Max Roach, RIP

Max Roach died at the age of 83. He was one of the best, a musician who combined solid chops with keen ears and a brilliant mind. Drummers are generally the best listeners in a jazz ensemble, because the thing that distinguishes a solid timekeeper from a total drummer, is the ability to underscore and support structural variations and to adjust to a variety of factors: comping patterns, solos, etc. He can raise or lower the energy level, can transform a good solo into a great solo, and, if he has tympani, can even make the whole ensemble sound out of tune, should they anger him. There is a reason that the tympanist is the highest paid musician in the orchestra.

Max Roach could do all of this. In fact, you could jettison the rest of the band and he could engage an audience for a set or two just by himself.

And a little Yee Haw for your morning...

Mark Sullivan (also known as "He of the Polish Moose or Estonian Antelope or whatever that thing really is Fame") posts many good and great posts. He instinctively can find the shining greatness of our American culture and does a good job of highlighting it (although he also does have those rare lapses when he writes about hockey, but that is something caused by impurities in the Eastern waters or something). I recommend reading him regularly, even when he is waxing ecstatically about the BoTox or whatever that team is that plays out there.

Once in awhile, he really hits a home run, that, like a Bonds Bomb, sails clear out of the ballpark. His recent splash in McCovey Cove is about Country Music, which, as you all know, is dear to my heart. And Barbara Mandrell's singing and steel guitar playing make you forgive her framing her pretty face with that preposterous hairstyle.

So, take a few minutes off, crank up the volume on your computer, and enjoy the clips.

Stetsons off to Mark Sullivan!

David Lambert

David Lambert would have been 90 today.

First clip is bad animation, but the music is first rate (from Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross's Everybody's Boppin'

Here they are doing "Cloudburst":

And here are Jon Hendricks and David Lambert post Annie Ross, performing as Lambert Hendricks and Bavan (note that this one has actual footage):

This one is some great footage of LHR, but they have disabled embedding, so you have to go to the YouTube site to see it (and it is worth it):

Here! For some great singing.

The Harmful Effects of Certain Types of Music on Writers of Fiction

There are times when I think that people who listen to certain bands, certain sub-genres of music, perhaps even some whole genres of music, should be forbidden from writing fiction.

Now, I am not going to actually say which bands, which singers, which sub-genres, which composers etc., but I have noticed that there are certain musicians who always seem to be quoted and referenced by some of the most maudlin fiction writers out there.

ipod random 10

I recently added many of my all time favorites to my ipod. So, rather than boring you with more Iberian music listings, I’ve taken this list from my favorites list.

1. Feelings – Albert Morris
2. Bach Fugue in A minor: Piano Concertos conducted by Bernstein
3. Closer to Fine – Indigo Girls
4. Ice, Ice Baby – Vanilla Ice
5. Ebony and Ivory – Paul McCartney ,Stevie Wonder
6. Disco Duck – Rick Dees
7. We build this City – Starship
8. Muskrat Love - Captain and Tennille
9. No more tears (enough is enough) - Babs S. & Donna Summers
10. Bach Fugue in F minor: Piano Concertos conducted by Bernstein

I’ve come to realize I prefer Bach played on the piano – go figure.

Happy Birthday Sun Ra!

Sun Ra, aka Herman "Sonny" Blount or Le Sony'r Ra, was born on this day on 1914 on Saturn or Birmingham, Alabama, depending on which account you believe.

His Arkestra was a lot of fun:

Here he is with the Arkestra on Night Music:

Yes, this man was Fletcher Henderson's arranger:

1974 was a weird time, and Sun Ra made it weirder:

He still inspires people, as there seems to be a cottage industry of folks editing animation and anime to his music:

iTunes Random 10

You know the rules, if you want to play: hit random on your iPod and post the first 10 results, even if they are horrible, horrible things that will bring shame to you for ten generations.

Surprisingly, there is nothing in Portuguese this time, but there are three country songs.

