Elvis Costello is an established artist with a 35 year music legacy. I find him cameleon like at times, adaptive and prolific at others. I collected his music actively from his début album in 1978, My Aim Is Trueup to North (2003). I have been on hiatus with Declan MacManus‘s (His real name) musical output for the past 10 years.
Looking back upon his discography I pull out this gem of a collaboration, Painted From Memory (1998). All 12 songs on the original studio recording were co-written by Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach.
The next chapter in this landmark recording is unfolding. Please see the Web link below to understand the evolution of their partnership to Broadway
Rolling Stone Magazine published this data point in The Dead by the Numbers end-note article inthe Grateful Dead, The Ultimate Guide (Special Collectors Edition)
There are 38 Dylan songs in the Dead’s live catalog.
I have gravitated to one collaborative recording in particular, “Queen Jane Approximately” from Bob Dylan’s 1965 double album, Blonde on Blonde. I am torn as to which is my favorite live rendition. I first listened to the Dylan cover compilation recording on Postcards of the Hanging (Grateful Dead/Arista). It was recorded on December 29, 1988 at The Oakland Coliseum in California. Bob Weir handles the lead vocal with Dylan inflections on a couple of stanzas.
I next listened to the Dylan & The Dead live recording on Bob Dylan’s Columbia label. This live recording happened first on July 19, 1987 in Eugene, Oregon.
I located a video on YouTube that underscores the English Tudor symbolism of Queen Jane. However, in 1965 Dylan himself told journalist Nora Ephron that “Queen Jane is a man”.[4][8]
It is amazing that Bob Dylan and The Dead performed live in concert together at all. If you attended in person any of the Dylan and Dead live shows you probably never knew that it was indeed a simple twist of fate that Bob Dylan and The Dead gelled as a performance nucleus.
Read this Open Culture educational media article about the Dead and Dylan rehearsals to learn more about what finally changed Bob Dylan’s mind to agree to the tour. Bob Dylan’s wry wit about the often Dead rumored “acid-trip” is expressed about the shows at the end of his two-level quote. There is also an audio link on that page that lets you play individual tracks from the 74 song five-hour+ rehearsal!
After an hour or so, it became clear to me that the band wanted to rehearse more and different songs than I had been used to doing with Petty. They wanted to run over all the songs, the ones they liked, the seldom seen ones. I found myself in a peculiar position and I could hear the brakes screech. If I had known this to begin with, I might not have taken the dates…. There were so many [songs] that I couldn’t tell which was which-I might even get the words to some mixed up with others.
Dylan eventually excused himself from the studios, intending never to return. But an encounter with a local jazz band — call it a simple twist of fate — brought him back. Dylan and The Dead started playing through his big repertoire. It was tough sledding at first. “But then miraculously,” he adds, ”something internal came unhinged.” “I played these shows with The Dead and never had to think twice about it. Maybe they just dropped something in my drink, I can’t say, but anything they wanted to do was fine with me.”
My Goal’s Beyond by Mahavishnu John McLaughlin creates a spirituality and healing power that resonates within the music of our heart. Listen to “Peace One” permitting the joy to radiate within and about you this day. Namaste’
I was listening to the music player on the Elmore Magazine Website. Normally most music player play lists don’t do much for me. I find many music players very “cheesy” representations of the artist’s music. The playlists are typically “weak” and “”thrown together” in haphazard fashion. However, this funk track has dramatically shifted my reservation towards the positive.
The band is a stunning collaboration of funk, rock and blues superstars. Rock Candy Funk Party is made up of album producer Tal Bergman (drums), Ron DeJesus (guitar), Joe Bonamassa (guitar), Mike Merritt (bass), and Renato Neto (keyboards).
We bought tickets for the David Byrne and St. Vincent 2013 Tour. They will be appearing at the Shubert Theatre in New Haven, CT on June 20th. We caught their collaboration last September at The Beacon Theatre in New York City. We loved the event so much that we had to see them perform together again
I trust you feel the excitement of their distinctive brass band sound watching this video of their recent appearance on the David Letterman Show where they perform, “I Should Watch TV” from the Love This Giant recording.
Speaking of David Byrne, he and “Professor” Questlove participated in a Public Forum discussion at the NYU Skirball Center for the Performing Arts on February 26th.
I was unable to attend in person. I learned about the gist of the event from subsequent Web article reports
David Byrne is making a musical ”Here Lies the Love” at the Public Theater. Byrne wrote the lyrics and music (with help from Fatboy Slim), creating a “fully immersive, 360-degree theatrical experience” equipped with disco beats and contemporary dance.
Brought together to discuss the impact of music in popular consciousness, the Roots drummer and former Talking Heads frontman gave audience members a night to remember, swapping stories from the heydays of their respective careers. Questlove asked Byrne about his early days in New York in the 1970s while the Scottish songwriter probed Mr. Thompson on the genesis of the Philadelphia music scene.
Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson announced during the event that he will release a memoir entitled Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove this coming June.
If you consider the immediacy formed between the two artists coupled with their mutual affinity for unique collaborations, it’s realistic to anticipate a Byrne/Questlove project of some dimension in the future.
Every year I look forward to the annual Grammy Awards celebration on the CBS Television Network. It is an opportunity to witness unique music performances and collaborations offered nowhere else. It is a must see broadcast as a music journalist and a lifelong music consumer.
The Best New Artist Award category poses a tough choice in 2013. My head tells me that Frank Ocean is the odds on favorite to receive this award. Frank Ocean had a phenomenal year in music. His début studio recording Channel Orange was chosen as the top recording of 2012 in many Top 10 reader and critic polls. There is typically a correlation between year end music poll and Grammy Award winners.
