Give the Drummer Some's
Favorite Downloads from the MP3 Blogosphere
If you took all of the dollar bills you saved downloading the music presented in these pages each week and placed them end to end—Stop!—you'd be wasting precious time that you could be downloading the music served up below. But hey, while you've got that cash laying about, please take a couple of precious minutes to toss WFMU some badly needed cash.
Please go to WFMU's pledge page and make a contribution now. If you pledge at the "premium" level ($75), you qualify to receive a copy of Love Your Motherlode, Again, my personally handcrafted full-length CD of favorite tracks culled from the best LPs presented in Mining the Audio Motherlode over the past year. Whatever amount you can donate to WFMU will be gratefully appreciated. Please ruminate on all the amazing music you've been turned onto here, and than do a good turn and make a donation to WFMU. Thanks.
Another happy Mother(lode)'s day ...
Omar Khorshid ~ "Tribute to Oum Koulsoum"
(Blog: Record Fiend)
[password = record-fiend.blogspot.com]
To Oum With Love
"As its title suggests, Tribute to Oum Koulsoum features instrumental versions of songs (mostly composed by Mohammed Abdel Wahab) made famous by the Egyptian chanteuse. If anything can equal the power of that lady's voice, it's Khorshid's guitar. From concert photos that I've seen, Khorshid appears to have been typically backed by a group that included an accordionist and two percussionists on hand drums. That seems to be the case on this album and on most of his other recordings from his 1973-1977 peak period as well. The accordion sounds like it has been run through some kind of effects box. Although it occasionally has a dated 1970s cheesy synthesizer sound, for the most part it provides the perfect foundation for Khorshid to go off on his amazing solo flights, while the drummers provide some fantastic polyrhythms. Words really can't do these stately performances justice." (Commentary from Record Fiend)
Little Beaver ~ "Party Down"
(Blog: Joe Blow the Sample King)
Damn!
"The guitar work is the real star of the piece. It manages to be tidy and relaxed, embellishing the groove with a minimum of fuss while always adding to the vibe of the track. Although most of the music featured concentrates on life's good times, on the albums few slower and sadder tracks - like "Joey" and "I Feel Like Crying -the guitar proves more than able to express sorrow and sadness. And Little Beaver's voice, although not as versatile as his playing, always connects with the themes and emotions of the songs." (BBC review by Matt Harvey)
Trio Nagô ~ "Trio Nagô"
(Blog: Boss Brasileira)
Pop Goes the Threesome
"Trio Nagô was a musical group that was very successful in Ceará in the fifties, and almost unknown to current generations. The trio began to take shape in 1948 when Mario Alves de Almeida and Epaminondas Souza, who has sung in Ceará Radio Club, met Evaldo Gouveia. In 1954, the Trio was awarded the Prize Roquette Pinto "Best Vocal Ensemble." This album is a collection assembled from songs originally recorded on LPs and 78s. Some songs bear the imprint of the mischief and good humor characteristic of the Cerense people...." (Vasco Arrudo's description—via Google Translate, with edits—at Opovo Online)
Paul Bowles ~ The Voices of Paul Bowles"
(Blog: Spirits & Spices)
Expatriate Games
"Curated by Claudia Gould and Stephen Frailey, ‘The Voices of Paul Bowles’ is an audio portrait combining some of the composer’s music with readings from his own texts, Moroccan traditional music and location recordings from Tangier and Morocco where he lived from 1947. The most striking device is the handsome and warm voice of Bowles reading through his writings. Also notable are the lively field recordings of folk local music Bowles made himself in 1959 (tracks #01, 03, 06 & 09). The simoon (my conjecture) heard at the end of ‘The Garden’, track #08, is a short but evocative recording of a North Africa typical wind. Bowles own compositions are exquisite vignettes full of humour and wit. A microcosm in itself, a day in the life of Paul Bowles, the tape starts with the muezzin’s morning call to prayer and ends with dogs barking at sunset, an amazing barking chorale recorded amid the rising desert wind. A poignant conclusion to an utterly beautiful tape." (From a description at Ubuweb)
Lowell Fulson ~ "Tramp"
(Blog: Beco de Blues - Ex - Blues & Blues)
Hobo Chic
"'Lowell Fulson's comfortably laid-back but groovin' soul-blues workout "Tramp" quickly became one of his biggest hits (and fared even better in a cover version by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas), and this album (released to tie in with the single's success) finds Fulson following a similar stylistic path. While most of Tramp's tunes lean more heavily on traditional blues structures than the title tune, Fulson was obviously aiming for a funky ambience rather than the heavy emotional crush of the deep blues, and his clean, uncluttered guitar solos are warmer and more approachable than the typical Chicago-style axe work of the day. There's a sly playfulness to this material that's winning, and even the most down-and-out songs here display a light touch and creative intelligence that sets Fulson apart." (Mark Deming, at AllMusic )
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
Here's a couple:
http://murkyrecess.blogspot.com/2010/07/va-chaabi-music-from-al-maghrib-black.html
http://aseam.info/archives/209
Posted by: icastico | February 23, 2011 at 02:30 PM
That "Little Beaver" (aka Willie Hale) recording has Jaco Pastorius playing on the "I Can Dig It Baby" track. Fun-kay. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Hale
Posted by: Alan Smithee | February 24, 2011 at 01:04 PM