Rob Wasserman - Solo

And another Grisman bass player's album from 1983!

There is just something so incredible about a good bass player. They root the music, giving it a foundation in the pulsating rhythms of the Earth, and if they're good they can let it fly too, painting pictures with the dark patches between the stars. There is something so primal about the way the bass ebbs and flows, the way it pulls up the animal energy from down below, gets you drunk on pure sound. This album is all about pure sound. And if you drink it up, you will go dancing between the stars. There is really no way to describe it in ordinary words. Did you ever listen to Tom Cora? This has the same adventurous beauty, but lacks the harshness. Come on. Drink! It's like technicolor chocolate dripping down your throat, like musical honey from seaworthy bees. It's like having sex in slow motion. Molasses in excstasy. Go on. You love it. Drink it up!

Biography by Scott Yanow

A very versatile bassist, Rob Wasserman has gained fame for his trilogy of recording projects accurately titled Solo, Duets, and Trios. Wasserman began playing the violin when he was 12, not switching to bass until he was already 20. Within a year he was studying at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and playing with drummer Charles Moffett. The classical training he had received on violin, plus owning a very open mind have both frequently come in handy throughout his career. Wasserman picked up early experience working with Dan Hicks, Maria Muldaur, Van Morrison, and Oingo Boingo. In 1983, he recorded Solo for Rounder which received very strong reviews. Soon afterward, Wasserman became a longtime member of David Grisman's group and has also had lengthy stints with Lou Reed, Elvis Costello, and the Grateful Dead's Bob Weir. Duets in 1988 matched Wasserman with seven very diverse singers (including Bobby McFerrin, Rickie Lee Jones, Cheryl Benyne, and Lou Reed) and violinist Stéphane Grappelli. 1993's Trios has appearances by such performers as Jerry Garcia, Brian and Carnie Wilson, Willie Dixon, Branford Marsalis, and Elvis Costello among others. Although he has worked throughout much of his career as a featured sideman, Rob Wasserman's three recordings as a leader are his most notable musical accomplishments thus far. The space rock influenced Space Island blasted off in late 2000, exploring new textures and incorporating hip-hop and electronic elements. He spent the next several years playing with Ratdog and appearing with Gov't Mule and Rickie Lee Jones before returning to solo work and releasing Cosmic Farm, a fusion date featuring guitarist Craig Erickson, T. Lavitz on keys, and Jeff Sipe on drums.

About Rob Wasserman

Precious few musicians demonstrate the scope to be dubbed renaissance men, but Rob Wasserman has more than earned the title. His daunting versatility has made him one of the last two decade's most in-demand bassists -- as demonstrated by recording and touring stints with Lou Reed, Van Morrison, and Elvis Costello. His longtime creative partnership with Grateful Dead members Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir have yielded a trove of fertile sounds. And, last but far from least, the albums issued under his own name have won awards from sources in the jazz, pop and rock fields. That acclaim has much to do with Wasserman's unflagging devotion to artistic purity and the value of real musicianship. Trained at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, he developed a style of upright bass playing that he likens to cello, more than standard bass methodology. He's put that ability to the test in a variety of contexts over the years, most notably on a series of three albums -- SOLO, DUETS, and TRIOS -- that demonstrate his unparalleled knack for making his voice heard without shouting, for allowing the collaborative process to flower to its fullest That trilogy began with the release of SOLO, an album completed with the support of an NEA Composer's Fellowship. Although already widely respected as a player -- collaborating with artists as varied as Stephane Grappelli and Rickie Lee Jones -- Wasserman far exceeded expectations of what a solo bass album could deliver, garnering acclaim in a number of venues, including Downbeat, which voted his debut Jazz Album of the Year and voted him Bassist and Composer of the Year. On the Grammy-winning DUETS (named Vocal Album of the Year by Billboard) Wasserman's collaborators included Aaron Neville, Lou Reed, Bobby McFerrin, and others. While that album put the bassist's interpretive skills to work on standards spanning a full half century of American music, it merely set the stage for Wasserman's release, TRIOS, an album dubbed "dazzling" by Rolling Stone and granted a rare five-star rating by Downbeat. TRIOS brought together artists like Jerry Garcia & Edie Brickell, Bruce Hornsby & Branford Marsalis, Neil Young and Bob Weir, Elvis Costello and Marc Ribot, Brian & Carnie Wilson (produced by Don Was), and the late Willie Dixon (in his last recorded appearance), to perform a set of original material. "I never considered myself a sideman, since I was always involved in the creative process says Wasserman, "My nature is that I love to play this instrument but I won't be limited by it. I don't sing much, can't play drums, can't play guitar, so I have to say everything I would say with those instruments through the bass. Another addition to the Rob Wasserman catalog, “Space Island” (Atlantic Records) broke new barriers for him as he teamed up with master mixer/producer Dave Aron (Snoop Dogg, Prince) to create a bass groove record with a hip hop rhythm. The record features drummer Stephen Perkins (Jane’s Addiction), scratcher DJ Jam (Dr. Dre) and other special guests. Billboard called it “Exhilarating...one of the most kinetically fun albums of the year.” Wasserman has consistently proven he isn't shy about stretching the limits of his chosen instrument. Having worked on the designs for a number of new basses including, with guitar wizard Ned Steinberger, a revolutionary six-string electric upright bass, he's turned his attentions of late to creating new sounds on his basses with the help of the latest effects technology. Not that such endeavors have taken Wasserman's attention from his myriad of other projects. He served as a collaborator with and as a member of Lou Reed’s band from 1988 to 1995, and re-joined Lou’s band in 2006. Another creative partner is dance choreographer Mark Morris, who Wasserman collaborated with to develop and present “Dances to American Music” which world-premiered at Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York, and then toured the U.S. and Europe. Wasserman has balanced such rather high-toned pursuits with projects like RatDog, the band he and longtime partner Bob Weir assembled after touring as a successful duo for ten years. Arista Records released Weir/Wasserman Live, a collection of the duo’s hottest live performances and followed that with RatDog’s debut studio recording, “Evening Moods.” In tandem with Grateful Dead Merchandise, Rob formed his own label, Rare Wasserman Records. Released were DUA, an album of original improvisations with world master sarengi player Ustad Sultan Khan, and BASSICALLY ME, a new collection of solo bass compositions. As a featured part of all Weir/Wasserman and RatDog concerts for fifteen years, Rob presented solo bass to enthusiastic acclaim. He has since begun an expanded performance schedule that features solo bass on tour with Lou Reed, DJ Spooky, Particle, John Popper, and DJ Logic, among others. Rounder Records has released “TRILOGY” – SOLO, DUETS, and TRIOS brought together for the first time as a three cd boxed set. The package features new notes and commentary by Rob and several of his collaborators, as well as 24 bit re-mastering by Joe Gastwirt. Rob is presently recording and producing his next cd, “My Name Is New York” to be released in 2009. A collaborative project with The Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archive, it features Rob in duet with an incredible cast of singers interpreting unreleased Woody Guthrie lyrics. Recorded so far are Ani di Franco, Lou Reed, Chris Whitley, Michael Franti, Pete Seeger, Nellie McKay, Studs Terkel, Keren Anne and Kevin Hearn-- More unique collaborations will complete the project. Some of Rob's recorded work with other artists: David Grisman Quintet - "Quintet '80" (Warner Bros.) David Grisman/Stephane Grappelli - "Live" (Elektra) David Grisman Quintet - "Acousticity" (MCA) Van Morrison - "Beautiful Visions" (Warner Brothers) Rickie Lee Jones - "Flying Cowboys" (Geffen) Lou Reed - "New York" (Sire/Reprise) Elvis Costello - "Mighty Like A Rose" (Warner Bros.) Lou Reed - "Magic & Loss" (Sire/Reprise) Rickie Lee Jones - "Naked Songs " (Geffen) Bruce Cockburn - "The Charity Of Night" (Ryko) Banyan - (CyberOctave) Ratdog - "Evening Moods" (BMG/Arista) Ratdog - "Live at Roseland" (BMG/Arista) Ustad Sultan Khan - "Dua" (Rare Wasserman Records) Les Claypool - "5 Gallons of Diesel" (Prawn Song Records) Hal Willner - "Sea Shanteys" (Anti-) Lou Reed - "Berlin" (The Weinstein Company)


