Bouncing With Bud

I've been computerising more vinyl - the sound on this Blue Note LP!

And this track?

Amazing.

Explodes a grey day.

Max Roach on drums.

Bud Powell - 'Un Poco Loco' (1951)

Reel Life (Just Around The Corner)

Have you dropped in on Press Play & Record yet? Its kind hearted, pseudonymous, author has been uploading entire NME mail-order cassettes from the 1980s, with full tracklistings and artwork (see above) throughout October.

I've loved being reunited with, amongst many others, The Mighty Reel, Straight No Chaser, Pocket Jukebox and The Tape With No Name all of which at some point I had, or knew, or tape-to-taped, or cribbed tracks from, but have since lost.

I've been reminded of many lost gems, as well as of the wonderful Peel-like eclecticism the magazine embraced in those distant, glory days.

Pay a visit, you must.

---

Inspired by hearing again the speedy alt. version of this* that opens The Mighty Reel, I dug out my LP of Imperial Bedroom for the potato-roasting slot on Sunday; hadn't played it in years.

*Vinyl rip, contains crackles.

[Thanks to ally for the original site tip-off]

Friday Reggae # 31

Rush I some booze.

Tappa Zukie - 'Rush I Some Dub' (1976)

Blog

Torquay seafront, Monday

A strange few days of storms and, for the moment, calm; thundering to Devon under vast Constable skies to see my Mum in hospital and look after my Dad, not in the best of mental health and not coping well on his own. Back and forths to the hospital, making sure he ate something, throwing out all the food in the fridge with Best Before dates of faded memory.  If you have elderly relatives, you'll know the score. She's home now at least, struggling to navigate a paper bag-full of medication and Doing Too Much given two days ago she had three blood transfusions. It's a worry.

Thank you, Sir Richard, for this one - in the dark last night somewhere on the M4 between Bristol and Reading, me and a service station coffee and the blue light of my dashboard.

Richard Hawley - 'Don't Get Hung Up In Your Soul' (2009)

The Smiling Hour

From the pen of Tony 'Crossroads Theme' Hatch; Britain's Burt Bacharach, or the 70s Simon Cowell.

A davyh vinyl rip (crackles!) from the original Capitol LP.

Love that cover shot!

What would you say to a little drink?

Peggy Lee - 'Call Me' (1966)

Re-Make/Re-Model

Mojo Filter writes...

"Just a little tribute to the great electronic adventurer himself. I'm up for trying for those ultra-blue harmonic feedback-type fequencies that seem to come out of the shpeeeker. VEry Bluely in mine eareyes. L.O.V.E, love !!"

Yes.

I L.O.V.E. the way this blisses out/extends the frustratingly short but genius original whilst staying true to its spirit - a fine, fine piece of work that I'm sure Mr Eno likes.

Brian Eno - 'Another Green World (The Blue Realm remix)' (2011)

The Smiling Hour

Blue-blooded Blue Note, companeros - 100% proof.

I shall require a beverage.

Thelonious Monk - 'Straight, No Chaser' (1951)

Yet Never Blossom

Here are four minutes in which legendary Young Marble Giant/Weekender Alison Statton, practically a patron saint of these pages, sings a melancholy melody over woozy synth, ambient noise and a plucked lute? uke? from Spike. It's Basil Kirchin's 'I Start Counting' for the Rough Trade generation, probably.

I love it.

Alison Statton & Spike - 'The Seed Remains' (1997)

Nu Jazz Tuesday

I hadn't heard of Two Banks Of Four until yesterday and hadn't heard their music until today.

'I think this will be right up your street' writes glen grainger, whose splendid musical choices may also be sampled here.

And do you know what, given they're kinda mid-period Working Week meets Koop via St Germain, he's right, so right.

glen, you spoil us - thank you.

Two Banks Of Four - 'One Day' (2003)
Two Banks Of Four - 'Unclaimed' (2003)

[vocalist - Valerie Etienne]

5

This has been a blog on the internets for five of your Earth years. It's a long time, it's no time at all, it's flown by, it seems like forever.

I'd never have imagined I'd stick with it so long.

I've posted whatever I've been listening to and written about whatever I've been doing, thinking or feeling -  most of it stuff of little consequence - and you've kept dropping in, and I'm chuffed. I've said before and still maintain - your comments are the very best thing about this.

And thank you, fellow bloggers, for the music - there's been so much of it.....so many trails you've set me off on, so many previously unheard records I've taken entirely to my heart and now could not live without.

And when I've been blue you've made me laugh and when I've disappeared up my own arse (which I may well be currently doing) you have pulled me out (hmm, attractive image).

That's What - as the very great Burt Bacharach once said, or was it Carole Bayer Sager - Friends Are For.

Thank you.

Lograremos un gran final
No nos moveran
Sabiendo que vamos a vencer
Y venceremos
Y venceremos
Y venceremos...

Working Week - 'Venceremos (We Will Win) (jazz dance special 12" edition)' (1984).

