yen for lyrical Africa’s grand recordings of fresher fascinating first-thought choices,
tremendous tone-poems n’ that new trombone jazz imposing slang’s liberation of everything ever unnoticed…
yen for lyrical Africa’s grand recordings of fresher fascinating first-thought choices,
tremendous tone-poems n’ that new trombone jazz imposing slang’s liberation of everything ever unnoticed…
Welcome back everyone, I hope your work week went well and I hope your weekend will belong to you. Two things I have told myself, (1) Take life for what it's worth and (2) not to do any more podcast with 17-18 tracks...I can't handle that when it comes to the show notes. 
But besides that everything is great. This podcast will have a positive hip-hop track(that was inspired by Macedonia's BSOTS episode #69[the track was "love, hugs and hip-hop"by carlos nino & lil' sci]). With that said I want to keep the positive vibe going with my podcast.
[more]
Welcome back everyone, I hope your work week went well and I
hope your weekend will belong to you. Two things I have told myself, (1) Take
life for what it's worth and (2) not to do any more podcast with 17-18
tracks...I can't handle that when it comes to the show notes. But besides that
everything is great. This podcast will have a positive hip-hop track(that was
inspired by Macedonia's BSOTS episode #69[the track was "love, hugs and
hip-hop"by carlos
nino & lil'
sci]). With that said I want to keep the positive vibe going with my
podcast.
[more]
These podcasts I find myself coming back time and time again, laid back, relaxing podcast. I guess this past week has been long one and I was hoping to publish this podcast last week but time got away from me. This podcast was a little long for me as well (close to 90 minutes). I'm going to get back to having just an hour a little over.>>>[more]
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These podcasts I find myself coming back time and time again, laid back, relaxing podcast. I guess this past week has been long one and I was hoping to publish this podcast last week but time got away from me. This podcast was a little long for me as well (close to 90 minutes). I'm going to get back to having just an hour a little over.>>>[more]
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08/02/08 RockWired - KTST Hollywood, CA
Discography
08/04/08 Cat Radio Cafe’ WBAI NY 08/04/08 Barnes & Noble NY 10/17/08 Philadelphia Museum of Art 11/02/08 Blues Alley Washington DC
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I wanted to mention Alyssa Graham right away, because she's playing on KTST today - plus her latest album, Echo was just released July 29th
It's hard to listen to Graham and not think about her beautiful voice, as it seems the light and easy jazz music is there to play around her voice. Her biography lists her as from "north eastern", but sometime, and maybe it's just the way she's pronouncing certain words, it sounds like her voice is from the south.
She's always loved music, but by 2005, she was committed to it by releasing her debut album, What Love Is. The album went on to will "Best New Recordings of 2005" and other awards.
On her latest album, Echo,
there are original songs by her guitarist Douglas Graham and pianist
Jon Cowherd, but like most Jazz albums, there are a few cover songs.
I only glance at it, but I do recall seeing Paul Simon's "America" and Sting's "I Burn for You". The best cover here is a Spanish duet song called "Izaura". The liner notes doesn't list who sings on here with Graham, so I'm assuming it's probably Cowherd, as he had a hand in all the arrangement on this album.
Of the
original songs, I liked "Echo", which is what the album was named
after. They seem to really love this song, and what I love about it is
the piano intro with, what sounds like, cello. Graham's voice is on
full display here, painting us a love-lost picture. You can currently
hear this song on her myspace.
I also really dig the poppier sounding of "Arkansas", co-written by Bryan McCann and Jon Cowherd. Some great piano and harmonica-playing here, with, again, Graham's saucy voice.
Echo was just released on Sunny Side Records, be sure to see her live at some odd locations - such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art in Pennsylvania. Keep up with her latest news on site.w♥m. Also be sure to check out more songs on her ecard.
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Currently Watching
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For anyone who loves summertime, retro fashion, people-watching, & music, the documentary Jazz on a Summer's Day is a rollicking two-hour day trip. It takes you back to the 1958 Newport Jazz Festival, where things are not only cool but totally hot.
In this movie you'll hear some of the best jazz, rock, gospel, & blues greats--some of them so young you won't believe they can be that good so young--and enjoy watching the crowd and surroundings area as well.
And Anita O'Day's black dress & hat--smashing!
I was grinning ear to ear, start to finish.
