Heureux Mardi Gras!
Mo gris gris gumbo yaya here.
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Posts Tagged ‘jazz’
Mardi Gras 2019!
Tuesday, 5 March 2019Saturday Matinee – G-AAH, Billy Strings, Billy Gibbbons & Stéphane Grappelli
Saturday, 8 December 2018Aviator Amy Johnson was honored with an Underwood typewriter animation.tribute [via]. She achieved worldwide recognition when, in 1930, she became the first woman pilot or aviatrix to fly solo from England to Australia. She flew the G-AAAH Jason, a second-hand trainer airplane.
Billy Strings [h/t windbag].
Billy Gibbons with ratrods [h/t Octopus].
Great early morning road trip music back when I was running early morning road trips. 1930s sunrise swing always worked for me.
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow.
Saturday Matinee – Les Claypool & Buckethead, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, Frank Zappa and the Ensemble Modern & Spike Jones
Saturday, 15 September 2018
I could do without the silly mask gimmicks, but Les Claypool and Buckethead jam it down your throat. Sounds like it was partially derived from an old Zappa groove.
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones are nothing less than amazing. “Sinister Minister” was performed at Mountain Jam VII on 3 June 2011.
This is reported to have been Frank Zappa’s last public performance, directing the Ensemble Modern, Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany, 17 September 1992. Zappa died less than two years later, days shy of his 53rd birthday. From the UToob link:
It was his last professional public appearance, as the cancer was spreading to such an extent that he was in too much pain to enjoy an event that he otherwise found “exhilarating”. Recordings from the concerts appeared on The Yellow Shark, Zappa’s last release during his lifetime.
And now for something completely different.
Have a great weekend, folks, see you back here tomorrow.
Saturday Matinee – The Marshall Tucker Band, Sam The Sham & James “Super Chikan” Johnson
Saturday, 8 September 2018
In the late 70s, there was a shift away from hard rock, pop, disco, and other over-produced gag-inducing genres, and I took a liking to Country Rock Jazz fusion. The Marshall Tucker Band caught my ear with “The Last of the Singing Cowboys,” one of the prettiest songs ever written, featuring one of the greatest country rock vocalists ever: Doug Gray (and yeah, that’s one silly-ass hat on the guitar player.)
Domingo “Sam” Samudio is still live and howlin’ in this vid from 2000. IIRC, Sam took his nic “The Sham” because he only knew 3 chords. “Little Red Riding Hood” is probably my favorite STSATP song – even in elementary school we got the innuendo. “Oh, That’s Good” was fun due to our juvenile misinterpretation of the lyrics: “He operated on my 3rd leg…”
Okay, um, let’s move on.
Never heard of James “Super Chikan” Johnson? Crank it up.
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow for more inanity.
Saturday Matinee – The Archers of Loaf, The Axis of Awesome, Zappa & Santana
Saturday, 25 August 2018
Archers of Loaf. Great 3-chord rock. According to Wiki, they disbanded, reformed, broke up and now reorganized before disappearing completely.
In 2009, The Axis of Awesome discovered the secret 4-chord progression required to make a hit record.
Zappa’s “Variations on the Carlos Santana Secret Chord Progression” is a classic. Unfortunately the video is not an actual performance, but a compilation of images pasted over the music. So what. I still like it. We’ll let Carlos Santana have the last word.
Woodstock put Carlos Santana on the map in 1969. Great jam.
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow and we’ll mess around with stuff.
Saturday Matinee – Por Uhklelelas, Eric Clapton & JJ Cale, & Bill Tapia
Saturday, 21 July 2018
Por Uhklelelas nailed it, and that’s the prettiest version of the song I ever heard. Unfortunately I can’t find a link to their website. On the other hand I can link to this:
Bill Tapia, aka,The Duke of the Uke, calls the chords. Huell Howser interviewed him.
Have a great weekend, folks. See you back here tomorrow whether you like it or not.
Saturday Matinee – Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks
Saturday, 30 June 2018
Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks had an unusual sound for a band based in San Francisco at the peak of the psychedelic music era. From an obit in the New York Times 7 February 2016:
“He came to call his music “folk swing,” but that only hinted at the range of influences he synthesized. He drew from the American folk tradition but also from the Gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt, the Western swing of Bob Wills, the harmony vocals of the Andrews Sisters, the raucous humor of Fats Waller and numerous other sources.”
Hicks was still performing up until his demise at the age of 74.
THAT is the prettiest (and only) cover of Tom Waits‘ classic “The Piano Has Been Drinking” I’ve ever heard. The backup vocals are sultry, and note the subtle hat-tip at about 03:00.
Have a great weekend folks, and a long one if you’re taking advantage of a mid-week Independence Day.
Saturday Matinee – Alt Math, Rag’n’Bone Man & Tom Waits
Saturday, 16 June 2018
This is scary. The Correct Answer Is 22.
Rag’n’Bone Man‘s cover of the Stones “Gimme Shelter” is killer.
More about that talented Brit via Wiki:
Rag’n’Bone Man’s first hit single, “Human“, was released on Columbia Records in July 2016. It peaked at number one in the Official Singles Charts in Austria, Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. It was certified Gold in Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland.
That’s is an entirely different version and a precursor to the one I’m familiar with:
Tom Waits is amazing.
Have a great weekend, folks, and for Fathers’ Day, buy your Dad a big bacon cheeseburger with fries and a pint of stout. He’ll love it, despite what your Mom says about it causing tumors in rats.
Spilled Coffee
Wednesday, 16 May 2018
Saturday Matinee – Live From NorWay, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Fishbone & The Allman Brothers Band
Saturday, 31 March 2018
LIVE CAM: Train Engineer’s Cab View in Norway [click here for local time]. Not sure which line this is, where it’s headed, or if it’s running above the Arctic Circle. Check it out in full screen view and I’ll see you back here in a couple of days.
Someday, I suppose I’ll go to Norwegia and ride that train. Meanwhile, I’ll listen to The Mighty Mighty Bosstones from 1993.
Or maybe I’ll roll with Fishbone, one of the tightest ska/rock/funk bands I ever heard. Those guys won me over a long time ago. (Check out this 1987 live version. Sound quality sucks, but the energy is killer.)
Let’s turn it down a bit with a cover of Bob Dylan’s “All Along The Watchtower.” The Allman Brothers Band in 2011 always found a nice groove (presumed band lineup here).
Have a great Easter/Passover/Seder weekend, folks. See you soon.
