mcouture

Book Review: Elijah Wald's How the Beatles Destroyed Rock 'n' Roll

2009-12-24T21:07:11Z

Back in September, Jim Dandy gifted me this book, but due to my many distractions, it has taken me until now to finish it. Well, finish it I did, last night, on the couch in the piano room, with a pint of Guinness in easy reach.

One of the refreshing things about the book is that Wald doesn't lord over us readers; rather, he levels with us: about his prejudices, about his tastes and about his rhetorical strategies. Which is not to say that he doesn't bombard us with information and anecdotes; he does, but they go down well. The title would suggest a focus on the music of the sixties, but really the narrative spans the entire twentieth century, and the Beatles don't make their appearance until the last 30 pages or so. The first 220 pages painstakingly and lovingly trace the history of popular music, taking on ragtime, Paul Whiteman, prohibition, the radio, swing bands, Mitch Miller, dance fads, and records. One would expect the opposite: a cursory glance at the past and a detailed analysis of what happened in the sixties. I like Wald's evenly balanced chronological approach, which doesn't shortchange a single period.

Wald can turn a phrase. Here is one of many that caught my attention: "Just as the fervent singing styles and complex rhythms of Clyde McPhatter, Ray Charles, James Brown and the Motown stars were to a great extent adapted from gospel artists, steps that looked a lot like the mash potato and the pony had been commonplace for decades in the less sedate black churches, where congregants seized by the spirit kicked out in footwork that the go-go dancers of the sixties could only envy."

One small critique. Nobody, not even Wald, ever calls Dámaso Pérez Prado by his full name. He's always "Perez Prado," as if his first name were "Perez." He's even in the index as "Prado, Perez" instead of "Pérez Prado, Dámaso."

This is a revisionist history of rock 'n' roll and at the same time a hard look at the role of race in popular music. I suppose the thesis goes something like this: up until the British Invasion, popular music may have had its divisions (sweet vs. hot, balladeers vs. rockers, etc.), but beneath it was a certain commonality. Bands played live and played the music that people, women and girls too, wanted to hear. Bands played for dancers, whether they were dancing cheek-to-cheek, or doing the twist or the mashed potato. While blacks were more often than not the innovators, there was always cross-pollination. Paul Whiteman whitened black styles, but Duke Ellington dug Whiteman's charts and didn't hesitate to express his admiration or incorporate Whitemanesque sweetness. Elvis may have hit it big as a rock 'n' roller, but at heart he loved to sing a ballad or gospel. With the Beatles, oddly at the very time of the civil rights movement, segregation finally took hold in popular music. Rock 'n' roll ceased to be dance music and became art music. Now, there was always a high brow element to popular music, an assumption that the pop music should aspire to the supposed artistic heights of classical music, but with the Beatles it finally came to pass. With records like Rubber Soul, Revolver, and especially Sgt. Pepper, rock became art. Wald makes the point these recordings are akin to avant garde film in the way that they are so carefully crafted. This is music to listen to not to enjoy for the beat or because it's easy to dance to.

(parenthesis: I wonder if a study of Detroit rock 'n' roll would blur the line. I think of Bob Seger covering Tina Turner, quoting James Brown, and the "blackness" of Detroit rock in general.)

I don't think this book is an effort to disparage the greatness of the Beatles at all, but rather merely to point out something curious that happened on the way to the present. The Beatles more or less quit playing live, and certainly did not need to worry about pleasing dancers.

Since then, there have been seemingly two streams: a white rock stream epitomized by the Beatles, but including, you know, Pink Floyd and Bruce Springsteen, and a black soul or R&B stream, which includes such disparate elements as disco and hip hop. Artists like Sly and the Stone and Stevie Wonder have managed to straddle the divide, but they are exceptions to the norm.

I think what drove Wald to write this book is a wish that this divide would have never happened. At the end he says something very telling: "When Bruce Springsteen, Patti Smith, and the Ramones appeared, I was still into blues and didn't run out to buy their records, but I certainly thought of their music as a breath of fresh air, and considered them more interesting than Chic. So it is striking to me, listening to the music thirty years later, to find that those interesting white artists all sound as if in one or another way they were holding on to the past, while Chic sounds ahead of its time."

I think he's right.

Squirrels vs. Crows

2009-12-21T18:01:14Z

My daughter is showing me the address label stickers that the Nature Conservatory or somebody sent us, fishing for a donation. There were stickers with chickadees, cardinals, deer, cute creatures all. I told her though that I wanted a sticker with a crow on it, because crows are highly intelligent. Not like squirrels, which, besides being squirrely, as if they'd been injected with adrenaline, are stupid. One day I'm riding my bike to work, and a car is coming the other way. Down the hill, as if in a hell-bent effort to get run over, comes a squirrel. He barely made it, escaping death by tire by only inches. Now, how often do crows get run over by cars? Almost never.

What English Sounds Like (if you don't speak English)

2009-12-21T17:46:21Z

DIfferent languages have different phonetic characteristics. I sometimes comment to my students that to a Spanish speaker, English sounds like one's mouth is full of sand or mashed potatoes, or like the grown-ups in those old Charlie Brown specials. Spanish, on the other hand, due to its syllabic nature, probably sounds like a machine gun to somebody who doesn't understand it. Students often think that Spanish speakers speak fast. It's not that they speak any faster than we do when we speak English, it just sounds that way.

In 1972 Italian singer Adriano Celentano wrote a song with a made-up language meant to sound like English. It hardly makes any sense at all (there is an "oil raight" that almost passes for "alright"), but it perfectly captures the tonalities of English.

