WFMU's Beware of the Blog

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 127

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

There are a couple of fantastic blogs I've been meaning to trumpet in this space for weeks now:

Around since May, Tim Abdellah's blissful Moroccan Tape Stash has a wonderful name (somewhat reminiscent of Awesome Tapes From Africa) that may sound like it has a narrow focus. But once you dive into the diverse sounds on offer, you'll soon grasp that the ocean of Moroccan music is wide and deep.

Speaking of deep, another site you should plunge into is Bodega Pop, which posted its first sonic treasure in May 2010. Scouring NYC's outer-borough cornershops the past decade for unusual music, your host Gary is now sharing with one and all the many fruits of his hunting and gathering. Thank you Tim and thank you Gary!

 

Late update:
Last evening on my radio show (here) I played an hour of jazz-besotted Indian music (and Subcontinental-infused jazz), including the only track I could find off Shankar Jaikishan's groovy collaboration Raga Jazz Style ("Raga Todi," which Eastern Eye had posted in 2008). Then late last night, someone (who I imagine heard the show) left a request for this LP at Holy Warbles — the most likely site in the universe where this audiophonic gem might possibly appear. Lo and behold, not six hours later, arrives a magnificent post delivering the whole album, cover scans, session line-up and complete details! Is there a more thrilling blog in this or any other universe than Holy Warbles? Thank you Øשlqæda!

 

 It's fun to share...

 

Bnate Houara  ~  "Bnate Houara"
(Blog: Moroccan Tape Stash)

Women Work It
"Marrakchi old-school women's party music - rollicking call-and-response singing with funky stratified rhythms on a variety of buzzy drums plus a brake drum or tea tray for some metal clang. This sort of group typically has some songs that roll from start to finish in the typical Moroccan 6/8. They have another type that begins in 7/8 and moves to 5/4, with the same melody stretched to fit into the new meter!"  (By Tim Abdellah, at Moroccan Tape Stash)

 

Phương Dung | Khúc Hát ân Tình
(Blog: Bodega Pop)

HBO? No, BHO!
"Every time I've gone to Chicago, and the one time I was in Montreal, I've picked up half a dozen to two dozen Vietnamese CDs, mostly pop music recorded in Vietnam before 1975—though I do have a relatively sizable collection now of Vietnamese rap, all recorded in the States. The pre-'75 stuff rarely disappoints. That said, it also rarely, in the words of my Minneapolis sound poet friend, Erik Belgum, "blows head off." Last weekend, however, I picked up something that definitely BHO."  (By Gary, at Bodega Pop )

 

Shankar Jaikishan  ~  "Raga Jazz Style"
(Blog: Holy Warbles)

Øשlqæda for President
Shankar Jaikishan, also known as S/J, were a duo of composers in the Hindi film industry who collaborated from 1949–1971. Shankar Singh Raghuvanshi was a native of Rajasthan, while Jaikishan Dayabhai Panchal belonged to Bansda, Gujarat. Shankar Jaikishan, along with other artists, wrote 'everlasting' & 'immortal melodies' in the '50s & '60s. Their best melodies are noted for being raga-based & having both lilt and sonority. Shankar Jaikishan made a major contribution toward the development of jazz music in India and the new genre Indo Jazz. Their 1968 album Raga Jazz Style is the earliest Indo Jazz recording in India and the first to be released in stereo. On this album, considered to be one of the most innovative, S/J created 11 songs based on Indian ragas with sitar by Rais Khan.  (From Wikipedia)

 

Various  ~  "God Give Me Light"
(Blog: Ghostcapital)

Sanctafried
"Outstanding 78rpm gospel collection from Herwin Records, featuring knockout performances from a handful of both black and white sanctified singers of the day. As the liner notes say: "Unfortunately, very little is known about the artists in this album." I do know that I recommend it, highly."  (By nicholab, at Ghostcapital)

 

Various  ~  "El Gran Tesoro De La Musica Cubana"
Volumes 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
(Blog: El Negrito del Batey)

Havana Hold Your Hand
"El 2004 significó para la Egrem la celebración del 40 aniversario de su fundación y el 60 de la inauguración de los legendarios estudios de la calle San Miguel, posteriormente reconocidos como Areito, por donde desfilarían a lo largo de todos estos años lo más valioso de nuestros creadores e intérpretes, enriqueciendo con su arte el patrimonio que atesoran los archivos de esta casa discográfica, que como homenaje a toda esa historia musical, decidió asumir el ambicioso proyecto de conformar una colección capaz de brindar en ocho volúmenes, un amplio panorama de las diversas tendencias, géneros y estilos abordados durante seis décadas por esos músicos que tema a tema lograron construir una monumental obra orgullo de nuestra nacionalidad."  (From the Egrem catalog)

 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 126

 

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

With every passing Down East vacation, I become increasingly convinced that there really are no moose in Maine. Over the years I've seen bald eagles dive-bombing gulls, starfish the size of dinner plates and even a whale cruising badassedly right by my cabin—but never have I seen even one damn moose. Luring bears to your garbage is like taking candy from a baby, but what does one have to do to attract a dopey moose?

Other than not seeing a moose, the last two weeks were spectacularly restful. I did have a loon swim to within 20 feet of me and ululate its head almost completely off. That's almost as good as spotting a moose, right?

 

 Glad to be back...

 

Norma Jean & Ray J  ~  "Raising Hell"
(Blog: Funk My Soul)

Hell Is for Hoagies
"Norma Jean & Ray J’s “Raising Hell” is one helluva rare nugget. Released on the Hep-Me label in 1974, this has a remarkably polished sound and sophistication in the music to have warranted bigger names on the front of the album cover. And while Norma Jean and Ray J would never topple the likes of Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, they have a crude chemistry that has a magic all of its very own. A wonderful wonderful left-fielder that I urge you to give a few plays for it to reel you in and in love."  (By Trakbuv, at Funk My Soul)

 

Johnny Colón  ~  "Boogaloo '67"
(Blog: Blue Beat in My Soul)

No Sophmore Jinx
"Johnny Colón is the most exciting new star on the Latin scene today. I am proud of playing a small part in his success. I was the first D.J. to play his first hit album Boogaloo Blues. I flipped when I heard it and immediately signed him for the Village Gate. He broke it up, and the rest is history."  (Symphony Sid Torin, from the liner notes)

 

Eddie Robinson  ~  "You in My Life"
(Blog: A Pyrex Scholar)

Bless the Ants and Elephants
"DOPE soulful gospel LP from 1979 courtesy of Eddie Robinson's own Ren Unlimited records . Features some ill electric piano work DON'T SLEEP!!"  (By The Purist, at A Pyrex Scholar)

 

 

Cecil Gant  ~  "Cecil Gant 1944-1945"
(Blog: Twilightzone!)

Pre-Pre-Revolutionary Egypt
"Cecil Gant jumped into the R&B world's consciousness during a war bond rally in downtown Los Angeles in 1944. The 29 year old pianist/singer made a great impression on many in the audience that day and so he was soon in a makeshift recording studio for the small independent Gilt Edge label. The first record released was "I Wonder" / "Cecil's Boogie" on Gilt Edge #501 billed as "The G.I. Sing-sation." Using hidden neighborhood pressing plants and black market supplies of shellac, the record got out on the streets and sold. The side sold in a big way, and so big that this was the record heard around the independent label world. It offered proof that a Black R&B performer on a small independent label could turn a big profit, and so the entrepreneurs cranked it up and the small indies began in earnest in Los Angeles."  (From Cecil Gant: The Forgotten Pioneer, by J.C. Marion)

Bob Thiele Emergency  ~  "Head Start"
(Blog: La Cintas Recuperadas)

Head/Heart
"Dedicated To Pee Wee Russell, Bix Beiderbecke, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, John Coltrane, Louis Armstrong, Frank Teschemaker, Johnny Dodds, Jess Stacy, Frank Zappa, B.B. King, Bob Thiele Jr, Tenice and my father."  (Bob Thiele, from the liner notes.) 

 

 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 125

 

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

As you read this, your dutiful Miner is dashing headlong toward a small, off-the-grid cabin on the Maine coast, desperate to put down his pickaxe and pick up a good book and a hefty dose of radio silence. Yes, after the past six months of dizzying downloads, a brief respite from the great sound of sound is seriously in order. So enjoy this mega-post surveying the best posts so far in 2011 (and be sure to follow the jump to page two for a list of readers faves) while Mining the Audio Motherlode takes the next two weeks off.

 

 

 

 MINER'S MID-YEAR FAVORITES...

 

Moussa Doumbia  ~  "Keleya"
(Blog: Exp Etc)

Soul Brother #1A
"Godfather of Soul wannabes sprang up like kudzu in the 1960s and '70s, and, outside of Chicago and Detroit, the most badass Brown imitators per hectare came from the gritty urban centers of East and West Africa. Anwar Richard and Matata ruled Nairobi, Geraldo Pino & the Heartbeats concquered Lagos, but the heaviest of heavyweight Afrofunkateers may have been Mali's sax-playing, leather-lunged soul belter Moussa Doumbia, who toiled in semiobscurity in the nightclubs of Ivory Coast's capital city Abidjan. Doumbia was a cool cat but no copycat. While others merely reproduced the James Brown sound, Doumbia seemingly conjured, on a nightly basis, the very soul of Soul Brother No. 1 itself. His massive funk workouts featured all the withering, from-the-gut grunts and squeals, but they were layered over a dense thicket of his native Dioula rhythms—along with, of course, skronking horns and skanky guitars. This French compilation of Doumbia's rare singles and one album may be the greatest single-disc trove of African funk ever released."  (From my Favorites of 2007 write-up)

 

FEATURED BLOG:
The Singing Bones

NOLA Gay
I first became aware of the miraculous blog Singing Bones when Ana-B, its estimable curator, guest-posted over at Derek's Daily 45. Ever since, I've ravenously pounced on each new offering—one magnificent 7" slab of soul after another. Last Xmas eve, Ana posted an epic, 11-song sequence, which I downloaded and aired on my radio show in tribute. (If you do nothing else today, give it a listen.)

 

Gideon Nxumalo  ~  "Jazz Fantastia"
(Blog: Electric Jive)

Alto Gladness
"True to its name in both form and spirit, Gideon Nxumalo’s 1962 Jazz Fantasia is a key document of modernist South African jazz. Vital, ambitious, consummate in conception and execution, it is perhaps the crucial small group recording of the early 1960s, and one of the few complete sets by a small modernist group to have been released on LP during these years. Nxumalo’s compositions are taut and boppish, in places unmistakably water-marked by the language of mbaqanga jazz, but speaking fluent bop – ‘Isintu’ in particular knits the melancholic mbaqanga chords which underpin the piece seamlessly into the bebop-styled changes of the main section."  (Description by Fin, at Electric Jive)

[Since this LP was presented, Electric Jive has posted another stunner by Gideon Nxumalo.]

