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With its feet firmly planted on the live stage, Broadway music is exciting, dynamic and enthralling. And you can find every style of music on the Broadway stage today.

The first show to truly launch the concept of musical theater was something called ‘The Black Crook’. This musical production was over five hours long and ran for 474 performances, starting on September 12, 1866 in New York City’s Niblo’s Gardens.

Though it wasn’t a musical in the same sense as we know them today, it WAS the production that launched the idea of incorporating music into a show with plot and situation relevance.

Most of the musicals that followed during the 1800s and early 1900s were more in the genre of musical reviews with cabaret type staging and feel.

Musical selections followed one another with no real book or persistent story line.

Then came ‘Show Boat’ which opened on December, 12th, 1927, at the Ziegfeld Theater.

The music was integrated into the story, with the musical numbers scattered throughout, and it was designed to advance the plot and characters. The show and the lyrics by were based on an Edna Ferber novel.

The show ran 572 performances and was a groundbreaker at the Ziegfeld, where Flo Ziegfeld’s previous shows had included lots of music, costumes and choreography but NO stories.

From then on, the stage was set!

In 1935, ‘Porgy and Bess’ opened at the Alvin Theater with music by George Gershwin, and songs like ‘Summertime’, and ‘It Ain’t Necessarily So’, breaking the color barrier for the Broadway musical stage.

The musical ‘Oklahoma’ was originally called ‘Away we Go’. It opened in 1943 at the St. James Theater (home of today’s hit Broadway musical, ‘The Producers’).

With music by Oscar Hammerstein II, who had also contributed to ‘Show Boat’, it became an instant classic that is still revived today in community and regional theaters all across the country

In 1950, ‘Guys and Dolls’ hit the stage for the first time. With music by Frank Loesser and songs like ‘Luck Be a Lady’ and ‘A Bushel and a Peck’, Guys and Dolls was sharp, and romantic. Everything a Broadway audience wanted in music and story!

Then in 1957, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim wrote the music and lyrics for ‘West Side Story’, ushering in the age of Sondheim, who would go on to become the best known Broadway composer of his time, writing shows like ‘Company’, ‘Marry Me a Little’, ‘Sweeney Todd’, ‘Assassins’, and ‘The Frogs’.

His music has been performed by cabaret performers everywhere and recorded by the likes of Barbra Streisand, Barbara Cook, Mandy Patinkin and many more.

With the advent of rock operas and contemporary musicals like ‘Hair’, ‘Cats’, and ‘Rent’, the music of Broadway changed yet again.

Today, Disney has brought many of its most famous animated films to Broadway: ‘Beauty and the Beast’, ‘The Lion King’ and others, and the Juke Box Musical craze has spawned shows like ‘Movin’ Out, the ‘Jersey Boys’, ‘Mama Mia’, and more.

Today’s Broadway music has something for every taste. Teenagers love ‘Wicked’, and romantic shows like ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ continue to sell out.

If you are not yet a fan of Broadway musicals, hop on a plane and take a week to see the best that Broadway has to offer. If you ARE a fan, take a look on your favorite CD websites to see a sampling of the newest musical show cast recordings.

From revivals of the haunting ‘Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris’, to new musicals by up and coming composer Adam Guettel (‘The Light in the Piazza’) today’s Broadway music reflects all tastes and all times.

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There are many different types of karaoke machines on the market today. Whether you are planning a party, or simply want to entertain a few friends, there is a karaoke machine out there to fit your needs. While many people are using computers for this purpose, there are still many advantages to owning an actual karaoke machine. Portability is, perhaps, one of the biggest advantages, as it allows you to transport the machine from one location to another both quickly and easily. It also allows you to set it up in different rooms of the house in order to accommodate the varying number of participating guests.

There are several features to look for when deciding to purchase a karaoke machine, many of which are now standard and, are therefore, found on many machines. Still, you should be aware of the features you want, and check to see thatthe machine you purchase has them.

