moon traveller herald

  Jim Haas invited me to guest DJ on Jim Haas’s Al Compas Del Mundo 1-hr Internet Radio Show , and I did. How can I call this out? Let’s call it Baroque and Hungry! My hit list is included: List Al compás del mundo 241, 7-9-26 - guest DJ Jack Vaughan   01 Pete Seeger - Living in the Country (USA) 02 Afrocubism - Mali-Cuba (Mali, Cuba)   03 Jordi Savall - The Lancashire Pipes-Pigges of Rumsey-Kate of Bardie (España) 04 Chatham Baroque – Fandango (USA)   05 The Staple Singers - Uncloudy Day (USA) 06 Leroy Carr - (In the Evening) When the Sun Goes Down (USA)   07 The Supremes - Love Is Like an Itching in My Heart (USA) 08 Xavier Cugat - Night Must Fall (Mexico)  09 Miriam Makeba - Pata Pata (Sudafrica) 10 Keith Jarrett - No Moon at All (USA)   11 James Brown - Night Train (USA) 12 The Lilly Brothers - Little Annie (USA)   13 Charlie Parker - A Night ...

  Ran in 2008 Bo Diddley died. There are probably some competitive flamenco cats that I am not aware of - but I would rate him greatest rhythm guitar player of all time. The guitar as percussive motivator in his hands was total banshee force, but full of invention. He also had a lyrical approach that was in its turn incredibly rhythmic and original and also humorous. Mona, Who Do You Love, You Cant Judge a Book, Road Runner .. so many numbers that were part of my best days. He created a foundational style of rocknroll and he did so by reinventing the instrument called the guitar. Who would say he did not have his hand on the pulse of his time as much as the Nasa astronauts or the Beats? Say Man, Mumbles, Ride on Josephine, Cadillac, Cops and Robbers. His super session with Muddy Waters and Little Walter. An all instrumental Checker record of his I used to have. Certainly unique. Some good articles have traced his tremendous influence. Let me add a few: The Doors doing Who Do you Lo...

  A link to Chicago Northwestern by Juicy Lucy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlcrduUahU4 Might have heard this song on WTOS-FM [Wauwatosa] . About 5 years short of US 200th Birthday. The song was immediately resonating: As this was a rail line I often took. Took to, really. British group Juicy Lucy may have taken to the Chicago Northwestern too. There is a dark tale to tell. They morphed it in their song back to the Western Days when Liberty brought destruction to the Native Americans. You have to listen close to hear it, and I point out specifically here that this is biting satire accomplished for illumination. Juicy Lucy does not condone the terrible toll of the Beautiful Train. Shown below: That's my train.

I got sad news last night that a dear Boston friend died at 79. That is Walter Powers, who I came to know through my library circles [I worked at BU Library for almost 10 years- and got to know a bunch of MIT Library people, especially Gordon Thomas, who played the organ at our wedding.] He and Walter did cataloging and had little bands during academic intermissions.   Walter Powers was a real good guy. Also, a musical historian, erudite, movie star good looking, and famous in the Boston music scene. Including the so-called BossTown Sound scene. He had been in - among others - The Lost with Willie Alexander, Listening with Peter Malickand the Grass Menagerie with Doug Yule, who went on to replace John Cale in the Velvet Underground. When Lou Reed left the Velvets, Walter replaced him, and he brought in Willie Alexander when Sterling Morrison went back to college, leaving Mo Tucker the last of the originals. Tough job to replace Lou there, Walter would admit, but honestly,...

  Went to the New England Conservatory the other night to see The Conservatory Jazz Orchestra. The students - led by Ken Schaphorst - are exceptionally amazing. A great jewel of Boston. The Jazz is big band music. Must be heard! This evening was dedicated to the music - often in collaboration - of Melba Liston and Randy Westin. I made an embedded Spotify playlist based on the program that anyone on the web can sample, and Spotify users can add to their playlists. The New England Conservatory has a special resonance here. One of my first research interviews ever was here when I tracked down the great Jaki Byard . My father as a youth in the 1920s took violin lessons there. I can imagine, as if watching a silent film. The boy in knickers navigating the long set of trolly connections, violin in case, from Dorchester to Huntington Avenue. The case holding a dream of his mother's for better things for him and his family.  Thinking tonight: Every violin has a story or two, doesn't ...

  My first encounter with the Velvet Underground was at a friend’s house – and I was put off. Can’t remember why. I might have thought they were an invention of Andy Warhol, and maybe  a put-on. Heroin was ‘too much for my mirror’ – to borrow Beefheart’s line. That Cale viola was seriously grating. Most likely the exceptionally dark and New York Noire of it didn’t fit my dharma then – there were innumerable records to listen to in 1967. From: The Doors, The Fish, The Grateful Dead, Moby Grape, the Who, the Kinks, Love, Procul Harum, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. Other records I was listening to in that time frame: Canned Heat’s First, Jimi Hendrix Are you Experienced, Electric Flag. Now we get to 1968. Eden was receding. The hippie had been buried. It was the second record, White Light White Heat – that really got me. I am in high school and always doomed to be out the door at 7:30 am. The clock radio with the flipping digits would go off at 6:30 am – at this point the ...

 Birdsongs of the Baroque Fourth Hour Alfonso Ferrabosco the Younger (c.1575-1628), Dovehouse Pavan, Musica Dolce Recorder Consort, Clas Pehrsson, BIS, 305,  ENGLISH CONSORT MUSIC Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741), Flute Concerto #3 in D Op 10 RV428 The Goldfinch (Il Gardellino), I Musici, Aurele Nicolet – flute, Philips, 420188,  VIVALDI: 6 FLUTE CONCERTOS OP. 10 Orlando Gibbons (1583-1625), Dainty fine bird, Cambridge Singers, John Rutter, Collegium, 105,  FLORA GAVE ME FAIREST FLOWERS George Frideric Handel (1685-1759), Organ Concerto #13 in F HWV295 THE CUCKOO AND THE NIGHTINGALE , Academy of Ancient Music, Richard Egarr – organ, Harmonia Mundi, 807447/48,  HANDEL ORGAN CONCERTOS OP.7 William Williams (?1675-1701), Sonata op.1 #6 in F – IN IMITATION OF BIRDS, The Parnassian Ensemble, Sophie Middleditch & Helen Hooker – recorders, Joseph Crouch – cello, David Pollock – harpsichord, Avie, 2094,  A NOBLE ENTERTAINMENT: MUSIC FROM QUEEN ANNE’S LONDON George F...

 One by one the musicians that defined my generation are passing. I focus here on a few of these spirits that I was lucky enough to see. These are Garth Hudson, David Johansen, Barry Goldberg, Eddie Palmieri, Mark Volman, and Steve Cropper. Let's not be somber. Let's make a Joyful Noise ... I remember ... Lucky Paths Crossed ...  GARTH HUDSON - January 21, 2025 - I borrowed a bicycle to go to the ticket window at Dane County Auditorium to see The Band. They were doing the Stage Fright tour. We had gigantic imaginations in those days and cycled around the Auditorium twice, in case Bob Dylan might be found lurking. At the concert when the lights went out we joined  the crowd that ran for the front and settled in yoga positions on the floor with about a 40 foot distance to the stage. When Garth Hudson played Bach and segued into Phantom of the Opera Scale Chest Fever lead in, one could see the musical waves floating in the rafters. He was the last of The Band. I am so glad...

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HISTORY             SPACE               BLUES POETRY             TRADE PRESS DAYS ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Always good to visit Al Compas. Jim Haas's music fiestra. Recently, his take on British Rock led me to create a small addendum. "Failure works for British Invasion Plan" ...  Failure to exactly recreate American Blues. This I learned. It was pandemic time and I wiled away the hours on YouTube. I learned that Paul Jones was childhood friends with Brian Jones - who invited him to move to London with him to start a band - said Paul, Nah – Later, ok he said I will go to London to jam the blues with some art schoolers – the Manfreds - happily end up reinvigorating Brill Bldg wall of sounders like sha la la and do wah diddy [with connection to American jive or cockney patois - where you fill in t...

Mindy Silver a few blocks away bought the first record and everyone used to borrow/trade records back then. She was very Avant Garde. But I didn't like it. They played Heroin on the Underground radio. That didnt really work as well as St. Peppers, IMO at the time. The second record... White Light White Heat and Sister Ray..at 6.30 in the morning the overnight DJ would put something on and split...something long like InnaGaddaDavida...or Sister Ray... and that really got my attention.. was played repeatedly. This was on a little clock radio that woke me up for school. I bought the record. I liked it almost as much as Canned Heat. My friends who were more adventurous went to Chicago to the Electric Circus to see them on a bill with the Grateful Dead.... When the Third Record came out...that was a shock...the mildness of it was pretty unexpected. Again Milwauke underground radio..WTOS.. played it all the way through. Oddlly, late one night, they appeared on The Paul Benziquin show ou...