 

Cheikh Imam  ~  "Chante Negm"
(Blog: Afro Soul Descarga)

Pre-Pre-Revolutionary Egypt
The story of Richard Nixon's laughable skedaddle to the Middle East in June of 1974 became rich fodder for the duo of Ahmed Fouad Negm, a poet and folk hero who spent nearly two decades in prison for his subversive writing, and the blind troubadour Sheikh Imam Eissa. Together they wrote and performed songs lauding Che Guevara, denouncing the war in Vietnam and mercilessly ridiculing every Egyptian leader since 1962, when they began their partnership.  (Read more from my July 2, 2008 post at Beware of the Blog)

S.D. Burman  ~  "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi"
(Blog: Parties, Sarees and Melodies)

Real Men Dig Kishore Kumar
 Inspired by the Marx Brothers' antics, this 1958 comedy is landmark in Indian cinema. The account "The Making of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi," by Suguna Sundaram, is almost as hysterical as the film apparently is. Read it here. 

 

 

Tony Iglio  ~  "Drug Store"
(Blog: Mondo Ribelle)

Say Yes to Drug Store
"Unknown Library LP by Iglio and his band. Full of weird exploito-psych-jazz, Ive never come across this artist or label, must be his only release I reckon. Anyway, it's rare, it looks great and it sounds wild."   (Anonymous commenter, at iueke.com)

 

 

Ghetto Brothers  ~  "Power-Fuerza"
(Blog: Resin Hits)

Brothers Gonna Work It Out
"This album contains a message; a message to the world, from the Ghetto Brothers. The Ghetto Brothers, a community organization dedicated to bridging the ever-increasing gap that exists between society and minority groups, believe music to be the common language of the world. Through music, they are able to inform society of the plight of the 'little people' in their quest for recognition. Therefore, the music of the Ghetto Brothers serves as a way of communication.  If the Ghetto Brothers' dream comes true, the world will learn that the 'little people' wish to be acknowledged; wish to be properly educated in order for them to pass on their knowledge to their children and proudly inform them about their heritage and culture, and be a functioning part of the growth of America. If the Ghetto Brothers' dream comes true, the 'little people' will be 'little people' no more, and make their own mark in this world. Listen to the Ghetto Brothers…….and take heed."  (From the dust jacket of Power-Fuerza [Salsa, 1971])

Fred Jordan  ~  "The Frost is on the Pumpkin"
(Blog: Gonzo-Archive)
[Password = gonzoFJFO]

 Workman Life Effort
"In the autumn of 1959, Fred attracted the attention of participants in the folk song revival when he appeared at the English Folk Dance and Song society’s festival wearing his everyday clothes – heavy boots, leggings and weather-defying hat. His singing drew immediate acclaim. Since then he has appeared with increasing regularity at concerts and clubs, with other country singers and also with revival performances. He enjoys concert and club work, where he sings with the straightforward ‘professionalism’ and unselfconsciousness common to most country singers. As a folk singer he may be classed with the best – and that best includes Harry Cox, George Maynard and Phil Tanner. Though he is still a young man he has the essential style of this older generation. His musical sense is very highly developed; his ability to make small rhythmical changes to suit the words of songs is marked and his use of melodic ornament is subtle and skillful. the quality of his voice may seem strange at first hearing, but it is not unique, and there is nothing here of an old man’s quaver, for Fred Jordan is in his prime."  (Liners for Songs of a Shropshire Farm Worker)

 

Rashied Ali & Frank Lowe ~  "Duo Exchange"
(Blog: Free the Music)

One of the Great Duet Recordings of any Genre, Ever
"Duo Exchange dates from 1972 and reveals Frank Lowe still in the process of purging the overt Coltrane-isms from his improvising. The two collectively extemporized compositions here are not mere sequels to the cosmological visions of Ali's 'other' saxophone-drums duet record, Coltrane's own Interstellar Space. If anything, "Exchange Part 1" and "Exchange Part 2" are less orchestral, less unrelenting, and less flowing than the performances from that earlier record. The scale of Duo Exchange is more human; though there are moments of anguish and triumph commensurate with those on Interstellar Space, the context here is very, very different. Of particular interest in these performances is just how Lowe responds to Ali's virtuosity, his split-second ability to free-associate shards of metric patterns and his kaleidoscopic sense of percussive coloration. Lowe often lets go of his phrases such that his notes somehow fall in those small open cells of silence in Ali's otherwise overpowering detail. The more closely one listens, the more it becomes obvious that Lowe is assembling a steady beat from the wailing pull of his tenor sax against the coruscating push of Ali's kit. In this setting, Lowe is the chorus—the rueful and wise narrative agent—and Ali the flamboyant actor personifying the tragically incongruous circumstances that befall the individual as they follow the trajectory of hubris. It is clear even from this brief recording (barely over half an hour in length) that Frank Lowe is one of the most unique of "free" players, as his playing demonstrates how deeply he comprehends the serious risks involved in his aesthetic. Frank Lowe's art is a super-realistic one, because it is an art open to life and life's endlessly proliferating decisions, each of which is possessed of an integrity and gravity that is to be honored."  (By Joe Milazzo, at One Final Note)

 

Brotherhood of Breath  ~  "Brotherhood of Breath"
(Blog: Destination Out)

From September 11, 2006
"Brotherhood of Breath is an easy band to love. The proto-Brotherhood, leader McGregor’s Blue Notes, formed in South Africa: the very existence of this mixed-race ensemble was an affront to apartheid. Unwelcome and unable to secure gigs, the band headed north, eventually ending up in England, where they quickly fell in with a Who’s Who of late ’60s UK jazz players – the more adventurous among them, anyway." (Destination: Out)

[Brotherhood of Breath is available at Brian.]

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 124

 

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

After you devour this week's smorgesbord of sound, take a few minutes to scroll back through the first six months of Motherlodes and make note of your favorites albums offered thus far. Either email me your picks or just share them in the comments below, but do let me know what you liked best. I'll compile reader selections with a list of my own in next week's mid-year Top Ten. In the mean time, happy Motherloding.

 

 

 

 Five more faves...

 

Gordon Alexander  ~  "Gordon's Buster"
(Blog: Hippy Djkit)
From the album: Windy Wednesday (mp3)

Featuring: "A Bunch of Us Were Sitting Around a Candle in San Francisco Getting Stoned and I Hope You're There Next Time."
"Gordon Alexander offered songs that reflected the beatific side of the hippie experience on Gordon's Buster, yet in a mild, faintly sunshine-pop influenced style that steered it well clear of the weirdest things coming out of California at the time. There's a sense of the playful psych/pop of, say, Sagittarius or Chris Lucey/Bobby Jameson, yet Alexander seems earthier and a little more connected to some genuinely stoned whimsy. Gratuitous washes of echo and distorted guitar come into the mix at times, yet sometimes it sounds like he's trying to do a psychedelic take on Glen Campbell. In all it's an eclectic period curiosity with some interesting baroque touches."  (Description by Richie Unterberger, at All Music)

 

Peg Leg Sam  ~  "Medicine Show Man"
(Blog: MilChapitas)

Must Watch: Born for Hard Luck (1976)
"With a sobriquet straight out of the pages of a pirate novel Peg Leg Sam promises much in the way of flamboyant musical knavery. His sole entry for the Trix label makes good on the pledge. Sam’s songbook transcends the blues’ porous boundaries and overlaps with old-timey country and folk repertoires. All were learned on his peregrinations through the States and even overseas to Cuba, Jamaica and the Bahamas. Friendship with songster Pink Anderson led a lengthy career in the medicine shows. As such, the disc’s title isn’t some flippant marketing ploy. Substantial technique informs his extempore harmonica style and he accomplishes some amazing feats, but it’s all in deference to the various moods that strike him.  (Description by Derek, at Bagatellen)

 

Buddy Rich & Alla Rakha  ~  "Rich à la Rakha"
(Blog: Dr. Schluss' Garage of Psychedelic Obscurities)
From the album: Khanda Kafi (mp3)

Slap Dash
"For those of us living in the West, jazz drumming legend Buddy Rich is the marquee name here, although it's not particularly representative of what you're going to get with this recording. Neither is the trendy, '68 vintage psychedelic exploitation lettering gracing the cover. No, this is in fact a collaboration with the sterling Indian percussionist Alla Rakha, and it's his musical DNA that is most apparent here. Fortunately, the end result is a quite good album of classically-minded Indian music with a few jazz flourishes (although for the most part it seems that Mr. Rich is joining in with hand percussion or just a tom drum)."  (Description by Dr. Schluss , at Dr. Schluss' Garage Of Psychedelic Obscurities )

 

 

Bariş Manço  ~  29 Singles
(Blog: Turkish Psychedelic Music)

We'll Always Have Bariş
"Along with Erkin, Baris Manco is one of the earliest stars of Turkish rock'n roll whose first public -success dates back to late 50's.  He won scholarship in Belgium Royal Academy in 1963 and went to Belgium to study graphics and art. By the time he was there he was always busy with music and put out records in both Belgium and in Turkey (to where he returned for four or five months every year. Influenced by the rapid cultural movements occuring at the time in Europe, he realised his own country could be the cultural link between East and West, a link avidly sought by many open-minded Western European thoughts. After his collaborations with Les Mistigris and Kaygisizlar, Manço went on to form another band under his name which compromised of multi-national musicians. Best remembered for their fantastic live bluesy underground music."  (Description by Gökhan Aya & Jay Dobis, reprinted at Progressive.Homestead.com)

Air  ~  "Open Air Suit"
(Blog: música en espiral)
From the album: Card Two: The Jick or Mandrill's Cosmic Ass (mp3)

Air Is Human
"The compositions on this LP are by [Henry] Threadgill, but all three instruments participate as equals in the improvisations. Of particular interest are the complex, fluid rhythms that the group develops, with Threadgill and [Fred] Hopkins sensitively responding to each other from moment to moment to develop the core rhythm, and [Steve] McCall syncopating off of that—or so it seems to me. The effect is kaleidoscopic. Threadgill plays a different instrument on each track—alto, tenor, and baritone saxophone, and flute." (Description by ?, at Kickass Torrents ) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 123

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

Few things in the prevailing political climate enrage me more than the Republicans' obscene slashing and burning of governmental structures with the capacity to do public good. Given the current governor of Florida, it's a marvel that the Sunshine State still has a shred of a budget line supporting the archival activities of its state library's Memory project. A large component of the effort has been the conscientious work of archivists, folklorists and historians, cataloging and making accessible a considerable trove of sound recordings and photographs from 58 years of the Florida Folklife Festival.

