The Comet Is Coming: Tiny Desk

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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)

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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"

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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)

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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.


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

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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.

Giant Sandworms: "Body of Water"

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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.

Les Filles de Illighadad at Chicago Music Exchange

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You already know that I dig Tuareg music (browse tagged posts here). I featured the song ““Jori” by Les Filles de Illighadad on Episode 46 of The Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow and have followed the group ever since. Les Filles de Illighadad join Tartit as the number of women Tuareg led groups continues to grow.

As noted in my original post: The group’s Bandcamp page says:

“Sublime recordings from rural Niger. Two very different sides of Tuareg music - dreamy ishumar acoustic guitar sessions, and the hypnotic polyphonic tende that inspires it. Guitarist Fatou Seidi Ghali and vocalist Alamnou Akrouni lead the troupe, named after the village.”

She Shreds recently partnered with Chicago Music Exchange to invite Les Filles de Illighadad to play at CME’s showroom, and to talk with Fatou Seidi Ghali. Watch the fantastic performance here and head over to She Shreds to read the interview.

Kikagaku Moyo / 幾何学模様 Live At Highway Holidays

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Kikagaku Moyo / 幾何学模様 recently posted a great live session for Highway Holidays.

We featured the song "Kogarashi” by Kikagaku Moyo / 幾何学模様 from the 2016 album House In The Tall Grass on Episode 10 of the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow.

In that post, I noted the band as “Fine purveyors of psychedelic rock from Tokyo, Japan” who has “has quickly garnered international attention.” That about sum it up.

I was able to see these guys live in March of 2019 and all I have to say is that if you get a chance to catch this band live, I highly recommend it. Watch the great live set here.

Grateful Dead at the The Honky Chateau (06-21-71)

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I found this little gem that most of you Heads have probably already seen, while searching the Youtubes for quality Pigpen videos and it’s simply too good not to share.

Credited as a “A Brokedown House Production,” the video switches between color and black and white and edits out any banter or tuning in between songs and is posted in two parts.

Apparently on a whim, the band flew to France in 1971 to play at a canceled festival. But they were housed at Château d’Hérouville, a a residential recording studio in Hérouville, France made famous by Elton John, who recorded three albums at their, (Honky Château, Don’t Shoot Me I’m Only The Piano Player and Goodbye Yellowbrick Road).

Lots of other famous people recorded there, including Marc Bolan, Gong, David Bowie, Pink Floyd, Bad Company, Iggy Pop, Fleetwood Mac. It was also also apparently once home to Chopin and Van Gogh. Though the Grateful Dead did not record there, they did end up playing an impromptu show in the in the backyard as documented by this great high quality video.

The video page doesn’t include the whole set played that night but only about an hour’s worth of material (which is still gold). You can stream the whole show at Live Music Archive. The video post itself doesn’t provide a whole lot of information, though one of the comments gives the following background, from Jerry, (which is easily confirmed as part of a Rolling Stone interview which later became the book: Garcia: Signpost To New Space), and the details jive with Dennis McNally’s account in A Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead.

“We went over there to do a big festival, a free festival they were gonna have, but the festival was rained out. It flooded. We stayed at this little chateau which is owned by a film score composer who has a 16-track recording studio built into the chateau, and this is a chateau that Chopin once lived in; really old, just delightful, out in the country near the town of Auvers-sur-Oise, which is where Vincent van Gogh is buried. We were there with nothing to do: France, a 16-track recording studio upstairs, all our gear, ready to play, and nothing to do. So, we decided to play at the chateau itself, out in the back, in the grass, with a swimming pool, just play into the hills. We didn't even play to hippies, we played to a handful of townspeople in Auvers. We played and the people came — the chief of police, the fire department, just everybody. It was an event and everybody just had a hell of a time — got drunk, fell in the pool. It was great."

Dennis McNally recounts the show in Long Strange Trip: The Inside History of the Grateful Dead. The band was supposed to play a festival in France, but:

“Upon their arrival, the Dead discovered that the festival had been rained out, and after a couple of days of killing time with fine wine and games of gennis at the 450-year-old chateau - the doors were noticeably lower than contemporary people required - they decided to throw a party and invited the townspeople of Hérouville. On the solstice, June 21, the weather cleared and they set up in back of the chateau near the pool, which the children of Hérouville had encircled with hundreds of candles. As Lesh recalled it, their guests included “the police chief, the fire chief, and the mayor . . . No Dead Heads - it was just boogie down . . . a little acid being passed around, not too much, just right, and of course, the Light Sound Dimension (light show) was there, Bill Ham . . . and they played too. We did our set, and they did their set. And they were great - we were all getting real high by that time,” Lesh said laughing. “It was outdoors at the chateau, right around the swimming pool . . . the classic garden party with the G.D. and the LSD. Talk about a piece of San Fransisco transplanted into the heart of France . . . “ Topped off with a round of dunkings in the pool begun by the police chief - Weir exacted the Dead’s revenge, of course, dunking him back - it was among the best parties the Dead had ever enjoyed.”

