Musicians - Audio Chews: the hi-fi and music community

Fela Kuti Comes Home

uglymusic — Wed, 01 May 2013 06:27:46 -0400

For one week only, on the BBC website.

The Return of Henry Grimes - A Memoir

uglymusic — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 19:08:05 -0400

Bassist Henry Grimes went to Julliard, and played with Albert Ayler, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp and others.

He disappeared for over 30 years from 1970 in LA. It was assumed he was dead.

Here's a wonderful account of his rediscovery and return to playing.

A little bit of [musical] politics ladies and gentleman...

Docfoster — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 09:35:43 -0400

Judy Garland’s celebratory ditty ‘Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead’ from
‘The Wizard of Oz’ is heading for the Top 40 in the Official Singles
Chart in the wake of Margaret Thatcher’s death.

More here.

John Coltrane documentary

uglymusic — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 04:33:38 -0400

I may have posted this before, but I can't find it. Maybe it was on my blog.

The Beatles - Paul McCartney bass work

Docfoster — Sun, 10 Mar 2013 06:45:21 -0400

Listening to some of the later Beatles albums this morning. I'm always impressed by McCartney's bass playing. It's very unconventional; striking a good balance between behind-scenes-not-in-your-face-pop-style and doing-lots-of-interesting-things-and-keeping-me-engaged-stuff. Underrated as a bass player imho. Probably overrated as a song writer.

Michael Manring at the bass!

uglymusic — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 20:35:40 -0400

This discussion was created from comments split from: The Beatles - Paul McCartney bass work.

Sad news about Wilko

uglymusic — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 18:14:54 -0500

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/jan/18/wilko-johnson-farewell-tour

Know the man.

Docfoster — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 18:06:20 -0500

Just posted in the "listening to..." thread about Elmore James. There's something about the way that he comes across to me in his music, and the music itself, with which I want to be associated.
It's been a long while (not since uni') that I plastered my space with pictures of musicians that set out the identity that I wished to portray. Recently (mid life crisis...?) I've had a hankering to do something similar (more classy of course - arty black and white prints, frames, no blutac, no neighbouring images of Sherilyn Fenn as per my digs circa 1993) in my home. I've been thinking about which musical people I would want to hang around the place. Current list (no numerical limit) think...

Chris Bangs
Beastie Boys
Beethoven
Sean Ryder
Winston Rodney (Burning Spear)
Charles Mingus
Jack Bruce
Cymande
Galliano
Ella Fitzgerald
Elmore James
John Lennon
Mix Master Morris
Peter Green
The Orb
The Stone Roses
Jimi Hendrix
Joan Armatrading
Miles Davis
Speedy J

I think there's 20 there.
Anyone else willing to lay bare there soul. Who are you...?

Ravi Shankar Dead at 92

uglymusic — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 08:00:38 -0500

Another legend passes.

Nirvana dying...

uglymusic — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 10:18:19 -0500

...with gig fronted by old Can't Sing Anymore, Sir Paul McCartney.

Shudder!

Happy 70th, Jimi!

uglymusic — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 06:27:29 -0500

More celebratory stuff here.

Please don't say 'Jimi who?. Jimi Tenor doesn't count!

David S Ware has died

uglymusic — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 15:20:14 -0400

The news has broken today that the best of the post-Coltrane sax-men had died at 62. There's a good article here.

I'm very sad.

I never got to see him.

Quality time

Docfoster — Fri, 19 Oct 2012 04:07:07 -0400

Ordinarily I'm at college (as a mature student) on a Friday. Not today - the staff have a training day so I've got the day off. Firstly that means I can attend my son's harvest festival, and second it means I can have the rest of the day getting a couple of college assignments sorted at home in front of the Hifi
Should be a good day!

Robert Wyatt programme on BBC radio tomorrow

uglymusic — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 07:26:19 -0400

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01n11cz

Not at all to be confused with the other Robert tagged here on Chews, Robert Peston
@-)

Drummers

Docfoster — Fri, 13 Jul 2012 18:19:16 -0400

We may have done this one before...
Experiencing reni's playing at the stone roses gig a couple of weeks ago has re-piqued my interest in quality rhythm-meisters. I had always reckoned rene a good 'un, but his effortlessly spot-on timing blew me away. His funky-dancey-breakbeat-indie rhythms propelled the roses whole performance.
I felt similarly abut Sam Kelly when I saw him drum at a recent Cymande reunion gig.
High quality drumming is increasingly coming to mesmorise me during live performances.
So who should I be seeking out?

Interview with Laurie Pepper, wife of Art Pepper

uglymusic — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 18:31:54 -0400

I know there are one or two other Pepper fans here.

