Idris Ackamoor and the Pyramids

“Exploring the outer limits of jazz since the 1970s.”

“Founded 45 years ago by 3 Antioch College students, Idris Ackamoor, Margaux Simmons, and Kimathi Asante, and resurrected after a more than 30-year hiatus the band is experiencing more acclaim and success than ever! With the 2016 release of the band’s fifth full-length album We Be All Africans, on Strut Records, the group is now creating a new history and a new legacy for the 21st Century.”

Get your cosmic-soul-space-jazz-groove on with a couple of live performances by the Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids.

First up, a 15-minute journey called ‘Virgin’ live for Music City Sessions in 2019.

Next up is the title-track to the 2016 album “We Be All Africans” performed in 2015 for Unseen Recordings, followed by an interview segment about touring oversees, etc.:

Strut Records put out the band’s 2016 album and posted the following video. There is no song information, but Strut says: “here’s a taste of the original Pyramids experience from a 1975 KQED TV special.”

• Follow Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids at Facebook

• Visit Idris Ackamoor’s official website

• Support Idris Ackamoor & The Pyramids at Bandcamp

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”

Your Quarantine Needs Erykah Badu Doing Bossa Nova

I don’t know how your quarantine is going, but I’m pretty sure it needs Erykah Badu doing Bossa Nova.

And, I have to be honest and say that this post has changed a couple of times because the original video I had hoped to post was a Bossa Nova version of “Gone Baby, Don't Be Long" and it was phenomenal. But between the time I created the post and tried to post it, the video went private on Youtube and is no longer available to stream. So, I went back and discovered two more “Bossa Nova” songs.

The three videos (one of which we can no longer compare) all appear to be from the same performance, and the first one I had hoped to post was preceded by a segment in which Badu let viewers “choose a room” for a song. Apparently the viewers chose the “mystery room” which contained the performance of "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long" in a Bossa Nova style, and I guess these other two songs are from the same performance? These other two videos retain the same band and setting but Badu is in different wardrobe in one of the videos which means absolutely nothing. However, whatever the lack of context, I would be derelict in my duties as Eboy Internet Courier well, if I didn’t gather up the remaining Erykah Badu Bossa Nova videos and get them out to you on the quick-like.

First up is “Get Munny”

Next up is: “Umm Hmm”

And if you can find that Bossa Nova version of "Gone Baby, Don't Be Long,” would you be so kind as to let me know?

• Follow Erykah Badu on Facebook.

• Purchase Erykah Badu’s music at Amazon.

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.

Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters November 1974 on Radio Sendesaal

One of the things I periodically do here at the music blog is revisit some of the things I picked up when I used to do a lot of tape-trading. Years ago, I picked up this little three-song Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters radio appearance and it’s been one of my favorite live recordings for a long time.

There’s something undeniable about Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters. Primordial, gutteral, visceral, groove-yo-booty stuff right here. Even Pitchfork agrees.

Today, for your interstellar auditory transport, we present: Herbie Hancock and the Headhunters November 1974 on Radio Sendesaal. I don’t know if live Herbie shows are your sort of thing, but if they are, I highly recommend visiting the Herbie Hancock section over at the blogspot (yes, that’s still a thing) Never Enough Rhodes, which is currently up to 53 concert recordings!

At only 3 songs and 39 minutes, this one deserves to be on repeat.

Today’s little nugget features:

• Herbie Hancock - keyboards

• Bennie Maupin - reeds

• Paul Jackson - bass

• Mike Clark - drums

• Bill Summers - percussion

If this type of thing whets your whistle, you might want to head over to Aquarium Drunkard and watch video from the same tour.

• Visit Herbie Hancock’s official website.

• Visit Herbie Hancock at Facebook.

• Follow Herbie Hancock at Twitter.

• Purchase Herbie Hancock’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.

Sun Ra: Brother From Another Planet (BBC Documentary)

In 2005, the BBC released a short (an hour or so) documentary on Jazz legend Sun Ra. The Guardian wrote:

"Letts's BBC4 documentary, Sun Ra: Brother From Another Planet, is an attempt to make some sense of the man whom he describes as "The Salvador Dali of jazz", who was born in Alabama in 1914 but proclaimed himself to have come from Saturn, on a mission to save the black race in particular from the bondage of planet Earth. Letts himself, however, admits that, even having voyaged extensively through Ra's back catalogue, "a lot of the music goes right over my head. He certainly appeared to be a bit bonkers," he concedes. "But to him, all this stuff was deep and meaningful and had a continuity to it. But it was hard to get a handle on. [Even] Marshall Allen, his saxophonist, admits he didn't quite get it."

Featuring Wayne Kramer, Thurston Moore, Archie Shepp, Marshall Allen and more, and interview segments with Ra himself, the documentary tries to make sense of the Sun Ra legacy. Watch for yourself.

• Visit the official Sun Ra Arkestra website.

• Purchase Sun Ra’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.

Gratefully Dead With Pigpen

I started a mix of some of my favorite Pigpen Grateful Dead tunes in 2019 around the time of his birthday (09/08) with the plan of posting it at the anniversary of his death (03/08). A few months ago, I finished the mix I wanted to post, did some quick artwork if anyone wanted it. And then I forgot about it. And March 08 came and went and the post sat in my Drafts. So here it is.

These are some of my favorite Pigpen Grateful Dead. Tracks. What are some of your favorites?

Tracklisting:

Next Time You See Me

Mr. Charlie

Easy Wind

Hard To Handle

Turn On Your Love Light

Smokestack Lightning

Hurts Me Too

Big Boss Man

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Source Material:

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Here is where each track came from if you’re interested in that sort of thing:

Next Time You See Me: “Hundred Year Hall” (04/26/72: Jahrhundert Halle Frankfurk, Germany)

Mr. Charlie: Europe ‘72 (disc two)

Easy Wind: Workingman’s Dead

Hard To Handle: “The Honky Chateau” (06-21-71 )

Turn On Your Love Light: “Hundred Year Hall” (04/26/72: Jahrhundert Halle Frankfurk, Germany)

Smokestack Lightning: History of the Grateful Dead, Vol. 1 Bear's Choice (02/08/70)

Hurts Me Too: Europe ‘72 (disc two)

Big Boss Man: Skull & Roses

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• Download the mix as individual files including jewel case artwork.

• Visit the Grateful Dead’s official website.

• Follow the Grateful Dead on Facebook.

• Follow Grateful Dead on Twitter.

• Stream the entire show at Live Music Archive.

• Purchase Grateful Dead music on Amazon.

• Purchase A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead by Dennis McNally at Amazon.

• Purchase The Dead book: A social history of the Grateful Dead by Hank Harrison at Amazon.

Giant Sand, Live at Mad Dog Studios/The Atlantic Session (01/30/90)

I don’t know if it’s still around, but when we lived in KY (roughly 2002-2005), I was part of The Sandman Series. This was a CDR series of bootlegs organized by Jim Blackman and Howe Gelb. Basically, the way it worked was that CDRs were sent out to “seeders.” I was a seeder. The seeders committed to recording and mailing the CDRs to a certain number of people (I think it was around 10 but I really don’t remember). I seeded several different discs, but the one I still return to most was called The Atlantic Session.

The core group (at that time) of Howe Gelb, John Convertino and Joey Burns recorded this set as a demo for Atlantic Records at Mad Dog Studios in CA. It was never officially released until the Sandman Series helped bring it to the light of day. As the name suggests, this is a studio recording. The band is tight and the tunes are bitchin.

The set is available at the fantastic Archive.org.

Dive right in.

• Visit Giant Sand/Howe Gelb’s official website.

• Follow Giant Sand at Facebook.

• Follow Howe Gelb at Facebook.

• Visit the Archive.org page for the show.

• Browse all posts marked “Giant Sand” here at Holiday at the Sea.

• Purchase Giant Sand music at Amazon.

Give Me Some Of That 1973 Miles Mojo (Have you watched the PBS: American Masters special on Miles Davis?)

Have you watched the PBS: American Masters special on Miles Davis?

I watched it the other day and really enjoyed it. Of course it left a lot out. But it was also pretty straightforward about what kind of person Miles was. Complicated. Contrarian. Like all of us. And, I felt like it gave a great overview/introduction for long-time fans and those just coming to Miles’ music.

Watch the trailer here:

It should be no surprise to you that I dig Miles Davis. My first born is named Miles. And I love the many phases of Miles’ musical explorations. But lately, I’ve been listening to a lot of the On The Corner stuff. And this 1973 Stockholm Set is right up my alley:

Yesssssseeerrrreeeeeee!

The deets are as follows:

Live at Konserthuset, Stockholm (SWE 1973-10-27)

1. Band warming up 0:48

2. Untitled Original 730424c (M. Davis) 16:12

3. Calypso Frelimo (M. Davis) 20:31

4. For Dave [Mr. Foster] (M. Davis) 13:32

Tune in 5 (with applause) (M. Davis) 5:01

Liebman continues with "For Dave" (ts solo) while the rhythm section plays "Tune in 5"; cga solo 2:00-4:30

Miles Davis (tpt, org)
Dave Liebman (ss, ts, fl)
Pete Cosey (g, perc)
Reggie Lucas (g)
Michael Henderson (el-b)
Al Foster (d)
James Mtume Forman (cga, perc)

From the fantastic treasure trove of tolvis77 on the Youtubes.

• Visit the official Miles Davis website.

• Follow the Miles Davis page at Facebook.

• Purchase Miles Davis music at Amazon.

Terry and Gyan Riley Live At Oval Space (Not At the MIM Where I Saw Them)

Thanks to a friend of mine, I had the opportunity to see Terry and Gyan Riley at the Musical Instrument Museum.

Of course I was familiar with the elder Riley’s work, and I have the The Book Of Abbeyozzud album (which Amazon tells me I’ve owned since 2003), but I didn’t really know what to expect since the evening was billed as an evening of improvised music. The website for the evening’s performance quotes Terry Riley as saying:

“Nothing I have done in this life has given me more satisfaction than improvising on these songs with Gyan. Nothing I have done can match the intuitive synchronicity we have shared, many times, on the stage.”

The evening’s music was sublime, challenging and rewarding. It spun circular rhythms and balanced scales as each player was propelled by the other. I have never seen another night of music quite like it and I will be forever grateful for the experience.

Here is video of Terry and Gyan Riley from a totally different 2018 performance presented by NTS; Live At “Oval Space.”

• Visit Terry Riley’s website.

• Visit Gyan Riley’s website.

• Purchase Terry Riley’s music at Amazon.

• Purchase Gyan Riley’s music at Amazon.