Phil Cook and Oliver Wood Cover John Prine In Quarantine

The other day Phil Cook posted to his Instagram page:

“That’s The Way The World Goes Round by John Prine

I got a text from Oliver Wood over a year ago wanting to get together and spend a day with him in Nashville writing music. I was nervous and excited as Oliver was one of my favorite songwriters and singers around. We hit it off famously and have gotten together more since then. We were supposed to spend a week together in April but those plans got shut down by the pandemic. So we found something else to work on together. Today we lovingly and humbly dedicate our version of John Prine’s “That’s The Way The World Goes Round” to Fiona , Jody, Tommy and Jack. Long Live John Prine!”

Oliver Wood commented:

Excited about collaborating with my musical soulmate Phil Cook He took my plain rendition of a John Prine classic and made it a party. Here’s to many more parties and collaborations Phil! And Much love to the Prine family.

Enjoy (and, sorry, I don’t know why that huge “comments” section is there).

• Visit Phil Cook’s official website.

• Follow Phil Cook at Facebook.

• Follow Phil Cook at Twitter.

• Support Phil Cook at Bandcamp.

• Purchase Phil Cook’s music at Amazon.

• Listen to “Another Mother’s Son” by Phil Cook in the Musical Worldview Project (finding wisdom in lyrics).

• Visit The Wood Brothers’ official website

• Follow The Wood Brothers at Facebook

• Follow The Wood Brothers at Twitter

• Support The Wood Brothers at Bandcamp

• Purchase The Wood Brothers’ music at Amazon

Akron/Family Live At Ekkko (2006)

I was digging through Ye Ole CDR spindle the other day and came across this 2006 live set from Akron/Family. If you’re not familiar with the band, think one of those geographically spread out bands that comes together to make blissed out space-folk for the existential campfire singalongs.

Anyway, I was going to upload it here and did a quick search only to find that the band themselves have already uploaded it at the amazing Live Music Archive.

Akron/Family Live at Ekko on 2006-04-14

• Visit Akron/Family at Facebook

• Support Akron/Family at Bandcamp

• Visit Akron/Family’s page at the Live Music Archive for lots more shows

• Purchase Akron/Family’s music at Amazon

Anathallo Live In Japan

Anathallo was a band from Michigan (though they later relocated to Chicago if I remember correctly?). The fluctuated in size and the arrangements grew in complexity and beauty. The early recordings are great but they don’t quite yet arrive at the sophistication of the later work. And isn’t that all of us? Hopefully as we grow older we also mature and grow more nuanced in our thinking, even learning to allow time for the quiet moments which are as much part of the story as the loud parts. Can you really feel a crescendo when it’s all loud to begin with? The hills and valleys of the journey. And I’m rambling.

So allow me to ramble a bit more.

I’m sure you know what I mean when I say that music often carries with it memories and feelings associated with particular time periods. Certain albums or artists or songs often carry with them very specific memories. And now I’m digressing. Let me get back to rambling.

I have always loved music. That’s just part of who I am. And in hindsight, I should have paid more attention to the red flags early on. I had just graduated seminary and was moving in to my first role as “Lead Pastor,” though this church used the title “Teaching Pastor.” My family had not yet moved from Kentucky to Texas yet but we had already accepted the position and I flew to Minneapolis to meet the staff and elders for a pastors conference.

I was wearing a Tortoise shirt that disappeared some time over the years. It was yellow and I wish I still had it. I was in the elevator with one of the staff members who made a comment about liking my shirt and being surprised that the new pastor knew who Tortoise is but that I might want to keep things like that to myself because the other leaders weren’t really into secular music. I’m paraphrasing of course, but you get the gist. And then we moved there.

I don’t know if you’ve ever visited a church that just didn’t feel like “home”? If you have, then you might be able to imagine pastoring a church where you felt like that all of the time. If you’ve never had that experience, just imagine that you are continually not allowed to be yourself because when you do, it just seems to cause trouble, so you create a version of yourself that pleases the other people and you have to live in it 24 hours a day. It’s something like that.

Anathallo was touring the amazing Floating World album and I took several of the college students in the church to go see them. The next day I got called in to my own office where I rebuked by the other elders of the church because I was a small group leader and had missed small group in order to attend the concert. Even though I arranged for someone to facilitate in my absence. And, even though I knew it already, it was then confirmed for me the rest of the leadership of that church and I shared very different visions and approaches. It was totally worth it.

We left Texas in 2008 and Anathallo went on “indefinite" hiatus in 2009 and I guess that’s my story.

Here is a full show from the band’s 2008 tour. Apparently this was released on a very limited (now out of print I think ) tour DVD which some fine person uploaded for the rest of us and I could pass it along to you and we could watch it together. Let’s:

From the video’s Youtube page:

Anathallo @ O-Nest Japan during their 2008 tour. I was searching for this for a long time and couldn't find it anywhere. Finally got a hold of the DVD from Japan. Absolutely fantastic band, lucky to have seen them live a few times.