Rob Wasserman - Solo

Year: 1983
Label: Rounder
Genre: New Acoustic; Jazz; Experimental

Review by Ron Wynn

Since bassist Rob Wasserman recently had a much-discussed session on the market, it's not surprising Rounder would rush this 13-cut collection recorded in 1982 from the vaults. This one is a superior work in terms of showcasing Wasserman's attributes, which include a huge tone, excellent compatibility and versatility, and tremendous overall skills. His talents were well displayed; he covers all the bases from bop to light fusion. He wrote every piece except "Lady Be Good," and while they're all short (none four minutes long and several less than three), he always manages to play a nifty phrase, elegant line or intricate passage. If you'd prefer a less bombastic, hyped example of Rob Wasserman's music, here's the ideal ticket.

Tracks
1 Thirteen - Wasserman - 2:50
2 Lima Twist - Wasserman - 3:46
3 Sunway - Wasserman - 2:17
4 Punk Sizzle - Wasserman - 1:46
5 Clare - Wasserman - :54
6 Oh, Lady Be Good - Gershwin, Gershwin - 2:05
7 Strumming - Wasserman - 1:50
8 Bass Blue - Wasserman - 2:22
9 Bass Space - Wasserman - 3:11
10 April Aire - Wasserman - 2:19
11 Freedom Bass Dance - Wasserman - 1:37
12 Ode to Casals - Wasserman - 3:57
13 Sara's Rainbow Dong - Wasserman - 1:56

blue space.
vinyl, cleaned | mp3 >192kbps vbr | small cover | 51mb

as as per usual, I'm looking for a couple: Basically Me and his duet with Ustad Sultan Khan, 'Dua'

Randal Gatz and Mary Jane Kelly - Complete Recorded Works

It's not every day you come across as music that will rip flesh from bones, bring tears to your eyes as it tears the walls from your ears. It's not every day you come across music that makes John Fahey's 'Lion' pale in comparison. Get ready folks, it's the revolt of a real dyke brigade!

Randal Gatz and Mary Jane Kelly were the first male-female guitar duet ever recorded, and they were one of the best. They issued their first 78, Red Cap in the OK / Slotty Spoons, on the Bluebird label in 1926. According to the records, they were initially quite popular and recorded another dozen sides. Unfortunately, most of these records have not survived. For years they were known just by the one record, but the power in that one record was enough to create a fanatical passion amongst collectors when it was rediscovered in the early 1960s. While he was looking for the old bluesman Ishman Bracey, John Fahey uncovered another record by Gatz & Kelly: the mysterious "Smut Eulas" and its B-Side "Edly". He used the latter as a launching point for his unreleased masterpiece "Requiem for Blind Thomas". It stands head and shoulders all other early guitar music, for power, mystery and sheer brilliance, and in an odd way, it sounds almost avant-garde, in a very primitive way. Indeed, you can hear echoes of these early sides in not only the country-blues duets of Weaver & Beasley or the haunting slide work of Blind Willie Johnson, but also in the more modern sounding guitar soli and even hints of it in heavy metal and thrash music. It's amazing, actually, that it was recorded at all, considering how challenging it must have been given the cultural climate; but then again, those were the early days of recording, when executives were willing to give any weirdo hillbilly a shot just in case there was a market for it. This is real roots music: like somethig you would probably hear in the hills somewhere before recording technology ever existed. Except that instead of a banjo is a shotgun of a guitar, and instead of vocals, there's a diving duck, dead.


Fahey's obsession with this music, from hitherto-unknown names, propelled him to track down the former recording engineer for Bluebird, then in his 90s, working as a janitor in an ice-skating rink in Minneapolis. He quizzed the old man, one Elijah P. Lovejoy (who would later contribute remarks to some of Fahey's liner notes), asking him if he could remember any other master takes from Gatz & Kelly. Together they tracked down the original masters and found a previously unissued track, "Skull to the Balls," withheld due to profanity, as well as some tracks containing snippets of studio dialogue. Then they discovered something totally unexpected: the reason that so few Gatz & Kelly records survived is because most of them were intentionally recalled and destroyed. The reason behind this has to do with the murder and mutilation of Mary Jane Kelly, and a supposed curse that was imprinted in the record if you played it on reverse (this preceded all the hype about playing Beatles records backwards by 40 years). Randal Gatz joined a Dixieland jazz band soon after the event, but they all disappeared soon afterwards, never to be seen again.

The doctor's report following the discovery of Kelly's body was written as follows:

"The body was lying naked in the middle of the bed, the shoulders flat but the axis of the body inclined to the left side of the bed. The head was turned on the left cheek. The left arm was close to the body with the forearm flexed at a right angle and lying across the abdomen.

The right arm was slightly abducted from the body and rested on the mattress. The elbow was bent, the forearm supine with the fingers clenched. The legs were wide apart, the left thigh at right angles to the trunk and the right forming an obtuse angle with the pubes.

The whole of the surface of the abdomen and thighs was removed and the abdominal cavity emptied of its viscera. The breasts were cut off, the arms mutilated by several jagged wounds and the face hacked beyond recognition of the features. The tissues of the neck were severed all round down to the bone.

The viscera were found in various parts viz: the uterus and kidneys with one breast under the head, the other breast by the right foot, the liver between the feet, the intestines by the right side and the spleen by the left side of the body. The flaps removed from the abdomen and thighs were on a table.

The bed clothing at the right corner was saturated with blood, and on the floor beneath was a pool of blood covering about two feet square. The wall by the right side of the bed and in a line with the neck was marked by blood which had struck it in a number of separate splashes.

The face was gashed in all directions, the nose, cheeks, eyebrows, and ears being partly removed. The lips were blanched and cut by several incisions running obliquely down to the chin. There were also numerous cuts extending irregularly across all the features.

The neck was cut through the skin and other tissues right down to the vertebrae, the fifth and sixth being deeply notched. The skin cuts in the front of the neck showed distinct ecchymosis. The air passage was cut at the lower part of the larynx through the cricoid cartilage.

Both breasts were more or less removed by circular incisions, the muscle down to the ribs being attached to the breasts. The intercostals between the fourth, fifth, and sixth ribs were cut through and the contents of the thorax visible through the openings.

The skin and tissues of the abdomen from the costal arch to the pubes were removed in three large flaps. The right thigh was denuded in front to the bone, the flap of skin, including the external organs of generation, and part of the right buttock. The left thigh was stripped of skin fascia, and muscles as far as the knee.

