Hiss Golden Messenger :: Music in Your Gardens
Streamed live on Jul 1, 2020.
Setlist:
I Need a Teacher
My Wing
Mahogany Dread
Stones
If It Comes in the Morning
Happy Birthday, Baby
Biloxi
Everybody Needs Somebody
There's a New World Coming
Derek Piotr :: Making and Then Unmaking
Nearly every human story centers around conflict and character development. In many of these stories, we find many reoccurring characters.
The wise but enigmatic bearded wizard.
The strong but faithful hero; sure of who they are and their calling but not always sure of their circumstances.
Or, maybe the trickster, who is a cunning, sly usurper of the status quo, who can often shapeshift (including gender). leaving you to wonder who or what you just encountered; or didn’t.
The trickster might know who they are, but most people never will. Leaving everyone to wonder of even the trickster knows who they are. We can only ever know the trickster as they reveal themselves to us; in ever-changing form; in all the ups and downs; the tricks and turns; the slides and tumbles. Derek Piotr’s new album asks us to ask such questions.
Creating what he calls an “Appalachian cowboy record,” Piotr weaves trickster imagery and energy through a powerfully haunting and playful set of songs exploring the question of who we are versus who others think we are. In keeping with the up-ending energy of the trickster, Making and Then Unmaking is a sharp turn for the Piotr. The presskit calls the album his “most musically ambitious and emotionally raw project to date.” Most notably, this is Piotr’s first work to feature the guitar. Piotr has made his name so far in modern classical and DJ settings. He says that he: “had a massive taboo against guitar for my whole career... I felt it was extremely common, pedestrian, coffee-shop stuff, represented the most middling and mundane music on the planet.”
But thankfully, he changed his mind.
Throughout the album, guitar, dulcimer, pedal steel guitar, clavichord and banjo work to support these explorations of identity and loss and Piotr’s unique voice. That voice and its rawness is much of what makes these songs feel like we’re privy to some sort of intimate self-exploration rather than just being academic explorations of a musical genre. Piotr’s presskit says:
“The composer’s voice is foregrounded throughout, operating in a different register to that of the more recognisable singing voice used on previous albums.”
On the opening track, “From Your Window,” Piotr sings “I consume the wind who consumes me” over a hypnotic repeated rhythm and we can’t help but wonder if the life of the trickster; a life of continually changing and keeping up while keeping others at bay will ultimately consume those of us who chase this life.
Diving in to folk, rural, Appalachian, and Irish music. Piotr finds a musical world in which he can explore not only the trickster imagery, but himself. Asked about the album title, he suggest:
"Making and Then Unmaking" refers to building and destroying relationships ... ideas ... past selves ...”
We find this theme of changing, reconciling, growing and the accompanying confusion highlighted in “Invisible Map,” where Piotr sings:
“Things I hold on to make me want to change, but the more I change, the more I find myself holding on.”
It’s this internal struggle of identity that weaves the album together, and here, with slowly stirring strings over plucked rhythms Piotr sings out life’s eternal question: Who Am I? The solo a capella “Bolakins,” (Found at the Wikipedias as “Lamkin”) offers up terrifying answer to that question in the tale of a wronged mason who vows to get even. With only his voice, Piotr lays bear this tale of revenge and sorrow.
While “Bolakins” is certainly a standout track, I wonder if “The Stake/De'il in the Kitchen” most encapsulates the album’s themes. A song with plucked banjo and bagpipes about feeling like cyborg trying to find love seems to get right to the heart of it. What is programmed? What is real? Who can be trusted and why? The organic wistfulness of the banjo plays against Piotr’s mechanical thought: “I am a cyborg.” The bagpipes highlight the confusion; are we programmed? Does it matter? What is free will? Is love free will or something that takes us over? The metallic cyborg tinge plays against the organic instruments and feels like a metaphor for many of the album’s themes.
“Snow in Paradise” continues these themes:
“It’s a wall of snow in paradise / All of us changing for that better life / Did you manifest what means most to you? / Because you can’t resist?”
