Podcast appearances and mentions of Archie Shepp

My guest for this episode is flautist, vocalist, and composer Naïssam Jamal. Born in Paris to Syrian parents, she entered a conservatory at age six to study classical flute. We discuss her early life in Paris and issues surrounding her cultural background; she talks about her experiences in the conservatory and her subsequent travels throughout the Middle East and Africa. Master musicians whom she's met along the way have been major influences. Her latest album is Souffles, French for “breaths.” It's composed of eight pieces, all duets, and features jazz saxophone legend Archie Shepp. Join us. https://naissamjalal.com

Entre une légende du rap sud-africain et un poète angevin, mon cœur balance… Notre 1er invité est Stogie T pour la sortie de l'EP ShallowVétéran du hip-hop sud-africain, Stogie T (Tumi Molekane) n'est pas un parolier classique. Son travail consiste à trouver un équilibre délicat entre différents mondes ; il a prouvé qu'il était la voix du peuple, mais il n'hésite pas à tendre un miroir à l'ensemble de la société, et le reflet est toujours plus complexe que les clichés bien-pensants du «rap conscient» et la nature stéréotypée et banale du «rap commercial».Le message dominant de Shallow est la psychose collective. Le dernier EP publié par Stogie T depuis la pandémie mondiale contient des chansons percutantes qui reflètent une forme particulière de cynisme prévalant en Afrique. Le rêve différé, la perte d'espoir sous le poids écrasant d'un État de plus en plus défaillant. Stogie T a déjà parlé de cet état, mais cette fois-ci, il se penche sur les effets qu'il a sur ses habitants. Ce qu'il advient de la pensée des gens, de leurs dysfonctionnements et de leurs pathologies.Stogie T (alias Tumi Molekane) est sur la voie de l'autoréflexion, de l'introspection, de l'évolution et de la restitution, tout en jouant la carte du progrès. Il s'interroge sur les valeurs et les règles qui régissent notre vie, sur les raisons de désespérer ou d'espérer d'un pays entouré d'un pillage flagrant, sur les raisons d'être cynique et sur les raisons de croire et de se soucier des autres.Les chansons de cet EP ont été conçues et enregistrées pendant Covid et entre les moments d'anxiété intense dus au dysfonctionnement et au désordre sociétal, à la perte d'amis proches et de membres de la famille, et à la disparition tragique de ses pairs. En tant qu'artiste cherchant à trouver une voix dans le désordre et à s'élever au-dessus du bruit de la machine médiatique mondiale, Stogie T a trouvé du réconfort dans la tragédie et le traumatisme. Offrant un contrepoint à l'air du temps par le biais d'une poésie artistique nous rappelant, ainsi qu'à lui-même, qu'en tant qu'artiste, c'est son travail qui apporte de l'espoir pour l'avenir, mais qu'il doit faire preuve d'un grand discernement, d'espoir pour l'avenir, mais qu'il doit rester fidèle à lui-même, à sa famille et à sa communauté.Titres interprétés grand studio- Shallow Live RFI- Zimkile feat Msaki, extrait album- Too Late For Mama Live RFI.Line Up : Tumi Molekane (voix), Shane Cooper (basse), Bonj (voix), Bokani Dyer (claviers, voix), Clem Carr (claviers)et Justin Badenhorst (batterie).Traduction : Enora LouisSon : Benoît Letirant, Mathias Taylor.► EP Shallow (Sakifo Rd 2024).Facebook - Youtube. Puis la #SessionLive invite Lo'Jo pour la sortie de l'album Feuilles Mauves. De leur Anjou natal à tous les continents, des instruments traditionnels au rock, Lo'Jo a toujours su passer de la feuille blanche à la poésie. La lumière et les mots de Feuilles Fauves magnifient une nouvelle fois l'insaisissable. Car si nous sommes Peu de choses, écrit Denis Péan, heureusement, « on peut faire chavirer le cœur le plus fané sur le tempo du chamamé ». Il y a de ces groupes qui ne sont enchaînés nulle part si ce n'est aux instruments du monde ou aux feuilles de papier. Sans chaîne ni code ni dogme, Lo'Jo sera toujours ces explorateurs de la musique, ces chercheurs des mots. Le collectif Lo'Jo continue avec Feuilles Fauves à puiser dans ce qu'il sait faire de mieux : ne rien se refuser. Pourquoi ne pas mêler le kamele n'goni, instrument acoustique malien au violon, pourquoi ne pas faire fusionner le piano au kayamn, sur toile d'électro, pour donner à ce disque, aussi, les couleurs des Mascareignes ?Chaque disque est une réinvention : Feuilles Fauves n'y fait pas exception. Par ses traditions musicales absorbées lors de leurs innombrables voyages, comme par ses collaborations prestigieuses : de Robert Wyatt à Tony Allen, Robert Plant, Tinariwen, Erik Truffaz, ou encore Archie Shepp... l'utopie Lo'Jo a « le pouvoir d'hypnotiser et de ravir à chaque morceau » (Billboard).Des feuilles de l'automne aux feuilles de papier Le titre Mandiego, qui ouvre ce nouvel album, aux notes de piano douces et enveloppantes, est une invitation bienveillante au nouveau voyage que nous offre Lo'Jo. Car « l'Homme est bien peu de choses mon ami. Si le soir il est hasard, le matin il est destin », écrit Denis Péan. Feuilles Fauves est brut, comme primitif et sauvage. Aidé par la réalisation de Clément Petit (entendu aux côtés de Piers Faccini ou Blick Bassy) et Alexandre Finkin, les voix pénètrent l'esprit, les instruments du monde régalent le corps avec une intensité vivante et organique. Parce que malgré le chaos du monde, Lo'Jo nous invite avec Feuilles Fauves à un périple solaire : grâce à cette langue inventée, au créole comme aux sons du monde et d'ailleurs. Grâce aux textes sensibles, parfois espiègles ou envoûtants. Grâce à l'étincelle de Jupiter & Okwess sur deux titres, à la malice de Mélissa Laveaux dans Julie, non plus en chanteuse mais en lectrice pétillante.Feuilles Fauves nous emmène danser des Valses Étranges, s'attarde sur notre vanité, interroge sur Le temps (avec René Lacaille), « le thème favori des poètes » admet Denis Péan. Celui qui s'étend et qu'on pourra donc toujours écrire. En écoutant Aswar (« ce soir » en créole maison), on s'anime en terres argentines sur le tempo du chamamé, un genre musical traditionnel de la province de Corrientes. Grâce à Brother Barrett, on découvre la communauté rasta du Pinnacle, en Jamaïque. On apprend avec eux, leur humour et leur finesse d'esprit aussi à exprimer La Kolèr, dont les mélodies entêtantes prennent des allures chamaniques. Titres interprétés grand studio- La Kolèr Live RFI- Aswar, extrait de l'album - Joséphine Live RFI. Line Up : Denis Péan (chant, harmonium), Yamina Nid El Mourid (chant percussions), Nadia Nid El Mourid (chant percussions), Richard Bourreau (violon) et Alex Cochennec (basse).Son : Benoît Letirant, Mathias Taylor.► Album Feuilles Mauves (Yotanka Rd 2024).YouTube - Site.(Rediffusion du 17 novembre 2024).