The left calf showed a long gash through skin and tissues to the deep muscles and reaching from the knee to five inches above the ankle. Both arms and forearms had extensive jagged wounds.
The right thumb showed a small superficial incision about one inch long, with extravasation of blood in the skin, and there were several abrasions on the back of the hand moreover showing the same condition.

On opening the thorax it was found that the right lung was minimally adherent by old firm adhesions. The lower part of the lung was broken and torn away. The left lung was intact. It was adherent at the apex and there were a few adhesions over the side. In the substances of the lung there were several nodules of consolidation.

The pericardium was open below and the heart absent. In the abdominal cavity there was some partly digested food of fish and potatoes, and similar food was found in the remains of the stomach attached to the intestines."


Transfixed by this account, and compelled by the murder was conducted by the same person who waxed such haunting guitar lines (namely the late Kelly's partner), Randal Gatz became the model for John Fahey's 'Blind Joe Death'.

These recordings are extremely rare, only released by Document and Mississippi Records, and seems to have disappeared off both of their official discographies. So I'm assuming it's out of print, perhaps recalled due to the same superstitions that destroyed most of the original records. The files were given to me by a fellow Fahey-enthusiast, which prompted my research into this cryptomortological story.


Randal Gatz and Mary Jane Kelly - Complete Recorded Works (1926-1929)
Label: Document
Year: 1994

wonder, wallow, weep.
mp3 128kbps | with cover | 11mb

Yes We Did! - The Best of 2008

Avast, maties! I spy land on the horizon. Could this be what we've been waiting for? The dawning of a new era? The unfolding of a new whirled hors d'oeuvre? I'll leave you to decipher that one.

Though one must remember, it was a battle hard-won. We were assailed by charlatanical homophobics, intemperate capitalists, and pugnaciously impetuous militants. You know the ones I mean.

But we shook off their cannonfire, wiped off our poop deck, and kept our sights straight: our course never veering from numero uno, that great glory of glories, treasure among treasure-- I am speaking of course about the quest for the crown of captaincy, the staff of superintendence, the throne of directorship. Directorship for what? To direct a sinking ship! To navigate out from these tempestuous waves to a bed of more peaceful, prosperous brine.

Mission 1 accomplished:

After a savage duel the fell antagonist revealed his true nature: a bloodthirsty creature from beyond the deep, solely focussed on world domination. This sanguinary hellion reared its ugly head and spat acid bile at our noble hero. But Captain Brackbeard, our saintly skipper, would not be thwarted, instead turning his shield of truth to deflect the monster's attack. Then, with his sword of justice, Brackbeard pierced the swine's veil of lies and scored the creature in its gaping lack-of-heart cavity. Thus punctured, the demon gave up its ghost and promptly discontinued its earthly dominion.

And there was much rejoicing.

Our righteous vanquisher then withstood several attempted mutinies (seemingly based on the hue of his epidermis) and set about the task of evicting the suit-clad aliens from our great vessel's treasury. Finally, upon ascendance to the helm, Captain Brackbeard proclaimed a new era of armistice and affluence, gathered unto himself a noble cr

ew and prepared to launch this resplendent corsair fleet into the great foggy unknown.

O fortuna!

To celebrate this remarkable year, I've gathered some of its musical highlights together. I tried to make a mix-cd at the new year, but it swelled to 2 discs and the stormy weather diverted my course (blowing a tree onto my phone-line in the process). The tracks contained within are my favorite tracks from my favorite albums released in 2

008, presented in no particular order. I didn't count any re-issues, compilations or archive-issues (such as the great Capt. Beefheart album). Though much of the work draws upon tradition, it is all contemporary in spirit and execution; I left out any music that was strictly traditional (such as the great young sitarist Tejendra Majumdar). Actually, since I haven't been anywhere near a record store most of the year (and wouldn't have found this stuff in most of 'em anyways), most of this music was found on blogs, forums, and other domains of musical mischeif. Many of them are new to me, and I indend to do some pocket-digging and support some of them in times to come.

The compilation is a healthy mix of guitar soli, progressive bluegrass, world fusion, and skewed visions of americana, representative of much of this blog's content. In other words, if you're reading this, chances are you'll like listening to it.

My favorite track? I'd have to go with Louisiana Red & Stelios Vamkaris - I Fantasia Stin Eksousia, from their album "Blues meets Rembetika" -- a first of its kind as far as I'm aware.

At the moment, the wind is knocking out my connection again, so my itunes-snapshot-tracklist will have to come later. Guess you get to DL it mystery-style! Tracklist is below.

Yes We Did! - The Best of 2008

3 parts; various bit rates

Yes | We | Did!

the last great post this year

Well, this blog has been fun, but I'm going to have to put it on hold for a while. I'm going to be working on organic farms in Ireland and perhaps other parts of Europe through the WWOOF organization, for 6-12 months. As I'll have neither a reliable internet connection nor access to my music horde, I won't really be able to post for some time. But before I go, I thought I'd leave you with a bunch of albums which I've uploaded but never got around to posting with images, reviews, etc.. Some of these links are fairly old, so I apollogize for any expired links, but I won't be able to re-post them. Anyway, this ought to keep you busy for a while:

Fiddle Me This: A Fiddle for your Fancy
one of my longstanding pasttimes has been making mix-cds. this one was for a friend who was learning violin. it includes celtic, folk, bluegrass, cajun, and jazz fiddling, from many of the best.
http://www.shareonall.com/Fiddle_ybmq.zip


Britain to Brittany: A Celtic Feast of Song
another mix-cd, this time full of celtic and folk music from England, Scotland, Ireland, France, French Canada, and Colorado. Many of the tracks on here are from the Acoustic Folk Box, which sparked a revival in my interest in this kind of music.
http://rapidshare.com/files/280147821/BritainToBrittany.zip


Christy Moore - Paddy on the Road
Christy's first album, before the legendary Prosperous which spawned the even more legendary Irish supergroup Planxty. Not a great album, as Christy is backed by some english session musicians who don't really have a feel for the irish music. But a good indication of the greatness to come. Vinyl?
http://rapidshare.com/files/29050280/CM-POTR.rar.html
0ld dead link replaced by older, lower-quality link courtesy of Time Has Told Me


Jethro Burns - Jethro Burns
The best mandolinist in the world before David Grisman got really hot. Some of you may recognize him from the session with Norman Blake, Vassar Clements, Dave Holland, et al. Vinyl.
http://sharebee.com/6f0c66cd


Kinky Friedman - Sold American
The Frank Zappa of country music, with a flair for fearless subject matter and perfect turns of phrase. Later, a successful novelist. Now, a governor-cantidate for the state of Texas. Long-live The Texas Jewboy!
http://sharebee.com/abc11290


Jean Carignan
The best French-Canadian fiddler in recent memory, and conspicuously absent from my fiddle cd.
http://sharebee.com/88b16fdc


Dave Van Ronk - Gambler's Blues
Early-60s session for Folkways. Some of this album was included on The Folkways Years 1959-61. Raw and great. Vinyl.
http://sharebee.com/07c54f84


The Great Clarence White Bootleg Tapes
a while back I promised you more Kentucky Colonels live recordings. Here they are. Taken from recordings at the Ash Grove in LA, mid-60s. Includes a lot of stuff with Scott Stoneman, the Jimi Hendrix of the fiddle. Here's what Jerry Garcia said about 'The Eigth of January', included here (though it's actually about 8.5 minutes, despite Jerry's memory):