Later in the song, a saxophone weaves in and out of the melody asking us to reflect on these questions. I have time for music like that, and I hope you do too. These nine songs explore the notions of identity, change, love, and free will; all while Piotr challenges himself to take on a new musical identity. I can’t think of anything better than an artist who models what they explore. Form and function. Cyborgs looking for love, all somehow without losing hope.
Highly recommended.
Pre-order the album at Bandcamp (out 05/14/21). Watch the Electronic Press Kit here.
Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha :: London, 1978
Ravi Shankar and Alla Rakha live in London, 1978.
Setlist:
Raga Is Charukeshi with the Gat in Roopak taal
Raga Jog with gat in Teen taal
Tabla solo by Ustad Alla Rakha in Jhaptaal
Raga Manj-Khamaj in Thumri style
Jeff Buckley Live in Frankfurt (1995)
I’m pretty sure this set was 02/24/1995 at Südbahnhof, Frankfurt, Germany, but I don’t think this is the full show. There are setlists out there with more songs than shown in this video, but I’m not one to complain, especially when it’s live Jeff Buckley.
Here’s the setlist I have:
Mojo Pin:
So Real
Last Goodbye
What Will You Say
Lilac Wine
Grace
Soulive Live (Featuring Charlie Hunter)
Here’s a killer set from Soulive at New York’s Bowery Ballroom. The second track features Charlie Hunter. Sorry, I don’t know many details about this one. I don’t know what year, though I would guess it’s between 1999-2001? Do you know? This appears to be from a Japanese TV broadcast, but I can’t say much beyond that except that . . . DUDE!
Setlist:
Cannonball
It's Your Thing (Isley Brothers cover ft. Charlie Hunter)
Turn it Out
Evidence
So Live!
Galactic & Macy Gray Live For KEXP
Galactic & Macy Gray performing live on KEXP from The Triple Door as part of KEXP's VIP Club Concert series. Recorded July 16, 2015.
Setlist:
Long Live the Borgne
Sugar Doosie
Go Go
Ooh Nah Nay
Into the Deep
Relating to a Psychopath
I Try
Important People:
Audio Engineer: Craig MontgomeryCameras: Jim Beckmann, Shelly Corbett, Scott Holpainen, Luke Knecht, Justin Wilmore
Editor: Luke Knecht
Yasmin Williams and Kaki King :: New Sounds Live at Brookfield Place
I started out looking for live Yasmin Williams performances but quickly landed on this broadcast from New Sounds Live at Brookfield Place, curated by WNYC’s John Schaefer. This episode features brilliant performances and insightful interview segments with Yasmin Williams and Kaki King as well as the debut duo performance of a new piece written by Williams.
If you’re a fan of beautifully innovative guitar music, this is the turkey you want to jive.
Setlist:
Yasmin Williams
Juvenescence
Interview
I wonder
Dragonfly
Through the Woods
Kaki King
Interview
Default Shell
Godchild
Can’t Touch This, Or That, Or My Face
Lorlir
Puzzle Me You
Nails
Bowen Island
Antrhropomorph
Night After Sidewalk
Together:
Instant Happiness
Billy Strings :: Grateful Dead Medley
Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the Grateful Dead’s six-night run at the Capitol Theatre in Port Chester, NY, Billy Strings recently held a series of crowdless performances billed as the “Deja Vu Experiment.”
The Grateful Dead famously conduced the “ESP Experiments” at these shows, “prompting Deadheads in the audience to focus on imagery shown by the band and telepathically send the imagery to a test subject.” (From the Capitol Theatre website). Strings also asked viewers to project their own images of Leftover Salmon’s Vince Herman with questionable results.
Anyway, all that to say, that, for many the highlight of it all was: “Help on the Way/Slipknot/Franklin’s Tower/Brokedown Palace.”