Catamount Community Radio - December 20, 2009

2009-12-20T18:06:53Z

Conway Twitty, Cornelius, Prince Lasha, the Holllywood Jills, Benny Carter ... The truth be told (and why not, once in awhile?), I was a little distracted today, thinking about things like how old I am (about 46 or 47), my piano recital, and look at these CDs, I bet the record companies sent them, I wonder if they've ever been played on the air, or if anybody has even bothered to listen to them, some interesting band names, I'd bet the reference is ... my back's a little sore today, probably shouldn't have ... , wait a minute, the song's over, should pay attention. Was that a word that maybe shouldn't be going out over the airwaves? No, she said "honking."

Sweety, I hope you
don't get soot on your suit.
And what's that you're reading,
A list of who's been naughty
and who's been nice?
Sorry to disappoint you,
but, aside from not minding
my P's and Q's
I've been good.

Still, it wasn't a bad show, not necessarily one for the anthology, but they can't all be in the anthology. Probably be out next week, up in Michigan, if things work according to plan and the weather cooperates, but in two weeks I'll be back, playing records for your amusement on Power 90.5, from 10-12 on Sunday morning Right Coast Hours, just point and click, click, click.

1. Bob Marley – Jammin'
2. Benny carter – This Can't Be Love
3. Buck Owents – Christmas Times a' Comin'
4. Bill Evans – Make Someone Happy
5. Christian Scott – The Crawler
6. Zapp & Roger – Easy
7. Ted Nash – Sidewalk Meeting (Reprise)
8. Darlene Love – Mashmallow World
9. Pickin' On Series – The Wind Cries Mary
10. Conway Twitty – Pop a Top
11. Hollywood Jills – He makes Me So Mad
12. The Orioles – (It's Gonna Be) A Lonely Christmas
13. Hank Thompson – I'd Like to Have an Elephant for Christmas
14. Allen Toussaint – St. James Infirmary
15. The Tijuana Brass (Re-whipped) – Whipped Cream
16. Sketch Show – Micro Talk
17. Conway Twitty – A Table in the Corner
18. Ray Brown & Herb Ellis – After You've Gone
19. Johnny Bond & His Red River – Jingle Bells Boogie
20. Miles Davis – Black Satin
21. Ernest Ranglin – Exodus
22. Michael Lowenstern – July 14
23. Dodie Stevens – Merry, Merry Christmas, Baby
24. Final Fantasy – Arctic Circle
25. Ben Webster – The Duke and the Brute
26. Keith Jarrett – Blackbird, Bye Bye
27. Serge Gainsbourg – L'anamour
28. Celia Cruz y la Sonora Matancera – Mango Mangüe
29. Mo' Horizons – Drum n' Boogaloo
30. Buck Owens – Here Comes Santa Claus Again
31. Prince Lasha Quintet with Sonny Simmons – Green and Gold
32. Cornelius – Wataridori 2

Buck Owens

Serge Gainsbourg

Catamount Community Radio - December 13, 2009

2009-12-13T17:57:36Z

Nothing special today, besides the usual specialness. We just grooved through the thing with the Meters, John Scofield, the Average White Band and etc., and in two hours it was over. Little Beaver played his big hit from 1974, "Party Down." He was the guitarist on Betty Wright's "The Clean Up Woman." How about that? Blu Lu Barker admonished us not to feel her leg (because you know where that can lead) and we learned that all Granny wants for Christmas is a new cane and a bottle of snuff. Thou can listen to the internet stream by pointing thy browser at Power 90.5, and clicking where thou clickest. Sunday mornings, from 10-12 on the East Coast.

1. Marc Ribot – Aquí como allá
2. Abdullah Ibrahim – Whoza Mtwana
3. Caetano Veloso – Chuvas de verão
4. Blind Willie McTell – Cold Winter Day
5. Ben Alliison – Green Al
6. John Mayer – Crossroads
7. Lee Konitz – Indian Summer
8. James P. Johnson – Snowy Morning Blues
9. Bo Carter – Santa Claus
10. Luiz Bonfá – Jacaranda
11. Red Simpson – Blue Christmas (For this Truck Driver)
12. Average White Band –Pick Up the Pieces
13. Louis Jordan – Pettin' and Pokin'
14. Pearl Bailey & Hot Lips Page – Baby, It's Cold Outside
15. Jeff Beck – A Day in the Life (live)
16. The Meters – Cissy Strut
17. Poncho Sánchez – African Flower
18. Little Beaver – Party Down, Pt. 1
19. Major Lance – Um. Um, Um, Um, Um. Um
20. Tom Waits – Invitation to the Blues
21. Maria Rita – Veja bem, meu bem
22. Blu Lu Barker – Don't You Feel My Leg
23. John Scofield – Do Like Eddie
24. Aaron Parks – Riddle Me This
25. Pony Poindexter – Gumbo Filet
26. CCC – She Said Traffic
27. King Curtis – Green Onions
28. Thelonius Monk – Introspetion
29. Moondog - Utsu
30. Tommy Scott – Santa Claus Shuffle
31. The Real Group – Cage of Promises
32. Duke Ellington – Prelude to a Kiss
33. Marcus Roberts – Single Petal of a Rose

Pony Poindexter

Little Beaver

A Thought on Parenting

2009-12-08T23:46:34Z

I'm not one of those eternal optimists who believes that we always need to look on the bright side ... that it is our responsibility to be positive in the face of adversity. No, I think that if fate deals you a bad blow, you have the right to complain, bitch, moan, be morose, grunt and grumble.

