HAPPY BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY! 1-31-10

Happy Birthday to Roxy Music's Phil Manzanera who is 59 today! Everyone, do the strand!

ROBOTS OF THE DAY! 1-21-10

I know I know... you must listen and look past the Pat Metheny part of this video... I'm not a fan of his playing or his writing or, really, his hairdo.. seems like a nice enough guy though, I guess. Anyway, it's what he is playing WITH that is mind blowing. Now people have made Orchestrions before... beyond the actual ones from back in the day (you can still see great old turn of the century ones at Musee Mechanique in San Francisco and at Wall Drug too)... but I mean there are those that have created ones to play live music along with. This though is a whole bunch of triggered instruments actually 'listening' to his playing and reacting accordingly. Wha?!! That's amazing! Looks like he had help from the Lemur folks who are amazing on their own.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY! 1-20-10

Happy Birthday to Lead Belly (or Leadbelly... both work) who would have been 112 today if he had lived this long. Whew!

Here we get the great:




... and the terrible (...terrible acting that is):

INSTRUMENT OF THE DAY! 1-15-10

The Auerglass is a two-person, mechanical-action organ. The instrument requires two people to create music and cannot be played alone. This marriage of interdependency and cooperation is achieved as one player pumps the bellows while the other creates music and vice versa.

The two keyboards cover a four-octave range and have been divided so that each of the two players has every other note at their disposal. Auerbach and Mesirow (of the band Glasser), will play a composition written specifically for the instrument. It combines music that Auerbach wrote as a child, songs from Glasser, and new material.

Here is an video interview of the two women who thought it up.

MUSIC ARCHIVE OF THE DAY! 1-14-10

The Marr Sound Archives is located on the ground floor of the Miller Nichols Library on the campus of the University of Missouri--Kansas City. The archives was established in 1987 with a foundation gift from Olga and Gaylord Marr. Since then, the collection has grown to include over 300,000 sound recordings.

The focus of the collection is the American experience as reflected in recorded sound. The archives’ holdings include jazz, blues, country, bluegrass, spoken word, vintage radio programs popular, rock and roll, soul, opera, classical and numerous other genres of music. Researchers internationally benefit from the archives collections and services.

Momentum & Marr from j kerfeld on Vimeo.

The Raymond Scott Collection was donated to the University of Missouri-Kansas City by Mitzi Scott, Raymond's widow, in 1993. It contains music scores, photographs, correspondence, journals, diaries, scrapbooks, notebooks, schematics, news clippings, production notes, and personal and miscellaneous items. The collection, which encompasses much of Scott's career until 1980, has been organized into 11 series that occupy 28 boxes and an oversized drawer. A 12th series of audio material, primarily open-reel tapes and instantaneous-cut discs, is housed in the Marr Sound Archives, the audio division of Special Collections.

The strength of the collection lies in over 400 manuscript scores by Scott. They are in various stages of development including sketches, fragments and completed scores, which provide opportunities to see the progress of a work from a rough copy to a completed, published score. This is especially true with The Lute Song manuscripts.

The collection also gives insight into the other side of Scott's career - that of inventor and electronic music pioneer. There are 20 spirals and 36 disclosures to indexed inventions. Additionally, there are miscellaneous invention and engineering notes, and schematic drawings and diagrams.

Other items of interest include journals, diaries and scrapbooks of Raymond Scott and his second wife, Dorothy Collins; personal and business correspondence; and several hundred photographs, including publicity and candid shots.

TENOR GUITAR PLAYER OF THE DAY! 1-7-10

TINY GRIMES!
This week I was chatting with a friend who was telling me about a great 40's swing/jump guitar player named Tiny Grimes who made his name playing the tenor guitar. I have been drawn more and more to the tenor guitar over the past year or two due to having my baritone uke as my 'go-to' instrument in most cases for both composing and just messing around. Anyway, Tiny's description reminded me of the 30's-40's band Cats and the Fiddle (video clip of 'Killin' Jive' posted in an earlier post). My friend had not heard of them but we each mentioned checking out each other's recommendations. So, of course, as things go.... Tiny was actually IN Cats and the Fiddle.... later than the when the clip was shot by a few years... but still. It was a fun coincidence.

More on Lloyd "Tiny" Grimes:
He played the tenor guitar (a four string version of a guitar) and played with countless artists on as many recordings by the likes of Art Tatum, Charlie Parker, Coleman Hawkins, and even Billie Holiday. One of his own bands, Tiny Grimes and the Rockin' Highlanders included a young Screaming Jay Hawkins years before he made a name for himself.

