Sunday Music

It's Sunday, you're here for the music so let's get straight into it.

Earlier this week I posted about Lazy Bird by John Coltrane and how I think it's a perfect introduction to jazz. It's a great track from a great album but it was released in 1957. Sometimes jazz can be pictured as rooted in the past. I don't want jazz to come across that way on this blog so here are a couple of tracks from The Bad Plus. This trio may be my favourite current jazz band. Both of these tracks are from their 2004 album Give.

First, a live version of an original composition And Here We Test Our Powers of Observation

and next a cover version of Iron Man, originally by Black Sabbath. This, in particular, is fantastic in a menacing and broody way.

Our tour around Tricky's back catalogue continues with another two songs. This is Black Steel, a cover of Public Enemy's Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos, and is very, very different from the original. It comes from Tricky's debut Maxinquaye.

This next track is I Be The Prophet from the album Nearly God. This was released under the name Nearly God as a side project rather than under Tricky's name. Tricky is joined on this track by Martina Topley-Bird who provides vocals, just as she did on most of Maxinquaye.

Gang of Four are a post-punk band who had they're biggest impact in the late 70's & early 80's. Although there best known song is almost certainly Damaged Goods, a John Peel favourite, my favourite song is Natural Is Not In It. Here's a live version from 1979 that I think really captures the urgency that great live music can bring.

I posted Frank Turner's Photosynthesis a while ago. He's nowhere near as famous as he should be so there's a good chance you're not that familiar with him. Here's some of his music to start and fix that, Reasons Not To Be An Idiot.