But, having said that, I want to say that with our children we really need to seek out, appreciate and enjoy what is special about them. I guess it's natural that parents want their children to be exceptional, precocious geniuses: stars in the classroom and heroes on the athletic field. You know the refrain: "Pin your faded hopes and dreams / on your child's high school teams." There is some uncomfortable truth in it.

High expectations are fine, but in some cases also unreasonable. One of the hardest lessons a parent learns is that our kids are who they are, and not who we want them to be. So, the trick is to learn to appreciate and enjoy who they are while accepting that they don't necessarily fit into the mold that we, perhaps unconsciously, create for them.

We have responsibilities: we have to try to instill in them a sense of right and wrong, we have to give them opportunities to shine. We have to give them our time and our attention. We clothe them, shelter them, make them feel safe and loved. But at some point we should draw a line: this is where my influence stops, and this is where you decide who you are and who you want to be.

If you can do that, you are a step closer to ... let's call it happiness.

Danny MacAskill & Jeff Beck

2009-12-07T18:52:13Z

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Danny MacAskill gets wicked on the bike.

Jeff Beck doesn't use a pick, and not a lot of pedals. But he's a master of the hammer-on and the whammy bar.

Christmas Community Radio I (December 6, 2009)

2009-12-06T17:54:27Z

A holiday special today. For some reason, a lot of the Christmas music in my archive is blues. Next week I'll continue with the Christmas theme, since I have a few more aces up my sleeve. The show airs Sunday mornings 10-12 (East Coast), on Power 90.5.

1. Michael Lowenstern – No. 10
2. Freddie King – Christmas Tears
3. The Beatles – And Your Bird Can Sing
4. Dizzy Gillespie – Moon River
5. Corinne Bailey Rae & Herbie Hancock – River
6. Lowell Fulson – Christmas Party Shuffle
7. Gonzalo Rubalcaba – Alma mía
8. Machito – Holiday Mambo
9. Lowell Fulson – Lonesome Christmas, Pt. 1
10. Gerg Trooper - Muhammad Ali (the Meaning of Christmas)
11. John Mayer – Crossroads
12. Jonathan Coulton – Christmas is Interesting
13. Eddie Hunter & Alex Rogers – I'm Done
14. James Brown – James Brown's Boo-Ga-Loo
15. Oscar Peterson – Without a Song
16. Hank Snow – Reindeer Boogie
17. Merle Haggard – That's the Way Love Goes
18. Lowell Fulson – Lonesome Christmas, Pt. 2
19. Cassandra Wilson – Time After Time
20. Julia Lee & Her Boyfriends – Christmas Spirit
21. Loretta Lynn – Fist City
22. Amy Winehouse – Love is a Losing Game (demo)
23. Yellow Magic Orchestra – Pure Jam
24. Louis Armstrong – Blues Down South
25. Louis Armstrong – Zat You, Santa Claus?
26. Andrew Hill – Fish n' Rice
27. The Fleshtones – Champagne of Christmas
28. John Lewis – December, Remember
29. Chuck Berry – Merry Christmas, Baby
30. Dave Douglas – Just Another Murder
31. Neil Halstead – The Man in the Santa Suit
32. Hank Jones & Charlie Haden – It's Me, O Lord (Standing in the Need of Prayer)

Corinne Bailey Rae

Yellow Magic Orchestra

Catamount Community Radio - November 29, 2007

2009-11-29T18:24:15Z

I burst through the door at 9:58, pop in a CD, the tires screech, and the show, as they say, is on the road. In anticipation of the concert on Tuesday evening, today's joint was heavily peppered with big band music, with tracks from Glenn Miller, Count Basie, John Kirby, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington.

Jim Dandy hooked me up with a nice album of country jazz, chock full o' sweet pickin', Jim Campilongo & the 10 Gallon Cats, so I featured several cuts from that disc.

We also listened to Jelly Roll Morton talk about his "King Porter Stomp" from the Library of Congress recordings with Alan Lomax, then Jelly played the number, and then we listened to Benny Goodman's group play the Fletcher Henderson arrangement that became a quintessential swing era tune.

We pondered an easy-listening vocal version of "I''ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face" by Jamie and the J. Sylva Singers, and followed that with Brad Mehldau's lovely version of the tune.

When it comes to holidays, we tend to look forward to them, but once they've passed, we forget about them as quickly as possible, since we've been anticipating them for such a long time. I'm sure by now you've already heard a whole bunch of Christmas music in the stores and on the radio, but come December 26, forget about it. I remember as a kid, back in northern Michigan, seeing Christmas trees thrown onto the snowbank the day after Christmas. So, to sort of buck the trend, I played Bing Crosby's "I've Got a Lot to be Thankful For." Bing is thankful for

"Arms to hug with,
lips to kiss with,
Some one to adore.
How could anyone ask for more?
My needs are small,
I buy them all
at the five and ten cent store."

While we're copying lyrics, how about these from Pee Wee King:

"You keep me waitin'
till it's gettin' aggrivatin'
You're a slow poke ...

[...]

Why should I linger
every time you snap your finger?
You're a slow poke ...

[...]

I guess I'll have to learn
to be a slow poke too."

The show streams on the internet Sunday mornings from 10-12 (Carolina time) if you point your browser at Power 90.5 and click where you're supposed to click.

BTW, I saw Prince on the tube playing guitar with Tom Petty at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on "While my Guitar Gently Weeps." I was impressed.

