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WWOZ radio in New Orleans has started a new blog called Street Talk.
This article in the Gambit Weekly underlines the importance of New Orleans' music scene and culture.
"New Orleans is what it is because of its culture, and if we remake it into this blank, boring city, it won't be worth living in for most of the people who live here now and for most of the people who come to visit."
Markus, at Wet Bank Guide blog, speaks to the precarious place that New Orleans is and always has been. This is one of the reasons that people have a certain fierce brand of love for this city, the magma-mother of jazz.
WWOZ's Street Talk blog has this post about Tipitina's role in the music scene since the levees failed almost a year ago.
Since I love monkeys, this might be of interest to all the monkey lovers out there.
The very disheartening destruction in the Middle East has the attention of the world. Israel has reeked havoc upon the people of Lebanon in disproportion to what Hezbollah has done. Our tax dollars are paying for much of this horror. The Israeli lobby knows where to come for money and unqualified backing. Two weeks ago Beirut was a thriving metropolis. It's naive to think that Israel didn't notice that Beirut has been very adept at attracting foreign investment and tourism. Tel Aviv can't hold a candle to Beirut's party power. Ask Tony Bourdain. So they toast it since they had planned to do so for over a year.
(Via Kung Fu Monkey)
Almost 11 months ago, another type of man-made destruction flooded the city of New Orleans. Today, parts of New Orleans are no better off than parts of southern Beirut.
I have never been a huge Robert Parker fan and only recently learned of Jancis Robinson from England. This is why I don't put much stock in Parker ratings when I buy a wine.
Until the music can speak for itself in an audioblog, I'll just continue listing artists and certain albums that I have had the good fortune to have listened due to personal recommendations from people who are more knowledgeable than I or by reading a good critic's review or through pure chance.
JAZZ - R&B
Nick Brignola / Poinciana, Earl Bostic, Laurindo Almeida and Bud Shank / Brazilliance, Louis Armstrong / Plays Fats Waller, Plays WC Handy, Plays King Oliver, Chet Baker / Smokin', Kenny Barron / Live at Bradley's, Count Basie / Chairman of the Board, Basie Plays Joe Williams Sings Standards, Art Blakey / A Night in Tunisia, A Night at Birdland, Tiny Bradshaw, Clifford Brown, Ruth Brown / Miss Rhythm, Charles Brown, Dave Brubeck / Time Out, Kenny Burrell / Midnight Blue, Serge Chaloff / Blue Serge, Ray Charles / Birth of Soul, Sonny Clark / Cool Struttin', Leapin' and Lopin', Buck Clayton / Jam Sessions From the Vault, Rosemary Clooney / Show Tunes, Rosie Sings Bing, Nat King Cole / The Unforgettable, After Midnight Sessions, John Coltrane / Ballads, Ultimate Blue Train, Giant Steps, Lush Life, James Cotton / Verve Years, Miles Davis / Bags' Groove, Cookin', Relaxin', Walkin', Steamin', Kind of Blue, Joey DeFrancesco / Falling in Love Again, Plays Sinatra His Way, Willie Dixon / I Am The Blues, The Chess Box, Champion Jack Dupree / Blues From the Gutter, Natural and Soulful Blues and Champion of the Blues, New Orleans Barrelhouse Boogie, Art Farmer / Early Art, Red Garland / Red's Blues, Stan Getz / Getz-Gilberto, Getz Au Go Go, Jazz Samba, Jazz Samba Encore, Dizzy Gillespie / The Champ, Dexter Gordon, Vince Guaraldi / The Best of, Gene Harris and Jack McDuff / Down Home Blues, King Pleasure / Moody's Mood For Love, Coleman Hawkins, Johnny Hodges, Billy Holiday / The Complete Decca Recordings, Solitude
"May the lights in the land of plenty/Shine on the truth some day."
When our accountant, Danny Powell, once asked my father what his financial goals were, Tom replied, "My financial goals are for my last check to bounce."
I was so high I needed a stepladder to scratch my ass.
In order to effectively determine guilt or innocence, juries should be empaneled entirely from a population of prostitutes, bartenders and bellmen from sleazy hotels.
Native Americans believe you can't really own land, a horse or a waterfall. The only thing they believe you can really own is a casino.
I despise blogging about this shit, but I have to call the Israelis on this again. They're deaf, possibly due to the The Chosen People thing. The Israelis were in Lebanon for some 18 years (check my math) and they weren't able to exterminate Hezbollah. Why did they choose this moment in time? Right after the World Cup? WTF? Why is the USA basically silent or stupidly remarking when they should be telling Israel what the stakes are? This is how the American media are covering this stupid- pill action by Israel. So far the money in the oil markets has shrugged it off, which is good for us people who drive BMW 760's. I hope the shrugging off continues. $3 a gallon is sorta ok for me now. What about the people who travel 60+ miles to work @$5.80 an hour? Exxon has the answer. Trust them, they're your brother.
Looking at the list of about 40 titles of Jazz & R&B albums that I listen to quite and bit and recommend, it seems that I should come up with another approach. Maybe the lists should be shorter with some notes indicating what I like about the album. Ideas are not flowing out of the brain right now. Maybe, it's 95,000 F out and I just walked Aldo, who's a mess too. He was so excited that the mailwoman went down the street apace with him. He loves the mail people and forgets that it's 95,000 F out. This was in the shade. When we got to the sun-scorched street he threw himself on the grass in the shade, grabbing any twig in sight, generally making a silly fool of himself. I'll have to pick up this thread later.
Every now and then I mention an album that I've always loved listening to and never tire of and also new albums that do that voodoo to me so well. Desert island picks are just too damned tough given the size of my suitcase and the waffler effect. Anyway, this is a partial list of what I like in Jazz and R&B. These are albums that I listen to and enjoy quite a bit. I hope to share this people who are real music lovers or people who just looking for some new suggestions for their listening. CD's to add to Amazon wish lists, birthday requests etc. In future posts, I'll try to cover some African, Brazilian, Caribbean (esp. Guadeloupe & Martinique), Cuban, Puerto Rican, Colombian, Venezuelan, Celtic, a tad of old Folk for older folks, a bit of classical, mainly Spanish guitar and music that fits into no particular peg. If a reader would like some info on a particular recording or artist, please leave a comment or e-mail me. So, here's the first installment of the music in my head:
JAZZ & R&B
Gene Ammons / Story Gentle Jug, Louis Armstrong meets Oscar Peterson, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, Count Basie / April in Paris, Clifford Brown and Max Roach, James Brown / 20 All Time Greatest Hits, Lester Young & Teddy Wilson Quartet / Pres & Teddy, Jimmy Witherspoon / Jazz Me Blues Best of, Ben Webster / Soulville, Complete Dinah Washington on Mercury 1-6, T-Bone Walker / T-Bone Blues, Ike Quebec / Heavy Soul, Red Prysock / Best of, Anything by Illinois Jacquet, Duke Robbilard / After Hours Swing Session, Benny Carter & Orch. / Further Definitions, Ella Fitzgerald The Songbooks (all of them), Grant Green / Retrospective, Buddy and Ella Johnson / The Mercury Sides 1-4, Jimmy Rushing / Essential, Otis Spann / is the Blues & Walkin' the Blues, Sonny Stitt / Tune Up, Roosevelt Sykes / The Honeydripper, Mark Turner & Tad Shull / Two Tenor Ballads, Sarah Vaughan / The Duke Ellington Songbooks & How Long Has This Been Going On, Duke Ellington / Blues in Orbit, Indigos, And His Mother Called Him Bill, Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges / Side By Side & Back To Back, Stanley Turrentine / Salt Song, Nicholas Payton / Payton's Place, Big Joe Turner / Best of & R&B Years, Panama Francis / Savoy Sultans with & Gettin' in the Groove, Wardell Gray / Memorial Vol 1&2, Mostly anything by Scott Hamilton, John Coltrane with Johnny Hartman, Greg Piccolo / Homage, Jimmy McGriff / Greatest Hits, Thelonius Monk / At the Blackhawk, Carmen McRae Sings Monk, Charlie Mingus / Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Cahrlie Rouse / Unsung Hero, Irene Reid / Million Dollar Secret, Anything by Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, Mary Lou Williams / Solo Montreux 1978, Muddy Waters / Anthology, Anything by Zoot Sims, Horace Silver / Song For My Father
The "Cremation of Care" Ritual. Yes folks, here they are – America's corporate leaders, dressed in robes, burning their collective conscience at the feet of a statue of a 40-foot owl. Pretty weird. Or is it?
