Ali Akbar Khan: Live from Delhi (1981)

Today we feature a 1981 concert from Sarod master Ali Akbar Khan in Delhi.

I originally got this recording in my tape-trading days by mistake. I was doing a big trade with a guy, like 10-12 shows. Mostly jazz/funk/groove/jam type stuff (Medeski Martin and Wood, Galactic, Greyboy Allstars, that kind of thing). When the other package arrived, there was one unmarked CDR. I e-mailed the guy and asked what it was because when I put it in my player, no information came up. The other person said they had not meant to that CDR to be in my box, it was supposed to go to someone else, but that it was a recording of Ali Akbar Khan in concert.

In all honesty, I was not ready for this music then and the CDR sat in a pile for years. Then, one day a few years ago, as my musical palette was expanding, I not only pulled out the concert but looked it up online to learn more. The fantastic Flat, Black, and Classical came to the rescue with a full-write-up! Included in their piece are the following observations and details:

The two pieces on this cassette almost sound like two different concerts (which could be the case). An alternative explanation for the differences in aural character between the two is that adjustments at the mixing desk were made during the show, which can often occur.

The first piece is an alap and jod section of Raga Miyan ki Malhar. This has a slightly dull upper end and some minimal distortion at the dynamic peaks. I would have though it was an issue with azimuth adjustment, but the fact is that the second piece sounds more full and with a crisp upper end in comparison. Because of the way cassettes are made, a cut had to be made in the longer piece so that the sides were about equal in timing. The first section of Raga Desh Malhar is on the same side of the tape as the entire alap and jod of Raga Miyan Ki Malhar, but sounds exactly like the rest of the raga on the other side of the tape. So it was not a case of one side of the tape being played with incorrect azimuth. I stitched together the longer piece in a way that is noticeable but not jarring.
Overall, it is an extremely enjoyable live performance from Ali Akbar Khan and tabla maestro Shankar Ghosh, who unfortunately died in late January of this year.

Ali Akbar Khan: Sarod
Shankar Ghosh: Tabla

Side 1: Raga Miyan Ki Malhar: alap and jod
Side 2: Raga Desh Malhar: gats in vilambit (slow) teentaal and medium

I don’t know where your musical palette is at these days, but I highly recommend serenading your Quarantine with some Sarod.

• Visit the official website for the Ali Akbar College of Music.

• Listen to/download a 1983 Ali Akbar Khan concert from Eugene, OR, here at Holiday at the Sea.

• Purchase Khan’s music at Amazon.

• Listen to “Raga Hem Behag” as featured on Episode 46 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

Doug Burr Celebrates On Promenade With Trouble

One of the “good” things to come out of Quarantine 2020 is that a lot of musical artists are having impromptu live sessions and releasing lots of nuggets from their own vaults.

Dentonite Doug Burr recently re-released his phenomenal 2007 album On Promenade on vinyl, and we’re celebrating with a newly-released live track, “Thing About Trouble” from On Promenade.

Doug says:

“A stripped down recording of "Thing About Trouble" made at the Barn, Denton, TX, March 2020. Glen Farris is accompanying on the same Wurlitzer keyboard used in the original recording. This song is from our 2007 album, On Promenade, which has been re-released to vinyl for the first time in April 2020 by Oklahoma record label, Clerestory AV.”

• Visit Doug Burr’s official site.

• Purchase ‘On Promenade’ (remastered) on vinyl

• Visit Burr at Facebook.

• Follow Doug Burr at Twitter.

• Purchase Doug Burr’s music at Bandcamp.

• Purchase Doug Burr’s music at Amazon.

• Browse my previous posts tagged “Doug Burr”

Kikagaku Moyo / 幾何学模様 Go To Church

Japanese psychedelic rockers Kikagaku Moyo / 幾何学模様 recently posted a fantastic new live video to the social messengers. And it is my duty as a Certified Eboy Internet Courier (not a real thing) to pass awesome nuggets like this along to you, my fellow, faithful Internet friends.