Entre une légende du rap sud-africain et un poète angevin, mon cœur balance… Notre 1er invité est Stogie T pour la sortie de l'EP ShallowVétéran du hip-hop sud-africain, Stogie T (Tumi Molekane) n'est pas un parolier classique. Son travail consiste à trouver un équilibre délicat entre différents mondes ; il a prouvé qu'il était la voix du peuple, mais il n'hésite pas à tendre un miroir à l'ensemble de la société, et le reflet est toujours plus complexe que les clichés bien-pensants du «rap conscient» et la nature stéréotypée et banale du «rap commercial».Le message dominant de Shallow est la psychose collective. Le dernier EP publié par Stogie T depuis la pandémie mondiale contient des chansons percutantes qui reflètent une forme particulière de cynisme prévalant en Afrique. Le rêve différé, la perte d'espoir sous le poids écrasant d'un État de plus en plus défaillant. Stogie T a déjà parlé de cet état, mais cette fois-ci, il se penche sur les effets qu'il a sur ses habitants. Ce qu'il advient de la pensée des gens, de leurs dysfonctionnements et de leurs pathologies.Stogie T (alias Tumi Molekane) est sur la voie de l'autoréflexion, de l'introspection, de l'évolution et de la restitution, tout en jouant la carte du progrès. Il s'interroge sur les valeurs et les règles qui régissent notre vie, sur les raisons de désespérer ou d'espérer d'un pays entouré d'un pillage flagrant, sur les raisons d'être cynique et sur les raisons de croire et de se soucier des autres.Les chansons de cet EP ont été conçues et enregistrées pendant Covid et entre les moments d'anxiété intense dus au dysfonctionnement et au désordre sociétal, à la perte d'amis proches et de membres de la famille, et à la disparition tragique de ses pairs. En tant qu'artiste cherchant à trouver une voix dans le désordre et à s'élever au-dessus du bruit de la machine médiatique mondiale, Stogie T a trouvé du réconfort dans la tragédie et le traumatisme. Offrant un contrepoint à l'air du temps par le biais d'une poésie artistique nous rappelant, ainsi qu'à lui-même, qu'en tant qu'artiste, c'est son travail qui apporte de l'espoir pour l'avenir, mais qu'il doit faire preuve d'un grand discernement, d'espoir pour l'avenir, mais qu'il doit rester fidèle à lui-même, à sa famille et à sa communauté.Titres interprétés grand studio- Shallow Live RFI- Zimkile feat Msaki, extrait album- Too Late For Mama Live RFI.Line Up : Tumi Molekane (voix), Shane Cooper (basse), Bonj (voix), Bokani Dyer (claviers, voix), Clem Carr (claviers)et Justin Badenhorst (batterie).Traduction : Enora LouisSon : Benoît Letirant, Mathias Taylor.► EP Shallow (Sakifo Rd 2024).Facebook - Youtube. Puis la #SessionLive invite Lo'Jo pour la sortie de l'album Feuilles Mauves. De leur Anjou natal à tous les continents, des instruments traditionnels au rock, Lo'Jo a toujours su passer de la feuille blanche à la poésie. La lumière et les mots de Feuilles Fauves magnifient une nouvelle fois l'insaisissable. Car si nous sommes Peu de choses, écrit Denis Péan, heureusement, « on peut faire chavirer le cœur le plus fané sur le tempo du chamamé ». Il y a de ces groupes qui ne sont enchaînés nulle part si ce n'est aux instruments du monde ou aux feuilles de papier. Sans chaîne ni code ni dogme, Lo'Jo sera toujours ces explorateurs de la musique, ces chercheurs des mots. Le collectif Lo'Jo continue avec Feuilles Fauves à puiser dans ce qu'il sait faire de mieux : ne rien se refuser. Pourquoi ne pas mêler le kamele n'goni, instrument acoustique malien au violon, pourquoi ne pas faire fusionner le piano au kayamn, sur toile d'électro, pour donner à ce disque, aussi, les couleurs des Mascareignes ?Chaque disque est une réinvention : Feuilles Fauves n'y fait pas exception. Par ses traditions musicales absorbées lors de leurs innombrables voyages, comme par ses collaborations prestigieuses : de Robert Wyatt à Tony Allen, Robert Plant, Tinariwen, Erik Truffaz, ou encore Archie Shepp... l'utopie Lo'Jo a « le pouvoir d'hypnotiser et de ravir à chaque morceau » (Billboard).Des feuilles de l'automne aux feuilles de papier Le titre Mandiego, qui ouvre ce nouvel album, aux notes de piano douces et enveloppantes, est une invitation bienveillante au nouveau voyage que nous offre Lo'Jo. Car « l'Homme est bien peu de choses mon ami. Si le soir il est hasard, le matin il est destin », écrit Denis Péan. Feuilles Fauves est brut, comme primitif et sauvage. Aidé par la réalisation de Clément Petit (entendu aux côtés de Piers Faccini ou Blick Bassy) et Alexandre Finkin, les voix pénètrent l'esprit, les instruments du monde régalent le corps avec une intensité vivante et organique. Parce que malgré le chaos du monde, Lo'Jo nous invite avec Feuilles Fauves à un périple solaire : grâce à cette langue inventée, au créole comme aux sons du monde et d'ailleurs. Grâce aux textes sensibles, parfois espiègles ou envoûtants. Grâce à l'étincelle de Jupiter & Okwess sur deux titres, à la malice de Mélissa Laveaux dans Julie, non plus en chanteuse mais en lectrice pétillante.Feuilles Fauves nous emmène danser des Valses Étranges, s'attarde sur notre vanité, interroge sur Le temps (avec René Lacaille), « le thème favori des poètes » admet Denis Péan. Celui qui s'étend et qu'on pourra donc toujours écrire. En écoutant Aswar (« ce soir » en créole maison), on s'anime en terres argentines sur le tempo du chamamé, un genre musical traditionnel de la province de Corrientes. Grâce à Brother Barrett, on découvre la communauté rasta du Pinnacle, en Jamaïque. On apprend avec eux, leur humour et leur finesse d'esprit aussi à exprimer La Kolèr, dont les mélodies entêtantes prennent des allures chamaniques. Titres interprétés grand studio- La Kolèr Live RFI- Aswar, extrait de l'album - Joséphine Live RFI. Line Up : Denis Péan (chant, harmonium), Yamina Nid El Mourid (chant percussions), Nadia Nid El Mourid (chant percussions), Richard Bourreau (violon) et Alex Cochennec (basse).Son : Benoît Letirant, Mathias Taylor.► Album Feuilles Mauves (Yotanka Rd 2024).YouTube - Site.(Rediffusion du 17 novembre 2024).

Unga i London väntar på en ny framtid, och att villkorslöst få visa sin kärlek till den nya tidens popstjärna. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. Greentea Pengs psykdeliska tripp genom jazzig, pårökt dub och loj lofisoul är bara möjlig i den brittiska smältdegeln. En kosmisk punkreggaerebell skruvar till känslan och atmosfären i Erykah Badus och Dillas ”Didn't cha know” och finner sin egen stil. Fri från begränsningar lever Peng ut begär och drömmar på ”Man made”, och aktuella musikaliska återfödelsen ”Tell dem it's sunny”.Ett skolprojekt växte till vänskap och något som rubbade synen på jazz i London. Ezra Collective förvånade många när de skapade ravestämning på sina spelningar med en frenetisk energi där bandet blandade jazzens olika uttryck med bland annat grime, hiphop och funky house. Ezra prioriterade groove istället för att bombardera lyssnaren med långa invecklade solon och komplicerade rytmer.Avsnittet innehåller även intervjuer med Little Simz, Lonnie Liston Smith, Archie Shepp, Ms. Dynamite och Steve Coleman.

Up and coming artists, and legends playing with up and coming artists, on this intergenerational playlist! The playlist features Wet Enough!? & Camilla George; Simón Willson; Hillai Govreen; David Murray [pictured], Ekep Nkwelle; Naïssam Jalal, Archie Shepp; Iacopo Teolis; and Abe Mamet. Detailed playlist at https://spinitron.com/RFB/pl/20385836/Mondo-Jazz [from "Funk 4" to "Hot Chocolate"]. Happy listening!

Archie Shepp photographié dans son appartement parisien par Gilles Coulon en 2002. ARCHIE SHEPP. BLASE – 10:15Blasé, Byg records, 1969 BABX. OMAYA (TRILOGIE, PARTIE 3) – 4:25Ascensions, Bison Bison, 2017 FLIP GRATER. THE SAFETY OF THE LIGHTS – 4:30Pigalle, Vicious Circle, 2014 SHANNON WRIGHT. SOMETHING BORROWED – 3:55Reservoir of Love, Vicious Circle, 2025 NINA NASTASIA. […] Cet article Errance #184 : De Archie Shepp à Nina Simone est apparu en premier sur Eldorado.

Aired 2/18/25 on 97.3/107.9 The Rock in Morro Bay, CADeath ~ Politicians in My EyesBetty Davis ~ Game Is My Middle NameEddie Hazel ~ California Dreamin'Voltaire Brothers ~ Transparabolicwobblemegatronicthangmabutylspasmotickryptorumpalistics (A.K.A. Siege Of The Booty Chirren)Mother's Finest ~ Truth'll Set You FreeBettye Lavette ~ JoySwamp Dog ~ LonelyLittle Axe ~ VictimsTricky ~ Keep Me In Your Shake (feat. Nneka)A.R. Kane ~ W.O.G.S.Special Interest ~ Love SceneYves Tumor ~ Secrecy Is Incredibly Important to the Both of ThemNourished By Time ~ Had Ya CalledJamila Woods ~ Wreckage RoomNiecy Blues ~ The ArchitectSolange ~ JerrodSolange ~ BinzMHYSA ~ breaker of chainsLiv.e ~ Heart Break EscapeAaliyah ~ If Your Girl Only Knew (Beat-A-Pella)Lauren Hill ~ Ex-FactorAretha Franklin ~ Precious Lord (Take My Hand) /You've Got a Friend [Medley]Sam Cooke ~ Bring It On Home To Me (live)Vicki Anderson ~ The Message From The Soul Sisters (Parts 1 & 2)Gil Scott-Heron ~ Winter In America (live)Abbey Lincoln & Max Roach ~ Lonesome Lover (live)Mary Lou Williams ~ Ode To Saint CecilieEric Dolphy ~ Jitterbug Waltz (alternative take)Nikki Giovanni ~ The Woman GatherYesterday's New Quintet ~ Little Girl (Dakota's Song)Damu the Fudgemunk, Archie Shepp & Raw Poetic ~ 2 Hour ParkingBlind Willie Johnson ~ Mother's Children Have a Hard TimeBukka White ~ Aberdeen, Mississippi BluesArizona Dranes ~ God's Got A CrownBessie Jones ~ Beggin' The BluesWillie Williams & Group ~ The New Buryin' GroundIsaac Haney & The Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir ~ At a Time Like This (Pt 1)Helen McGiver & The McGiver Singers ~ I'm Just a VoiceThundercat ~ How I Feel

