Angola, LA & The 13th Amendment (mp3) by Christian Scott, live on the Jimmy Kimmel show, 10th of August 2010. This is from Christian Scott's new, and exceptionally excellent, album Yesterday You Said Tomorrow.
Today is Dizzy Gillespe's birthday and, although Christian Scott's trumpet playing is more like Miles Davis or sometimes Freddie Hubbard, they both play the same unusual shaped trumpet.
Dizzy Gillespie: Christian Scott:
Plus there's no where near enough talk about Christian Scott.
Eleanor Rigby by Sonny Criss (originally by The Beatles). One f the best jazz covers I've heard for a while, starts off a little smooth jazzy but soon gets going.
Sonny Criss - Alto Saxophone Eddie Green - Piano Bob Cranshaw - Contrabass Alan Dawson - Drums
I Love How You Love Me by Neutral Milk Hotel (originally by The Paris Sisters). From Neutral Milk Hotel's (actually it's pretty much a Jeff Magnum solo gig, but I'm not going to get too worked up about what is and isn't NMH) last concert, which was bootlegged as When It All Caved In. You can, and should, buy it here.
My Sweet Lord by Jim James (originally by George Harrison). My Sweet Lord is, as far as I know, the only song to ever make it to No.1 in the UK single charts that contains a Hindu/Vaishnava prayer. If you're ever writing questions for a pub music quiz you should definitely include that.
Redemption Song by Johnny Cash and Joe Strummer. Maybe this should have gone in last week's blog, but I don't think it really fits. Joe Strummer also covered this on his own.
Ashamed Of The Story I Toldby The National (originally by Polaris). I love The National far more than a 30 year old should love a band, it's almost embarrassing.
A Love Supreme Part 1: Acknowledgement by Alice & Ravi Coltrane (originally by John Coltrane). Alice Coltrane didn't join John Coltrane's Quartet until 1965, after A Love Supreme was recorded (December 1964) so she didn't play on the original and didn't play a live version with John Coltrane either. Ravi Coltrane wasn't born when A Love Supreme was recorded. This is a great cover. It's close to the original in lots of places but differs enough to be worthwhile rather than just a straight-up rendition. John Coltrane played tenor saxophone on A Love Supreme, Ravi plays soprano on this cover.
Ravi Coltrane - Soprano Saxophone Alice Coltrane - Piano Reggie Workman - Contrabass Roy Haynes - Drums
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.
I knew that I hadn't done a band edition of Covers for Sunday for September, but I hadn't realised that I'd missed August as well. So here, belatedly, is Covers for Sunday - The Clash edition.
The Clash were the natural choice for the next installment of this series. They were punks who drew influences from all over the world, notably reggae, and brought it back to England, made it relevant to where they were from. Some times punk bands have a tendency to be insular, shouting rhetoric about changing the world while giving the impression they've never been more than three or four stops away on a bus. The Clash were never like that. Sure they were punk, but they were musicians as well. That is, in my opinion, why they are so influential even now while a lot of their contemporaries saw their influence fade away with time or stay within the punk scene.
As usual, first up here are the covers of songs by The Clash that have been featured before. I think the artists here are a nice little microcosm of what I was saying before, covers by Edwyn Collins, The Strokes, No Doubt, Elvis Costello and Bruce Springstreen, that's a pretty diverse range of musicians.
London Calling by Elvis Costello, Bruce Springsteen, Steven Van Zandt and Dave Grohl
Now for a few covers by The Clash, with the same thing in evidence. A cover of a very early rock and roll hit, a song by Buddy Holly's ex-backing band, BoB Dylan and, of course, a reggae cover:
Now for a few covers of covers by The Clash. I accept that The Dead Kennedy's may be paying tribute to The Crickets here, but I think it's more likely a cover of The Clash.
Now onto the rest of the covers. I've tried to avoid putting all the usual things here. There'll be plenty of covers you've heard before, but I've left out most of the hundred's of The Guns Of Brixton covers.
So Young (mp3) - Suede, live on Later with Jools Holland, 1993.
Along with REM Suede were the first band I ever really got into. Automatic For The People and Suede were on more or less constant play for me. My next door neighbour/close friend was listening to Fields Of Gold, it was the first time anything like music snobbery ever stirred in me.
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.
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.
When I Fall In Love by Miles Davis (originally by Doris Day) from Steamin' with The Miles Davis Quintet. The Miles Davis Quintet is: Miles Davis – Trumpet John Coltrane – Tenor saxophone Red Garland – Piano Paul Chambers – Bass Philly Joe Jones – drums so that's a pretty good place to start if you want to buy some Miles Davis, or even if you don't.
I Walk On Gilded Splinters by Paul Weller (originally by Dr John). I've heard this track, which has Noel Gallagher on acoustic guitar, come under some pretty heavy criticism compared to Dr John's original. I, obviously, think it's pretty good and really, if you expect Paul Weller to sound like Dr John that's hardly his fault.
Orion by Rodrigo Y Gabriela (originally by Metallica). I'm not a fan of Metallica, I have no idea how much this sounds like the original, I just know that it sounds really good.
Wish You Were Here by Sparklehorse feat Thom Yorke (originally by Pink Floyd) This is such an iconic song, it must be almost impossible to cover but this is a pretty good version.
No Ordinary Love by Deftones (originally by Sade) The Deftones do trip-hop.
Brandy by Red Hot Chili Peppers (originally by Looking Glass). From the Live in Hyde park album, before they disappeared under the weight of Stadium Arcadium. Nearly four and a half years since that was released now, new album due next year.
Finally, a video of Ace of Base's The Sign as covered by The Mountain Goats
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.
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
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