My favorite manifestation of their work so far has been the four full-length CDs of blues, gospel, folk, old-timey and ethnic immigrant musics that the state has produced (here, here, here, and here). You can avail yourself of digital downloads posted on the Florida Memory website, or request physical copies, which will be mailed free of charge! Now a fifth must-have CD—an all-blues collection—has been forged from the Florida archives, and that compilation is the lead-off item in today's Motherlode.

 

 Drop on down in Florida...

 

Various  ~  "Where the Palm Trees Shake at Night"
(Site: State Library & Archives of Florida)
From the album: Apple Farm Blues (mp3) by Moses Williams

Your Tax Dollars at Work
"The music presented on Where the Palm Trees Shake at Night was selected from hundreds of hours of Florida Folk Festival performances and field recordings spanning 25 years, from 1977-2002. Alongside the down-home folk traditions of Emmett Murray, Richard Williams, and Moses Williams are performances of standard Blues by Albert “Buck” Thompson, Charles Atkins and Martin “Tampa Blue” Locklear. The Piedmont finger-picking style of North Carolina guitarist Etta Baker was captured at the Florida Folk Festival, as was the renowned Washington, D.C. duo Cephas and Wiggins’ more modernized interpretation of Piedmont Blues."  (Description provided by the Memory Project at Florida's State Library & Archives)

 

Bill Dixon  ~  "Considerations"
Volume 1  |  Volume 2
(Blog: Inconstant Sol)

Dixon's the One
"The six minute trumpet solo “Long Alone Song” is quite lovely and evidence of what Taylor Ho Bynum notes as Dixon’s desire to make his trumpet sound like an orchestra. There’s a richness of tone and expression here, but also a naked intimacy that comes from the format. In this week’s New Yorker, Marc Fisher’s article on WBAI legend Bob Fass (article not online, but there is some audio here) at one point cites Miles Davis’s line on choosing “not to play all the notes you could play, but to wait, hesitate, let space become a part of the configuration.” Though Dixon might blanch at the Miles reference, it’s incredibly apt, as Dixon fearlessly embraces hesitation, and makes space an integral part of his musical framework."  (Description by Destination Out)

 

Jeanne Lee  ~  "Conspiracy"
(Blog: Free Form, Free Jazz)
From the album: Sundance (mp3)

I Dream of Jeanne
"Her first solo album, Conspiracy (Earthform, 1974) displayed her creative style, which expanded the jazz vocabulary with gestures borrowed from Tibet and India, inspired by Yma Sumac, taking advantage not only of the "voice" but also of lip and throat sounds."  (Commentary by Piero Scaruffi, at Sunnyside Records)

 

 

Various  ~  "A Bottle of Wine and a Ginger Cake"
(Blog: Allen's Archive of Early and Old Country Music)
From the album: Pick and Shovel (mp3) by Clay Turner

All Hail Peanut Cantrell
"The back country of southeast Tennessee, though not as celebrated or documented as east Tennessee, has in the past provided some of the best old-time music to come out of the state. Modern times have done a lot toward breaking down and diffusing this once-thriving folk music culture, but a surprising amount of the old music does survive for those who have the patience and resources to seek it out....All too often we hear today that the genuine old time music is all but extinct in the grass-roots South, that it is played only by folklorists and self-conscious revivalists. Here is proof to the contrary—proof that at least some of the wellsprings of traditional music still flow."  (Charles Wolfe, from the liner notes)

Helen Carr  ~  "Complete Bethlehem Collection"
(Blog: Sic Vos Non Nobis)
[Click here for password]

A Great Unknown
"She was born in 1922 or 1924 in Salt Lake City. Carr recorded "Say It Isn't So" with Charles Mingus in 1946 in Los Angeles. She married pianist-arranger Donn Trenner and worked with him in a group called The Donn Trio and Helen. She sang for short periods of time with the big bands of Charlie Barnet, Georgie Auld, Chuck Foster, Skinnay Ennis, Stan Kenton and Buddy Morrow. She sat in with Charlie Parker a couple times and made two albums for Bethlehem; one in a quintet with trumpeter Don Fagerquist, altoist Charlie Mariano, Donn Trenner, bassist Max Bennett and drummer Stan Levey, and one with a trio comprised of trumpeter Cappy Lewis, guitarist Howard Roberts and bassist Red Mitchell. These are either from 1953 and 1954 or both from 1955, depending on the discography one looks at." (Scott Yanow, on a message board at Jazz Corner) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 122

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

Today, Mining the Audio Motherlode sings the praises of the online jazz site Destination: Out on the occasion of its 5th birthday. Having risen from the ashes of an unrequited book project, this thoughtful, passionate blog quickly established itself as an essential destination in the ever-expanding universe of online music-sharing sites.

Co-proprietors Chilly Jay Chill (Jeff Jackson) and Prof. Drew LeDrew (Jeff Golick) take their time crafting richly satisfying explorations of the music and musicians they love, sharing a song or two from overlooked or under-appreciated recordings, along with commentary of uncommon eloquence.

To celebrate five years of Destination: Out, I have highlighted a number of my favorite posts from the site's first half decade. Because the audio offerings on these archived pages are no longer extant, I have provided links to other blogs where downloads are still active.

 

 Five more years, five more years...

Ric Colbeck  ~  The Sun Is Coming Up

From August 24, 2010 (reposted from 12/17/06)
"It’s always satisfying and not a little surprising when one of the grails of avant jazz turns out, when finally found, to deliver the goods. It’s as if, for one brief, blazing moment, one’s faith is restored, and justified (if not one’s dorkiness). This quartet session has been canonized by none other than ecstatic noise connoisseur Thurston Moore."  (Destination: Out)

[The Sun Is Coming Up is available at Hominis Canidae.]

 

Ornette Coleman  ~  Lost Tones: Hyper-Rare Recordings

From March 13, 2011
"What can we say about legendary saxophonist and composer Ornette Coleman? He’s among the most important living musicians of any genre. His contributions to jazz are incalculable and the titles of early albums such as Change of the Century and The Shape of Jazz to Come now seem less like marketing hyperbole and more pedestrian statements of fact. His harmolodic concepts have altered the very way we hear music."  (Destination: Out)

[ A download of "Man on the Moon" isn't available, but you can hear it here (pop-up player)]

 

Brotherhood of Breath  ~  "Brotherhood of Breath"

From September 11, 2006
"Brotherhood of Breath is an easy band to love. The proto-Brotherhood, leader McGregor’s Blue Notes, formed in South Africa: the very existence of this mixed-race ensemble was an affront to apartheid. Unwelcome and unable to secure gigs, the band headed north, eventually ending up in England, where they quickly fell in with a Who’s Who of late ’60s UK jazz players – the more adventurous among them, anyway." (Destination: Out)

[Brotherhood of Breath is available at Brian.]

 

Marion Brown  ~  Memorial Post

From October 25, 2010
"While the passing of any great jazz musician saddens us, the death of Marion Brown hits especially hard. There was such a palpable warmth and intelligence to his composing and playing that you couldn’t help but feel like you knew something of the personality behind the horn. His playing was never showy, insisting on shadings and subtleties. He had a rare ability to ground abstract ideas in earthy tones, and vice versa. His compositions were often full of ellipses and evasions – not to outsmart the listener but to invite you to listen more closely. Above all else, Marion Brown’s music insisted on communicating. It wanted to forge deep connections."  (Destination: Out )

[Juba Lee is available at Free the Music.]

 

The John Betsch Society  ~  "Earth Blossom"

From January 11, 2011
"A lost classic of spiritual jazz, we’d wager that Earth Blossom is more familiar to groove fiends than free jazz aficionados. But fans of adventurous jazz – of whatever stripe – need to know this record. It’s brimming with surging horns, percolating polyrhythms, soulful guitar lines, and just enough ragged edges to keep things honest. The textures sometimes even verge on the kozmigroov and psychedelic." (Destination: Out) 

[Earth Blossom is available at African Gospel Church .]

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some — Tuesdays (6-7pm) and Fridays (9 to noon) — on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 121

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

Go ahead, find your bliss among this quintet of understated delights. None may send you frothing ecstatically into the street, but don't be surprised if, one day soon, just a wee bit of froth comes oozing to the surface.

1 Four years after fellow Nigerian Babatunde Olatunji's successful African percussion/American jazz "Drums of Passion" fusions for Columbia, Solomon G. Ilori released this sole Blue Note charmer.

2 Colombian composer and band leader Francisco "Pacho" Galán wasn't the originator of the merengue/cumbia hybrid merecumbé, but his orchestra pumped out the most popular hits first.

3 Chet Baker joined Bud Shank on this platter, the sax/flute master's second descent into Beatlemania.

4 I love PSF's description of this OOP Kan Mikami record: "This has long circulated in fan circles and is whispered to be one of the most powerful dates the bald colossus ever played. Captured live at Kochi University in front of a crowd of hyped-up wannabe student revolutionaries, Mikami breathes raging white-heat into a set of lurid, rabble-rousing classics."

5 The short-lived Swiss sextet Magog released two recordings, a live date from Montreux in '73 and this hard-to-find studio session recorded a year later.

 

 Ooze and Ahs...