1. Gene Ammons – Answer Me, My Love
2. Kenny Burell – Azure
3. Jim Campilongo & the 10 Gallon Cats – Billy's Bird
4. Abdullah Ibrahim – In a Sentimental Mood
5. Bing Crosby –I've Got Plenty to be Thankful For
6. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass – Sleigh Ride
7. Pee Wee King & his Golden West Cowboys – Slow Poke
8. Luiz Bonfá – Manhã de carnaval
9. Jimi Hendrix – Pali Gap (fragment)
10. Blind Blake – Diddie Wah Diddie
11. Al Dexter – Saturday Night Boogie
12. Jim Campilongo & the 10 Gallon Cats – Big Bill
13. Madeleine Peyroux – Don't Wait Too Long
14. Pearl Bailey & Hot Lips Page – The Huckle Buck
15. Brian Setzer Orchestra – Sleigh Ride
16. Webb Pierce – Slowly
17. Glenn Miller – Mission to Moscow
18. Count Basie – Jive at Five
19. Jim Campilongo & the 10 Gallon Cats – Blue Hen
20. Los Tucanes de Tijuana – Jaime González
21. Sketch Show – Attention, Tokyo
22. Jamie & the J. Silva Singers – I've Grown Accustomed to His Face
23. Brad Mehldau – I've Grown Accostumed to Her Face
24. Tower of Power – On the Serious Side
25. Tyrone Davis – Can I Change My Mind
26. Sonny Rollins – Just in Time
27. Jelly Roll Morton – The Story of King Porter Stomp
28. Jelly Roll Morton – King Porter Stomp
29. Benny Goodman – King Porter Stomp
30. Jack Bongo Burger – Jordu
31. Beyoncé vs. Duke Ellington (mash-up) – Up in the Cotton Club
32. Burning Spear – Dread River
33. Hank Snow – (Now and Then There's) A Fool Such as I
34. John Kirby & His Onyx Club Boys – Coquette
35. Dizzy Gillespie – A Night in Tunisia
36. Sam & Dave – I Thank You

Jelly Roll Morton

Webb Pierce

Cookin' with Coolio

2009-11-28T18:07:57Z

That's right, he's got a cookbook, whence these quotes:

"Leave the eggs to bathe for 15 minutes in the hot water like a sexy Swedish chick in a natural mineral sauna."

"Seriously, if someone don't like this appetizer, you gotta grab they scruffy ass by the back of their neck and throw them out on the lawn. I can't help people like that."

On how to make an egg roll: "Roll it nice and tight like a blunt."

"This dish ain't just called Karate Meat because it's got an Asian kick to it. It's called Karate Meat because it will beat you up like a pigeon in prison."

Glossary:

A.C.P.: Assistant Chef Pimp
Beat like a red headed step child: Beat, as in eggs
Blasian: Black Asian
Coagulate: How a gangsta's foods get together, interchangeable with "combine"
Dime bag: The gangsta's equivalent of a tablespoon
Ghettalian: Ghetto Italian
Nickel bag: Half a tablespoon
Pimpron: An apron for a pimp
Peench: What a gangsta adds instead of a pinch
Pimptry: Pantry
Salad-eatin' bitches: Vegetarians, or any individual who regularly enjoys salads
Shaka Zulu!: an exclamation of deliciousness or pain, a kid-friendly version of "Motherfucker"
Skin like Hannibal: Peel, as in cucumbers or carrots
Spin it like a stripper on a pole: Stir

In Rio, Jesus

2009-11-22T19:33:11Z

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gets struck by lightning,

takes off.

Catamount Thanksgiving Radio - November 22, 2009

2009-11-22T18:34:11Z

Thankful and thoughtful today, at least trying to be. A glance at the playlist would suggest that I played an awful lot of songs (but they're not awful songs, I promise). The truth is that I added a lot of gimmicky stuff like goofy little interludes and old radio ads. While Sly and the Stone were the artists of the day, I also played two by Craig Handy, some rock, some country, and some etc. to go along with the jazz. Catamount Community Radio airs on WWCUFM on Sunday mornings from 10-12 (East Coast time).

Here are some lyrics from Fairground Attraction that I like:

Sky with some diamond stars
Empty streets with just occasional cars
Here we lie in a lullaby of stillness
In our room.

[...]

All of the letters in all of the words
In all of the books all over the world
They're nothing but sounds and vowels and nouns.
For talking to strangers, that's all they were

[...]

Orchestra of tiny hearts
It's like pepper sprinkled on our hearts
We're threading a needle with boxing gloves
When we try and talk about love

I put Cornelius in the background while we listened to Howard Nemerov read his poem, "Thanksgrieving." I transcribed it from a sound file, so I'm not sure where the line breaks are, so I'll render it as prose.

"Infant mortality didn't, as they say, claim me, though it damn near did. So I grew what they call 'up.' To the childhood illnesses routine for those times I added only paratyphoid on my own. I was never starved nor did my parents whip me or leave me chained to the bed. Nor did I get born a Jew in Germany. Plus, I went to their war and didn't die of it. Leaving aside my adventures among the dentists (your teeth are fine but those gums have got to go), my skirmishes with medicine include but a couple of major operations and a few discomfortable bothers with skeleton and strings. I have so far stayed out of asylums and jails and given the smawth and fewth of my abilities, have been lucky in being steadily employed. I'm still with the same dame, have three sons; have lost to death up to this day only a few family and five good friends. So help me, life, I may still make it to the end."

