I have been a big fan of Rick Beato for years now. I wish I had had a teacher like that back when I was active in the world o' music. So it goes.
But it was through his channel that I became aware of the most interesting writer I have encountered in years (and mind you, I have met and spoken with the late, great Tom Wolfe) and that is Ted Gioia. Sounds like sucking up, I get that, but it's true. No other writer has kept my interest on so many subjects as our host.
I first encountered Mr Gioia through reading his excellent history of jazz book, clearly extremely knowledgeable of the subject. And not just a critic and writer but a participant, a pianist. After he mentioned recently one of his his compositions was on a tv show I got a cheap used copy of his record from Discogs, it’s very good.
YouTube Music Education is particularly rich. Along with Rick Beato, check out Adam Neely, 12Tone, OpenStudio, David Bruce Composer, David Bennett Piano, Jazz Duets, Jens Larsen, George Collier, Nahre Sol, Aimee Nolte, George Collier, Mirko Guerrini Jazz Transcription Clinic.
I am sure I must have found out about Ted via brother Dana's various appearances on Ken Myers' subscription proto-podcast, The Mars Hill Audio Journal (nee Tapes). Really enjoying getting further aquatinted with Ted here on his Substack!
I had read some of Mr. Gioia's books, but I heard about his Substack account when he was a guest on Rick Beato's youtube channel. Both of them - keep up the good work :)
A blues guitar fanatic, I have recently been deeply struck by a (self taught) Tuareg musician from Agadez, Niger, named Bombino.
Some have called him the greatest living guitar player, and I often struggle to disagree—he plays in a style unlike anything I’ve ever heard, though legend has it he found some unmarked, bootleg tapes in his village when he was young and he had just gotten his first guitar…they were mixtapes full of Dire Straights and Jimi Hendrix.
He developed a sound all his own, and even has experimented with more western arrangements, culminating in a collaboration with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys on an album called Nomad.
I saw him live this summer in DC, and he blew me away, so much so that I flew to Portland to catch the tail end of his US tour. I can’t wait for his next album—and hope he joins the ‘world’ blues-tinged musicians breaking through in Western Markets (Khruangbin, Hermanos Guittierez, etc).
Here is one clip, but I highly recommend seeing Ron Wyman’s entire Documentary, which places the music socially and politically for his country, region and people.
Like Keef, Auerbach and yourself, I too love Bombino. Looking forward to Wyman's documentary--many thanks!
Apropos of your trip to Portland to attend North African desert blues: Portland-based, self-trained ethnomusicologist Chris Kirkley produced a compilation of similar sounds, Music From Saharan Cell Phones--the devices are used to store, share and create this music; Kirkley archives it. Refreshingly cool intersection of music and digi-tech on Chris' Sahel Sounds label. https://sahelsoundscompilations.bandcamp.com/album/music-from-saharan-cellphones
Since you're interested in "'world' blues," Cambodian Rocks is a great introduction to 60s-70s Cambodian music, gleaned from the mixtapes of back-packers visiting the region after it re-opened to tourism in the 1990s. Wonderful music, haunting but joyful--60s soul and psychedelia in Khmer language. Emotional impact belies the "primitive recording technology" available to that time and place. You can find Cambodia Rocks on Spotify (sorry, Ted).
Even better, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodian's Lost Rock and Roll (2014 documentary by John Pirozzi) chronicles the musicians who created this music. While the artists were tragically lost to genocide and cultural revolution, the Cambodian people loved this music enough to risk their lives preserving its legacy, by hiding forbidden LPs from the Khmer Rouge. Beautiful "Golden Age" sounds, images, and history, before the war-next-door arrived in Cambodia.
(Sleep Walking Through the Mekong is a related documentary, about the musicians from Dengue Fever rediscovering these sounds on a visit to Cambodia. Khmer revivalism via Long Beach and L.A. There's also a homegrown arts and culture revival developing in Phnom Penh thanks to bands like Cambodian Space Project.)
Mr. Gioia's theory about 'outside' artists, displaced by war, leading to musical innovation (in Subversive History of Music) led me to a deeper appreciation of both musical cultures, Taureg and Khmer.
Whether in Saharan Africa or S.E. Asia, the uncanny formula seems to be "the same but different." Hearing the American folk ballad "Man of Constant of Sorrow," Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang (My baby shot me down)," or scores of other 60s anglophone classics sung in Khmer has a defamiliarizing effect that is just--magic.
I recently had gum surgery and the periodontist let me wear sunglasses and headphones to zone out while the whole thing was happening. I debated whether or not to put on music that I knew or listen to all unknown (to me) stuff.
I was worried that I would associate some old favorite with dentistry so went with the new music route. A few songs in, I was listening to...something REALLY new (again, to me) and I was like "OK, this is AWESOME!".
After all the unpleasantness was over I quickly paged back through the algorithmically generated playlist and found Mdou Moctar, a guitarist from Niger that I'd never heard of. Amazing. Will definitely try Bombino too.
The documentary "The Sound of 007" is fantastic. The Bond franchise song get is on the bucket list for most singers and this documentary is immaculately produced. This high caliber (excuse the pun) doc chronicles the history of these songs in a fascinating and entertaining way. Well done… You can catch it on Amazon prime.
and not new, and not famous, but equally fascinating is the "Bathtubs over Broadway" Documentary which has been rereleased on Netflix, about commercial musicals -- ie whole musical productions for large corporations (GE, etc.) that were popular in the 50's-70's -- often times staring major talent and hiring major songwriters and musicians. Absolutely delightful and totally strange.
