singer and co-songwriter for the band Madder Rose, which made waves in both the U.S. and U.K. Since then, she has…

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Byrd Lives! or Harpsichord Fever! 

Since I last wrote, I have been hanging out in the late 16th and early 17th century. I have been finding my way back to the earliest roots of keyboard music, and I don't mean Jerry Lee Lewis.

Lately I've been playing pieces by the Renaissance-to-Baroque composer William Byrd (1540-1623), who may have been the first full-on keyboard virtuoso. In Byrd's day, the keyboard was a relatively new instrument, dating back only to the 1400s. Think about it - people had been playing lutes and harps for centuries…

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Accordion Story 

Let me tell you about my brief career as an accordion player.

In 1995, I was in the band Martin's Folly, and we were making our first album with producer Eric "Roscoe" Ambel. Singer Chris Gray and I had written some tunes that were "rootsy" or that harkened back to old-time styles. In fact, one or two tunes sounded like sea chanties. "Accordion!" That's what I yelped. "We need an accordion!"

So I went in search of an accordion. At that time, hard to believe, there were two full-time accordion shops in…

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Seen and Heard: Karl Berger, Terry Riley 

Last Saturday night, Karl Berger - pianist, vibraphonist, teacher and leader of the Creative Music Studio - presented a night of new piano music with strings at the Greenwich House Music School on Barrow Street in Greenwich Village. He sounded great and gentle on that Steinway in that old, musty auditorium - great touch, great feeling.

On bass was Ken Filiano, bowing a lot and creating a real acoustic buzz on the instrument. On violin was Sana Nagano, who participated in the spring CMS workshop. At the…

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Day One 

Happening today are the women's marches in Washington, D.C., and around the United States and around the world. I send my best wishes to everyone who is participating in these events.

Yes, march against the president. And let's not lose sight of the likelihood that the most direct threat to us comes not necessarily from the president but from the Republicans in Congress. They have cleared the way to repeal the Affordable Health Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, and while our eyes are on our unstable, erratic…

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Notes From a Recent Workshop With Pauline Oliveros 

(photo: Columbia University School of the Arts)

Composer / accordionist / pioneer of electronic music / teacher / music visionary Pauline Oliveros passed away the Friday after Thanksgiving, at the age of 84. In September 2016 - just a few months ago - Pauline Oliveros conducted a workshop at the Karl Berger Creative Music Studio in Big Indian, N.Y., and I was one of the 20 or 25 participants. She was sharp and funny, and she had a fully booked schedule of teaching and performances.

We participants had…

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Jimmy Guterman, RIP 

 

(Since I don't have a photo of Jimmy, I'll use this stock photo of a Boston landmark.)

In a strange way, Jimmy Guterman and I went back a long way. Back in the 1980s, I was the office manager for the Boston Phoenix weekly newspaper, and Jimmy wrote record reviews. Back then, for reasons I no longer remember, I decided I didn't like the guy! Maybe I didn't like his musical opinions, or maybe I was sore that he wouldn't review my band, since I was not yet familiar with the concept of "conflict of…

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Ragas Live in Red Hook 

Yesterday, Saturday, July 23, we went to the Ragas Live festival at Pioneer Works in Red Hook. It's a 24-hour presentation of Indian classical music, starting at noon on Saturday and running until today at noon. As you may know, different hours of the day call for particular ragas. For the Ragas Live fest, different groups would perform the ragas that are particular to that raga, 24 performances in 24 hours. The event was produced by WKCR-FM, which also broadcast it.

As we were getting ready to leave her…

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Go to Blazes, "Out on the Side" 

Back in 1995, I had only recently switched from bass guitar to keyboard. The band Martin's Folly was just getting off the ground, and we were looking for a keyboard player and couldn't find one, so I switched to keys, temporarily. (That temporary period has lasted for 22 years and counting.)

So in '95 I had been concentrating on the keys for only a year or so. I knew all the major and minor chords and most of the scales, and that was about it.

Eric "Roscoe" Ambel was producing the first Martin's Folly…

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Not-So-Recent Concert Events 

If it's not too late, here are some remarkable concert events I saw during the past calendar year.

John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Cyro Baptista and Ches Smith at the Anothology Film Archives. Maybe the thrill was to be sitting so closely to so many master musicians. They were playing a live soundtrack to the Harry Smith films that were being projected on the screen. We were in the second row, getting to see how the magic happens. Laswell was a center of gravity, making his electric bass guitar sound like a…

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