1. Sly & the Family Stone – Thankful & Thoughtful
2. Duke Ellington - Jazz a la carte
3. Craig Handy – In a Sentimental Mood
4. Fairground Attraction – A Smile in a Whisper
5. Hank Williams – (I Heard that) Lonesome Whistle
6. John Lewis – December, Remember
7. Dave Douglas – November
8. Bob Marley – Give Thanks and Praise
9. Lattie Moore – I'm Not Broke, But I'm Badly Bent
10. Howard Nemerov – Thanksgrieving
11. Cornelius – Tone Twilight Zone
12. Dr. John – Mama Roux
13. The Rumble Strips – Cowboy
14. Jimmie Rodgers – Blue Yodel No. 9
15. Teddy Wilson – Sweet Georgia Brown
16. CRC – There's Fun in Your Feet
17. Mose Allison – New Parchman
18. Craig Handy – Sippin' and Sliding
19. RIAA – KKK (Kooky Komedy Kut-Up)
20. Sly and the Family Stone – Thank you (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Agin)
21. Ella Fitzgerald – Here in my Arms
22. Coleman Hawkins – Allen's Alley
23. Jill Sobule – League of Failures
24. Trilambs – This is the Beatles
25. The Beatles – Glass Onion
26. T Rex – Hot Love
27. The Dandy Warhols – Colder than the Coldest Winter was Cold
28. Johnny Fortune – Siboney
29. Cachao – Siboney
30. Bebo Valdés – Al fin te vi
31. Pizzicato Five – Readymade FM
32. Cecil Gant – I Wonder
33. George Jones – Relief is Just a Swallow Away
34. Chalie Parker – Melancholy Baby
35. Chris Bell – You and Your Sister
36. Hot Lips Page – St. James Infirmary
37. Johnny Hodges – Passion Flower
38. Sly & the Stone – Thankful & Thoughtful

Craig Handy

Jazz ensemble journal 3

2009-11-20T21:49:31Z

In spite of some problems with my horn, I've been enjoying rehearsals.

Here is the poster for the concert:

Mancelona Buck Pole

2009-11-20T20:24:24Z

My memories of the buck pole involve snow, and blood dripping on it.

Morocco, 1994

2009-11-15T19:46:29Z

I don't remember exactly the circumstances, but Luis invited me to accompany a group of American students he was chaperoning on a trip to Morocco. Yeah, I'm in. At the time I was a Fulbright scholar living in Granada (Can you believe that?).

So, to the best of my memory, we had visited Fez and some other places and were heading south to Marakesh. We stopped at an open air market just for curiosity's sake.

Now, for some reason, Moroccans don't like getting their picture taken. It could be that they consider the picture making a robbing of their soul; or maybe they merely figure that if the Europeans, slumming in their North African nation, are snapping pictures of them they should be remunerated accordingly.

So after visiting the market, I got back into the van, and decided to take a picture of some boys as we were pulling away. As I was doing so, one of the boys pulled out a knife and waved it at me in a menacing yet playful way. Of course, being in the van I was in no danger, but it is strange that the picture that I took at that moment never came out. Or maybe I never took a picture.

My roommate during the trip was this young fool by the name of Montoya. He would keep his passport under his pillow as he slept at night. One day he packed up and left, forgetting his passport under his pillow. One of Luis's Moroccan friends was kind enough to retrieve the passport, ride in a train all the way to Rabat or Casablanca, or wherever we were at the time, just in time to deliver the passport to Montoya.

Certainly Luis made sure that Montoya compensated him for his trouble.

Stevorino, Dandy, and Yours Truly Comment!

2009-11-15T18:39:00Z

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1.

Jim Dandy: "THE AMERICAN DREAM! (Just a down payment away!)"
Steven: "Two boats! Daddy you rock my world!"
Mark: "Here are the keys, darling. Me and the boys got some choreography to work on!"

2.

Jim Dandy: "An American Nightmare. (Paid in Full)"
Steven: "Power source for WorldCom iGoogle server farm and bathers. Photo circa 2021."
Mark: "Ah, the salty air! The surf! The bathing beauties! The smell of fresh crude!!"

Sorry, Marie, your comments were deemed inappropriate.

Catamount Community Radio - November 15, 2009

2009-11-15T18:20:03Z

"Coffee Time..."

Well, another week, another show, and not a bad one, in all modesty. Last Sunday, chllin' after the show, listening to the radio via the internet, I heard a song on Harry Shearer's Le Show that caught my fancy. I quickly jotted down a few of the lyrics, and then typed them into the Google search engine, and found out the tune was Jill Sobule's "League of Failures."

I've been a miner for a heart of gold,
A dreamer who just won't wake up.
I thought I'd plunge into the deepest vein,
It wasn't deep enough.

[...]

Still have your picture on my wall of faith,
Next to the grocery list.
I keep forgetting I should take you down,
I'm gonna take you down.

Speaking of lyrics, how about these lines from Rufus Wainwright?

I tried to dance Brittany Spears
I guess I'm getting on in years.

Or maybe these, from Franz Nicolay:

I was 26; she was 17
Too angry for lovers
and too close for friends
If you can't love me, baby
maybe we can just pretend.

(Here, my mind, during the pause after "if you can't love me, baby," inserted, "maybe your sister can." Bad Mark.)

This bit reminded me of Springsteen:

When we met I was broke
now I got a pile of tens
And baby, let's go out tonight
and see how fast I can spend.

This is where I write that the show streams on the internet when you point your browser at Power 90.5 from 10-12 on Sunday mornings (Carolina time).