I get my improvisational approach from Scotty Stoneman, the fiddle player. [He's] the guy who first set me on fire -- where I just stood there and I don't remember breathing. He was just an incredible fiddler. He was a total alcoholic wreck by the time I heard him, in his early thirties, playing with the Kentucky Colonels... They did a medium-tempo fiddle tune like 'Eighth of January' and it's going along, and pretty soon Scotty starts taking these longer and longer phrases -- ten bars, fourteen bars, seventeen bars -- and the guys in the band are just watching him! They're barely playing -- going ding, ding, ding -- while he's burning. The place was transfixed. They played this tune for like twenty minutes, which is unheard of in bluegrass. I'd never heard anything like it. I asked him later, 'How do you do that?' and he said, 'Man, I just play lonesome.' (Garcia, c. 1985, via Blair Jackson's Garcia: An American Life)
Disc 1: http://sharebee.com/6172bc99
Disc 2: http://sharebee.com/6269010b
Disc 3: http://sharebee.com/4d1cd530
Disc 4: http://sharebee.com/613af688


Fred Sokolow - Bluegrass Banjo Inventions
Brilliant Kicking Mule album includes Jody Stecher on guitar and an amazing pice called Banjo Gamelan or something. Vinyl.
http://sharebee.com/92c293ce
or http://rapidshare.com/files/134319831/Fred_Sokolow_-_Bluegrass_Banjo_Inventions.rar.html (re-posted with cover by Teclas Petras at Uncle Gil's Rockin Archives)



Tanz! with Dave Tarras & The Musiker Brothers
From the Benny Goodman of Jewish music, a wild fusion of klezmer and big band swing.
http://rapidshare.com/files/106722133/TanzWithDTtMB.zip


Rob Wasserman - Solo
Amazing solo bass album by a member of the original David Grisman Quintet. Vinyl.
http://sharebee.com/08a03824


Larry McNeely - Live at McCabes
This Takoma session is more straight-ahead bluegrass than Rhapsody for Banjo, though it includes his version of Beethoven's 5th Symphony for banjo. Vinyl.
http://www.mediafire.com/?gmjmnmnwz5i (re-post Jan-15-09)


Alan Lomax Southern Journey Vol 12 - Georgia Sea Islands
Amazing pre-blues tradition of vocal group singing. Gullah. Great.
http://www.badongo.com/file/11082092 thanks to anonymous for the repost!


Alan Lomax Southern Journey Vol 13 - Earliest Times: Georgia SeaIsland Songs for Everyday Living
More of the Same.
http://www.mediafire.com/?nmzjw4zn3yn


Alan Lomax Collection - Georgia Sea Island Songs
Even more. really excellent.
http://www.shareonall.com/GeorgiaCIsland_sjnh.zip


Bob Brozman - Blue Hula Stomp
Early Kicking Mule album for Brozman, the world master of the steel/slide guitar, and ukelele too. Title says it all: blues, hawaiian, stomp.
http://rapidshare.com/files/134318227/Bob_Brozman_Snapping_The_Strings.rar.html (re-posted with cover by Teclas Petras at Uncle Gil's Rockin Archives)


Tut Taylor - Dobrolic Plectral Society
Down-home bluegrass on Takoma. See also Norman, Vassar, Jethro...
vinyl, cleaned mp3 >192kbps vbr w/ cover 59mb
http://sharebee.com/33864b12 [re-post thanks to Bumkuncha]
see expanded page at Pathways to Unknown Worlds


Snehasish Mozumder - Mandolin Dreams
Indian ragas on mandolin!
http://sharebee.com/11cdea46 [re-post thanks to Bumkuncha]
see expanded page at Pathways to Unknown Worlds


Raphael Rabello & Dino 7 Cordas
two of the greatest guitar masters from Brazil on 7-string guitars. Stunning.
http://lix.in/ee409755
now from Um Que Tenha


Paulo Moura & Raphael Rabello - Dois Irmaos
Guitar and clarinet duets, brazillian, amazing choro music.
http://lix.in/fe40b12b
now from Um Que Tenha

Cornell Lab of Ornithology - An Evening in Sapsucker Woods
The archetypal field recordings of birds. Reissued by popular demand.
http://www.shareonall.com/Cornell_Lab_of_Ornithology_vqji.zip


Sonny Sharock - Black Woman
Free-jazz on electric guitar and voice. Powerful stuff from the late 60s. Sharrock's guitar-skronk is the stuff of legend. His wife's voice is an instrument of expression, not a song-producer.
http://sharebee.com/aa205ec7


Lenny Breau - Five O'Clock Bells-Mo' Breau
a seminal pair of albums from the greatest guitarist to ever live (arguably). He can sound like 3 people at once, playing a walking bass, jazz chords, and a melody simultaneously. Country meets Jazz meets flamenco meets classical meets pure innovation.
http://sharebee.com/38284fd7


The Legendary Lenny Breau... Now
More of the same. Absolutely stunning.
http://sharebee.com/10093576


Tommy Jarrell - Tommy Jarrell Legacy Volume 3: Come And Go With Me
a master of old-time music on this all-banjo record. for ejg.
http://sharebee.com/49b21321


Original Blind Boys of Alabama - Original Five Blind Boys of Alabama
before their crossover days. gospel and guitar; it'll make you believe.
http://sharebee.com/d7178553


Roosevelt Sykes - Chicago Boogie
master of blues/boogie/barrelhouse piano. 'The Honeydripper'
http://sharebee.com/fcfd6d0b


Roosevelt Sykes - Raining in My Heart
more.
http://rapidshare.com/files/102313397/Roosevelt_Sykes_-_Raining_In_My_Heart.zip.html


Mud Acres: Music Among Friends: Music from Woodstock Mountains
a jam featuring Happy & Artie Traum, Bill Keith, Maria Muldaur, & others.
http://sharebee.com/96a03307


Munir Bashir - The Art of the Oud (Ocora-Irak. L'Art du Oud)
oud improvisations from a master.
http://sharebee.com/eaba2552


Munir Bashir & Omar Bashir - Duo de 'ud
more
http://rapidshare.de/files/38926859/MunirBashirOmarBashir.zip.html


Joseph Moskowitz - The Art of the Cymbalom
vintage hammer-dulcimer music. east-europe meets swing. gypsy classical russian new york.
http://rapidshare.com/files/101197655/JMoskowitz-TAotCymbalom.zip


From Spirituals to Swing (Reissue 3-cd box)
arguably the most important single concert in the first half of the twentieth century. Produced by the legendary John Hammond, it brought the genius of black music to white people. Bessie Smith, Charlie Christian, Count Basie, Sonny Terry, Benny Goodman, & more. many booklet scans.
Disc 1: http://sharebee.com/d203a0d8
Disc 2: http://sharebee.com/b9fae446
Disc 3: http://sharebee.com/d0c11848
Reissue Notes: http://sharebee.com/06348cd4 Size: 94.71 MB
Original Notes: http://sharebee.com/9d2c3d0b Size: 54.36 MB


John Kirkpatrick - Jump at the Sun
british accordion-driven folk music
mp3 160k w/ big front & back cover 40mb
http://rapidshare.com/files/100780668/JKirkp-JatS.zip


Genghis Blues soundtrack
Featuring Tuvan master Kongar Ol-Ondar and throat-singing blind bluesman Paul "Earthquake" Pena. Must be heard to be believed. RIP, Paul.
http://sharebee.com/a7c4af9a


