Day of the Turkey

Contemporary Instrumentals

Regular visitors to this blog are most likely aware of my preference for instrumental music.  It’s true that I listen to a lot of “classic” instrumentals from the ‘50s, ‘60s, and beyond.  But I also listen to quite a bit of contemporary music…and I’m happy to report that the instrumental is very much alive and well in the present day.  Instrumental music may not be all that readily visible (or, more appropriately, audible) in our current vocalist-obsessed culture (how many instrumental musicians have you seen on American Idol lately?), but I’m aware of a considerable number of artists who are recording entirely (or primarily) instrumental music of late.  What the hell, I keep thinking, why not share some of my favorite discoveries here?

I hesitate to share the work of contemporary artists via download for various reasons, but partly out of fairness to (mostly independent) musicians who, like a lot of us, are scrambling to make a living.  YouTube is an excellent source for sampling all kinds of music, so posting links to YouTube vids seems like a reasonable way to go here.  Trouble is, many of the artists I like aren’t rich or popular enough to finance the creation of snazzy music videos to accompany their recording releases.  So, although I hope the links I’m sharing below will be of some interest musically-speaking, I won’t guarantee that the visuals will be all that compelling.  Just “stare with your ears,” as Ken Nordine has frequently advised…   

More next time...