[Kalyanji & Anandji V. Shay - The Great Gambler / 3:17]
This month's issue of UTD is about freak music and mixes
Clockwise from top left: Songs for Drella, Filles de Kilimanjaro, The Mighty Mellow, Birdwatcher, Closer, Six Suiten für Cello Solo, Citrus, Not On Top, for b.y (click here for a closer look)
As the keen observer that you are has already noticed among those album artworks, there is one disc which you'll very unlikely find anywhere.
You will however find an excerpt above. Click play and you will be hit with the salacious funk(?) of Kalyanji & Anandji V. Shay (Bollywood style).
Words fail me to describe the excitement and thrilling astonishment this cut gave me when I first put the CD-mix on the laser beam. The mix itself comprises of 21 tracks, ingeniously assembled by a then stranger and now most enlightening friend on MOG.
Truth be told, I must confess than I was only familiar with perhaps one third of the artists on the mix. But what a delight to make their aquaintance through the generosity of the man from Ivyland.
I have often quipped that mixtapes are a act of "selfish sharing." At least, it is so me. Indeed we try to share what we like hoping (not so secretly) that the receiver/listener will come to like what we hold so dear. I'm not so sure of myself any more after listening to the incredible musical generosity which the mix holds.
Whatever a mixtape may mean to you, to us, this much I know: no one's ever made a mix without tenderness. - Thank you Bill.
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Track list: (in brackets some questions for the mix-maker)
1 - The Great Gambler / Kalanji & Anandji V. Shay (Is from the Bollywood comp you talked about a while back?) 2 - Olive / Ken Nordine 3 - Power (Voodoo Version) / King Britt/Sister Gertrude (Who else is on this cut?) 4 - Eu Noa Existo Sem Voce / Luciana Souza (Any particular album of hers you'll recommend for more Brazilian aural pleasure?) 5 - Table Mountain / Miriam Makeba & The Skylarks 6 - If You're Goin' To The City / Mose Allison 7 - You Just Gotta Know My Mind / Karen Verros 8 - Cosmic Sea / The Mystic Moods 9 - Alvorada / Cartola (Could you tell me a bit about this artist?) 10 - I'm Gonna Put Some Hurt On You / Raymond Lewis {a soul cut to die for, tx} 11 - The Butcher Boy / Sinead O'Connor (Is this from the film by Neil Jordan where Sinead is Virgin Mary?) 12 - Christ Is All / The Soul Stirrers {just mind-blowing transition} 13 - First Love / Angel'in Heavy Syrup 14 - Hard Times / Baby Huey & The Babysitters 15 - Franco Nero / The Destroyers 16 - Canto de Ossanha / Baden Powell/Vinicius de Moraes (Would this be in your top 5 Brazilian?) 17 - I Can't Stop Loving You / Kitty Wells 18 - My Blue Wave / Lambchop 19 - E Vove / Tribalistas 20 - Funky Thing (Part 1) / The Unemployed 21 - Death Don't Have No Mercy / Rev. Gary Davis
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um, I like the song @ the beginning of this post...so who are these people exactly?
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That looks like a great selection of quality and variety. ivylander makes it seem so effortless, but don't let it make you feel less sure of yourself; instead, let it inspire the world-class playlist assembler that we know is inside you.
About the album covers above: don't you just love Mile Davis's "Mademoiselle Mabry" from "Filles de Kilimanjaro"? I remember eons ago privately singling it out as the only recent Davis tune I could relate to, and then later reading some top jazz critic choosing to agree with me. I'm like whoa.
Does Fournier keep to a steady beat on those Bach solo cello suites? I once thought I liked Pablo Casal's version of them, when I realized he kept pausing and speeding up, even though the names for the sections were names for different types of dance. Yo Ma Ma has the same problem. Varying the tempo eliminates momentum. Listen to the first measure of the first suite. It should sound like 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, but the aforementioned knuckleheads play it like wunnnnnnnnn-2-3-4-5-6-7-8, as if the 1 is so "special." I was pondering this for months, and then I happened to be on a city streetcar, and I noticed facing me across the aisle was a man with a cello. Button-holing him, I learned that he totally disagreed with me and felt that the cellist should be allowed to play with freedom of tempo. Talking then about this to classical record store clerks made me feel like a metronome wierdo. The whole issue subsided in my cranium once some other cellist led me to Paul Tortelier's steady-beat album.
