In which Jeff brings you a taste of Mongolian throat singing as a flimsy excuse to tell a true story about yak molar dice games and that inimitable Mongolian penchant for practical jokes.
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284: Owen Pallett, ‘Oh Heartland, Up Yours!’
Owen Pallett is the most dazzling artist I’ve encountered in years. Think of Jacob Collier, Sufjan Stevens, and Van Dyke Parks!
If those names don’t ring your bells, come take a little walk with me.
266: Vertical Voices, ‘The Cry and The Smile’
Tracking my circuitous, tenuously coherent musical route, my Streaming of Consciousness from the previous fortnight. What connects it all?
The human voice. The only instrument fashioned by God.
081: Maria Schneider, ‘The Pretty Road’
Maria Schneider’s music has been called “evocative, majestic, magical, heart-stoppingly gorgeous.” It defies genre-categorization. In format, it’s standard Big Band, but the music exhibits a symphonic palette, broad and complex and rich and intriguing. Her compositions are often compared to those of Mahler and Copland. They’re ephemeral, transcendental and melodic, often simultaneously. Not impressionistic, but carefully thought out and planned and considered. Incorporating the vast, open, airy Minnesota landscape where she was raised. Thoroughly modern, thoroughly American, thoroughly personal. She’s even been called Nabokovian! A brainy romantic, passionate, an aural aviatrix.
Continue reading...019: Johnny Dyani, ‘Track #1′ (Shvarim Tru’ah)
An obscure South African free-jazz bassist recreating Ye Olde Ram’s Trumpet on that hard-bop classic, ‘Shvarim Tru’ah’.
It must prove something. But I’m not quite sure what.
G’mar chatima tova.
030: The Bulgarian State Radio and Television Women’s Choir (Le Mystere des Voix Bulgares) – ‘Pilentze Pee’
Bulgarian folk music predates our European tradition!! It wasn’t affected by early polyphony; it remained duophonic long after the Europeans Renaissanced. The singers use throat resonance to hold a steady pitch for 5 minutes. It’s full of modal scales, dissonant harmonies (abundant second, seventh, and ninth intervals). And if you’ll give it a chance, you just might find that it really is quite enchanting.
Continue reading...187: Trombone Shorty, ‘Hurricane Season’
In which we talk about “The Making of SoTW”; tripping over fire hydrants; a 1931 Madagascarian torch singer; John Keats’ ‘Ode to a Nightingale’; kissing with your eyes closed; and Trombone Shorty, a young New Orleans practitioner of ‘supafunkrock’ – an amalgam of rock, hip-hop, neo-soul, jazz and funk.
Continue reading...123: Ray Stevens, ‘Jeremiah Peabody’s (…) Pills’
I ain’t no hyprachondriact, but I was up all night with acrobatic kishkes. So here comes the universal cure: Ray Stevens’ ‘Jeremiah Peabody’s Polyunsaturated Quick-Dissolvin’ Fast-Acting Pleasant-Tasting Green and Purple Pills’.
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