1. David "Fathead" Newman – Alfie
2. Steely Dan – Everything Must Go
3. World Standard – Looving Spoonful
4. Tarwater – To Maouf
5. Bebo Valdés – La comparsa
6. Bill Frisell – The Tractor
7. Hank Mobley – Remember
8. Kronos Quartet – Cuatro milpas (circa 1926)
9. Vincent Price – Music, When Soft Voices Die
10. Jill Sobule – League of Failures
11. The Meadowlarks – Please Love a Fool
12. César Romero – Thought for Today
13. Rufus Wainwright – Vibrate
14. Jimmie Lunceford – Organ Grinder's Swing
15. Jungle Brothers – Tribe Vibe
16. Riyuichi Sakamoto – Undercooled
17. Anthony Hamilton – Coming From Where I'm From
18. Roy Hargrove – Strasbourg / St. Denis
19. The Heavy – Small Change Hero
20. Daniel Owino Misiani – Dr. J. Abuya
21. Maravilla – Se ha acabado
22. Tony Shwartz – Nuyorican Food
23. Studio Group – Kiss of Fire
24. Franz Nicolay – Cease Fire, or, Mrs. Norman Brown
25. Joe Henderson – But Not For Me
26. Andre Williams – Bacon Fat
27. Don Byron – Royal Garden Blues
28. Funky Butt Brass Band – Soul Serenade
29. The Noisettes – Never Forget You
30. Bajo Fondo Tango Club – Air Concrete
31. Mississippi Gabe Carter – Big Fat Woman
32. The Spiritual Jubilators – Precious Lord

Catamount Community Radio - November 8, 2009

2009-11-08T18:22:39Z

Two by Camille, two by Bebo Valdés, two by Mickey & Sylvia. Three versions of "Caravan." Jimmie Rodgers goofing with the Carter Family on the radio, and much more. The show streams live on the internet on Sunday mornings (10-12 East Coast time) on WWCU-FM.

Camille is a French singer qui fait également la voix française du personnage de Colette dans Ratatouille, un film du studio d'animation Pixar, sorti en août 2007. I think Aiesha once mentioned to me that her boyfriend is Rachid Taha.

Bebo Valdés is still going strong at 90 years of age. I hear that he just recorded an album with his son Chucho, who himself at 68 is no spring chicken.

Here are a couple tidbits on Jimmie Rodgers from Wikipedia:

"Rodgers decided to travel to Asheville, North Carolina, later that same year (1927). On April 18, at 9:30 p.m., Jimmie, Sam Biglari, and Otis Kuykendall performed for the first time on WWNC, Asheville’s first radio station. A few months later Jimmie recruited a group from Bristol, Tennessee called the Tenneva Ramblers and secured a weekly slot on the station listed as "The Jimmie Rodgers Entertainers."

"On July 16, 1930, he recorded "Blue Yodel No. 9" with jazz trumpeter Louis Armstrong, whose wife, Lillian, played piano on the recording."

Reverend Frost on Sylvia and Mickey:

"This popular duo began recording together in 1956 and enjoyed a US R&B chart-topper that year with ‘Love Is Strange’, which peaked at number 11 in the US pop chart the following year. This enduring call-and-response song is rightly regarded as a classic of its genre, and later became a minor UK hit when recorded by the Everly Brothers.

Prolific session work for Atlantic Records, Savoy, King and Aladdin earned the former the epithet Mickey ‘Guitar’ Baker, while the latter had made her recording debut with jazz trumpeter Oran ‘Hot Lips’ Page as early as 1950. Yep, Mickey was a music instructor and Sylvia one of his pupils!

The duo eventually bought their own nightclub, established a publishing company, and formed their own record label , and they had further success with ‘There Oughta Be A Law’ (1957) and, after a brief hiatus as a duo, ‘Baby You’re So Fine’ (1961), but their career together was undermined by commitments elsewhere. They continued to record together until 1965. After that, Mickey had a successful career as a studio musician. Sylvia had a huge hit in 1973 with the song 'Pillow Talk.'"

I found this bit on Woody Phillips at Amazon.com: "a novelty artist who performs well-known holiday songs and classical pieces on common hand tools. After his training at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he worked as a cellist and arranger of early American folk music. In 1998, he released his saw-, power drill-, and hammer-orchestrated versions of Christmas standards on A Toolbox Christmas, and followed in 2000 with his personalized ode to composers of the 18th and 19th centuries; Toolbox Classics. ~ Zac Johnson, All Music Guide"

An anonymous commenter on a blog somewhere said this about the rough barber shaving off Castro's beard: "As I recall reading somewhere .. the CIA actually approached Ian Fleming and asked him for ideas and he provided them with a few ideas including LSD on Castro's SCUBA mouthpiece combined with itching powder in his wetsuit, to make him go crazy and drown; thallium salts in his cigars or hat to make his manly beard and hair fall out and thus emmasculate him; projecting a massive religious icon in the sky above Cuba to induce revolution against communism; and probably more that the CIA never actually tried."

