Yes, Bandcamp! I have bought a few CDs from them. Oddily, the link to Bancamp came from the artist's websites. It is difficult to get CDs from normal websites and , in jazz at least, the artists are taking control of what gets released. As a fan, it is fascinating because things which might seem uncommercial get to see the light of day. One thing which has fascinated me over Christmas was a record by the bassist Mario Pavone called "Isabella" This feartured an alto and guitar front line in a quaret and, for me, was one of the best albums of 2021. He was seriously ill at the time he made the records and subsequently passed away shortly afterwards. However, this record was then matched with a second disc called "Blue Vertical" which featured 70% of the same material but performed by a different quartet with trumpet / piano, bass/ drums. I have been mersmerised by these records, both of which are exceptional. I am not sure that the commercial constraints of 80s and 90s would have permitted an artists releasing two albums exploring the almost identical repertoire. As a fan of jazz, I just felt that this was the ultimate in exploring the potential of the music he had written. The results are very different but no less compelling.
By the way, it's not the price of plastic that's causing problems in vinyl supply - the big record labels are booking up all the production space in the *very* limited capacity that the current vinyl production facilities have. The current lead time for getting music onto vinyl is about 8 months.... Fable's album is coming out on the 22nd April (little exclusive there!) but we're not going to have the vinyl out for a few months after that, because of precisely this problem.
Chilcs That clip was terrific ! I have seen Bill Bailey do a similar sketch with music. He is extremely talented as well as being really funny. He is no slouch as a musician and think that his career actually started with music. It is amusing to hear familiar tunes reconstructed like this. There was a programme on Radio 3 several years ago when "Skyfall" was first released and it was revealed how the James Bond film had initially been composed for a stage play set in India. In it's initial incarnation, the theme tune was massively different yet , when re-arranged for the spy film franchise, it seemed a perfect fit.
I’ve seen Bill Bailey live a couple of times, and his musical sketches are always the best bits for me. He really could have been a professional musician in just about any genre he cared to. I fondly remember the “Black Books” episode when he suddenly started playing a grand piano, which probably surprised those watching who weren’t aware of his talent.
Bill’s great, but for another massive talent, at least on piano, I’d point you toward Tim Minchin. Okay, he’s not playing here, but this beat poem is astonishing -
I think one of the things about playing jazz piano is that the ability to improvise opens up so many possibilities. You need to understand harmony and that will give you the necessary tools to take the music wherever you want. I don'tthink that there is much music which has this same practical value as jazz.
Thanks Laces, was out last night, I look forward to watching that on iPlayer today, one of my all time favourite artists.
i saw some of that programme. Shame there were no personnel details about the musicians to be found on the BBC website - I am begining to feel like an anorak as I always want to know who is playing the music. What amazes me with Stevie Wonder is not so much the quality of his songwriring (which are truly "Standards" ) but the fact that , as time passes, I just hear his music becoming increasingly in line with jazz. "Songs in the key of life" is a staggeringly brilliant record yet everytime I listen I am hearing so many ideas that remind his music owes a lot o jazz. That album een includes an instrumental track which shows that he was listening to musicians like Herbie Hancock when he made that disc. I know Wonder has employed jazz musicians in his band like the excellent percussionist Kahil El Zabar whose own records prove that the more outside elements of jazz can really connect. I always get the impression that jazz musicians consider Stevie Wonder to be one of their own - maybe even more so than someone like Nile Rodgers who started off as a jazz guitarist who studied with Ted Dunbar. If he was an emerging artist now, I feel that we would be on a label like Blue Note. I was quite impressed by a track I hear by Joss Stone on the radio the other week. She is a name I have heard but I was totally unaware of her music. Now listening to Leos Janacek "On a overgrown path" and "In the mists." Very unpianist music for piano pieces but really enjoyable. Reminds me a bit of Bartok but less angular.
Joss has been around for ages - had a couple of big albums, then disappeared off the scene really. Was in that time where you had her Norah Jones and Duffy all doing same/similar.
Joss always reminded me of a slightly softer-voiced version of Janis Joplin. And she played Ann of Cleves in The Tudors, which always struck me as a strange bit of casting
Joss Stone actually did a pre match show at one of the NFL London games a few years back. Good times. Anyhow, I had my Google mini playing Spotify while I was busy tidying my apartment and a song came on by Anna of the north. I liked it. Then I streamed it 15 times in a row. I've heard some of her stuff before and I wanted to like it because of her cool name (somehow I feel like she's a big game of thrones) but they never really gripped me, like when you listen to a song and you instantly have a connection to it). Obviously it's in Norwegian so I didn't know what she was singing about, but liked how it sounded and I listen to and like quite a few foreign language songs... So what are everyone's favourite foreign language songs?
Saw Stevie live in Stockholm in 87 - he was just amazing. Stayed on stage for over 4 hours (his band took a break halfway through and he kept playing). Brilliant gig - have loved Stevie and his music right from Music of My Mind and I find it criminal that his only number 1 was the schmaltzy “I Just Called To Say I Love You”. A wonderful musician and very important influence on many others!
I didn’t know that. Think I watched a couple of episodes of that, probably before her character came in!
Nice - not heard of her, but will look her out now. Cheers. Foreign language songs? Si Tu Dois Partir - Fairport Convention, Ca Plane Pour Moi - Plastic Bertrand, Mná na hÉireann - Kate Bush