1. "Down by the Train" composed by Tom Waits and sung by Johnny Cash (Louisiana).
2. "O Sole Mio" sung by Mario Lanza (this one is for you, John! And I assure you, it is a gorgeous recording)(Italy).
3. "I'm Ragged But I'm Right" sung by George Jones (Texas).
4. "Melancolly Gaillard" composed by John Dowland, performed by Amsterdam Loeki Stardus Quartet (Englisch composer, Swamp German Band).
5. "Shiva Cocktail" by Forte' (India/Italy).
6. "Es Mejor Vivir Así (Better To Live Like...)" composed by Ángel Ortega Gómez and sung by Compay Segundo (Cuba).
7. "RestArtatant" performed by RestArt (Italy).
8. "Cumbia Pa' Oriente" performed by Lisandro Meza (Colombia)
9. "Elle fréquentait la rue Pigalle" composed by Asso/Maitrier and performed by Ute Lemper (France/Germany).
10. "Green Green Grass Of Home" by Merle Haggard (California!).

Of course the next ten were dominated by Portuguese music. I don't know why I find these things so fascinating. I suppose it is because I am easily amused.

Anyway, back to work.

iTunes Random 10

I don't have time for a full post today, so instead I give you this edition of the iTunes Random 10. I was thinking about restricting it to music in Portuguese only, but I decided not to, so I was amused when the first track was a fado anyway.

1. "Que Fazes Aí Lisboa" sung by Cristina Branco (Portugeuse fado)
2. "Tercio De Vara" played by Manolo Sanlúcar (flamenco)
3. "Tu Scende Della Stella/Tarantella Di Giovani Lo Zampognaro" played by Sean Folsom (Southern Italian bagpipes - folk tune)
4. "Ritmo De Negros" sung by Pepe Vasquez (Peru)
5. "Su Cojoviu Novu (Ballu Lestru)" sung by Tenores Di Bitti - Mialinu (Sardegnian polyphony)
6. "L'invitation Au Départ" by jacques lejeune (electronic classical music from IRCAM)
7. "Recondita Armonia (Tosca)" by Puccini, sung by Mario Lanza (Italian operatic)
8. "Ku'u Pua Mikinolia" sung by Raiatea Helm (Hawaii)
9. "Akita Sugagaki" performed by Kohachiro Miyata (Japanese shakuhachi)
10. "Before You Go" sung by the late, great Buck Owens (the greatest music ever made: Californian Country! Viva la Oildale!)

If you want to play, just hit "random" on your mp3 player of choice and report on your blog the first ten. No cheating. If Babs Strsnd comes up, you gotta list it.

Perhaps later I will do a themed one, where I make it pick from a certain playlist.

Who more worthress...Arec Bardwin or Richard Gere? And my acoustical attic...

OK. I shouldn't take nearly as much amusement from this story as I do. It is just that I have never liked Richard Gere as an actor, and his obnoxious politics leave me even colder.

Still, I must have sympathy for his supporters. You know how it is for us these days when we hear of a sexual scandal involving a priest and we get more details and breathe a sigh of relief and say, "at least it was with a woman?" Well, for Gere's supporters, they can at least say...never mind. Even I will not go there.

There are cheap shots and there are free shots.

Does anyone still remember that stuff? Sort of like Kemp's Lake Tahoe. You can find out little bits about the scandal with Google, but, my oh my, has it evaporated, compared to other scandals.

Anyway, since my new studio is smaller than the old studio (yet better in many ways...I keep telling myself), I have to make sure that everything has a place, and a use. Anything that doesn't, gets tossed or sold. Period. I cannot save anything that I cannot find a use for in the next year or two. And that includes the box of cassettes that has been following me around for years.

I have been wary of simply throwing away the box, since there are tons of unmarked cassettes with gems on them. I have been going through those cassettes, listening, labeling, shelving, etc.

I was mightily pleased to discover cassettes of some of my electronic compositions from many years ago, one in particular that came out of my work with Stockhausen's "Four Criteria of Electronic Music." What makes me most interested in this piece is that I am using the system I developed for the compositional structure for a series of paintings right now, yet I have not been able to find anything but the reel-to-reel master tape of the piece (and I don't have a reel-to-reel player/recorder any more). So I was overjoyed to put on this unmarked cassette to hear this piece.

Now, I was curious about two things about this piece (which I composed in 1993 or 1994):

1. Since I used just about the whole spectrum of human audible sound, would I be able to hear some of the high frequency patterns that I put in there?

2. This was a piece I wrote when I was thoroughly immersed in mid-century avant-garde music (Xennakis, Stockhausen, Boulez, Yuasa, Subotnick, Cage, etc.). While I still listen to and enjoy that music, I am not nearly as involved in it as I was then, and I wondered if I would enjoy hearing, even to be able to endure this long composition of pure electronic music.

