Patrick’s Picks is a series of monthly Spotify playlists curated by Jacaranda’s Artistic Director, Patrick Scott.
Each two-and-a-half hour playlist spans genres, eras, and continents, and is crafted with the current historical moment in mind.
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and while you’re there, check out our first two Jacaranda Live Recordings releases:
Rebellious: Music of Julius Eastman, & A Charged Embrace: Music of Kraft, Broughton, and Krausas.
The Spotify playlists you see on this page are previews only. To listen to the complete playlist,
click the playlist title, square graphic or the Spotify logo in the top right corner.
DECEMBER 2021
Chiron, the ultimate centaur draws arrows from his splendid quiver – some with ribbons attached to animate the sky, some to hit targets with deadly accuracy. Passionate and curious, or reveling in ceremony, the generous Sagittarian spirit arcs outward like solar flares. The dazzling birthday trifecta of Sibelius, Carter and Messiaen makes December 8th, 10th, 11th! Here is a topsy turvy voyage to faraway places with strange sounding names.
SPLENDID QUIVER: SOLAR FLARE
NOVEMBER 2021
Scorpio has a persistent notoriety in the Zodiac because it is the herald of sex, death, and transformation – life’s longing for itself. Kali. The frightful scorpion gets all the attention, but two other archetypes are in play, the soaring eagle, and the dubious gray – the hazy personification of becoming. Denizens of this triple spectrum crawl, fly or manifest in portentous spaces. The playlist is sometimes scary, sometimes windy and wet, sometimes weirdly elevating.
EAGLE SCORPION GRAY: LONGING
OCTOBER 2021
October sees the Supreme Court resume its duties. That tracks with the scales of justice symbolizing Libra – also associated with fashion. Not surprisingly, both justice and fashion are associated with power and money. Libra-born composers Steve Reich, Dmitri Shostakovich, Camille Saint Saëns, as well as Franz Liszt and Paul Dukas – at their spooky best – make appearances among a welter of the fashionable, once fashionable, and always fashionable striking distinctive poses.
ARBITERS OF FASHION: JUST POSING
SEPTEMBER 2021
Is John Cage a servant to the physical world, or a liberating genius? Is Anton Bruckner a proto minimalist, or an essentialist of German order? Is there wit and whimsy to be found in Arnold Schoenberg’s system of 12-tones? Is Antonin Dvorak’s secret sauce a cover for formal perfection? Put these three Virgo composers into a very freewheeling context, and the answers might be revealed. The great Aquarians Mozart & Schubert appear because they always set the bar high.
RIGOROUS FREEDOM: DIAMOND SAW
AUGUST 2021
A circle of radiating hands bestows the life force of love. Orb and scepter, golden mane, and a singular ripping roar bolster the regal charisma of Leo, and their domain of affection. If music be the food of love, a banquet awaits. One nibble might cast a mind spell touching the perfect body, while a feast grants prolonged attention catalogued as the songs of Solomon – just your mouth, just your lips, just your anointing moments. Love may be blind, it may exert trials and tribulations; it my bewitch, bother, and bewilder, while the blazing summer solstice wanes, and love potions wait to be quaffed.
REGAL CHARISMA: LOVE POTION
JULY 2021
The USA is a moody moonchild – emotional, vulnerable, and defensive if challenged. This cancer native – yes, nations have astrological charts when, like July 4th, the birthdate is known – needs to be surrounded by loyal friends. Depression happens when the easily tricked moonchild is dominated by an emotional vampire. Making sense and acting logically is not a strong trait. Our national identity as nurturing family is problematic when these “family values” function as a powerful way to ostracize “outsiders.” The USA as Wilderness has a recurrent issue with boundaries and a tenacious need for an imaginary homeland – even if made of vivid conspiracies by a fractious population. However, epic lunar tides can activate an instinct for actions borne out of empathy, caring and generosity. Crabwise incremental change wins the day!
WILDERNESS CHILDREN: FAMILY ISSUES
JUNE 2021
Gemini, the airy twins – expressed by duo-pianists, by Castor & Pollux, Odette & Odile, and pairs of cupids clapping their wings while the echoing air of triumph sings. A game of cards in four deals reveals the poker-faced queen of laughing unlearned, while harpsichords pluck taut strings. Poulenc’s April tour ends here verging on summer. Lucky numbers, a royal flush, and crab canons all evaporate in a bar called Heaven.
DUAL CONNECTIONS: ECHOING AIR
MAY 2021
Green pastures, grazing cows, fields of flowers – Feeling Present to eating, sleeping and making love – the constant craving of life’s longing for itself. May’s playlist often dwells in a pastoral sensibility. It’s evident Gypsies enchanted Georg Philip Telemann & Johannes Brahms. The soprano saxophone, perhaps the beguiling throat of Ferdinand, joins songs emanating from goddesses including the mystery of Bulgarian voices. Sorrow, mercy and solidarity temper the mood.
FEELING PRESENT: CONSTANT CRAVING
APRIL 2021
The sun rising out of disorder, creation myths, cycles commencing, springtime friends, foes, and the blazing self-possession of Aries’ Shining Brow – April’s playlist cartwheels through brash and blessed moods. Haydn’s matchless depiction of chaos is answered by Handel’s godlike vengeance against slaving Egypt and affirmed by Bach’s ebullient Easter offering. Mars brandishes his might. Along the way, an unlikely nonet of female vocalists circles the globe.
SHINING BROW: A FORCE OF NATURE
MARCH 2021
The sun rising out of disorder, creation myths, cycles commencing, springtime friends, foes, and the blazing self-possession of Aries’ Shining Brow – April’s playlist cartwheels through brash and blessed moods. Haydn’s matchless depiction of chaos is answered by Handel’s godlike vengeance against slaving Egypt and affirmed by Bach’s ebullient Easter offering. Mars brandishes his might. Along the way, an unlikely nonet of female vocalists circles the globe.
TWELFTH HOUSE: SEEING BEYOND
FEBRUARY 2021
Cultured England was listening to John Dowland when the first slave ship landed full of misery in the New World – 1619. Melancholy was the fashionable state of mind in London and the downward 4-note motive that opened all Dowland’s Lachrimae was a distant forbear of the American blues. A loose narrative begins in ancient slave-rich Rome, engages with ninth century Arabo-Andalusian music before dancing with Black History in Africa and America. The most famous hymn – words written in 1772, tune in 1835 – Amazing Grace is given formidably singular treatments by Ben Johnston and Aretha Franklin. Much is likely familiar here, but Reconciliation connects unlikely dots.
RECONCILIATION: MARKER 1619
JANUARY 2021
Early in December this playlist was started as a new monthly feature expanding the Jacaranda experience during the pandemic. After the Presidential Election and the promise of new vaccines, my mood was optimistic, nostalgic for the days before the internet began shaping our lives. However, over the last week, I changed the flow to start with Aaron Copland’s stark and angry Piano Variations from 1930 and ends with sobering yet life affirming music by John Adams. In between are the voices of wise and friendly seers.