The music of our heart says something different in me about Best New Artist. The Lumineers are my sentimental favorite to win this year. It helps that I have seen The Lumineers perform live just as their star began to burn brightly. The Lumineers continued their ascension as they carried out an extensive global tour. The Lumineers are more than a “one-hit wonder” with the song, “Ho Hey”. Their début album is repeat play and balanced. If they don’t win the Best New Artist award they are also nominated for the Best Americana album which is more likely with the rise of roots music.
The must see performances I want to witness are dedicated to two musicians who died in 2012. There will be all-star tributes to Levon Helm and Dave Brubeck from fellow musicians who want to share their love for these two musical giants. I miss them both terribly and share in the adoration that will be shown for the music legacies they leave us all.
I tuned the FM dial in the car to WPKN-FM 89.5 for the morning commute. I quickly discovered that tomorrow February 6th would be Bob Marley‘s 68th birthday. Steve di Constanzo the morning DJ was doing his Radio Basecamp show, playing some cool stuff.
He announced that starting at 1 p.m. WPKN would begin a Bob Marley 36 Hour Marathon. The radio celebration would be complemented by the annual Bob Marley and Mystic Bowie Birthday Bash on Stage One by the Fairfield Theatre Company. It was at that moment I said to myself this event can’t miss. Woah, Woah…. Stop the Clock! Our two favorite reggae superstars, Mystic Bowie and Bob Marley with special guest stars at this intimate venue. I purchased the tickets online pronto The concert will be broadcast live over WPKN this evening!
It has been a One Love celebration ever since. I plugged into WPKN-FM this afternoon where I have been actively engaged and entertained ever since.
We love Mystic Bowie’s energy, its so infectious! Can’t wait to dance the night away.
Mr. Wayne Shorter as Carlos Santana lovingly calls him turns 80 years young this year on August 25th. I awoke this morning thinking about his brilliant legacy of jazz compositions and performances.
It’s going to be a rewarding year for us with Mr. Wayne Shorter. I want to share two recent announcements about his career that I am truly excited about. The common chord struck in these events sounded by The Wayne Shorter Quartet.
Wayne Shorter will be honored at the 59th annual Newport Jazz Festival this year on Saturday August 3rd. There will be an 80th birthday celebration for him. Wayne Shorter will appear with his stunning quartet that includes Danilo Perez (pianist), John Pattituci (bassist), and Brian Blade (drummer). There will also be guest stars and friends playing which includes his close friend Herbie Hancock.
The Wayne Shorter Quartet recording Without A Net was first brought to my attention by the NPR Jazz blog,A Blog Supreme. It is highlighted that consensus will prove Without A Net as top of the 15 jazz albums to look out for in 2013. We are getting closer to the actual drop date of that recording, February 5th. I hope you feel the electricity for the eminent release of Without A Net.
On February 1, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra and the Quartet will perform four compositions by Shorter alongside works by Beethoven and Ives at Carnegie Hall.
Without A Net is a 9-track musical thrill ride that consists of live recordings from the Wayne Shorter Quartet’s European tour in late 2011, the one exception being the 23-minute tone poem “Pegasus” which features the quartet with The Imani Winds recorded at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles. The album features six new Shorter compositions, as well as new versions of his tunes “Orbits” (from Miles Davis’ Miles Smiles album) and “Plaza Real” (from the Weather Report album Procession). The quartet also reinvents the title song from the 1933 musical film Flying Down To Rio, which film buffs know as the first on-screen pairing of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
The Experience Music Project (EMP) Pop Conference in 2013 will be a five city live streaming event. The five easy pieces for Pop Conference 2013 will take place in Seattle (Central site), New York (the site of the 2012 Pop Conference that we attended), Los Angeles, New Orleans and Cleveland. Please refer to the EMP Pop Conference page for more specifics, as the event is just unfolding.
Five different gatherings, in the East, West, South, Midwest, and Pacific Northwest, will take place on the same weekend, with a goal of live streaming the content for those unable to travel and preserving it for posterity. At each location, there will be one panel at a given time, rather than concurrent sessions, to foster regional community.
Local organizers, all veteran conference participants, will steer the program for each Pop Conference city: Oliver Wang of Cal-State Long Beach in Los Angeles (working with the USC Dornsife Center for Feminist Research, directed by Karen Tongson); Tavia Nyong’o of NYU in New York (working with the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music); Joel Dinerstein of Tulane in New Orleans (working with the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South); Lauren Onkey of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland; and Jasen Emmons of EMP Museum in Seattle.
My aim as an EMP/SFM Member(since 2009) is to increase my Pop Conference involvement in 2013 from the attendee level in 2012. I’m glad the NYU event is open-ended. I have contacted Tavia Nyong’o of NYU to learn more about where I can hopefully take part.
I learned that the Pop Conference 2012 event was published as a collection of papers by the Duke University Press soon after the event. Eric Weisbard served as Editor for Pop When the World Falls Apart, Music In The Shadow of Doubt. Eric is the EMP Pop Conference Organizer and is also Assistant Professor of American Studies at the University. This is the third collection of Pop Conference papers
I have a better idea now why Robert Christgau calls the Pop Conference, ”the best thing that’s ever happened to serious consideration of pop music.” I attended the session where he spoke last year (Refer to my blog post about Pop Conference 2012 here)
I look forward to the EMP Pop Conference 2013. I plan to update readers about this event moving forward. When I’m informed you will be informed, so stay tuned
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