Well, I am pleased that, yes, I can still hear even the very highest parts of the music, and that I enjoyed listening to this piece even more now than I did the last time I heard it (when it was used at a dance performance many years ago).

I also found lots and lots of concert tapes of various ensembles I have been in, and have really been enjoying listening to the Balinese gamelan that I played in (although there the ragged edges on some of the pieces annoy me now even more than they did then - although I no longer have the same pique at the musicians who were responsible for those ragged edges - I remember days when a couple of us wanted to strangle a tempo-challenged musician or two).

The worst was a live tape from a band I was in back in 1991/1992. The performance was pretty good, but I had one solo where my intonation was out to lunch. Egads.

Musical Confession

You know something... I have not been excited by a new record in a long time. Perhaps by a track here and there, but usually it is just a little bit: a particular passage, a particular way of phrasing, etc. Generally, when I hear a new release I am just not all that moved to dig any deeper into it.

Perhaps it is me, but I don't think so. I think that we are seeing the record industry tightening its belts at the expense of its product, resulting in every shrinking sales, causing them to tighten their belts...

I heard that the Recording Industry Association of America is bullying college students who are sharing music online. Now, they are standing on the objective moral high ground: if these college students like the music enough to listen to it, to go to the trouble of downloading it, they ought to pay the copyright owners. And, subjectively, I object to almost nothing when it comes to harsh punishments for college students, particularly the long-haired (or the fellows with those silly collegiate flip-de-do haircuts, where it is stringy and kind of flips out at the bottom, often under a baseball cap).

I realized when I was in college that I did not much like college students, and once proposed, as the Chairman of the Student Senate, that the University adopt mandatory haircuts and pre-dawn excercise in the quad. No one agreed, although I was able to get the Senate to adopt a resolution in favor of the administration against some rabble rousers who were arrested at a protest (they were protesting the building of a new music building, so they came strongly in my crosshairs).

But I digress.

Even with Justice on their side, and my own particular loathing of college students, I have to say to the RIAA, "are you people serious?!?" Mark down a whopping big negative on the PR ledger here. This looks exactly like what it is: a desperate move to stop the bleeding of a nine-year record business slump (or six or seven or eleven year slump, depending on who you talk to).

Now, part of my own boredom with current releases is undoubtedly due to the fact that I don't spend as much on music and I don't do as many record reviews, so I am less likely to hear the great new thing as I was when I worked in the record business, reviewed records, and took advantage of insider's prices to get lots of new stuff (and I do have a new Cajun release to review that looks promising). Also, there is the fact that many of my favorite recordings did not grip me immediately (I should do a post on that: why critics are worth reading and listening to. I can think of many records that I bought on the recommendation of a favorite jazz critic, and how I at first thought, "oh, this is just hype the critic has succumbed to," only to go back to the disc later and find that there really was something there), so perhaps some of the new jazz releases will sound better when I go back to them (I do hear most of the new jazz releases because of KCSM, our fantastic jazz station).

Since we are seeing a prolonged slump in the industry, and it isn't really all tied to the internet, my guess is that I am not alone in being completely unmoved by most musical offerings these days. Only the movie business can rival the stupidity of the general recording industry (remember when they decided that the best way to deal with falling ticket sales was...to raise the price?).

And One Last Thing...

Julie reminds us that today is the birthday of none other than Johann Sebastian Bach.

I have some great memories of Bach, one of which I will share here. It happened at night, when Bach really is best listened to.

There were only two harpsichord students at UCSC, so we had plenty of practice time in the early keyboard room. Because of the delicacy of the instruments, the janitors were not allowed in. Since the janitors cleared the practice rooms at the end of the night, if I wanted to practice late, I would just stay quiet for fifteen minutes, until I heard the last door click. Then I could go back to practicing.

One evening, very late, I was working on the Bach three-voice sinfonias, particularly the f minor, a twisty, strange and moody little work that is a lot of fun to play. It was a warm evening, so I did the forbidden: I opened a window. I would not have done this in winter, mind you (I was not about to risk ruin to the instruments, but sometimes rules are a bit overkill). There was a gentle breeze and absolutely no other sound but me and the harpsichord -- and J.S. Bach filling the air.

Bach was one of the great ones. Not an innovator, but a master at a style that was already considered old fashioned. He made his share of errors (as anyone who has analyzed the chorales can attest to), but the feat of just copying by hand all that he wrote would be daunting for most people in their lifetimes. Add to this his duties as organist, teacher, and father of 24 children, and you will get a good picture of what a giant J.S. Bach really was.

