WNYC's American Music Festival 2005 Picks, All-Time Favorite Recordings of American Music

Some of the usual - and eminently worthy - suspects (Kind of Blue, Frank Sinatra Sings For Only The Lonely, Aaron Copland, Ellington, Monk) along with some quirky choices, including one that cries out to be in LITG Vol. 2 (see below), and one that may be in the first volume. Is Parallelograms the Linda Perhacs album that Kim wrote about? That was one of the choices of Irene Trudel, Soundcheck’s Technical Director/Senior Concerts Engineer. I bet John Schaefer (Soundcheck's host) would love to do a phone in w/ David & Kim. There's the Routledge/NY connection. It's clearly meant to be.

The one that needs to be in vol. 2 was picked by Ed Haber, WNYC Senior Concert Engineer, Peter Ivers’ Band with Yolande Bavan: Knight Of The Blue Communion (emphasis added):

This music never changed the world and probably had no impact on anybody else’s music—but I find it extraordinary, an album I come back to year in and year out. I describe it as “Schoenberg meets Howling Wolf,” but that’s not meant to be taken literally. Peter Ivers’ music on this record uses avant-garde classical patterns and sounds and sets them off against his own Chicago blues based harmonica playing and Yolande Bavan’s jazz vocal styles (she’s a singer and actress from Sri Lanka, still best known for replacing Annie Ross in Lambert, Hendricks, and Ross). With a strong rock rhythm section and elements of jazz free improv thrown in, it’s amazing that the concept is not overwhelmed by the individual elements involved. In fact, it’s all exceptionally coherent and remarkably joyful. (Peter Ivers went on to record several perhaps more conventional song albums, none of which were nearly as successful artistically as Knight Of The Blue Communion.)

Is Parallelograms the Linda Perhacs album that Kim wrote about?

Yep. Even got a cool Tom Neely illustration of Linda doing her dental asst job.

Yolande Bavan

Wow, I didn't know she did anything besides replace Annie Ross. That's nifty. Wasn't it Fontella Bass who recorded with the Art Ensemble of Chicago?

Somebody else picked Conlan Nancarrow. Nice.

Joe, are you a big Bill Evans fan? In the Jeopardy category: Great Jazz Bassists Who Died Tragically Young, who gets the nod for most lost potential? Lefaro or Blanton?

are you a big Bill Evans fan?

Compared to most people, yes; compared to Bill Evans fans, no. Kind of Blue is one of my desert island discs, and he was crucial to those sessions as an architect as well as a player. I love his sound & can appreciate him on that level, but I don't have a trained ear so a lot of his subtlety is lost on me & the music starts to sound samey after a bit. Which is not to say that it is, just that harmonic development is mostly over my head. I also wish he had pursued the Bud Powell influence in his playing after his stint with George Russell more than he did.

Great Jazz Bassists Who Died Tragically Young

Paul Chambers. The incredibly deep catalog makes people forget he died when he was 33. But to answer your question I'd go with Blanton. I'm not a chops guy. And I don't mean to insult LaFaro by saying that, it's just that when people talk about him they always talk about his virtuosity - which is not what usually interests me. Many people whose opinions I value, plus my own listening, convince me that Scott LaFaro was way more than the Stanley Clarke of his generation. But if asked to choose, and I was, I'd go with Blanton, in large part because of his specific (Ellington) and general (cusp of swing and bebop) place in history. It would be interesting to hear an alternate universe in which he hadn't died. What use would Duke & Strayhorn have made of him? What influence would he have had on them? How would the scene at Minton's have developed had the house bass player not died? Kenny Clarke, Blanton & Monk... that's a helluva rhythm section.

Kenny Clarke, Blanton & Monk... that's a helluva rhythm section.

Phew, no shit, now that you mention it.

