Tuesday, May 25, 2004  

Baba Brooks & The Trenton Spence Orchestra, "Distant Drums"
from Ska-Tola: Top Sounds From Top Deck Vol. 5 (Westside, 1998)
Artie Shaw Orchestra, "Jungle Drums"
from 1938 (Chronological Classics, 1998)
Raymond Harper w/ the Skatalites, "African Blood"
from Prince Buster Record Shack Presents the Original Golden Oldies, Vol. 2 (Jet Star, 1998)

Day two of jazz gone ska.

Baba Brooks was a trumpeter and a contemporary of the Skatalites. In 1963 he did a ska take on Artie Shaw's "Jungle Drums" for Justin Yap's Top Deck label. While Brooks begins his version with drums that echo Shaw's, trumpeter Raymond Harper along with Tommy McCook and the Skatalites did "Jungle Drums" in 1963 as "African Blood," doing away with the tom-tom clubbing and getting right to the ska riddim and the tune's melody line.

EB Reggae has the Prince Buster and Ska-Tola CDs; Amazon has the Shaw.

In other news:

Finally got to interview Miriam Makeba---and the awfully preturbed Mama Africa spent most of the chat yelling at me! I think she even called me "my child" at one point. It's the first time I've had a person who has addressed the United Nations get mad at me. I can only hope it's not the last. I still love you, Mama! No more yelling, Mama! No more! Mama, no!

Meanwhile, the other day Makeba's ex-husband Hugh Masekela proved to be a great interview. When Hugh was really rolling back in the day, dude could make Miles Davis look like a nerd, though the two brassmen pretty much ran neck & feather-boaed neck with all the women & blow they were collecting. While Masekela is clean now, you can read all about his fast times at Pimp Daddy High in his new autobiography, Still Grazing.

Posted by CP | Link |

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