R.I.P.: Juliette Greco

So I read the captivating obits:

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/sep/24/juliette-greco-obituary

https://www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2020-09-23/juliette-greco-muse-postwar-france-dead

Miles, you stone stupid, have a few isolated tracks but need to get up to speed with this person. I got Mes Plus Belles Chansons (ZYX, 2017), a 2-CD set with 20 tracks a disc. I am beyond overwhelmed. Get whatever generous set you can (recordings seem a bit spotty right now). But I’m not sure when I will stop wanting to hear some of this every day. Is it my fantasy to detect Miles Davis touches here and there?

Stuff in the Air That Came Out of Speakers Today Locked in the Tower #20

This is the mix disc of 2019-2020 African performers (including a couple reissues) that just arose out of my routine listening. Deeply gratifying phenomenon. Had to exclude a couple because ran out of room.

AFRICAN APPARITION 2020

1. Habib Koite/Oliver Mtukudzi/Afel Boucoum, “Gomni”
2. Carete de Sejour (Rachid Taha), “Ramsa”
3. John Chibadura and the Tembo Brothers, “Munemajerasi”
4. Felixson Ngaswia & the Survivals, “Black Precious Color”
5. Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids, “Tinoge”
6. Visu Mahlasela, “Ithemba Lami”
7. Afel Boucoum, “Fari Intro”
8. Afel Boucoum, “Fari Njungu”
9. “Cheba Louisa” soundtrack, “Ya Rayah” (Rachid Taha)
10. Nkem Njoku & Ozobia Brothers, “Ozobia Special”
11. Baba Commandant & the Mandingo Band, “Mantcha Mantcha”
12. Idris Ackamoor & the Pyramids, “Tango of Love”

Largest Weekly Views and Visitors Since the Start of March

Don’t know quite what I’m doin’ right, but …

Parade of Pulp Onscreen During the Lockdown

Consumed a great sufficiency of true crime (truly turned off by revisiting yet another notorious case) explored as much roots and branches of animation as I could stand (man, that mid-’90s revival of Felix the Cat was bleeeh), I’ve turned the TV to old faves and new discoveries from the oozy-goozy regions of vintage sci-fi and horror and horror/sci-fi. Was gonna do some commentary on each title, but since I’m in the middle of a body-wide arthritis attack (mostly feet, but hands also) we’ll have to see where that happens or not.

1. Angry Red Planet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Angry_Red_Planet

2. The Cave

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cave_(2005_film)

3. X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X:_The_Man_with_the_X-ray_Eyes

4, The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane [a must for Jodie Foster fans]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Girl_Who_Lives_Down_the_Lane

5. Carnival of Souls (1963 b&w version)

https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/carnival-of-souls-1989

https://offscreen.com/view/carnival_of_souls

R.I.P.: Notorious RBG

All the people spontaneously gathering outside the Supreme Court building. Be nice to imagine Ginsburg and Scalia could finally watch opera together again but, uh, pretty sure he’s located in a different section of the afterlife.

This, thank Yod, is an obit worthy of its subject:

https://www.newyorker.com/news/postscript/ruth-bader-ginsburg-supreme-court-the-great-equalizer-obituary

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R.I.P. Stanley Crouch — As Hard-Swinging and Provocative as Jazz

This is the best obit I’ve come across:

https://www.npr.org/2020/09/16/913619163/stanley-crouch-towering-jazz-critic-dead-at-74

But I absolutely cannot do better than this all-aces review of a remarkable book that opened up Charlie Parker to me as much as his music did:

https://www.robertchristgau.com/xg/bkrev/crouch-13.php

And now, Burning Ambulance Phil notified me that the second volume of the Parker bio (about his stardom and — oh,oh — junkie immolation) will come out next year:

Finally, if there had to be only one musician’s body of work on Earth, I suspect Mr. Crouch would agree with me that it has to be by the Duke

9/11 at 19

Strange what floats into your mind on such tormented and twisted annuals.This year it was what a lovely, peaceful day it was and that the last song I remember listening to in the car before I went inside and turned on the TV was by X: “The World’s a Mess, It’s in My Kiss.”

Stuff in the Air That Came Out of Speakers Today Locked in the Tower #19

What would spin out if I was let loose to play whatever from my collection on air back in the day. Revisited this week and I’ll stick up for all of it.

KMILO RADIO 2007

1. Gogol Bordello, “Ultimate”
2. Imperial Teen, “The Hair the TV the Baby & the Band”
3. LCD Soundsystem, “Sound of Silver”
4. Nicole Atkins, “Brooklyn’s on Fire!”
5. Jessca Hoop, “Summertime”
6. Johnny Depp/Alan Rickman, “Pretty Women”
7. Tiger Army, “Forever Fades Away”
8. Robert Plant/Alison Krauss, “Killing the Blues”
9. Peter Karp, “Strange Groove”
10. Amy Winehouse, “Rehab” (sob)
11. Miranda Lambert, “Famous in a Small Town”
12. Spoon, “The Underdog”
13. The Motion Sick,.”30 Lives”
14. The Trucks, “Old Bikes”
15. Buck 65, “Dang”
16. The Pipettes, “Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me”
17. Nils Lofgren, “Goin’ Back”

R.I.P.: Gary Peacock

(Always cheered me that he was born in Burley, Idaho — another inspiration for getting out of the waaaayback sticks and into the hot action.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Peacock

Quick Roundup Top Three:

Albert Ayler Trio, Spiritual Unity (ESP-Disk, vinyl)

As with Charlie Parker this was another release where I read a review that commanded me to grab it. (Had to order it at the same store that automatically had the Parker, if I remember right.) And it was also an album where I did a faceplant during the first listen.The interactions were as vivid as flames at midnight and every second worked. Ageless, universal masterpiece.

Then, a couple more personal faves.

Albert Ayler Quartet, Copenhagen Live 1964 (hatOLOGY, 2917)

Ayler, Peacock, Don Cherry and Sunny Murray. Maybe my favorite renditions of “Saints” and “Mothers.” Either amazing clear, vivid original recording or masterpiece clean-up. Drum and bass remarkably present for that era of concert records.

Gary Peacock with Bill Frisell, Just So Happens (Postcards, 1994)

Dialogues done by two of the smartest weavers and swervers you’ll ever hear. Ranges over mostly Peacock originals and such free-jazz standards as “Red River Valley” and “Home on the Range.”

Stuff in the Air That Came Out of Speakers Today Locked in the Tower #18

Tweeted this a couple nights ago.

Wallowing in this sound all evening: This collection from last year arrived today and since I’m crazy about the guy’s soundtracks (and the non-soundtrack CD is way more intoxicating than any other I have heard), this is a happy night to start Autumn:

Jóhann Jóhannsson’s early works to be reissued on Retrospective I The seven-CD set arrives this Friday (April 26).factmag.com

But we both got so much pleasure and enchantment out of this that it deserves a full blog post. Right now finished the final disc, the soundtrack to White Black Boy (a film about an albino African), never before released. Delicate but strong, plain, but always able to dance in the air. The box is too much to recommend as an introduction, but if you’re at all a fan — don’t hesitate.