Long songs

I was talking to a friend the other day about long songs and I though that'd be a good idea for a blog. So here we are. Three songs over 9 minutes long. I've excluded jazz from this, because that's kind of cheating

Kissing the Beehive by Wolf Parade.

The Court of the Crimson King by  King Crimson

Sister Ray by The Velvet Underground

That's it. I don't have a lot to say about these songs now because I'm ridiculously tired so I'm going to go to bed and read comics. Enjoy the three very different long songs and I'll see you tomorrow for Sunday Music.

Here's the thing

I know it's been a while since I posted, much longer than I wanted. I've been thinking about what I want the blog to be and what it's actually been since I re-started it. I want it to be a few things but mainly they can all be summed up as, I want it to be somewhere I can write about the things I want to write about. Somewhere to get my ideas and music and film and books out of my head and down somewhere. I hope that this will help me clarify why I feel the way about certain things, why I like the things I do. I hope it'll help sharpen my writing up too. I was pretty happy where it was when I was blogging regularly, now I've not only failed to continue to improve, I've regressed. I want to turn that around.

When you're a kid people ask you what you want to be when you grow up. I still don't know, I'm 34, but I do know that what I don't want to do any more is my current job. Don't worry, this isn't going to be a 'poor me I'm so unfulfilled' post. The truth is I am fulfilled in pretty much everyway. My family (now might be a good time to mention that there was no Music for Sunday last week because it was Father's Day and my daughter was determined to spend as much of the day letting me do as little as possible. It was lovely), my friends, all the things I love to do.  But not work. I want to do something else. I don't know how doing this blog will in any way help me do that, but it is at least doing something else. Something that is, even if only in a small way, productive. And something that is productive for me, again maybe only in a small way, and not for a huge company. I don't hate my job by any stretch of the imagination, I'm just utterly bored by it. Thinking about what I want to write about in my blog is a good, here's that word again, productive way to help pass the time. But if I don't ever do it, if I just think about it, then it's not really helping at all.

I'm aware that this hasn't really explained much in the way of why I haven't been blogging. Mainly the purpose of this post was to shake off the inertia and get something down. I guess in a lot of ways everything I wanted to say could have been better expressed by Frank Turner's song Photosynthesis. If you aren't familiar with his music you really need to get familiar with it. Start now.

Making amends

Yesterday I claimed, lightheartedly, that Arcade Fire were the best thing to come out of Montreal since Jean Béliveau. Obviously none of my selections were meant to be taken too seriously but I did forget that Leonard Cohen is from Montreal. So here's some Leonard Cohen to make amends for the omission.

You Know Who I Am live at The Isle Of Wight in 1970

Chelsea Hotel [#1] live in Israel 1972

First We Take Manhattan from I'm Your Man.

On Shuffle

You'll have noticed, I haven't had much time for blogging lately, and I haven't had much more inclination. So here's some music to tide you over, things I've been listening to as well as the new Radiohead REM and The Strokes albums. Enjoy.

Pepper by The Butthole Surfers, the best thing to come out of San Antonio since Pola Negri.

The Suburbs by Arcade Fire, the best thing to come out of Montreal since Jean Béliveau.

Terrible Love by The National, the best thing to come out of Brooklyn since Peggy Olsen.

A little jazz

I know it seems I've been neglecting you this week, but that's only because one of my blogs was deleted after a DMCA complaint. It was the new song by The Strokes, You're So Right, if you're interested. There are plenty of blogs that still have the song, so hunt it down. It sounds like The Strokes crossed with Kid A era Radiohead, it's well worth the effort.

On to today's posting, here are two jazz tracks for you. They're very different, from different eras of jazz and I think they give a pretty good indication of some of the variety that exists in jazz and some of the ways jazz has changed.

Brewery Of Beggars by Esbjörn Svensson Trio. From the album Tuesday Wonderland, released in 2006. The musicians are:

Esbjörn Svensson - piano
Dan Berglund - contrabass
Magnus Öström - drums

Black Bottom Stomp by Jelly Roll Morton and His Red Hot Peppers. Released in 1925 this is a perfect example of early hot jazz. Morton is sometimes disregarded to a degree because he exaggerated his contributions to early jazz, more or less claiming to invent it. While that's almost certainly not true he was a pivotal figure in the development of jazz, and may well be the first true jazz arranger. Certainly he was an exceptional pianist and band leader. The musicians playing on this are:

Jelly Roll Morton - piano
Clarinet: Omer Simeon - clarinet
Trumpet: George Mitchell - trumpet
Trombone: Kid Ory - trombone
Johnny St. Cyr - banjo
John Lindsay - contrabass
Andrew Hilaire - drums

A bit of hip hop.