 

1 Solomon Ilori & His Afro-Drum Ensemble  ~  African Highlife"
(Blogs: Coleção de Sons)

High on Life
This album can be regarded as Solomon Ilori's modest contribution to the appreciation of African music in this country. It is also the beginning of what I see to be a brilliant career as a his fans, particularly at the Village Gate and at Birdland will readily agree. Moreover, those who are familiar with the importance of talking drums in the life of African people will applaud the prominence which they have been given throughout the album...Most of the numbers in the album are Solomon Ilori's fashion of African "high life." To listen to them is to go through a relaxed period of pleasure and delight."  (From the liner notes, by Oladejo Okediji)

 

2 Pacho Galán  ~  "El Rey del Merecumbé"
(Blog: El Stinkeyes)

Merengue and Cumbia Had a Baby and Named it Merecumbé
"The maestro Pacho Galán had many facets to orchestrate the different forms, using saxophones, trumpets, trombones, clarinets, piano, percussion, violins, flutes, singers, etc. Instruments where reloaded his musical structure within the context of most of his arrangements of popular music were the saxophone and percussion instruments, having these special participation within each piece of music. In this way he managed to create a sound identity and personal style, then continue adding the other instruments that made ​​up his orchestra in their own style. The merecumbé is a faithful representation of these concepts."  (Google translated, from Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango)

3 Bud Shank  ~  "Magical Mystery"
(Blog: Van Groove Express)

Another Claims to Be the Walrus
"Bud Shank's second Beatles-titled album of the 60s – and a set that's even groovier than the first! The record features a wonderful jazz-based approach to "second chapter" Beatles–with arranger Bob Florence providing superb arrangements for post-Rubber Soul tunes, which are mixed in with some other hip 60s pop numbers too! Bud plays alto sax and flute–still in the lead on the solos–but also couched wonderfully in work from players who include Chet Baker and Gary Barone on flugelhorns, Herb Ellis and Dennis Budimir on guitars, and Victor Feldman on percussion."  (Description courtesy of Dusty Groove)

4 Kan Mikami  ~  "Live in Kouchi University, 1972"
(Blog: Japanese Old Prog/Psych Rock)

Yes We Kan
"Kan Mikami sings the blues, brutal, universal, sad. He sings fado. His voice hits you in the guts and resounds like the howling of the wind. There’s something immutable about his ballads, slowly weathered over time under the lights and in the shadows. A clear electro-acoustic guitar contrasts with his powerful voice that rasps slightly as if damaged and torn countless times."  (Franck Stofer, at Sonore )

 

5 Magog  ~  "Magog"
(Blog: William Tell's Guitar)

Horn Matter
"A bit of Swiss jazz won't hurt. Founded by trumpeter Hans Kennel, this is a high level mix of complex conventional, fusion and experimental jazz. The album was recorded in November 1974 at the Tonstudio Bauer (in Ludwigsburg, Germany) and released on Japo Record in 1976. The album is fairly calm and soft all the way through with some energetic Fender Rhodes and trumpet blows. A mellow marriage which you will love I'm sure!" (Commentary by Paul Dormenfy, at William Tell's Guitar ) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some — Tuesdays (6-7pm) and Fridays (9 to noon) — on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Eric Fensler: An interview with the creator of the GI Joe PSA parodies

By Joe DeMartino

WATCH MORE ON NETWORK AWESOME

It wasn’t terribly easy to get something to go viral back before YouTube, Facebook, and other meme distributors. Most viral videos came in the form of full websites (think the Hamster Dance) or e-mailed .mov files (think the dancing baby) -- odd little accidents that look a bit embarrassing today, like a pair of bell-bottom jeans. One early viral sensation that has held up, however, is the series of GI Joe public service announcement parodies produced by Fenslerfilms. The parodies were an absurdist take on the original PSAs -- exhortations to stay safe and never talk to strangers were warped into a world where heavily armed and armored super-commandos harassed and confronted kids who were playing on construction sites or riding without a helmet. Series creator Eric Fensler talks about the creation process, the legal trouble with Hasbro he narrowly avoided, and what he and Fenslerfilms are up to these days.

NAmag: How did the original idea for the PSAs come about?

The idea to make the PSAs came from just revisiting the footage from my childhood via a DVD I found at Virgin Megastore in Chicago, IL on Michigan Ave. I went there on my lunch break a lot just to listen to music or just check out the sale cart bin of DVD's, CD's, records, and lotions. I found the GI Joe movie on DVD for 5 bucks and it had 25 of the PSAs as an extra supplement. I ripped the footage off and put it on my computer and started just messing around with it. Nothing much more to it.

NAmag: How did you go about making them?

I used Avid, Final Cut Pro, and Pro Tools. Standard programs in the post-production process.

NAmag: How did you find out that the PSAs were receiving wide distribution? This was pre-YouTube, so you couldn't just, say, suddenly notice that their view count had skyrocketed.

My gallery in Chicago, Heaven Gallery, had been hosting them on their site in 2003 and we originally got shut down because the PSAs had exceeded the bandwidth for that month. Something like over trillions and trillions and googillions of hits in 2003. No one could pay the bill.

Uncle Joe figured it out -- he does all my website stuff. So each month, Uncle Joe would put new PSAs up until we exceeded the hits, I guess, and it would shut down. I really don't know for certain. My apologies for not knowing the facts, to be honest I don't concern myself with these types of details. I did get a lot of emails from people saying how much they liked them, that was a good barometer I guess. Should I think about this stuff?

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 120

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

Surely it's some anal completest thing, but I've always favored albums over singles. I've got nothing against the little records with the big holes, but the physical object of the LP—with copious liner notes, larger cover art, and, of course, extra tracks—has always held the greater appeal for me. (Readers of a certain generation will remember the exquisite utility of gatefold covers for removing stems and seeds.) But in the digital dollar bins of music-sharing blogs where it's all just zeros and ones anyway, what's the big diff? In my case at least, it seems old music hoarding habits are hard to break.

Since its inception, Mining the Audio Motherlode has reflected this preference by focusing almost exclusively on blogs spinning at 33⅓ rpm. But over the weeks and months it's been bugging me that a veritable tsunami of superlative singles has received short shrift in these pages. In this week's post and in sporadic future installments your faithful Miner intends to address the disparity by training the old illuminated helmet on some tasty helpings of smaller platters. To wit...

 

 Seven inches to heaven...

 

Denver Duke & Jeffrey Null ~  "When We Meet Up Yonder" / "Lonesome for Mother"
(Blogs: Hillbilly-Researcher)

A Lovely Couple...of Cowboys
Info is sketchy on this duo of Tennessee-born warblers that came to minor prominence through their recording of a number of mid-'50s Hank Williams tribute songs. Duke, who early on was billed as the "The man with a woman's voice, has apparently been performing for quite some time using the stage moniker Johnny Eagle Feather.

 

 

Pure Heart Travelers  ~  "Call the Angels" (sic)
(Blog: Bap-Tizum)

Satan: "Look Man, Why Don't You Be Cool?
OK, this is a full LP and not single, but only two killer tracks, "Chilly Wind" and "Satin Is Riding" are provided at Ben Hall's breathtaking gospel blog Bap-Tizum. And yes, there's gotta be a special green room in hell for gospel groups that misspell "Satan" on the record jacket.

 

Vyckoss Ekondo  ~  "Dibenga" / "Mbea"
(Blog: Sea Never Dry)

The Gift of Gabon
"Vyckoss Ekondo grew up in Libreville and started his musical career at the Lycee Leon M'ba (M'ba was Gabon's first president; the second and current president is Omar Bongo, the world's longest serving ruler, excluding monarchies). After further studies in Canada, Vyckoss returned to Gabon and became a well-known television presenter, hosting the popular 'Sunday Idol' show, a launching pad for many young bands. He also composed soundtracks and in the 1980s started a musical troupe, combining traditional dance and initiation rhythms."  (Commentary by Pieter, at Sea Never Dry)

 

De Kalafe e A Turma~  "Guerra" / "Mundo Quadrado"
(Blog: Trackfinder Brazil)

Such Watch!
"De Kalafe ou Denisse De Kalafe as she is known now in Latin America, was born in Ponta Grossa, Paraná State (Brazil). She started her career on the second half of the 1960s, with the group the Turma. They released a single, now rare, with the Brazilian psychedelic rock  songs "Guerra" and "Mundo Quadrado," both composed by Arnaldo Saccomani, who later became a respected producer in Brazil. "Guerra" was a local hit in São Paulo. After the second single, which contained the cover "Bang Bang" from Sony and Cher, the band quit. De Kalafe never liked wearing shoes and used to perform bare footed, which didn’t please the audience those times. She was also known by her independent spirit and activism. Her songs were hippie style and anti-militarist right during the Vietnam War. After not being classified for a Song Festival by the end of the 1960’s, she moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, and there she became known as Denisse De Kalafe, and she is now among the superstars in Latin America, while in Brazil she is completely unknown."  (Commentary by Trackfinder Brazil)

Sammy Harris  ~  "King Zulu" / "Fatso"
(Blog: Wired for Sound)

One of the Great Duet Recordings of any Genre, Ever
"It probably didn't help matters that Harris only made this one record, but if you're going to make just one, you should make it count. "King Zulu" and "Fatso" are pure fun. There is a strong Louis Jordan and Amos Milburn influence working here. (Who cares if the brass are a little out of tune?) It was recorded at ACA [Audio Corporation of America in Houston] in 1950 and probably released around September of that year. The record itself is a high quality flexible vinyl pressing by Gold Star/Research Craft." (Commentary by Wired by Sound) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 119

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

Periodically I devote the entire hour of my Tuesday broadcast of "Give the Drummer Some" to a favorite music-sharing blog deserving wider recognition. I was chuffed to dedicate last night's show to the music obsessives' paradise Record Fiend, where reading the erudite, lovingly written portraits of lost recordings and forgotten artists is as sublime a diversion the Internet has to offer. Of course, there are great teetering mounds of vital albums—uniformly eccentric and essential—available for download as well.

When you visit, be sure to scroll back through Record Fiend's two and a half years of archived pages. Some of my favorite offerings include a thoughtful history of the Motor City psychfolkers Spike-Drivers; a epic series of posts championing Johnny Darrell here, here, here, here, here and here; and an exigesis of the long-lost LP The Legend of Sir Robert Charles Griggs (see this week's lead-off item, below). A celebration in word and sound, Record Fiend is music appreciation of the highest order.

 

 With fiends like these...

 

Sir Robert Charles Griggs  ~  "The Legend of Sir Robert Charles Griggs"
(Blogs: Record Fiend)

From Sir With Love
"The Legend of Sir Robert Charles Griggs is more a country album than anything else, and a delightfully bizarre one at that. With production from Gary S. Paxton and support from musicians like pedal steel guitarist Pete Drake and fiddler Doug Kershaw, it features a more traditional Nashville sound combined with psychedelic touches courtesy of a Moog synthesizer and sound effects. While some people might cringe at the very notion of the latter elements, I feel that they are used judiciously and enhance the performances instead of overwhelming them. Legend can best be appreciated as an artistic statement from a supremely talented sideman whose experiences with the music industry have left him disenchanted, to say the very least."  (RF, at Record Fiend )

S.D. Burman  ~  "Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi"
(Blog: Parties, Sarees and Melodies)

Real Men Dig Kishore Kumar
Inspired by the Marx Brothers' antics, this 1958 comedy is landmark in Indian cinema. The account "The Making of Chalti Ka Naam Gaadi," by Suguna Sundaram is almost as hysterical as the film apparently is. Read it here.