1. Dokkoise House 00:00

2. John J. Audubon 07:05

3. Hanasakajijii (four: a great wind, more ash) 10:55

4. Hanasakajijii (one: an angry neighbor) 15:25

5. Hanasakajijii (two: floating world) 18:55

6. Italo 25:20

7. Northern lights 28:42

8. Holiday At The Sea 32:26

9. All the First Pages 39:15

10. Cuckoo Spring Blood (Encore) 45:40

11. Kasa no hone (Encore) 49:00

• Support Anathallo at Bandcamp

• Purchase Anathallo’s music at Amazon

Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians, RFK Stadium, 1990

If you spent any time “tape trading” after the advent of CDRs, you probably had at least one spindle of shows. At one point I had lots of such spindles. I thought that I had gotten rid of most of them over the years, but I came across one the other day and this was the show right on top so I figured why not share (especially when someone has already archived it at the Live Music Archive).

July 1990 saw Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians opening for the Grateful Dead at Washington D.C.’s RFK stadium (read some brief thoughts from Edie Brickell about her history with the band). I’m pretty sure this would have been right around the time Brickell’s second album, the often-overlooked gem Ghost of a Dog came out.

Edie Brickell and New Bohemians Live at Robert F. Kennedy Stadium on 1990-07-12

Edie Brickell & New Bohemians
7/12/1990
Robert F. Kennedy Stadium, Washington, D.C.

Setlist:
1. She [05:52.41]
2. Nothing [05:02.74]
3. Woyaho [02:50.35]
4. Oh To Be [04:39.60]
5. Stwisted [04:18.29]
6. Carmelito [04:57.08]
7. 10,000 Angels [06:21.23]
8. Strings Of Love [04:35.09]
9. Forgiven [06:12.65]
10. Wait A While [04:47.67]
11. Love Like We Do [05:01.41]

• Visit Edie Brickell’s official website

• Follow Edie Brickell and New Bohemians at Facebook

• Follow Edie Brickell at Facebook

• Purchase Edie Brickell’s music at Amazon

• Visit the page for this show at the Live Music Archive to stream or download for yourself

• Download the show for yourself

Naan Violent Treefort

In case you missed it, I posted two tracks from Atlanta’s Naan Violence in September, 2019. I also posted one of their songs in The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow, the global-music, Xenophobia-fighting weekly music podcast I did for a year.

From Episode 14 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow:

“We first heard Naan Violence when this track was posted by our friends over at Aquarium Drunkard. The group's label, ZAP Cassettes describes them as: "a freak-in transcendental free-sitar underground super-group from Memphis, Tennessee, the home of Isaac Hayes. Lilypadinman.com says: "Fronted by sitar player Arjun Kulharya, Naan Violence creates dreamy, mirage-like sitar music that evokes the mystery of an endless expanse of desert sand. It’s traditional sitar music re-invented for a barroom audience." Aquarium Drunkard describes the music as: "Layered with analog synthesizers, acoustic guitars, flute and tabla, Naan Violence’s expansive palette of sound feels at once organic and untethered." However you'd like to describe the music, we dig it and we think you might too.”

Here is Naan Violence “on Radio Boise's Global Grooves as part of their Treefort 2018 in-studios.”

Aquarium Drunkard calls it “Transcendental free sitar music” and that seems just about right.

• Purchase the album from ZAP Cassettes.

• Hear “"Breakfast with the Sirens of Infinity" by Naan Violence” on Episode 14 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

An Hour With Pink Floyd

From the official Pink Floyd Youtube page:

“‘An Hour with Pink Floyd: KQED’ sees the band filmed performing live in April 1970 by San Francisco cable TV station KQED. Taken from the version featured on 2016 ‘The Early Years 1965-1972’ box set, the film includes performances of Atom Heart Mother, Cymbaline, Grantchester Meadows, Green is the Colour and Careful with that Axe Eugene. Appearing as part of the @YouTube Film Festival until May 17th.

• 0:00 Atom Heart Mother

• 17:01 Cymbaline

• 25:41 Grantchester Meadows

• 33:18 Green Is The Colour

• 36:48 Careful With That Axe, Eugene

• 46:00 Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun”

Thanks to online friend Brent Miles for the tip on this set.

• Visit Pink Floyd’s official website.

• Follow Pink Floyd at Facebook.

• Purchase Pink Floyd’s music at Amazon.

Oki Ainu Dub Band

Oki Kano (加納 沖, Kanō Oki) was born in Hokkaido, to a Japanese mother and an Ainu father (renowned wood sculptor Bikki Sunazawa) and grew up in Kanagawa Prefecture. After graduating in crafts at the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music, he moved to New York in 1987, where he worked as special effects artist on film productions. He returned to Japan in 1992, and was presented with his first tonkori - the traditional stringed instrument of the Karafuto Ainu.

Oki uses the tonkori, an Ainu stringed instrument, in his performances and mixes traditional Ainu music with reggae, dub and other styles of world music. He also plays guitar and traditional Ainu percussion instruments.

Dive in to the band’s music.

First up is “Suma Mukar”:

Next is the title track from the Sakhalin Rock album Sakhalin Rock.

And here is a live performance

“Filmed at the FMM Sines Festival in 2007, this is a traditional Ainu bow and arrow dance performed by Futoshi Ikabe, to a deep dub mix by the band with Naoyuki Uchida at the desk.”

• Visit the official website.

• Follow Oki Dub Ainu Band at Facebook.

• Purchase Oki Dub Ainu Band’s music at Amazon.

• Hear "マナウレラ - Matnaw Rera" by Oki Dub Ainu Band on Episode 06 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

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.