Bert Jansch (3rd Nov 1943 – 5th Oct 2011)

"Playing with Bert was like a long walk through the woods. Mysterious, ancient & natural. Leaves would fall but the sun could come out too" - Johnny Marr.

Bert Jansch - 'Running From Home' (1965)

Blog

Looking to avoid the cost of Mr Dyno-Rod, I spent most of yesterday morning trying to unblock our drain. Unsuccessfully.

I have a bruised and swollen forearm from trying to reach down the bloody thing and still imagine I can smell its vomity-oily smell, despite the two showers and bath I’ve had since.

Mid-work today I ran out of printer toner and have spent and hour and a half trawling round local shops looking for a replacement. They haven’t got one right now, but they can order one in.

There’s only cheese for lunch.

My life is impossibly glamorous.  

This calls for 80s indie.

The Flatmates – ‘Heaven Knows (Tranquiliser Mix)’ (1988)

Yeah Baby

We bless the weather and we bless it again, companeros - 29C in London today and though we know it won't last, that makes it kinda sweeter, in a way.

Here's something sultry I never thought I'd be posting in the dog-days of September.

I shall require a beverage and I shall require it chilled.

Lonnie Liston Smith & The Cosmic Echoes - 'Summer Days' (1974)

Indian Summer

Dave Brubeck - 'Indian Summer' (2007)

(He'll be 91 this December).

Blue Monday

They've forecast 'unseasonably mild weather', though this morning's breaking kind of grey.

We'd best let McCoy Tyner's singing lines lift our spirits and lift 'em high on this beautiful, beautiful thing.

McCoy Tyner - 'She's Leaving Home' (1995)

The Smiling Hour

Let there be you
Let there be me
Let there be oysters
Under the sea

Well, mussels - I'm having mussels again tonight. With big chunks of French bread and frites and cold white wine too, you know me. 

This song's been with me all my life - to begin with on this posthumous LP Dad had, with narrated bits by the BBC's Alan Dell between the songs and a big scratch on one side where the three year old me once bumped into the record player.

Battersea-born Shearing's light touch, the lovely lyric and Nat's easy vocal all make this pretty special, I'm sure you'll agree.

Here's to ducking bits off falling satellites.

Chin chin.

Nat 'King' Cole - 'Let There Be Love' (1961)

The Seed And The Sower

I've been listening to a lot of Grant McLennan/Go-Betweens in the last few days.

It's not the anniversary of his death or anything, though I checked that because so often I find there's a spooky synchronicity in these things; something a little quirky did happen last night, mind.

I was knocking up a davyh tomato pasta and chatting with my lovely eldest daughter about Big Things like Death and God and The Universe (she'd had R.S during the day) when we veered off to the less profound but in my mind no less important subject of tomato soup.

She said she'd really like some more of that posh fresh one with basil in it from Waitrose and I said 'Hang on, we've more ripening tomatoes in this house right now than we know what to do with (see above), so rather than fork out for lar-di-dar stuff we can ill-afford, why don't we make our own?'.

Suddenly Grant, who had until this point been playing largely unheeded on the iPo in the background sang out, clear as a bell

I read about your death in the paper
When I was buying tomato seed

That fair stopped us in our tracks, I can tell you.

Grant McLennan - 'Hot Water' (1995)

The Smiling Hour

You know, sometimes only Tone will do.

And it's an early Pinot please bartender for I cannot face gin without lime, and dagnabbit we are out.

Tony Bennett - 'The Best Is Yet To Come' (1962)

Ad Lib On Nippon

It's all turning out a tad frantic this week; no time to breathe, blog or blether on.

I'll tell you what though, this is lovely.

And there's a Japanese connection with the last post too!

It almost looks like I plan this stuff!

Horace Silver - 'Cherry Blossom' (1962)

Yeah Baby

This came to me kindly from glen grainger, oft to be found in the saloon bar at Dusty Sevens, in return for Weekend services rendered; it is a lush and lovely rare groove classic and a fine thing I think to get our autumn Fridays here on the road.

Cheers glen, and cheers, indeed, to us all.

Yasuko Agawa - 'L.A Night' (1984)

In Search Of Efmu

A year or two ago my good friend Dr Al. made a compilation CD for me with this track on it. I love it!

I hadn't heard of Efmu, and that's not unusual, but the frustrating thing has been trying to find out more about them and trying to get hold of more of their music.

They are on MySpace (yikes!) and I even went through the laborious process of signing up to the wretched thing in the hope that I could download the tracks there, but no dice (and sheesh if there's a less user-friendly 'social network' than MySpace then I've yet to hear about it; I cancelled my membership ten mins after setting it up).

They are based in Paris, a French/Latin American (?) duo (sometimes, see pic, trio?)  - guitar, percussion/sax; they are unsigned; they seem to have no website of their own; the only links you get by Googling them are to venues they are playing or have played (none in the UK); I am the only listener to their music (this track) on LastFM (!)

And since they describe their musical genre as 'acoustic/fusion/latin' they are right up my musical rue. 

Et alors....where can I get Efmu music?

Efmu - are you out there??

Efmu - 'Neva' (2005?)

Postscript: Dr Al. has been in touch. He says 'we stumbled on them in a bar in Paris years ago and liked them so much we bought a CD from them after the show'. But Efmu, do you have new music for us?

Hello, I'm Back

 

You Tube user "TheLizzie12" writes - "I so love baddddddd Hollywood musicals of the 1970s, and there were plenty! This has to be one of the worst. In the UK, Coronation Street fans will be thrilled to see little Simon Barlow being picked up by Liv UIlman @ 0.11 and shouting "Whoah!" (ha ha)"

davyh writes - "A terrific Burt Bacharach tune is a terrific Burt Bacharach tune! And this (below) is a vinyl rip from Mrs H's original soundtrack LP! With gatefold sleeve, poster and lyric sheets! (but possibly that's not important right now). It's not Liv Ullman singing, of course. And as I'm sure the 'buffs' amongst you will know, the original Frank Capra movie is very special...".

Diana Lee - 'The World Is A Circle' (1973)

I've been wanting to post this for ages.

It'll get more downloads than anything else I've put here for months, you see.

Gone West

'In my beginning is my end' wrote T.S Eliot in his Four Quartets poem 'East Coker', and I really don't know about that - but it would be true to say that 'Near East Coker is my holiday destination'.

There will be no jaunt SW France-ward for us this year, austere times and all that, and whilst I will miss the southern sunshine I will not much miss the 14 hour drive; instead tomorrow we pootle westward in England for a quiet week where the zider apples grow and an American poet's ashes rest. 

Late Summer, the golden light, lengthening shadows and a decent pint - you know the sort of thing.

Now the light falls
Across the open field, leaving the deep lane
Shuttered with branches, dark in the afternoon

Well, hopefully not that dark T.S - I'm looking for at least one barbecue and some nice sunsets.

Catherine Howe - 'In The Hot Summer' (1971)

Will Tweet anything that grabs me - and see you back here in September x

'French' Connection

The sample and the sampled...

A Tribe Called Quest - 'Luck Of Lucien' (1990)
Billy Brooks - 'Fourty Days' (1974)

Breaktastic.

L'Heure Souriante

I am eating moules tonight, with big hunks of French bread.

So Mrs H'll be on the salad*

And yes, I have started on the rosados.

I absolutely bloody love this.

Les Négresses Vertes - 'Face À La Mer (Massive Attack Remix Full Version)' (1993)

*unfortunate food poisoning incident, Ibiza 2002

Oui, C'est Ca

Françoise Hardy -  'Voilà' (1967)

Will The Doctor See Me Now?

Last night I had a dream about Nina Simone.

I was at her concert, walking the aisles of a huge arena-type venue.

There were many blocks of seats facing different directions and at least four grand pianos, each a different colour, on separate stages, so you couldn’t tell where she'd perform. This was distressing.

I wandered into a labyrinthine backstage area, blundered into a small room. Standing in it was Nina, waiting to go on stage.

Shocked, I apologised for intruding, told her I was lost. She said 'Think nothing of it'.

She said she’d be performing just out here, and pointed beyond the curtain.

I thanked her, kissed her hand and walked out to a block of seats sunk into a posh restaurant area, waiters in white tuxedos serving tables.

They said this was an exclusive viewing area carrying a $50 supplement. Feeling shabby, and not having $50, I shuffled away. Maybe I’d walk up to the back. A long way away, but at least I’d be facing the stage.

Suddenly Nina appeared. She gave the waiter a note. She said a young (sic) Englishman had come by, lost, and could they seat him in the restaurant area?

Realising it was me, the head waiter beckoned me to a table near the front. Would I like a drink? I ordered a gin and tonic. 

The lights dimmed. 

Nina’s performance began.

Nina Simone – ‘I Want A Little Sugar In My Bowl (live)’ (1974)

[I have just ordered this album on vinyl, using vouchers kindly gifted for my birthday. It's coming from France. I hope it arrives not-too battered].

Yeah Baby

William De Vaughn - 'Be Thankful For What You've Got' (1974) 

[Acknowledgements to Robert Elms, who spun this on BBC Radio London this afternoon].

Nostalgia

Almost a billion people on Planet Earth have no access to clean drinking water.

Which rather puts the Lack Of Opportunity protestations of those who went 'free shopping' for HD TVs, DVD players and Nike trainers in London this week in perspective, for me.

Also, it appears that for most people at last.fm, Weekend are 'a punk/shoegaze/psychedelic band from San Francisco, CA'.  When surely as far as all sensible persons are concerned they are 'a group formed in 1981 by ex-Young Marble Giants’ vocalist Alison Statton, with Simon Booth (guitar) and Spike Williams (guitar & viola)' (I wrote that!).

Truly, the world is a mess.

Weekend - 'Nostalgia (81 demo)' (1981)

Peace Piece

All I feel like posting today.

Bill Evans - 'Peace Piece' (1958)