If you really want the experience today, go listen to the whole Musical Offering during the day and, at night, pour yourself a glass of a good red and listen to the Goldberg Variations (on harpsichord, please - no pianos!).

iTunes Random Shuffle Time

Well, I am glad that this time Don has nothing on his list that is played on obscenely inappropriate instruments. In fact, upon scrutinizing his list, I am satisfied that the piano track is indeed a piano track and not some gorgeous harpsichord piece taken out and defiled on a cast-iron frame monstrocity (an instrument of torture when it comes to the baroque repertoire). Anyway, in celebration of his recovery, or at least the recovery of his random shuffle, here is my current random 10 from my iTunes Library:

1. "El rey por muncha madruga (Traditional)" performed by La Rondinella
2. "Mr. Fool" by George Jones
3. "As Rosas do Meu Caminho" by Amália Rodrigues
4. "Musica Proibita" sung by Mario Lanza
5. "La Statue" by Jacques Brel
6. "Canti Illuminati" by Alvin Curran
7. "Tombeau pour M. de Sainte Colombe" by Marin Marais, performed by Jordi Savall
8. "Grey" by Ken Nordine
9. Turandot - "Nessun Dorma" by Puccini, sung by Luciano Pavarotti
10. "What's He Building in There?" by Tom Waits

Now, speaking of random shuffle lists, the man who was the motivation behind me starting to do these things, Fr. Tucker has not posted in a long time, without any notice. I hope he is simply busy and has not been kidnapped by Martians or anything like that.

It is like finding out a friend's dirty little secret.

I like Don of Mixolydian Mode. I have never met him in person, but from his writing he has always seemed like a reasonable, cultured, intelligent guy.

So imagine my shock and horror when I see that he listens to Scarlatti performed on piano. It is something like finding out that your local pharmacist is the head of the Klan, or something like that.

Repeat, over and over, as a mantra:

Scarlatti should be played on harspichord, or, at the very least, on wood-framed fortepiano, guitar, or accordion.
Scarlatti should be played on harspichord, or, at the very least, on wood-framed fortepiano, guitar, or accordion.
Scarlatti should be played on harspichord, or, at the very least, on wood-framed fortepiano, guitar, or accordion.
Scarlatti should be played on harspichord, or, at the very least, on wood-framed fortepiano, guitar, or accordion.
Scarlatti should be played on harspichord, or, at the very least, on wood-framed fortepiano, guitar, or accordion.
Scarlatti should be played on harspichord, or, at the very least, on wood-framed fortepiano, guitar, or accordion.
Scarlatti should be played on harspichord, or, at the very least, on wood-framed fortepiano, guitar, or accordion.
Scarlatti should be played on harspichord, or, at the very least, on wood-framed fortepiano, guitar, or accordion.

I'll pray for you, Don.

Lists of Songs

These Random 10 iPod shuffles are interesting, but a more complete portrait is given of the iPod owner if the shuffle list is combined with the Top 25 playlist. Here is what iTunes says I listen to most often:

1. "Fala Da Mulher Sózinha" by Margarida Bessa
2. "Walkin' After Midnight" by Patsy Cline
3. "Orange Blossom Special" by Charlie Daniels (Amalia is responsible for that one, I think)
4. "Alleluia" by Acantus
5. "Mundo Civilizado" by Arto Lindsay
6. "Vitaphone Uno" by Fabio Barovero
7. "Why Baby Why" by George Jones
8. "Bàica 'n Po'" by Laura Conti & Ombra Gaja
9. "Peregrina" by Los Magaña
10. "Corazon de Cristal" by Priscila Y Sus Balas De Plata (yes, this is Blondie's "Heart of Glass" sung in Spanish with accordion. Absolutely brilliant)
11. "How Soon is Now" by The Smiths (egads, wasn't I just giving Don Jim a hard time for his 1980's maudlin synthpop? What will happen when people find out that I am known to listen to this sort of crap, too?)
12. "Taboehgan/Gamelan Semar Pegulingan" by a gamelan in Ubud, Bali in 1941 (hey, I'm a gamelan geek. Sue me).
13. "Aradanse" by Alpha Bass Feat. Mascarimiri
14. Puccini's "E Lucevan Le Stelle" performed by la Banda Cittá Ruvo Di Puglia
15. "Ave Maria (Catalana)" by il Coro Polifonico Di Alghero
16. "Mascare (Witch Mix)" by Farualla
17. "Nuages Gris" by Franz Liszt performed by...I will need to look her up, iTunes pulled the info from the database, and they have Liszt as the artist, which is, obviously, incorrect.
18. "At the Grave of Richard Wagner" by Franz Liszt, performed by the Kronos Quartet
19. "I am the Light of the World" by Maria Muldaur w/ Ernie Hawkins
20. "Melagranada Ruja" by Marisa Sannia
21. "Silence The Tongues Of Prophecy" by Qubais Reed Ghazala
22. "House Where Nobody Lives" by Tom Waits
23. "Salve, Sancte Pater Salve Sponsa Dei" by Acantus
24. "De Profundis" by Acantus
25. "Raizes" by Amalia Rodrigues

