Unpopular Christmas 2019

Here we a Christmas offering for you. It comes in four sections - A kind of straight-up jazz set, then a few medieval through baroque choral pieces, which leads us to some "derangements" of some overly familiar songs, and finally some small-scale, intimate, perhaps introverted even, renderings of some more staples. This exercise of hearing these familiar songs on unfamiliar, even irreverent settings can perhaps help us appreciate the original musical intentions of the songs.



Rest ye merry! (and remember, the comma comes after "merry," not "ye.")

See the playlist after the break...

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for December 21, 2019

 And so here we are - the last weekly webcast on Boston Free Radio. Created under the same conditions that have convinced me that I need to take a break. (I was digging through boxes at 7:30 or so this morning, the McCoy Tyner track was ripped around 8:15, I still came in about ten minutes short and was digging through the BFR library throughout the show, I played off You Tube something that I forgot to add to the playlist before I left the house. But, two hours of this and that that I think can be enjoyed.

image source 

And, to be clear, it's see you later, not goodbye. 

See the playlist after the break...

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for December 14, 2019

A variety show for a rainy Saturday, at least here in Somerville. We have a jazzy first set with some overlapping personnel.The second set is the quiet set, which also features the obscure Hungarian instrument the taragato. The second hour begins with a few miniatures, before presenting two twentieth-century classical works dense with musical references. There's also a longish bit of "jazz composition" that I've been meaning to play for a while, before we end with some odd upbeatness and some college nostalgia (for me at least.)

image source

See the playlist after the break...

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for December 7, 2019

A bit of a variety show for you this week. The first typically jazzy hour has many flavors of jazz, some current, some historical, some in between. There's an unintended grouping of tracks led by Miles Davis rhythm section alumni. The second hour wanders around. Some jazz, some modernism, something from the classical side of the third stream, a 70's obscure classic/classic obscurity I've been meaning to play for a while, and a fifty-year-old song ripped from today's headlines. Also, an announcement regarding the future of the live webcast.

image source

See the playlist after the break...