YouTube Videos I’m Recommending Right Now

Below is my latest roundup of the best new YouTube videos. Enjoy!

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The trendiest concept for music channels on YouTube is the reaction video. The idea is simple: You play a famous track for a listener, and film their spontaneous reaction.

But most of these focus on inexperienced listeners who have never heard the song before. Motorcycle gang leader weeps after hearing Karen Carpenter for this first time—that’s the template for these trifles. And, sure, they’re entertaining in a perverse kind of way.

But a much more intriguing idea is to solicit responses from living legends who know the music better than anyone else—because they helped make it in the first place. That’s the concept for the video below.

Bass legend Ron Carter offers his reactions to Miles Davis tracks. On several of them, he is also one of the performers. This is my type of reaction video, and shows what happens when you go straight to the source. And you should always go straight to the source.

My son Thomas introduced me to the music of Ruoshi Sun, a mathematician and scientist who does amazing things with Bach during his spare time. Thomas especially likes his arrangements of Bach’s choral music for piano—consider this example (which even lured Rick Beato into the comments section).

I was charmed by this recent video, which finds Sun reinventing the “Star-Spangled Banner” in the style of Bach. Some people might dismiss this as a novelty, but I think it’s too smart for that label.

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They say that blues musicians improve with age. If so, this gentleman wins the Internet today. He’s a hundred years old, and surprised his friends at the nursing home when he pulled out his flute and started jamming.

I’m not surprised this generated almost a million views in the first few days.

Dick Cavett is releasing material from his archive of interviews, and a few days ago he dropped this fascinating conversation with Duke Ellington from 1971.

Ellington was a prolific composer, so maybe he is a good source of productivity hacks. Here he discusses his highly unusual sleep schedule. The Duke also finds an opportunity to kiss Sally Field four times.