Urban futurist Mike Davis died this Tues. from throat cancer at age 76. His prescient books in the 1990s foretold social unrest and environmental disasters that have come to pass in Los Angeles and other American cities. As a former urban planner in NYC, I would recommend the following Mike Davis reading list:
1. "City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles" (1990)
2. "The Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster" (1998)
3. "Dead Cities, and Other Tales" (2003)
4. "Planet of Slums: Urban Involution and the Informal Working Class" (2006)
5. "Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties" (co-authored with Jon Wiener, 2020)
Davis is a great writer, whether you agree with his politics or not.
Recently I saw The Joy Formidable live at a small venue in Pittsburgh. This was a band I knew exactly one song from. It was a hit in the indie rock (a la Sirius XMU) world a decade or so ago. My friends were going so I tagged along for a night out at a local club I love.
The band was impressive to say the least. I heard multiple around me say both of the following:
"how do they make so much sound with three people" and
"Her voice is so calming but powerful"
I had listened to couple tracks of their new stuff before going, and thought it was decent, but it did not represent the expressiveness and emotion felt at the show. They even had some killer tracks in native welsh language which everyone was into (foreign language shows in the USA rust belt are not common to say the least). One of the great things about the current state of live music is that I keep going to shows in this vain ("hey I remember a song from those folks!") and get a wider appreciation for a song in my brain catalogue and understand the context with which this fits in the bands catalogue.
This also relates to a phenomenon I have experienced many times over the years that goes one of two ways.
1. Go to a show and the band is amazing, buy the album at the merch table, but later realize the "magic" was not captured on the recording.
2. Hear an album I love, go to the show and the band for one reason or another doesn't deliver the "magic" live.
There are obviously a lot of variables here. The largest of which are production skills and "off nights". Overall both instances above make me want to experience as much music both live and at home. Yes, this is a form of musical FOMO.
Here is another example: What if we only judged The Grateful Dead by their studio albums?
If you limited them to 1970's twin masterpieces, "Workingman's Dead," and American Beauty," you'd probably judge them fairly. But point well taken. They aren't a studio band. You have to take in the whole scene to come close to appreciating them. And on an off night, early on, you might've told 'em to...keep their day jobs.
I've been loving 'LongGone,' the second album reuniting Joshua Redman with his mates: Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride and Brian Blade, in a short-lived quartet in the early 90s. A jazz supergroup that reminds me of Miles' sextet with Cannonball, Coltrane and Bill Evans. Speaking of Miles, I have also been enjoying the new volume of his Bootleg Series: 'This Really Happened (1982-1985).' I have long written off his eighties recordings, this set is making it clear my assumption has been wrong.
For anyone who likes Norah Jones, I enthusiastically recommend the music of Melody Gardot and Eilen Jewell.
In my opinion, they are two of the finest lyricists and genre-defying singer-songwriters to emerge in the last three decades.
Gardot is more jazzy, and Jewell is more country, but neither one of them fits neatly into a radio-station pigeonhole. Each has a unique voice and sound, and both are fantastic and highly underrated artists.
Love these two for sure -- in the same way, I'm really loving Samara Joy. She's mostly recording standards, rather than writing new music, but she does it with freshness and soul.
I like Eilen Jewell's music. I haven't heard her newer material. I got her band a gig once at The Knickerbocker in Westerly RI once and asked for her latest cd and was ignored. Thank you.
Thanks for the recommendations. Being more jazz oriented I prefer Gardot's music, but I'll have to spend more time listening to both before I can proclaim that more definitely. They've been added to a growing list of non-mainstream women artists that I've happened onto by luck or by recommendations like yours. Thanks again.
I do like artists from across the pond. Regarding singers of the finer sex, Thisbe Vos is one of my favorites.
I'll give Natalia a listen. I haven't heard anything from current South American singers, but I'm fond of Astrud Gilberto. My wife's uncle had several of her LPs, but the recording quality was so poor I couldn't listen to them. I do have a few CDs of hers, however.
Coralie Clement tops the list for me. Astrud Gilberto 2.0. I like the retro instrumentation, saved albums for further listening.
Monica Salmaso is good for mellow background music. For some reason the Spanish gets old quickly for me, whereas Clement's French doesn't. Go figure.
Amel Bent is a little too techno pop combined with rap. While The Eurythmics' techno was innovative and catchy, I find Bent to be reminiscent of late nineties girl pop.
Gaby Moreno is interesting. Very (very) Rickie Lee Jones sounding voice, but not as quirky and engaging. I was disappointed with her Jackson Browne collaboration; I generally can find no fault with any music when he's involved.
Camélia Jordana is the puzzling one. Generally light pop, but engaging. I like many of her tunes, but have to skip others after a minute or two. Interesting she and Bent collaborated on a complete album.
I appreciate the recommendations. It's always good to discover new music, especially when you get an artist who catches your attention- in a good way.
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment! When I got my "year in review" from Spotify, Coralie Clement was my #1 artist.
Of the artists that have been recommended on this thread, I'd say Anais Reno is my favorite. As she gets a little older and her voice matures, she could be a real powerhouse for vocal jazz.
Her sound is totally different than Diana Krall, but she seems to have something of the same inmate sensibility for the classics.
The others, at the risk of being overly critical, sound like singers that would be very enjoyable to listen to at a restaurant, but not necessarily of a caliber that I would repeatedly listen to on an album.
I'm enjoying the recommendations from you and others, which prompted me to point out some others that aren't as obscure, but should be remembered. Linda Ronstadt's homage to the American Songbook, the compilation of three albums: "'Round Midnight." You can't beat Nelson Riddle and Ronstadt's beautiful, clear voice. Also, Patti Austin's "The Real Me." Another Songbook album with arrangements, vocals, and engineering by David Pack. And finally, the oft-forgotten Dinah Washington. She's rarely mentioned, but always provides a great listen. BTW, I'll get to the three you suggested over the next few days.
She sings in both Spanish and English, and often collaborates with her husband, guitarist Federico Aubele. Her album "Arbol" is probably my favorite, but it's all pretty good.
I've been really digging the latest album by bassist Alune Wade, "Sultan." Now THIS is the way to make an album. Go straight down your list of the way you like music to be: funky, lyrical, soulful, exotic, grooving, multicultural, honest, political, emotional, intimate, well-produced but not slick, varied, jazzy, rocking, historically aware, experimental, tight, cliché-free, effectively arranged, diversely instrumentalized, thick with percussion and bass, thematic, cinematic, and ambitious without being pretentious.
Wade also produces, does some of the vocals, and writes the arrangements on "Sultan." The latter are complex, creative, and deeply informed about different world music approaches. They’re also tight, funky, and fun. These are not shapeless jam sessions: each song has a direction, a thematic purpose, and a melodic focus. Each element of the arrangements earns its keep and is there for a reason, often explained in the informative and ear-opening liner notes.
For just one example, “L’Obre de L’âme” is a ballad that mourns Wade’s parents. The modal melody is expressive, somber, and difficult to pin down on a map. (Music theorist Anna Brock described the mode as “two Phrygian superimposed tetrachords,” but that only approximates the Middle- and Near-Eastern sound, something like an Islamic call to prayer with memories of Pakistan.) Ismaïl Lumanovski is a revelation on clarinet: when he plays in harmony with Wade’s arco bass you’ll check the liner notes twice to confirm that what you are hearing isn’t some kind of electronically altered sitar. It’s a beautiful and (to my ear) completely original sound that only a master arranger could invent.
It is absolutely amazing that you know Alune Wade from the other side of the world. Alune is a fantastic musician, I had the chance to play with him, but completely unknown even in France. This sharing initiative by Ted is great. What a wonderful way to discover new music gems.
Does anyone here remember WinAmp (circa 2000)? WinAmp was the first popular digital MP3 player application for Windows which helped herald a new epoch in digital media consumption. I was standing RIGHT THERE, next to the whole thing, while it happened, and I was one of the network engineers that made it all go until AOL/Time-Warner bought it for $100M back in the summer of 2000. (Sadly I didn't make a million dollars on it, but many of my friends did. I got a hot tub as a consolation prize, and I still dearly love using it to this day.) One of my MANY take-aways from this period in my life is this; I think we owe the artists (I hate to say, "in the industry", because the industry really doesn't care that much so long as they're making money, not music) an apology in a way. Did WinAmp help kill Album Oriented Rock (AOR) or was it already dying on it's own by that point? Does it even matter if today's younger generation doesn't remember what an album is? Is Styx's Paradise Theater still relevant? Or pick from a multitude of titles by Pink Floyd, or a trio of albums by Marillion back in the 80s. Does "the album" still matter as a body of work, or did the rise of digital music help kill "the album"? Or was that just our species' ever-dwindling attention span? Your comments and thoughts on the revival of OAR (as an Internet Radio station or a SIPCast or Podcast) are most welcomed and encouraged.
Evan, I can't say that I remember the name. I worked along side Tom Pepper and it was Tom who invited Justin to house the WinAmp website at Lighthouse Communications while we were still a very young company. Being older than Tom I wasn't a part of the "hip" crowd, I was too busy trying to grow a company to 2000 corporate customers over five years. That said, I still keep in touch with a couple of the AmpDev crowd but we grow farther apart over time. Sorry, but good question. Thanks.
New last year I guess, but if you are willing to spend 3 solid hours staring at a screen, try Ryusuke Hamaguchi's "Drive My Car". Hyped lots in the last year. Underhyped, if you ask me – one of the best film experiences I've had. Our film club took it on a few months back and we never got to the bottom of our comments lists. So much going on, so quietly and so calmly...
Dang it, now you've made me mad about the Oscars again.
Nothing against CODA - a sweet film about a world that doesn't get its share of attention - but even though that movie was all about sign language it still didn't have the best sign language scene in all of the Best Picture Nominees. Not when Drive My Car had that _amazing_ KSL performance (in the play) toward the end that hit you like a hammer blow. Man, what a great movie.
THEATRE - America's greatest play, The Death Of A Salesman, is back on Broadway. It stars Wendell Pierce, an excellent stage actor (not just a TV actor who missed pilot season or a movie star between comic book movies - an actual Capital A Actor). If there ever were a time to see it, it's now.