The Cremation of Care ritual is over one hundred years old and is always the first order of business when these men of industry, government, and military gather each July. At sundown on the first Saturday of their encampment they enact a bizarre short scripted play (always the same) in which they burn an effigy of "Dull Care" at the bottom of a forty-foot stone owl. Their rationale is that they carry the cares of the world around on their shoulders and they need a symbolic ritual in order to put it down and enjoy their holiday. Since 1980, activists in Sonoma County have brought this to the attention of anyone who will listen and we began a new tradition with a Resurrection of Care event on the same day. (Via Sonoma County Free Press)
The head butt of all time gets syndicated.
It's never going to end. Now there's a zouk-tinged track called "Coup de Boule". (La Plage Records)
Update and/or further analysis at The New Yorker.
For you St. James Infirmary fans, Rob Walker received a unique version of the song by The Main Squeeze Orchestra from Daniel of The Sounds in My Head podcast. There's an octive change near the middle of the song that's cool.
Cities don't like being used and then discarded, just like people. However, this is exactly what has happened to the city of New Orleans and coastal Louisiana. The ploy of delaying massive aid and rebuilding is not what the city and its people deserve. It's simply disgraceful and shameful. It would be some justice if the subcontractors who built those oh so solid levees and floodwalls got sued to the hilt. This a letter to the editor of The Times-Picayune via Poppy Z. Brite, New Orleans author and food lover.
Her new book D*U*C*K will be out in January 2007.
"I drive a Yom Kippur Clipper. That's a Jewish Cadillac. It stops on a dime and picks it up."
"Either I'm not a practicing Jew or else I've got to practice a little bit more."
"I've always been searching for a lifestyle that doesn't require my presence."
"The only thing wrong with Southern Baptists is that they don't hold 'em under long enough."
Today is Nikola Tesla's birthday.
"You can lead a politician to water, but you can't make him think."
"I don't know how many supporters I have, but they all carry guns."
If you elect me the first Jewish governor of Texas, I'll reduce the speed limit to 54.95."
"I've got a head of hair better than Governor Rick Perry's. It's just not in a place I can show you."
I can cut and paste like a demon, but you lose me when you talk code. Though, a good computer crypto key analogy gives one pause to think some, not too much it's summer.
The Azzurri, 2006 World Cup Champions!
"Never take a whizz on an electric fence."
"Find what you like and let it kill you."
"May the best of the past be the worst of the future." (Favorite Irish Toast)
"The only two good balls I ever hit was when I stepped on the garden rake."
"Leap sideways, before your karma runs over your dogma."
"If Mama Cass and Karen Carpenter had shared that ham sandwich, they'd both be with us today."
I have to get some audio clips on my blog. If anyone knows of a better service than audioblog.com aka Hipcast, please let me know, thanks. In the meantime, even though desert island picks are what you're feeling at the moment musically, the lists are endless for me. There's a lot of desert islands for me. I think I'll start with albums and then do some single track picks. It'll be sporadic, like most things in my fabulous life. I've been fortunate to have met people with vast knowledge of certain kinds of music. They've bestowed musical gems that I'll always treasure. If I die a slow death, I will want to hear this music as the last sounds that I hear. If I die suddenly, then please send the mp3 version to me. So, I'll do a desert island pick list, maybe once a week or month. It depends on my seemingly inexhaustible supply of psychic energy. In the iPod world, these desert island picks take on a new meaning. You can take much or all of your collection to the island and pick there. Things change, but good music is eternal. Music of the spheres is no euphemism.
A good friend from college lives well outside of San Antonio in a very comfortable home that he and his wife had built several years ago. Our Cape Cod could probably fit into their double her/his bath. They have invited us to visit them and we plan to when it's not 450F degrees. They really want me to come so I can slave over their 1 million BTU gas grill and cook Texas beef. Today, from my friend in the hills outside San Antonio, I received a copy of Kinky Friedman's latest book, "Cowboy Logic". For those who don't know about the "only Jew in Texas that doesn't own real estate", he's running for Texas governor as an independent. The last person to do that was Sam Houston in 1859. Molly Ivans says of Kinky: "Spreads more joy than Ross Perot's Ears." It's definitely required reading for the summer; light, humorous, lewd, insightful, poetic and soulful. In short, a hoot. I'll try to offer a quote every now and then.
