Unrelated to what follows, I just have to mention one the best band-names I have heard in the long time, courtesy of Pandora Radio - King Black Acid and the Womb Star Orchestra. As far as I'm concerned, a band with a name like that just has to be good.
Anyway, I thought I'd just post some not-quite-random videos, with nothing linking them other than me liking them.
First, I have been remiss in noting the passing of the great jazz pianist Oscar Peterson. All the recordings I have of Peterson are as accompanist to Billie Holliday. Peterson was a good foil for Lady Day - he disapproved of her dissipation, her over-indulgence, her lack of a disciplined personal life; he loved her musical style, her dedication, in the face of all that seemed to try to destroy it, to her art. He was a steady hand on the roiling seas of her life. And the results were glorious. He continued long after he surrendered to the inevitable and left her in the capable hands of Jimmy Rowland. Here he is from way back in 1977 (thirty years before his death!).
This is the Choir of Clare College Cambridge performing "Hear My Prayer" by Henry Purcell:
Finally, from the DVD my loving wife got me for Christmas, this is Joe Satriani with the amazing, colossal "Flying in a Blue Dream" (which CD I still have yet to find; I used to have it, but like several others over the years, have lost in various moves hither and yon across our fair land):