You might like to read this interview with Laurie Pepper and watch the video at the end. It sounds like there's a load more material in the vaults - hooray! :-)

Guitarist Pete Cosey dies at 68

uglymusic — Sat, 02 Jun 2012 09:13:38 -0400

If you've ever dipped your toe into the electric maelstrom that is Miles Davis' '70s recordings you've heard Pete Cosey's best-known output. But he's been in at many other great recordings, too.

Read this obit and mourn one of the guitar's great largely unsung heroes.

Completism. Do you suffer from it? And how do you define it?

uglymusic — Wed, 30 May 2012 07:53:39 -0400

My name is Ugly Music, and I am a late-period Art Pepper completist. I buy anything and everything I see by him, post 1970.

Except I don't. If it looks as if it's been recorded on a Woolworth's C90 with a pick-up band I've never heard of, I give it a miss. There are some truly awful Pepper bootlegs out there.

That's the one piece of completism I admit to. But there are two others I can't quite bring myself to acknowledge. I realise I'm building up a collection of alto-player Tim Berne's work, and keep looking out for rarities on the Net. Similarly, I buy pianist Abdullah Ibrahim's albums almost without a thought, whenever I see something I don't have.

Are you a CA (Completists Anonymous) member? How does your condition manifest itself?

Birthday Greetings

Jim — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:46:56 -0400

to his Bobness - 71 years young today.

Robin Gibb

Alan — Mon, 21 May 2012 06:44:04 -0400

Another one gone!

Donna Summer

Alan — Sat, 19 May 2012 10:54:41 -0400

Died from cancer this week at 63. Way too young, and a really talented artist.

Some of her stuff was genuinely ground breaking & still defies pigeon-holing, such as 'I feel Love' and 'Love to love you baby' (which has the sexiest bassline in the world ever - yes I was listening to the bassline!). Other stuff was just so kitsch it was brilliant, like 'Bad Girls', the extended mix of 'McArthur Park' and the duet with Barbara Streisand, 'No more Tears'.

Donald 'Duck' Dunn dead at 70

uglymusic — Mon, 14 May 2012 10:47:19 -0400

Legendary bass player dead in Japan.

BBC4 Peter Green

Docfoster — Fri, 04 May 2012 17:05:05 -0400

Love 'im. The first guitarist that grabbed me. Song writing also first rate.
Well done beeb!

Best musician of C20th

Docfoster — Sat, 12 Nov 2011 14:09:14 -0500

Hendrix.
Thread closed.
;-)

Best rhythm sections...

Docfoster — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 18:28:10 -0400

Having secured myself a stone roses ticket i've been musing on why I like the band so much.
Partly because they were big during my formative music years.
Partly because brown and squire wrote some cracking tunes.
But also because the rhythm section: mani on bass and Reni on drums, are excellent. Interesting without being wanky and spot on timing-wise.
The more I've thought about this the more I've realised that almost all of the rhythm sections of my favourite bands have the same qualities. My all time favourites are Steve scipio and Sam Kelly of Cymande, but also cream, Hendrix experience (tho' mitch mitchel is a bit much at times) and Gomez*. I think all these have rhythm sections that creative and solid.
Doubtless there are jazz rhythm sections that are more accomplished than all of the above, but I find the jazzers more difficult to anylise. (Some I find unmusical - despite dave's efforts Pastorius eludes me.)
Personally my musical outlets have always been bass and percussion (and in private drums), so may be there's some personal bias at work here. Or may be it's just that I'm shite at more melodic/complicated instruments.
Anyhoo I'd be interested to learn of any other interesting rhythm sections, and our esteemed members thoughts on them and rhythm sections generally.

* I like the Beatles too. McCartney is a really interesting bassist - unusually melodic. I also think Ringo is wrongly maligned. He's interesting and solid, if not brilliant.

Video: Van Morrison

uglymusic — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 06:27:22 -0400

As mentioned in the Grauniad.

Videos: John Zorn

uglymusic — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 12:13:10 -0400

I've been playing some John Zorn today, and also found these documentaries on YouTube. They're pretty interesting:

Keith Jarrett says we're mad - discuss

uglymusic — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:06:31 -0400

“One of the problems with being a musician is you don’t have time to be a proper audiophile. To be proper, you have to be insane all the time and obsessed all the time. You need a psychotherapist after a while. And I would also say this about improvising alone on stage: it is also a kind of craziness, a certain insanity. You need a certain type of craziness to be a musician, and also to get into this audio thing appropriately. So I’ve learned that if I’m only an audiophile part-time, it works really well.

“Luckily, it’s not a process that is continuing for me anymore—what I’ve been using for quite a while is a high-end tube preamp with very good transistor monoblocks, both from American companies.”

http://www.soundsgoodtome.us/2011/01/05/keith-jarrett-on-high-performance-audio-and-its-influence-on-his-recorded-output/

Robert Wyatt on the radio

uglymusic — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 12:52:27 -0400

Those of you who love Mr W as much as I do will enjoy this:

http://dominorad.io/show/robert_wyatt_and_alfie

New Kate Bush album(s) coming soon....

