Welcome to the Artistic Director's Guide

I've mused in past Artistic Director's Guide entries on the concept of swing, and how it's difficult to explain - it's really more of a feeling. Or, in the case of the Count Basie Orchestra, it's everything that happens between the beginning and ending of every performance of every tune.

I admit it - when I thought about Los Lobos, I immediately thought about that one song. You know, from that movie. (More on that later.) But Los Lobos, who has been together for nearly 40 years - with the same personnel for more nearly three decades - is so much more than a one-hit wonder. They have earned international acclaim (not to mention multiple Grammy awards) for their hybrid of traditional regional Mexican folk music, rock and roll, blues, R&B and country (among others!).

Stax Records was, without exaggeration, one of the most important record labels in the development of soul music in the United States. Established in 1959 in Memphis, the label made its mark by producing outstanding music and by flouting the racial segregation of the times - Stax was concerned about the quality of the music, not about the skin colour of the musicians. Over its initial 16-year run, Stax produced records by Otis Redding, Isaac Hayes, the Staples Singers, Wilson Pickett and Eddie Floyd, among many others. Here's a brief history of Stax: