Kiran Ahluwalia and Souad Massi At KEXP

I first came across Kiran Ahluwalia while doing research for the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow. I highlighted her track (featuring Tinariwen) “Mustt Mustt (Extended) on Episode 02 and have followed her ever since.

The other day I came across a 2018 live performance for KEXP along with Souad Massi, who was new to me.

From the video’s Youtube page:

http://KEXP.ORG presents Souad Massi and Kiran Ahluwalia performing live in the KEXP studio.
Recorded April 19, 2018.

Songs:

• Kiran Alhuwalia - Khafa (Up In Arms)

• Kiran Alhuwalia - Saat (Seven)

• Souad Massi - Hayati

• Souad Massi - Amessa

• Souad Massi & Kiran Alhuwalia - Deb

Host: Darek Mazzone
Audio Engineer: Kevin Suggs
Cameras: Jim Beckmann, Scott Holpainen & Justin Wilmore
Editor: Justin Wilmore

• Visit Kiran Ahluwalia’s official website

• Follow Kiran Ahluwalia at Facebook

• Purchase Kiran Ahluwalia at Bandcamp

• Purchase Kiran Ahluwalia’s music at Amazon

• Listen to "Mustt Mustt (Extended)" by Kiran Ahluwalia on Episode 02 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow

• Visit Souad Massi’s page at Your European Stage

• Follow Souad Massi at Facebook

• Purchase Souad Massi’s music at Amazon.

Sarathy Korwar and Friends For Boiler Room

The fantastic Boiler Room has been putting out some terrific content as part of their “Streaming From Isolation” series. Holiday at the Sea favorite Sarathy Korwar recently gathered two songs for a half-hour performance. From the Boiler Room page:

A very exclusive & exciting multi-way jam w/ Sarathy Korwar & friends from London & beyond.

From Sarathy Korwar’s Facebook page:

Tunes:
”Raga Malkauns” - Charanjit Singh (from 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat)
”In C” - Terry Riley

Players:

• Bex Burch - Gyil/Bells/Water Drums

• Tamar Osborn - Horns

• Al MacSween - Synths, Harmonium

• Dan Leavers - Synths

• Sarathy Korwar - Drums/Tabla/Udu

• Visit Sarathy Korwar's official website

• Purchase the album at Bandcamp

• Visit Korwar's Facebook page

• Visit Korwar's Twitter

• Purchase the album from Amazon
  Listen to "Bismillah" by Sarathy Korwar on Episode 08 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow

• Browse all Holiday at the Sea posts tagged Sarathy Korwar

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Giant Sandworms: "Body of Water"

Videographer Ray Frieders recently posted on Facebook:

“37 years ago today at Gates Pass, a spectacular backdrop for Tucson’s own Giant Sandworms. “Body of Water” was directed by Tony Sotelo and was the first of many 80’s music videos that I shot and edited. I am very fortunate to have these photos and some amazing memories! I am not sure what I love most, my full head of hair or the fact that I “borrowed” a KVOA news camera for this shoot.”

“Before Giant Sand there was Giant Sandworms, Howe Gelb's first band in Tucson. Here is their debut music video from 1983.

• Howe Gelb - Guitar, Vocals

• Dave Seger - Guitar, Vocals

• Billy Sed -Drum, Vocals

• Scott Garber - Bass”

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

• Follow Giant Sand at Facebook.

• Follow Howe Gelb at Facebook.

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

• Purchase Giant Sand music at Amazon.