Christmas yielded For Musicians Only by Dizzie All Star Big G Gillespie and friends, and The Man Without Qualities (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften) by Robert Musil, as well as a book on public speaking which is an excellent reference for giving talks. The kind of book you need when holding exercises at universities.
I recently found out that I also love popular swing, in particular Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen which has an interesting history. I’ve just heard the Benny Goodman’s Carnegie Hall Performance, and I find the melody amazing :). I’ve never before heard a trumpet that is played like a Clarinet.
It is great to see how large the spectrum of Klezmer-influenced music is, there are so many great performers like Giora Feidman. The Clarinet is really one of my favourite instruments!
Oh, dear lazyweb: Does anybody of you know whether John Philip Souza also made “operatic” music? I love “The Stars and Stripes Forever”, but listening through some CDs was a bit disappointing since most what I heard was very militaristic and not really virtuosic.