Periodically I realise that I don't actually post much hip hop here and resolve to do something about. Then I'll post a little bit, get distracted and repeat the cycle a few months later. So, here's some hip hop and hopefully I won't forget, but I'm not counting on it.

Plenty of my friends, even those interested in music say they don't like hip hop. It seems though that what they actually mean is, they don't like the sort of hip hop they hear on the radio. Neither do I. Sure there are some exceptions, but for every genre except classical, I don't like what is played on mainstream radio stations. So here's some hip hop that you won't hear on mainstream radio.



Masters Of The Universe by Binary Star. It took me a long time to find this album, when I finally managed to find it I ended up paying more for it than any other album before or since. It was money well spent.



Deathbed Doctrine by Jedi Mind Tricks. Maybe the most famous non-famous hip hop act JMT have a new album, Violence Begets Violence, due out sometime this year.



Dream Seasons by Blackalicious. There have been no Blackalicious albums since 2005 but they are also working on an album due out this year.

Some trumpet music

Green Bee by Al Hirt. Or at least Al hirt is playing the trumpet on this, but the composition is by Billy May and the orchestra is conducted by Lionel Newman. In 1966 The Green Hornet TV series (the one with Bruce Lee as Kato) was produced. The radio series had Flight Of The Bumblebee as the theme tune and that was rearranged into a jazz version that became this. The song is sometimes known as The Green Hornet.

Rise, Sally Rise by Nat Adderley. You've probably heard of Cannonball Adderley, Nat's brother, rather than Nat himself. But if you've got any of Cannonball's music chances are Nat's playing on it too. Nat played in both Cannonball Adderley Quintets as well as with Ray Charles, Philly Joe Jones, Wynton Kelly, JJ Johnson and Sonny Rollins as well as recording over 30 albums as a band leader. This is from the album The Scavenger and was sampled by Eric B & Rakim on Know The Ledge.

Miles Runs The Voodoo Down by Miles Davis. I couldn't not include any Miles Davis. Duke Ellington once referred to him as "The Picasso of jazz" and I think that sums this up pretty well. It comes from the album Bitches Brew which followed on from In A Silent Way, those two albums together being the creation of fusion jazz. Interestingly because these albums feature long tracks they are ridiculously cheap to buy in mp3, for instance you can go and buy In A Silent Way from Amazon for under £1.40/$2.

Afrobeat

Everybody should know Fela Kuti, and I guess most people who're into music do know of him. He's one of my favourite artists so I want to share some more of his music here. He's the pioneer of afrobeat, but there's more to afrobeat than just his music, I've been spending some time lately listening to more of the genre and I decided



Zombie by Fela Kuti.

If you haven't heard any of Fela Kuti's music before this may very well be the best place to start. From the album of the same name this song, and the rest of the album, is directed at the military government of Nigeria. In the aftermath of this song's release and huge popularity in Nigeria Fela Kuti's home/commune was attacked and destroyed, his mother killed and many residents beaten, Fela Kuti included. He sent his mother's coffin to the main military base in Lagos and wrote two songs about it, Coffin For Head Of State and Unknown Soldier. In next year, 1978, Fela Kuti played this during a concert in Accra when riots broke out and he was subsequently banned from the country.



Truth Don Die by Femi Kuti.

Femi Kuti is Fela Kuti's eldest son, but I've no real interest in comparing the two. Femi Kuti's music stands out for it's quality on it's own merits and should be judged by that. Femi Kuti has been recording and releasing as a band leader since 1989. This track comes from Shoki Shoki which, along with Day By Day, are good starting points into his music.



Beaten Metal by Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra.

From New York rather than Nigeria Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra have a heavy debt to Fela Kuti. This track comes from the album Security, their third, where they start to move away from pure afrobeat and introduce a few sounds from other genres. This is still afrobeat, it's just an evolution of it. Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra are responsible for the arrangement and playing of the Fela Kuti music used as the soundtrack for the Broadway show Fela!

On Shuffle

The point of the On Shuffle posts is to feature music that just pops up on iTunes. Maybe it's something that's been sitting their unheard for a while, maybe it's just under-appreciated. Of course sometimes at least one of the songs is something I want to blog about and the rest of the songs are then chosen at random. But not this time, all of these songs were chosen randomly from shuffle, just like they should be.

Unconscious by The Silencers. A rather excellent but unheard of Scottish band that have been around going on 25 years now. This song is excellent, and not just because it features bagpipes.

Sunday Morning by The Blackhawks. This is lovely, dreamy music, not too far away from a mix of Girls and Beach House. Sadly it's almost impossible to find any concrete information about the band because they share the same name as a war, a long-standing country band and a professional sports team. Still, they're good and worth the effort.

Broken Arrow by Brandi Emma. Something that turned up in my inbox that I didn't really know how to describe. And I still don't. It's very laid back and she has a lovely voice. But there's more too it than that. Guess you'll just have to listen and make your own mind up.

On Shuffle

Equipoise by Max Roach.

It seems to me that jazz musicians tend to die very early or live very long lives. Max Roach is in the latter category, living until 83. During his career he was one of the finest bebop, hardbop and modal drummers as well as dabbling in avant-garde/free jazz, the co-founder of Debut Records with Charles Mingus, founder of the percussion orchestra M'Boom and one of the first successful drummers to play solo concerts. Not that he was only a soloist, he recorded with pretty much every important jazz instrumentalist that was active during his lie with the exceptions of John Coltrane and Louis Armstrong. A short list of the musicians he's recorded with: Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Charles Mingus, Sonny Rollins, Clifford Brown, J.J. Johnson, Stan Getz, Bud Powell, Buddy Guy and Freddie Hubbard.

This track is from the 1968 album Members, Don't Git Weary which is a suberp modal recording that I highly recommend anyone with even a slight interest in post-bob jazz acquires. This track sounds not unlike a mournful adaptation of A Love Supreme Part 1: "Acknowledgement"

The musicians on this recording are:

Max Roach - Drums
Gary Bartz - Alto saxophone
Charles Tolliver - Trumpet
Stanley Cowell - Piano
Jymie Merritt - Bass.



Red Headed Girl (acoustic version) by The Soft Pack

To promote the release of the EP The Muslims two acoustic tracks were released, this is one of them. Their eponymous debut album would be one of my top albums of 2010, if I could motivate myself to make a list.



Blue Moon by Big Star

From the album Third/Sister Lovers which is my personal favourite of the Big Star albums. The album contains a cover of The Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale, which I left off the Covers For Sunday - Velvet Underground Edition in favour of a cover by Yo La Tengo and Alex Chilton.

On Shuffle

Freestylin' by Greyboy With Harold Todd & Marc Antoine. There's a point where genres meet and make labels more or less worthless. I'd call this fusion or acid jazz but neither really does the track justice. So I'll just say it's really good and you'll have to trust me and listen to it all the way through. It's worth it.


Acid Jazz by Arlo Knox

What Did My Lover Say (It Always Had To Go This Way) by Wolf Parade. From Expo 1986 which, if I were to do a top albums of 2010, would certainly be in the top-15 and maybe the top-10.


Vancouver Expo 86

Up The Junction by Squeeze. The first track by Squeeze I've posted, I'm sorry I've let you all down.


Clapham Junction

On Shuffle

Witchfinder by John Zorn. With the Moonchild Trio of Mike Patton, Joey Baron and Trevor Dunn on vocals, drums and bass respectively this is fusion jazz with some avant-garde playing thrown in. Zorn's alto-sax playing is suberp, but if you've never listened to John Zorn's recordings before you've probably never heard anything like this before.



I Want You To Know by Dinosaur Jr. From The Farm, one of 2009's best albums, it shows that Dinosaur Jr. still have it.



The Rifle by Alela Diane. A quiet folk song that's in total contrast to the two songs above. I'm not a huge fan of Alela Diane, I find her pretty hit and miss with more misses than hits. But when a song hits, like this, I love it.