Universal Congress Of  ~  "The Sad and Tragic Demise of Big Fine Hot Salty Black Wind"
(Blog: The Title Is Everything)

The Longer the Title, the Better
"Without a doubt one of the most overlooked and under-appreciated bands to grace this modern age, Universal Congress Of spawned from the wreckage of Joe Baiza's seminal jazz-punk group Saccharine Trust (who were signed to the venerable SST Records during its heyday). While they certainly bear some similarities to their forebears, Universal Congress Of dispense of the cryptic lyrical waxing in favor of a chimerical blend of jazz, funk and whatever else that grooves."  (Commentary by te a fatige, at The Title Is Everything)

 

Dele Abiodun  ~  "It's Time for Juju Music"
(Blog: The Growing Bin)

Such Watch!
"It's Time for Juju Music was Dele Abiodun's first international release. King Sunny Ade and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey were taking juju music to the world, so Dele Abiodun & His Top Hitters Band decided to take their own brand of highlife and funk inflected juju to an international audience, as well. There are 7 tracks on the LP, but you'll never notice a break until the end of the record. Both sides play as one track which is the way these bands perform live. They usually jam for hours, sometimes all night without a break."  (Commentary by Zeroy, at The Growing Bin)

Rashied Ali & Frank Lowe ~  "Duo Exchange"
(Blog: Free the Music)

One of the Great Duet Recordings of any Genre, Ever
"Duo Exchange dates from 1972 and reveals Frank Lowe still in the process of purging the overt Coltrane-isms from his improvising. The two collectively extemporized compositions here are not mere sequels to the cosmological visions of Ali's 'other' saxophone-drums duet record, Coltrane's own Interstellar Space. If anything, "Exchange Part 1" and "Exchange Part 2" are less orchestral, less unrelenting, and less flowing than the performances from that earlier record. The scale of Duo Exchange is more human; though there are moments of anguish and triumph commensurate with those on Interstellar Space, the context here is very, very different. Of particular interest in these performances is just how Lowe responds to Ali's virtuosity, his split-second ability to free-associate shards of metric patterns and his kaleidoscopic sense of percussive coloration. Lowe often lets go of his phrases such that his notes somehow fall in those small open cells of silence in Ali's otherwise overpowering detail. The more closely one listens, the more it becomes obvious that Lowe is assembling a steady beat from the wailing pull of his tenor sax against the coruscating push of Ali's kit. In this setting, Lowe is the chorus—the rueful and wise narrative agent—and Ali the flamboyant actor personifying the tragically incongruous circumstances that befall the individual as they follow the trajectory of hubris. It is clear even from this brief recording (barely over half an hour in length) that Frank Lowe is one of the most unique of "free" players, as his playing demonstrates how deeply he comprehends the serious risks involved in his aesthetic. Frank Lowe's art is a super-realistic one, because it is an art open to life and life's endlessly proliferating decisions, each of which is possessed of an integrity and gravity that is to be honored." (By Joe Milazzo, at One Final Note ) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 118

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

Remember the legendary NYC record emporium SoHo Music Gallery? Located at the corner of Wooster and Grand, for a while it was next-door neighbor to a kosher sushi restaurant called Shalom Japan. (I kid you not.) The list of ex-record clerks at SoHo Music Gallery could fill a music who's who. Jesus, who didn't work there? Future downtown stars John Zorn, Tim Berne, Anthony Coleman; future Luaka Bop headman Yale Evelev; future WFMU royalty Ken Freedman and Ray Franks—just to name-drop a few. Music lovers like me made frequent pilgrimages to the joint just to shuffle around and attempt to look cool while thumbing through the bins. If you were lucky and happened to be around while new boxes of LPs were being opened, you'd crane your neck as undorkily as possible to try to see the latest arrivals.

During one particular visit to the store in 1987, I remember stumbling upon a box of records containing many dozens of copies of a single album—John Cage Meets Sun Ra. Wow! It wasn't easy remaining nonchalant when confronted with such a dense concentration of holy vinyl. I must have been stunned, because for some stupid-ass reason I didn't buy a copy. I must've made the genius calculation that there were so many, I'd just swing back in a few days and snag one then. Of course, the box and its contents were gone upon my return. Cementing the ignominy, SoHo Music Gallery itself disappeared not too long after that.

I lived with the nagging lament of that missed opportunity until last year when I stumbled on a page at the magnificent UbuWeb that, miraculously, has MP3s of John Cage Meets Sun Ra. Then recently, the newish Sun Ra-related blog Adventure Equation posted both sides of the record as two lossless FLAC files, along with dust-jacket artwork. (See the lead-off item, below.)

Sponsored by Coney Island's Sideshows by the Seashore, John Cage and Sun Ra were presented as a double bill almost exactly 25 years ago—June 8, 1986. Despite the album's misleading title, most accounts of the concert state that the two alternated sets and never actually shared the stage. Nevertheless, "Blue" Gene Tyranny in a review of the disc asserts that Messrs. Cage and Ra did in fact perform together toward the end of the evening, though there is no audible evidence of this on the recording.

 

 Holy grail, Batman...

 

John Cage & Sun Ra  ~  "John Cage Meets Sun Ra"
(Blog: .   Adventure-Equation   .)

Nice Double Bill
"Knowing the stories and ideas of these two men, the performance of this album is almost the sonic equivalent of their lives. Sun Ra shows off his zany, spaced out mind. His music sounds like it’s from another planet, a royal proclamation from Saturn. Conversely, John Cage shows his independent, introspective self with his Empty Words IV literature and extended periods of silence. The two together form a compilation of some of the strangest, weirdest, and somehow profound music of all time. Both men being under appreciated and extremely important 20th century innovators, they never worry about fans or appeal like so many other artists. The two men show a love for music, ideas, and the profound relationship between them."  (Tyler Fisher, at Sputnik Music )

 

Keni Okulolo  ~  "Talkin' Bass Experience"
(Blogs: San Pasquale Ent.)

Need to Know Bassist
Take good care with this one people, it's a killer LP, and even if it sounds really crispy you should love it…Simply one of the best Nigerian bassist, playing with men like Victor Olaiya or even the great Fela Kuti, he's also, with Joni Hasstrupp, an original founder of Monomono, well known Nigerian band, who released two killer lps "Give the Beggar a Chance" and "Dawn of Awareness.""  (xensma, at San Pasquale Ent. )

"Hillbilly: Bop, Boogie & Honky Tonk Blues"  ~  Volume 1  |  Volume 2  |  Volume 3
(Blog: Western & Bop)

Boogie Days, Nights, Weekends
Brother Drop Dead (Boogie), Diddy Wah Boogie, Mountain Boogie, Georgia Boogie, Grandpa's Boogie, Jug Band Boogie, Spookie Boogie, Big Chief Boogie, Sugarfoot Boogie, Hadacol Boogie, Hillbilly Boogie, Boogie Man Boogie, Choo Choo Ch'boogie, The Haunted House Boogie, Tamburitza Boogie, Hi De Ho Boogie, Motor City Boogie, Byrd's Boogie, Hoe Down Boogie, Ball and Chain Boogie, Bomb Bosh Boogie, I Love You Boogie, Beatin' Out the Boogie, Tight Shoe Boogie, Boogie Woogie Baby, Bullfrog Boogie, Country Style Boogie, Steeling the Boogie, Wine-O Boogie, Help Me Lose the Boogie Woogie Blues and 113 other tracks on six discs. Go git 'em.

 

31st of February  ~  "31st of February"
(Blog: Old Melodies… Dream's Mirror)

Wouldn't That Be March 3rd?
"Co-produced by Steve Alaimo and Mike Shapiro, 1969's "The 31st of February" has always struck me as an undiscovered gem. Performed with considerable enthusiasm, the collection was varied and energetic. [Scott] Boyer had a great voice, that occasionally reminded me of a more commercial Greg Allman, perfectly suited for the band's excursions into Byrds-styled folk-rock ("Porcelain Mirrors" and "A Different Kind of Head"), progressive ("Treason") and psyche ("A Nickel's Worth of Benny's Help"). Elsewhere, the standout tracks may have been [David] Brown's stomping "Wrong" and the trio's ghostly cover of Buffy Sainte Marie's "Co'dine." Among the few missteps; Brown's "Broken Day" was a little too sensitive singer/songwriter, while the band's cover of Jackie DeShannon's "The Greener Isle" (good taste in outside material), came off as MOR (blame Shelby Singleton's overwhelming string arrangement). Unfortunately, the set generated little in the way of sales."  (Scott Blackerby, at BadCat Records)

Coon-Sanders Nighthawks  ~  "Radio Aces"
(Blog: Lonesome Lefty's Scratchy Attic)

"Howdja Do, Howdja Do, Howdja Do—You Big 'Ol Raddio Pooblic"
"Arranger [Joe] Sanders was among the first to spread saxophone-section voicing: he inserted a vocal into almost every selection, and every instrument was given a chance to be heard. Coon-Sanders played jazz—original and unique; their music was happy and peppy, invitational to dancers or foot-tappers. Joe's boyhood training as choir vocalist and concert pianist enabled him to provide the Nighthawks with material bordering on what may be called "concert jazz." He wrote numerous and delightful "breaks" into numbers, pyramided chord structures, punctuated his music with stops. Hymns and spirituals were often played in syncopation!" (Paul F. Karberg, from the liner notes) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
Send your email address to get on the mailing list for a weekly newsletter about the show, the stream and Mining the Audio Motherlode.

Check out every installment of Mining the Audio Motherlode

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 117

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

Even for veteran music-blog spelunkers like your amiable Miner (left), extracting all the riches out of the sonic substrata can be a daunting challenge. Just keeping up with the hundreds of long-sought rarities and brand-new revelations posted each week is virtually impossible. Add to that the steady wave of new sites entering the subterranean soiree on a daily basis and this scavenging for free music obsession can become overwhelming overnight.

But that's really not the half of it. Many dozens of essential blogs have been sharing music for years now, and their copious archived pages are packed with old posts featuring must-have albums—that are still downloadable! So not only do you have to ride each wave of new posts, you've got to plunge down into the murky deep. (Not to mention dodge the mixed metaphors.)

The lead-off item in this week's Motherlode represents an entirely different category of buried pleasure: An ancient post (in this case over three years old) at a dormant blog—Pharaoh's Dance—with still active download links. Crikey! It's like you have to be some time-traveling virtual Jules Verne trawling 20,000 leagues under the Internet. Maybe it really is time to give up.

