June 13th, 2008
“No Cover, No Minimum” - June 13, 2008
Here’s the playlist for this morning’s installment of “No Cover, No Minimum,” my weekly radio program on KZSU-FM.
It’s Friday the 13th of course, so as I was driving down to the station this morning I decided to drop the usual format and rename the show “Bad Luck and Trouble.” There was a lot of frantic digging through the library, and in the end the show wound up being about 90% blues. If I’d had more time to think about it, I would have put together a superstition set, mixed in more genres, maybe thrown in some voodoo or witchcraft songs. But I had a blast, and that’s what matters.
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HOUR #1 (0600 - 0700)
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Thelonious Monk & Sonny Rollins - “Friday The 13th” - Thelonious Monk/Sonny Rollins (Prestige)
Ray Charles - “If It Wasn’t for Bad Luck” - Genius & Soul, Vol. 4 (Rhino)
Albert King - “Bad Luck” - Funky London (Stax)
Monti Amundson - “I See Trouble” - I See Trouble (Beatville)
R.L. Burnside - “Bad Luck and Trouble” - Mississippi Hill Country Blues (Fat Possum)
Sunnyland Slim - “Unlucky One” - Sunnyland Train (Evidence)
Carey & Lurrie Bell - “Trouble in My Way” - Second Nature (Alligator)
Clarence “Tom” Ashley - “Short Life of Trouble” - Greenback Dollar (County Records)
Byron Berline & John Hickman - “Double Trouble” - Double Trouble (Sugar Hill)
Border Radio - “Unlucky Love” - Americana Brand (Border Radio)
R. Crumb & The Cheap Suit Serenaders - “Mysterious Mose” - Chasin’ Rainbows (Shanachie/Yazoo)
Ando Drom - “I Got Into Trouble” - Gypsy Life on the Road (North Pacific)
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HOUR #2 (0700 - 0800)
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Taj Mahal - “Having a Real Bad Day” - Señor Blues (Private Music)
Bobby “Blue” Bland - “I Woke Up Screaming” - The Anthology (MCA)
Otis Rush - “Mean Old World” - All Your Love I Miss Loving (Delmark)
A.C. Reed - “Hard Times” - I’m in the Wrong Bussiness (Alligator)
Floyd Dixon & Mari Jones - “Unlucky Girl” - Floyd Dixon: Complete Aladdin Recordings (Capitol)
James Cotton - “Call It Stormy Monday” - Mighty Long Time (Antone’s)
Big Maybelle - “Oh Lord, What Are You Doing to Me” - Maybelle Sings the Blues (Charly)
Thomas Mapfumo - “Disaster” - Chimurenga Explosion (Anonym)
Aphrodesia - “Trouble” - Frontlines (Cyberset)
Tommy Flanagan - “Friday the 13th” - Something Borrowed, Something Blue (Galaxy)
Lester Bowie - “Doom?” - The Great Pretender (ECM)
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HOUR #3 (0800 - 0900)
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Calvin Owens - “Best Worst Day” - I Ain’t Gonna Be Yo’ Dog No Mo’ (Sawdust Alley)
Big Joe & the Dynaflows - “Bad Luck Blues” I’m Still Swingin’
(Severn)
Carter Brothers - “Sucker of Circumstances” - Essential Carter Brothers (Fuel 2000)
Albert King - “Born Under a Bad Sign” - Born Under a Bad Sign (Stax)
Stevie Ray Vaughan - “Texas Flood” - Martin Scorsese Presents... (Columbia)
Lurrie Bell - “Earthquake And Hurricane” - Let’s Talk About Love (Aria B.G.)
Magic Slim - “Black Tornado” - The Essential... (Blind Pig)
Dr. John - “Right Place Wrong Time” - Anthology (Rhino)
Phillip Walker - “Bad Luck” Working Girl Blues (Black Top)
Willie Mabon - “Why Did It Happen to Me” - Cold Chilly Woman (Black & Blue)
Big Maceo - “Tuff Luck Blues” - The Best of Big Maceo (Arhoolie)
Melvin Taylor - “Another Bad Day” - Bang that Bell (Evidence)
Buddy Guy - “Trouble Don’t Last” - Damn Right, I’ve Got the Blues (Silvertone)
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No show next week, as KZSU will be in the middle of a 24-hour electronica marathon. But I’ll be back on the air June 27th, hopefully with an interview around the Stanford Jazz Festival.
June 12th, 2008
FOX Does It Again…
How much longer are we going to let FOX News get away with their constant “slips” regarding Barack Obama? After several well-publicized incidents earlier in the campaign in which the network “inadvertently” confused Obama’s name with that of a certain terrorist leader, the past few days have seen a flurry of inappropriate jokes and jabs.
Yesterday, a FOX News “chyron” (those are the little headlines that pop up on the screen while a story is being discussed) about Michelle Obama read: “Outraged Liberals: Stop Picking on Obama’s Baby Mama!” As the New York Times points out, the African-American slang term “baby mama” is defined as “the mother of a man’s child, who is not his wife nor (in most cases) his current or exclusive partner.” That’s a slick one, managing to smear Obama, his wife and children and “liberals” all at the same time, while also highlighting Obama’s race and carrying just the right whiff of minstrel-show buffoonery… all in eight words! It’s quite impressive, in a sick sort of way.
Six months ago, I might have chalked this up to harmless ignorance in the copy room. But it’s becoming a familiar story. The Times blog entry continues:
Earlier this week, the Fox News anchor E.D. Hill had apologized for raising the possibility that the Obamas affectionate fist bump during the senator’s victory rally in St. Paul on June 3 was “a terrorist fist jab.” Two weeks prior, the Fox News analyst Liz Trotta said she regretted making a joke about a possible assassination of Mr. Obama.
Her mea culpa followed that of former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas a week earlier after he made a similar crack at a gathering of the National Rifle Association.
In other news, Fox News Channel announced today that it was hiring Mr. Huckabee as a contributor.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that these supposedly isolated incidents are part of a pattern, a subliminal campaign of fear-mongering and rabble-rousing meant to make Obama look too clownish, too scary, and, yes, too black to be President. I’d say that FOX should be ashamed of itself for engaging in such behavior, but they’re well beyond shame at this point.
June 10th, 2008
Recommended Reading: June 10, 2008
One of the great blessings of this age of blogs and RSS feeds and instant publishing is that we now have access to more information about our favorite subjects—and can get to that information more easily—than ever before. The flip side of this is that a “pleasure reading” list can pile up quickly without constant vigilance, to the point where catching up with our online friends becomes a chore, or even an intimidating mountain of work.
That’s the position I find myself in right now. After a couple of weeks of dealing with looming (or missed) deadlines, sick family members and other distractions, I opened up Google Reader today to find I had nearly 100 articles flagged for perusal (and potential blog posting), with hundreds of others just sitting around, completely unviewed. Yeesh!
So here are some of the things I would have told you about last week if I’d had it together…
HOMECOMING ON MUDDY GROUND
truthdig.com—May 27, 2008
Larry Blumenfeld, who has been an astute observer and critic of the situation in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, uses the celebrated return of the Neville Brothers to this year’s Jazz & Heritage Festival as a jumping-off point for a searing commentary. Blumenfeld looks at the impact of rebuilding efforts on public housing, the city’s changing political and cultural climate, and what “coming home” really means when three years later, the wounds have not healed.
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ESPERANZA SPALDING
csmonitor.com—May 30, 2008
I’ve been a huge fan of the young bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding ever since JazzTimes passed me a copy of her album Junjo for review back in 2006 (ironically, they never ran the review). If you aren’t hip to Spalding yet, this profile by Stephen Humphries of the Christian Science Monitor should bring you around. Spalding’s early career path has been nothing short of astounding, bringing high-profile gigs, a record contract, and even a faculty position at the Berklee College of Music, all in her early twenties. Her latest album, Esperanza has just hit the street, and she’s playing at Yoshi’s Oakland on June 12.
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JAZZ SURVIVORS
nytimes.com—May 25, 2008
Who says jazz players die young? The New York Times‘ Philip Lutz looks at a few of the many graybeards who, working largely in obscurity, play small venues in and around New York City well into their eighth or ninth decades, never quite finding fame but keeping the spirit of the bebop era alive.