Though he was known as being a master of swing, jump, and jazz in the style of Charlie Christian, Tiny is also one of the many artists thought to have written and performed the very first rock and roll song, his 1946 "Tiny's Boogie". Other artists thought to have also written the very first rock and roll song are Big Joe Turner, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Ike Turner, Fats Domino.... and the list goes on and on.

More on Tiny HERE.

A CAPPELLA OF THE DAY! 1-2-10

Wow! Here is the Beach Boys' "Pet Sounds" LP with only the voices... a cappella versions of the tracks!! AMAZING! What a peek into the mind of Brian and his intricate and unique way of creation. NOTE: the link for the tracks is found within the comments section. (Thank you Steve for the link!!)

NEW YEAR OF THE DAY! 1-1-10

Happy new year with the New Year! (yeah, old video of good band but you know... I had to post it for the pun... always up for the pun...)

The New Year were (are?) a nice band that rose from the ashes of Bedhead (the Kadane brothers) and has over the years had members from Come (Chris Brokaw on drums), Three On A Hill (Peter Schmidt on bass), the End (or End Over End) (Tench Coxe no longer part of the band at this point). Yea for late 80's Dallas bands!

I think his video puts to rest any questions one might have about the loyalty this band has to Fender products.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY! 12-22-09

Happy Birthday Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees!! He truely has some of the oddest and greatest pipes in pop music. Here he is taking the lead with his brothers on "I Started A Joke" from 1968.

VIDEO OF THE DAY! 12-17-09

Wow, check out this footage of the great Andrew Lood Oldham as he oversees recording by the fantastic Vashti Bunyun recording her "Winter is Blue" from the 1967 documentary Tonight Let's Make Love In London. Yes, that is the legendary producer/engineer Glyn Johns working the board. What an embarrassment of riches!

MAVIS OF THE DAY! 12-14-09

More Mavis (with the Band and Staple Singers from the Last Waltz).

SLOW JAM OF THE DAY! 12-9-09

Here is Canadian soul band Skylark featuring Donny Gerrard of lead vocals playing their biggest hit, Wildflower on the Midnight Special in 1973.

MAVIS OF THE DAY! 12-08-09

More Miss Mavis!

MAVIS OF THE DAY! 12-07-09

More Mavis!

MAVIS OF THE DAY! 12-06-09

Mavis!

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY! 12-4-09

Today is the birthday of Beach Boy Dennis Wilson who would have been 65 this year if not for his accidental drowning in 1983. Here is his beautiful "Barbara" recorded in 1971 but not released until after his death on the Beach Boys' rarities collection Endless Harmony. It's been said that this recording was unfinished; that one of the two piano parts was a guide track for strings to be later added.

BAND OF THE DAY! 11-30-09

I saw the Chicago band Spires That in the Sunset Rise by accident and was totally blindsided by their set. I was awestruck. This all woman four piece can find common ground with some of the neo psych-folk movement while also sounding often very Eastern in their melodies and instrumentation. Their use of voice-as-instrument with more often non-lyrical approach also helps to keep their music out of obvious Western forms. Most of what they play are acoustic stringed instruments like banjo and table harps and zithers. Their arrangements are loose and sometimes frail giving a tenseness to their set. Please see them if you can and buy their records.

TINY DESK OF THE DAY! 11-26-09

NPR has a nice series of performers playing tiny concerts behind a desk in their office. Very simple concept that has yielded a lot of great video of great artists playing mostly acoustic for a handful of office workers. Microphones used only to record... not to amplify. Here is the great Bill Callahan (Smog) playing a few songs from his his most recent record Sometimes I Wish We Were an Eagle (Drag City).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY! 11-24-09

Happy Birthday to Donald Duck Dunn, one of the very best of the best bass players ever. He of course played with the Mar-Keys and Booker T and the MG's who were the house band at Memphis' Stax Records. They backed records by Sam & Dave, Albert King, Wilson Picket, Staple Singers, Freddie King, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, and really almost every single song released on Stax.. A third of the basslines in your head belong to him.

Here he is with the MG's as the backing band for Sam & Dave...

ADVERTISEMENT OF THE DAY! 11-21-09

Wow.... not many TV commercials like this... and add in the Clara Rockmore track, you got yourself a one of a kind beer spot. As amazing as it is, I'm not sure if it is talking me into having a beer or not. I feel like now checking my next beer for bugs.