No worries, though. Part-Ahab, part-Nemo, your faithful Miner will never abandon the pursuit.

 Bali-Ha'i!...

Tatsuya Nakamura  ~  "Song of Pat"
(Blog: Pharaoh's Dance)

Lofty Jazz
"From the harmonic invention of Big Father to the meditative melodic/textural duet journey of the title track, I cannot stop listening to this one. I am continuously amazed by the stylistic versatility of Richard Davis who is absolutely baffling on this record."  (Comment by Downlowsoul, at Pharaoh's Dance )

 

Obi Wuru Out Dance Band  ~ "Nwanyi Ma Obi Diya"
(Blogs: Likembe)

Igbonanza
"The vocal stylings of Rose Nzuruike (above) were what made Nwanyi Ma Obi Diya stand out amid a torrent of similar releases during the '80s, and what sends Igbos, and especially Owerri indigenes, into a swoon. Which is not to short-change the talents of the group itself (below) and especially its leader, Madam Maria Anokwuru. Released on an obscure Onitsha record label, it became one of the biggest-selling Igbo records of all time."  (This is just the opening paragraph of a longer description by John B. at the magnificent Likembe)

 

Various  ~  "Old Originals, Vols. 1 & 2"
(Blog: Times Ain't Like They Used to Be)

Old Is the New Black
"A great collection of field recordings made by Tom Carter and Blanton Owen in 1976, who went to the Blue Ridge Mountains in search of old-time musicians. The selections are mostly fiddle or banjo (and sometimes the two together) but there's also some fife and drum music, harmonica, autoharp, and some really nice old-time piano (the best I heard since Hobart Smith). Lovers of real and authentic old-time music should enjoy this two records very much."  (Gadaya, at Times Ain't Like They Used to Be)

[FYI: Times Ain't Like They Used to Be is no longer active, but its proprietor has started another fantastic blog called Cornbread, Molasses & Sassafras Tea.]

 

Chatri Sichon  ~  "Chom Nang"
(Blog: Monrakplengthai)

Bangkollywood
"Chatri is crazy! He was a luk thung singer from Chon Buri who, at some point in his career, became enamored with Indian film music, and created this fantastic album, based largely on that sound. Since him there have been several other singers who have developed a penchant for filmi, but at the time Chatri was in a league of his own and his songs have been the backbone of the ลูกทุ่งทำนองอินเดีย (luk thung tham nong india) style. As far as I can tell all these melodies are original (rather than just Indian tunes with Thai lyrics. Please tell me if you know otherwise!)."  (Peter, at Monrakplengthai)

Granmoun Lélé  ~  "Zelvoula"
(Blog: Freedomblues)

Family Réunion
"The maloya style originated in the cane fields of Réunion during the slave days. At that time the island was called Île Bourbon. The word “maloya” from the Malagasy maloy aho, which roughly means “say what you gotta say.” It follows then the singing maloya songs was a way for cane harvest slaves to express themselves and speak their story. Maloya music is characterized by its prominent percussion and passionate, repetitive lyrics." (Matt Yanchyshyn, at Benn Loxo du Taccu) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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[Excerpt from e-flux Journal] Hans Ulrich Obrist, In Conversation With Julian Assange, Part I

HUO: Do you have dreams for the future?

JA: Yes, many. I’ll tell you about one, which is interesting. Orwell’s dictum, “He who controls the present controls the past, and he who controls the past controls the future,” was never truer than it is now. With digital archives, with these digital repositories of our intellectual record, control over the present allows one to perform an absolutely untraceable removal of the past. More than ever before, the past can be made to completely, utterly, and irrevocably disappear in an undetectable way. Orwell’s dictum came about as result of what happened in 1953 to the Great Soviet Encyclopedia. That year, Stalin died and Beria fell out of favor. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia had a page and a half on Beria from before he fell out of favor, and it was decided that the positive description of Beria had to go. So, an addendum page was made and sent to all registered holders of this encyclopedia with instructions specifying that the previous page should be pasted over with the new page, which was an expanded section on the Bering Straight. However, users of the encyclopedia would later see that the page had been pasted over or ripped out—everyone became aware of the replacement or omission, and so we know about it today. That’s what Orwell was getting at. In 2008, one of the richest men in the UK, Nadhmi Auchi—an Iraqi who grew rich under one of Saddam Husain’s oil ministries and left to settle in the UK in the early 1980s—engaged in a series of libel threats against newspapers and blogs. He had been convicted of corruption in France in 2003 by the then magistrate Eva Joly in relation to the Elf Aquitaine scandal.

(read the rest...)

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 116

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

I've always had a great personal affection for jazz records with really off-the-wall "WTF?" liner notes. Especially those graced with incomprehensible literary dribble written by the artists themselves. It's as if the soul-bearing act of making the music just wasn't quite soul-bearing enough. Take for instance this excerpt from a rant Charles Mingus delivers on the back of The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady:

"Musicians partly come into the circle of various blame which encompasses much more than leaky faucets, rotten washers, or critics. Wow! Critics! How did they get here? I know. It's Freudian. Faucets and old rotten washers."

Or, how about this poetical passage from "Sound Structure of Subculture Becoming Major Breath/Naked Fire Gesture," Cecil Taylor's essay accompanying Unit Structures:

"Facing down, the ground springs tired chains. Voices spring from the eye there, at corners-sleep. Hoarsness becomes rhetoric seasoned / as first distinct words lacerate grim oppression reality behind vision tomb widowed enfeoffment jettisoned."

Enfeoffment? Really? Wow indeed. Of course, few examples of dust-jacket word-freak has ever unfurled with quite the audacious pomposity than King Pleasure's twisted muttering on Golden Days. Here is just a portion of what the good King has to say about the philosophy he calls "Planetism":

"My real name is Clarence Beeks. My professional name of "King Pleasure" is by selection as strange to me as the sudden "revelation" that occured to me in my sleep and woke me upright at the age of six in Oakdale, Tenn., my birthplace. The revelation was that I was the real saviour of humanity. And that I was a baby planet nucleus!"
[For the complete text, read Liner Notes of the Gods from an early issue of WFMU's program guide LCD.]

The reason I'm musing about all this is that after already having selected Free as You Wanna Be by the Lightmen to be the lead-off item for this week's Motherlode, I took a closer look at the art for the back of the record and was knocked loopy by the liners. Click on the thumbnail (right) to read the whole thing, or read the excerpted blurb, below.

 Write On!...

The Lightmen  ~  "Free as You Wanna Be"
(Blog: Hoochie Coochie Presents Jazz)

The Unbearable Lightness of Lightmen
"All selections on this album swing but not in the traditional sense of the word "swing." Attention has been directed toward removal from the time barrier that ushered the creations of our jazz pioneers into existence as part of the revolutionary process of music. "Swing" portrayed by this ablum signifies the creative and emotional feelings of musicians who believe in their music. The "Apport" of Music—Or this operation of a seance are exhilarations of energy and moods which span the spectrum of imaginatiobs. Apports are objectives through which these are transformed. The dead will speak through the living. "Apports" best describe these selections on the album by The Lightmen."  (From the dust jacket )

Eduardo Araújo  ~  "A Onde É Boogaloo"
(Blogs: Flabbergasted Vibes)

First imitated Bill Haley, then James Brown
"Wow... this is pretty cool. Singer Eduardo Araujo strikes me as an artist who was kind of constantly in search of a "new sound" to latch onto. He was one of the early jovem guarda '60s teenie-bopper rockers, and got a little wiggier in the '70s... This 1969 pop-soul album is a transitional record, but one that shows he could have done quite well pursuing a career in Brazilian soul music... He had a much stronger sense of American-style phrasing and a stronger band than many of the self-styled "Black Rio" artists such as Cassiano and Hylton who took up the mantle in the 1970s. His secret weapon was Brazilian funk pioneer Tim Maia, who was about to bust out on his own as a solo artist on the Philips label. Maia wrote punchy new arrangements for the numerous cover tunes on here, which range from Smokey Robinson's "Same Old Song" to Arthur Conley's "Funky Street," and for whatever reason this album avoids most of the clumsiness or self-consciousness that many similar imitations of American pop frequently suffer from."  (Joe Sixpack, at Slipcue.com)

 

???  ~  "Non Stop Dancing"
(Blog: FM Shades)

Cultural Devolution
Originally posted at FM Shades, this surf-infused Chinese pop platter has since resurfaced at the wonderful blog Flash Strap.

Marvin Holmes & the Uptights  ~  "Ooh Ooh the Dragon and Other Monsters"
(Blog: Hard…Raw…Deep…Funk)

Sounds Like a Children's Story
"Marvin Holmes, one of the founding fathers of Oakland Funk, is among the world's leading guitarists. Fans have been enjoying Marvin Holmes and The Uptights since the early sixties until today. Marvin’s masterful, musical maturity and dynamic, driving guitar sounds, blending blues, soul and jazz have been captivating audiences all over the world. Marvin Holmes and the Uptights emerged as the Oakland Bay Area’s hottest soul band in the early 60’s and 70’s. Marvin’s knack for writing catchy tunes gave them two hits in the 60’s “The Funky Mule” and Ooh Ooh The Dragon. The “Funky Mule” instantly became a national hit and Marvin Holmes and The Uptights were signed to MCA UNI records. From that signing came the Album Ooh Ooh The Dragon and Other Monsters, which also became an instant hit."  (Marvin Holmes's bio at BDR Records)

André Bourvil & Jacqueline Maillan  ~  "Ça (Je T'aime Moi non Plus)"
(Blog: Bomber Blog)

Lovers Love Paris
"André Bourvil (real name Andre Raimbourg) was a great comic and tragic french actor and Jacqueline Maillan is a real impertinent french actress (mostly theater), they recorded this hilarous parody of Gainsbourg "Je t'aime moi non plus" in 1970..." (From a comment by Dr. Faustroll, who has a blog here ) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 115

 

 

 

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

Like a slow-motion fireworks display, the exhibition of South African music history taking place at the blog Electric Jive continues to separate eyes from sockets and ears from terra firma. More an interactive museum than a mere download bazaar, this site presents one essential audio document after another, providing thoughtful commentary, archival photographs and, of course, free access to the music for the universe to cherish.

