hiromi uehara

Strolling through a fine Esbjörn Svensson Trio mix on Youtube this morning I discovered, sandwiched within a tranche of Thelonius Monk tunes, this. At first glance it looks like a return to showy excess: six stringed bass, too many drums, a corral of keyboards, and not to mention two necks on a guitar... Hold on though, this is pretty funky jazz, and sounds exquisitely clean.

The pianist is Hiromi Uehara. Her band is called Sonicbloom. Well, I'm hooked...



Lots more on Youtube, check her out.

addendum: actually, if you follow the mix, there's a performance from Hiromi earlier on. I didn't notice it at the time as I was working and only listening.

sad to know you're leaving

Friday, being poets' day, I usually catch Last Word on the radio, driving home from work. What is our fascination with obituaries? Next to the puzzle page, they are, allegedly, the most read single page in any newspaper. On the radio, the form expands into a mini documentary featuring audio clips and talking heads. You begin to wonder why they don't put it on the telly!

A couple of Friday's ago there was a piece about the reggae star, Gregory Isaacs. Isaacs had played a small part in my improver's relationship experimentation - a sofa, a girl and a lovers album - around the early 80s. Then reggae seemed to change pace and I lost interest, so it was a jolt to hear his life celebrated on Last Word.

So, last Friday I spent an afternoon listening to a Gregory Isaacs mix on Youtube. This is the first time I've used a youtube playlist. It was really quite good. I don't know why I'm surprised, Youtube is, surely, one of the finest websites on the wobbly web; precisely what the internet was made for.

But this video wasn't in the mix. I post it because it looked like a good gig: a veritable reggae gang show with an extensive, and casual, house band, and Isaacs, smooth and sartorial.

manu delago & the hang

If you liked the sound of Toumani Diabaté's kora, I'm sure you'll like the sound of the hang, played here by Manu Delagu. Not actually a drum as suggested by the title of the video, but an idiophonic instrument of serious complexity (I'll stop here because I'm well out of my depth). Designed in Switzerland, it's a long way from putting holes in cheese and the cuckoo clock. However, I'd be happy to have a hang on my wall though it'd be too tempting to stay there for long.

toumani diabaté

Despite doodling on acoustic guitar in rare moments, I'm not a musician. It takes more dedication, over many years, than I could tolerate and I wouldn't be happy with just being a doodler. And then there's the instrument; what would I choose? The guitar is an easy choice but then you hear Miles and you wish it was the trumpet, or with Joe Morello, the drums! Each instrument has its own beauty.

In this short film, Toumani Diabaté introduces the kora. Can you imagine a sweeter sound coming from an instrument made from a vegetable? No.

a borrower be

Support your local library. Before they cut it.

Even though our numbers are falling, I'm proud to be in that number. I've found a new use for my membership - CD rentals(and I've also spied some interesting foreign films on the racks). For £1 a week (or just 50p if returned within 24hours) I borrowed a copy of Tuesday Wonderland, by Esbjorn Svensson Trio. I've been listening to it at work. Wonderful, even though it's not Tuesday. This band has often been cited as the future of Jazz, or Europe's best Jazz group. But I'm sad that I shall never get to see them when I consumate my new found love affair with Scandinavia. Esbjorn died in 2008, aged 44, whilst scuba diving.

Also from the library, I'm currently into the Best of McSweeney's Vol. 2. A collection of modern American short stories. So far these have been fabulous little gems; some mysterious (think Twilight Zone) and some very funny. The McSweeney's website also looks fun, but not intuitively explorable. At least I'm struggling, but I'm specifically trying to find the stories and there's nothing to say there are any. There's a page of lists though, some of which are quite funny.

Also this week, and not a long bus ride from the spirit of McSweeney's is the brand new culture superblog, The Dabbler. Today's post is from Frank Keys, (Hooting Yard) on the poem, Jubilate Agno, by Christopher Smart (1722-1771 ). Essentially it's a list pairing a biblical hero with a named critter, some familiar, some absurd, so that hero can praise God with said beast. It's a shocking three hours long but you can hear it all here. It's worth at least a quarter of an hour. I put in about 20 minutes and then fast-forwarded - I think it's safe to say the best bit is at the beginning.