We’re all in this together. The band says the following on their Facebook page:

“We are very happy to share our improvised live session with our friends Jacco gardner & Bruno Pernadas :).

The set was performed & recorded at at St. George church in Lisbon, Portugal back in 2018.

Big thanks to Barking Dog Agency for the video production and incredible opportunity.”

The video's Youtube page provides the following details:

• Live session at the St. George Church in Lisbon with Kikagaku Moyo, Bruno Pernadas and Jacco Gardner.
• RECORDING Rui Antunes Emil Lloyd
• CAMERA Francesco Giacomini David Breda Silva André Chaby Mendonça Ulpiano Capalbo
• EDIT Ulpiano Capalbo
• PRODUCTION Barking Dogs

• Browse other Kikagaku Moyo / 幾何学模様 posts here at Holiday at the Sea.

• Listen to "Kogarashi”" by Kikagaku Moyo on Episode 10 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

• Visit the group's official website.

• Follow the group on Facebook.

• Follow the group on Twitter.

• Purchase the group's music at Bandcamp.

• Purchase the album at Amazon.

Sun City Girls: Cloaven Theater

Deep from the bowels of the Interwebs, we spelunked this gem from 1994.

From the notes on the Youtube page:

“1994: VHS video (Abduction: Video 1)

A mind control experiment shot and edited at the cable public access studios of Viacom in Seattle (after TCI pulled the rug out from under us). It was supposed to be aired, but Viacom's tech guy screwed up the dub and it never did. So it was released on VHS. “

Guest appearances by:

• Eddy Detroit and Adam Burke (percussion on "The Venerable Song"),

• Eddy Detroit (goat calls on "Sam Manilla" and "Brothers Unconnected").

Includes a "video comic book" by Blaine Thurier, narrated by Charles Gocher.

Filmed by: Charles Gocher, Greg Hynes, Javier Gallegos, Keith Parry, Steve Reetz, Erin Lofton, and Bohemia Afterdark.

Songs and ???:

* Flippin the Bird
* An Old Eyeball in a Quart Jar of Snot
* Music For the Funeral of Drama City
* Nay Bah Zay
* Bail Out of Jail
* The Brothers Unconnected
* Bliss of Coma
* Drifting in Smiles
* The Venerable Song Pt. 1 (the meaning of which is no longer known)
* Hitman Boy
* No, There I Go
* Out on the Dixie
* The Momentary Fugitive
* The Venerable Song Pt. 2
* Sam Manilla
* Mamas Milk (Too Dry)
* It's Not a Real Knife
* Let the Night Roar

Freddie Hubbard, Paris, 1973

I’m not sure if there is more video of this performance, but this seems to be from ORTF TV Studio, Paris, France, on March 25, 1973.

I believe the personnel here is:

• Freddie Hubbard - trumpet 

• Junior Cook - Tenor Sax 

• George Cables - fender rhodes 

• Kent Brinkley - bass 

• Michael Carvin - drums 

Check it out.

• Visit Freddie Hubbard’s official website.

• Visit Freddie Hubbard’s page at Blue Note Records.

• Follow Freddie Hubbard at Facebook.

• Purchase Freddie Hubbard’s music at Amazon.

The Comet Is Coming: Tiny Desk

Since you, dear friends, trust my musical explorations, I know you remember my recent post about Shabaka and the Ancestors: Soul Jazz For The End of Days.

Between Shabaka and the Ancestors, Sons of Kemet, and The Comet is Coming, I dig the musical universe of Shabaka Hutchings in a way I have dug a musical universe in quite a while. While Shabaka and the Ancestors scratch my soul/spiritual-groove-roots-jazz itch, The Comet Is Comet channels my Quarantine angst with electronics, pulsating beats and skreeking skronks and some of the most evocative playing I’ve heard in a while.

The group’s Facebook page says:

“The Comet is Coming to destroy illusions. It will manifest new realities, perceptions, levels of awareness and abilities to coexist. It is a musical expression forged in the deep mystery. It is the overcoming of fear, the embracing of chaos, the peripheral sight that we might summon the fire.

