Tuesday, November 30, 2004
Bembeya Jazz
"Guantanamera Seyni"
Even if you don't recognize the name of this tune (or thought it was called "One Ton Tomato"), you'll know the song because the Sandpipers had a massive hit with it in 1966 and tons of folks have played it before & after. "Guantanamera" is usually played all peppery, and sweaty, and Latiny (natch), but I love the way Guinea's Bembeya Jazz slows it down, reverbs it up, and gives it that West African swing. The guitar is just plain tite. If you like the low-intensity, Senegalese'd rumbas of Orchestra Baobab....
The MP3 is a direct download from Stern's Music, which posted it to promote the comp The Syliphone Years---even though "Guantanamera" isn't even on the CD.
-Buy The Syliphone Years from Stern's Music
-BBC on Bembeya
-AfroPop interviews guitarist-leader Sekou "Bembeya" Diabate aka "Diamond Fingers," which is remarkably similar to what I was called back in my indie-pop, guitar-playing days. (Actually, it was "One-Finger Willie," but man I could squeeze gems out of that string.)
Posted by CP | Link |
Sunday, November 28, 2004
 
Watched The Battle of Algiers this weekend. Lived up to the hype. Seems awfully familiar, too. No wonder the Pentagon screened the film in 2003.
Posted by CP | Link |
Friday, November 19, 2004
Julie Delpy
"A Waltz for a Night"
"An Ocean Apart"
"Je T'aime Tant"
"Mr. Unhappy"
Julie Delpy (Crepuscule, 2003)
BUY
Before Sunset/Before Sunrise soundtrack (Milan, 2004)
BUY
At the one hour, two minute, and 28 second mark of Before Sunset, Julie Delpy reaches out to touch the turned head of That Shimmering Glass of Milk but stops short and looks away. It's the most bittersweet, beautiful moment in a bittersweet, beautiful movie.
Andrew Sarris, the man who first called Ethan Hawke a dairy product, gets it right again.
Not so sure about her music, but damn, Brosephus, it's Julie Delpy. Her lisp alone is as breathtaking as the B Minor Mass.
Posted by CP | Link |
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Welcome back to these mandatory viewing Web sites:
Moistworks was down for a long time due to server problems, but he's back to bringing the disco, dada, doo doo.
WizzNutzz was down while they acquired new interns, copious amounts of peyote, and God Shammgod, who has his own MP3 blog there: God's Mix Tape. Simply divine (if you like basketball jamz---and who doesn't?)
Posted by CP | Link |
Tuesday, November 16, 2004
The Eastlands MCs are straight outta one of the fiercest slums of Nairobi, Kenya. Their voices are finally being heard on a new compilation CD, Kilio Cha Haki, which means "a cry for justice."
More about Kilio Cha Haki
African Hip-Hop.com
--
Watched the documentary Diamonds & Rust last night, about a diamond-mining ship off the coast of Namibia that features a multiculti crew. White South Africans ran the ship, with black South Africans and Namibians, as well as Cubans, doing all the grunt work. The dudes in charge lived up to every friggin' Afrikaner stereotype there is, acting like patronizing a-holes to anyone of color---even saying that their black shipmates are a "different species."
Natch, not all white South Africans are this way by any means, and in the 10 days I spent there last spring I met plenty of good-hearted pasty peeps. But I also came across a few major Afrikaner dickheads who were still pissed that apartheid ended (though whites still own 90 percent of the country's riches). Check my April 17 entry for the tale.
--
Peter Margasak, the longtime music critic for the Chicago Reader (and one of the more obsessive and knowledgeable dudes I know regarding world music, jazz, and experimental sounds) has started an MP3 blog: Worldly Disorientation. One of his first posts (Nov. 11) is by the South African bassist Johnny Dyani. So, so great.
Posted by CP | Link |
Monday, November 15, 2004
Winston Wright, "Moon Invader"
Greater Jamaica: Moon Walk-Reggay (Jet Set/Culture Press, 1997; Treasure Island, 1969)
The Meters, "Look-Ka Py Py"
Look-Ka Py Py (Josie, 1969) & Funkify Your Life: The Meters Anthology (Rhino, 1995)
The U.K. single of "Moon Invader" (Trojan) lists Winston Wright and Tommy McCook as the artists. If that's true then Tommy was blowing sax over at 31 Bond St.---as opposed to 33 Bond St., where this was recorded---waaaay off mic because there ain't a sax to be heard here. But Tommy's band, the Supersonics, raprazents, with Winston's stanky organ stabs and either George Tucker or Ranny "Bop" Williams laying it down on guitar. I also wouldn't be surpried if the 7-inch didn't list the correct songwriters for this bit of funkey, funkey reggay: The Meters' "Look-Ka Py Py" is the source.