]]>Joe Williams (1918- 1999) was born in Georgia and raised in Chicago, where he first sang in gospel ensembles then began performing in blues clubs at the age of 16. Williams-- not to be confused with "Big Joe" Turner or "Big Joe" Williams -- was a good-looking oak tree of a man. His vocal style paired a resonant bass baritone with languorous, fluid phrasing. According to Duke Ellington's autobiography, ''Music Is My Mistress,'' ''He sang real soul blues on which his perfect enunciation of the words gave the blues a new dimension. All the accents were in the right places and on the right words.''
I only recently discovered Joe Williams in the Rhino home video Blues Masters: Essential History of the Blues,
which I plan to write about soon, errr... soonish. I feel totally
ripped off that I have lived all these years without ever hearing, or
even hearing of, this man. I'm also kicking myself for NOT watching "The
Cosby Show" for the sole reason that Williams played the recurring role
of reminiscing Grandpa Al.
Next we have Williams' interpretation of Memphis Slim's "Every Day I Have the Blues" from Having the Blues Under a European Sky.
This version of Leiber & Stoller's "Kansas City" is from the 1964 recording Having a Good Time. Williams sings with tenor saxophonist Ben "the Brute" Webster.
And Finally, via the magic of YouTube, watch the Count Basie Orchestra at the 1962 Newport Jazz Festival. Williams duets on "Goin' to Chicago" with "Little" Jimmy Rushing,
who indeed looks pretty small next to Joe. This song was a big hit for
the CBO and, no doubt, Joe Williams big, beautiful voice helped make it
so.
Summer is in full swing and the concerts are starting to heat up. If your thinking about heading to the Los Angeles area anytime soon nows the time to stop dilly dallying and to take a weekend get away.
For all of you music lovers the JVC Jazz Festival Tour is coming to a close and their grand finale is going to be hosted at the Legendary Hollywood Bowl
on August 17th. If you don't know much about jazz or you're just
looking for an easy going concert you should definitely check this out.
Full of unique sets and and enigmatic performances you wont regret this
musical experience.
As
we all now Hollywood is a very popular destination and the crowds can
get a little rough if your not a fan of seas of people; so I have a
short list of popular Hollywood attractions as well as some a little
more off the beaten path.If you want to stick around the Hollywood area definitely check out Hollywood blvd just so you can say you've done it and if you're looking for touristy shopping you will find plenty plus the Kodak Theater, home of the Academy Awards. There is also plenty of photo ops along the walk of fame and costumed Hollywood characters perusing the Boulevard.
If you have some cash burning a hole in your pocket skip Melrose and head over to Beverly Hills and Rodeo drive. The boutiques are great and you can stop at several cafes/restaurants along the way and enjoy a good meal or a coffee concoction with entirely too many adjectives attached.
Venice beach and the boardwalk is also a quick drive from Hollywood but if you are looking for something a little less grass roots head over to Santa Monica and the 3rd street promenade. Its a pleasant walk with ocean air and you can walk out onto the pier and enjoy a date worthy "Carnival and Ferris Wheel" atmosphere (there really is a Ferris wheel)
For a more cultured visit hop over to LACMA Museum of arts or the Getty. I would also highly recommend the Griffith Park Observatory and Planetarium. Griffith Park is home to gorgeous views and nestled back in the trees is the Greek theater which is a pretty amazing outdoor venue.
And now for where to stay and theres a lot, but Im just going to push one because this is getting a little long.
In the heart of Hollywood off of the Sunset strip you have the Standard
which gives you the luxury socialite feel and slick atmosphere with
comparatively moderate pricing. The Standard's location is tough to
beat too placing you in cab and walking distance to clubs and
restaurants plus the Standard turns into a club at night all on its
own. Really a cool place for the hipster party crowd that wants to
indulge in the Hollywood "scene."
Ever felt different? Ever felt like the balloon in a tack factory? Like you really didn't belong? Ever wonder how someone with internal strength would set their internal thermostat so that it did not matter? The following comes from Zora Neale Hurston's How it Feels to be Colored Me (1928) kindly pointed out to me by my friend Denise. As it relates to the Toni Morrison work I have been doing and particularly to what she has to say about her work and its connection to music, I will include just the following excerpt.
"I feel most colored when I am thrown against a sharp white background.
