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Saturday, April 28, 2018

Playlist for the Unpopular Music Webcast for April 28, 2018

I feel pretty good about this week's program, much more than last week. We have the usual first hour/second hour jazzy/freeform divide. I advocate for the alto-with-two-tenor sax line-up. There's even some new releases. The second hour has contrast with continuity and a couple of tracks from albums I hadn't listened to in years that were as good as I remember them.



See for yourself after the break...

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Playlist for the Unpopular Music Webcast for April 21, 2018

A workable program for a week where I was short of inspiration. jazzy and a bit noisy in the first hour, a little bit electronic and (perhaps a little too) subdued in the second




See for yourself after the break

Monday, April 16, 2018

The Pulitzer Prize crosses the Rubicon (and I feel fine)

Hmmm, so the Pulitzer Prize is not just for unpopular music anymore.

I must say I'm not all that familiar with Mr. Lamar's music1, and the little I've heard hasn't really piqued my curiosity. Should I feel obliged to listen further? We'll see.

I must say, though, that I am glad to see the committee continue their trek away from the Ivory Tower over the last decade or so. Since they've been giving awards to jazz musicians lately, I'm glad to see recognition spread to other new areas. And I suppose it's good that the Pulitzers can relate to African-American culture other than through honoring newspaper coverage of horrible things that happen there.

(Also, unlike my beef when Henry Threadgill won about giving the award to the record, not the composition itself, I'm confident that DAMN. was conceived as a piece of recorded music.)

At least they know better than to give an award to Bon Jovi.2

1Yes, I pretty much do live under a rock these days.
2We do however congratulate Nina Simone and Sister Rosetta Tharpe on their induction to that dubious institution.

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Playlist for the Unpopular Music Webcast for April 14, 2018

We spend today's webcast not overly contemplating the brief appearance of spring (this Friday and Saturday ONLY!!!! (Update: not only did the temperature drop as Saturday went along, it was snowing for a while as I was editing the archive version on Sunday morning)), but paying tribute to pianist/composer/poet/dancer/philosopher of music/other Cecil Taylor, who died in time for me to pay tribute to him last week had I heard the news in time (ie. before the webcast.) (Here's Ethan Iverson's tribute.) Stretching the limits of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (and being fairly certain he won't show up on Geek Love) we'll have a Cecil track in each half hour.



Otherwise, we have a jazzy show, some so-called "desert blues," some jazzy new music, a leftover from the Rite of Spring show a few weeks back, and more.

See the playlist (plus some notes, and some more thoughts on Cecil Taylor) after the break...

Saturday, April 7, 2018

Martin Luther King, Jr on Jazz


He knows it's not the devil's music!

From remarks delivered at the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival (of all places)-

Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph.
This is triumphant music.
Modern jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument.
more here

Playlist for the Unpopular Music Webcast for April 7, 2018

Here we are again, having taken a week off and still mostly throwing a show together at the last minute. The second set has a slightly diverse set marking the 50th anniversary of the the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., including a couple of tracks recorded in the immediate aftermath of the event.



See the playlist after the break...