Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for April 2, 2016

This week a relatively jazzy freeform adventure for a good day to curl up with the internet. No apologies made for playing two twelve minute tracks in a row.



Since the in-studio recorder failed to record the program, we have some of what I did or should have said about the music below, along with the playlist...

Bright Lights of Brussels – Another response to terrorism. Although I was able to do about an hour of Paris themed music basically on the fly, with about ten days notice I could only come up with this jaunty little tune about Brussels. The spirit of solidarity is the same.

Promises Kept – The transition from the tenor sax solo to the guitar solo is one of my favorite things ever.

Uncle Gun – Just a duet for drums and turntables. DJ Illvibe does some amazing things on this album. I'm sure I'll be playing more.

Epistrophy – It's becoming a habit of late to have Monk end the first set. This comes from a recording made by Coltrane's then-wife, only discovered around forty years later.

The Bridge – I've become a bit obsessed with Sonny Rollins' RCA albums from the early sixties (there's a nifty little boxed set to blame). There seems to be a parallel with my recent interest in John Tchicai and Garrison Fewell's collaborations and Sonny and Jim Hall's.

Juju – One of the greatest jazz groups of the last two decades or so, towards the beginning of its existence with one of the leader's classic tunes.

El is a sound of joy – From the first recording on Saturn Records. Featuring Jim Herndon's famous tympani. I notice that Chicago's transit system is more romanticized than the one here around Boston, despite the best efforts of the son of the man taking the alto solo here.

Forró for All – Perhaps a microcosm of this program. Recorded live at the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

Plastic Bag – This goes out to our neighbors in Cambridge who have banned the use of single-use plastic shopping bags.

Spring – As I type this on April 3, looking at the freshly fallen snow, it seems like this spring is much like a John Cage composition, albeit like his later chance derived ones, rather than this early Debussy like doo-dad.

Liebe – This has sat in the “holding pen” folder for a while waiting for the right spot in a set.

It's about that time – This is the “composite edit” in chronological order before Miles and Teo Macero edited and rearranged it into the version that appears on the “In a silent way” album. I heard this while driving up to Vermont for Easter was reminded that I first heard this album through repeated listens over an Easter weekend after taking it out of the public library, confused and then amazed about how all these monster virtuosi could deliver such restrained and subtle performances.

Afro-disco Beat – An offering from Fela's drummer much in the style of the master.

Flash Light – Ending with a bit of music popular in both senses, chosen after reading the other day that synthesizer genius Bernie Worrell is struggling with stage IV lung cancer right now. This is one of the finest example of his genius.

artist	song	album	comment	label / date
Eddie Layton	Bright Lights of Brussels	Better Layton Than Ever	special guest 1st part of theme of solidarity	Mercury 1958
Naked City	Inside Straight	Naked City	2nd part of theme	Nonesuch 1989
Sonny Sharrock	Promises Kept	Ask the Ages	Sonny Sharrock (g) Pharoah Sanders (ts) Charnett Moffett (b) Elvin Jones (d)	Axiom 1991
LOK 03+1	Uncle Gun	Signals	Paul Lovens (d) DJ Illvibe (turntables, faderboard)	Trost Records 2016
Thelonious Monk Quartet w/ John Coltrane	Epistrophy	Live at the Five Spot - Discovery!	John Coltrane (ts) Thelonious Monk (p) Ahmed Abdul-Malik (b) Roy Haynes (d)	Blue Note 1958
Lisa Germano	Just Geek	Geek The Girl	music behind DJ	4AD 1994
Sonny Rollins	The Bridge	The Bridge	Sonny Rollins (ts) Jim Hall (g) Bob Cranshaw (b) Ben Riley (d)	RCA 1962
Wayne Shorter	Juju	Footprints Live!	Wayne Shorter (ts) Danilo Pérez (p) John Pattitucci (b) Brian Blade (d)	Verve 2001
Sun Ra and his Arkestra	El is a Sound of Joy	Supersonic Jazz	Sun Ra (p) Art Hoyle (trp, prc) Pat Patrick (as, prc) John Gilmore (ts, prc) Charles Davis (bs, prc) Victor Sproles (b) William Cochran (d) Jim Herndon (tmp, prc)	Evidence 1956
Cyro Baptista and Beat the Donkey	Forró for All (live @ The Warhol)	Bang on a Can Marathon '15 Mixtape		Canteloupe 2015
Spaceheads	Trip To The Moon	Trip To The Moon EP	music behind DJ	Electric Brass 2014
Tank of Danzig	Plastic Bag	Not Trendy	dedicated to the City of Cambridge	Musique á la Coque 1982
Casiokids	En Vill Hest (Prins Thomas Remix)	Topp stemning på lokal bar	music behind DJ	Polyvinyl 2010
Tim Berne	Not Sure	Snakeoil	Tim Berne (as) Oscar Noriega (clt) Matt Mitchell (p) Ches Smith (d)	ECM 2011
Herbert Henck	The Seasons - 4. Spring	John Cage - Early Piano Music	music by John Cage	ECM 2002
Frank Strobel; Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin	Die Kommissarin - 6. Liebe	Alfred Schnittke: Film Music Edition	music by Alfred Schnittke for the film by Aleksandr Askoldov	Capriccio 2003
Miles Davis	It's About That Time	The Complete "In A Silent Way" Sessions	Miles Davis (tpt); Wayne Shorter (ss); John McLaughlin (g); Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea (el-p); Josef Zawinul (org); Dave Holland (b); Tony Williams (d) the “composite version” which, per Michael Cuscuna, “contains all the usable music recorded." more here	Sony Legacy 1968
Tony Allen with Afrika 70	Afro-disco-beat	Racubah! - A Collection of Modern Afro Rhythms	originally from the album Progress	Comet Records 1977
Helado Negro	Ojos Que No Ven	Double Youth	music by Roberto Carlos Lange	Asthmatic Kitty Records 2014
Parliament	Flash Light	Funkentelechy vs. the Placebo Syndrome	single version George Clinton (voc) Bernie Worrell (syn) Catfish Collins (g) Bootsy Collins (d) song by George Clinton, Bootsy Collins and Bernie Worrell	Casablanca 1977
Michael Gordon	My Frig	Light Is Calling	music behind DJ	Nonesuch 2004
Horace Silver	Que Pasa [trio version]	Song for My Father	Horace Silver (p) Gene Taylor (b) Roy Brooks (d)	Blue Note 1963