Top 3 for August 27, 2014

Again today, because consist... oh shut up about that.

Bud Powell  - Chick Corea and Gary Burton

From In Concert - Zurich, October 28, 1979. Recorded, oh... right
Chick's knotty little tune to one of bebop's greats gets a cool but swinging performance in cool but swinging Zurich.

Top 6 for February 27, 2014

Mea Culpa by Brian Eno and David Byrne

Some things never change. Catch the Chris Christie remake!

Düdül - Ensemble Oni Wytars, Ensemble Unicorn from Time of the Templars - Music of the Mediterranean

Hand drums and bagpipes, super funky Traditonal Turkish music from the Middle Ages

Top 6 from November 5, 2013

Rock & Roll – The Velvet Underground from Live MCMXCIII

Even after the amputation you can dance to a rock & roll station.

A lot of folks put down this album. It is the Velvets playing in the style of a 90's Lou Reed album, but frankly that's a better idea than trying to recreate the 1969 live album, and these were good years for Lou anyway. You can still dance to it, you know. It's also sort of is Sterling's valedictory.

Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue - Duke Ellington from Live at Newport 1956

Yeah, the solo, but, the tunes are pretty good too. Two sides of Duke's early style - contrapuntal, busy swinging, trying to cram in as many notes as a side of a 78 could hold, the frenzy of the audience providing the underlying energy that the super-fast revolutions of the turntable once did. 

No. 1 for November 1, 2013

Stephanie Says – Lady & Bird as played on This is the Modern World on WFMU

A cover of one of those unreleased Velvet Underground songs that everyone seemed to know regardless, lovely. I had wanted to put a Lou quote in memorium on my whiteboard at work but could only come up with sardonic things like “Today is a perfect day, and I'm going to spend it with you?” Hearing this at work, I see “Stephanie says that she wants to know why she's given half her life to people she hates now “ would have fit that same bill. Never heard of this group, a collaboration between and Israeli and Icelandic musicians I've never heard of either.

Top 4 for October 30, 2013

Big River – Johnny Cash from Johnny Cash at San Quentin

Middle Cyclone – Neko Case from Middle Cyclone

If only for “Can't scrape together quite enough to ride the bus to the outskirts of the fact that I need love”

Theme de Yoyo – Art Ensemble of Chicago from Les Stances a Sophie

From their French sojourn, the first recording, I believe, with Don Moye. [Well, no it isn't. But they did meet Don in France] Someone named Noreen Beasley claims on the internet to have written the lyrics, but I wouldn't protest too loudly. I was of course sold by the form of 8 measures of funky soul / 4 measures of free jazz / return to four measures of funky soul.

Top 2 from October 29, 2013

You were only fooling by Patsy Cline, heard on This is the Modern World with Trouble on WFMU

“I was making love but you were making believe”

Going Underground by the Jam from same