So, there you have it. I am surprised to see the list, although it is not quite a total view of my listening habits, since a majority of what I listen to is still from CD or vinyl. Also, this only reflects what I listen to on the computer, since I don't think it registers plays from the actual iPod. So, basically, this is a portrait of what I listen to at the computer.

Some surprises:

1. Only two fados?
2. Do I really listen to that much Acantus? I guess so.
3. Only a couple of country songs.
4. Do I really listen to "How Soon is Now" that often? I know I put it on a couple of playlists, but really.
5. There is no baroque music. Not a track. I must go to the CDs and LPs for this, as I know that I listen to enough baroque music to annoy the girls, who both like it, in reasonable doses.
6. How did "Mundo Civilizado" end up higher than "Corazon de Cristal"? Once again, if this were a list of what I listened to in other situations, for instance, while driving, it would be a different list.
7. A lot of these tracks seem to be on my Musica Melancholia playlists. It must be the weather. We will see, but I would guess that after summer the tropical and country lists are much better represented on the top 25.
8. How did Marisa Sannia end up on the list? I like her, obviously, but I am surprised to see that I listen to that and another Sardegnian track so often.

Anyway, feel free to add your own. It is an interesting thing to look at. I will probably do this again later, if I have been at the computer listening to lots of music, and think that it might change the list significantly.

Following the lead of Don Jim...

It looks like it's time once again for iPod Shuffle Random Playlist!. And if that doesn't sound like words found on a tee shirt in a Grand Ave dollar store, then nothing does.

The rules, for bloggers who want to play:
Get your ipod or media-player of choice, select your whole music collection, set the thing to shuffle (i.e., randomized playback), then post the first ten songs that come out. No cheating, no matter how stupid it makes you feel! Maybe link the songs to online music stores for readers' convenience.

Here is mine:

1. "Moon Shrine" by SPACE BOYS
2. Six Sonatas for Cembalo "I. Moderato" by Lou Harrison, played by Lynda Burman-Hall on harspichord.
3. "Cherokee" by Ray Noble, sung by Sarah Vauhgan
4. "Here Comes De Honey Man (Live)" by Gershwin, Gershwin, and Hayward performed by Miles Davis with the Quincy Jones Orchestra
5. "Tranquila" by Luis Vargas
6. "Tre Sorelle - 3 Sisters" by Fiamma Fumana
7. "In The Beginning: Etude II" by David Rosenboom, performed by Don Buchla and Robert Moog
8. "Walk With Me" performed by Aubrey Ghent
9. "Malinconia D’Amore" by Ferruccio Tagliavini
10. "Um Canto De Afoxé Para O Bloco De Ilê (Ilê Ayê)" by Caetano Veloso

Sgt. Pepper and Frank Sinatra

The other day a friend sent me a funny link to a site that had a list of "One Hundred Albums to Throw out of Your Collection Right Now." It had its funny moments, including a listing of the Beatle's Sgt. Pepper's. It pointed out that rock and roll didn't need all that orchestration and production: Frank Sinatra already had that covered.

And then, like a lightbulb in my head, I realized, "yes! That is what is so right about Sgt. Pepper's!"

It represents the total surrender of rock and roll. It says, in a sense, "the greatest rock and roll band in the history of the genre is not enough to sustain interest. We need an orchestra. We need a talented and creative producer. We need a story. Shucks, if we could just take a couple of the trappings of rock and roll and go out and write an opera, we would. You are right. Music is more complex and grownups should want something more sophisticated than 'She Loves Me Yeah Yeah Yeah!'"