NOVEL - Seconds Out by Martin Kohan. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of an Argentine newspaper, a reporter makes connections between the famous Firpo vs Dempsey boxing match and Strauss' first performance of Mahler's first symphony - both of which happened on the same day. A gem of a novel.
BOOK - A Little Devil In America by Hanif Abdurraqib. Several essays on African-American performers and performance. Insightful and poetic are two words that perfectly describe Abdurraqib's writing in general and this book in particular.
MUSIC - There's (thankfully) little discussion of hip hop here, but if you want to know what's the best rap album this year, it's definitely CHEAT CODES by Danger Mouse & Black Thought. Danger Mouse is a producer who did the famous Jay-Z & Beatles mashup album, along with the Gnarls Barkley albums. He's also produced albums for U2, Norah Jones, Michael Kiwanuka, The Black Keys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more. Black Thought is the rapper from the group The Roots, aka "the band on the Jimmy Fallon show." The Roots have a dozen plus albums over 30 years. Black Thought is universally regarded as one of the best rappers of all-time, certainly one of the top two or three working today.
Check out singer songwriter guitarist Madison Cunningham. Her Grammy nominated debut Who Are You Now and just released 2nd album Revealer. She is something else !
There are other movies with similar titles, plus a Ricky Gervais series with the identical title. It's two words, not one, note carefully.
This is a Japanese movie about the afterlife, except in this film, you're not rewarded OR punished, or sent back. Instead, you have to choose one scene from your life that you want to take with you into eternity. Then they recreate it for you.
A comedy documentary (how many of those are there?) where Phil Rosenthal, the creator of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and current star of "Somebody Feed Phil" takes his scripts to Russia, so they can remake the series with Russian actors. A hilarious exploration of what's funny in different cultures.
The Ricky Gervais series was very good, but much too abbreviated, in my opinion. Great concept with fascinating characters that I would have liked to observe for an extended period.
I'll have to see if I can find the After Life you've recommended. Is it on Netflix, Amazon, or any other streaming platform like Roku?
For anyone who leans into the hard sciences even a little, I’ve been absolutely enthralled with Stephen Wolfram’s recent Physics Project. He’s essentially merging the worlds of math and physics (and chemistry and biology), and though it’s early yet, is surfacing fascinating theories on the nature of space/time, what consciousness is, how to consider “alien” intelligence alongside traditional epistemology, and so very much more.
It’s sometimes very heady stuff, but so worth the effort. And if anyone can bring supremely technical concepts down to layperson levels it’s Wolfram.
I have been a big fan of Rick Beato for years now. I wish I had had a teacher like that back when I was active in the world o' music. So it goes.
But it was through his channel that I became aware of the most interesting writer I have encountered in years (and mind you, I have met and spoken with the late, great Tom Wolfe) and that is Ted Gioia. Sounds like sucking up, I get that, but it's true. No other writer has kept my interest on so many subjects as our host.
Keep up the good work!
yes...that's how I found Ted and through him substack...
Same here. I follow Rick, saw the interview with Ted, which is where I found out about Substack.
Ditto!! So glad I found Ted on the Beato show 👍🏼✨
Same! What a find!
Ditto here!
I first encountered Mr Gioia through reading his excellent history of jazz book, clearly extremely knowledgeable of the subject. And not just a critic and writer but a participant, a pianist. After he mentioned recently one of his his compositions was on a tv show I got a cheap used copy of his record from Discogs, it’s very good.
YouTube Music Education is particularly rich. Along with Rick Beato, check out Adam Neely, 12Tone, OpenStudio, David Bruce Composer, David Bennett Piano, Jazz Duets, Jens Larsen, George Collier, Nahre Sol, Aimee Nolte, George Collier, Mirko Guerrini Jazz Transcription Clinic.
But perhaps the most elegant visual communicator in this space is Pierce Porterfield. Wow. I challenge anyone to make music theory more beautiful than Pierce! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVuruzJ836ReRPn5LP2hJp1WbSU2TDYOo
I am sure I must have found out about Ted via brother Dana's various appearances on Ken Myers' subscription proto-podcast, The Mars Hill Audio Journal (nee Tapes). Really enjoying getting further aquatinted with Ted here on his Substack!
Count me as another who got here through Rick.
I had read some of Mr. Gioia's books, but I heard about his Substack account when he was a guest on Rick Beato's youtube channel. Both of them - keep up the good work :)
A blues guitar fanatic, I have recently been deeply struck by a (self taught) Tuareg musician from Agadez, Niger, named Bombino.
Some have called him the greatest living guitar player, and I often struggle to disagree—he plays in a style unlike anything I’ve ever heard, though legend has it he found some unmarked, bootleg tapes in his village when he was young and he had just gotten his first guitar…they were mixtapes full of Dire Straights and Jimi Hendrix.
He developed a sound all his own, and even has experimented with more western arrangements, culminating in a collaboration with Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys on an album called Nomad.
I saw him live this summer in DC, and he blew me away, so much so that I flew to Portland to catch the tail end of his US tour. I can’t wait for his next album—and hope he joins the ‘world’ blues-tinged musicians breaking through in Western Markets (Khruangbin, Hermanos Guittierez, etc).