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JAZZ BECOMES NEW MELTING POT
mercurynews.com—May 25, 2008
In this preview piece for the San Jose Mercury News, Richard Scheinin links several performances from the SFJAZZ Spring Season into a brief survey of the globalization of jazz:
“...the global dimension is also important because it allows jazz to keep moving in fresh directions. Increasingly learned in conservatories, the music, some would argue, has been losing touch with its African-American heritage, so tightly entwined with blues and gospel.... While those roots remain essential to the music, the infusion of new players from around the world is stirring the pot, adding new folkloric and rhythmic ingredients.”
June 8th, 2008
“No Cover, No Minimum” - June 6, 2008
Man, things have been crazy over the past week or so! While I dig out, here’s the playlist from Friday’s from installment of “No Cover, No Minimum” on KZSU-FM....
HOUR 1 (0600 - 0700)
Nik Bartsch’s Ronin - “Modul 41_17” - Holon (ECM)
Richard Underhill - “Morse Code” - Moment In Time (Stubby)
Tigran Hamasyan Trio - “Part 1: Homesick” - New Era (Blujazz)
John Zorn & Bar Kokhba - “Gediel” - Lucifer: Book Of Angels, Vol. 10 (Tzadik)
Tango Negro Trio - “No Te Mueras Nunca” - La Vuelta Del Malon (Felmay)
Aquiles Baez - “Buscando Caiman En Boca ‘e Cano” - La Patilla (Cacao Musica)
Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet - “A Fuller Wine” Abigail Washburn & The Sparrow Quartet (Nettwerk)
Tony Trischka - “Salt River” - Territory (Smithsonian/Folkways)
Garrison Fewell & Eric Hofbauer - “A Cajun Raven” - The Lady Of Khartoum (Creative Nation)
HOUR 2 (0700 - 0800)
Tin Cup Serenade - “Aunt Hagar’s Blues” - Tin Cup Serenade (self released)
Felicia Carter - “Louise” - Feather / Step Lightly (Alberta)
Forgotten Souls Brass Band - “Lil’ Liza Jane” - Gone But Not Forgotten (New Orleans Music Online)
John Ellis & Double-Wide - “All Up In The Aisles” - Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow (Hyena)
Virginia Mayhew Septet - “Just A Blues” - A Simple Thank You (Renma)
Avery Sharpe - “Big Mac (Bro. Tyner)” - Legends & Mentors (JKNM)
Hans Glawischnig - “Line Drive” - Panorama (Sunnyside)
Eric Mcpherson - “Misako” - Continuum (Smalls)
Kurt Elling - “My Love, Effendi” - This Time It’s Love (Blue Note)
HOUR 3 (0800 - 0900)
Fredrik Ljungkvist & Yun Kan 5 - “Badaling” - Badaling (Caprice)
Lionel Loueke - “Seven Teens” - Karibu (Blue Note)
Esperanza Spalding - “Cuerpo Y Alma (Body & Soul)” - Esperanza (Heads Up)
Charles Lloyd Quartet - “Sweet Georgia Bright” - Rabo De Nube (ECM)
Gachupin - “Las Armas Secretas” - Gachupin (self released)
Chicha Libre - “Popcorn Andino” - Sonido Amazonico (Barbes)
Thelonious Moog - “Misterioso” - Yes We Didn’t (Grownup)
Southern Culture on the Skids - “8 Piece Box” - Dirt Track Date (Geffen)
Tune in to the next show, Friday, June 13 (eek!) from 6-9am Pacific time. KZSU is at 90.1 FM if you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, or you can listen online at kzsulive.stanford.edu. We’re also in the “Radio” tab of iTunes (look under College Radio)!
May 23rd, 2008
Booker T. Jones interview in Down Beat
The June 2008 issue of Down Beat magazine includes a backstage interview I did with Booker T. Jones, stalwart of the Stax record label and leader of the classic soul band Booker T & The MGs. It’s brief, but Jones has some interesting comments on the challenges and opportunities of the digital age. This issue of Down Beat is available at your local magazine shop now (Freddie Hubbard on the cover).
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