Othar Turner & the Rising Star Fife & Drum Band - Everybody Hollerin' Goat
the last living master of the cane fife, and a critical link between african music and the birth of the blues. held a legendary annual barbecue.
http://rapidshare.com/files/249320807/OthTurn-Goat.zip


Othar Turner & The Afrosippi Allstars - Senegal to Senatopia
more of the same, though with more contemporary accompanists
http://massmirror.com/e81d834c30443fd481016525b8315258.html
direct links:
http://www.zshare.net/download/8674580690f718/
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=EWB85B4Y


Bob Brozman - Snapping the Strings
more great slide guitar music and wild singing
http://massmirror.com/df2f82135219fb2f95926c7a872b4763.html
Direct Links:
http://www.badongo.com/file/8168279
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=BGBEY2S9
http://www.zshare.net/download/8592133567984b/
http://fastuploading.com/download.php?id=B978D0D71
http://rapidshare.com/files/97680082/BBrozman-StS.zip.html
http://4filehosting.com/file/98132/BBrozman-StS-zip.html


Snooks Eaglin - New Orleans Street Singer
Early acoustic Folkways session from 'the living jukebox', a new orleans legend and great guitar player with a Ray Charles-esque singing voice.
http://sharebee.com/7affa56a


Mississippi Fred McDowell - Standing at the Burying Ground
electric show from England, late 60s. Delta blues slide master. "I do not play no rock & roll"
http://sharebee.com/a892a73a


John Fahey - Yes ! Jesus Loves Me: Guitar Hymns
"Christ is not cute."
http://sharebee.com/c433d60e


Rahsaan Roland Kirk - Does Your House Have Lions: The Anthology
brilliant and strange stuff from this sax-innovator. see post in the archives. includes a track that mixes Dvorak's 'Going Home' with an 'old apple pie melody' by Stephen Foster, played simultaneously on different horns coming out of different sides of his mouth. Also a version of "Ain't No Sunshine" where he sings while playing the flute.
http://www.shareonall.com/RRK-DYHHLions_ndph.zip


Vishwa Mohan Bhatt & Musicians of Rajasthan - Desert Slide
Indian slide-guitar master meets desert caravan. kinda east-meets-east.
http://rapidshare.com/files/141343641/VMBhds.rar.html [re-post thanks to Bumkuncha]
see expanded page at Pathways to Unknown Worlds


Booka White, Skip James, Blind Willie McTell - Three Shades of Blue
3 of the greatest masters of acoustic blues. What more could you want?
http://sharebee.com/e08d6131


Reverend Pearly Brown - You're Gonna Need that Pure Religion
slide-guitar-playing religious street-singer carries on the legacy of Blind Willie Johnson. Also posted at Broke Down Engine
http://sharebee.com/2ec06d84


Victoria Spivey & Lonnie Johnson - Idle Hours
from the man who invented the guitar solo and the woman who sang Blake Snake Moan (and taught Maria Muldaur how to sing, and revived the carreer of Sippie Wallace)
http://sharebee.com/75f54cec


Lonnie Johnson - Another Night to Cry
you'll begin to see where Geoff Muldaur learned to sing...
http://sharebee.com/49899407


Lonnie Johnson-Playing with the Strings
and where Charlie Christian got his single-string work...
http://sharebee.com/9f5c7c41


Lonnie Johnson - Blues by Lonnie Johnson
more of the same
http://sharebee.com/45090544


Paul Butterfield's Better Days - Bearsville Anthology
band with Geoff Muldaur and Amos Garrett; this is white chicago blues-rock at its best, from the Woodstock region of New York.
http://sharebee.com/3c84d97b


Memphis Minnie-Queen of the Blues
that's what she was. even beat Big Bill Broonzy in a guitar contest. Led Zeppelin stole 'When The Levee Breaks' from her.
http://sharebee.com/5cf40ed5


Ewan MacColl-Black & White: The Definitive Collection
from the grandfather of british folk. the Scottish Pete Seeger, if you will.
http://sharebee.com/f9251130


Mississippi John Hurt-Best Of (Live at Oberlin College 1965)
The great folk-blues songster with elegant fingerpicking and a gentle demeanor that pervades all his work. all his well-known songs are here.
http://sharebee.com/ce4973ec


Mississippi John Hurt-D.C. Blues: The Library of Congress Recordings Vol.2
not his best performances, but include some cuts not recorded elsewhere
Disc 1: http://sharebee.com/e9324028
Disc 2: http://sharebee.com/77a5cd2b


Frank Stokes-Creator of the Memphis Blues
that's what he was
http://sharebee.com/750234ca


The Blues Project-Live at Town Hall
blues-rock featuring Danny Kalb (see Merlin-In-Rags blog)
http://sharebee.com/fb09ae26


Jo Ann Kelly - Jo Ann Kelly (1969)
there are few artists for whom John Fahey played back-up guitar (though not on these sessions). On par with Maria Muldaur as the best female white blues singer. Better than Janis Joplin, and she could play a pretty mean guitar too. Though British, somehow she ends up channeling Memphis Minnie.
http://sharebee.com/ec8621a0


Gertrude Stein, James Joyce, Kurt Schwitters - read their own works
there was some talk a while back about 'poetry'. And while I know lots of people think Leonard Cohen's songs are 'poetry', including Leonard Cohen, I really don't think they hold their own against any real 'poetry'. Here is proof.
http://www.mediafire.com/?kydzdz5kwnr



enjoy! i'll be back eventually, and maybe i'll turn some of these into real posts.

The Roots of John Fahey

So, about 9 months ago I started working on this compilation. Several months and nany hours of searching, listening, and sequencing later, I found out that someone had already done a more complete version of the same task. Until yesterday, however, I hadn't seen a tracklist from the mysterious 10-cd set called the VrootzBox, so this is not a derivative work, however similar it may be.

The inception of the project came when I heard Frank Hutchinson playing K.C. Blues on the A Lighter Shade of Blue: White Country Blues (1926-1938) compilation. I read the booklet to Return of the Repressed, and found all these mentions about musicians he had copped licks from. I looked at The Fahey Files, the crowning achievement of the International Fahey Commission. Then I found Old Time Mountain Guitar on El Diablo Tun Tun, and that propelled me further. Some trips to the library for Béla Bartók and Charles Ives cds proved pretty revealing too.

Some time back someone left a comment on my post of Fahey's God, Time & Causality saying something to the effect of "This version of I Am the Resurrection pales in comparison to the version on The Transfiguration of Blind Joe Death". Well, while that's true, it's also true that I Am the Resurrection pales in comparison to Jesse Fuller's Hark from the Tomb, upon which it was based. In fact, a lot of these performances are more raw and idiosyncratic than Fahey's versions, though Fahey, to his credit, adds a harmonic complexity absent from the originals. And if you think Fahey was a bizarre visionary living on the fringes when he released Blind Joe Death in 1959, consider that Harry Partch created his own scales, built his own instruments, and crafted totally unique, beautiful, complex, difficult-listening music in the '40sm while living as a hobo. And, through a curious chain of personal connections, Fahey heard some of this music and was very inspired by it.

I should mention that not all of these songs are songs that he covered or copped licks from. Most of the music he has made mention to, though a few of the songs were recorded after his formative years and one or two he never would have heard. But they are presented to give an illustration of the styles he drew from (such as gamelan, which he grew up playing in his neighbor's back yard).

