Recently I've posted a few jazz tracks and they have been well received. I've included jazz since more or less the start of my blog. At first it wasn't too popular but over the year or so I've been blogging the popularity of the jazz I've included has steadily increased. I don't know if this is because I've gained newer readers that are interested in jazz or because my older readers have decided to try out some of the jazz I've posted and found they've liked it. Perhaps a combination of the two.
Anyway, it's with this in mind I've decided to feature some jazz songs today. I hope you'll enjoy them.
Rhapsody In Blue by Duke Ellington. This is from his album 'Will The Big Bands Ever Come Back?' that was released in 1965. 11 of the 12 tracks on that album, including this one, were included as a bonus disc for the 1989 re-release of Recollections of the Big Band Era, an album recorded in 1692 & 1963 but not released until 1974.
There's too much that I could write about Duke Ellington, anything I do write would omit so much it'd be selling him short. So I'll just give you some random trivia about him. His first major soundtrack work was for the film Anatomy Of A Murder (possibly the finest court-room drama ever). The film was banned in South Africa because of a scene that sees Duke Ellington and Jimmy Stewart play the piano together.
This song is one of my favourite of Ellington's. It's the track I use on my alarm, it's a lovely way to be woken up every morning.
Body & Soul by Charlie Haden Quartet West. Charlie Haden may be the first free jazz bassist. He played on The Shape Of Jazz To Come & Free Jazz: A Collective Improvisation, both Ornette Coleman recordings and may be most famous for these recordings. He's recorded with lots more great jazz musicians, far too many to mention. If you read this blog somewhat regularly then you'll probably be aware of Brad Mehldau's Radiohead covers. Charlie Haden and Brad Mehldau played together on Lee Konitz's album 'Alone Together'. You may also remember Petra Haden's cover of Tattoo, originally by the who. She's one of Haden's children.
Body & Soul is one of the most recorded jazz standards of all time, right up their with Round Midnight and When The Saints Go Marching In. This version is one of the best, I think. Along with haden's playing the saxaphone playing of Ernie Watts is great.
I'll Remember April by Ethan Iverson Trio. If you're only ever occasionally glanced at this blog before you'll know Ethan Iverson. Most well known around here as the pianist from The Bad Plus this track is from the album Deconstruction Zone, an album of jazz standards and a companion to the album of original compositions called, as you can probably guess, Construction Zone. Reid Anderson plays bass on these albums, just like he does with The Bad Plus, but it's Jorge Rossy rather than Dave King who plays drums. The Bad Plus is, at least too me, more of an equally partnership of musicians, but the Ethan Iverson Trio is, as the name suggests, much more about Iverson's playing.
It wasn't my plan to not post earlier this week, but I've just been too busy. If you've e-mailed me I'm sorry I haven't replied yet, but I will very soon.
As part apology for my lack of posts this week here is The National playing Bloodbuzz Ohio live on Jools Holland. This song comes from the album High Violet which I have absolutely fallen in love with in a way that I very rarely do with an album. So if you don't own it I strongly recommend that you buy it at the first opportunity.
Welcome to the 3rd edition of Covers for Sunday with a featured band. This time around I'm featuring The Kinks.
The first time around it was The Strokes. The amount of covers of The Strokes I had suggested the idea to me, so it seemed natural I feature them first. Next Up were The Velvet Underground. My favourite band and a hugely influential band to all sorts of musicians they seemed the perfect choice for the next edition.
And now, The Kinks. One of my very favourite bands, when I first started reading blogs it surprised me how many American bloggers liked The Kinks and how many American bands admired them and covered them. I know they had a lot of success in the US as part of the British Invasion and I wasn't really surprised by people liking You Really Got Me, All Day And All of The Night and Lola, they are great songs that sold well in the US.
But songs like Waterloo Sunset, Dead End Street, Autumn Almanac and Days surprised me with their popularity. These songs, and plenty of others, seem to me to be quintessentially English songs, everything from the music hall influences to the lyrics seem rooted in Englishness. I know it's possible to like music that comes from a different culture, but The Kinks are more than that I think. So I guess it's a tribute to the lyrics of Ray Davies more than anything that these songs became so popular to people who have no experience of what they're about. That's not to anyway attempt to diminish the brilliance of Dave Davies guitar playing and general musicianship. Here's a nice quote from Pete Townshend:
"The Kinks were ... quintessentially English. I always think that Ray Davies should one day be poet laureate. He invented a new kind of poetry and a new kind of language for pop writing that influenced me from the very, very, very beginning."