Harold Arlen was born 100 years ago today. So many possible earworms: the thread-appropriate "That Old Black Magic" and "One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)," both of which were on my Buffistamix; the board-appropriate "Ill Wind," which Darla sang at Caritas (I'll listen to Sinatra's version); or maybe Sinatra's "Get Happy" (Swing Easy) or "Blues in the Night" (Only the Lonely); or maybe Ray Charles singing "Over the Rainbow" (Ingredients in a Recipe for Soul... or better yet "Come Rain or Come Shine" from The Genius of Ray Charles; maybe I'll just listen to the whole Wizard of Oz soundtrack. Maybe Louis singing "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" or Lena singing "Stormy Weather" or Groucho telling us about "Lydia the Tattoed Lady." Or maybe I'll imagine being at Birdland in the late Fifties and Abbey Lincoln is singing "Happiness Is a Thing Called Joe" just for me. Yeah, I like that one. Even if it entails Max Roach trying to kill me.

I've never had copy protection issues using iTunes, on any disc. The only times I run into those errors are with WMP.

xpost from natter...

New Yorkers, I'm going to be on the radio tomorrow.

Sounds of Blue with Bob Putignano
Wednesday 9:00A to 1:00P on 89.1 WFDU-Fm

I think I'm going to be on between 11:30 and noon East Coast time.

Which reminds me -- the book (but not you, sadly) -- got mentioned in Washington City Paper last week. Copying it here instead of linking because their link structure is bizarre:

Cashews Get Their Due

By Pamela Murray Winters

George Pelecanos is somewhat taken aback when asked to talk about his contribution to Lost in the Grooves: Scram’s Capricious Guide to the Music You Missed. “I got an e-mail from my agent a couple years ago,” says the Silver Spring–based writer. Scram, a magazine “dedicated to rooting out the cashews in the bridge mix of unpopular culture,” wanted him to write a piece about underappreciated music. “I just sent it. I never talked to them or anything,” he says. “Then this book shows up.”

Lost in the Grooves compiles essays—sometimes of just a few lines—about perennial critics’ darlings (the Go-Betweens’ 16 Lovers Lane), odd faves of odd people (Vivian Stanshall’s Men Opening Umbrellas Ahead), albums you weren’t supposed to like (Alvin and the Chipmunks’ The Alvin Show), and whatever else its writers—including locals Ken Barnes (USA Today, ’70s zines Flash and Fusion), and Vern Stoltz (Cannot Be Obsolete) and Memphis, Tenn.–based Washington City Paper contributor Andrew Earles—favor.

Pelecanos wrote about Curtis Mayfield’s 1973 Curtom release Back to the World. “I just picked a record that I thought was really underappreciated in its category, especially coming after Superfly.”

The overlooked disc “was of a time when people were making records that were sort of thematic,” says Pelecanos, and it’s easy to see why the crime novelist and story editor of HBO’s The Wire would relate to lines like these: “In these city streets—everywhere/You got to be careful/Where you move your feet, and how you part your hair.”

Pelecanos’ review ends with a shot at the dean of rock critics: “Robert Christgau gave this a ‘C.’ Another reason, in my opinion, to check it out.” Pelecanos is quick to point out that he has nothing against Christgau, but, he says, “I object to that kind of criticism....A guy, or a woman, sits in a dark room for a year and writes a book, and then someone blows it off with a D-minus or whatever.”

Pelecanos’ appreciation for music is almost as well-known as his novels, which chronicle a Washington far from filibusters and presidential coronations. The “tour music” section of his Web site offers a playlist much like that in Lost in the Grooves: When he hits the road to promote his new book, Drama City, in March, his CD wallet will be stocked with Slobberbone, Lalo Schifrin, the Isley Brothers, Iron + Wine, War, and Graham Parker. And his previous novel, Hard Revolution, featured a “soundtrack” CD given away at readings.

Next for Pelecanos, besides the book tour, is news on whether The Wire will be picked up for a fourth season. The future of the drama may be grim, given HBO Chair Chris Albrecht’s quip that “I have received a telegram from every viewer of The Wire—all 250 of them.” Perhaps Scram should cover unpopular TV in its next book.

Thanks for the kind words, everyone! Baby Abraham is doing ok. His mom & dad are very tired, though. To force this post on-topic, his favorite albums are Sigur Ros - (), Lee Scratch Perry - Upsetter in Dub, T. Monk - Brilliant Corners (but of course), and the Beach Boys - Sunflower/Surf's Up. He also seems to enjoy his daddy 'crooning' frog-voiced versions of Ray Charles songs, especially "That Lucky Old Sun."

A baby with impeccable taste.