For instance at Barnard. "Beside the waters of the Hudson" I feel my race. Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and overswept, but through it all, I remain myself. When covered by the waters, I am; and the ebb but reveals me again.
Sometimes it is the other way around. A white person is set down in our midst, but the contrast is just as sharp for me. For instance, when I sit in the drafty basement that is The New World Cabaret with a white person, my color comes. We enter chatting about any little nothing that we have in common and are seated by the jazz waiters. In the abrupt way that jazz orchestras have, this one plunges into a number. It loses no time in circumlocutions, but gets right down to business. It constricts the thorax and splits the heart with its tempo and narcotic harmonies. This orchestra grows rambunctious, rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with primitive fury, rending it, clawing it until it breaks through to the jungle beyond. I follow those heathen--follow them exultingly. I dance wildly inside myself; I yell within, I whoop; I shake my assegai above my head, I hurl it true to the mark yeeeeooww! I am in the jungle and living in the jungle way. My face is painted red and yellow and my body is painted blue. My pulse is throbbing like a war drum. I want to slaughter something--give pain, give death to what, I do not know. But the piece ends. The men of the orchestra wipe their lips and rest their fingers. I creep back slowly to the veneer we call civilization with the last tone and find the white friend sitting motionless in his seat, smoking calmly.
"Good music they have here," he remarks, drumming the table with his fingertips.
Music. The great blobs of purple and red emotion have not touched him. He has only heard what I felt. He is far away and I see him but dimly across the ocean and the continent that have fallen between us. He is so pale with his whiteness then and I am so colored.
http://grammar.about.com/od/60essays/a/theireyesessay.htm
Hurston insists, back in 1928, that she refuses to dwell on the trauma of slavery (Morrison doesn't think American society is done yet and gives us Beloved). Huston writes:
"But I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has given them a lowdown dirty deal and whose feelings are all but about it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more of less. No, I do not weep at the world--I am too busy sharpening my oyster knife.
Someone is always at my elbow reminding me that I am the granddaughter of slaves. It fails to register depression with me. Slavery is sixty years in the past. The operation was successful and the patient is doing well, thank you. The terrible struggle that made me an American out of a potential slave said "On the line!" The Reconstruction said "Get set!" and the generation before said "Go!" I am off to a flying start and I must not halt in the stretch to look behind and weep. Slavery is the price I paid for civilization, and the choice was not with me. It is a bully adventure and worth all that I have paid through my ancestors for it. No one on earth ever had a greater chance for glory."
Question for Comment: What wounds, hardships, bad luck, or offense is making it difficult for you to move on?
of my weekend back home. which was fan-fucking-tastic! :D
a little bit of shopping...
Some douchebag in a polo shirt gets out of his car while I'm on my roof with Leah and Kabelo. I squint, saying, "I wish I had better vision. This light," I raise my hand to cover the light, "that distance," I watch the dude stumble up to the curb. He sees me basically heiling, and turns away.
An employee from the Mediterranean Market is handing out menus on my side of the street. It is ten o'clock at night, and a steady procession of cars glide over the faux-cobblestone. I love Saturday.
The employee draws our attention. He is very dark, with a middle-eastern fro, and he is wearing an apron. Like a line-cook, dishwasher, or grocery clerk. I ask him what's up. He says hold on, and kneels with his stack of menus, folding one. What's that for? I ask him, wondering where he's coming from. I think I know, and he just says wait, you'll see. He crafts a paper airplane and tosses it. It loops back around and hits the ground. Several times. I talk to him for awhile and tell him the menu is in my head, I've been there enough times. His name is Mo, and he stocks things.
Kabelo shows me a book on zen and I think maybe I'll get my tao book back from Jordan. So I call him. This is what I write on his facebook wall the following day: So, I called you last night and some dude answered the phone angrily. I asked who he was and, being stoned and drunk, I immediately forgot his name. He then proceeds to badger me, "WHO ARE YOU, WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH JORDAN?" Uh, Hunter, my name's Hunter, and I'm trying to get a book back from him. "WELL YOU CALLED AT THE WRONG FUUUUUCKING TIME." Click. Anyway, you done reading Watercourse Way? Hope you're not dead.
Maybe he and his boyfriend were having a tiff. Boyfriends can be so jealous and mean. I know I was.
I tell them what happened. What the fuck. We sit outside, music blasting through every brick, taking us elsewhere. Kabelo is almost entirely gone. Leah has finished only half of her 40. Kabelo says, stonedly(stOn-ED-lee), "So. . . jaazzz."