C'est un moment à part dans l'histoire de la musique, un moment de pure spontanéité qui serait, aujourd'hui, inenvisageable. En octobre 1969, Amougies, 957 habitants et une quinzaine de bars, petit village calme du pays des collines, voit débarquer en ses rues et ses prairies une horde de hippies. Ils sont des dizaines de milliers (jusqu'à 100.000 se murmure-t-il) à se rendre à cet incroyable festival qui va accueillir sur sa scène géante des artistes tels que Franck Zappa, Pink Floyd, Ten Years After, Captain Beefheart, Archie Shepp, the Art Ensemble of Chicago et bien d'autres. Comment ce festival a-t-il vu le jour dans cette petite commune ? Que reste-t-il de ce moment unique dans les souvenirs des habitant.e.s ? Comment la rencontre entre les hippies et les villageois.es s'est-elle déroulée ? Qu'est devenu Amougies aujourd'hui ? C'est la journaliste du magazine Médor Chloé Andries qui raconte au miro de Jonathan Remy cette histoire habitée de souvenirs échevelés et de musiques magiques. Sujets traités : Festival, Amougies, hippies, musique, village Merci pour votre écoute Un Jour dans l'Histoire, c'est également en direct tous les jours de la semaine de 13h15 à 14h30 sur www.rtbf.be/lapremiere Retrouvez tous les épisodes d'Un Jour dans l'Histoire sur notre plateforme Auvio.be :https://auvio.rtbf.be/emission/5936 Intéressés par l'histoire ? Vous pourriez également aimer nos autres podcasts : L'Histoire Continue: https://audmns.com/kSbpELwL'heure H : https://audmns.com/YagLLiKEt sa version à écouter en famille : La Mini Heure H https://audmns.com/YagLLiKAinsi que nos séries historiques :Chili, le Pays de mes Histoires : https://audmns.com/XHbnevhD-Day : https://audmns.com/JWRdPYIJoséphine Baker : https://audmns.com/wCfhoEwLa folle histoire de l'aviation : https://audmns.com/xAWjyWCLes Jeux Olympiques, l'étonnant miroir de notre Histoire : https://audmns.com/ZEIihzZMarguerite, la Voix d'une Résistante : https://audmns.com/zFDehnENapoléon, le crépuscule de l'Aigle : https://audmns.com/DcdnIUnUn Jour dans le Sport : https://audmns.com/xXlkHMHSous le sable des Pyramides : https://audmns.com/rXfVppvN'oubliez pas de vous y abonner pour ne rien manquer.Et si vous avez apprécié ce podcast, n'hésitez pas à nous donner des étoiles ou des commentaires, cela nous aide à le faire connaître plus largement.

ORNETTE COLEMAN “THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME” Hollywood, CA, May 22, 1959Lonely womanDon Cherry (cnt) Ornette Coleman (as) Charlie Haden (b) Billy Higgins (d) JOHN COLTRANE “ASCENSION” Englewood Cliffs, N.J., June 28, 1965Ascension (Edition I – Part 1)Freddie Hubbard, Dewey Johnson (tp) John Tchicai, Marion Brown (as) John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp (ts) McCoy Tyner (p) Jimmy Garrison, Art Davis (b) Elvin Jones (d) CECIL TAYLOR “UNIT STRUCTURE” Englewood Cliffs, N.J., May 19, 1966StepsEddie Gale (tp-1) Jimmy Lyons (as-2) Makanda Ken McIntyre (as-3,oboe-4,b-cl-5) Cecil Taylor (p,bells-4) Henry Grimes, Alan Silva (b) Andrew Cyrille (d) ALBERT AYLER TRIO “SPIRITUAL UNITY” New York, July 10, 1964Ghosts (first variation)Albert Ayler (ts) Gary Peacock (b) Sunny Murray (d) PETER BROTZMANN OCTET “MACHINE GUN” Bremen, May, 1968Music for Han Bennink IPeter Brotzmann (ts,bar) Willem Breuker (ts,b-cl) Evan Parker (ts) Fred Van Hove (p) Peter Kowald, Buschi Niebergall (b) Han Bennink (d) Sven-Ake Johansson (d,perc) Continue reading Puro Jazz 16 de diciembre, 2024 at PuroJazz.

ORNETTE COLEMAN “THE SHAPE OF JAZZ TO COME” Hollywood, CA, May 22, 1959Lonely womanDon Cherry (cnt) Ornette Coleman (as) Charlie Haden (b) Billy Higgins (d) JOHN COLTRANE “ASCENSION” Englewood Cliffs, N.J., June 28, 1965Ascension (Edition I – Part 1)Freddie Hubbard, Dewey Johnson (tp) John Tchicai, Marion Brown (as) John Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders, Archie Shepp (ts) McCoy Tyner (p) Jimmy Garrison, Art Davis (b) Elvin Jones (d) CECIL TAYLOR “UNIT STRUCTURE” Englewood Cliffs, N.J., May 19, 1966StepsEddie Gale (tp-1) Jimmy Lyons (as-2) Makanda Ken McIntyre (as-3,oboe-4,b-cl-5) Cecil Taylor (p,bells-4) Henry Grimes, Alan Silva (b) Andrew Cyrille (d) ALBERT AYLER TRIO “SPIRITUAL UNITY” New York, July 10, 1964Ghosts (first variation)Albert Ayler (ts) Gary Peacock (b) Sunny Murray (d) PETER BROTZMANN OCTET “MACHINE GUN” Bremen, May, 1968Music for Han Bennink IPeter Brotzmann (ts,bar) Willem Breuker (ts,b-cl) Evan Parker (ts) Fred Van Hove (p) Peter Kowald, Buschi Niebergall (b) Han Bennink (d) Sven-Ake Johansson (d,perc) Continue reading Puro Jazz 16 de diciembre, 2024 at PuroJazz.

Bienvenidos a (Thursday) Morning Glory with Sofia Listen back to Emahoy Tsege Mariam Gebru, Christoph El Truento, Archie Shepp, Sedapol C.C. Watts, Lovage, Moses Sumney, and many more that we won't list or we'll be here all day. Alba Rose joins for a kōrero about their new EP First Light and the processes of making music from break ups to teaching yourself guitar. Thanks to The Tuning Fork 