Jim Louis lives in New Orleans, but summers in Virginia, I think. He can't take the summers in NO since he does manual labor for a living. I don't blame him. In his latest post, he relates how he has a way with children and what happened when they went fishing.
Ashley Morris, a New Orleanian, is in Europe at a NATO conference. "I've been in Europe for two weeks. People ask "What's it like there?" I reply: "You ever seen Hiroshima? Well, Japan rebuilt Hiroshima."
Never been much of a flag waver, ever. Nationalism and all the rest of the pathological "isms" are what divide the people of the world. On the 4th, my mind was not on the people of New Orleans nor independence. It was on soccer and keeping cool. Today, I read several thoughtful and heartfelt posts by NO bloggers with whom I share a bond. People Get Ready (Make Levees Not War) pegs it very well, as do the links that speak for the city and its people. It's been 10 months since the levees failed. Much of the city lies desolate, decaying and silent. This is not what a major city should be like long after the flood. New Orleans deserves the immediate focus of a massive cleanup and restoration of housing, healthcare, total infrastructure so the people can take back their city and their sanity. It's a low down dirty shame!
Another excellent outcry about the condition of the city of New Orleans.
Via Poppy Z. Brite, the people of New Orleans are very laid back and not stressed at all. Pills and booze anyone?
I rarely get excited over sports, except the World Series and the NHL finals and only if NY teams are in the running. Somehow, the World Cup Soccer matches have kindled an interest in the global competition that I never had before. Brasil, the favorite, fell fairly early. It's an all "European" semi-final. Though, many of the players do not come from the countries that they represent in the World Cup. Money drives that decision, as in all professional sports. This is the main reason why many sports fans have for the most part ignored the cult of personality and contract figures. From there, some ignore the sport totally. So, it's with great pleasure that I finally come to appreciate soccer. Hey, they run for two 45 half's and with hardly any protective gear. They run. No commercials. They don't stand in formation or huddle, except on free, penalty, corner kicks. They are also in much better physical condition that your 340 pound NFL defensive guard and I think worth more per pound per minute. The half time in soccer is a lot shorter than the NFL halftime break. Plus soccer's as corrupt as any other sport, viz. the Italian match fixing scandal that attended the pageantry of the World Cup in the Teutonic North. The German press didn't fail to point out to the Italians that they were "parasites, mamma's boys and slimy". It's sooo humane of the host nation of the World Cup to express such egalitarian sentiments, in such florid language to boot. Was that in high or lower German? The German-Italian match was one to watch. In 1970, Italy had beaten Germany in an overtime match that has been called the game of the century, much like the 1994 and 2001 Rioja vintages in Spain. It came down to 90 minutes of a few shots on goal by each time, but nothing incendiary. ESPN had two commentators who must have been treated very well by their German hosts. It was a German love fest. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Germany and France are big players in the EU so... At one point the ESPN shill, said that "Italy was a fading soccer power" and "Germany played much crisper soccer". Crisper, my ass. There were many other quotes that basically said that the Germans were outplaying the Italians all over the map, except in goal. Italy has allowed only one goal in the Cup this year, thanks to Sr. Buffon. No score after 90 minutes, so it's overtime. Thirty more minutes of running in hot humid weather. The Italians score first well into the second overtime. This happens while I'm turning the ribs on the grill! I miss it. In another few minutes, the Italians score again deep into the back on the net. I see it and roar. I scare my bulldog, Aldo, who barks and thinks an enemy dog's around. This is from someone who hardly ever watches soccer. Maybe it was the heat and humidity. I do believe the ESPN folks were not a little shocked. They had it coming. So did the Germans. Schadenfreude. The Azzurri advance to the finals. They face the French, who are just (Francks) Germans who ran out of land. It's not that I'm an lover of everything Italian. I'm half-Sicilian. The Sicilians do not consider themselves part of Italy, except when it comes to soccer.
"In Italy, soccer is the national obsession,an integral part of the infrastructure of the Italian state of mind and of the Italian way of life."
John Molinaro reviewing "Forza Italia: A Journey in Search of Italy and its Football" by Paddy Agnew
In another remarkable display of arrogant stupidity, the Bush administration has inappropriately removed specfic projects that the Army Corps of Engineers had included in the initial draft of its report detailing Category 5 protection for coastal Louisiana. How thoughtful of them.
