Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for June 6, 2015

A little something thrown together at the eleventh hour (well, slightly after midnight actually), a musical cheese plate for your enjoyment. (Hopefully not too cheesy.)

Unpopular Music - June 6, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

See the playlist after the break...

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for May 30, 2015

Summer's here (unofficially, the paperwork is still in progress, the sun is still moving north) and the time is right for this weeks playlist! (well at 2:00 on Saturday is always the right time)

The guy in the parentheses is such a killjoy!

Unpopular Music - May 30, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

See the playlist after the break...
(It's not so much a break as it is a link to a separate page that contains the whole post)
Seriously, man, chill out

Too hot to blog

Yeah, that's my excuse, it's too darn hot. I blogged more when there were snowstorms. So, I'll just throw a bunch of links at you.

Webcast info for May 23, 2015

It's Memorial Day Weekend, and the studio is closed, so therefore no live show this week. Instead we are presenting an encore presentation of the June 7, 2014 episode. It's an upbeat summery episode, in my opinion at least.

You might also wish to check out last year's Memorial Day extravaganza, which also includes a celebration of Sun Ra's centenary.

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for May 16, 2015

Another week, another playlist, and not much else.

A couple of items picked up from the merch table at the Dave Douglas/Joe Lovano show on Thursday night, and a fine show it was. This is one of those shows where I've sort of programmed myself out to a degree, not that you'll miss me.

Unpopular Music - May 16, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Anyway, enjoy the journey, after the break...

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for May 9, 2015

Another week already, eh?!?

Here's another last minute playlist. Trying to mix it up a little but still find myself going back to certain wells more often than I should. But enjoyable all the same!

There is however a mostly allusive set for Mother's Day, so there's that.

Unpopular Music - May 9, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Also, and also totally coincidental, several musicians make multiple appearances - Robin Eubanks, Fred Hopkins, Eric Dolphy, Ralph Alessi, and Don Byron. Also one song written by Jerome Kern and Oscar Hammerstein and one written over the chord changes to another. Synergy, baby!

See for your self after the break ...

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for May 2, 2015

A mostly jazzy show today, kind of thrown together at the last minute. There's a set in the second hour that sticks out like a sore thumb provides some contrast, but enjoyable all the same if you ask me. I'd listen to it.

Unpopular Music - May 2, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Judge for yourself, after the break...

Take it to the Bridge

Here's lovely little reminiscence from Sonny Rollins from today's New York Times about what led to the period of practicing on the Williamsburg Bridge that led to him reinventing his sound and style to the benefit of us all.

Here's a 1968 BBC documentary on the same subject -

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for April 25, 2015

A bit of an arbitrary playlist for the end of April.

Unpopular Music - April 25, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Playlist after the break...

Webcast info for April 18, 2015

The SCATV compound is closed for the Record Store Day Patriot's Day holiday weekend (sorry to those of you outside the Commonwealth), so today we are playing a rerun from last March 29, when I thought last year's spring was slow to arrive. It's not quite as spring-centric as I remembered, but it does feature the lovely Sun Ra tune "Springtime Again", and, by total happenstance, it also includes this month's featured SCATV member Roger Miller, playing with Birdsongs of the Mesozoic.

Today in the music biz - updated 4/19

In which I actually stand up for millionaires

 

Here's a interesting snapshot of today's shiny new music industry -

Geoff Barrow from the at-one-time big-unit-shifting band Portishead reports that he made a whopping $2,511.79 after taxes from 34,000,000 plays on the various streaming services (and yes, the British pay a lot of taxes, but not that much, so sit down Grover Norquist). This reminded me of something non-starving-artist Steven Tyler said once at Famous Music College (after my time there though) "What it's all about when you make it big is that on every dollar, they keep 75 cents and give you 25 cents. Then every time they see you, they tell you how shiny your quarter is."

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for April 11, 2015

The first bit of this show didn't make it out live, but it's all here regardless.

Unpopular Music - April 11, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Here comes the playlist after the break...

Webcast info for April 4, 2015

It looks like technical problems are keeping the "encore presentation" scheduled for today from being broadcast. There will be a live webcast next week, but we'll probably use last year's "welcome to spring" episode for the Patriot's Day weekend instead.

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast, March 28, 2015

[insert snappy introduction paragraph]

Unpopular Music - March 28, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

See the [reference to introduction] after the break...

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast, March 21, 2015

An all over the place playlist for dancing in the snow on the first full day of spring, after the break...

Unpopular Music - March 21, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Do us all a favor.

Do me a favor and listen to the first three minutes or so of Thusrday's episode of Busy Doing Nothing with Charlie on WFMU's Give the Drummer Radio stream. I believe you'll enjoy it. Especially if the fact that it's snowing on the first day of spring has you down. 

Do yourself favor and listen to the whole episode. It's Charlie in top form. (And I'm not just saying this because my name is mentioned and I win a prize.) 

And do WFMU a favor and drop a few coins to WFMU before their fund-raising drive ends Sunday night.

 

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast, March 14, 2015

Today we celebrate the 85th birthday of Ornette Coleman, one of the truly transformative musical figures of the 20th century. In order to follow the rules for internet radio there are only four performances by the master, but the remainder of the show is made up of Ornette's compositions played by others, often by musicians with only one degree of separation.

Unpopular Music - March 14, 2015 by Unpopularfred on Mixcloud

Preview for Saturday's webcast

Tomorrow's show is shaping up to be a birthday tribute to Ornette Coleman. I'm not really a fan of the birthday tribute show, especially among jazz shows, but Ornette is such a major trasnformative figure in jazz that he demands an exception.

The catch, of course, is having to follow the rules of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which means I can play no more than four (4) tracks with "Ornette Coleman" in the artist field. So, we'll largely be featuring Ornette as composer with a selection of artists playing his tunes.

Also conspicuously absent will be the new New Vocabulary album. Since Ornette is a group member, and not listed as the "artist", I could conceivably play three tracks. But, System Dialing Records is offering it at such a high price, even for the downloads, I haven't been able to bring myself to buy it.

For another, most likely better, tribute, follow the link on the right to Charlie Kohlhase's tribute on the March 9th episode of Research and Development which should be available through next Sunday (the 21st). (I've been waiting until I finished this to check it out.) Charlie gets a pass on my birthday tribute fist-shaking, as he usually features tributes to musicians I need to learn more about.

The crisis in philanthoropy

 

The New York Times article regarding the announcement that the American Symphony Orchestra (longtime presenters of unpopular music of the symphonic world) will be shortening it upcoming season, quotes an earlier essay from music director Leon Botstein that hits the nail on the head regarding the supposed demise of "classical music":

“The challenge facing classical music today is not a depletion of audience or potential audience, or the aging of the audience,” he wrote. “The real problem is that the very wealthy no longer consider it their civic responsibility to contribute to the traditions of the symphony orchestra. Their attentions have turned elsewhere.”

Needless to say, this hardly the only, nor even, I'll admit, the most important area where our monied class is letting our society and culture down. There are many arguments out there on this subject and I don't intend on solving them here.

Webcast info for March 7, 2015

I'm out of town this weekend and there will be no new show. There will be the same rerun of the October 25th webcast that ran on President's Day weekend. Sorry for the repetition.