Musical Ramblings

Small IS beautiful...

Look at this video of When my Guitar Gently Weeps played by Jake Shimakuburo on the Ukulele. It's truly magnificent...

Hopefully it will reconcile me with Arnaud and Seagull who have been killed by an overlong bass solo and/or swing bach!

MMM#8 - Jacques Loussier Trio

You've had it easy these last few weeks. Sometimes I missed the MMM, and most often I posted cool but essentially unchallenging stuff to listen to. Not so this week.

Not that Jacques Loussier's rewriting of the Bach repertoire for jazz trio are exactly demanding, we're not talking abstract dodecaphonic music here. But still, this Pastorale in C Minor features a nine minute double bass solo, so I'll probably lose a few of you along the way (I'm thinking of Arnaud, specifically, but there may be others...)

Still, this track, especially the album version on Jacques Loussier Plays Bach (which features a different double bass player and a more concise solo) is an absolute gem that I fell in love with litterally at first hearing. I don't even think I'd ever heard Bach's Pastorale in C Minor before, but this is just so springy, and beautifully melodic, I absolutely love it.

I won't get into the whole debate that raged some years back on Loussier's work. I understand that the interpretations he did in the 60s and that made him famous were largely formulaic. But these recordings, especially the 90s stuff with Vincent Charbonnier on bass and André Arpineau on drums, it's superb. Just give that record a try, it doesn't demean Bach by any means, it elevates him to a status of misunderstood genius.

If Stairway to Heaven was a Beatles' song...

A night out in Boston

Last night I went out with a couple of colleagues at the Green Dragon in Boston. Great place, claims to be the oldest tavern in Boston and rumour has it that's where the American Revolution was hatched (aversion to Tea certainly didn't seem out of place...)

There was a band playing there, called the Spitting Vinnies. It's a cool line up for a small place like that, two acoustic guitars, a percutionnist and a trumpet player. They were a cover band, but what I'd call an interesting cover band. A fun cover band. Basically they would cover any pop song from any era, and twist it in their own, sweet, campy way. The thing I loved about it is that it would take you sometimes up to a full minute to actually recognise some of the most famous tunes. The crowd was very fun to watch as well, clearly enjoying themselves.

Another trick i found really impressive was that people would come up with requests and most of the time, they would start playing that song just next. Imagine the amount of stupid lyrics that must force you to remember!

Anyway, a fun night. I intend to spend more time exploring Boston nightlife next time I'm around...

A discovery of digital music

I never had any use for digital music or inclination to use it. Call me old fashioned, but I like those CDs with their quality sound, their nice sleeves, and their informative sleevenotes. Until I received my iPod for xmas, that is. Not that I suddenly discovered I disliked CDs or anything (I think I'll be the last ever customer of a good many second hand CD shops - hopefully years from now - as I make it a point to find and visit them everywhere I go...), but of course owning a digital music player makes you relaise how convenient it is, especially when you travel as much as I do.

So last week I did my first playlist and decided to share it on iTunes. You know, the web 2.0 thing to do. I was even going to tell you about it! So I import it on iTunes and what message comes back: iTunes features none of the tunes on this iMix, therefore it cannot be imported. Now that's rich. I will admit that my playlists contain some obscure stuff, but come on, no King Crimson, no Gil Scott-Heron, no G Love, no Dr. John, no Blues Traveler. No way!

After a while, I thought about this and realised that the issue wasn't that they didn't have these tracks, it was that I hadn't purchased them from the iTunes store. How web 1.0 is that? It also reminded me why I profoundly dislike the iTunes store (besides poor sound quality and absurd DRM). Won't be buying from them...

Today, I was importing some really obscure harmonica stuff a friend from the US burned on CD for me some years back. No we're talking really obscure here. Let's make a test: those of you who know of George Armaos, put your hands up... Hrm. Just as I thought, and bonus points for the smartass at the back. Anyway, I import the few tracks I had of this guy, no titles no nothing, of course, and then I wanted to get at least a photo of the guy (I hate having blank covers on the iPod's cover flow. Yes, I am anal.)

So I Google Gearge Armaos hoping that a fellow geek would have put up a photo of this greek harmonica and oud player up. To my surprise, I find a record cover on Rhapsody's website. Now Rhapsody is a subscription based music service (also DRM riddled, a no-no for me), and known to have a huge library, so I think "wait a minute, if Rhapsody has it, maybe Amazon has it". And sure enough, there it is, George Armaos - Greek Fever. Wow.

But the trip doesn't end there: I go to buy the album from Amazon, it's an $8.99 download, they offer a download manager that will get the music straight into iTunes, what more can you ask for? That they have international distribution for their mp3 store. Unfortunately, they don't. Damn. But I notice at the bottom that Smithsonian Folkways is the rights owner. Wait a minute, I've already purchased some obscure harmonica music from these guys, Eddie Manson's Suite from the Little Fugitive. I go to their website and bingo, Greek Fever is there and available for download. It's slightly more expensive ($9.99 plus a $0.25 tax) but allows you to download FLAC format as well as mp3 (FLAC is a lossless compression, when you uncompress it you get WAVs which is the regular CD format) and is also DRM free.

So there you are. In one day I discovered that iTunes had a poor catalog (I checked afterwards, they don't have George Armaos' Greek Fever), that Amazon's Catalog was impressive but not available to me, and that Smithsonian Folkways is selling the kind of obscure stuff I need. Welcome to the world of digital music.

So, what's this album by the way? It's an album of oriental sounding instrumentals by Greek chromatic harmonica and oud player George Armaos, and honestly, it's stunning. The most fluid eastern scale lines you can imagine, with a lot of improvisation and imagination. Well worth checking out. Some of the songs sound Greek in rhythm (but it's miles above anything I've heard in Greek restaurants), some more middle-eastern. But remember, this was 15 years before Howard Levy or Roland van Straaten were doing it!

So, assuming you live in the US, I can only recommend that you get hold of this superb stuff that you cannot miss if you like chromatic virtuosity, world music or any combination thereof. get it from Amazon, it's easier and cheaper. If you do not live in the US, ou can also get it, from Smithsonian Global Sound. How's that for choice?

This whole episode gave me matter for reflexion on the value and convenience of digital music. The simple fact that copyright laws prevent Amazon from selling me music because I'm not in the US shows how much these laws need to be rehauled. And if the digitisation of music allows all these long forgotten masterpieces to become available again, then I will become a regular customer, and sleeve notes be damned (although I do hope they find a way to integrate those digitally as well...)

News from Kwakland

Kwak is one of the most promising bands from the French pop/rock scene, and it incidentally features harp player (and ball of energy) extraordinaire Damien Tartarella. They opened a pre-order scheme for their 3rd album a few months back, and we've just received some news today that the soundtakes were done, that the mastering would take place at the end of February for a production in March. At this stage, those who pre-ordered will receive their CDs while the rest have to wait until May 2008 for the official release. Release parties/gigs will take place on May 27th at La Boule Noire and May 29th at Le Nouveau Casino.

Cool! I'm really excited about this, if only because it'll be an opportunity to see them live again!

Things to do in Boston when you like music...

I'm going to be in Boston, MA most of next week. I've been told that Jim Fitting has weekly Tuesday night gig at the Lizard, so I'll try to attend that, and I will also be at the Green Dragon on Thursday night where a colleague's band plays. Hopefully I'll get to jam! Anyway, if any Boston readers of mine want to meet up, let me know by email, and I'll try and keep you posted.

MMM#7 - Ian Siegal

Haven't you ever felt like it's a monday when it's actually friday? Not good. Well that's how I feel today, and it's not just an excuse to post the MMM four days late...

Anyway, I felt like a little blues today. And since there's not much modern blues I actually find any good, I'm very pleased to introduce you to Ian Siegal, a UK blues singer/guitarist with the most stunning voice this side of Howling Wolf. He has just released a new album called Swagger which I very strongly recommend (I'll probably do a full review when time allows). It's modern sounding (a lot more than what I've featured here for the MMM) and yet true to its blues roots. Siegal's voice is a stunning as ever, alternating between that deep rumbling bass that is reminiscent of Chester Burnett and a mellower approach for more soul oriented tunes. It's a sparse band affair which again emphasises Siegal's powerful voice and incisive guitar playing. Siegal is also the vocalist for Lee Sankey's Tell Me There's a Sun, also well worth checking.

This song, Mortal Coil Shuffle, is from the last album, and it's probably the blusiest tune in there, very Muddy Waters like. Here Siegal is on his own however, and it gives the song a haunting quality that I find really interesting. Hope you like it!

It's looking like N'awlins

Only 38 voters last night, should I wait or should I go ?

Well, in any case, it's looking like New Orleans will be the theme, unless we have a last minute voter's surprise. I won't be able to produce the podcast before my Boston trip next week, so chances are it'll be a late January or early February release.

In the meantime, I'd like to have some suggestions in the comments here about artists that you would like me to feature.  I have some ideas, of course, but I could always use some requests !

Shoot away!

Xavier Rudd on Fabchannel

A few months back at a conference I heard the founder of Fabchannel, but it's only today that I took the time to check it out. And what can I say. It's awesome ! Basically, what Fabchannel does is film concerts at the Paradiso in Amsterdam and put them up on their website, live or archived. The sound quality and video quality are awesome.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words, here's a full concert by Xavier Rudd they have on there: