I’m perfectly pleased to have friends like composer Steve Layton. This is beautifully recorded, organized chaos. A perfect way to wade through this evening.
Jazz
[Music] Mary Halvorson & Noël Akchoté – Mary Halvorson & Noël Akchoté
I have to admit that I’ve been waiting for such a release to come about for a while now. Noël Akchoté, perhaps the most prolofic guitarist working in improvisational music today (and maintaining astoundingly high quality throughout each release) pairs with NYC-based Mary Halvorson, a guitarist I have only become acquainted with this past year. This is a purely improvised duet, with no rehearsals, recorded in Belgium this year.
For those who already collect the work of Noël Akchoté, this will be another treasure to add to your collection. As for Mary’s work, this is a fine introduction, which makes me want to delve into her solo work.
[Music] Sofa Surfers – Long Bone
My Facebook friend, Rididillo Theitalian, has long been a source of wonderful music for me. She goes down memory lane to dig up The Sofa Surfers, an Austrian project mixing trip hop, dub and acid jazz together flawlessly.
[Music] RIP Rudy Van Gelder — Flea Market Funk
Photo Courtesy John Munson/ Star Ledger Truth be told, it was engineer Rudy Van Gelder who got me hooked on jazz. I had no idea of that when I started listening. I just heard the music and was drawn to it. I had failed miserably in 6th grade playing saxophone because of my teacher Mr. […]
[Music] Zakir Hussain – The Great Indian Desert
Zakir Hussain is one of India’s national treasures. The tabla player is featured here providing a wonderful beat for this tune.
[Music] Rishad Shafi & Gunesh – Baikonur
Rishad Shafi was a drummer and percussionist from Turkmenistan who headed the best prog band out of Central Asia in the 1980s, Gunesh.
[Music] Toots Thielemans – Estate
Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Isidor, Baron Thielemans, known to millions of fans as ‘Toots‘, passed away yesterday at the age of 94. If you were ever a fan of Sesame Street as a child, you already know his work, as the whistling you hear is his, uncredited.
Rest in peace, Toots.
[Music] WORM Pirate Bay is launched
I’m having a bit of trouble seeing the connection between WORM, the Rotterdam-based collective lending out materials and The Pirate Bay, who are, in every sense of the word, pirates when it comes to copyrighted material (whether that is good or bad depends on how you see this issue, as a case can be made either way). Still, congratulations to WORM for bringing back the idea of sharing tangible product. As much as I adore digital media, it’s just not the same. Music I can make an exception for, but books? No.
Thanks to The Wire Magazine, who originally shared this post.
[Music] Edda Dell’Orso – The Wordless Song (Extended Version)
Wonderfully tacky scatting by Edda Dell’orso from the movie They Came To Rob Vegas! The soundtrack was composed by Georges Garvarentz.
[Music] John Cage And Sun Ra’s Legendary Experimental Encounter – Electronic Beats
Electronic Beats, run by T-Mobile, posted this amazing video, and an accompanying article, on the meeting between composer John Cage and psychedelic jazz genius Sun Ra.
A Miscellany Of Tasteful Music 