Entre une légende du rap sud-africain et un poète angevin, mon cœur balance… Notre 1er invité est Stogie T pour la sortie de l'EP ShallowVétéran du hip-hop sud-africain, Stogie T (Tumi Molekane) n'est pas un parolier classique. Son travail consiste à trouver un équilibre délicat entre différents mondes ; il a prouvé qu'il était la voix du peuple, mais il n'hésite pas à tendre un miroir à l'ensemble de la société, et le reflet est toujours plus complexe que les clichés bien-pensants du «rap conscient» et la nature stéréotypée et banale du «rap commercial».Le message dominant de Shallow est la psychose collective. Le dernier EP publié par Stogie T depuis la pandémie mondiale contient des chansons percutantes qui reflètent une forme particulière de cynisme prévalant en Afrique. Le rêve différé, la perte d'espoir sous le poids écrasant d'un État de plus en plus défaillant. Stogie T a déjà parlé de cet état, mais cette fois-ci, il se penche sur les effets qu'il a sur ses habitants. Ce qu'il advient de la pensée des gens, de leurs dysfonctionnements et de leurs pathologies.Stogie T (alias Tumi Molekane) est sur la voie de l'autoréflexion, de l'introspection, de l'évolution et de la restitution, tout en jouant la carte du progrès. Il s'interroge sur les valeurs et les règles qui régissent notre vie, sur les raisons de désespérer ou d'espérer d'un pays entouré d'un pillage flagrant, sur les raisons d'être cynique et sur les raisons de croire et de se soucier des autres.Les chansons de cet EP ont été conçues et enregistrées pendant Covid et entre les moments d'anxiété intense dus au dysfonctionnement et au désordre sociétal, à la perte d'amis proches et de membres de la famille, et à la disparition tragique de ses pairs. En tant qu'artiste cherchant à trouver une voix dans le désordre et à s'élever au-dessus du bruit de la machine médiatique mondiale, Stogie T a trouvé du réconfort dans la tragédie et le traumatisme. Offrant un contrepoint à l'air du temps par le biais d'une poésie artistique nous rappelant, ainsi qu'à lui-même, qu'en tant qu'artiste, c'est son travail qui apporte de l'espoir pour l'avenir, mais qu'il doit faire preuve d'un grand discernement, d'espoir pour l'avenir, mais qu'il doit rester fidèle à lui-même, à sa famille et à sa communauté.Titres interprétés grand studio- Shallow Live RFI- Zimkile feat Msaki, extrait album- Too Late For Mama Live RFI.Line Up : Tumi Molekane (voix), Shane Cooper (basse), Bonj (voix), Bokani Dyer (claviers, voix), Clem Carr (claviers)et Justin Badenhorst (batterie).Traduction : Enora LouisSon : Benoît Letirant, Mathias Taylor.► EP Shallow (Sakifo Rd 2024).Facebook - Youtube. Puis la #SessionLive invite Lo'Jo pour la sortie de l'album Feuilles Mauves. De leur Anjou natal à tous les continents, des instruments traditionnels au rock, Lo'Jo a toujours su passer de la feuille blanche à la poésie. La lumière et les mots de Feuilles Fauves magnifient une nouvelle fois l'insaisissable. Car si nous sommes Peu de choses, écrit Denis Péan, heureusement, « on peut faire chavirer le cœur le plus fané sur le tempo du chamamé ». Il y a de ces groupes qui ne sont enchaînés nulle part si ce n'est aux instruments du monde ou aux feuilles de papier. Sans chaîne ni code ni dogme, Lo'Jo sera toujours ces explorateurs de la musique, ces chercheurs des mots. Le collectif Lo'Jo continue avec Feuilles Fauves à puiser dans ce qu'il sait faire de mieux : ne rien se refuser. Pourquoi ne pas mêler le kamele n'goni, instrument acoustique malien au violon, pourquoi ne pas faire fusionner le piano au kayamn, sur toile d'électro, pour donner à ce disque, aussi, les couleurs des Mascareignes ?Chaque disque est une réinvention : Feuilles Fauves n'y fait pas exception. Par ses traditions musicales absorbées lors de leurs innombrables voyages, comme par ses collaborations prestigieuses : de Robert Wyatt à Tony Allen, Robert Plant, Tinariwen, Erik Truffaz, ou encore Archie Shepp... l'utopie Lo'Jo a « le pouvoir d'hypnotiser et de ravir à chaque morceau » (Billboard).Des feuilles de l'automne aux feuilles de papier Le titre Mandiego, qui ouvre ce nouvel album, aux notes de piano douces et enveloppantes, est une invitation bienveillante au nouveau voyage que nous offre Lo'Jo. Car « l'Homme est bien peu de choses mon ami. Si le soir il est hasard, le matin il est destin », écrit Denis Péan. Feuilles Fauves est brut, comme primitif et sauvage. Aidé par la réalisation de Clément Petit (entendu aux côtés de Piers Faccini ou Blick Bassy) et Alexandre Finkin, les voix pénètrent l'esprit, les instruments du monde régalent le corps avec une intensité vivante et organique. Parce que malgré le chaos du monde, Lo'Jo nous invite avec Feuilles Fauves à un périple solaire : grâce à cette langue inventée, au créole comme aux sons du monde et d'ailleurs. Grâce aux textes sensibles, parfois espiègles ou envoûtants. Grâce à l'étincelle de Jupiter & Okwess sur deux titres, à la malice de Mélissa Laveaux dans Julie, non plus en chanteuse mais en lectrice pétillante.Feuilles Fauves nous emmène danser des Valses Étranges, s'attarde sur notre vanité, interroge sur Le temps (avec René Lacaille), « le thème favori des poètes » admet Denis Péan. Celui qui s'étend et qu'on pourra donc toujours écrire. En écoutant Aswar (« ce soir » en créole maison), on s'anime en terres argentines sur le tempo du chamamé, un genre musical traditionnel de la province de Corrientes. Grâce à Brother Barrett, on découvre la communauté rasta du Pinnacle, en Jamaïque. On apprend avec eux, leur humour et leur finesse d'esprit aussi à exprimer La Kolèr, dont les mélodies entêtantes prennent des allures chamaniques. Titres interprétés grand studio- La Kolèr Live RFI- Aswar, extrait de l'album - Joséphine Live RFI. Line Up : Denis Péan (chant, harmonium), Yamina Nid El Mourid (chant percussions), Nadia Nid El Mourid (chant percussions), Richard Bourreau (violon) et Alex Cochennec (basse).Son : Benoît Letirant, Mathias Taylor.► Album Feuilles Mauves (Yotanka Rd 2024).YouTube - Site.

Entre une légende du rap sud-africain et un poète angevin, mon cœur balance… Notre 1er invité est Stogie T pour la sortie de l'EP ShallowVétéran du hip-hop sud-africain, Stogie T (Tumi Molekane) n'est pas un parolier classique. Son travail consiste à trouver un équilibre délicat entre différents mondes ; il a prouvé qu'il était la voix du peuple, mais il n'hésite pas à tendre un miroir à l'ensemble de la société, et le reflet est toujours plus complexe que les clichés bien-pensants du «rap conscient» et la nature stéréotypée et banale du «rap commercial».Le message dominant de Shallow est la psychose collective. Le dernier EP publié par Stogie T depuis la pandémie mondiale contient des chansons percutantes qui reflètent une forme particulière de cynisme prévalant en Afrique. Le rêve différé, la perte d'espoir sous le poids écrasant d'un État de plus en plus défaillant. Stogie T a déjà parlé de cet état, mais cette fois-ci, il se penche sur les effets qu'il a sur ses habitants. Ce qu'il advient de la pensée des gens, de leurs dysfonctionnements et de leurs pathologies.Stogie T (alias Tumi Molekane) est sur la voie de l'autoréflexion, de l'introspection, de l'évolution et de la restitution, tout en jouant la carte du progrès. Il s'interroge sur les valeurs et les règles qui régissent notre vie, sur les raisons de désespérer ou d'espérer d'un pays entouré d'un pillage flagrant, sur les raisons d'être cynique et sur les raisons de croire et de se soucier des autres.Les chansons de cet EP ont été conçues et enregistrées pendant Covid et entre les moments d'anxiété intense dus au dysfonctionnement et au désordre sociétal, à la perte d'amis proches et de membres de la famille, et à la disparition tragique de ses pairs. En tant qu'artiste cherchant à trouver une voix dans le désordre et à s'élever au-dessus du bruit de la machine médiatique mondiale, Stogie T a trouvé du réconfort dans la tragédie et le traumatisme. Offrant un contrepoint à l'air du temps par le biais d'une poésie artistique nous rappelant, ainsi qu'à lui-même, qu'en tant qu'artiste, c'est son travail qui apporte de l'espoir pour l'avenir, mais qu'il doit faire preuve d'un grand discernement, d'espoir pour l'avenir, mais qu'il doit rester fidèle à lui-même, à sa famille et à sa communauté.Titres interprétés grand studio- Shallow Live RFI- Zimkile feat Msaki, extrait album- Too Late For Mama Live RFI.Line Up : Tumi Molekane (voix), Shane Cooper (basse), Bonj (voix), Bokani Dyer (claviers, voix), Clem Carr (claviers)et Justin Badenhorst (batterie).Traduction : Enora LouisSon : Benoît Letirant, Mathias Taylor.► EP Shallow (Sakifo Rd 2024).Facebook - Youtube. Puis la #SessionLive invite Lo'Jo pour la sortie de l'album Feuilles Mauves. De leur Anjou natal à tous les continents, des instruments traditionnels au rock, Lo'Jo a toujours su passer de la feuille blanche à la poésie. La lumière et les mots de Feuilles Fauves magnifient une nouvelle fois l'insaisissable. Car si nous sommes Peu de choses, écrit Denis Péan, heureusement, « on peut faire chavirer le cœur le plus fané sur le tempo du chamamé ». Il y a de ces groupes qui ne sont enchaînés nulle part si ce n'est aux instruments du monde ou aux feuilles de papier. Sans chaîne ni code ni dogme, Lo'Jo sera toujours ces explorateurs de la musique, ces chercheurs des mots. Le collectif Lo'Jo continue avec Feuilles Fauves à puiser dans ce qu'il sait faire de mieux : ne rien se refuser. Pourquoi ne pas mêler le kamele n'goni, instrument acoustique malien au violon, pourquoi ne pas faire fusionner le piano au kayamn, sur toile d'électro, pour donner à ce disque, aussi, les couleurs des Mascareignes ?Chaque disque est une réinvention : Feuilles Fauves n'y fait pas exception. Par ses traditions musicales absorbées lors de leurs innombrables voyages, comme par ses collaborations prestigieuses : de Robert Wyatt à Tony Allen, Robert Plant, Tinariwen, Erik Truffaz, ou encore Archie Shepp... l'utopie Lo'Jo a « le pouvoir d'hypnotiser et de ravir à chaque morceau » (Billboard).Des feuilles de l'automne aux feuilles de papier Le titre Mandiego, qui ouvre ce nouvel album, aux notes de piano douces et enveloppantes, est une invitation bienveillante au nouveau voyage que nous offre Lo'Jo. Car « l'Homme est bien peu de choses mon ami. Si le soir il est hasard, le matin il est destin », écrit Denis Péan. Feuilles Fauves est brut, comme primitif et sauvage. Aidé par la réalisation de Clément Petit (entendu aux côtés de Piers Faccini ou Blick Bassy) et Alexandre Finkin, les voix pénètrent l'esprit, les instruments du monde régalent le corps avec une intensité vivante et organique. Parce que malgré le chaos du monde, Lo'Jo nous invite avec Feuilles Fauves à un périple solaire : grâce à cette langue inventée, au créole comme aux sons du monde et d'ailleurs. Grâce aux textes sensibles, parfois espiègles ou envoûtants. Grâce à l'étincelle de Jupiter & Okwess sur deux titres, à la malice de Mélissa Laveaux dans Julie, non plus en chanteuse mais en lectrice pétillante.Feuilles Fauves nous emmène danser des Valses Étranges, s'attarde sur notre vanité, interroge sur Le temps (avec René Lacaille), « le thème favori des poètes » admet Denis Péan. Celui qui s'étend et qu'on pourra donc toujours écrire. En écoutant Aswar (« ce soir » en créole maison), on s'anime en terres argentines sur le tempo du chamamé, un genre musical traditionnel de la province de Corrientes. Grâce à Brother Barrett, on découvre la communauté rasta du Pinnacle, en Jamaïque. On apprend avec eux, leur humour et leur finesse d'esprit aussi à exprimer La Kolèr, dont les mélodies entêtantes prennent des allures chamaniques. Titres interprétés grand studio- La Kolèr Live RFI- Aswar, extrait de l'album - Joséphine Live RFI. Line Up : Denis Péan (chant, harmonium), Yamina Nid El Mourid (chant percussions), Nadia Nid El Mourid (chant percussions), Richard Bourreau (violon) et Alex Cochennec (basse).Son : Benoît Letirant, Mathias Taylor.► Album Feuilles Mauves (Yotanka Rd 2024).YouTube - Site.