Originally I was going to write something about each song on the compilation, but as it swelled to 5 cds and I prepared to leave the country, I just settled on the daunting task of finishing the damn thing and posting it. So what you hear is what you get, though additional info can be found at the Vrootz! info page.

Many of the artists on here can be found on other "roots of" compilations (Roots of Rock, Roots of Robert Johnson, Early Blues Roots of Led Zeppelin, etc), underscoring the fact that, as Willie Dixon said, "The Blues is the roots. Everything else is the fruits." But as a record-collector, Fahey's roots were deeper and more obscure than those of the blues-rockers who got rich ripping off Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters (both of whom ripped off Son House & others).

I thought about grouping the music into styles (hillbilly music, country blues, modern classical music, etc), but decided that in Fahey's world and music, these genres were not so disparate and could in fact flow seamlessly into one another. Reading R. Anthony Lee (aka Flea)'s account of the early life of John Fahey confirms this, as even early on "he had developed his famous eclecticism, and would follow Sibelius’s Second symphony with the Stanley Brothers’ White doves will mourn in sorrow with no sense of disjunction." Plus, this way I could highlight certain connections, such as beautiful modal dissonances found in the music of both Son House and Bartók, the shimmering just intonality of Southeast Asian gamelan ensembles and the homemade microtonal music of Harry Partch. Also I've grouped songs to show how Fahey would pull from several disparate sources to form a new song, so you'll hear building block such as Walter "Buddy Boy" Hawkins' A-Rag, Carl Perkins' Matchbox and the flamenco of Sabicas, all of which can be heard in Fahey's Lion. And, in true Fahey-fashion, I ended each album with a hymn of a sort.

I've been collecting music and making eclectic and themed mix-cds since high school, but this is the first time I've put extensive research into it. I guess my hope is that other aspiring musicians and inactivists will hear this music and enter a new realm of musical enchantment, irresponsible unproductivity, and hapless record-collecting.

There are a few artists and songs that ought to be on here but aren't because I assume that everyone knows about them (e.g. Robert Johnson, Christmas music, California Dreamin', and The Beatles' Rain, Blueberry Hill, Hank Williams). Also, I didn't really trace his latter-day influences such as Einsturzende Neubaten, as that's not really my area of expertise (nor his, despite his self-aggrandizing claims). I didn't include the version of Railroad Bill on Pete Seeger's guitar-instruction album, which was the first song Fahey learned to play, though I do have it. I also left off songs that are only related by title (no copies of Charley Patton's Some Summer Day had surfaced when Fahey took the title, and Fahey's Wine and Roses and Night Train to Valhalla bear very little similarity to Henry Mancini's Days of Wine and Roses or Roy Acuff's Night Train to Memphis). Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera Legend Of The Invisible City Of Kitezh was left off, though Stravinsky's Dance of the Infernal Subjects of Kaschei was included.

If you like this music and are interested in delving further, check out some of the blogs listed here. El Diablo Tun Tun is where I got a lot of this stuff. For serious blues lovers, check out Merlin in Rags and The Blues Club forum (registration required). For classical stuff, see Le Roi S'Amuse, or check out your local library. The Ravi Shankar piece upon which Fahey based On the Banks of the Owchita can be found at Singer Saints. The gamelan vinyl came from A Closet of Curiosities. A bunch of Fahey-related stuff can be found at grown so ugly and the usenet group alt.binaries.sounds.mp3.acoustic is excellent. A lot of related music is also posted on this blog; if you search the archives, you'll find some Harry Partch, some Jug Band music, some Son House, and others. Also check out the releases on Fahey's Revenant Records, for a stunning mix of arcane rural musics and raw avant-garde improvisation.

There are 5 mix-cds in this set, plus a bonus disc which consists of Sibelius' 7th Symphony and Bartók's Miraculous Mandarin and Music for Percussion, Strings, and Celeste, all of which deserve to be heard in their entirety. I thought about including works by musicians working on parallel lines (Rahsaan Roland Kirk's fusion of Dvorak's Going Home and Stephen Foster's Old Folks at Home, or Brij Bhusan Kabra, the first musician to play ragas on a guitar). But these will have to come another time.

I also was going to type out the tracklist, but you'll have to settle for snapshots of my itunes playlists. An advantage, of course, is that you can see which albums I got the tunes from, and search out the ones that inspire you.

The Roots of John Fahey

The whole set:
http://www.mediafire.com/?gftc2kfeyyhr2

Disc 1 - Vampires in Valhalla
http://www.mediafire.com/?c94bw2bzm0x8wo4 *new link

Disc 2 - The Chthonic Blues
http://www.mediafire.com/?sj3qglkoi1t93gq *new link

Disc 3 - Duelling Kitheras
http://www.mediafire.com/?eyd1htha30h1h7a *new link

Disc 4 - Dance of the Subjects of the Great Koonaklaster
http://www.mediafire.com/?6nc8cybtssc1zh1 *new link

Disc 5 - The Turtle's Waters
http://www.mediafire.com/?18yfbx2158zmrid *new link

Disc 6 (bonus) - Requiem for Blind Joe
http://www.mediafire.com/?y54xvd7v1n7ua7u *new link

All have the bitrates at which I found them; those I converted from AAC and my cd rips are as always at >192vbr. No covers are included. What you hear is what you get.


for much of the information I used to build this compilation, see the Fahey Files.

for more fahey trivia, unreleased songs, record labels, etc, see the John Fahey blogspot

which includes R Anthony Lee "Flea"'s piece The Wolves are Gone Now, which recounts Fahey's early life from the eyes of a friend, organicist, and fellow musical miscreant.

and see VROOTz! : FAHEY SOurCEs AND INFLUENCES tracklist and notes in the Wall of Fahey (word document) or see it in html here. thanks to Paul Bryant, Andrew Stranglen and Mitchell Wittenberg, for their contributions to the project.

oh, and the photo used above is by Dick Waterman, manager of Son House and many other great blues artists of the '60s. Incidentally, it was largely his photos and stories, found within Between Midnight and Day: the Last Unpublished Blues Archive, which led me to artists like Son House and Skip James in the first place. the photo, like everything else here, used without permission.

enjoy!
and if you appreciate my endless unpaid toil, leave a comment!

Tom Cora - Gumption in Limbo

Tom Cora stands as the greatest improvisational cellist ever recorded. His music is totally unique and non-generic, i.e. universal. In his playing, you hear all the sweet mournfulness of Pablo Casals, all the joyful idiosyncracy of Joseph Spence, and all the discordant exuberance of Albert Ayler, rolled into a highly virtuosic and singular style. And seriously, how often to avant-garde cellists come around? The world became a poorer place when he died of melanoma in 1998. The beauty of this music is insurmountable. It fills me -- body, soul, and mind.

it has been said:
The late Tom Cora produced far too few solo albums in his lifetime. Gumption in Limbo is among the few documents of his astonishing musicianship as a solo cello performer. Involved extensively in avant-garde and improvised music, his solo work is outstanding for its lyrical and melodic qualities that touch on folk, classical and avant-garde, not to mention that on stage he could create a deeply personal music that is beyond genre and into realms of pure beauty.

Biography:
A longtime fixture of the New York City downtown music scene, cellist, composer and improviser Tom Cora was best known in avant-jazz circles, although his eclectic pursuits led him in a wide variety of musical directions.

