Musical Instruments
Lester Young Turns 100
Billie Holiday’s favorite musician, jazz great Lester “Prez” Young brought a hip, freewheeling sensibility to his saxophone playing
August 25, 2009 |
By Jamie Katz
Benny Goodman's Clarinet
Late in his career, jazz musician Benny Goodman favored a Parisian “licorice stick” as his instrument of choice
April 2009 |
By Owen Edwards
Colombia Dispatch 6: Accordion Rock Stars in Valledupar
Andres 'Turco' Gil's accordion academy trains young children in the music of vallenato, the folk music popular across Latin America
October 29, 2008 |
By Kenneth Fletcher
Colombia Dispatch 7: Turning Guns into Guitars
Musician Cesar Lopez invented a new type of guitar, made from the shell of an automatic weapon
October 29, 2008 |
By Kenneth Fletcher
Squeeze Play
A new Smithsonian Networks Film brings alive the upbeat music of Colombia's cowboy country
June 2008 |
By Kenneth R. Fletcher
Ivory Merchant
Composer Irving Berlin wrote scores of hits on his custom-built instrument
May 2008 |
By Owen Edwards
Paderewski's Piano
When Polish pianist Ignace Paderewski toured America, he became a celebrity—and boosted Steinway
March 1999 |
By David Taylor
Sharing the Gift of Music
An endowment accompanying rare instruments lets them be heard in performances and on recordings
August 1998 |
By Michael Kernan
Sure the piano-violin can do two things at once but can it do them well?
November 1995 | By Katharine Whittemore
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