movies/part 1
I feel a rhythmic brainstorm comin’ on . . .
—Slim Gaillard
Hellzapoppin’ (1941)
Slim Gaillard, piano, guitar; Slam Stewart, bass; Rex Stewart, drums; Elmer Fane, clarinet; Jap Jones, trombone; C.P. Johnston, drums; Harlem Congeroos, dancers
You can’t lip-sync this stuff.
The Pilgrim Jubilees, live (TV broadcasts), c. early 1960s
“Testify for Jesus”
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“Old Ship Of Zion”
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“Wonderful”
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lagniappe
Thanks . . . for the music selections.
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Of course, we’ve been enjoying your MCOTDs—especially lately the Inez Andrews clips [6/6/10].
replay: a clip too good for just one day
With some music, it’s the particular sound a musician coaxes out of his instrument that gets under your skin. Here’s one of the dirtiest, snakiest electric guitar sounds around.
Group Doueh (featuring Baamar Salmou AKA Doueh on electric guitar), live, Western Sahara
(Originally posted October 29, 2009.)
music to levitate by
Dizzy Gillespie & Louis Armstrong, “Umbrella Man,” live (TV broadcast), 1959
guitar players who sound like nobody else, part 3
Sonny Sharrock (1940-1994)
Live (with Melvin Gibbs, bass; Abe Speller & Pheeroan Aklaf, drums), New York (Knitting Factory), 1988
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“Who Does She Hope To Be?” (with Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone; Charles Moffett, bass; Elvin Jones, drums), 1991
guitar players who sound like nobody else, part 2
Derek Bailey (1930-2005)
With tap-dancer Will Gaines, live, 1995
Want more of Will Gaines? Here.
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Playing (and talking) for friends, New York, 2001
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With the Shaking Ray Levis, live, New York, 2003
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“Laura,” 2002
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lagniappe
Playing music is not really susceptible to theory much. Circumstances affect it so much.
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Personally, I`ve found that the kind of thing that I like is going into somebody else’s area and not playing their music but doing whatever I do in their area.
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I like duos with percussionists. I like the songs that percussionists sing.
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You can’t always wait for a composer to write the music you want to play.
—Derek Bailey
guitar players who sound like nobody else, part 1
John Fahey (1939-2001)
“On the Sunny Side of the Ocean,” live, Germany (Hamburg), 1978
Sometimes you don’t feel like Beethoven.
Or Miles Davis.
Or the Soul Stirrers.
What you want is a jolt.
Micachu & The Shapes, “Lips”
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lagniappe
This is what I call PR.
[Mica Levi of Micachu & The Shapes is] the most singular artist leading the future-pop frontier, with an instinctual understanding of music only possible from one of those rare lives where rhythms, melodies, discord and noise have underpinned every last waking second.
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Born in Guildford and raised in Watford, Mica Levi couldn’t have had much more of a musical upbringing if she was conceived between Mozart and an oboe and forced to grow up inside a grand piano.
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‘Lips’ is a short, sharp procession of maddening fret-hits and taunting vocal refrains that lead you everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
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live music on the radio
One of my favorite radio stations, WFMU-FM, is broadcasting live today from the Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona: the Almighty Defenders, Cold Cave, Van Dyke Parks, et al.
two takes
“La-La Means I Love You”
The Delfonics, live, 2008 (originally recorded 1968)
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Bill Frisell, live, New York (Rochester), 2007
Chicago, Texas, Louisiana, West Coast—blues comes in lots of different shades.
Freddie King, with Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown; live (TV broadcast [The !!!! Beat]), 1966
Part 1
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Part 2 (“Funnybone”)
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Part 3 (“Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag”)
music clip of the day 