Monty — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 08:35:13 -0500

wonderful news....

http://pitchfork.com/news/41853-kate-bush-reworks-old-songs-for-new-album/

Bill Frisell

uglymusic — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:33:40 -0400

Oh dear. Being a fan of someone as prolific as Bill Frisell has its downsides. Wanting a top-up, I've just ordered seven of his albums from Amazon. It had to be done ;-)

Any other fans here? Which are your favourites?

Maybe I should start with a couple of recent ones:

The Intercontinentals
Unspeakable

And don't start me on the trio albums with Paul Motian and Joe Lovano. Nearly every one is a must-have, IMO.

Michael Brook. Free downloads

uglymusic — Sun, 05 Jun 2011 07:46:56 -0400

A page full of free downloads from guitarist Michael Brook here. I've been enjoying what I've listened to of his studio sketches and snippets rather than the soundtrack work, but I have a huge amount still to listen to, so that judgment may change.

They are 320K MP3s, but sound good on my office system - I'm spending too much of this weekend there - but haven't heard them on the big rig. I don't have too much hope for them there, to be honest, as it tends to be a bit merciless with lossy formats.

Gil Scott-Heron. RIP

Alan — Sat, 28 May 2011 12:34:46 -0400

Sad news, announced by the BBC today. I saw this on PFM first & put it here - I know a few here are fans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13582880

Although I'm aware of his importance and his following I only have one of his albums (I'm New Here) and haven't given it enough playing time yet - I will have to revisit his work now.

Mingus: still the king after all these years?

uglymusic — Thu, 05 May 2011 03:48:37 -0400

I stumbled across this clip of Charles Mingus and Dannie Richmond on YouTube. Mingus still sounds astonishing.

If the clip isn't showing here, please click on this link: http://youtu.be/PpOTTzI2Jt8

Warning: some language may be inappropriate for work and home (so listen to it on the train)

Brad Mehldau videos

uglymusic — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:12:05 -0400

Some nice live videos on this page.

Musicians... PITA

Docfoster — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 18:06:50 -0400

A bit of sounding off here I'm afraid.

I've spent a lot of time and money over the last 6 months contributing to the establishing of a new band with a couple of other guys. It's sort of psychadelic folk/dub or something.

As well as the weekly band practice sessions, I've forked out on a nice new acoustic bass, a couple of preamps/DI boxes, various cables, called in some favours to get hold of a nice mic, and have put-in lots of private practice time getting my bongo/conga playing up to a half-decent standard. We were starting to sound OK, and had just started trying out with a very interesting female vocalist. We were focussing on finalising a set of original material list for some gigs in the summer.

All of a sudden our dig' player who also, crucially, provides our rehearsal/studio venue (in a lovely summer house in his garden), all the supporting performance and recording electronics (reverbs, synths, compressors, music PC etc.,...) decides he wants a "break"!

I suppose it's the wasted emotional investment rather than financial/time investment (those 2 I suppose I can hopefully benefit from anyway).

Bloody artistic termperaments...

X(

My Favourite Musicians: Sax players

uglymusic — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 06:38:02 -0400

Prompted by a thought in Listening to...

John Coltrane

David S Ware

Wayne Shorter

Art Pepper

Arthur Blythe

That's five to be getting on with :-)

BTW. Kenny G is not on this list

Joe Morello Dies at 82.

Alan — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 11:37:03 -0400

http://www.drummerworld.com/drummers/Joe_Morello.html

Fantastic drummer of Dave Brubeck trio fame. The hit 'Take 5' was of course originally conceived as a Joe Morello drum solo, to showcase his mastery of playing in 5/4.

My favourite musicians: Rhythm sections

uglymusic — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 13:31:15 -0500

The bass players discussion veered off a bit into rhythm sections, so I got to think about my favourite rhythm sections:

William Parker and Hamid Drake

Charles Mingus and Dannie Richmond

Scott LaFaro or Charlie Haden or Gary Peacock and Paul Motian

Jaco Pastorius and Peter Erskine (with or without Bobby Thomas Junior)

Sly Dunbar and Robbie Shakespeare

My favourite musicians: Bass players

uglymusic — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 09:27:38 -0500

Having had the teething troubles integrating the Young DAC into my system, I realised again how much I listen to bassists. I then started thinking who are my favourites; five of each.

Acoustic bassists:

William Parker

Charles Mingus

Dave Holland

Gary Peacock

Henri Texier

Electric bassists:

Jaco Pastorius

Steve Swallow

Bill Laswell

Michael Henderson

Jah Wobble (more for his music than his technical prowess!)

How much do you disagree?