I think that's all. Back to E.S.T....

monday morning blue

A week off work starts today and by 9 o'clock I've had a run, walked the dog, cut my hair, shit, shaved and showered, and fit to go. And the sun is shining in a pale blue sky. The forecast said rain all week, but it also said sunshine yesterday which we didn't get. It's not that you can't trust British weather, you just can't trust Britain's weather forecasters. Speaking for myself, the weather's okay. Elsewhere it can be tragic or very boring.

At the time of the badgers incident I was being played a tape of the Jersey Boys, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Now, I'm not a fan of all that high-pitched harmony but this one song shone through. It sounded familiar, like all good songs do even if you haven't heard them before. I didn't catch the name so I had an awful time on Youtube looking for it amongst the squeals. Here it is, Beggin', and it includes a video-edit by a fine-looking gentleman called pilooski, and an animator by the name of Cyriak. There's a touch of the Gilliams about it, and there's nothing wrong with that.




Now, it's a curious fact that Scandinavians speak better English than anyone else - including the English. It's also possible that they're creating the best music for the 21st century only we're not noticing it yet. Look around. Anyway, if you quite liked Beggin' but felt it could've been somewhat earthier, try Madcon - Europe's biggest hip-hop duo. From Norway. Theirs comes with a blaxploitation parody which is both funny and sexy, if that's your bag, man. Why not?

Momo Wandel Soumah and Jason Bua

Hey, it's time to listen to some laid back and rolling Guinea blues.



I love this sound but really it was the slideshow of art that caught my attention. I think, mostly if not all, by Jason Bua. Anyone know anything about him?

Jaga Jazzist

A few years ago when I bought a copy of Kind of Blue in the Amazon sales, just to see what the fuss was all about, I wouldn't have believed it would eventually switch me on to Scandanavia big-time. I've never been there and I think I should go.

According to my radio jazz is big in Norway and Sweden. They kind of have their own way with Jazz. I can't describe it, and I don't know enough about music to want to try, but it sounds - I don't know - clean, young and fresh, like I imagine all Scandinavians to be. It's also sometimes crazy, which is also what I imagine Scandanavians to be.

I've just heard this on the radio. Jaga Jazzist are from Norway. Actually, I'd like you to listen before watching the band as they're distracting at first. I thought I was hearing the theme from a 60s TV show about a team of psychadelic private eyes, or a crime-fighting schoolboy who lives out of a suitcase with his mini-skirted, millionaire mother.

Once you've listened to it, then see the band; it's even more unbelievable. Enjoy.

speaking of...

...chills and fever.



Young Tom Jones, (he's 70, you know?) ripping it up with his first band, The Senators. (Which, by coincidence, was the name of a different band that John Bonham, later of Led Zeppelin, first recorded with.) Remarkable sound, I think, considering the age. Especially the way the bass comes over. I believe the bassist is Vernon Mills Hopkins, a name that sounds as if it should belong to a Victorian industrialist rather than a 60s rock and roller. ah, well...

...back to the time machine.

pop schmop

I vaguely remember a long time ago, George Harrison was asked in an interview whether he'd be going along to see Paul McCartney's new band, Wings. He replied something like, Why should I want to see someone pretending to be The Beatles when I've seen The Beatles.

I've just seen some snaps from Glastonbury 2010. Christ, I don't know if the music was worth it but if I'd had to take part in such a grotesque density of human bodies for just a weekend, I'd be shipping myself off immediately to somewhere like the Outer Hebrides for two months of detox. Actually, I've a fair idea the music wasn't worth it. Not for me. It's to do with those words of George Harrison. I did catch a few minutes on telly on several occasions and wondered what the point of pop was now. I was going through a phase of each new artist reminding me of one or several older artists. Now I can't see the wood for the trees. Everything pop suddenly coagulated and the fans bring to mind the Eloi. I felt quite sad for it all but the fans look happy enough, like they don't care. But they should care, shouldn't they? Wasn't that one of its tenets? I'm beginning not to remember...

So, I decided to watch a biopic on Stevie Winwood on BBC iPlayer. I enjoy the intimacy of watching telly on the lappy with headphones. Stevie was remarkably good in his day, I'd completely forgotten that. Apart from the mid-80s bit, I think; I remembered I'd forgotten that for a good reason. I saw Traffic once in London, the three originals - Winwood, Jim Capaldi, and Chris Wood - with a guest bassist. They played for three hours without a break, a fusion of rock, jazz, folk, funk, and much besides. They were exhausting but really, really good. In the documentary, I felt for Stevie musing over an old record sleeve, missing his two dear pals, now both sadly passed away...

blues meditation

Mr. Natural by Mr. Crumb, and Mess o' blues by Messrs. Mississippi Sheiks. Nice.

armenian navy band

For minimalism.

far more drums

Btw,

Q: What do you call a musician who hangs out with three guys?

A: Joe Morello.



Full Story

a personal journey to world music

Some years after Ron Ely's Tarzan series' Afro-Californian bongo scenes my World Music education continued.

reformed collector

Rod Liddle once wrote a piece for The Times opining how singers and bands really have only one great album in them; precious few have two, and only the rarest of geniuses could produce three.

Phil Spector said, a decade or two earlier, why he didn't like albums. To him they too often comprised two hit singles and ten bits of crap.

These days I listen to a lot of internet radio shows, down at the ''serious'' end of the spectrum. Really without exception they still push the latest album releases and yet, like any other show, will only feature repeat plays of one or occasionally two songs from any album. For a long time I thought this was down to legal obligations born out of business prudence, but now I'm not buying it. Also it seems odd that the greatly hailed albums of January are only good until the end of February by which time we've moved on and another record joins our expanding unplayed collections. Rod and Phil are probably right. Record collecting is beginning to look like nothing more than a good example of mindless consumerism.

Getting back to the internet radio, there is more music than it is possible to hear in one lifetime. Combine this with the delights found on youtube, lastfm, myspace etc., I find my life overwhelmed with fabulous music. So who still thinks rooms clad in dusty, yellowing plastic is right? Not me.

time out

Hey, I watched this great documentary on jazz; 1959, The Year That Changed Jazz. Sorry, but you've missed it (and I only just caught it thanks to BBC's 7 day Play It Again feature). I only mention it now because if it ever comes around again be sure to see it. Apart from the beautiful music and its history, the programme contains some wonderful footage and photos of 50s America. When the time machine is working again this period will be my first call.

I've cottoned on to the pleasures of jazz only recently - pretty late actually. Of the four records spotlighted, I already enjoy three; Kind Of Blue, Time Out, and Mingus Ah Um. The fourth which I don't own, Ornette Coleman's The Shape of Jazz to Come, scares me a little. It's still sounds somewhere else despite its age. I'll have to think a bit more about that one...

Don't forget to look out for the programme.

request stop

Why is it you don't see a bass for ages and then four come along at once?

dabbling

I do like to dabble. I think dabbling is the key to my happy state. Sadness can't hit a moving target so easily.

On at least four separate occasions I have dabbled with a guitar. The first was when, as a 13 year old, a neighbour gave me an old guitar he found in his loft, complete with a play-in-a-day tutorial book. It was a three-quarter size acoustic with a split from the sound hole to the bridge, and I didn't know a single tune in that book.

Seven years later I moved in with a couple of musicians and the guitarist inspired me to buy a guitar. I still have it, a Yamaha acoustic, and have dabbled with it religiously, once every decade for about six weeks a time. I love that guitar. So much so that I'm determined to learn to play at least one song on it before my time is up. And yesterday I decided that song shall be, Babe, I'm Gonna Leave You. It's apt for a dabbler. Also, it's picking rather than strumming but the chords seem easy enough, so it sounds impressive without being impossibly difficult. That's the theory, anyway.

I feel I must do this to honour the instrument, to be whole in myself, and just being happy doing it for the hell of the thing.