Through the transcendent experience of music we reconnect with the energy of the Lifeforce in hope of manifesting higher realities in new constructs. Because the end is only really the beginning.”

Late last year, the group recorded an NPR Tiny Desk Concert, performing tracks from Trust in the Lifeforce of the Deep Mystery.

Setlist:

1. "Super Zodiac"

2. "Summon The Fire"

3. "Blood Of The Past"

Musicians:

• King Shabaka: saxophone;

• Danalogue: synthesizer;

• Betamax: drums

• Visit the official Shabaka Hutchings website.

• Visit the official website for The Comet Is Coming.

• Follow The Comet Is Coming at Facebook.

• Visit The Comet Is Coming’s Bandcamp page.

• Purchase The Comet Is Coming’s Music at Amazon.

• Visit Shabaka and the Ancestors’ Bandcamp page.

• Follow Shabaka and the Ancestors at Facebook.

Thelonious Monk Quartet 1966

The internet can be a lovely place sometimes.

For example, did you know that with the most basic of Google-Fu skills, you can find amazing live concerts on the Interwebs just waiting for you to watch? Like this video of the amazing Thelonious Monk Quartet in 1966. It’s labeled “Thelonious Monk Quartet Live In 66 Norway & Denmark concerts” with only a set list and no other information. Oh well, what more do you need? I’m sure if you have more than the most basic Google-Fu skills, you can find out more about this lineup and shows than I cared to. I just wanted to get my Monk Swing on.

• Visit Thelonious Monk’s page at Blue Note Records.

• Purchase Thelonious Monk’s music at Amazon.

Hiss Golden Messenger Defend Public Schools

North Carolina’s Hiss Golden Messenger is one of my favorite current live acts going. And not just because lead-man M.C. Taylor’s wife is a public school teacher like my own. But that certainly helps.

Hiss Golden Messenger has fought to remain a voice of light in the growing darkness. To see how they have been this for me, just browse some of the posts marked “Hiss Golden Messenger” here at Holiday at the Sea. Taylor’s honest approach to fighting for hope is something that resonates with me the way few current artists have.

The band’s new project, Forward, Children: A fundraiser for Durham Public Schools students, sees the release of a live recording from one of the band’s home-town concerts on 01/11/20 of this very year; just before the Quarantine hit. Taylor says of the release on the band’s Facebook page:

Good morning! Today, we put out into the world ‘Forward, Children: A fundraiser for Durham Public Schools students.’ This is a fully multi-tracked, mixed and mastered 15-song live Hiss album from our performance at the Cat's Cradle—one of our most venerable hometown venues in the North Carolina Triangle—on January 11th, 2020. It is available for download on Bandcamp now and will hit all streaming services on April 3rd. ALL proceeds—every penny—from this record benefit students in the Durham Public Schools system that are currently struggling with food insecurity in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak. At a time when anxiety seems to be our default emotion, I realize that this is a big ask, but I implore you to donate as much as you can to help feed our kids that depend on public school in order to eat. And while listening on the streaming services is the way that many of us interact with music these days, purchasing this album on Bandcamp puts far more food on the table. Dig deep, please. There are so many people to thank in the making of this album—so many that I could easily take up the rest of this section naming them all. Special love, however, goes to the Hiss band: Phil Cook, Chris Boerner, Alex Bingham and Al Smith, and our engineer Luc Suèr, who recorded and mixed this show. When I hear a performance like this in light of where we all are now, it’s amazing what stands out to my ear: Community. Gathered joy. Spirit, and a little bit of sorrow. What a Saturday night feels like in our little shared corner of the universe. May we find those times again soon. Changed, perhaps, for the better. Thank you all for listening.

Stream the album here:

Purchase the album (and help Durham public schools) here.

• Visit Hiss Golden Messenger’s official website.

• Purchase the album (and help Durham public schools) here.

• Follow Hiss Golden Messenger at Facebook.