 

Last month I devoted an entire broadcast of Give the Drummer Some to recent offerings at Electric Jive, but the posting last week of pianist Gideon Nxumalo's 1962 gem Jazz Fantasia is deserving of further heralding. The accompanying essay (a portion of which is excerpted below) is surely a must-read, but for South African jazz adherents the appearance of this album—featuring the twin towers of South African alto sax, Kippie "Morolong" Moeketsi (left) and Dudu Pukwana—is nothing short of miraculous. As far as I'm concerned, any recording featuring the genius Moeketsi is something to marvel, but the small-combo pairing with Pukwana makes this one of the great treasures in jazz history.

 

 

 

 Merrily we Morolong...

Gideon Nxumalo  ~  "Jazz Fantastia"
(Blog: Electric Jive)

Alto Gladness
"True to its name in both form and spirit, Gideon Nxumalo’s 1962 Jazz Fantasia is a key document of modernist South African jazz. Vital, ambitious, consummate in conception and execution, it is perhaps the crucial small group recording of the early 1960s, and one of the few complete sets by a small modernist group to have been released on LP during these years. Nxumalo’s compositions are taut and boppish, in places unmistakably water-marked by the language of mbaqanga jazz, but speaking fluent bop – ‘Isintu’ in particular knits the melancholic mbaqanga chords which underpin the piece seamlessly into the bebop-styled changes of the main section."  (Fin, at Electric Jive )

Various  ~  "Polish Funk, Volumes 1–3"
(Blog: Lysergic Funk)

Shut Up and Gdansk
"A heady second helping of funky grooves from Poland—an unlikely source, to be sure, but one that's filled with a huge amount of great tracks just waiting to be discovered by a global audience! This volume may well be even better than the first—as it features a wealth of tunes that have a really unique approach—not just attempts to copy American styles of funk, but some really original ways of approaching a groove! All tracks are from the Polskie Nagrania catalog, but a good number of them are on un-reissued albums that are so rare we've never seen them in the original—including some great fusion, funky rock, and vocal titles alongside the more expected jazz."  (Soul Diggs, at Heavy Weight Crates)

 

Big Youth  ~  "A Luta Continua"
(Blog: Deejay Toasters)

Manley Augustus Buchanan, Esq.
"In 1985, Big Youth released a surprising new album, A Luta Continua, where he transformed from toaster to singer and roots rasta to jazzman, accompanied by Jamaican jazz hero Herbie Miller [and American jazz hero Byard Lancaster, ed.]."  (Jo-Ann Greene, at Allmusic.com)

Batata y Su Rumba Palenquera  ~  "Radio Bakongo"
(Blog: Black Star Liners)

Champeta Champ
"Batata and his excellent band specialize in son palenquera and champeta, and may already have come to your attention through the inclusion of the track "Ataole" on the Champeta Criolla, Vol. 2 compilation. That CD focused largely on Cartagena's sound system based form of champeta, a newish hybrid style which cannibalizes pan-African and indigenous Colombian influences, spicing them up with mucho shouting and sometimes irritating use of trashy effects. What might be a lot of fun at a rum-fueled street party makes for a sometimes wearing experience in other contexts.Thankfully Batata's band stick to a much rootsier groove, employing tiple, accordion, brass, twinkling soukous guitar, plenty of drummers and call-and-response vocals to create their hypnotic grooves."  (BBC Music)

Kazuki Tomokawa  ~  "Ore No Uchi De Nariyamanai Uta"
(Blog: Schwebeablaut)

The Screaming Philosopher
"Poet, singer, artist, bicycle race commentator, essayist, actor, drinker.
An artist who miraculously embodies the romance of the vagabond poet, a rarity in an age where our very freedom means we have forgotten how to live." (From Kazukitomokawa.com ) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 114

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

Formed in the crucible of danger and despair that was the South Bronx of the late '60s, the Ghetto Brothers was a remarkable organization—a gang that chose to stop shooting and go straight. Under the charismatic leadership of idealist and visionary "Yellow Benjy" Melendez, the GBs brokered a gang truce in 1971 (the historic Hoe Avenue Peace Meeting) following the senseless killing of the group's peace counselor Cornell "Black Benjy" Benjamin.

Aside from organizing youth activities and advocating anti-violence, the Beatles-besotted Ghetto Brothers used music to bring positivity to a devastated community. Recorded after the death of Black Benjy, the group's sole LP, Power-Fuerza, is a massively groovy and deeply poignant cultural treasure from a long-gone era in New York. It is also the lead item in this week's Motherlode. Don't dare miss it.

 

 

 Can't stop, won't stop...

Ghetto Brothers  ~  "Power-Fuerza"
(Blog: Resin Hits)

Brothers Gonna Work It Out
"This album contains a message; a message to the world, from the Ghetto Brothers. The Ghetto Brothers, a community organization dedicated to bridging the ever-increasing gap that exists between society and minority groups, believe music to be the common language of the world. Through music, they are able to inform society of the plight of the 'little people' in their quest for recognition. Therefore, the music of the Ghetto Brothers serves as a way of communication.  If the Ghetto Brothers' dream comes true, the world will learn that the 'little people' wish to be acknowledged; wish to be properly educated in order for them to pass on their knowledge to their children and proudly inform them about their heritage and culture, and be a functioning part of the growth of America. If the Ghetto Brothers' dream comes true, the 'little people' will be 'little people' no more, and make their own mark in this world. Listen to the Ghetto Brothers…….and take heed."  (From the dust jacket of Power-Fuerza [Salsa, 1971])

Trader Horne  ~  "Morning Way… Plus"
(Blog: An American Prayer)

Named for John Peel's Nanny
"Well, not necessarily uplifting (though there are moments), but something gentle, occasionally dark, fleetingly creepy and most importantly, worthy of a second listen. Trader Horne’s one and only album, 1970′s Morning Way, is, in fact, worthy of much more than a second listen. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Firstly, this may have been Trader Horne’s lone release, but they were in fact a duo comprising of original Fairport Convention vocalist and one time member of an embryonic King Crimson, Judy Dyble, and Irish folk rock underground ubiquity Jackie McAuley. The conjunction of these musical forces resulted in Morning Way, a pleasingly obscure example of psychedelically informed folk rock."  (Jeffman, at Head Full of Snow)

 

King Ganam  ~  "Ridin' the Fiddle"
(Blog: Lonesome Left's Scratchy Attic)

Blame Canada
"Whether it's a Barn-dance in Quebec, a Clam-bake in the Maritimes, a Harvest Festival on the Prairies, or an old-fashioned Hoe-down in Ontario, whenever country folk gather to enjoy themselves, it isn't very long before the crisp country air is ringing with the sound of old-time fiddlin' - the kind of fiddlin' that sets toes a'tappin', and skirts a'whirlin' - the kind that makes you want to "git up n' dance." That's just the brand of fiddlin' you hear when King Ganam lifts his bow. Ameen Ganam is his name but he calls himself "King," and he really is one. Known for his lively, original style of playing, Ganam has a way with a fiddle that can't be matched. His bow whips across those strings about as fast as a fox in a forest fire, and he's got more tricks inside that old fiddle than Houdini had in his trunk. "The King" has written a good many reels, polkas, and jigs himself; five of his own are included in this album, and they all reveal the zestful, elfish way he handles a fiddle and bow."  (From the dust jacket of Ridin' the Fiddle [RCA Victor, 1955])

The Speakers  ~  "En el Maravilloso Mundo de Ingeson"
(Blog: Creep Scanner)

Naked Savages
"Ingeson was notable for being the first Colombian rock record to use multi channel recording techniques which enabled the band to introduce all kinds of strange sound effects to the record buying public. When the lp was released in 1968 it came in a gatefold edition that included a 12 page full-color booklet with photos of the band by Danilo Vitalini, text, drawings, and even a replica of an acid hit! The album has a very cool lo-fi sound and its only flaw is the out of place Historia De Un Loto Que, a silly blues rocker with sped up alien-like vocals. That being said, the rest of this record is great and as whacked out as any of the early Mutantes records."  (Jason, at  The Rising Storm)

Hailu Mergia  ~  Tche Belew"
(Blog: Holy Warbles)

Ethio Peak
"Why this album contains only one song like “Musical Silt” is ponderous. The rest of the album is enjoyable, equally funky and benign. But “Musical Silt,” the only song from the album ever reissued, is a beast. While some might call it dissonant, it’s beautifully modal, a perfect example of the Ethiopian qenet system tempered by the tuning of the Western instruments the musicians play. And the rhythms; each component of the ensemble plays in their own time signature. “The one,” which most fans of funk music so readily anticipate in a rolling groove, never sounds exactly like you’d expect it. But the song chugs along perfectly – it ends some four minutes in, but you wish it would run for hours. A hypnotic groove fo’ sho’." (Egon, at  Now & Again) 

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 113

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

More than a decade has passed since Ken Burns's Jazz aired on public television, but my loathing for it is still glows like a red-hot ember. The list of the film's transgressions is too lengthy to catalog here, but the one I found most egregious was that Burns, in narrow-minded rush to brand jazz as a uniquely American phenomenon, intentionally ignored all international contributions to the music.

In 2002, I expressed my disgust by producing for WFMU's fundraiser that year Jazz Burns Ken, a compilation of global "jazz"—from its earliest roots in ethnic folk music to current innovations in Europe. I included on that compilation a stunning performance by the Jamaican saxophonist Joe Harriott, who toiled in virtual anonymity in London's jazz scene of the 1950s and '60s. Today's Motherlode presents two must-have selections from Harriott—playing alongside fellow West Indian, trumpeter Shake Keane—that will make abundantly clear the folly of Ken Burns spending 19 hours telling the story of jazz in America with nary a moment to spare for the rest of the planet.

While Ken Burns's film making has always left me cold, he does have a knack for developing narrative through the artful presentation of archival photographs. For my money, the single best moment in Jazz occurred during the first episode—a long, elegant ogling of a breathtaking image—like some jazz-age Pietà—of Frankie Trumbauer cradling his c-melody sax.

 

 Hello world...

Shake Keane Quintet  ~  "In My Condition"
(Blog: The Boogieman Will Get Ya!)