1. Ron Afiff – Dolphn Dance
2. Camille – Quand je marche
3. Rahsaan Roland Kirk – Alfie
4. Ella Fitzgerald – Wait Till You See Him
5. Piero Umiliani – Lady Magnolia
6. Slam Stewart & Major Holley – Close Your Eyes (Shut Yo' Mouth)
7. Bebo Valdés – Tres lindas cubanas
8. Ceux Qui Marchent – Nola
9. Blossom Dearie – Thou Swell
10. Radio fun with The Carter Family & Jimmie Rodgers
11. Ray Charles – Heaven Help Us All
12. Duke Ellington – Caravan
13. Fred Hersch – Caravan
14. Johnny Santo – Caravan
15. Dorothy Dandridge – Smooth Operator
16. Omer Avital – Arrival
17. Craig Duncan – Wabash Cannonball
18. Mickey & Sylvia – Love is Strange
19. Christian McBride, Nick Payton & Mark Whitfield – Chameleon
20. Wycliff Jean – Gone Till November
21. Phil Celia – If Butch the Rough Barber Man Shaves Castro
22. Tony Allen – Gbedu
23. Tony! Toni! Toné! – If I Had No Loot
24. Darrow Fletcher – The Pain Gets a Little Deeper
25. Camille – Ta douleur
26. George Cables – Tasshi's Night Out
27. Mounir Mourad – The Factory Theme
28. Woody Philips – Habanera
29. Charlie Parker – Now's the Time
30. Bebo Valdés – Danza Bº 1
31. Mickey & Sylvia – No Good Lover
32. World Saxophone Quartet – Requium for Julius
33. Mount Eagle Quartet – When I Take my Vacation in Heaven

Jimmie Rodgers

Mickey & Sylvia

Bebo Valdés

Blogging Experiment

2009-11-06T20:42:44Z

I'm going to post two images, without comment.

If you read this, please provide commentary.

I will then repost the blog entry, but with your comments as narration.

1.

2.

Mundane Linguistic Play (and an apology)

2009-11-03T20:34:37Z

The welcome mat at our house says "Wipe your paws." Each time I see it, I mentally say to myself, "Wipe your ass."

My wife has left a book on the kitchen table for months; it is Deepak Chopra's Creating Affluence.

Each time I see it, I mentally say to myself, "Creating Flatulence." It's almost an anagram.

A student shared a spoonerism the other day (where you exchange the first sound of each word). On the way to Cherokee there's a gas station called "Fuel Mart."

Slightly Weird Things (and Funkin' for Jamaica)

2009-11-02T16:51:41Z

We in the department share a refrigerator where we can, say, keep our lunch chilled. One colleague has filled up the bottom shelf of the door with bottled water. There are four or five bottles, each with her initials marked on the cap, and each with only about an ounce and a half of water in it.

In the men's bathroom of the local Chinese restaurant, there is a portrait of a bear. It was made with a large color photocopy of the bear's face. However added to the portrait is teddy-bear fur, turning the thing into a two-dimensional teddy bear.

Catamount Community Radio - November 1, 2009

2009-11-01T18:23:37Z

Today, Walking, Trucking, and Blue Skies. Plus, I snuck in a Scriaban prelude played by Horowitz. As for walking, I put on an instrumental version of "Walk This Way," by way of background music, and read the following quotation from Soren Kierkkegaard:

"Above all, do not lose your desire to walk: every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness; I have walked myself into my best thoughts, and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it ... but by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one feels to feeling ill ... Thus if one just keeps walking, everything will be all right."

As for the trucking, Junior Brown and Dave Dudley; the two of them together doing "Semi-Crazy," and then the quintessential truck-driving song, Dudley's "Six Days on the Road."

Blue Skies? Well, we had to start with this gem that I found over at Chris O'Leary's sight, Locust St., "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'":

"Wendell Hall's two-million-seller of 1923, is arguably a rock & roll record, at least in spirit. It's got the whole bag: yodels, howls, whines and sneers, riffs, death, puns, general nonsense, bad attitudes, jokes about animals, jokes about sewers, barefoot girls. Everybody from Bob Dylan on down has stolen from it:

Saw a sign in a hardware store:
"Boy wanted, 16 years,"
Now that's too long to wait for a boy,
It brings eyes to my tears

Hall was a red-headed ukulele player from Kansas. He was a song plugger, a vaudeville rambler, a radio man (even got married on the air). "It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'" was the first national radio hit, mainly because Hall traveled cross-country in the summer of 1923, playing at over 35 radio stations, touting his record and his sheet music. To plug the latter, Hall, brilliantly and shamelessly, would keep adding verses to the song (reaching 100 at one point) and then reprint the sheet music with his new lines--in this way, he sold over 10 million copies (& many of the verses were wholly plundered from "traditional" folk songs, often by black musicians). He died in 1969, having never come close to that success again. Then again, few could have."

I also played Tom Wait's "Blue Skies," and Harry Connick, Jr.'s version of the old Irving Berlin song.

BTW, Chris has a David Bowie blog that will be worth your while, if you like Bowie.

Catamount Community Radio airs on La poderosa 90.5 Sunday mornings from 10-12 (Carolina time).

1. Tom Waits – Anywhere I Lay my Head
2. Esbjörn Svensson Trio – I Mean You
3. Roscoe Snowden – Misery Blues
4. Sly & the Family Stone – Poet
5.Tin Hat Trio – Helium
6. Ahmad Jamal – Autumn Leaves
7. Randy Newman – The Girls in my Life
8. Benjamin Verdery – Kiss
9. Ernest Tubb – Walkin' the Floor Over You
10. Junior Brown – Semi-Crazy
11. Tom Waits – Blue Skies
12. Armen Stepanyan – Es Kisher, Lusnyag Kisher ...
13. Wendell Hall – It Ain't Gonna Rain No Mo'
14. Harry Connick, Jr. – Blue Skies
15. Louis Armstrong & Earl Hines – Tight Like That
16. Merle Haggard – Misery and Gin
17. Duke Ellington – The Star-Crossed Lovers
18. Candi Staton – Freedom is Just Beyond the Door
19. Old Radio Ad – "Serves You Right in the Car"
20. Dave Dudley – Six Days on the Road
21. Bobby Rock – Walk this Way
(background for the Kierkegaard quote)
22. Tom Waits – Walking Spanish
23. Kitty White – I'm Gonna Be a Fool Next Monday
24. Johnny Cash – My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You
25. Kaki King – Carmine Street
26. Vladimir Horowitz – Scriaban's Op. 16, No. 4 in Eb minor
27. Prince – 1+1+1=3
28. Meade "Lux" Lewis – Bear Cat Crawl
29. Willie Bobo – Spanish Grease
30. Coleman Hawkins – When Lights are Low
31. Lightnin' Hopkins – Another Fool in Town
32. Henry Mancini – Peter Gunn
33. David Widelock – Aung San Suu Kyi
34. Big Maceo – Detroit Jump
35. 菅野よう子 – Wo qui non coin
36. The Gospel Harmonizers – God Will Take Care of You