  Slim quote: Muddy had soul with one string on the guitar. What did he mean? First of all, he meant Muddy Waters was the greatest bluesman, I think. And that his music touched the soul. He also meant that Muddy needed no big accompaniment, or fanfare, and what he had shared was only what was essential. Sunnyland helped a lot of other musicians. He like to make things happen. He had a session with the Chess Brothers when they had the Aristocrat Label. He made a point to get Muddy on the session, and to tell them Muddy should be recorded as well. Muddy had recorded before, but the Chess Brothers had their own studio and would take all the time in the world to achieve what they thought were the best possible blues recordings. So Muddy's talent and their talent would become famous. "Can he sing?" Leonard asked Slim of Muddy. "Can he sing? He can sing like a bird." Slim replied. There is another level too. What Muddy Waters did was strip away artifice to find the fu...

  Blues is fading because the bulk of people with the soul of blues have left the world. Young people are either cool to a frozen degree [that is, my view of pop is it’s a kind of empty with cheap majesty ] or wildly hot [Garbage Metal]. The big beat is big. Electronic Dance Music, a Spanish World Beat Big. And rhyming. Maybe rhyming is eternal. The idea of a fade speaks also for Jazz.  Jazz built on blues, had a couple of blues refreshes [MJQ, Les McCann …] but blues gave way to swing. Finger snapping. To me the roots of jazz are as much a commentary/statement/riff/re-imagining of American popular music from 1915 to 1955, as anything. Reflection on Bing Crosby. With swing and then just abstraction. Jazz musicians rightly held up their music as as good as classical, but in the process got academic. Intellectual. Young people are not likely to relate to any of the above. All moot points. Jazz ages - the audience is gray haired in large part. At least in this country. . I...

  THIS IS SYNDICATED CONTENT. FOR THE REAL THING GO TO https://alcompasdelmundo.blogspot.com/ Jack Vaughan steps in "invitado" tonight. He says: The party would revolve as vinyl, where the English bands or the Motown orchestras could set the quantum strings to spinning. If it were my records at my pad, maybe with a MeisterBrau big jug, I would put forward the case for the dance of ecstasy. There would be LPs and 45s strewn. It might include some slow blues. It might end with Sister Ray, which could wake up the danced-out couch  sleepers, and remind them they should go home. This is the kind of event which I look to memorialize here. In these times, it’s the 45s that seem so especially to hold the magic light – and it’s still easy, on a Friday or Saturday night, to let records play us into a shuffling cloud of socks on the shiny floor. The Watusi, the Swim, the Hully Gully. Among the 45s in this collection are the jazz 45s of Eddie Harris and the Crusaders, of the kind to fi...

Beyond his music, Louis Armstrong communicated in montage and audible forms. The Louis Armstorng Museum is filled with his wildly creative scrapbooks, and prodigious recordings of oral history. I recently read that part of the latter included Armstrong musing as he listens to the famous Library of Congress audios of Jelly Roll Morton on the history of jazz. From The Nation article: Armstrong starts off by giving his predecessor a fine spoken intro, but soon hears Morton make an incendiary claim: Louis Armstrong, Morton says, did not invent scat singing. Armstrong stops the tape to correct the record. “I don’t think I’ll let you get away with this!” he begins, insisting that “nobody used the word ‘scat’ in New Orleans” before he came around. “After all,” Armstrong concludes, “I’m still in the business, and you’re still six feet in the ground, young man.” Nuff said!

Was reading an obit for Wilco Johnson [75], who played in Dr. Feelgood. This is a band I'd heard the name of but never heard, had seen the record in a bin, but passed on it. I knew that they were 'of' the British Pub Rocker Scene of the early '70s - But the guy who came out of that that got my most attention was Dave Edmunds and his cohort Nick Lowe. * So tonight I discovered this Wilco Johnson guy. Not better than the Animals, or anything…but A lot of energy, and an upbeat blues, Stones, or Velvet Underground feeling. Kind of a link between Little Richard, Chuck Berry, John Lee Hooker … and … I don’t know.. The Ramones? Dr Feelgood records died in the U.S. I don't think the name helped. But they have a feel of a lot of bands that never made it over here. After Dr Feelgood Wilco went on to play with Ian Drury, Lemmy Kilmister, Paul McCartney, quite a line up. Made a record with Roger Daltry, so is definitely connected with the British greats. He even took up a...