BAD-ASS OF THE DAY! 11-20-09

Jim Bowie! Jim Bowie! He was a bad ass who threw a big blade!

Jim Bowie! Jim Bowie! The home owner was pissed by the hole in the door that it made!

MEMORIAL OF THE DAY! 11-18-09

On this day in 1994, Cab Calloway passed away at the age of 86.

Here is a great old Fleischer Brothers animation of their character Koko the Clown singing to Calloway's "St. James Infirmary" to the deceased Betty Boop. Check out this amazing surreal interpretation... added to by their use of the Fleischer's own invention... the Rotoscope which is an animation technique in which animators trace over live-action film movement, frame by frame. So good.

DOUBLE NECK GUITARIST OF THE DAY! 11-16-09

All hail Joe Maphis, one of the great early country lighting hot shredders.... He played with everyone from Merle Travis to Wanda Jackson to Johnny Burnette to Ricky Nelson. He was known for his double necked Mosrite guitar and in fact helped launch Mosrite as a national production line guitar maker with his high visibility TV appearances.

Here he is pickin' (but not singin') out front, starting off at a speedy gate and gaining speed as he goes!

ARTIST OF THE DAY! 11-15-09

Wow! Saw a very inspiring art show this weekend... Jesse LeDoux (known for his art on records by the Shins, Elliot Smith, Death Cab for Cutie, as well as a ton of Sub-Pop related art) showed some beautiful and fun paintings/drawings at Chicago's Rotofugi Gallery. Wow! Really great work!! You can buy these original works at Rotofugi if you are in Chicago or buy archival signed prints online at Tiny Showcase.... either way, get 'em!

ANIMATOR OF THE DAY! 11-11-09

I've been occupied recently with all the great animation of Norman McLaren who created a large body of work from the mid 30's up thru the 80's.. Great stuff.

Here is a film short showing McLaren creating his own soundtrack. He created it himself by drawing and scratching into the edge of the film where the optical soundtrack is found.. Wow! Amazing! It is very Raymond Scott sounding.... and actually a lot like some of the other soundtracks for McLaren's films by composer Maurice Blackburn who also employed that way of music making.

QUARTET OF THE DAY! 11-6-09

Saw this clip of the Cats and the Fiddle recently... I think on a PBS program about latin music called Latin Music USA.... can't remember. Well, anyway, hot clip! Man, you can't beat the line up! Tenor guitar, tiple, standup bass, and baritone uke!! So great! They played from the late '30's up thru the '50's.... almost twenty years on almost as many labels. I believe this clip was from a cameo they had in the 1938 Lena Horne film ""The Duke Is Tops" (later retitled "The Bronze Venus").

ANIMATOR OF THE DAY! 11-3-09

Here is a trailer for the upcoming Numero Group DVD, Celestial Navigations: The Short Films of Al Jarnow, which will be released on February 23rd, 2010. Jarnow is an amazing artist who made hundreds of educational and experimental short films and animations for Sesame Street, 123 Contact, and PBS among others. Everyone who grew up in the 70's has some pieces of Jarnow's work drifting around somewhere on our internal harddrives.

The Numero Group releases the most amazing, burning comiplation CDs and DVDs...they are a "multi-format media company, devoted to dragging brilliant recordings, films, and photography out of unwarranted obscurity". They do a lot of small scene soul reissue compilations that are just amazing. Go to their website right now and buy everything they have ever had anything to do with.

INSTRUMENT OF THE DAY! 11-2-09

I'll admit it, I am not a huge fan of circuit bending in general. Like a lot of free jazz, I see how it can be very fun TO DO, but most of the time it is a DRAG to hear someone else do it. Also, it most often ends up sounding like a cross between an out of control R2D2 and a turd. That said, this fellow at NoysToise Blog does an amazing job of repurposing old plastic keyboard bodies, discarded Speak and Spells, form fitted tool carrying cases, and snooze control clock radios into very beautifully constructed, new forms of musical oddities. This one especially caught my attention with its great aesthetic form and details and its actual musical uses... it's not just a sputtering out of control audio crap sprayer.

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN OF THE DAY! 10-31-09

It's Halloween!!! It's Halloween!

COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN OF THE DAY! 10-30-09

Another great old animation by Ub Iworks and music by Carl Stalling... this one back at Disney... created 1929. There was really something to dancing skeletons back then, I guess.