On Shuffle

Checkout Blue by Eels. It's strange, I love Eels, but I don't play them often. Everytime I listen to one of their songs I enjoy it and resolve to listen to them more and then promptly forget. I should make it a New Year's resolution.



Little Girl by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse feat. Julian Casablancas. This came out not long before Julian Casablancas' solo album Phrazes For The Young, and it kind of got lost in shuffle, especially given the difficulties surrounding the release of the album Dark Night Of The Soul. I think it's worth listening to again, it's certainly grown on me.

On Shuffle

After my last post was all 2010 releases I thought I'd go for some older music this time around.

Foxxy Minor by Parker McDougal. I know nothing about Parker McDougal, and neither does Google. Office Naps knows something:

Parker McDougal was a tenor saxophonist who played a supporting role for many local outfits. He also recorded early on for the hip M and M Records, who released the rivetingly dark “Foxxy Minor” in 1960. McDougal remained a Chicago jazz and R&B fixture but recorded, as a leader at least, only sporadically in subsequent decades. He passed away in 1994 at age 69.

If you don't already you really should check out Office Naps, it's in my blog list. But before you do you really should listen to Foxxy Minor and enjoy some excellent jazz.

Cigarettes and Coffee by Otis Redding. Shamefully this is only the third time I've featured an Otis Redding song on here. He was the first male singer I really liked and got into, when I was about 14-15, and his music was a key part of me really getting into music. This recording is from 1966.

She Lives (In A Time Of Her Own) by 13th Floor Elevators. This is from 1967. 13th Floor Elevators are one of those bands who while not exactly obscure have had a far bigger influence than their sales figures would suggest. Bands like ZZ Top, REM, Butthole Surfers, Primal Scream, Spacemen 3 and Queens Of the Stone Age have all been influenced by 13th Floor Elevators.

On Shuffle

No real theme, except these are all from albums/EPs released in 2010. Enjoy.

Nothing But Our Love by Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr.

Dance Yrself Clean by LCD Soundsystem

Dreaming by Seapony

Excuses by Morning Benders

Into Yr Mind by Young Hunting

Mouthful of Diamonds by Phantogram

On Shuffle

The Wind Cries Mary - The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Let's start the post with a classic. On the off chance you haven't heard this before it's a much more subdued song than is generally associated with Jimi Hendrix. Blues rock with psychedelic influences and some fantastic jazz drumming from Mitch Mitchell.

Skinny Love - Bon Ivor. Just my favourite Bon Ivor song, just him and an accoustic guitar, a perfect example of less is more.

Away From The Numbers - The Jam. Prompted by the post and discussion about favourite tracks by The Jam that weren't released as a single over on The Vinyl Villain. This is my choice, narrowly beating out Man In The Cornershop.

On Shuffle

In A Sentimental Mood by Duke Ellington & John Coltrane. You all know how much I love John Coltrane's music, and I've featured Duke Ellington before. This is beautiful music, more relaxed playing than you may be used to from Coltrane.

The musicians are:

Duke Ellington - Piano
John Coltrane - Tenor saxophone (I know that the picture of Duke Ellington and John Coltrane has Coltrane with a soprano saxophone, but he plays tenor on this and five of the other tracks on Duke Ellington & John Coltrane and only plays soprano on one)
Aaron Bell - Contrabass
Elvin Jones - Drums



Song To Sing When I'm Lonely (acoustic demo) by John Frusciante. I think that no matter what type of music you like there's almost certainly something by John Frusciante for you.

A Change Is Gonna Come by Sam Cooke. I try to stay away from hyperbole when I blog, but this may be the best soul song ever. It's hard for me to choose between this and Otis Redding's cover, they're both phenomenal recordings. This song also has the finest use of the Frecn Horn I have ever heard.

Alison's Starting To Happen (live session version) by The Lemonheads. Much more laid back than the studio version.

The Calcination of Scout Niblett by Scout Niblett. This is very nice, some lovely minimalist drumming to go along with some fine vocals.

We Do Not Fuck Around by Viva Voce. From their last album as a two-piece. I'm pretty surprised that I've never featured any Viva Voce in the year and a bit since I started my blog, I love them and you should as well.