Yes, Jimi Hendrix was a rock guitar god, but he inspired scores of jazz players, and fans. After all, he is the first non-jazz musician to enter the Down Beat Hall of Fame, back in 1970 (the year of his passing). Enjoy our third and final segment of this week's tribute to Jimi Hendrix, and yet more jazz renditions of Jimi Hendrix classics. The playlist features World Saxophone Quartet; Idris Muhammad; Mac Gollehon, Lester Bowie; Jay Anderson; Robert Dick; Mina Agossi, Archie Shepp; Triad, Geri Allen, Mark Batson, Scott Batson; Kamikaze Ground Crew; Liro Rantala, Lars Danielsson, Peter Erskine; Bugge Wesseltoft. Happy listening!

In this episode we're joined by NME legend Chris Salewicz, author of acclaimed books about Bob Marley, Joe Strummer and others. We hear about our guest's boyhood in Yorkshire — and about the first gig he ever saw: the Beatles in Leeds in 1963 (followed in rapid succession by the Rolling Stones — plus a young David Bowie — in Huddersfield). Chris then describes how a move to London in the early '70s led to getting his foot in the door at Let It Rock and then, in 1974, at the indispensable New Musical Express. Discussion of the culture at the NME — sprinkled with yarns about such colleagues as Mick Farren,  Tony Tyler and Tony Stewart — prompts recollections of Chris' interviews with Jimmy Page (in 1977) and Prince (in 1981)... and culminates in the moment he opted to quit the paper for pastures new. A digression on Supertramp's 50-year-old Crime of the Century sparks a passionate defence of that unfairly maligned ensemble by 28-year-old Jasper Murison-Bowie. Jumping forward to the 21st century, we hear wonderful clips from Gavin Martin's 2006 audio interview with the youngest member of the "27 Club" series Chris collected in his 2015 book Dead Gods. Our thoughts on the astounding talent and tragically short life of Amy Winehouse then follows. After Mark quotes from newly-added library pieces — Val Wilmer's 1967 interview with free-jazz trailblazer Archie Shepp; Mick Brown's 1975 encounter with Bakersfield country icon Buck Owens – Jasper concludes the episode with his thoughts on a piece about "hip hop's Mozart" J Dilla (2011). Many thanks to special guest Chris Salewicz. For more Chris and info about all his books, visit chris-salewicz.com. Pieces discussed: The Gig Interview: Jimmy Page, The Clash: Clash On Tour, Bob Marley: A Day Out At The Gun Court, Prince, Supertramp: Crime Of The Century, Supertramp: To Concept Or Not To Concept?, Supertramp: The Taking of America by Strategy, Supertramp: Is This Really The Most Fun You Can Have With a Washing-Up Glove?, Amy Winehouse audio, Archie Shepp, Buck Owens and J Dilla: The Mozart of Hip-Hop.

durée : 00:59:20 - Personality - par : Nathalie Piolé -

This week we explore the music of the Naptown trumpet player Michael Ridley. Michael played with some of the biggest stars in American music, including Stevie Wonder, James Brown, Wilson Pickett, and Otis Redding. But he's best known for his work in jazz. Michael performed with many jazz greats, from Archie Shepp to Jimmy McGriff.  Michael Ridley was born in Indianapolis in 1939. At that time, his family lived in Lockefield Gardens — a federal housing project located on the Avenue. Ridley attended Shortridge High School. He performed with the school band and studied music at the MacArthur Conservatory on Indiana Avenue. There was music in Ridley's home too. His older brother, Larry Ridley, is a legendary jazz bassist known for his work with Thelonius Monk, Freddie Hubbard, Chet Baker, and others.

Medan George Clinton förgäves försökte bestiga Motownberget, hade unga britter hedrat musiken som var djupt förankrad i hans psyke. Clinton insåg att han hade förbisett sina bästa möjligheter, och vände nu blicken mot vita psykedeliska band och deras riffbaserade pyroteknik. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radio Play. Han föreställde sig ett nytt område där han kunde operera bortom soul- och rockmusikens gamla lagar. Parliaments skrangliga försök att ansluta sig till tidens hitskapare ersattes av en ambition att tolka de revolutionära strömningarna. Detroit var ett epicentrum för uppvigling. En vanlig kväll kunde man höra Stooges, MC5 och Funkadelic på samma scen. Alla var inne på friformjazz, experiment med gitarrljud, rytmisk förnyelse och sinnesutvidgande droger. Funkadelics debutalbum satte tonen för 70-talet.I avsnitt två möter du även Garry Shider, Billy Nelson, Sly Stone, Norman Whitfield, Temptations, Bernie Worrell och Archie Shepp.

“I think as humans, we forget. We are often limited by our own stereotypes, and we don't see that in everyone there's the potential for beauty and love and all these things. And I think The Architecture of Oppression, both parts one and two, are really a reflection of all the community and civil rights work that I've been doing for the same amount of time, really - 25 years. And I wanted to try and mix my day job and my music side, so bringing those two sides of my life together. I wanted to create a platform for black artists, black singers, and poets who I really admire. Jermain is somebody I've worked with for probably about six, seven years now. He's also in the trenches of the black civil rights struggle. We worked together on a number of projects, but it was very interesting to then work with Jemain in a purely artistic capacity. And it was a no-brainer to give Anthony a call for this second album because I know of his pedigree, and he's much more able to put ideas and thoughts on paper than I would be able to.”Jake Ferguson is an award-winning musician known for his work with The Heliocentrics and as a solo artist under the name The Brkn Record. Alongside legendary drummer Malcolm Catto, Ferguson has composed two film scores and over 10 albums, collaborating with icons like Archie Shepp, Mulatu Astatke, and Melvin Van Peebles. His latest album is The Architecture of Oppression Part 2. The album also features singer and political activist Jermain Jackman, a former winner of The Voice (2014) and the T.S. Eliot Prize winning poet and musician, Anthony Joseph.www.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

“I think as humans, we forget. We are often limited by our own stereotypes, and we don't see that in everyone there's the potential for beauty and love and all these things. And I think The Architecture of Oppression, both parts one and two, are really a reflection of all the community and civil rights work that I've been doing for the same amount of time, really - 25 years. And I wanted to try and mix my day job and my music side, so bringing those two sides of my life together. I wanted to create a platform for black artists, black singers, and poets who I really admire. Jermain is somebody I've worked with for probably about six, seven years now. He's also in the trenches of the black civil rights struggle. We worked together on a number of projects, but it was very interesting to then work with Jemain in a purely artistic capacity. And it was a no-brainer to give Anthony a call for this second album because I know of his pedigree, and he's much more able to put ideas and thoughts on paper than I would be able to.”Jake Ferguson is an award-winning musician known for his work with The Heliocentrics and as a solo artist under the name The Brkn Record. Alongside legendary drummer Malcolm Catto, Ferguson has composed two film scores and over 10 albums, collaborating with icons like Archie Shepp, Mulatu Astatke, and Melvin Van Peebles. His latest album is The Architecture of Oppression Part 2. The album also features singer and political activist Jermain Jackman, a former winner of The Voice (2014) and the T.S. Eliot Prize winning poet and musician, Anthony Joseph.www.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

“I think as humans, we forget. We are often limited by our own stereotypes, and we don't see that in everyone there's the potential for beauty and love and all these things. And I think The Architecture of Oppression, both parts one and two, are really a reflection of all the community and civil rights work that I've been doing for the same amount of time, really - 25 years. And I wanted to try and mix my day job and my music side, so bringing those two sides of my life together. I wanted to create a platform for black artists, black singers, and poets who I really admire. Jermain is somebody I've worked with for probably about six, seven years now. He's also in the trenches of the black civil rights struggle. We worked together on a number of projects, but it was very interesting to then work with Jemain in a purely artistic capacity. And it was a no-brainer to give Anthony a call for this second album because I know of his pedigree, and he's much more able to put ideas and thoughts on paper than I would be able to.”Jake Ferguson is an award-winning musician known for his work with The Heliocentrics and as a solo artist under the name The Brkn Record. Alongside legendary drummer Malcolm Catto, Ferguson has composed two film scores and over 10 albums, collaborating with icons like Archie Shepp, Mulatu Astatke, and Melvin Van Peebles. His latest album is The Architecture of Oppression Part 2. The album also features singer and political activist Jermain Jackman, a former winner of The Voice (2014) and the T.S. Eliot Prize winning poet and musician, Anthony Joseph.www.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