Joe Harriott  ~  "A Guy Called Joe"
(Blog: Brit Jazz)

Hot Breeze from the Islands
"I don't think that anyone would dispute that a major part of the success of Joe Harriott's experiments in jazz was the interaction between Harriott and Shake Keane. The two men were temperamentally dissimilar but musically they understood each other and worked together to produce exciting and exploratory music. Both Harriott and Keane were from the West Indies, Harriott from Jamaica. As well as being a jazz musician Keane was a literary man - his nickname was Shakespeare, shortened to Shake. When he first arrived in Britain from the West Indies it wasn't to make a career as a musician but rather to work in the BBC World Service where he read poetry and did interviews. Quite rightly his work with Harriott and Michael Garrick is seen as the high points of his career. However, I feel that his solo records are rather unjustly overlooked."  (MM, at Night of the Living Vinyl)

Anne Briggs  ~  "Classic Anne Briggs"
(Blog: Zero G Sound)

A Muse
"Briggs herself managed to cut a highly idiosyncratic figure even on the folk scene, something of a haven for oddballs. Others may have spurned commercialism, but only Briggs seemed to have a problem with performing 'inside buildings': 'I used to love busking and impromptu stuff far more. I didn't like being on the stage, I didn't like being looked at, so I'd shut my eyes half the time, trying to shut it out.'"  (Interview with Ms. Briggs in The Guardian, by Alexis Petridis )

 

Baden Powell & Vinícious de Moraes  ~  "Os Afros-Sambas"
(Blog: Shhh/Peaceful)

Landmark Collaboration
"Unquestionably one of the greatest and most magical Brazilian albums ever made, this disc mysteriously remained largely out of print for decades.…This collaboration between guitarist Baden Powell and bossa poet Vinícius De Moraes is incandescent and timeless; the music leaps out at you, as vibrant now as it was all those years ago. It's also probably the career highpoint for the female vocal group, Quarteto Em Cy, who later became overly polished and bland, but here sound youthful and even a bit unruly—like a mob of teenage girls dragged in to sing for an after-school choir. The mix of moody, unsettling bossa nova melodies and somewhat abrupt African rhythms was wisely left a bit rough around the edges, and as a result retains an eerie, haunting strength."  (Joe Sixpack, at SlipCue.com)

F. Kenya  ~  "The Power House"
(Blog: Osibisaba)

I Think Akan
"The music of F. Kenya is (in my humble opinion) some of the most stunning Ghanaian highlife ever recorded, music with a unique sound characterized by deep Akan harmonies, sweet organs, and heartbreakingly beautiful vocals. The Power House, released on Essiebons in 1975, is Francis Kenya's first full length record. Like Kenya's other work, these songs are beautifully arranged, with rich musical textures that feature an interplay between interlocking guitar parts and organ lines. In addition, these songs are unique in that they are sung in Nzema (Kenya's own language) rather than the dominant Asante Twi (generally the language of highlife)."  (O s i b i s a b a, at Osibisaba)

Various  ~  "When Girls Do It"
(Blog: Blue Beat in My Soul)

Do What, Exactly?
"Raw, rollicking, rhythm & blues tunes from the 50s & 60s – loads of electric tunes that became the basis for rockers to come in both attitude and melodies – as you'd probably guess from the crazy cover photos for this great early 70s compilation on the UK's Red Lightnin label! When Girls Do It was originally released in 1971, and features loads of riveting tunes by Junior Wells, Magic Slim, Drifting Charles, Buddy Guy, Jimmy McCracklin, Tender Slim, Sugar Boy Williams and more." (Promo copy, probably lifted from Dusty Groove)

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Something's Wrong at the BBC, But I Don't Know What It Is.

I only know that it involves a clown, and fire, and numbers chalked on a wall.

 

Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 112

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

"Musician, composer, soldier." This is the rather arresting occupation listed on the Wikipedia page for Billy Bang, who passed away from lung cancer this week at the age of 63. A promising violinist at 19, Bang was drafted into service in Southeast Asia where he spent one hellish, life-altering tour of duty. By some accounts, Bang spent most of the last four decades outrunning his Vietnam demons by dashing headlong into music. And what a magnificent, furious, breathtaking dash it was.

Whether or not you're familiar with Billy Bang's story, I recommend reading this blog post by Phum at the Ottawa Citizen. In it is a reprint of a 2003 piece written by Doug Fischer that contains a revealing interview in which Bang describes how a violin, hanging in a Baltimore pawn shop, saved his life. Thank you violin.

 

 Thank you Billy Bang...

Billy Bang  ~  "Changing Seasons"
(Blog: Hook's Gems)

Bang the violin slowly
"This is a difficult record to find, out of print but worth looking for. The opening track, "Summer Night (With Crickets)" lays down an irresistibly funky groove—not in the fusion sense of the word, but in the acoustic sense....The proceedings have an organic, woody feel to them, as if they are playing deep within forest. After the first track, things grow somewhat denser, and more complex. The closing "Winter Rains" brings everything back down to earth."  (Scot Hacker, at All Music Guide)

Bazoumana Sissoko  ~  "Le Vieux Lion"
Volume 1  |  Volume 2
(Blog: Anthems for the Nation of Luobaniya)

Lion Eyes
"His withdrawal from public life after 1968 did not result in Bazoumana fading from the memories of the Malian people. Instead, the myth surrounding Bazoumana grew. It was said that in the heat of a performance he had put his beloved ngoni aside, and the instrument had continued playing on his own. (This was actually confirmed to me by [people who I consider to be] very reliable and down-to-earth witnesses.) Even today you can still hear stories (or myths) about Bazoumanaba and his magic ngoni....When Bazoumana died in 1987, it was said that one of the legendary balanzan trees, which stand at the entrance of the town of Segou and which are symbols of Segou's status as a former empire and craddle of bambara culture, had fallen."  (Wrldserv, at World Service, where another masterful recording from Sissoko is available here)

 

Various  ~  "Great Big Yam Potatoes"
(Blog: Times Ain't Like They Used to Be)

Field Recordings from the American Bush
Your tax dollars at work: The 10 fiddlers and 42 performances compiled on this Mississippi Arts Commission production were recorded in 1939 as a joint production of the WPA and the Library of Congress.

Heaven & Earth  ~  "Refuge"
(Blog: Colin Crowe)

Heavenly Voices
One of these two winsome singers (is it Pat Gefell or Jo D. Andrews?) sounds for all the world like the long-lost identical twin of Lavender Diamond's Becky Stark. And that is a mighty good thing.

Andrew McMahon  ~  "Blueblood"
(Blog: Hard Luck Child's Juke Joint)

<--- What's Mike Tyson Doing on the Cover?
All those years toiling as Howling Wolf's bass player must've earned McMahon plenty of respect. Or so it would seem, given the all-star accompaniment assembled on his handful of records. This platter boasts Jimmy "Fast Fingers" Dawkins, Hubert Sumlin and Homesick James on guitars and Sunnyland Slim on piano. (Is it just a coincidence that this LP is on Dharma Records and McMahon was born in Delhi?)

Listen to my radio show Give the Drummer Some—Tuesdays 6-7pm, on WFMU and Fridays 9 to noon—on WFMU's web stream Give the Drummer Radio.
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Mining the Audio Motherlode, Volume 111

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

Even my 10-year-old daughter knows you can't qualify the adjective "unique." Like "pregnant" or "on fire," you either are or aren't. There's no partial credit given. So how about the term "free-form"? Looking over the selections in this week's all-over-the-map Motherlode, I'm apt to call it one of the most free-form ever. But how can there be degrees of free-form? (Can you tell I'm an out-of-work copy editor?) Either there is some semblance of "form" present or there isn't.

Before you gag over this little semantic exercise, let me just point out one more unmodifiable word, "free," as in the following sentence: "You can download each of the five highly enjoyable records on display below for free."

 

 

Word up...

Satisfaction Unlimited  ~  "Think of the Children"
(Blog: Tonton Decibel Music Unlimited)

Do It Till You're Satisfied
"This is one of the rarer releases on the Hot Wax label helmed by Brian and Eddie Holland and Lamont Dozier. Satisfaction Unlimited‘s solitary album is yet another signature in the book of lost opportunities. But if I could only be remembered for one LP, I would definitely hope it was something nearly this good. Still with the one foot in the golden era of Motown, this has its good foot firmly planted in the '70s with a treasure trove of tuneful delights. Bypass at your peril, me hearties!!"  (Nikos, at Funk My Soul)

 

Leon Morris  ~  "Walkin' Home to Pittsburgh"
(Blog: Bill's Blog)

What's Wrong with the Bus?
"Leon Morris, originally from Canada, was an early bluegrass artist in the Washington DC area. He performed as a guitarist, singer sideman on a number of early studio projects -- including some early solo recordings by Frank Wakefield (along with Winnie Winston and David Grisman on the silver belle label). By the early 1960s, Leon had partnered with Buzz Busby, and their band released a string of 45 rpm singles until Buzz wound up back in jail for substance abuse problems. In the the 1970s and 1980s Leon led his own band, "Leon Morris & Associates," based out of Northern Virginia. The band released at least one album on the Old Homestead label, and toured extensively in the United States and Canada."  (From DC Bluegrass Union)

Eugène Mona  ~  "Eugene Mona"
(Blog: Black Star Liners)

"The Barefoot Singer"
"In the 1980s, popular music became once more the middle ground that engaged Martinicans of all backgrounds and offered them new ways to experience and redefine their Martinican identity. It was precisely a corpus of songs and instrumental pieces created by a popular musician called Eugène Mona in the mid-1970s that emerged as a symbol of Martinican-ness. According to European standards, Mona was an autodidact who never received serious musical training."  (Dominique Cyrille, "Imagining an Afro-Creole Nation: Eugène Mona's Music in Martinique of the 1980s, Latin American Music Review, Volume 27, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2006)

[Listen to Your Ears has another gorgeous Mona LP here.]

George Barnes  ~  "The George Barnes Octet"
(Blog: Western & Bop)

Favorite Song Title: "Intricacies of a Thresing Machine"
"George Barnes was one of the most underrated of the jazz guitarists that came up during the 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. He was easily recognized for the duets he made with Carl Kress, but sometimes overlooked as one of the great jazz stylists and innovators."  (From Classic Jazz Guitar)

Sons of Sun  ~  "Kaizoku Kid No Boken"
(Blog: Japanese Old Prog/Psych Rock)

The Sons Also Rises
"This perfect album was release in 1972 with Hiro Yanagida on keyboard. Other musicians are not well known. As I know some of them were session musicians in different times and that the lyrics for this album were written by Takashi Matsumoto (from Apryl Fool and Happy End). You will not find here a prog or psych. This is a quite interesting album. The mood of this album is so positive that seems it was written for kids or all musicians here remembered their childhood :) But nevertheless it's a brilliant album which is fun to listen to."  (Dirk Friesland, at Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll)

[Read my memorial post for beloved blogger Dirk Friesland here. Another (way better) Hiro Yanagida record is posted here.]

 

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