Here is one clip, but I highly recommend seeing Ron Wyman’s entire Documentary, which places the music socially and politically for his country, region and people.
https://youtu.be/Adfb17JQYtg
The Honest Broker is my favorite blog, and I am so glad you are embracing and pushing the boundaries of Substack.
Cheers, and happy listening,
Raj
Like Keef, Auerbach and yourself, I too love Bombino. Looking forward to Wyman's documentary--many thanks!
Apropos of your trip to Portland to attend North African desert blues: Portland-based, self-trained ethnomusicologist Chris Kirkley produced a compilation of similar sounds, Music From Saharan Cell Phones--the devices are used to store, share and create this music; Kirkley archives it. Refreshingly cool intersection of music and digi-tech on Chris' Sahel Sounds label. https://sahelsoundscompilations.bandcamp.com/album/music-from-saharan-cellphones
Since you're interested in "'world' blues," Cambodian Rocks is a great introduction to 60s-70s Cambodian music, gleaned from the mixtapes of back-packers visiting the region after it re-opened to tourism in the 1990s. Wonderful music, haunting but joyful--60s soul and psychedelia in Khmer language. Emotional impact belies the "primitive recording technology" available to that time and place. You can find Cambodia Rocks on Spotify (sorry, Ted).
Even better, Don't Think I've Forgotten: Cambodian's Lost Rock and Roll (2014 documentary by John Pirozzi) chronicles the musicians who created this music. While the artists were tragically lost to genocide and cultural revolution, the Cambodian people loved this music enough to risk their lives preserving its legacy, by hiding forbidden LPs from the Khmer Rouge. Beautiful "Golden Age" sounds, images, and history, before the war-next-door arrived in Cambodia.
(Sleep Walking Through the Mekong is a related documentary, about the musicians from Dengue Fever rediscovering these sounds on a visit to Cambodia. Khmer revivalism via Long Beach and L.A. There's also a homegrown arts and culture revival developing in Phnom Penh thanks to bands like Cambodian Space Project.)
Mr. Gioia's theory about 'outside' artists, displaced by war, leading to musical innovation (in Subversive History of Music) led me to a deeper appreciation of both musical cultures, Taureg and Khmer.
Whether in Saharan Africa or S.E. Asia, the uncanny formula seems to be "the same but different." Hearing the American folk ballad "Man of Constant of Sorrow," Nancy Sinatra's "Bang Bang (My baby shot me down)," or scores of other 60s anglophone classics sung in Khmer has a defamiliarizing effect that is just--magic.
Please enjoy.
I cherish this response, and will be combing through all the new sounds you laid out over the weekend--what a gift! Thank you!
I've recently (last year or so) discovered that there is some excellent guitar coming out of western Africa.
That video is stunning. The groove is infectious. A guitarist who plays only the notes he hears. That's a revelation. Thank you for posting it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-EKUxpIKmRg
I recently had gum surgery and the periodontist let me wear sunglasses and headphones to zone out while the whole thing was happening. I debated whether or not to put on music that I knew or listen to all unknown (to me) stuff.
I was worried that I would associate some old favorite with dentistry so went with the new music route. A few songs in, I was listening to...something REALLY new (again, to me) and I was like "OK, this is AWESOME!".
After all the unpleasantness was over I quickly paged back through the algorithmically generated playlist and found Mdou Moctar, a guitarist from Niger that I'd never heard of. Amazing. Will definitely try Bombino too.
Thanks for the link. Thanksgiving pre dinner trance dance. Reminds me a little of low spark of high heel boys.
The documentary "The Sound of 007" is fantastic. The Bond franchise song get is on the bucket list for most singers and this documentary is immaculately produced. This high caliber (excuse the pun) doc chronicles the history of these songs in a fascinating and entertaining way. Well done… You can catch it on Amazon prime.
and not new, and not famous, but equally fascinating is the "Bathtubs over Broadway" Documentary which has been rereleased on Netflix, about commercial musicals -- ie whole musical productions for large corporations (GE, etc.) that were popular in the 50's-70's -- often times staring major talent and hiring major songwriters and musicians. Absolutely delightful and totally strange.
I loved every bit of it! Definitely on my recommended viewing list
Urban futurist Mike Davis died this Tues. from throat cancer at age 76. His prescient books in the 1990s foretold social unrest and environmental disasters that have come to pass in Los Angeles and other American cities. As a former urban planner in NYC, I would recommend the following Mike Davis reading list:
1. "City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles" (1990)
2. "The Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster" (1998)
3. "Dead Cities, and Other Tales" (2003)
4. "Planet of Slums: Urban Involution and the Informal Working Class" (2006)
5. "Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties" (co-authored with Jon Wiener, 2020)
Davis is a great writer, whether you agree with his politics or not.
Recently I saw The Joy Formidable live at a small venue in Pittsburgh. This was a band I knew exactly one song from. It was a hit in the indie rock (a la Sirius XMU) world a decade or so ago. My friends were going so I tagged along for a night out at a local club I love.
