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!

Value Village Find: Nancy Wilson & Cannonball Adderley

Looked like someone was cleaning out their Nancy Wilson collection at Value Village -- several of her albums were available.

I should probably make clear this is NOT Heart's Nancy Wilson, but I'm sure a quick glance at the album cover made that obvious. This Nancy Wilson had a career as a jazz/pop singer, though I'm afraid I'm not the least bit familiar with her. And I'm not even sure why I spent the $2.99 for this disc; somewhere in the dusty reaches of my brain, I must have recognized it from somewhere.

But praise be to the gods of first impressions, because this is a fine album. Nancy sounds a bit like Dinah Washington, with a tartness to her vocal delivery. Cannonball is great as always, and actually the bulk of the album is Cannonball and his band without Nancy Wilson. One of the delights of this album for me is the "traditional" piano style of Joe Zawinul, he of Weather Report fame. I knew his classic performance with Cannonball, the amazingly concise "Mercy, Mercy, Mercy", but to hear him here sans Weather Report-era synthesizers is a revelation. Gives me a more complete picture, I guess.

Call of the Sea Witch

Nothing Halloweeny here; instead, "Ranarop: Call of the Sea Witch" is a Finnish album by Gjallarhorn. I first heard it when it was released on Finladia Records, and I think it eventually got released stateside.

It's very much in the vein of Steeleye Span, traditional (or traditionally inspired) music ramped up a bit. Gjallarhorn throws in the occasional didgeridoo (certainly not native to Finland!) as a background drone. The woman vocalist veers into keening once in a while, giving me shivers. There's something lonely and foggy and just plain unsettling about much of the music.

There's also a faint influence of Jefferson Airplane in the harmonies (and the icy pitch reminiscent of Grace Slick.) Fairport Convention initially thought of themselves as the British version of Jefferson Airplane, and I'd wager there are many other bands similarly influenced. I don't think the Airplane have received proper credit for their sound; maybe it's because most of us only know them from their '60s singles. And then there's the Starship thing to live down...  But the way the voices of Grace Slick, Marty Balin and Paul Kantner interweaved was really groundbreaking work at the time. And it seems the echoes still resound, even in Finland.

Happy Birthday, Nonesuch Records

A bit late to blow out the candles, but recently there have been a spate of articles (yes, a spate!) about Nonesuch Records' 50th birthday. Capsule bio: Nonesuch featured new classical and electronic music, and most importantly, repackaged recordings of far-flung music from around the globe, budget-priced them in their Explorer series-- and then slowly conquered the music world. Okay, "conquered" is too strong a word, but Nonesuch managed to get this type of music into the conversation. Eventually, pop and rock musicians were sharing their stories about how they first heard the music of Vietnam or Haiti or the Bahamas -- all courtesy of Nonesuch.

 Maybe the prime example is "Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares", (or the less prosaic "Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir"). Released in the mid-80s, musicians like Robert Plant and David Byrne (Talking Heads) sang its praises. Byrne even adapted one piece for Robert Wilson's opera production of "CIVILwarS" , found on the album "The Knee Plays". Wow, I'm getting all Comic Book Guy here. Gotta pull back.

The Bulgarian Choir features some very different harmonies, and I was especially struck by Volume Two -- amazing, unearthly (to our Western ears, yet actually grounded in tones from another part of the globe --)

"Bali: Music from the Morning of the World" was also a favorite of musicians, and this album featured the famous "Monkey Chant" -- which has to be heard to be believed. A variant title is "Kejak", and that sounds like what they're chanting. Imagine "Row Row Row Your Boat", but with only the word "kejak" sung faster and faster. That's a lame description but hopefully you get the idea.

Nonesuch is now probably more well known for acts like Buena Vista Social Club, and rock bands like Wilco, but Explorer is where they firs made their name. Glad to see they're still plugging along!

Why Classical Music ?

I've been cleaning up my classical CD collection lately and donating the rejects to the library book sale (doesn't seem anyone else wants them). It got me to thinking: how do people even hear classical music these days? Movies? Sometimes. Certainly not the radio; I'm always surprised when I walk into my bank and they're playing crappy AM radio -- wouldn't some classical music be more soothing? 

Here's my nomination for "where to hear classical music": FOX-TV's "The Simpsons". Seriously. I'd bet my next paycheck that there's more classical music in "The Simpsons" than any other TV show since, I don't know...maybe some classical TV show from the 1950's? Classical music isn't listed in the closing credits of "The Simpsons", but it seems every other episode I hear snippets of something classical.

 Libraries of course are good places to find classical music, but even they've been trimming the physical collections and switching to streaming services -- and it's hard to browse that way.

I've been prowling Value Village and I only just realized that I was using VV as my 'browsing collection'. I mean, the CDs are so cheap, it's worth spending the money to educate myself. For me, classical music can be divided into 2 groups: 'active' listening, and 'background sonic wallpaper'. I'm afraid I don't listen actively as much as I used to; even listening in the car, it's hard to hear the quieter passages over the road noise.

But here are a few that for me really reward some concentration.

I remember a review I read years ago where the reviewer considered Mahler and Sibelius as music he listened to in his naive youth. Well, I've left 'youth' far behind, but I still find so much new to hear in both Mahler and Sibelius. I don't have much in my collection, but the few I have are really special.

There's a lot more classical music I listen to in the background while reading or eating dinner. More on that later (the music, not the dinner!)