Let's start with the video for Dead End Street. This is one of the first music videos and it, and the song, were pretty much ripped off wholesale by Oasis for The Importance Of being Idle.
Now, onto the covers. Covers by The Kinks first, of which there aren't many. I know they covered Dancing In The Streets, but I don't have a copy of it.
Louie, Louie by The Kinks (originally by Richard Berry and The Pharaohs). Apparently it was while trying to figure out the chords to this that Ray Davis wrote You Really Got Me.
And now I'm going to cheat a bit. The next three songs were all written by Ray Davies but were first performed by other artists. So they may not be covers in the strictest sense, but it's a good excuse to have more songs by The Kinks here.
Dandy by The Kinks (originally recorded by Herman's Hermits)
A House In The Country by The Kinks (originally recorded by The Pretty Things) The Pretty Things got to number 50 in the UK with this, the last time they troubled the chart compliers.
These covers have all been featured before on Covers for Sunday:
Everybody's Going To Be Happy by Queens Of The Stone Age. One of my favourite covers of The Kinks, it's very close to the original and shows Queens Of The Stone Age's range very well.
David Watts by The Jam. The first cover of The Kinks I ever heard. The lead vocals on this are done by Bruce Foxton rather than Paul Weller.
Moments by Spoon Set Me Free by Spoon. I've said it before, I'd gladly by a double album by Spoon with just covers of The Kinks on it.
You Really Got Me by Bruce Springsteen. The sound quality on this is a little shaky at first, but it's fine once the song starts. This is a great live cover.
I Go To Sleep by Soulwax. Some covers change almost everything about the original but still sound great, like an evolution of the original. Soulwax do that here, they make the song their own without losing anything of the original's charm.
I Go To Sleep by The Pretenders. Maybe the most famous cover of a song by The Kinks and probably one of The Pretenders five most famous songs.
Strangers by Jason Bajada (feat: Anna Ruddick & Maia Davies from Ladies of The Canyon). I've featured Jason Bajada before, covering Wolf Parade. This live cover isn't up to those, admittedly high, standards, but it is still good.
Chances are you've heard both of these Elliott Smith covers before, if not you've been missing out. I think Elliott Smith would be a great musician for a future Covers for Sunday edition like this.
Strangers by Norah Jones. If you're like me you're probably not a fan of Norah Jones. This may not change your mind, it hasn't changed mine, but it remains an excellent cover.
This Is Where I Belong by Ron Sexsmith. Strange coincidence, yesterday I finished reading Speaking With the Angel, a collection of short stories edited by Nick Hornby and named after a Ron Sexsmith song. Well worth buying & reading as well.
Situation Vacant by Spoon. More Spoon goodness, a great cover of a lesser known song.
Come Dancing by The Walkmen. I love The Walkmen, Canadian Girl is a favourite of mine. Come Dancing was The Kinks first single to reach the Top-20 of the UK charts in 10 and a half years.
Tired Of Waiting by Green Day. I had no idea Green Day had covered The Kinks, and if I'd been told I doubt I'd have guessed this was the song they'd covered. It is a good cover though.
Dead End Street by The Jam. As the first cover of The Kinks I ever heard was by The Jam this will be the last song for tonight.
It's been a while since I've done an uncovered post, the plan is still to do one every Saturday.
Lazy Bird by John Coltrane. It's my belief that John Coltrane is the greatest musician that ever lived. I rarely post his music here, this is only the third time I've done so and it's the first time I've featured an original Coltrane composition. You should then have already guessed that it wasn't easy for me to choose a track for this from all of his recordings. In the end I went with this hard-bop track from the album Blue Train, Coltrane's first real album as leader. Recorded in 1957 this was the last track from the album. The musicians on it are:
John Coltrane (tenor saxophone) Lee Morgan (trumpet) Curtis Fuller (trombone) Kenny Drew (piano) Paul Chambers (contrabass) Philly Lee Jones (drums)
All are exceptional on this, although Coltrane's playing towers over them. I really enjoy Lee Morgan's playing on this, incredible to think he was only 19 and already playing so well. Paul Chambers solo is very enjoyable as well, he plays most of the bass on this track by plucking but uses a bow for the solo which is followed by a great solo from Philly Jones Lee. Anyway. I chose this track because it's great, obviously, but also because it's easy to listen to if it's your first exposure to jazz or you're already a veteran listener.
