Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for September 28, 2019

A variety show for the first weekend of autumn eschews a couple of Unpopular Music traditions. No Autumn Leaves, no commemoration of Coltrane, Springsteen, Ray Charles or any of the other September 23rd Birthday Club (or John Carter on the 24th.) We do dig into my project of catching up on the backlog of records that I haven't gotten onto my hard drive. (Please forgive the pops and crackles.) There's a bunch of 80's jazz, some high-modernist piano, some artificial folk music and a mandolin and banjo jam from the marketplace in Marrakesh.

And lastly, my inability to correctly pronounce a couple of Asian names and titles totally wrecks the last mic break. Apologies.



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Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for September 21, 2019

A real variety show for the last weekend of summer. Like last week, I try to keep both hours more equal in their freeness of form. We present a range of jazz-stylings An Americana set leads to an African and Africany set. Bach shows up again, along with some microtonal piano. A behind the scenes disaster is mostly kept from intruding on the proceedings.

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Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for September 14, 2019

Today's webcasct took place in conditions similar to what I was expecting last week, and ended up fitting just as well. The program basically consists of two second hours, two long free-form sets which cover a lot of ground stylistically and chronologically. There's some 13th century music from Galicia, a tribute to an electro-acoustic pioneer, some Bach, some reggae-jazz, some lighthouse-jazz, new-wave and Afro-pop, plus a variety of jazz offerings.

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Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for September 7, 2019

The first set keeps its usually jazzy nature, featuring a couple of recently released recordings of decades-old performances, plus a couple of today's finest trumpet players.

The second set is a century and genre spanning assembly, largely randomly programmed onto my phone and soundtracked my ride to work yesterday. I programmed it thinking it would go nicely with the predicted afternoon rain, but alas, the big storm just zipped by New England leaving us with a nice sunny day (sigh.)

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Webcast info for August 30, 2019

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Since the Somerville Media Center is closed for the weekend, today we are presenting a rewebcast of the episode from September 8, 2018. I'm sure you're all nostalgic for 51 weeks ago. Jim Mattis was Secretary of Defense. Drake topped the Billboard charts. Hurricane Florence was making its way towards the Carolinas

Meanwhile, Unpopular Music mourned Randy Weston and Khaira Arby, presented "a jazzy-yet -haunting piece from between-wars Germany", some afro-jazz, some swinging library music, a few, let's say, "jazz-aware" classical pieces, and more.

Let's all reminisce together!

Fashion appreciation from Thelonious Monk

Via Boing Boing -

Among Thelonious Monk's many gifts was his fashion sense. While his own duds are pretty sharp, here, he shows his admiration for saxophonist Johnny Griffin's fabulous Danish pants, from, I'm guessing 1967. Sadly, no color film exists of this clip.

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for August 24, 2019

A variety show which ends up featuring a handful of Boston Jazz Institutions, some longstanding, some transient. We also dip into a couple of records I can't help dipping back into, a couple of albums I'll probably be dipping into over the next few weeks.

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A word from Duke Ellington

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Found in the liner notes of Herbie Hancock's "Gershwin's World" -

"It is becoming increasingly difficult to decide where jazz starts or where it stops, where Tin Pan Alley begins and jazz ends, or even where the borderline lies between classical music and jazz. I feel there is no boundary line. - Duke Ellington

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for August 17, 2019

A quality if arbitrary selection for you today. The first hour typically jazzy, with a free-form hour for the second.

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Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for August 3, 2019

A variety show for you today. The first hour starts out with jazz as usual, winding it's way towards some senior citizen Americana. The second hour passes starts with some lawn mower powered avant-rock, through some contemporary classical from Soviet Union escapees, electronic music (both abstract and not), a guitar-synthesizer duel, and a wah-wah trombone rock-out to wrap it up.



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Herbie Hancock on genre

It's been a while since I've brought in the big guns to explain my program, but here's one of the greatest living musicians in today's New York Times putting in his two cents on one of my favorite topics, the futility of genre, and one I haven't really gone into much, jazz as the perfect vehicle for exploring combinations of music.

Genres made it easy to put things in categories so that they could be promoted. One person’s face could be recognized for one category, and another person’s face could be recognized for another category. It was just to make some sense of it all. But when it starts to interfere with cross-collaboration, and the fact that that too can be musical, then it becomes a problem. I can only say that the word “jazz” today is much broader than it has been in the past.

You know, the most important thing is the spirit of jazz — which is about freedom, about improvisation, about courage. I mean the courage to play something that you haven’t played before, to create something on the spot. And it’s also about sharing, because onstage we don’t compete with each other. Each of us expresses ourselves from our own being, and no two people are alike, so the idea of being judgmental is not on the table.

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for July 27, 2019

I've got to admit, I was a bit lazy this week, so there are a few long pieces, especially in the second hour, and I leaned a bit on the usual jazz masters (Monk, Ornette, Mingus et al), but I think this is an easily enjoyable program.

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Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for July 20, 2019

Yeah, so I'm doing what it seems every other DJ is doing this week and programming a show full of about, or somehow related to the moon. A century spanning variety show featuring jazz from several traditions, some surf music, some afrobeat, a bit of early electronic music, a couple of 20th century classics, and an R&B obscurity that comes closest to addressing the event itself.

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Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for July 13, 2019

A program for a lovely summer's day in Somerville, and hopefully wherever else you may be.
This week's program brings us down the similar first hour jazzy, second hour free-form.

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Webcast information for July 6, 2019

Today we are still away from Unpopular Music Central, still hearing residual fireworks go off, and so we will be rerunning the episode from November 17, 2018. I trust the shift from post-Independance Day to pre-Thanksgiving will not be too jarring.

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for June 29, 2019

Two second hours for today's program. I came up with some longish jazzy things for the first hour, but couldn't assemble them around the usual break point,s so one less talking break. The second hour, after a rocky start, skews towards the contemporary classical, with a couple of segments that came around on the shuffle play this week which sounded good together, occasionally obscuring where one track ends and the next begins. Maybe not the most professional way to program, but it worked. (or did it? you be the judge)

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Livestream info

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Well, it seems that StreamLicensing.com, the company that providers the livestream on the Boston Free Radio homepage has gone out of business. At this point, I don't know what the plans are to replace it.

Currently there is no way to get the stream from the homepage. The best way is to listen is on Tune In. I think we are also in the radio section of Apple Music, but, not being a subscriber, I have no way to confirm that.

Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for June 22, 2019

A happenin' program for the first full day of summer. A typically jazzy first hour with a free-form second hour which gets a bit mellow toward the middle. A good time can be had by all.




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Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for June 8, 2019

A by the seat of my pants presentation mostly held together. A jazzy first hour, and a mix and match second hour. Enjoyable sounds for an enjoyable day.

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Playlist for the Unpopular Music webcast for June 1, 2019

Music for a sunny Saturday with a bit of ocean chill to it. A jazzy first hour featuring some new additions to the Unpopular Music Central Library. A free form second hour also skews jazzy, but has some rockin' string quartet music, some African sounds, and a couple of pop oddities.

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