Shaft! Can You Dig It?

I recently read an article about Isaac Hayes in some Brit music mag, and it of course mentioned in a big way, the soundtrack from "Shaft", which featured a 19 minute song called "Do Your Thing" -- 19 minutes!! Isaac Hayes!!! Three exclamation points!!!

Well, it's 19 minutes of stink-a-roni chika-chika wah-wah guitar. BUT...the rest of the soundtrack is really good! Our family listened to it recently on a drive, (well, that term dates me...)  and my son said "I can't believe we're actually not listening to this ironically!"

I haven't seen the movie, and I'm not likely to, based on some of the plot described in the liner notes. So I can't tell you how well the music fits the film, but Isaac Hayes managed to capture an urban vibe in an elegaic way. No, really. Even in the moments that are clearly cues for "man runs down the street", the background music rewards focused listening. The instrumentation is varied -- flutes! vibes! and there's a pronounced Burt Bacharach feel to some of the arrangements. "Blaxploitation" soundtracks get a bad rap because so much of them ARE derivative, and many use the "Theme from Shaft" as a template. But Haye's work in the full soundtrack is so much more accomplished than I certainly expected. Hey, I'm talkin' 'bout Shaft!

New Eno!

I've been listening to Brian Eno for years, so I'd pretty much figured he'd exhausted his bag of tricks; he's released so many ground-breaking and influential albums, he was bound to repeat himself. But lo and behold, here comes "High Life", the second album Eno's recorded with Underworld's Karl Hyde. This one's from April 2014, and while it's not a total departure for Eno, it's certainly different enough to be very entertaining -- and welcome. There are still jagged bits of melody that repeat over and over through a song, but many times they morph into something else by the end of the piece. Take the first song "Return": the repeated guitar phrase acts like a loop throughout the song, but by the end of its 9 minutes, it slowly has retreated to the background and sounds more like the German space guitar pieces of Manuel Gottsching. 

There are several vocals, but they don't always occupy center stage, and without a lyric sheet, well, good luck figuring out what they're supposed to be about. There is an identifiable African influence -- the second song "DBF" sounds like Conky the Robot from "Pee Wee's Playhouse" has been downloading some Fela Kuti albums. All in all, a very enjoyable release, even, dare I say it, FUN!  

Stars of the Apollo!

This could be considered a bait and switch. You might guess that these are historic live recordings from the stage of the famous Apollo Theatre, but instead, we have various (mainly unreleased) studio recordings of artists that did indeed perform at the Apollo through the years. Sounds like someone got to sift through the bottom of the barrel (and someone else discovered the italic key!)

I made a tape of my favorites from this 2 LP set from 1972 (CD version, 1993), my 45 minute 'best of', and wore that puppy out. So...eventually, I wondered, how the heck do I find this NOW. Catalog searches: zip. How could this amazing collection have gone out of print? (Oh, maybe the whole 'bait and switch' thing I mentioned earlier...)

I think this may have been the first used CD I purchased online. And I've found, that process is not too scary!

But the music: what a fantastic collection! Bessie Smith, the Mills Brothers, Cab Calloway, Earl Hines, Billie Holiday, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Sarah Vaughan -- but the lesser known artists are just as fine. Who knew Ida Cox or Mamie Smith or Bobby Brown? Not me. And this set is a keeper. Go online and find a used copy now!