This Love by Pantera. A rather large difference between the first and second tracks I'm sure you'll agree. Apart from their cover of Cat Scratch Fever the only Pantera songs I own are from a magazine giveaway compilation from, I think, 1997. So I listened to them both and chose this.
Every Little Earthquake by Little Boots. You might be wondering why Little Boots is on this blog, it's not exactly the sort of thing I normally post after all. Nor is it the sort of music I normally listen to. But I did like her cover of Rich Girls by The Virgins, (her cover was called Rich Boys), so that's why there's a Little Boots song here. I know nothing about Little Boots really, but apparently it was also Caligula's nick-name. I do know a few things about Caligula, so here's a random fact for you all. He was the son of the nephew of the adopted son of the adopted son of Julius Caesar.
Electro Snake by Ryan Adams. Just on the off chance you missed this when it was on more or less every blog a couple of months ago.
Deep Dark Truthful Mirror by Elvis Costello. Obviously there are loads of songs too choose from with this Elvis as well. I went with this rather than one of the usual songs that are associated with him. Not to be obscure but because it's a great song, the drums and horns are particularly good.
A New England by Billy Bragg. And this time I decided to go with the obvious choice, just to be contrary. I love this song, "It's wrong to wish on space hardware" is one of my favourite lyrics.
I'm going to take an educated guess here and say that you probably know Fionn Regan for his fantastic Mercury Nominated debut album The End Of History.
Or perhaps you know him as the possessor of the greatest bowl haircut since Luke Skywalker.
Either way, you probably haven't heard as much of his more electric guitar based music which can be found on his second album The Shadow of an Empire. The album has altogether more of a rock feel than his debut, which sits firmly in the acoustic singer-songwriter tradition.
Predictably there was plenty of criticism at his change of direction. I fail to see why this happens so much. Why do we expect musicians to make record after record sound the same. Don't we like these people because they are creative? To then complain when they don't just create slightly different versions of the same thing over and over seems to me to be fairly idiotic. If the new direction results in poor music then I can almost understand the criticism. But that's certainly not the case here. I think this song shows off the quality of his new material and, in particular, his guitar playing.
No posts at all this week. I decided at pretty short notice to take a week off work, so I thought I'd take a week's holiday from blogging as well. I'll make it up to you though.
Here's this week's covers, next week's Covers will be the third Covers for Sunday that focuses on one band. The first two posts, featuring The Strokes & The Velvet Underground, were really popular, next week it'll be the turn of The Kinks.
When by Maximo Park (originally by Vincent Gallo). Very, very different from the original. Pretty far away from most of Maximo Park's music as well. In fact, and this isn't a comparison I make lightly, it doesn't sound too far away from Joy Division.
The Devil Went Down To Georgia by Blues Traveller (originally by The Charlie Daniels Band). A live country rock cover, full of energy, excellent fiddle playing and some really good, drone-esque, guitar playing during the long fiddle solo.
Day n Nite by Chaingang (originally by Kid Cudi). I detest the original version of this. It's one of the songs my kids like and I just can't understand why.
Time Is Running Out by Alex Cornell (originally by Muse). Strips out the bombast of the original without diminishing it at all and compliments Muse's version pretty perfectly.
Romeo and Juliet by Matt Ryd (originally by Dire Straits). I started listening to this and liked it, but I'd managed to change my opinion by the time I reached the end of the song I'd changed my mind. It just goes on for too long. I'm not exactly a Dire Straits fan, quite the opposite, ao I may not be the best person to judge this.
Diamond Sea by Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs (originally by Sonic Youth). Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs seem to be a bit of a love or hate band amongst people I know. There are however some songs almost everyone enjoys. This is one of them.
I haven't been posting as much lately, so apologies for that. Hopefully I'll be back on track this week. And if I'm not you'll still have these six covers to comfort you.
Feel Good Inc by Editors (originally by Gorillaz). This works so much better than I'd imagined. Tom Smith has such a dense heavy voice, this song sounds like it's part of the soundtrack to the end of the world.
No Love Lost by LCD Soundsystem (originally by Joy Division). And so does this. Obviously I don't think that the end of the world would be in anyway a good thing, but at least the soundtrack will be pretty good. Every cloud has a silver lining and all that.
Crossroad Blues by Tom Hanway (originally by Robert Johnson). Crossroad Blues is one of the great early blues recordings, something everyone should have in their collection. This is a bluegrass cover, it's well done and gives a new different look at a very familiar song.
