Those of us of Scandinavian extraction refer to Dec. 23rd as “Lille Yule Aften” or “Little Christmas Eve.” It’s the day for putting up your Christmas tree, decorating, and getting ready for the festivities to come.
(Traditionally, the tree was cut and put up today, then lit with candles on Christmas Eve. I know that sounds ridiculously dangerous, and it probably is. But it is a very different thing when your tree is is being lit up one day after being cut. The year my family lived in Denmark when I was first grade, we spent Christmas with our extended Danish family and celebrated with a candle-lit tree. That said, both of the trees in my house are artificial and lit with LEDs.)
In observation of this wonderful day, I’m giving you all a Little Christmas Eve present – a collection of some of my favorite NPR Tiny Desk concerts.
Nothing can get me more distracted online than getting going watching NPR’s Tiny Desk Concerts. These little shows are generally acoustic sets with just a very few musicians who range from the late great Americana legend John Prine to current superstar Taylor Swift.
Tiny Desk concerts have been around for about 15 years now. They are all recorded behind the desk of a music host from NPR and then posted to YouTube and NPR’s music website.
I got thinking about these little concerts last week when I was finishing up a blog post about Swift and wanted to close it out with some kind of video from her. My searching quickly reminded me of her wonderful solo Tiny Desk set.
Once I finished the post, I spent way too much time running through some of my favorites of these concerts from over the years. And that made me want to share some of my favorites of these treasures with all of you as a holiday Christmas present.
Take your time and enjoy each of these beautiful music breaks.
Regina Spektor – Spektor is a Russian immigrant who does provocative and interesting songs from her perch at the piano. I discovered her when she did a cover of While My Guitar Gently Weeps for the closing credits of the stop-action animated movie Kubo and the Two Strings. One of the great joys of this little show is when she opens by improvising a new song about being on Tiny Desk!
Wicked — This is a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Wizard of Oz musical Wicked featuring composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz at the piano and current Broadway leads Alyssa Fox (Elphaba) and McKenzie Kurtz (Glinda) performing four songs from the show.
Chick Corea and Gary Burton – Jazz pianist Corea and vibraphone maestro Burton present 20 minutes of absolute enchantment. I was fortunate enough to see Gary Burton in concert more than 45 years ago, and I confess that it is strange to see this old man with the mallets rather than young man I heard in concert. Of course, I was a high school student then, and now I’m nearing retirement.
Taylor Swift – A solo set from the current Queen of all Media recorded in 2019.
Adele – One of those stars who only needs one name. What a voice! And I so love Someone Like You that Adele co-wrote with Dan Wilson.
John Prine – Oh, John, we miss your voice so… I was fortunate enough to see John Prine with Steve Goodman back when I was in college and we were all young. John stayed active until the end, producing his final album in 2018 featuring the heartbreaking Summer’s End. After you are finished here, follow the link to find the gorgeous video that goes with the song.
Yo-Yo Ma – Ma plays excerpts from the Bach cello suites. When I’ve looked at my year in review on Apple Music for the last two years, by far the most played music has been Ma playing the Bach cello suites. Listen to this short Tiny Desk concert and then go discover the magic that comes from any of his three recordings of the complete suites.
I wrote most of this post a week ago or so, but when Tiny Desk featured the cast of the Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim’s darkly brilliant musical Sweeny Todd in a concert that dropped yesterday, I had to add it to my list. (If you aren’t familiar with Sweeny, the basic plot is about wronged barber Sweeny Todd who takes revenge on those who hurt him by killing them and chopping them up to be sold as meat pies made by Mrs. Lovett in her bake shop. And if that isn’t twisted enough for you, when the play was first staged, beloved actress Angela Lansbury played the Mrs. Lovett!) In this version we see Josh Groban as Sweeney and Annaleigh Ashford a “Mrs. Lovett.” The conductor is Alex Lacamoire of Hamilton and In The Heights fame.
Want to be non-productive for the next few hours? Just go Google Tiny Desk and you will get an endless list of sets to watch.