Musicophilia, and music travel notes

What's up, ya'll, back in NY from some travels and WWALTN recruitment. Was in Spain traveling from Barcelona to Oviedo with my man Antonio, who is a fellow music-head and I'm hoping he starts posting here. We road-tripped for about a week and it was a great time and really musical, two guitars and lots of time in the car to listen to music. I was playing lots of stuff for him off my iphone but at one point in Rioja we had the radio going and found this great channel with cool Brasiliero and lots of 70s jazz and soul, good stuff. I also have a new respect for the Beatles after living with a few of their songs day and night for the last couple of months in order to play them at my friend Carlos' wedding, I always did like them but never went through a full-blown Beatles phase, but now "In My Life" in particular has taken on a certain meaning for me.

Been reading this book by Oliver Sacks called Musicophilia. Sacks is a neurologist and writer and he wrote "Awakenings", which was made into a movie. Musicophilia is about music and brain and has tons of incredible stories about how music affects us and the difference it can make in our lives. Sacks and the people he writes about are particularly interested in classical music and it has spurred me to check some of the names he wrote about on this Sunday morning as I'm dealing with jet-lag. I'm checking out the Czech composer Leos Janecek right now, some string quartets, because Sacks wrote about how he used to sit in cafes and listen to people speak and try to compose based on the cadence of the conversations, how the people around him were feeling; some say you can get a sense of the Czech language in his music, not so sure about that (I speak some Czech), but it's cool stuff, reminds me of Shostakovich. What came first, music or language? Those are the kind of things he is writing about, check it out, might make you think of music in your life a little differently, it has for me.

Yoruban drumming

Been awhile since my last post. Been sifting through a lot, tons of stuff being slowly filtered through my ears. Most of what I've been listening to are tunes I need to learn for bands that I'm in. The other stuff I've been compiling is thanks to Capt. Crawl.

The Yoruban stuff I checked out is from a CD that I actually purchased. Sometimes you just gotta have the extensive liner notes.

I've been checking out Yoruban drumming from western Africa, which is pretty much the basis for most of our beats in Western music, especially rhythms in South America, the Caribbean, and the US. Even when the types of drums and the people change, the rhythms remain constant. Maybe that's what Robert Plant meant by "the song remains the same"?

Basically, these are the roots of rhythm as we know it. (Traditions from India and the Middle East are obviously a different world. I'm sure I'll post about some of that stuff at some point.) The unique contribution to world rhythms that the Yoruban traditions offer us is a sheer abundance of polyrhythm.

I won't get too much into the cultural aspects of the music. Suffice to say, most of the drumming is rituals for orishas, or ancestral deities. It's sacred music, and its function is to induce trance (which the polyrhythms do incredibly well). When the rhythms are played correctly, sitting still is not an option.

The most common polyrhythms are 6 against 4. There's really no wrong way to feel the rhythm, because both are happening simultaneously. Part of the beauty is that you can get into the pulse of the 6 rhythm, and then forget about that and tune into the stuff happening in 4.

Many of the drums are pitched similarly, so sometimes it's hard to tell which drum is playing what exactly. I've found that part of the fun is focusing on one particular drum, follow what it's playing, then keep that rhythm in mind while you zone in on a different drum and compare what they're both playing. Sometimes there are as many as a dozen drummers playing at once.

The rhythms are based on simple patterns called "claves" (to use the Spanish term) that provide the basic foundation for all the other rhythms that are played around it. Clave is used heavily in this African style of drumming, as well as rhythms in Caribbean, South American music, and music of the US (especially the south).

An example of clave we all know is the "Bo Diddley Beat." In Afro-Cuban music it's called the 3 - 2 son clave.

To play something complimentary to the clave is to enhance and augment the groove, and thus the trance. To play something that doesn't fit with the clave is to kill the groove, kill the trance, and basically piss off a lot of musicians and dancers.

I guess the moral is, you can't outsmart a groove. These people have figured this out thousands of years ago. Trust em. They know.

To check it out, get a copy of

Yoruba Drums from Benin, West Africa (Smithsonian Folkways)

Madhouse, "Serve 'Em"

If anyone out there likes the funk, then check this sweet gem out that i found on milkcratebreaks blog, Madhouse "Serve 'Em".

Really great funk a la Sly Stone. Top notch.

The other amazing, top shelf funk joint I got from blog scene was "Roger and The Human Body" featuring Roger from Zapp in an early iteration. Captain Crawl that shit.

dc

My fault

I think I've told too many people about Captain Crawl, or maybe it was this goofy Utopia LP I was searching for that cracked the good Captain. My apologies for it it's current slowness.

charles earland

milkcratebreaks.blogspot.com has got a ton of sick shit. good looking out, bla blazo.

here's a killer charles earland record. the first track has a massive drum break.

http://milkcratebreaks.blogspot.com/2008/09/charles-earland-black-drops.html

dc

Inglorious Basterds

Haven't seen the movie yet but copped the soundtrack. I'll always check out a QT soundtrack, there's always something I wasn't hip to beforehand that I really enjoy later. Comes up on a Captain Crawl search. Check it.

Milk Crate Breaks blog

This blog has a useful collection of samples from 78 drums machines throughout history.

http://milkcratebreaks.blogspot.com/2008/04/drum-machines.html

Check it out!!

dragging

Damn, the blog is dragging lately. It's just summer time blues, people.

That Skip James joint as great but enough is enough. I've bought a shit ton of records lately so i'll hold this fucker down myself.




I can't believe I found this again. I had this LP, then sold on eBay, and afterwards I saw it in a photo shoot in Madlib's studio, and it as name checked by somebody else... it's a private press lp, "drugs Won't Get It... People will". LP says "drug Addiction, let's talk". great samples.



this joint in fucking awesome. "africa germany germany mexico turkey australia". limited edition 215 copies or something, really really good bug out shit that is hypnotic and never crosses over into abrasive weirdness. this blog has one of the 2 sides. i'm digitizing this so i'll hit you off.



This is really really 80's out and terrible, it as $.50 cents, and i'm going to flip it into something beautiful in kid scooba project.




sonny Nelson reggae lp, real nice, signed by sonny himself!



first entry in the sunburned hand of the man rare lp covetry bug out... this is dangerous, there are a million super limited edition lp and 45's and shit on eBay.



on that note, shout out to my old school copy of black dice lost valley lp that happened to be in the same stack... super rare limited edition shit with hand done cover , holla!

that's tip of the iceberg. i got that ne prefuse 73 and new savath y savalas that's on stones throw, pretty nice. prefuse is like a big mix tape, almost. Uh... i got Grizzly Bear Yellow House on vinyl because i'm a nerd like that.

all right you jerks. go post something. sorr for typos but i spille dbeer on my keyboard and it's all fucked up. it's funny because its true.

Skip James

I am on vacation now, but I just saw this clip on a photo blog. I decided that it would be worth sharing because it is dope.  I wish he was my neighbor.



Have a good August.

Best wishes,
Jim

Tim Dahl/Mick Barr/Kevin Shea

These three guys did a set last night at Zebulon in Williamsburg. I saw the only other time they played together about a year ago at a Brooklyn apartment/performance space, and it was again the same kind of maximalist improvised intensity. Tim plays bass in Child Abuse and the Hub, Kevin Shea in a variety of groups like People and Talibam (Tim is playing with them currently, too), and Mick Barr does all sorts of weird avant-metal stuff with groups and sometimes with just a drum machine. These guys have a somewhat similar approach towards music and run in the same circles in NY and just got up on stage and totally improvised, sounded like Cecil Taylor meets Slayer. Mick Barr plays a Gibson SG and no effects and still manages to sound more interesting than guitarists with elaborate set-ups; he is easily one of the fastest, most agile guitarists I've ever seen, but is more than just a shredder, he has a unique sound and knows when to play just a counter-point to what the other musicians are doing. Tim is a monster and as always, fun to watch, and he rooted the whole thing down between super-fast bass runs, tying up with Mick on some of his stuff, and then creating these huge sonic drones. Pretty entertaining watching Kevin Shea, as usual, amazing drummer, and towards the end of the set, which only lasted around 15 minutes (but that was enough) and was only one, uh, "song", someone hurled toilet paper towards Kevin. He wound up draping it around himself and the drums and it was a pretty wild sight. I brought a few friends there and most had their minds blown and thought it was cool, but one friend said "I totally lost respect for your taste in music tonight". It was that kind of show.

Anybody subscribe to the Morning Becomes Eclectic podcast?

They've got Tortoise on there this week. A nice live set.

Tyshawn Sorey

NY Times music writer Ben Ratliff has a review today on a Tyshawn Sorey show at the Stone, sounded incredible, so I captain crawled it but I only got a couple of preview tracks from an upcoming album. Shit, I'll throw down and buy this dudes album, when he playing again? Check it out:

http://destination-out.com/media/tracks/Sorey_Only-One-Sky.mp3

Sonny Sharrock--Ask The Ages

I got this going on a Sunday afternoon, messing around the apartment, totally working for me, epic, interesting, not too cacophonous.

Stoop Sale Free Records...

It's summer, which means it's stoop sale season in Park Slope.
Here's are the records I got the other day...for FREE!






Baroque, hip-hop, esoteric jazz, and ethnic music? Exactly. DC, you'd FREAK out if you saw the Tibetan Bells LP...it's all spooky bells, chimes, and gongs.

Black Dice

Didn't you always wonder what was on the other side of that guys suitcase thing in Black Dice? No? Well now you know.

I found this site that has the entire Black Dice discography through 2007 including all the super rare CD-Rs with collabs with Wolf Eyes.

Too bad I didn't know about this when I went through my crazy Black Dice on vinyl obsession in.... 2004?

Time flies!

dc

We got a record player!

So I've been listening to stuff like this:

Group Doueh!

I picked up Group Doueh's Guitar Music from the Western Sahara (Sublime Frequencies) just before I went on vacation. It floors me! Doeuh has been trying since the late 70's to incorporate Jimi Hendrix into his native Sahrawi/Mauritanian sound to incredible results. Check this:



or this:



Doueh has turned down offers to record in Europe to maintain full control over his music. Guitar Music from the Western Sahara contains selections from his personal archives spanning 30 years. And, as the video clips indicate, there is also a Sublime Frequencies video available.

This is some of the best guitar music I have heard in a long time.

Bill Ware-Sir Duke

Just finally got hip to the power of Captain Crawl and been getting some new stuff. Digging this album I found by vibraphonist Bill Ware he recorded with Marc Ribot in 2001.