Raised in Richmond, Virginia, Cora began studying cello while an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, later honing his craft under the tutelage of vibraphonist Karl Berger. His 1979 arrival in New York City coincided with the emergence of a new and fertile era for experimental music, and he quickly fell into a circle of like-minded artists which included John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Andrea Centazzo, Butch Morris and Fred Frith; influenced by progressive rock, jazz, and avant-garde composition, Cora developed a distinctive style, playing guitar-like sawed chords and percussive riffs while amplifying his cello for maximum noise power.

A mainstay at the famed Knitting Factory club, he was a member of the group Curlew, and also collaborated with the Dutch anarchist rock band the Ex on a pair of LPs, 1991's Scrabbling at the Lock and 1993's And the Weathermen Shrug Their Shoulders. After suffering from melanoma, Cora died in the south of France on April 9, 1998 at the age of 44. One month later, a benefit concert was held at the Knitting Factory with appearances by Fred Frith, George Cartwright and Zeena Parkins.
-- Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide

Obituary:
Tom Cora, 44, New-Music Cellist With Flair for the Avant-Garde Tom Cora, a cellist, composer and improviser who was a mainstay of the new-music scene in New York City, died on Thursday at a hospital in Draguignam, in the south of France, where he lived with his wife and son. He was 44.

The cause was melanoma, said his brother, Henry Corra.

Mr. Cora, whose original surname was Corra, grew up in Richmond and took up the cello while an undergraduate at the University of Virginia. He studied under the vibraphonist Karl Berger at Creative Music Studios in Woodstock, N.Y., when
came to New York City in 1979. It was a ripe and chaotic moment for improvised music in Manhattan, well before the Knitting Factory provided a frequent venue for musicians like Mr. Cora, who were influenced by progressive rock, jazz and avant-garde composition and who were able to consolidate absurdist humor and structuralist thinking in the same composition.

Mr. Cora fell into a circle that included John Zorn, Eugene Chadbourne, Andrea Centazzo, Butch Morris and Fred Firth, and he became known for highly amplifying his cello and for playing sawed chords and percussive riffs on it as if it were an electric guitar. Best known as part of the long-running band Curlew, he also played with the groups Skeleton Crew and Third Person, and collaborated with the Dutch anarchist rock band The Ex.
--New York Times, Tuesday, April 14, 1998

Tom Cora - Gumption in Limbo
Year: 1980
Label: Sound Aspects
drop your jaw. *new link
mp3 192kbps | w/ cover (a slightly different one than above) | 60mb

Astor Piazzola - Tango: Zero Hour

It's not hyperbole to say that Astor Piazzolla is the single most important figure in the history of tango, a towering giant whose shadow looms large over everything that preceded and followed him. Piazzolla's place in Argentina's greatest cultural export is roughly equivalent to that of Duke Ellington in jazz -- the genius composer who took an earthy, sensual, even disreputable folk music and elevated it into a sophisticated form of high art. But even more than Ellington, Piazzolla was also a virtuosic performer with a near-unparalleled mastery of his chosen instrument, the bandoneon, a large button accordion noted for its unwieldy size and difficult fingering system. In Piazzolla's hands, tango was no longer strictly a dance music; his compositions borrowed from jazz and classical forms, creating a whole new harmonic and rhythmic vocabulary made for the concert hall more than the ballroom (which was dubbed "nuevo tango"). Some of his devices could be downright experimental -- he wasn't afraid of dissonance or abrupt shifts in tempo and meter, and he often composed segmented pieces with hugely contrasting moods that interrupted the normal flow and demanded the audience's concentration. The complexity and ambition of Piazzolla's oeuvre brought him enormous international acclaim, particularly in Europe and Latin America, but it also earned him the lasting enmity of many tango purists, who attacked him mercilessly for his supposed abandonment of tradition (and even helped drive him out of the country for several years). But Piazzolla always stuck to his guns, and remained tango's foremost emissary to the world at large up until his death in 1992. -- Steve Huey, AMG

The music of Astor Piazzolla epitomized our situation in the modern world with his fusion of folkloric beauty and contemporary tension. He forged a new music that challenged the traditionalist and left the adventurous craving more. He took the music of the great tango masters like Garde, ripped it away from the velvet-walled concert hall and the soft-cushion drawing room, and slapped it down on the pavement of Buenos Aires. Reviled by the critics, shunned even by the conservative government, his music spoke to the next generation, and popular and jazz musicians and listeners all over the world eventually fell under the spell of his "nuevo tango." In recent years, Piazzolla has taken the new tango back to the concert halls, composing and performing works for chamber ensembles like Kronos Quartet, larger groups like The Orchestra of St. Luke's, even an opera company. These works brought his once radical music back into the mainstream.

But it is his work with the quintet that will be best remembered. The striking violence he could achieve in a pas de deux with violinist Paz, the beauty of his bandoneon playing off of Ziegler's piano, the fierce power of guitar strings and his reeds bouncing off a long, bowed bass line; these are the moments that made Astor Piazzolla a catalyst for new music, a creator rather than a player. To see this band play was a priceless wonder, a joy that too few took part in over the last few decades. My one and only time in a concert with Piazzolla turned my head around, made me look at all art with a different eye, and music with a more readily challenged ear.

It is a typical irony that it was in the last few years of his life that some of his bestrecordings, some of his darkest tangos, were finally re-issued in the U.S. Live In Vienna (Messidor/Rounder), Love Tanguida (Milan), and even his 1989 chamber piece Five Tango Sensations (Elektra) are all the tribute one could pay to a lifetime of musical confrontation and artistic boldness. - Cliff Furnald, Rootsworld

"This is absolutely the greatest record I've made in my entire life. We gave our souls to this record." -Astor Piazzola

The liner notes:

Strip to your underwear if you're not in black tie. Get obscene if you want, but never casual. You feel an urge? Touch its pain, wrap yourself around it. Don't put on airs. What you seem must be what you are, and what you are is a mess, honey, but that's okay, as long as you wear it inside. Look sharp! Don't slouch. See anyone slouching here? Stay poised, taut, on guard. Listen to your nerves. It's zero hour. Anxiety encroaches, wave after wave, with every squeeze of the bandoneon. Already twisted by the contraposto of uprightness and savagery, this new tango turns the screw even tighter with its jazz dissonances and truncated phrasings. No relief. No quarter. At zero hour only passion can save you. Time is flowing backward and forward into the vortex. From the rooms come a warm air and a choked melody of syncopated gasps. Something throbs. A vein under your skin. It's inside you now, this bordello virus, this pleasure that tastes so much of anger and grief. When you find pools of pure, sweet light, bathe in their waters, balm for your lacerations. For the whiplash scars the bandoneon is leaving on your soul. If this were the old milonga of the slums, or those popular songs about painted faces and purloined love, you could let distance sketch a smile on your lips. Cheap irony. You won't get away that easy. This music is for you. It always had you in mind, your habits, your twitches, the tiny blood vessels bursting inside you when you hide what you feel. So walk in the parlor, bring your friend or come alone. Come hear the master as he unravels the wind inside the box, as he presses the growling tiger that threatens to embrace him and shapes the beast into a purring kitten. And tiger again. And kitten. It's all a game. You're going to play it too, you're going to dance with the tiger. Don't worry, your life is in danger. Remember your instructions. Listen up. And suffer, motherfucker, this is the tango.