Winston is one of those quietly influential but mostly unknown Jamaican studio musicians who cut about, lemme see, a bazillion trax with little credit and likely no royalties. (That's Winston banging the keys on the Harry J All-Stars' smash "The Liquidator.") He died in 1993.
I'm not sure what Jet Set/Culture Press is up to these days; they may have bitten it, but if you know something different lemme know. Also, I think I remember reading that the label had a falling out with Lucille Reid, the widow of producer Duke Reid, whose Treasure Island records originally released Greater Jamaica: Moon Walk-Reggay. While the CD is out of print, EB Reggae has it.
Posted by CP | Link |
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
John Coltrane, "Say It (Over and Over Again)"
from Ballads (Impulse, 1962)
"Everyone has a story about how jazz came into his or her life. For me, it was during holiday visits to the Detroit home of my aunt and uncle, Bette and Stuart Berry. I would steal away to their basement and listen to records--not jazz LPs, but my cousin's Pink Floyd and Alice Cooper records. It wasn't until my teens that I discovered my uncle's giant jazz collection--despite it taking up an entire wall.
A collector since the '50s, my uncle's musical interests span the gamut, from the earliest swing to the most recent David S. Ware album (which freaked out his dog). His basement was the place I first heard Wayne Shorter, Paul Desmond, Cecil Taylor, Sonny Rollins, Miles Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, Lee Morgan, and John Coltrane. While all these sounds flowed into my head, like a river to a lake, I would read through stacks of music mags--yes, including JazzTimes.
But it wasn't until I heard Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven that I fell in love with the music. My first nonrock LP was Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy--given to me by Uncle Stu."
--editor's notes, JazzTimes, April 2000
Posted by CP | Link |
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Leave Your Masterpiece Unfinished
My Favorite, "The Suburbs Are Killing Us"
My Favorite, "The Suburbs Are Killing Us vs. Double Agent"
My Favorite, "The Suburbs Are Killing Us vs. Leisure Enthusiast"
from The Happiest Days of Our Lives: The Complete Joan of Arc Tapes (Double Agent, 2003)
I really owe My Favorite an essay. I really owe them a phone call. I really owe them a 7-inch on Audrey's Diary. Alas, as I seem incapable of writing these days due to a death in the family, ongoing work insanity, and NBA tipoff---not to mention that the phone is an anathema to me, my record label is expired, and the 7-inch is all but extinct---I may just have to honor them by illegally giving away their music for free in hopes that you, dear reader, will follow up with My Favorite and write them an essay, give them a phone call, and release their music. Or at least buy their music, read their essays, and dream of phone calls from the band. It's the least you can do. I, however, should do so much more. My Favorite and I have a deep connection---one that preceeds this Web site and the E-Mail Age; one that came before our first letters to each other more than a decade ago; one that goes back to the '80s and high school, in different parts of the States, before we knew each other at all, when we spent our nights cruising from anywhere to nowhere on the two-laners in hand-me-down cars in hand-me-down towns, dreaming of what life was like somewhere, anywhere else. No essay, no phone call, no matter. Sometimes there's a light that will never go out.
--
My Favorite can be found by the Lost Detective, and s/he hosts more MP3s as well as videos and Michael Grace's wonderful late-night communiques.
--
Double Agent sells My Favorite discs and perhaps some of your favorites as well.
Posted by CP | Link |
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
Rip McFly don't need a recount.
Anybody know where I can find out who won the election?
Posted by CP | Link |
Monday, November 01, 2004
 
Sinead O'Connor, "Emperor's New Clothes"
from I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got (Capitol, 1990)
Sinead O'Connor, "Emperor's New Clothes (Hank Shocklee Remix)"
from The Black Album, Volume 8 (bootleg comp) + Emperor's New Clothes U.K. CD-5 (Capitol, 1990)
Sinead quit, but what happened to Hank? Making Web sites that don't work?
His remix of "Emporer's New Clothes" sounds like a proto-mashup because it's so skeletal and not quite in sync with the original tune.
Stay Free + Hank + Chuck
Murder Dog + Hank
A ton of Sinead downloads
Posted by CP | Link |
| |
 |
Who cork the dance?
|
