Covers for Sunday - Jazz Edition

It's been a while since we had a jazz edition of Covers for Sunday so here we are. Of course it wouldn't be a jazz edition if The Bad Plus and Brad Mehldau weren't included. Mehldau is on his own this time and The Bad Plus are as fantastic as always. James Carter, who was featured before covering Pavement, is back with Joshua Redman ripping through a Count Basie composition. There are also three first time artists, Stanley Clarke Trio's cover of Under The Bridge is especially good. Jazz Against The Machine cover Soundgarden and Jazzkantine finish with a superb cover of Van Halen, the only song from today with vocals.

Everybody Wants To Rule The World by The Bad Plus (originally by Tears For Fear)

Under The Bridge by Stanley Clarke Trio (originally by Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Bottle Up And Explode by Brad Mehldau (originally by Elliott Smith)

Blues In The Dark by James Carter and Joshua Redman (originally by Count Basie)

Spoonman by Jazz Against The Machine (originally by Soundgarden)

Ain't Talking About Love by Jazzkantine (originally by Van Halen)

Live - If You Wanna

The Vaccines have their debut album coming out 21st of March. I could go on about them, but they're so hyped I'm sure you've heard it all before and anyway, I'm pushed for time.

If You Wanna (mp3) by The Vaccines live on Later with Jools Holland.

New song by The Strokes - Under Cover Of Darkness

Under Cover Of Darkness by The Strokes.

As you'll almost certainly know The Strokes have a new album out on the 21st/22nd of March. The first single from it is Under Cover Of Darkness and you can download it now. Enjoy.

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.

Covers for Sunday

All of the songs, bar one, in today's blog are covers that have been sent to me by bands and agents. I have now, I think, finally caught up with my e-mails. If you've e-mailed me and haven't got a reply just resend your original or e-mail me again and I'll get back to you. Sorry for all the delays.



Unbelievable by The Last Royals (originally by EMF). It's hard to pin down exactly, but I get a vibe of The Cure in this cover. I've mentioned before that I particularly enjoy listening to duos, to see how they overcome the limitations caused by the lack of band numbers. These New Yorkers do it by making their music catchy and full of hooks.



Don't Fear The Reaper by Bobtown (originally by Blue Oyster Cult). Bobtown play traditional Americana folkand still make it sound fresh and new with an original take on an old genre, the perfect soundtrack to Southern Gothic.



California Gurls by Lloyd's Garage (originally by Katy Perry). It goes without saying that I'm not a fan of the original version of this, because I have a 10 year old daughter I've heard it a few times. This version is very good, another duo more than making up for the lack of members. In the week when the White Stripes officially called it quits it's lazy but not necessarily unreasonable to look to Lloyd's Garage as a spiritual successor.



So Freely by Snow and Voices (originally by Tir Na Nog). Snow And Voices have been featured before, back in June 2010 with there cover of Mistress by Mark Kozelek (here) and as much as I enjoyed that I think this track, especially Lauri Kranz's vocal, is even better.



Jealous Guy by The PepTides (originally by John Lennon). Last week it was Okkervil River covering this song, now we have Canadian duo The PepTides. Even though it's the same song the two covers are very different, where Okkervil River's cover was very heartfelt and down to earth there's something grand about this.



Toxic by Yaron Herman (originally by Britney Spears). This is the only cover that wasn't sent to me, sadly I don't live in a universe where jazz musicians of the calibre of Yaron Herman e-mail me. One day though.

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!

The Bad Plus - side projects.

This isn't meant to be in anyway an exhaustive look at the recordings Reid Anderson, Dave King and Ethan Iverson have made away from The Bad Plus. It's just one track from each of them away from The Bad Plus that I think you'll enjoy.



Not Sentimental by Reid Anderson Quartet. From Reid Anderson's debut album from 1997, Dirty Show Tunes. This features Reid Anderson on contrabass, Ethan Iverson on piano, Mark Turner on tenor saxophone and Jordi Rossy on drums.



Very Small Rock by Happy Apple. From Dave King's other trio, this band feature Dave King on percussion, Michael Lewis on saxophone, contrabass and keyboard and Erik Fratzke on fender bass and guitar. This track is from their 7th studio album Happy Apple Back on Top.



Smoke Gets In Your Eyes by Ethan Iverson Trio. From Ethan Iverson's album of standards, Deconstruction Zone, released in 1998. This features essentially the same personnel as Dirty Show Tunes. With Ethan Iverson is on piano, Reid Anderson on contrabass and Jorge Rossy on drums, it's worth remembering that this and Not Sentimental were both recorded prior to The Bad Plus forming in 2000.

New Fleet Foxes song

It was released a couple of days ago so chances are you've already heard it, but if not you can get it here:

Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes.

It's from the album of the same name which will have 12 tracks altogether. There's no official track listing yet but the following songs seem pretty likely to be included:

Blue Spotted Tail
Bedouin Dress
I Feel the Same
Midnight Feeder
Tripolee
Sim Sala Bim
Battery Kinzie
Montezuma

as well as Helplessness Blues.

Live - Naima

One of John Coltrane's most famous compositions he wrote this in 1959 and named it after his first wife, Juanita Naima Grubbs.

This performance comes from Antibes in 1965. Antibes is in southern France, home of the outdoor festival Jazz à Juan as well as an Absinthe Museum.

Naima (mp3) by the John Coltrane Quartet live in Antibes, 27th July, 1965.

The musicians on this recording are:

John Coltrane - Saxophone
McCoy Tyner - Piano
Jimmy Garrison - Bass
Elvin Jones - Drums