A basic karaoke machine consists of audio input for connecting external electronic audio devices such as tape decks, CD players, and now, MP3 players, a means of altering the pitch of the actual music, (not the pitch of the singer’s voice), and an audio output so that others can hear the music and singer.

Some lower end machines include a feature which allows you to play a standard song on the machine and suppress the singer’s voice so that it isn’t heard. This, however, is generally ineffective as it often decreases the quality of the music, and often times distorts the overall sound. This can be especially problematic if the singer is being recorded.

At least one microphone input is also included, and many machines come with a mic. Higher end karaoke machines also come equipped with a method for connecting it to another type of machine that will allow video encoding. This will enable the lyrics to be displayed on a screen so that the performer may read them while singing. This feature is typically found in bars and clubs that offer karaoke, but is now commonly done at home as well.

While many karaoke machines were equipped with two tape decks, thus allowing singers to record their performances while using karaoke backups already pre-recorded on another cassette, the machines of today typically include one tape deck and a CD player. Recording your performance still isn’t a problem, since most backups are now available on CD, which has become standard.

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One of the most lovely interpreters of song are Jazz vocalists.

The capabilities of the human voice is outstanding in the fact that one could imitate someone else or instrument, or sing many octaves on the piano. The human voice can also translate emotion in a way only a human can. Jazz instruments can express emotion, but the natural gift from inside the human voice is conveyed in a selection of ways.

For example, each vocalist has their own style they were born with. Many of them won’t be the best vocalists that Simon Cowell would compliment. However, there are several Jazz legends and folk like them who have their own unique style.

The je ne sias quoi x factor of a voice that is weird, yet pleasing to the ears. The Jazz vocalists who have this quality have been heard in several clubs, and recordings during the past.

These Jazz Legends have assisted in making Jazz music preferred particularly with the use of the voice. There are 4 different sorts of Jazz vocalists that made it in the world of Jazz music. The signature component of the crooner sound is a voice with a smooth and classy resonance made for the microphone as clear as a radio announcers talking voice. Another style of Vocal Jazz Vocalists is the soulful bluesy sound with Vocalists like Diane Schuur, Nina Simone, Bessie Smith, Etta James, Della Reese, and more. The soulful sound of voice is the talent of ornamentation of the voice running up and down the scale without effort. Bluesy and soulful is also a depth in the range of the voice that sound like it comes direction from the soul. There are Jazz music Expert’s who have the facility to do anything from vocalese to scat to ballad to fast and complicated in perfection. The Jazz vocalists of this class are Ella Fitzgerald, Phoebe Snow, Eva Cassidy, Ernestine Anderson, Betty Carter, Taxi Calloway, Sammy Davis Jr, Eddie Jefferson, Bobby McFerrin Jr, Jon Hendricks, Slim Gaillard, Rachelle Ferrell, Annie Ross, Etta Jones, Lady Cleo Laine, Sarah Vaughn, Carmen Mercedes McRae, Mabel Mercer, Nikoletta Szoke, and Nancy Wilson. The Diva can croon a ballad and articulate it in a unique way. The specialist Jazz frontman may also be robust and sassy and scat in great complexity without trouble.

There’s no doubt the expert Jazz vocalist is the total embodiment of what Jazz is all about. The last sort of vocalist has an ethereal appeal that appears to come out of another place with uniqueness in sound, and appropriate to the arena of Jazz.

The unique style of Jazz vocalists is a sound that one does not sometimes hear. As an example, the uniqueness can come from the sound quality of the voice or by doing something that sets the Jazz vocalist on a different plane than the others. Vocalists of this class are Amos Leon Thomas, Billy Vacation , Lee Wiley, Blossom Dearie, Shirley Horne, Rita Reys, Eartha Kitt, Anita O’Day, Ray Reach, Ethel Waters, Monica Zetterlund, Jimmy Rushing, Louis Armstrong, Cassandra Wilson, Al Jarreau, and Dennis Rowland. Every one has a specific sound of raspy, lush, high pitched, yodeling, vibrato, or present of humor. There are the average Jazz vocalists who should be under the spotlamps also for having what is required to make it successfully in Jazz.

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