How can music challenge systemic oppression and bring about social change? How can we envision alternative paths while avoiding the pitfalls of past paradigms?Jake Fergusonis an award-winning musician known for his work with The Heliocentrics and as a solo artist under the name The Brkn Record. Alongside legendary drummer Malcolm Catto, Ferguson has composed two film scores and over 10 albums, collaborating with icons like Archie Shepp, Mulatu Astatke, and Melvin Van Peebles. His latest album is The Architecture of Oppression Part 2. The album also features singer and political activist Jermain Jackman, a former winner of The Voice (2014) and the T.S. Eliot Prize winning poet and musician, Anthony Joseph.“I think as humans, we forget. We are often limited by our own stereotypes, and we don't see that in everyone there's the potential for beauty and love and all these things. And I think The Architecture of Oppression, both parts one and two, are really a reflection of all the community and civil rights work that I've been doing for the same amount of time, really - 25 years. And I wanted to try and mix my day job and my music side, so bringing those two sides of my life together. I wanted to create a platform for black artists, black singers, and poets who I really admire. Jermain is somebody I've worked with for probably about six, seven years now. He's also in the trenches of the black civil rights struggle. We worked together on a number of projects, but it was very interesting to then work with Jemain in a purely artistic capacity. And it was a no-brainer to give Anthony a call for this second album because I know of his pedigree, and he's much more able to put ideas and thoughts on paper than I would be able to.”www.creativeprocess.infowww.oneplanetpodcast.orgIG www.instagram.com/creativeprocesspodcast

durée : 01:01:27 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - En juillet 2009, Archie Shepp revient sur l'événement qu'a été le premier Festival panafricain à Alger en 1969. Une arme de combat révolutionnaire, selon lui, avec comme mot d'ordre : "la culture est essentiellement l'affaire du peuple". - invités : Archie Shepp Saxophoniste de jazz afro-américain

Nel cuore dell'agosto del '69, a Parigi Archie Shepp si sottopone, per la felicità della Byg, ad un autentico tour de force: dall'11 al 18 agosto è tutti i giorni in studio, incidendo a proprio nome il trittico di album che farà epoca, o partecipando alla registrazione di album intestati ad altri. L'estate parigina delle Byg vuole essere una celebrazione del free jazz, che però in realtà nel '69 è al canto del cigno, e di questa fase del free jazz storico i tre album realizzati a da Shepp a Parigi sono emblematici. L'ultimo è Blasé. Con Shepp c'è una meravigliosa Jeanne Lee, che dal '57 ha dato vita con Ran Blake ad un sublime duo voce/pianoforte, a cui però i club e i festival di jazz americani sono rimasti insensibili; così nel '66, dopo essere venuta in Europa per concerti con Blake, Jeanne Lee ha deciso di fermarsi nel Vecchio Continente, ed è in Europa che ha incontrato la free music, attraverso gli improvvisatori olandesi e tedeschi. Con lei, magistrale nell'interpretazione del crudo testo di Shepp nel brano da cui l'album prenderà il titolo, Shepp sigla un trittico di album che rappresenta un momento altissimo della sua vicenda artistica e di tutta la stagione del free jazz.

Attiva per una breve fase, a cavallo fra anni sessanta e settanta, la Byg è un'etichetta leggendaria, che nell'estate del '69 a Parigi, con una coda nei mesi successivi e anche nel '70, registrò una grande messe di album fondamentali per la documentazione dell'ultima fase della stagione del free jazz storico e della prima fase del post-free. Il catalogo della Byg è adesso oggetto di una organica operazione di ristampe, che ha come produttore esecutivo Jean-Luc Young, uno dei tre fondatori, nel '67, dell'etichetta destinata a diventare mitica: rimasterizzati, gli album sono ripubblicati in Cd e vinile, con una rivisitazione della grafica rispettosa di quella originale, e con il corredo di nuove note di copertina. Attraverso queste ristampe, con questa puntata - in cui ricostruiamo la vicenda della Byg dal '67 al '69 - cominciamo a ripercorrere alcuni dei titoli più importanti pubblicati dalla Byg: partiamo dal primo album, Yasmina, a black woman, del celebre trittico registrato da Archie Shepp, alfiere della new thing, nel corso del bollente agosto parigino del free, quando, in un momento irripetibile, nella capitale francese si incontrarono musicisti dell'avanguardia afroamericana provenineti dagli Stati Uniti, altri - come Shepp - reduci dal Festival Panafricano di Algeri, jazzisti di precedenti generazioni espatriati in Europa, e protagonisti del nuovo jazz francese ed europeo.

MIHO HAZAMA DANCER IN NOWHERE c. 2018Today, not today, Il paradiso del bluesJonathan Powell (tp,flhrn) Adam Unsworth (fhr) Steve Wilson (as,sop,fl) Ryoji Ihara (ts,cl,fl) Jason Rigby (ts-1,cl-1) Andrew Gutauskas (bar,b-cl) James Shipp (vib,guiro,shekere) Billy Test (p) Lionel Loueke (g-2) Tomato Akeboshi, Sita Chay (vln) Atsugi Yoshida (viola) Meaghan Burke (cello) Sam Anning (b) Jake Goldbas (d) Nate Wood (d-3) Kavita Shah (voice) Miho Hazama (cond,comp) JOHN MINNOCK MINNOCK SINGS SHIRE New York, julio del 2023What about today, AutumnJohn Minnock (vcl) David Liebman (sop) Mathis Picard (p) Sean Mason (p) Mark Lewandowski (b) Pablo Eluchans (d) ALICE COLTRANE THE CARNEGIE HALL CONCERT New York, February 21, 1971AfricaPharoah Sanders (ts,sop,fl,perc) Archie Shepp (ts,sop,perc) Alice Coltrane (p,harp) Cecil McBee, Jimmy Garrison (b) Clifford Jarvis, Ed Blackwell (d) Kumar Kramer (harmonium) Tulsi (tambora) Continue reading Puro Jazz 17 Mayo 2024 at PuroJazz.

durée : 00:59:42 - Banzzaï du vendredi 26 avril 2024 - par : Nathalie Piolé -

Artist Zineb Sedira records cultural and postcolonial connections between Algeria, France, Italy, and the UK from the 1960s, featuring films, rugs, and radical magazines from her personal archive. Dreams Have No Titles (2022) is Zineb Sedira's love letter to cinema, the classic films of her childhood in Paris, coming of age in Brixton in London, and ‘return' to Algiers - three cities between which the artist lives and practices. Born in 1963, the year after Algeria achieved independence from French colonial rule, her and her family's diasporic story is central to her practice. Zineb recalls her first encounters with 'militant cinema', and international co-productions like the Golden Lion-winning The Battle of Algiers (1966). She shares her decision to represent France at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, controversial reactions from French media and society, and solidarity from her radical contemporaries and women, like Françoise Vergès, Sonia Boyce, Latifa Echakhch, Alberta Whittle, and Gilane Tawadros. We discuss the legacy of her work in the selection of Julien Creuzet, the first person of Caribbean descent and from the French overseas territories to represent France at the Venice Biennale in 2024. Zineb shares how personal histories contribute to collective memory, subverting ideas of ‘collection', and using museum and gallery spaces to make archives more accessible. With orientalist tapestries and textiles - her ‘feminist awakening' - we discuss how culture can both perpetuate political and colonial hierarchies, and provide the possibility to ‘decolonise oneself'. From her academic research in the diaspora, Zineb suggests how she carried much knowledge in her body as lived experience, detailing her interest in oral histories (and podcasts!), as living archives. With Nina Simone, Miriam Makebe, and Archie Shepp, performers at the Pan-African Festival in Algiers (1969), she shows her love of jazz and rock music, played with her community of squatters and fellow students from Central Saint Martins. Finally, we see how the meaning of her participatory works change as they travel and migrate between global audiences, and institutions and funding in Algiers today, via aria, her research residency for artists. Zineb Sedira: Dreams Have No Titles runs at the Whitechapel Gallery in London until 12 May 2024. A free Artist and Curator Talk (with some of Zineb's ‘tribe') takes place at the Gallery on 11 April 2024. and the film version of the work shows at Tate Britain in London until September 2024. Zineb Sedira: Let's Go On Singing! ran at the Goodman Gallery in London until 16 March 2024. Part of EMPIRE LINES at Venice, a series of episodes leading to Foreigners Everywhere (Stranieri Ovunque), the 60th Venice Biennale or International Art Exhibition in Italy, in April 2024. For more about Souffles, Tricontinental, and the Casablanca Art School (1962-1987), listen to curator Morad Montazami at Tate St Ives in Cornwall. For more about Baya, read into: Baya: Icon of Algerian Painting at the Arab World Institute, Institut du Monde Arabe (IMA), in Paris. Kawkaba: Highlights from the Barjeel Art Foundation, part of Modern and Contemporary Art of the Arab World. at Christie's London. And for another artist inspired by the port city of Venice, tune in to Nusra Latif Qureshi's 2009 work, Did You Come Here To Find History?, with curator Hammad Nasar. WITH: Zineb Sedira, Paris and London-based artist, who also works in Algeria. Working between the media of photography, film, installation and performance, she was shortlisted for the 2021 Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize. Dreams Have No Titles was first commissioned for the French Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022. PRODUCER: Jelena Sofronijevic. Follow EMPIRE LINES on Instagram: ⁠instagram.com/empirelinespodcast⁠ And Twitter: ⁠twitter.com/jelsofron/status/1306563558063271936⁠ Support EMPIRE LINES on Patreon: ⁠patreon.com/empirelines