First Of The Gang To Die by Zee Avi (originally by Morrissey). This'd be a lot better if it finished 30 seconds or so earlier, but it's still a good cover. Drawn-out and fragile while the original is punchy and compact this is a nice compliment to Morrissey's recording.
Here Comes Your Man by Meaghan Smith (originally by The Pixies). I'm not sure what to make of this, it seems both similar and different to the original. It's really enjoyable to listen to, either way.
When Love Comes To Town by Declan O'Rourke (originally by U2 feat BB King). Another cover of a song featuring a blues legend. Robert Johnson and BB King are pretty much opposite musically and professionally. Robert Johnson was little recorded and left behind a legacy filled as much with myth and legend as with fact. In contrast BB King has played over 15,000 shows, there are more BB King albums than Robert Johnson songs. However both are blues legends and both have influenced plenty of guitarists.
None of that is anyway related to the song, but it is a great cover.
Enjoy the songs and I'll see you next week. Hopefully more regularly than this week.
I grew up with two elder siblings a sister and a brother. My sister is 12 years older than me and had, and frankly still does have, pretty terrible taste in music. My brother, who is 9 years older than me, had great taste in music. He still more or less has good taste, but I know he has a Best Of The Beautiful South, although he denies it and that worries me.
Anyway. One of the advantages of having an older brother with good taste was growing up around music, starting to appreciate good music earlier and not listening to so much of the rubbish my classmates listened too. I got into lots of music that way, Martin Stephenson & The Daintees, Suede, REM, The Lemonheads for just a few examples.
Another band are/were Dinosaur Jr. The Wagon may be the first song I really fell in love with. Here's Dinosaur Jr. playing it live on The David Letterman show. Notice the house band playing along.
The Wagon (mp3) - Dinosaur Jr (live on The David Letterman Show)
Gnarls Barkley's Crazy must be one of the most covered songs of the last five years or so. Understandably so, it's a great and catchy song, hip-hop without rap and it features everyone's favourite producer Danger Mouse.
I remember first hearing it as a small clip on an advert for the Zane Lowe shop and being instantly impressed. A couple of days later I was walking home from work listening to the radio on my phone (my mp3 player wasn't working properly) when it was mentioned Crazy would be played in full in a few minutes on Radio 1 (one of three stations I could get on my phone's rather inadequate radio). I got home, managed to tune the radio on my ancient turntable to Radio 1 in time, listened to it, loved it, and bought it as soon as it came out. I have no idea why I didn't just listen to Radio 1 online.
This is a live version recorded on Top Of The Pops. It features five violinists, a drummer, a bassist, a guitarist and three backing vocalists as well as Cee-Lo and Danger Mouse. You may have seen this before, everyone is dressed as a member of an airline crew. If not, this is even better than the studio version. If you have, well, you already knew that.
Crazy (mp3) - Gnarls Barkley (live on Top Of The Pops)
This was meant to be posted last night, but I had some software problems. So as recompense for it being late here's a bonus track & video:
Crazy (mp3) - Gnarls Barkley (live Star Wars version)
As an addition to the regular Covers for Sunday, which you can find here, here are six jazz covers. They vary in what jazz sub-genre they are but they have in common how excellent they are. As I said in Covers for Sunday I hope this makes up for my lack of posting during the last week.
Lithium by The Bad Plus feat Wendy Lewis (originally by Nirvana). I guess, if you're a regular reader of this blog, as soon as you saw there would be a jazz edition of Covers for Sunday you knew The Bad Plus would be here. The amount of times The Bad Plus, with and without Wendy Lewis, should give you a pretty good idea of how highly I rate them. I could wax on and on for ages, or pages if you prefer, about how great they are. But I won't, I'll let the music speak for itself. I do wish I could drum like Dave King though.
Everytime We Say Goodbye - John Coltrane (originally by Ella Fitzgerald). Or at least Ella Fitzgerald is the first person to record it as far as I know. It was written by Cole Porter and was used in Seven Lively Arts on Broadway in 1944, but I've no idea who sang it or if there was ever a recording of this version or any other that predate Ella Fitzgerald's. It seems likely that it was recorded sometime betweeen 1944 and 1956 though. Anyway this is from Coltrane's excellent 'My Favorite Things' album. My Favorite Things was featured a few months back if you fancy listening to it. Both tracks feature Coltrane in masterful form as he plays an exceptionally hypnotic soprano saxophone. If you don't have the album in your collection, jazz fan or not, it is a serious hole.