Jazz ensemble journal 2

2009-10-30T20:28:00Z

Yesterday we took pictures for the poster to publicize our performance on December 1. Pavel asked that we wear a white shirt with dark pants. So I wore the dress shirt that the drunken Japanese guy gave me this past summer in Shikoku.

As I recall, Masa and I had finished our meal and paid, when we were invited to the bar, where we were fed drinks and seafood on the house. The guy who gave me the shirt was the son-in-law of the owner, who was behind the bar. To reciprocate, I gave them the Barak Obama tee shirt off my back along with the usual osetti slip.

As for the music. I think I'm making some progress, but I'm finding it hard. At least I'm lost less often, and if I can't always read the parts, well, they are less mysterious than they were at the beginning.

I may get a solo on one tune. We shall see. OK, time to go home and practice.

Catamount Community Radio - October 25, 2009

2009-10-25T16:58:54Z

The usual excellence in radio, on Power 90.5. The show airs Sunday mornings, from 10-12 (Carolina time).

1. Duke Ellington – Passion Flower
2. Abdullah Ibrahim – Moniebah
3. John Coltrane – Bessie's Blues
4. Louis Armstrong – Sugar
5. The Moonglows – Most of All
6. Teddy Wilson – You're Driving Me Crazy
7. Craig Duncan – Wabash Cannonball
8. Prince – Crimson and Clover
9. Bix Biderbeck – I'm Wondering Who
10. Brad Paisley – Ticks
11. Jossie Esteban y la Patrulla 15 – Pegando pecho
12. Chris Sprague – Diesel Smoke and Cigarettes
13. Diz & Bird – Salt Peanuts
14. Greg Hopkins – Here's to my Lady
15. Buck Owens – Under the Influence of Love
16. Ben Webster – Frog & Mule
17. Yusef Lateef – Sun Dog
18. Brenda Lee – Break it to me Gently
19. Jimmy McGriff – Sugar Sugar
20. Burning Spear – John Burns Skank
21. Jeff Coffin – The Mad Hatter Rides Again
22. Grandmaster Flash & Kurtis Blow – Live at Randy's Place (1979)
23. Towa Tei – IQ Infinity
24. Bing Ji Ling – You Shook Me All Night Long
25. Masada – Tahah
26. Frank Sinatra – Deep in a Dream
27. Radio Tarifa – Rumba argelina
28. Grupo Rosado – El super corcho
29. Quincy Jones – Sanford & Son Theme / The Streetbeater
30. Don Gibson – Sea of Heartbreak
31. Fats Domino – Helping Hand
32. Jurassic 5 – Freedom
33. Les Dum's – Le danse des grandes singes nus
34. 三宅純 – Lotus Isle

Craig Duncan

Grandmaster Flash

Jazz ensemble journal 1

2009-10-20T23:07:03Z

On the ride up to Boone with Pavel, he invited me to play second tenor in the university's jazz ensemble. This may be a stretch for me, as I'm pretty much a self-taught saxophonist with very little experience sight reading. Granted, I've been taking piano lessons for three years, and my reading is getting better, but I haven't played saxophone in a formal (note reading) band since I was in the ninth grade (the '77-'78 school year). So it's been awhile. I've been a saxophone dilettante now for maybe the last five or six years; sometimes I play a lot, sometimes I hardly play. But I've pretty much limited myself to playing by ear or else by lead sheet. A few years back I played bari in the "B" or second string band. This is a little tougher assignment.

How has it been so far? Well, I've rehearsed twice with the band, and I would say that more often than not I'm lost. But I want to make it happen, so I've been practicing. I even took a lesson with Tyler. Today I took my recording gear and recorded the rehearsal, in order to play along with the pieces as I practice. I'll continue with updates on how it goes until our concert, which is in early December. So basically, I have a month to get it together. We're playing

Satin Doll, and A Train. We haven't even rehearsed the pieces yet since I've joined the band. At least I'm familiar with them.

The Chicken. An old James Brown (Maceo) number. With the exception of the complex passage starting at measure 47, I'm doing OK. I recorded Tyler playing it last night, so I have that to work with.

God Bless the Child. Not too hard, but there are some high notes that I hardly know how to finger.

There's a Charlie Parker number that I look forward to playing, and a Maynard Ferguson chart that's not too bad.

Plus another six tunes or so.

Last Thursday, in lieu of rehearsal, we had a clinic with Jeff Coffin and his band. He's played with Dave Matthews and Bela Fleck, but his band, the "Mu-tet", with Felix Pastorius on bass and a couple of other monsters, was great.

I'll let you know how it goes. It'll be an adventure. Rehearsal on Thursday and another lesson with Tyler on Sunday.