The band was impressive to say the least. I heard multiple around me say both of the following:
"how do they make so much sound with three people" and
"Her voice is so calming but powerful"
I had listened to couple tracks of their new stuff before going, and thought it was decent, but it did not represent the expressiveness and emotion felt at the show. They even had some killer tracks in native welsh language which everyone was into (foreign language shows in the USA rust belt are not common to say the least). One of the great things about the current state of live music is that I keep going to shows in this vain ("hey I remember a song from those folks!") and get a wider appreciation for a song in my brain catalogue and understand the context with which this fits in the bands catalogue.
This also relates to a phenomenon I have experienced many times over the years that goes one of two ways.
1. Go to a show and the band is amazing, buy the album at the merch table, but later realize the "magic" was not captured on the recording.
2. Hear an album I love, go to the show and the band for one reason or another doesn't deliver the "magic" live.
There are obviously a lot of variables here. The largest of which are production skills and "off nights". Overall both instances above make me want to experience as much music both live and at home. Yes, this is a form of musical FOMO.
Here is another example: What if we only judged The Grateful Dead by their studio albums?
If you limited them to 1970's twin masterpieces, "Workingman's Dead," and American Beauty," you'd probably judge them fairly. But point well taken. They aren't a studio band. You have to take in the whole scene to come close to appreciating them. And on an off night, early on, you might've told 'em to...keep their day jobs.
LOVE The Joy Formidable!
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizards - Ice, Death, Planets, Lungs, Mushrooms, and Lava. (Slightly weird prog-rock)
Kikagaku Moyo - Kumoyo Island (Really weird prog-rock)
King Gizzard reminds me of Frank Zappa somewhat, maybe a little happier in tone
Love KGLW, Flying Microtonal Banana is still my favorite album of theirs.
I've been loving 'LongGone,' the second album reuniting Joshua Redman with his mates: Brad Mehldau, Christian McBride and Brian Blade, in a short-lived quartet in the early 90s. A jazz supergroup that reminds me of Miles' sextet with Cannonball, Coltrane and Bill Evans. Speaking of Miles, I have also been enjoying the new volume of his Bootleg Series: 'This Really Happened (1982-1985).' I have long written off his eighties recordings, this set is making it clear my assumption has been wrong.
I can already see that this is going to be a very expensive thread to read!
For anyone who likes Norah Jones, I enthusiastically recommend the music of Melody Gardot and Eilen Jewell.
In my opinion, they are two of the finest lyricists and genre-defying singer-songwriters to emerge in the last three decades.
Gardot is more jazzy, and Jewell is more country, but neither one of them fits neatly into a radio-station pigeonhole. Each has a unique voice and sound, and both are fantastic and highly underrated artists.
Love these two for sure -- in the same way, I'm really loving Samara Joy. She's mostly recording standards, rather than writing new music, but she does it with freshness and soul.
Many thanks. Just listened to her eponymous album. Great voice with interesting arrangements and instrumentation. I'll check out her latest next.
Anais Reno is also an amazing jazz singer.
I just pulled her music up on Spotify. Wow, what a talent! Only 700 monthly listeners? A crime!
I'll check her music out! Nikki Yanofsky is similar too: a young performer with a lovely, very tasteful take on classic ballads.
I like Eilen Jewell's music. I haven't heard her newer material. I got her band a gig once at The Knickerbocker in Westerly RI once and asked for her latest cd and was ignored. Thank you.
On the plus side, you have a great ear for talent.
Thank you.
Love Melody Gardot. She’s like no one else out there and her guitar playing is lovely.
So true. Considering her background you can't be anything but amazed her music.
Exactly!
Thanks for the recommendations. Being more jazz oriented I prefer Gardot's music, but I'll have to spend more time listening to both before I can proclaim that more definitely. They've been added to a growing list of non-mainstream women artists that I've happened onto by luck or by recommendations like yours. Thanks again.
Nice. If you like international artists, check out Natalia Clavier.
I do like artists from across the pond. Regarding singers of the finer sex, Thisbe Vos is one of my favorites.
I'll give Natalia a listen. I haven't heard anything from current South American singers, but I'm fond of Astrud Gilberto. My wife's uncle had several of her LPs, but the recording quality was so poor I couldn't listen to them. I do have a few CDs of hers, however.
Thanks for the recommendation! I found Thisbe Vos on Spotify this morning, and am enjoying her recordings now.
In addition to Natalia Clavier and her husband Federico Aubele, two other South American artists you may enjoy are:
- Monica Salmaso (very mellow, Brazilian vocalist)
- Gabby Moreno (jazz/rock from Guatemala)
If you like French singers, there are a few excellent ones that fly under the radar:
- Camélia Jordana
- Coralie Clement
- Amel Bent
Let me know what you think!
Here's my assessment:
Coralie Clement tops the list for me. Astrud Gilberto 2.0. I like the retro instrumentation, saved albums for further listening.
Monica Salmaso is good for mellow background music. For some reason the Spanish gets old quickly for me, whereas Clement's French doesn't. Go figure.
Amel Bent is a little too techno pop combined with rap. While The Eurythmics' techno was innovative and catchy, I find Bent to be reminiscent of late nineties girl pop.
Gaby Moreno is interesting. Very (very) Rickie Lee Jones sounding voice, but not as quirky and engaging. I was disappointed with her Jackson Browne collaboration; I generally can find no fault with any music when he's involved.
Camélia Jordana is the puzzling one. Generally light pop, but engaging. I like many of her tunes, but have to skip others after a minute or two. Interesting she and Bent collaborated on a complete album.
I appreciate the recommendations. It's always good to discover new music, especially when you get an artist who catches your attention- in a good way.
Thanks.
I agree wholeheartedly with your assessment! When I got my "year in review" from Spotify, Coralie Clement was my #1 artist.
Of the artists that have been recommended on this thread, I'd say Anais Reno is my favorite. As she gets a little older and her voice matures, she could be a real powerhouse for vocal jazz.
Her sound is totally different than Diana Krall, but she seems to have something of the same inmate sensibility for the classics.
The others, at the risk of being overly critical, sound like singers that would be very enjoyable to listen to at a restaurant, but not necessarily of a caliber that I would repeatedly listen to on an album.
Yes to Gabby. She’s amazing. Heard her on Prairie Home and was instantly hooked.
I'm enjoying the recommendations from you and others, which prompted me to point out some others that aren't as obscure, but should be remembered. Linda Ronstadt's homage to the American Songbook, the compilation of three albums: "'Round Midnight." You can't beat Nelson Riddle and Ronstadt's beautiful, clear voice. Also, Patti Austin's "The Real Me." Another Songbook album with arrangements, vocals, and engineering by David Pack. And finally, the oft-forgotten Dinah Washington. She's rarely mentioned, but always provides a great listen. BTW, I'll get to the three you suggested over the next few days.
Same here! It's rare for me to talk to anyone who enjoys vocal jazz, so I'm loving the recommendations.
Holy carp. I'll be busy next week while working--- listening to your recommendations, at least those I can find. So far, so good.
Enjoy! If you have access to Spotify, all these artists are on there.
She sings in both Spanish and English, and often collaborates with her husband, guitarist Federico Aubele. Her album "Arbol" is probably my favorite, but it's all pretty good.
I've been really digging the latest album by bassist Alune Wade, "Sultan." Now THIS is the way to make an album. Go straight down your list of the way you like music to be: funky, lyrical, soulful, exotic, grooving, multicultural, honest, political, emotional, intimate, well-produced but not slick, varied, jazzy, rocking, historically aware, experimental, tight, cliché-free, effectively arranged, diversely instrumentalized, thick with percussion and bass, thematic, cinematic, and ambitious without being pretentious.
Wade also produces, does some of the vocals, and writes the arrangements on "Sultan." The latter are complex, creative, and deeply informed about different world music approaches. They’re also tight, funky, and fun. These are not shapeless jam sessions: each song has a direction, a thematic purpose, and a melodic focus. Each element of the arrangements earns its keep and is there for a reason, often explained in the informative and ear-opening liner notes.
For just one example, “L’Obre de L’âme” is a ballad that mourns Wade’s parents. The modal melody is expressive, somber, and difficult to pin down on a map. (Music theorist Anna Brock described the mode as “two Phrygian superimposed tetrachords,” but that only approximates the Middle- and Near-Eastern sound, something like an Islamic call to prayer with memories of Pakistan.) Ismaïl Lumanovski is a revelation on clarinet: when he plays in harmony with Wade’s arco bass you’ll check the liner notes twice to confirm that what you are hearing isn’t some kind of electronically altered sitar. It’s a beautiful and (to my ear) completely original sound that only a master arranger could invent.
Here's my full review on the Arts Fuse website:
https://artsfuse.org/259994/jazz-album-review-bassist-alune-wades-brilliant-sultan-a-global-patchwork-quilt/
What a tremendous review! I look forward to listening to this album with care. I also hope to read more of Arts Fuse.
One of the things that I like about "shapeless jam sessions," is the possibility that something will happen that is out of the ordinary.
It is absolutely amazing that you know Alune Wade from the other side of the world. Alune is a fantastic musician, I had the chance to play with him, but completely unknown even in France. This sharing initiative by Ted is great. What a wonderful way to discover new music gems.
here are 2 recent tracks I just shared :
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGT-j1keI28cy-amCNU3yWQ
and
https://soundcloud.com/maidoproject/shock-the-monkey-peter-gabriel-maido-project-remix?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing
All the best from Paris
Does anyone here remember WinAmp (circa 2000)? WinAmp was the first popular digital MP3 player application for Windows which helped herald a new epoch in digital media consumption. I was standing RIGHT THERE, next to the whole thing, while it happened, and I was one of the network engineers that made it all go until AOL/Time-Warner bought it for $100M back in the summer of 2000. (Sadly I didn't make a million dollars on it, but many of my friends did. I got a hot tub as a consolation prize, and I still dearly love using it to this day.) One of my MANY take-aways from this period in my life is this; I think we owe the artists (I hate to say, "in the industry", because the industry really doesn't care that much so long as they're making money, not music) an apology in a way. Did WinAmp help kill Album Oriented Rock (AOR) or was it already dying on it's own by that point? Does it even matter if today's younger generation doesn't remember what an album is? Is Styx's Paradise Theater still relevant? Or pick from a multitude of titles by Pink Floyd, or a trio of albums by Marillion back in the 80s. Does "the album" still matter as a body of work, or did the rise of digital music help kill "the album"? Or was that just our species' ever-dwindling attention span? Your comments and thoughts on the revival of OAR (as an Internet Radio station or a SIPCast or Podcast) are most welcomed and encouraged.