Then along came punk, stripped of this decadent nonsense, the angry Taliban of Rock and roll. We don't need no fourth chord! Self-indulgence! Pure! Authentic! Do it yourself! The energy is all you need!

That little ghost shirt movement fizzled pretty quickly. The Clash's Combat Rock (which has a place on the list), is punk's grand surrender moment.

"Yeah, this stuff is pretty childish and dull, too. Maybe we can make it interesting with some funk."

Now, I like a lot of rock and roll, especially punk rock, and have defended it in this space. However, we must take it for what it is and realize that rock and roll is to music as hard candies are to food. A diet of steady rock and roll makes for rotten ears and unhealthy souls. A little bit of Ramones with a lot of Scarlatti is the better way.

When "rock and roll" actually ends up transcending the limitations of its genre, it really is delving into different territory completely (Pink Floyd remains one of the rare examples of when rock and rollers took their music seriously, aimed for something higher, and got it, thus earning it the perpetual scorn of the Punk Rock Puritans).

Interestingly enough, Paul McCartney (who I never knew was a Beatle until much later than you would have thought. I always thought of him as sort of a lounge singer who did horrid duets with Michael Jackson, sort of a slightly hip Engelbert Humperdink) is now writing "serious classical music," which, for the most part, stinks. He is incapable of sustaining and developing an idea beyond 32 bars. A friend of mine pointed out that he would have been a great tin pan alley guy.

He is not a great composer of classical music, however, and his efforts do more to highlight the genius of George Martin than that of John, Paul, George and Ringo.

Must be the lack of animal protein.

Nina Simone - I Loves You Porgy - 1962 recording

This is absolutely fantastic. I have never seen this before, nor heard this recording.

Melanie and I were just blown away. As I clicked to the edit window, she giggled at me and said, "it's partially a blog, it's partially just another venue for YouTube."

Or maybe you like your jazz even more serious and high-toned:

Or, if you prefer folk, here is Steve Goodman with Jethro...

And then, for those of you into something completely different is Glenn Gould playing Berg...

(Part One)

(Part Two)

Leonard Cohen and Sonny Rollins

I never would have thought to put these two together on the same bill, let alone the same stage, but it works quite well:

No New Things, Yet, But a Strangely Appropriate Old One

The new thing did not happen, and it was not because I did not try to fumble around with it, rather, it was because I got distracted creating iTunes playlists.

So, it is altogether appropriate that Don Jim posted his iPod 10 shuffle list today. Here is mine:

1. "Once Upon a Summertime" sung by Betty Carter
2. "Que Deus Me Perdoe" sung by Maria Ana Bobone (and accompanied by harpsichord!)
3. "Down to the River to Pray" sung by Allison Kraus
4. "Grazie A Francesco/Tarantella N. Calabrese" played on surdulina by Sean Folsom
5. "Remescio" sung by the Squadra Bleu de Zena (Genovese trallaleri group)
6. "On n'oublie Rien" sung by Jacques Brel
7. "I Don't Care (Just As Long As You Love Me)" sung by Buck Owens
8. "Miles Ahead" played by Miles Davis with Quincy Jones
9. "Arcobaleno" sung by Meme Bianchi (yes, "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", sung in Italian)
10. "The Broad Majestic Shannon" by the Pogues

And Because I Just Can't Help Myself...

One good traditional carol deserves another.

I bet you never heard the "Boar's Head Carol" done quite like this:

And, in goofy comedy mode, do you remember where you were when you found out that "Buckwheat has been shot"?

And now for something completely different...

The Bill Evans Trio doing "Autumn Leaves." Pay special attention to the bass solo (as if you could ignore it):

And on the random direction this posting has taken, enjoy this bit of vintage Grateful Dead in a 1972 recording of "He's Gone":

And "Ramble on Rose" from the same concert:

And, finally, another of my all-time favorite bands, this time the Art Ensemble of Chicago:

I could post lots from these guys, but it will have to wait for now.

It's Time Once Again for...You Guessed It!

This time the YouTube moment is Steeleye Span, one of the best bands to ever come out of England. I grew up listening to this band, and still love their sound. Perhaps my afinity for early music has some roots in listening to this (although my parents' rather extensive collection of J.S. Bach probably had a bit to do with it, too).