JAZZ FEED lundi, mercredi et vendredi à 17h30. Serge Mariani présente régulièrement un choix d'albums sortis récemment ou sur le point de l'être, des extraits de leur musique, des informations, des commentaires, des impressions, des émotions, c'est la nouvelle émission de Serge Mariani sur Art District Radio: JAZZFEED ! AuprogrammedeJazzFeed4èmeépisode,lesalbumsdePierre-FrançoisBlanchard, Sylvain Beuf et Annie Chen. Ce sont les 4 dernières compositions des 8 constituant le nouvel album de la chanteuse Annie Chen qui lui donnent leur titre: Guardians. Pour ce qui concerne la musique, les 4 compositions évoquées forment une suite en 4 mouvements qui viennent compléter les 4 premiers titres de l'album. Annie Chen a rassemblé autour de sa voix des instruments plutôt inattendus comme les tambours japonais et l'accordéon… Outre la musique, un message nous est adressé, un appel urgent, qui nous demande de devenir les défenseurs de la nature. Cette thématique sert en quelque sorte de substrat au 2ème thème de l'album, Underground Dance, à l'inspiration franchement dystopique. L'humanité est réduite à vivre sous terre tant la surface de la planète a été ravagée par une exploitation effrénée des ressources et un mépris pour la vie. Il n'en reste pas moins,heureusement,quel'espoiresttoujoursvivace.Contrairementaupontbriséqu'elle évoque dans Underground Dance, qui s'élançait de la terre vers le ciel, celui qu'Annie Chen a bâti, au fil des 3 albums de sa discographie, est consolidé par son dialogue est-ouest très personnel grâce à sa connaissance du répertoire de chanteuses telles que Carmen McRae, Betty Carter ou Abbey Lincoln, celle de l'opéra chinois et bien entendu du jazz le plus contemporain. Au long d'une carrière d'une trentaine d'années, le saxophoniste Sylvain Beuf s'est patiemment affirmé comme un sideman apprécié et comme un compositeur dont le premier album sorti en 1993. 30 ans plus tard, il nous propose de découvrir ses nouvelles compositions dans un album dont le titre en anglais ne nécessite pas une version française: Long Distance et au cours duquel chacun des musiciens qui entourent le saxophoniste s'exprime avec une belle maîtrise et une enthousiasmante liberté: Philippe Aerts à la contrebasse, Gautier Garrigue à la batterie et Pierre- Alain Goualch au piano. Dédié à Wayne Shorter, décédé en 2023, Long Distance est cependant davantage qu'un hommage à l'un des plus éminents musiciens de jazz. C'est le carnet de route d'un homme qui met dans sa musique les émotions, les sentiments et les pensées qui l'animentet qu'il est bien agréable d'accompagner le long de ce long chemin. Long Distance sort ce 29 mars sur le label Trébim Music. Après Dunkerque les 11, 12 et 13 avril, Sylvain Beuf présentera son album à Paris, au Sunside, les 31 mai et 1er juin. Séparé, momentanément, de Marion Rampal, le pianiste Pierre-François Blanchard a failli nous proposer un opus en quasi-solo mais en fait non, il s'agit d'un duo avec un autre instrumentiste talentueux, le clarinettiste Thomas Savy. Et son album est intitulé Puzzled. On y entend d'émouvantes réminiscences classiques. C'est le style et la culture musicale de Pierre-François Blanchard qui donnent corps et voix à ses compositions. En anglais, « puzzled » peut signifier étonné, perplexe, embarrassé même. Pourtant ici, c'est la référence au puzzle, ce jeu de pièces découpées dans un ensemble à reconstituer, qu'il faut prendre en compte. Avec Marion Rampal, il ne faut pas oublier la place tenue par Pierre Barouh et Archie Shepp dans le parcours artistique et humain de Pierre-François Blanchard. Blues et poésie se rejoignent toujours sous ses doigts et si le clavier de son piano est comparable à un puzzle, c'est d'un tableau néo...

MATANA ROBERTS COIN COIN CHAPTER FIVE : IN THE GARDEN Brooklyn, NY, 2022Unbeknownst, Predestined confessions, A caged dance, The promiseMatana Roberts (hrn,hca,perc,vcl,spoken-word,comp) Matt Lavelle (alto-cl,pocket-tp,tin whistle,vcl) Stuart Bogle (b-cl,cl,tin whistle,vcl) Darius Jones (as,tin whistle,vcl) Cory Smythe (p,vcl,tin whistle) Kyp Malone (synt) Mazz Swift (vln,vcl,tin whistle) Mike Pride, Ryan Sawyer (d,perc,vcl) Gitanjali Jain (text collage) ARCHIE SHEPP & KAHIL EL'ZABAR'S RITUAL TRIO CONVERSATIONS Chicago, IL, January 23 & 24, 1999Big Fred, Brother Malcolm (2), RevelationsArchie Shepp (ts,p-1) Ari Brown (p,ts-2) Malachi Favors Maghostut (b) Kahil El'Zabar (d) AMANDA GARDIER AUTEUR: MUSIC INSPIRED BY THE FILMS OF WES ANDERSON February 2022, Indianapolis, INLet's Hope It's Got A Happy Ending, The Incarcerated Artist And His MuseAmanda Gardier (sa) Charlie Ballantine (g) Jesse Wittman (b) Dave King (dr) Continue reading Puro Jazz 22 marzo 2024 at PuroJazz.

La Session Live invite deux magnifiques pianistes : Pierre-François Blanchard et Gael Rakotondrabe. Ces sidemen entrent enfin dans la lumière avec les sorties de Puzzled, pour le premier et de Shadow pour le second. « You've got a great feeling for the blues » Archie Shepp à Pierre-François Blanchard en 2017.Notre premier invité est donc Pierre-François Blanchard. Après avoir accompagné Pierre Barouh, Archie Shepp, Hugh Coltman, Marion Rampal ou Raphaël Imbert, le pianiste sort un 1er album sous son nom Puzzled. Sur ce projet, il est accompagné par le clarinettiste Thomas Savy, son frère d'âme.Pierre-François Blanchard fait partie de ces héros romantiques contemporains, dont l'art traduit un propos aussi salvateur qu'essentiel : l'Intime ne pas va pas sans l'Autre. L'Intime-Autre. Le trait d'union résume, à la fois, la personnalité du pianiste et la musique qu'il façonne.Originaire de Nantes, l'enfant se met au piano et découvre le blues à la radio. Diplômé du Conservatoire de Saint-Nazaire, DE de jazz, Conservatoire Royal de La Haye (Pays-Bas), c'est avec Marion Rampal qu'il crée le label Les Rivières Souterraines.Puzzled est une flânerie entre les mondes, où miroitent la musique française du début du XXème siècle, l'art coloriste d'un Duke Ellington, des beautés du contrepoint aux combinaisons harmoniques d'un Brad Meldhau.Titres joués au grand studio- Fears, Live RFI- Pré Vert, extrait de l'album Shadow- Backtrack, Live RFI.  Line Up : Pierre-François Blanchard, piano, Thomas Savy, clarinette.Son : Jérémie Besset & Mathias Taylor.► Album Puzzled (Les Rivières Souterraines 2024). Puis la #SessionLive reçoit le pianiste Gael Rakotondrabe, pour la sortie de l'album Shadow.Pianiste et compositeur, originaire de l'île de La Réunion, Gael Rakotondrabe se distingue par son éclectisme et sa virtuosité. Il est le seul pianiste français à avoir été lauréat du concours international de piano du Montreux Jazz festival, sous la présidence honorifique de Quincy Jones.De musiques de films en rencontres artistiques étonnantes, d'orchestrations savantes en improvisations urgentes, il multiplie les collaborations. On l'a aperçu (écouté) avec Antony & The Johnsons (Anohni), Cocorosie, David Byrne, Charles Aznavour, Woodkid, Hugh Coltman ou Ayo.L'album Shadow réinterprète des classiques des Beatles, Philippe Sarde ou d'Alain Peters.For Musicians Only est un nouveau label (Caramba Rd). C'est une collection emmenée par Manou Pallueau, qui recherche l'élégance, la virtuosité, la curiosité et de l'inédit. À suivre… Titres joués au grand studio- Rest'la Maloya, Live RFI- And I Love Her, extrait de l'album Shadow voir le clip - Because, Live RFI. Line Up : Gael Rakotondrabe, piano.Son : Mathias Taylor & Benoît Letirant.► Album Shadow (For Musicians Only/ Virgin Music 2024).