All of THAT to say, watch this:
Greg Brown Live For Acoustic Guitar Magazine
From the video’s Youtube page:
“He’s the last American troubadour, a complex mix of Midwestern common sense and bohemian Zen appeal inhabiting a poet’s soul. In some ways, there are two Greg Browns: tender and tough, acoustic and electric, funny and sorrowful, cynical and filled with an unquenchable thirst for life. One careens down country roads in the dead of night in a broken-down farm truck, no headlights, a bottle of Wild Turkey wedged between his thighs and pioneering country-star Jimmie Rodgers blaring on the stereo. The other is a sunny child balanced on his grandmother’s knee, sampling her canned goods and drinking in a cool summer breeze.
“I know that I look at life and I see a lot of different colors, a lot of different moods,” says the singer and songwriter when pressed on the subject. “I do see a lot of causes for hope and I do see a lot of causes for despair. I see things that make me proud to be a human being on this planet, and I see so many other things that make me just appalled. All of that gets into my songs. On a particular Friday, I might feel quite hopeful, and by Tuesday I might be feeling that we’re completely screwed. I manage to find balance there between the two.
“But I can attest to being one person,” he adds with a laugh.
Setlist:
Bones Bones
Laughing River
Besham’s Bokerie
The Dave Pike Set (1970)
If you don’t know, Dave Pike, was a jazz vibraphone and marimba player.
Sorry, I don’t know anything about this one or have the setlist. I think this was on Belgian TV, but what do I know.
It’s worth your time.
Purchase Dave Pike’s music at Amazon
McCoy Tyner Quintet, Berliner Jazztage (1974)
McCoy Tyner Quintet live at Berliner Jazztage for Jazz Line, 1974.
Sorry, don’t have the setlist for this one. Maybe you do? Either way, it’s worth your time.
Players:
McCoy Tyner - piano
Azar Lawrence - sopran & tenor saxophone
Antonio Guilherme de Souza Franco - percussion
Juny Booth - bass
Wilbert Fletcher - drums
Akron/Family Live at Utopia SXSW Sessions (2013)
Akron Family Live at UTOPiA SXSW Sessions 2013 streaming through Google+ Hangouts on Air.”
Sorry folks, we could probably figure out the setlist to this one but I haven’t taken the time to do so. But I’ve been digging this live SXSW Akron/Family set and thought you might like it too, all things considered.
Grant Green Trio (1969)
Here’s another Youtube Treasure that I haven’t bothered to research much. I’m sure many of you can tell me when/where exactly this is from, and I look forward to learning all of that.
But in the meantime . . .
Setlist:
I Don't Want Nobody to Give me Nothing (thanks Sean Graham)
Oleo
Insensatez
Blues in G (?)
Sonnymoon For Two (Thanks Harry)
Additional Players:
Larry Ridley on bass
Don Lamond on drums
Cannonball Adderley Sextet: Live (1964)
Cannonball Adderley Sextet/ Live on "JAZZ625", 1964.5.12.
Setlist:
Work Song
Song My Lady Sings
Poor Butterfly
Jive Samba
Unit Seven
The Weaver
Bohemia after dark
Cam-Sunday
Sweet Georgia Bright
Unit Seven
Players:
Julian ‘Cannonball’ Adderley
Nat Adderley
Charles Loyd
Joe Zavinul
Sam Jones
Louis Hayes
Miles Davis Quintet, Live at the 1967 Stockholm Jazz Festival
Miles Davis Quintet live at the 1967 Stockholm Jazz Festival.
From the Youtube comments: “This is 50 YEARS AGO, and it sounds like tomorrow. How the hell???”
Setlist:
Agitation
Footprints
‘Round Midnight
Gingerbread Boy
Players:
Trumpet: Miles Davis
Saxophone: Wayne Shorter
Piano: Herbie Hancock
Bass: Ron Carter
Drums: Tony Williams
John Coltrane (Belgium 1965)
Here’s a Youtube Treasure I don’t know much about.
Sorry, I’ve never bothered to much research beyond knowing that it’s Coltrane in Belgium in 1965. I’m sure some of you can hep me to the jive and I’m always interested in details if you’re interested in providing them.
Otherwise, let’s just enjoy the sublime.
Setlist:
Untitled Original (Vigil)
Naima
My Favorite Things
Other Players:
McCoy Tyner - Piano
Jimmy Garrison - Bass
Elvin Jones - Drums