Here is "Thomas the Rhymer" from their twentieth anniversary tour:

Any rock band that sings Christmas carols in Latin wins points in my book, and this one I probably should have posted during the Christmas season, but here is a lovely rendition of "Gaudete":

Here is a much earlier recording of "All Around My Hat" from a television show:

Now, it is impossible to speak of the British Folk Movement and to leave out Martin Carthy, who is here with Steeley Span doing "A Lark in the Morning":

And we cannot forget Fairport Convention, here doing "Polly on the Shore":

Sun Ra

Did you ever see Sun Ra live? His band was a lot of fun, and the shows were great, sort of space-themed three ring circus with stellar musicians (and I mean stellar, these guys could go play anything, and play it well). For those of you who missed it, here is a clip from a 1981 show in Chicago, complete with a burning free jazz sax solo:

Apparently there is a fellow out there who likes to set anime to Sun Ra music. I don't care much for anime, but it is a great excuse to hear a really good studio recording from Sun Ra:

Maybe Dear Margo could learn a thing about giving advice from Sun Ra:

Part of the deal with the Sun Ra Arkestra is that all the musicians doubled on percussion, so that you could get some interesting interludes going on. Like Duke Ellington before him, Sun Ra had members who stayed with him for decades. Some left for awhile for more lucrative and prestigious bands, and did well, but came back because what other band could have been more fun than this:

Since we are YouTubing it Tonight...

I cannot go around praising this singer and that singer and not give a nod to the greatest singer:

Alas, since Amalia Rodrigues is no longer among us, we will have to get our live fado fix from Mariza:

The Hawaiian Music Connection

Of course most folks think "steel guitar" when they think of Hawaiian music. So, what happened when a black Holiness Pentacostal church musician went to Hawaii? Sacred Steel was born. It is a longer story, and very interesting (check out the link on the sidebar to Arhoolie Records, and you will find lots of Sacred Steel material).

In this clip, from (I beleive) Sacred Steel, a documentary on the subject by Robert Stone and put out by Arhoolie Records and the Arhoolie Foundation, we see the Campbell Brothers (probably the finest Sacred Steel musicians out there) at their best:

Of course, since the fame brought to this once very obscure musical tradition hit, the musicians weren't content to stick with playing for the same crowd every Sunday, especially the younger ones. So, from a Holiness church to the jam band world, bands like the Lee Brothers and Ray Ray are doing to this music what Little Richard (whose cousin, Katie Jackson, incidentally, is a singer in a Sacred Steel church) did with mid-century gospel music:

Robert Randolph is probably the biggest name of these musicians who "crossed over." He is phenomenally talented:

Undoubtedly some of you are thinking, "what, Sacred Steel? This stuff has only been on the scene for, what, ten years? You used to push this stuff for Arhoolie!"

Well, with YouTube and the commonality of broadband, it is fun to see the video material that is available, and is worth a re-exploration.

Raiatea Helm

Well, if you want a gorgeous female voice to go along with that last bit, why don't we switch regions to Hawaii and listen to a little Raiatea? A couple of years ago we were at a Hawaiian music and culture festival, which was really good, but Amalia was getting grumpy and we were heading towards the gate. As we mosied, Amalia calmed down enough for us to here this amazing band. We decided to chance going back in, so we did, and were rewarded with some great music. After these fellows we heard finished, a woman came on (can't remember her name either) who was even better. "Wow!" we thought, "let's see who is next, the program says 'Raiatea Helm.' Let's check her out."

Needless to say, we were completely smitten with the pure tones of this young singer from (I think) Maui. Her album is mostly good: the stuff she does in Hawaiian is outstanding, but the English stuff is pretty sentimental and forgetable.

This clip mostly does her justice, although the sound quality is not great:

Well, that was a fast interlude.

Sometimes it so happens that you make a phone call and have to wait around for a callback, thus giving you time to do what you did not think you could otherwise do... like hunt YouTube for fun stuff.

Not Iranian, but you should hear him nonetheless, is Egyptian singer Abdel Halim Hafez. I have had his records for years, but did not think of searching YouTube for him until today.

The introduction on this one goes on, but watching him interact with the crowd gives you an idea of how huge he was, and the music is interesting. The singing is definitely worth waiting for, too.

Here is Abdel Halim Hafez singing "Gana el Hawa":

Here he is in a movie (sound quality only so-so, but clear enough, and his voice comes through beautifully) singing "Ahwak":

And this one: Busby Berkeley goes Arab or the Arabs go Busby? You be the judge (fantastic musicianship, either way, though):

Now, that's a singer!