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Definitely a fascinating mix, most of which I've not heard of. Enjoy!
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I really tried to like this.. but it simply doesn't work with a hangover. :p
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Michael, I tried to post a response last night, but Schloopy swallowed it and I was too discouraged to attempt a reconstruction until now....
It's kind of you to say such generous things - you're right, I think, that in the heart of the mix-maker is the hope of a kind of communion. It's always gratifying to hear that you've achieved something along those lines.
To address your specific questions:
1. Yes, this is also from "Bombay The Hard Way: Guns, Cars & Sitars." Highly recommended.
3. Uh, nobody.....King Britt is the black, Philadelphian, infinitely superior (to my ears) Moby. That's obviously reductive, but I'm just trying to provide a shorthand answer. The entire Sister Gertrude Morgan CD is a cracker.
4. This is from a CD called "Brazilian Duets," all Luciana and guitars, period. I love the softer songs on it, am less impressed with the uptempo tracks. (As with Joao Gilberto, as a rule.) I've heard very good things about her CD "The New Bossa Nova." It's on my short list.
9. Cartola is one of the artists I love most. He was one of the most celebrated samba composers of the 1930s and 1940s - his fans reportedly included Heitor Villa-Lobos and Leopold Stokowski - then promptly disappeared completely from view. In 1956 he was discovered, working in a car wash, by a music journalist, and his career rehabilitation was on. Finally in the early 1970s, at the age of 66, he recorded for the first time. This song is from that album. He recorded a couple more and died in 1980, having finally been embraced as one of Brazil's seminal musicians. He wrote some of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard, including this one.
11. I think it is. I've actually never seen the movie, but thanks to your prompting it's going into the Netflix queue.
16. The album from which this comes, "Os Afrosambas," is probably the one Brazilian CD I would rescue from the theoretical, oft-mentioned house fire. It's pretty much magic from start to finish. "Canto de Osshana" must be one of the most covered songs of all time (at least by Brazilians - I have at least five on various CDs, and I'm not even trying), but none surpass this original.
By the by, "Filles de Kilimanjaro" has long been, to my mind, the forgotten Miles album. It's like one long spell - very different from "Os Afrosambas," but with a similar effect.
Thanks for a post that's great despite being personally flattering....
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Bubbles: Hi there. Thanks for popping in. Are you referring to the people on the collage or the people on the track list? I'm not sure myself of who the artists are on the uploaded track.
Spike: Your kind words are music to my ears indeed. How can anyone who likes Miles not just fall for Mademoiselle Mabry. I find Miles's "classic" quintet it ats most lyrical tightness. - Re Pierre Fournier's take of Bach's Cello Suites, I'm not quite sure. My weak musical education would acquiesce... How about I post it for you to tell?
Auggie: Interesting and most pleasantly eclectic - I am very much enjoying it.
Xhable: Glad to see you still your glasses on - it's not meant for hangovers, I'm afraid. (PS: A hangover from Monday? That's a bit rough even for me)
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end of exams :)..
well sort of..
only one day left..
but worthy of a night to the casino none the less.
Still have a pair of glasses on my face... but only moths in the wallet for a good few weeks to make up for money lost. I am no great gambler..
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Those tracks are so sweet they make my teeth hurt! Michael, I believe you are one lucky man, cuz that's one brilliant mix..
(Damn.. there goes my "I'm Gonna Put Some Hurt On You" funk-fu surprise, grrr.)
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Xhable: I guess the end of exams is well worth a night at the casino and a proper plastering ;)
Bloodtea: Are we talking hyperglycemic sweet because I don't feel bad, not bad at all - Not to worry about the "putting some hurt on me," you know you're hurting me so good already with your funkitude.
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Man Bill makes such awesome mixes. That song you posted totally rules. I feel like I need to go and sort through my tunes. I haven't made a really fresh mix (except secret santa) in ages.
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That's one outrageously cool mix. And the spotlighted track makes me wanna James Bond it up...
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yeah, I was talking about the uploaded track.
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That is one of the bizarrest recordings I've heard - part David Axelrod, part existential cigarette smoking cool ("Sorry baby - ciao"), part 007. Alain Delon is the only thing missing. Then I looked at the playlist. OMG- I want to hear that on the radio one night. Is Bill the great missing DJ? Spike's commentary is equally interesting - I wonder what that cellist's views on conductors was?