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music just performed | music in preparation | tales of the echo beach band | music from the laptop | music from the stereo | music at large | as seen and heard on tv |
Monday, December 01, 2003 10:23:21 AM
Yesterday, Echo Beach at Borders Palo Alto, the setlist was "Morning/Midday", "Place To Be", "Girl From Ipanema", "Key West Intermezzo", "Viva Tirado", "Blue Bossa", "Wave", "One Note Samba", "Footprints", "Delicate Creature", "Sharkbeat", "Merengue", "Killer Joe", "Afro Blue", "So What", "Cal's Pals".
Music in preparation
Thursday, December 18, 2003 10:21:56 AM
Cal Tjader and a very hot band - Primo on CD
Thursday, December 11, 2003 11:51:37 AM
Michael Gordon - "Trance 1" in mp3 from the Bang On A Can website - initially sounding disjointed, but winding up to be catchy! Talk about tossing the melodies around the instruments! The bass player is gluing it together.
Thursday, December 11, 2003 8:50:16 AM
MIDI piano tango music plays as I study the etymology of the word tango.
Thursday, December 04, 2003 6:49:04 PM
Several newly-posted percussion music excerpts (winners in the 2003 PAS Composition Contest) in the Members-Only section on the website of the Percussive Arts Society.
Thursday, December 04, 2003 9:26:43 AM
Excerpt (1:14) of Bela Bartok's "Ostinatos" in mp3 performed by The Jonesburg High School Percussion Ensemble. With its diverse percussion instrumentation, morphing riffs (ostinatos) and rapid-fire note clusters this interesting piece could easily be adapted by The Blue Man Group.
Deep Dish Featuring EBTG - "The Future Of The Future (Stay Gold) Junk Science" in mp3. 9+ minutes of keyboard/drum machine groove with everything but the girl (Tracey if not Ben) in the mix.
Wednesday, December 03, 2003 5:53:57 PM
Eric Stewart - mp3s from his solo album Do Not Bend: "You Can't Take It With You" (with a hot guitar solo), "A Friend In Need", "Sleeping With The Ghosts" - I liked these brief clips. The arrangements are full, the singing is strong, the songwriting seems good on first listen, the sonics are clean, there aren't the twists and turns of 10cc arrangements but that's ok, Eric's guitar sound and soloing remain distinctly his own.
Ronnie Lane and Pete Townshend - "Keep Me Turning" in Real Audio from Rough Mix. This was an album that Stereo Review magazine once stated was "one of the reasons to buy a CD player" but in recent years apparently there have been some crummy CD reissues. The original vinyl had great sonics -- one of those albums recorded and mixed to sound as if the musicians are in the room with you. Released in the late '70s, if it had been made 10 years earlier it might have been titled The Who Versus The Small Faces!!! 'cause record companies used those kinds of titling gimmicks in the '60s.
As winter approaches my British mood will continue as I once again begin listening to XTC's English Settlement...year after year it's a favorite album for winter days.
Tuesday, December 02, 2003 11:27:04 AM
Sneakers soundtrack on CD. The only James Horner soundtrack I've bought...the percussion caught me; I'm also a fan of the film. I definitely give Sneakers extra credit because the screenplay and Robert Redford's character echo one of my all-time favorite films, The Hot Rock. But back to the music in Sneakers: loaded with percussion used in an interesting way.
Tuesday, December 23, 2003 8:14:31 AM
Ella Fitzgerald - Ella Wishes You A Swinging Christmas on CD
Monday, December 22, 2003 4:16:15 PM
Andy Fraser Band - Andy Fraser Band, side one on vinyl. The bassist/songwriter from Free and Sharks in a trio setting. Andy sings and plays bass with Kim Turner (drums and later the tour manager for The Police) and Nick Judd on piano and bass pedals. A somewhat overlooked songwriter and phenomenal bassist shows his stuff. Continuing this month's British Invasion of my stereo system.
Friday, December 19, 2003 12:12:26 PM
The Small Faces - "Here Come The Nice", "Talk To You", "Itchykoo Park", "Eddie's Dreaming", "Tin Soldier", "Up The Wooden Hills To Bedfordshire", "My Way Of Giving" from The Immediate Story Volume Two on vinyl. These cats and their producers knew how to have fun making records and how to let the listener know it. On top of which, Ronnie Lane and Steve Marriott wrote great songs, they put them across vocally (Marriott's acting experience seems to give him an edge), and everyone's instrumental skills (hats off to Ian McLagan especially) were just right for the music (much like the Beatles). They produced many sonic gems of 3 minutes and less.
Wednesday, December 17, 2003 11:21:41 AM
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour on vinyl because it bears repeating, because it's become one of my favorite albums this year and because it's the only soundtrack to play while assembling a jigsaw puzzle of the album cover (puzzle published by Milton Bradley/Hasbro, available at Barnes and Noble).
The Clash - The Clash, CBS's fantastic compilation (Epic Records 36060) on vinyl of the first U.K. Clash album plus singles including "Garageland", "Jail Guitar Doors". This record clears the cobwebs every time. It strikes me hearing this today -- how central the elements of humor and transcendent questioning of groupthink were in the best music of the '76 - '79 era. So much has been said about the presence of anger and nihilism, but there's so much more than that. Journalism and wit were in play too. This album is a prime example.
Tuesday, December 16, 2003 3:40:56 PM
Robert Wyatt - 1982 - 1984 on vinyl
Saturday, December 13, 2003 5:14:52 PM
The Beatles - Magical Mystery Tour on vinyl
Thursday, December 11, 2003 1:34:00 PM
Wednesday, December 10, 2003 3:39:21 PM
Yesterday: John Fahey - The New Possibility: John Fahey's Guitar Soli Christmas Album; Various Artists - A Very Special Christmas, on vinyl
Thursday, December 04, 2003 12:31:10 PM
A stack of tracks from 10cc on 45 RPM vinyl:
10cc loyalists such as myself gather in such places as the Yahoo! Group Minestrone
Tuesday, December 02, 2003 4:19:54 PM
Shoes - Boomerang vinyl, Side One
Monday, December 01, 2003 10:21:49 AM
Over The Edge soundtrack, vinyl Side Two
Monday, December 22, 2003 4:23:00 PM
Sting's book Broken Music is a great read I think.
Saturday, December 13, 2003 3:20:01 PM
Here are the categories for my 2003 Top 10 Lists (10 lists of musically-related items, not necessarly 10 items per list!). On December 31st I'll post the contents of each list:
Thursday, December 11, 2003 8:52:06 AM
The 13th Annual Central California Day of Percussion program has come together for Valentine's Day '04 at Fresno State U. I'm excited about having Nancy Zeltsman on marimba, Scott Amendola on drumset and Scott Johnson (bio here) on drum corps techniques, as clinicians. I'll be at the event to co-host with Professor Matt Darling.
Wednesday, December 10, 2003 2:55:15 PM
Road trip CDs for a 1,400+ mile journey to Oregon, just completed:
Thursday, December 04, 2003 3:32:39 PM
Today I posted to Minestrone my current "all time top 12" list:
12. Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers - "Jazz Messengers!!!" (Impulse
AS-7)
11. Max Roach & M'Boom - "M'Boom"
10. Anton Fig - "Figments"
9. The Bangles - "Doll Revolution"
8. Television - "Marquee Moon"
7. Evelyn Glennie - "Her Greatest Hits"
6. XTC - "English Settlement"
5. 10cc - "Sheet Music"
4. The Monkees - "Pisces, Aquarius, Capricorn & Jones, Ltd."
3. Fairport Convention - "Fairport Convention" (A&M SP4185)
2. Family - "Fearless"
1. Bruce Springsteen - "Darkness On The Edge Of Town"
If I wrote a new list every day it would be somewhat different. Rather than "all-time" it's probably better viewed as a "desert island collection I'd grab if the house was burning down at this moment" type-of-thing.
Thursday, December 04, 2003 9:47:49 AM
Interesting music coverage on a spectrum of topics here.
Tuesday, December 02, 2003 4:22:45 PM
I am looking forward to writing the bandleader's blog 2003 Top 10 Lists this month; already composing them mentally
Monday, December 22, 2003 4:23:45 PM
The Bangles - DVD compilation of Bangles TV appearances, made by Brother Mark. The Bangles are exceptionally good live. They got that way early in their careers (the proof's right here). Excellent! The proof of what good songwriters and record-makers they are is on their Doll Revolution CD.
Friday, December 19, 2003 9:00:05 AM
From the cable music service musicchoice.com
Thursday, December 18, 2003 6:44:53 PM
From the cable music service musicchoice.com
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to the Echo Beach Band website .. echobeachband.com