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This was during the period when Mickey Hart had stepped away from the band after the bad juju that went down with his father stealing from the group and right around the time Lenny Hart was convicted, even though the band declined to press charges. So there’s only one drummer and Pigpen plays minimal keys. It’s a stripped down lineup ready to have fun.

Hank Harrison (estranged father of Courtney Love and one-time manager of the Dead) says in the book The Dead Book: A Social History Of The Grateful Dead:

“The Dead started to play just before the sky got dark, but their entire set was illuminated by bright lights from the Paris socialized television station Link Two, which rebroadcast the event the next week. Their film technique was flawless, as one would expect from a French film team; the camera people were completely unobtrusive on the musicians; the lights bugged Phil a little. Pig Pen just barely recovered in time to sing after downing his two bottles of duty free Wild Turkey… Weir was in fine primal scream voice, and Garcia settled into his trancelike lassitude from which emanates the famous electronic genius that is particularly his.

They played for three hours, and during this time the workers and the fire department and little children lit hundreds of candles and placed them around the pool as if it were a religious shrine… a Lourdes or place of healing waters. As the party progressed, the candles were extinguished by the bodies of of various drunken celebrants being thrown in the pool by other drunken celebrants. The Dead played louder and louder; the locals had never heard anything like it before and they were delirious.”

Dangerous Minds says:

“Some parts of the Grateful Dead’s show at Hérouville were broadcast by ORTF on the Pop 2 TV show on July 24, 1971. A second portion from the set was broadcast on November 27, 1971. The video below is from a bootleg compilation of those two broadcasts that’s been going around for the past few years on Dime a Dozen and other torrent trackers.”

I’ve already provided a link to listen to the whole show for yourself here, but in case you weren’t paying attention, here it is again.

Video Tracklisting:

  1. Morning Dew

  2. Hard To Handle

  3. China Cat Sunflower

  4. I Know You Rider

  5. Deal

  6. Black Peter

  7. Sugar Magnolia

  8. Sing Me Back Home

There is another video that includes sections from this live video along with the interview segments featuring Jerry found at the end of this video. You can head over to Youtube and watch that one for yourself if you’d like as it doesn’t seem to include any additional live footage.

  • 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.

Can // 'Sing Swan Song' (1973)

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I don’t know anything about this video other than what the official Can facebook post says:

“Such a pleasure to hear «Sing Swan Song» playing live. It was in 1973 at Bataclan in France.”

Perhaps you know more? Maybe you don’t. Either way, what a treat to have this video. Prime Can in their prime.

I assume that if you’re here at this particular music blog, you are already familiar with Can, but on the off-chance that is not the case, here’s what I said about them for the Global Elite Music Radio Podcast Supershow Episode 26:

“Experimental group Can was founded in Cologne, Germany in 1968. Describing themselves as an "anarchist community"and largely ignored conventional methods, instead, constructing their music through improvisation and editing, using the studio itself as an instrument. Though the band did not enjoy much commercial success during their span, they are continually regarded as a highly influential group among rock, avant-garde and electronic musics. Though the group had a rotating lineup, drummer Jaki Liebezeit was a constant and “is credited with the band’s name, stylised in capital letters and standing for “Communism, Anarchism, Nihilism.”

Live Celebrations of Deep Listening With 75 Dollar Bill, Dire Wolves, and Joshua Abrams And Natural Information

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Today I wrote Deep Listening by pointing out three of my favorite 2019 releases: I Was Real by 75 Dollar Bill, I Control The Weather by Dire Wolves, and Mandatory Reality by Joshua Abrams And Natural Information. To accompany that release and to help you understand if you’re not familiar with those artists, here is a live video from each artist.

First, here’s 75 Dollar Bill with an expanded lineup at Roulette, Brooklyn 7/1/2019 performing the title track to their newest album I Was Real. Believe it or not, this lineup features Joshua Abrams!

Linuep from left to right:

  • Karen Waltuch - amplified viola

  • Talice Lee - amplified violin

  • Sue Garner - electric bass guitar

  • Che Chen: electric 12-string guitar

  • Rick Brown - plywood crate, percussion

  • Joshua Abrams - double bass

  • Lisa Alvarado - harmonium

Next up, we feature a 2018 live set from Dire Wolves (Just Exactly Perfect Sisters Band) at the 17th Annual Outsound New Music Summit (7-27-18). This video documents three live pieces, and this particular lineup features:

  • Sheila Bosco - drum kit

  • Brian Lucas - bass

  • Jeffrey Alexander - guitarmagoria + moog + wooden sax

  • Arjun Mendiratta - violin

And rounding out the set, we feature a live performance by Joshua Abrams And Natural Information Society. Believe it or not, the shortest video today features the artist who usually features the longest pieces. Here is Joshua Abrams And Natural Information Society, at “ICA Philadelphia.” No other details were provided about this performance.