January 12, 2024: Revamps rethought

Even though it’s a new year, it’s still cool to revisit older things.

Singer-songwriter Peter Mulvey is living this example this evening with a celebration of an album for which he’s just started a kickstarter. In addition to hearing his fantastic songs and getting a little advice, we get to hear his take on some of the nuances of recording, and why it’s still important to do to connect with audiences.

Since we love music and absolutely want more of it, we head down the street to hang out at Symphony Hall. The Springfield Symphony Orchestra is hosting the program “Classics & Jazz” this weekend, an event put together in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The event features all Black composers, two renowned and rising Black soloists, and an equally remarkable Black conductor/composer who designed the program and will have one of his own works featured. We join SSO president Paul Lambert, Conductor Damien Sneed, pianist Jason Flowers II, multi woodwinds and brass player Mebrakh Haughton-Johnson, and second violin Beth Welty just before their first rehearsal to talk about widening the perceived scope of Black music and how music is ever the bridge connecting communities and worlds together.

It’s in our glasses also. We head to Franklin county to pop open a bottle of very, very old Rioja with Sommalier Ken Washburn. But it wouldn’t be a thunderdome without a second wine to compare it to, so we pit the 1947 Rioja against a similar one from 2017, and taste how the years have been to the vintage.