Buddy Bolden's Blues by Air (originally by Jelly Roll Morton). This is a jazz cover of a jazz song. Air were a 70's and 80's free jazz trio, this comes from their album Air Lore. Jelly Roll Morton is one of the founding figures of jazz. A self publicist prone to exaggeration he claimed to have invented jazz in 1902. Although that claim is untrue it is true that he composed the first jazz song ever published, Jelly Roll Blues. His version of Buddy Bolden's Blues is a solo piece, recorded without his Red Hot Peppers. Buddy Bolden, or King Bolden, was also a jazz musician. He may in fact be the inventor of jazz, the musician (or band leader) that moved from ragtime to jazz. None of his recordings survive, if he even made any, so all we can do is speculate. Anyway, one of his compositions (or maybe his trombonist Willy Cornish's) Funky Butt later became known as Buddy Bolden's Blues and it's this that Jelly Roll Morton uses as the first (and possibly second) verse of his song. So is this the cover of a cover? Sort off.
One last thing. Buddy Bolden was institusionalised in 1907 with schizophrenia. He remained institusionalised until his death in 1930. Frankie Duson, another of Buddy Bolden's trombonists, became the band leader of Buddy Bolden's group and after several personal changes renamed the band as the Eagle Band. In 1917 Frankie Duson went to play with none other than Jelly Roll Morton in Los Angeles. They had a falling out during which Jelly Roll Morton mocked their clothes and manners. As a result of this feud Jelly Roll Morton wrote a verse in, you guessed it, Buddy Bolden's Blues describing Frankie Duson as a pimp. This is something Morton was well qualified to write about, he had been a pimp when he was younger. I've spoken about it so much that I can't not include Jelly Roll Morton's version of Buddy Bolden's Blues, so here it is:
You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go - Madeleine Peyroux (originally by Bob Dylan). This is just gorgeous. The vocals are pure smooth brilliance. Not the sort of smoothness that renders the lyrics meaningless, more a smoothness that just states the meaning plainly. The drumming, with brushes, is a great sound, it fits the arrangement of this cover perfectly.
Blue In Green - World Saxophone Quartet (originally by Miles Davis). This isn't an arrangement with just saxophones. There are drums, there is a piano. Now, I guess if you've heard the original you'll be a bit suspicious about this. First of all, how can you take a classic Miles Davis song and cover it without a trumpet? Secondly, how can you cover a song that has two of the greatest saxophonists of all time (John Coltrane and Cannonball Adderley) playing on the original.
Paranoid Android - The Brad Mehldau Trio (originally by Radiohead). It wouldn't be jazz covers with a Brad Mehldau cover of Radiohead. Compared to the other two of his Radiohead covers I've featured, Knives Out and Exit Music (for a film), this is pretty straight forward and not very avant garde. Of course it is still quite avant garde and just as great as the other two covers.
I've been very busy this week, so no blogging. To make up for it there's this and then later this evening I'll be posting another six covers, all jazz covers. Jazz covers are always pretty popular when I post them, so I hope a full six song edition of them will make up for my absence this week.
The Times They Are A Changing - Tom McNee (originally by Bob Dylan). A young Scouse folk singer-songwriter, currently working with some local musicians to start a new band. I know he's also done a cover of Land Down Under. I hate that song but I can imagine how great his cover will be. If I can get a copy I will share it.
Like A Virgin - Teenage Fanclub (originally by Madonna). You should know just by reading the song title and the covering artist just how good this is going to be. It is that good.
Sympathy For The Devil - Jane's Addiction (originally by the Rolling Stones). A live cover that's not quite as good as the original, but then few songs are.
The Boy With The Thorn In His Side - J Mascis (originally by The Smiths). Dinosaur Jr were one of my favourite bands growing up, The Wagon was possibly the first song that really got stuck into my head. Of course I was very pleased when they reformed and released an album last year that is the equal of their past greatness. J Mascis' unique vocals work perfectly on this cover.
Empire State Of Mind - Jackson Harris (originally by Jay-Z). Sometimes non-hip-hop covers of hip-hop songs are terrible, this however is great.
When Doves Cry - Damien Rice (originally by Prince). I was never really into Damien Rice, Cannonball irritated me and put me off listening to anything else he did. However a work colleague is a huge fan and convinced me to give him a try. I'm glad I did, I think this cover is far more representative of his work and talent than Cannonball.
Posts