- Enrique Fernandez -

Astor Piazzola & the New Tango Quintet- Tango: Zero Hour
Year: 1986/1992
Label: Pangea
scary.
mp3 >192kbps vbr | w/ cover? | 66mb

he's dead now but there's many living musicians playing his music who you could support. Gidon Kremer, Kronos Quartet, et all.

Check out this interview with Piazzola (English & Español). Among other things, it is revealed that Nadia Boulanger (piano-playing sister to Thereminist Clara Rockmore -- see archives) is the one who got him to start fusing tango and classical music.

And here's the biography: Astor Piazzola: Chronology of a Revolution

Harry Partch - Delusion of the Fury

Enclosure VI: Delusion of the Fury
a ritual of dream & delusion, opera in 2 acts for voices & large ensemble of Partch instruments

Another hero, another hobo.

Harry Partch stands alone as the most creative, individual, and iconoclastic musician of the entire 20th century. He reinvented music, starting with it's foundation: the scale. Tossing aside the familiar 12-tone octave familiar to western ears, Partch invented a 43-tone octave. Which meant, of course, that he had to build all his own instruments. And, of course, he had to teach people to play those instruments. In addition to this inventing, crafting, and teaching, Partch composed some of the most unique and compelling music I've ever heard. And, in his most-ambitious masterpiece, Delusion of the Fury (1969), he also wrote the libretto, choreographed dances and made costumes. If this begins to paint a picture of an obsessive control-freak, well, that is perhaps true; but while Harry Partch had to do everything his own way (it had never been done before), his work is never self-indulgent or pretentious -- it is inclusive, relevant, and timeless.

"Harry Partch was born June 24, 1901, in Oakland, California, the third child of Presbyterian missionaries who had spent 10 years in China prior to his birth. His boyhood was spent near Tombstone, Arizona, where, despite the total lack of formal music training, he grew up surrounded by music. His mother, a woman of talent and determination, taught her children to read music and play several instruments. Young Harry, by the time he was 6, not only knew how to play the reed organ, but also the guitar, the clarinet, and the harmonica. He began to compose at 14. When the family moved to New Mexico and he received the first music lesson outside his home, he discovered in short order that he loathed formal music training as repressive and constricting. It was an antipathy that colored the rest of his life. He struck out on his own, and, in the years that followed, wrote a piano concerto, a symphonic poem, a string quartet, all in the conventional mode. To keep body and soul together, he became a proofreader, a sometime piano player, a grape picker, while he continued to compose and to search for a way to express his music. Then, at age 28, in New Orleans, he burned the whole body of his musical work of 14 years, determined to start anew, to develop for himself music that would trancend the conventions of musical composition. Its basis was the multi-tines he found in the space of the octave. It enabled him to make the first transitions ever from the human voice to the musical instrument. During the depression, Partch traveled throughout America by rail as a hobo, writing of his experiences in his music. Although he had received a Carnegie Corporation of New York grant in 1934, it wasn't until 1943 that he received the first of the more substantial grants that made it possible for him to work and travel and to give the 1931-34 and 1943-45 performances that started to make his work known.
To this day, the difficulties surrounding a performance of Partch's music -- the complexities of training musicians to play his music on his instrumens and then to transport those large and delicate objects that cannot function properly without his personal attention -- inhibit managers and impresarios.
Partch now lives quietly in Encinitas, California, in what he calls his first real home since his childhood, surrounded by the bizarre and wonderful array of instruments he has built, through which he has made, according to Jacque Barzun, "the most original and powerful contribution to dramatic music on this continent." -- Eugene Paul, from the liner notes of the original 1971 release.

His handmade instruments include some that are somewhat familiar (though adapted to play on his scales), such as modified marimbas, lap guitars, zithers, gongs, gourds, and violas. There are also some that are much less familiar: his Kitharas, based on ancient lyres; his Harmonic Canons, complex koto-like instruments, and his Chromelodeons, adapted reed organs. And there are some Partch instruments that are completely unlike any other, such as the Cloud-Chamber Bowls, made of "Pyrex chemical solution jars cut in half, suspended on a rack, and hit on sides and tops with soft mallets;" the Spoils of War, which "consists of artillery shell casings. Pyrex chemical solution jars, a high wood block and low marimba bar, spring steel flexitones (Whang Guns), and a gourd guiro"; and the Blo-Boy, a foot-pedal mechanism that acoustically reproduces the sound of a train whistle. The marvel of the Partch instruments' sound is all-the-more marvelous when one realizes that many of them are made from common household or junkyard items.

Most innovators come from a tradition, and even if they expand that tradition, their work ultimately falls into that tradition's evolutionary trajectory. They stand on a firmly established foundation, adding a brick to the top, or finding a place where two sides could be bridged. Partch started a whole new building. Which is not to say he did not have influences. Partch's list of influences includes "Christian hymns, Chinese lullabyes, Yaqui Indian ritual, Congo puberty ritual, Cantonese music hall, and Okies in California vineyards, among others," (I would add to that list Japanese Kabuki and Noh theater, Southeast Asian gamelan music, ancient Greek theater, cinematography, carnivals and trains). His music is ur-world music; it is East-meets-West; it is avant-garde primitivism; it is mythic and autobiographical; it is non-generic, i.e. universal.

This music is weird. Frankly, it's quite scary. On the first listen, pretty much everyone will be taken aback, confused, uncomfortable, even psychologically nauseous. The sounds are so alien-sounding to ears used to Western music; it is difficult to feel the tremendous amount of emotion in the music because we only hear its surface qualities. At first. Those who find this strange, out-of-comfort-zone music interesting enough to keep listening will be drawn into another world. The world of Harry Partch is complete and self-sufficient. Using Just Intonation, Partch's instruments produce shimmering pure harmonies. And his microtonal intervals allow the music to acquire emotional shading that is simultaneously frightening and uplifting. And while Partch's music is certainly otherworldly, it also has a quality of primeval familiarity to it -- an ancient and unforgettable truth, an enchanting magic, rings through this music -- which separates it from the bulk of avant-garde and experimental music.

Through all this, Harry Partch has succeeded in creating a truly moving, original art. Though it draws from many sources, it imitates none. With Delusion of the Fury, Partch synthesizes art, music, film, theater, and life into a new form of integrated musical theater. His aesthetic position is Corporeal, a music that is essentially "tactile." And to see his intricately crafted instruments, or his musician-dancer's outfits one realizes that Partch's sense of beauty included all senses. And while the format of his productions was akin to musical theater, with narrative, characters, stage and all, the experience of them was more akin to a ritual -- fully inclusive of the audience, and with a narrative understood to reflect everyone's life. As Harry Partch said, "This is my trinity: sound-magic, visual beauty, experienceritual."

Delusion of the Fury | recorded 1969, released 1971 | cd; not my rip | 192 kbps mp3 | with cover
download it here. (re-re-posted Mar 26 '08)
and please leave a comment, telling me what you thought.


External Links:
If you like what you heard, you can purchase more of his music from New World Records,
and see this excellent biography and discography, with links to most of his albums.

The whole Enclosure series of Partch archives (8 parts: CDs, DVDs and a book) is available from innova Recordings: http://innova.mu/show_collection.aspx?collection=Harry%20Partch. This includes the CD of Delusion as well as the film of the frst performance. ~~anonymous

See the pictures of his instruments, as they appeared in the liner notes.

To learn more about his instruments, click here.
And here are the original liner notes
both of which are hosted by his official site.

See also the allmusic guide listing for the composition and the performance.

And find out more about just intonation here.