I tell him we started the night a little late for this concert in Byrd Park. That was hours ago. But there's Jake's party. The seventh installment of showing shit-- Shitshow VII. And the rest is just another one of those nights where the details cannot exist.
My clearest memory is speaking with Windy and Cynthia, two Chinese girls, up against brick. I was teaching one of them to say "Fuck you" more clearly, and they were teaching me a lot of things that I don't remember. I kept saying Shi shi ni, which is thank you. They kept going back and forth about a lot of things I'm sure I thought I knew about at the time. It's strange to understand so little, to be so provincial, and Cynthia had only been here six months. I understood her perfectly.
Inside, Leah is harassed multiple times for looking familiar.
"Hey, do I know you..."
". . . because you look really familiar."
"Your name is Leah? I've only known one other Leah. I LOVE THAT NAME."
"Are you Mexican?" This is a good one, considering she is Chinese and Russian. Which, when combined, looks totally Mexican.
Catch The FLO ZoneCheck out our guest, Ricky Green on The FLO Zone. Ricky Green is a mortgage banker and financial planner. On the FLO Zone he gives you
the best advice for surviving in today's economy. If you have any more question about your finances, contact him at rgreen@monarchmtg.com! Stay tuned for this exclusive interview.
A. left at 10am to go visit my sister and her friend R who had just become a mother. She drove far and met somebody she had been corresponding with since R found out she was pregnant. A had advice to give, I think, because she had my beautiful babies.
Today was my day to stay home with beautiful babies. I fed them, cleaned their puke, changed their diapers, and in JJs case, hid behind doorways and in our alleyway kitchen and jumped out and growled at him. He growled right back. Arrr. So cute when a 1 1/2 yr old growls back at you. He said banana multiple times when I brought one out, and when he was playing with his dinky cars/hot wheels he would say "uh oh!" I hope he learns to talk more so he can prove to everyone how smart he is. I already know.
When A finally got home I bathed JJ and went to meet with KT, the pastor of the church that A and I like to attend. He wanted to talk to me about my depression and my life with my family. I told him about my negative opinion of myself and how I felt like I had lost my centre. He told me that people think they're tougher than they are, and that things like that are supposed to hurt, and not to be so hard on myself. I think I can do that. Taking risks is part of life. He suggested I go back to keeping a diary (here I am!) and find career counselling, to make sure I'm headed in the right direction. I think any direction is good right now... you can only tread water for so long. I'm doomed at PYS, just because my heart is not in it any more. Time to move on ASAP.
I'd like to become a police officer or a teacher. I think I would be good at either job. I think they both pay about the same. Being an officer is a little more dangerous. I wouldn't want my kids to worry about me... but it just doesn't seem that scary to me. I think officers take care of themselves pretty well, and you don't hear about them being injured very often around here. Seems like more often they are getting in trouble for being inappropriate. But maybe that's just the way it works in the news. Teaching is really appealing but five years of school (at the least in my case) seems like a lot. It really would be a great job to have, though.
A suggested I go out when I got home so I did. I met up with uncle J and his friend JC. We drank beers and shot the shit a little. JC seems to have grown up a little, but not much. He's still 19 at heart I think. Uncle J was excited about the catering gig he had finished for JHs parents, they paid him well and pimped his business. He's a good caterer, he did JJs first birthday. Excellent food. I hope he makes something of his culinary self.
I listened to Art Blakey and the Unicorns on the way home, and ate Hawaiian pizza. The pizza place said no slices after 6pm, so no wonder they charged me only a dollar for two slices. Still, the ale made me hungry. It was good to walk and think. Every step I take towards myself brings me closer to my centre. I thought a lot about what I wanted my family to have in ten years. We need 3 bedrooms and a backyard, and I want A to have a nice car. It's too much for us now but I think it's in our future. Let's just start walking towards it.
My life will be better the further I move from nowhere and closer to myself and my family. I really want that and it's time to take action and move towards it. I love my kids and wife and I want them to know that I am happy with my life and am thankful for them.
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You are invited to . . . Catch The FLO Jazz Radio Show. Join Marcus Johnson, your host, from Studio 8121 in Washington, D.C.
On this weeks Catch The FLO Jazz Radio Show...
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