WinAmp really whipped the llama’s ass.
AHahahahaha!
Did you know my brother in law David Biderman?
Evan, I can't say that I remember the name. I worked along side Tom Pepper and it was Tom who invited Justin to house the WinAmp website at Lighthouse Communications while we were still a very young company. Being older than Tom I wasn't a part of the "hip" crowd, I was too busy trying to grow a company to 2000 corporate customers over five years. That said, I still keep in touch with a couple of the AmpDev crowd but we grow farther apart over time. Sorry, but good question. Thanks.
New last year I guess, but if you are willing to spend 3 solid hours staring at a screen, try Ryusuke Hamaguchi's "Drive My Car". Hyped lots in the last year. Underhyped, if you ask me – one of the best film experiences I've had. Our film club took it on a few months back and we never got to the bottom of our comments lists. So much going on, so quietly and so calmly...
Dang it, now you've made me mad about the Oscars again.
Nothing against CODA - a sweet film about a world that doesn't get its share of attention - but even though that movie was all about sign language it still didn't have the best sign language scene in all of the Best Picture Nominees. Not when Drive My Car had that _amazing_ KSL performance (in the play) toward the end that hit you like a hammer blow. Man, what a great movie.
Agreed.
Loved it!
THEATRE - America's greatest play, The Death Of A Salesman, is back on Broadway. It stars Wendell Pierce, an excellent stage actor (not just a TV actor who missed pilot season or a movie star between comic book movies - an actual Capital A Actor). If there ever were a time to see it, it's now.
NOVEL - Seconds Out by Martin Kohan. Celebrating the 50th anniversary of an Argentine newspaper, a reporter makes connections between the famous Firpo vs Dempsey boxing match and Strauss' first performance of Mahler's first symphony - both of which happened on the same day. A gem of a novel.
BOOK - A Little Devil In America by Hanif Abdurraqib. Several essays on African-American performers and performance. Insightful and poetic are two words that perfectly describe Abdurraqib's writing in general and this book in particular.
MUSIC - There's (thankfully) little discussion of hip hop here, but if you want to know what's the best rap album this year, it's definitely CHEAT CODES by Danger Mouse & Black Thought. Danger Mouse is a producer who did the famous Jay-Z & Beatles mashup album, along with the Gnarls Barkley albums. He's also produced albums for U2, Norah Jones, Michael Kiwanuka, The Black Keys, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more. Black Thought is the rapper from the group The Roots, aka "the band on the Jimmy Fallon show." The Roots have a dozen plus albums over 30 years. Black Thought is universally regarded as one of the best rappers of all-time, certainly one of the top two or three working today.
Four high-quality recommendations - thanks!
Check out singer songwriter guitarist Madison Cunningham. Her Grammy nominated debut Who Are You Now and just released 2nd album Revealer. She is something else !
I came here to recommend Madison Cunningham. What a gem she is!
yes!!! Madison Cunningham is such an underrated singer songwriter... and guitar player!
see her in the JHS pedal show https://youtu.be/yCEUDWFt3TI
I have a post about this, but I'll refrain from promoting it here since Ted's asked.
Instead, a couple movies that you've almost certainly not seen:
*** After Life: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0165078/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_6. ***
There are other movies with similar titles, plus a Ricky Gervais series with the identical title. It's two words, not one, note carefully.
This is a Japanese movie about the afterlife, except in this film, you're not rewarded OR punished, or sent back. Instead, you have to choose one scene from your life that you want to take with you into eternity. Then they recreate it for you.
*** Exporting Raymond: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1356763/?ref_=fn_al_tt_0 ***
A comedy documentary (how many of those are there?) where Phil Rosenthal, the creator of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and current star of "Somebody Feed Phil" takes his scripts to Russia, so they can remake the series with Russian actors. A hilarious exploration of what's funny in different cultures.
The Ricky Gervais series was very good, but much too abbreviated, in my opinion. Great concept with fascinating characters that I would have liked to observe for an extended period.
I'll have to see if I can find the After Life you've recommended. Is it on Netflix, Amazon, or any other streaming platform like Roku?
I watched After Life a few weeks ago because of this comment. Thanks for the recommendation!
happy to hear!
You can download a spreadsheet of 300 films we showed, in my post https://albertcory50.substack.com/p/culture-at-google-part-one-the-movies
You slipped that in quite well, while not crossing Ted's borders.
well, the view count on that post didn't jump at all, so I think I obeyed the spirit as well as the letter of the law.
Loved the Japanese, After Life! Highly recommend.
For anyone who leans into the hard sciences even a little, I’ve been absolutely enthralled with Stephen Wolfram’s recent Physics Project. He’s essentially merging the worlds of math and physics (and chemistry and biology), and though it’s early yet, is surfacing fascinating theories on the nature of space/time, what consciousness is, how to consider “alien” intelligence alongside traditional epistemology, and so very much more.
It’s sometimes very heady stuff, but so worth the effort. And if anyone can bring supremely technical concepts down to layperson levels it’s Wolfram.
I would start with his website: https://www.wolframphysics.org/
And listen to his 3 interviews on the Lex Fridman podcast, the first of which is here (also on Spotify, etc):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ez773teNFYA
Edit: just now realizing that this is neither a movie, book, writing, or music per se. Oh well! Still highly recommend!