On Shuffle

Three songs, as usual, but this time there's no jazz. I don't want to turn people off who aren't huge fans of jazz and besides, I''m hoping this is going to help motivate me into starting my jazz blog properly. When I do there'll still be jazz featured here, but it won't overwhelm the blog, which I sometimes think is a possibility.

New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down by LCD Soundsystem. This is my favourite LCD Soundsystem song, easily. I'm surprised I haven't posted it before, but it seems I've only posted LCD Soundsystem covers before.

15 Step by Radiohead featuring the USC marching band, live at the Grammy's in 2009. I'm not surprised that I haven't posted this before, but I am surprised there's been no version of 15 Step at all on this blog, considering how many versions seem to be floating around and it's a great song.

This Year by The Mountain Goats. Now this I was surprised to find I hadn't posted before. I've featured a few songs by The Mountain Goats before, but not this one even though it is comfortably my favourite.

Anyway, three omissions corrected, enjoy.

On Shuffle

This morning, gently coming round, drinking coffee and enjoying a day off work, I thought about the best early morning jazz to listen to. I came up with these three songs. There are plenty of others, but I think this is a pretty good early morning jazz selection.

Colour Yes by Matthew Halsall. There's so much right with this track. Nat Birchall's sax playing is gorgeous, it's rare to see a song get over a third of the way in before the band-leader starts playing. When Halsall's trumpet arrives it's more than worth the wait, this is 9 minutes plus of sheer brilliance.
The musicians are:

Matthew Halsall - Trumpet
Nat Birchall - Soprano Saxophone
Adam Fairhall - Piano
Gavin Barras - Contrabass
Marek Dorcik - Drums



Suspended Variation II by Tomasz Stanko Quartet. Last week I posted a live version of Cinema Paradiso by the Marcin Wasilewski Trio. The Tomasz Stanko Quartet features all three members of the Marcin Wasilewski Trio and Tomasz Stanko on trumpet. This is phenomenal music, it's from the album Suspended Variation which certainly deserves a place in your record collection.
The musicians are:
Tomasz Stanko - Trumpet
Marcin Wasilewski - Piano
Slawomir Kurkiewicz - Contrabass
Michal Miskiewicz - Drums



I Remember Clifford by Lee Morgan. It wasn't ever my intention to feature songs from band leaders who play the trumpet. You may remember I posted John Coltrane's Lazy Bird from the album Blue Train a while back, that also featured Lee Morgan on trumpet. One of Lee Morgan's influences, and briefly a teacher, was Clifford Brown and this song was written in his memory by saxophonist Benny Golson. Clifford Brown died when he was only 25, having recorded for only four years but playing on 17 albums, Lee Morgan lived until 33. He recorded, as leader and sideman, 86 albums in a 16 year career. Happily Benny Golson is 81 and still recording and touring.
The musicians are:
Lee Morgan - Trumpet
Benny Golson - Saxophone
Gigi Gryce - Saxophone
Wynton Kelly - Piano
Paul Chambers - Contrabass (who also played with Lee Morgan on the above mentioned Blue Train, along with a whole host of other superb albums)
Charlie Persip - Drums

On Shuffle

Still short on time, hopefully I'll be able to catch up in the next couple of days. Until then, here's a selection of music I've been listening too lately.

Politics In Space by Kate Miller-Heidke. This is an absurdly catchy song and very enjoyable.

This Is How It Feels by Inspiral Carpets. If you only know one Inspiral Carpets song it's almost certainly this.

Dream A Little Of Me by Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong. This has been covered many times, but for me this is the best version. Louis Armstrong's trumpet playing fits in perfectly with the song and his voice fits with Ella Fitzgerald's flawless vocals.



Who're You by Fela Kuti & the Africa 70. I've known about Fela Kuti for a few years now, but it's only recently that I've really started listening to him. That's just wasted time, it's some of the best music I've ever heard.



On Green Dolphin Street by Lee Konitz. Now 82 Lee Konitz has been releasing albums as a band leader since 1949. He released two last year making for a 60 year career, so far. To put it in context that's 20 years longer than Leonard Cohen's recording career, so far. He also played alto sax on the 1949 sessions that would become Miles Davis' Birth Of The Cool. He's a real giant of jazz, this recording comes from the 1974 album Satori. I think the interplay between Konitz on alto sax and Martial Solal on piano on this track is especially brilliant.