• Follow Hiss Golden Messenger at Twitter.

• Support Hiss Golden Messenger at Bandcamp.

• Purchase Hiss Golden Messenger’s music at Amazon.

Manu Dibango "Soul Makossa"

In light of yesterday’s news that international saxophonist Manu Dibango has died from Coronavirus, here he is performing his best known track “Soul Makossa.”

• Visit Manu Dibango’s official website.

• Follow Manu Dibango on Facebook.

• Purchase Manu Dibango’s music on Amazon.

• Listen to “Soul Makossa” by Manu Dibango on Episode 25 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

McCoy Tyner and Freddie Hubbard (McCoy Tyner Trio at Jazztage Stuttgart 1990)

With the recent passing of jazz legend McCoy Tyner, this seems like as good a time as any to watch the 1990 1990 McCoy Tyner Trio Set from Stuttgart featuring Freddie Hubbard.

The Take The "A" Train blogspot offers the following background for the concert:

“A torrent of notes on keyboard and flugelhorn. Three decades after the photograph above was taken, pianist McCoy Tyner and trumpeter Freddie Hubbard are back together, this time in Stuttgart, Germany.

Freshly digitized from a nearly disintegrating VHS tape (while the image remains amazingly intact, reminding us about the virtues of analogue formats that at least allow for some sort of extraction), this exciting concert is the complete TV broadcast of McCoy Tyner Trio featuring Freddie Hubbard and Ralph Moore.”

Jazztage '90
Stuttgart, Germany
July 13, 1990

• Freddie Hubbard (t, flugelhorn),

• Ralph Moore (ts, ss),

• McCoy Tyner (p),

• Avery Sharpe (b),

• Aaron Scott (d)

Tracklisting:
00:00 Introduction in German
01:08 Dear John
14:20 Twilight Mist [only the trio]
23:30 Embraceable You 
32:40 Reinhold Beckmann interviews Tyner and Hubbard
40:31 One Of Another Kind

• Visit McCoy Tyner’s official website.

• Follow McCoy Tyner’s Facebook page.

• Purchase MCoy Tyner’s music at Amazon.

• Visit Freddie Hubbard’s page at Blue Note Records.

• Purchase Freddie Hubbard’s music at Amazon.

The Clash 03/08/80 Capitol Theatre

December 22 marked the 17th anniversary of Joe Strummer’s death. December 2019 also marked the 40th anniversary of the Clash’s landmark album London Calling.

To celebrate, let’s watch an amazing full concert from 03/08/1980 at the Capitol Theatre, in Passaic, NJ, USA. This was just after London Calling was released in the U.S. and, Jambase notes:

“On March 8, 1980 the band performed at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, New Jersey. The concert is The Clash at the height of their powers. Luckily video of the show has survived for posterity and reads like a blueprint in building the bridge that would connect punk with new wave and grunge.”

Setlist

1. 0:00:00 - Clash City Rockers

2. 0:03:43 - Brand New Cadillac

3. 0:05:47 - Safe European Home

4. 0:09:20 - Jimmy Jazz

5. 0:13:31 - London Calling

6. 0:16:57 - Guns of Brixton

7. 0:20:11 - Train In Vain

8. 0:23:28 - White Man

9. 0:27:48 - Koka Kola / I Fought The Law

10. 0:32:00 - Spanish Bombs

11. 0:35:23 - Police And Thieves

12. 0:40:17 - Stay Free

13. 0:43:52 - Julie's Been Working For The Drug Squad

14. 0:47:08 - Wrong Em Boyo

15. 0:51:12 - Clampdown (incomplete)

16. 0:54:46 - Janie Jones

17. 0:56:50 - Complete Control

18. 1:00:27 - Armageddon Time

19. 1:07:47 - English Civil War / Garageland

20. 1:11:19 - Bank Robber

21. 1:15:00 - Tommy Gun

• Visit The Clash’s official website

• Follow The Clash at Facebook

• Follow The Clash on Twitter

• Purchase The Clash’s music at Amazon