Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 55 (MP3s)

Give the Drummer Some's
6 Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere

For more than 40 years now, British guitar pioneer Mike Cooper has been scaling his way up an audacious mountain of music. Acoustic blues, free jazz improv, slack-key exotica, ambient electronics—every twist and turn of the trip has been a thrill a minute. And speaking of thrilling...

(1) Celebrating his label Hipshot's second decade, Cooper is offering for free Blue Guitar, a stunning set of new performances on National steel. ••• (2) Tender and tenacious, Don Pullen's piano playing was a physical act of love. This 1975 recording for the Italian label Horo was Pullen's first release as a leader. ••• (3) The Real Sounds were an 11-piece Zairean orchestra that took up residency at a hotel nightspot in Harare, Zimbabwe, in the late 1970s. This LP from 1987 contains one of the greatest football-match re-creation songs ever committed to wax. ••• (4) The Cuban rumba comes in three basic flavors: the old folks' favorite, Yambú; the erotically charged Guanguancó; and the countrified Columbia. Mongo Santamaria cooks up all three on this compilation that comprises two late 1950s percussion masterpieces on Fantasy. ••• (5) Disgusted by the exploitative music industry and racist America, Nina Simone planned to bolt for exile in Liberia. Fulfilling her contract with RCA, she recorded what was to be her final album in 1974. Aptly, she called the record It Is Finished, a title which quotes the final words spoken by Jesus on the cross—a stroke of grandiosity worthy of this diva nonpareil. ••• (6) Soviet-era Turkmenistan may seem an unlikely hotbed for over-the-top prog/fusion rockers, but the bands Firyuza and Gunesh Ensemble prove otherwise. Firyuza's lead singer, Dmitriy Manukyan, was once a member of Gunesh Ensemble. Gunesh, which started as a state-sponsored pop combo, evolved into a wilder bunch of young cacaphonists from the Caucasus. How strange and wonderful that the group featured, for a spell, a Vietnamese lead singer. Check out the MP3 selection, below, to hear for yourself.  

 (1)

Zing Went the Strings of His Heart
Mike Cooper  ~  "Blue Guitar"
Tracks | Podcast | Listen
(Courtesy of: Hipshot Records)
From the album: Moments of Reverie (mp3)

 (2)

The Church of Pullen
Don Pullen  ~  "Jazz a Confronto 21"
(Blog: Horo)

 

 (3)

Goooooal!!!
Real Sounds of Africa  ~  "Wende Zako"
(Blog: Coleção de Sons)
From the album: Tornados vs. Dynamos (3–3) (mp3)

 (4)

Cold Today, Hot Timbale
Mongo Santamaria  ~  "Afro Roots"
(Blog: Babe(b)logue)

 (5)

Funkier Than a Mosquito's Tweeter
Nina Simone  ~  "It Is Finished
(Blog: Hippy Djkit)

(6)

Are We Not Turkmen?
Gunesh Ensemble  ~  "Looking at the Earth"  |  Firyuza  ~  "Firyuza"
(Blog: Ezhevika Fields)
From the Gunesh album: Vietnamese Frescoes (mp3)

Listen for music from these and other incredible finds on
Give the Drummer Some, Fridays on WFMU, 9 to Noon (ET).

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

Comments

[Nat Roe]

Oh my god!!!! That Tornados vs. Dynamos song...I remember hearing you playing that song one morning years ago. I also heard Thomas Mapfumo for the first time on that show. It must've been like 5 or 6 years ago now. One of those shows that convinced me of how incredible WFMU was even before I was involved with the station. Thanks!!

[Sister Hairy Hymen]

What is nit with sharebee? No you have to answer a survey. then they want your cell number. WTF

[Ian Eisenberg]

Hi, thank you very much. good job.

[Jimmy]

What an interesting selection of MP3s. I might have to look into a few of these. Great read!