La Session Live invite deux magnifiques pianistes : Pierre-François Blanchard et Gael Rakotondrabe. Ces sidemen entrent enfin dans la lumière avec les sorties de Puzzled, pour le premier et de Shadow pour le second. « You've got a great feeling for the blues » Archie Shepp à Pierre-François Blanchard en 2017.Notre premier invité est donc Pierre-François Blanchard. Après avoir accompagné Pierre Barouh, Archie Shepp, Hugh Coltman, Marion Rampal ou Raphaël Imbert, le pianiste sort un 1er album sous son nom Puzzled. Sur ce projet, il est accompagné par le clarinettiste Thomas Savy, son frère d'âme.Pierre-François Blanchard fait partie de ces héros romantiques contemporains, dont l'art traduit un propos aussi salvateur qu'essentiel : l'Intime ne pas va pas sans l'Autre. L'Intime-Autre. Le trait d'union résume, à la fois, la personnalité du pianiste et la musique qu'il façonne.Originaire de Nantes, l'enfant se met au piano et découvre le blues à la radio. Diplômé du Conservatoire de Saint-Nazaire, DE de jazz, Conservatoire Royal de La Haye (Pays-Bas), c'est avec Marion Rampal qu'il crée le label Les Rivières Souterraines.Puzzled est une flânerie entre les mondes, où miroitent la musique française du début du XXème siècle, l'art coloriste d'un Duke Ellington, des beautés du contrepoint aux combinaisons harmoniques d'un Brad Meldhau.Titres joués au grand studio- Fears, Live RFI- Pré Vert, extrait de l'album Shadow- Backtrack, Live RFI.  Line Up : Pierre-François Blanchard, piano, Thomas Savy, clarinette.Son : Jérémie Besset & Mathias Taylor.► Album Puzzled (Les Rivières Souterraines 2024). Puis la #SessionLive reçoit le pianiste Gael Rakotondrabe, pour la sortie de l'album Shadow.Pianiste et compositeur, originaire de l'île de La Réunion, Gael Rakotondrabe se distingue par son éclectisme et sa virtuosité. Il est le seul pianiste français à avoir été lauréat du concours international de piano du Montreux Jazz festival, sous la présidence honorifique de Quincy Jones.De musiques de films en rencontres artistiques étonnantes, d'orchestrations savantes en improvisations urgentes, il multiplie les collaborations. On l'a aperçu (écouté) avec Antony & The Johnsons (Anohni), Cocorosie, David Byrne, Charles Aznavour, Woodkid, Hugh Coltman ou Ayo.L'album Shadow réinterprète des classiques des Beatles, Philippe Sarde ou d'Alain Peters.For Musicians Only est un nouveau label (Caramba Rd). C'est une collection emmenée par Manou Pallueau, qui recherche l'élégance, la virtuosité, la curiosité et de l'inédit. À suivre… Titres joués au grand studio- Rest'la Maloya, Live RFI- And I Love Her, extrait de l'album Shadow voir le clip - Because, Live RFI. Line Up : Gael Rakotondrabe, piano.Son : Mathias Taylor & Benoît Letirant.► Album Shadow (For Musicians Only/ Virgin Music 2024).

durée : 00:59:34 - Banzzaï du mercredi 21 février 2024 - par : Nathalie Piolé -

Chet Baker – The Thrill Is Gone – Vocal Version – 2:51 Greetje Bijma – Painter at Work – 2:34 Oscar Brown, Jr. – Bid ‘Em In – 1:28 Skip James – Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues – 2:52 Jelly Roll Morton – Mamie’s Blues – 2:54 Archie Shepp – Malcolm, Malcolm – Semper Malcolm […]

Aired 12/5/2023 in Morro Bay, CA on 97.3/107.9 The Rock!Terri Lyne Carrington & Social Science ~ The AnthemWeldon Irvine ~ Spontaneous InteractionDeus ~ Theme From TurnpikeLaddio Bolocko ~ Beatrice the CoyotePino Palladino & Blake Mills ~ Man From MoliseKILLING JOKE (Geordie Walker)~The Wait~Chop-Chop~Eighties~Seeing Red~This Tribal Antidote~Love Like BloodLloyd Miller ~ Gole Gandom (Version III)Irreversible Entanglements ~ root branchOneness Of Juju ~ West WindYeli Fuzzo ~ AbandeDamu The Fudgemunk, Archie Shepp & Raw Poetic ~ Moving Maps13 & God ~ Old AgeOmertà ~ Amour FouRobbie & Mona ~ Always Gonna Be a Dead ManNiecy Blues ~ U CareTu-Ner ~ Poem for a Sad HorseAndré 3000 ~ Ghandi, Dalai Lama, Your Lord & Savior J.C. / Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer and John Wayne GacyRootless ~ Feet of ClayNatalia Beylis ~ Black Sea, 1967Ditto ~ War PumpPeter Gutteridge ~ SandWendy Carlos ~ Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 7 in E-flat major, BWV 852Lifetones ~ PatienceThe Upsetters ~ Jungle Lion (instrumental)

"Here's That Rainy Day" (ha llegado ese día lluvioso) es una canción popular con música de Jimmy Van Heusen y letra de Johnny Burke que se publicó en 1953. Fue presentada por Dolores Gray en el musical de Broadway Carnival in Flanders.La canción también se ha convertido en un estándar del jazz con grabaciones de, entre otros, Bill Evans, Duke Jordan, Wes Montgomery, Paul Desmond, Modern Jazz Quartet, Archie Shepp, Chet Baker y McCoy Tyner. En 1965, Ella Fitzgerald lo grabó en vivo en su álbum Ella in Hamburg, con Tommy Flanagan al piano y Norman Granz como productor. Escuchemos esas y otras versiones. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nous accueillons ce soir Bertrand Burgalat, musicien, producteur, compositeur, arrangeur et fondateur de Tricatel, la maison de disque entièrement consacrée aux artistes inclassables (Chassol, Jef Barbara, April March…), aux projets hors norme (Jonathan Coe, Michel Houellebecq…) et à des compositeurs comme André Popp et David Whitaker.Ce dernier est accompagné de Jean-Pierre Müller, graphiste, peintre et sérigraphie belge et auteur de l'exposition 7x7, s'étant déroulée au Summerhall à Edimbourg en 2012.Tous deux présenteront le disque de l'exposition 7x7, contenant des inédits de légendes tels que Archie Schepp, Robert Wyatt, Terry Riley ou encore Mulatu Astatke.TRACKLISTZoot Woman - It's Automatic Troye Sivan - SillyEnchantée Julia ft. Lossapardo - Sois Pas PresséANGILINAZULI (Lazuli & Angie) - Bébé Le disque de 19h22 (envoyez votre proposition, un morceau aux couleurs Nova Club, à @davidblot sur Instagram!) :Kings of Tomorrow - Finally (ft. Julie McKnight)Robert Wyatt - Red Alhambra Archie Schepp - Blues In Orange CHIC - Everybody DanceNile Rodgers - Harlem Nights (Indigo)The High Lamas - ApricotsKassin - Quando Você Esta Sambando Kassin - Azul Mulatu Astatke - Zellesenya Terry Riley - Sahasrara Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Drummer talks about finding another J.C. - John Coltrane - and how fate that led him to Max Roach and Archie Shepp.

Charlie Apicella was voted onto the 84th and 86th DownBeat Readers Poll for Guitar. He studied composition and improvisation with musical titans Yusef Lateef and Pat Martino and was trained as a historian by Archie Shepp and Dr. Billy Taylor. As a young guitarist he met his idol BB King, who offered him advice and shared some stories. He has performed concerts and recorded with jazz legends Dave Holland, Sonny Fortune, John Blake, Jr., and Avery Sharpe as well as contemporary masters Joe Magnarelli, Vic Juris, Dave Stryker, Don Braden, and Jon Herington of Steely Dan. In 2022 he formed The Griots Speak with bassist William Parker, saxophonist Daniel Carter, and percussionist Juma Sultan who is known for his work with Jimi Hendrix. * * * Charlie Apicella is the founder and program director of Blues Alive: the living tradition of the blues He is an Eastman Guitars Featured Artist a Guild Guitars Sponsored Artist and a ZT Amplifiers Official Artist For more on Charlie Apicella go to https://www.ironcity.nyc/

Nouveautés, classiques, raretés : David Blot vous fait (re)découvrir les favoris du Nova Club. TRACKLIST :The Velvet Underground - I Can't Stand It Taste - Walking HomeVoyou - D'amour et d'insoucianceRoisin Murphy - Free WillDaft punk - Around The World (Motorbass Miami Mix) The Notorious B.I.G - Hypnotize Ennio Morricone - Deborah's Theme Bootsy's Rubber Band - I'd Rather Be With YouJames Blake - He's Been WonderfulRagz Originale - What Comes Next (feat. 24hoursav & due Saleh)Murlo - Human PulpMercredi aléatoire : Noreaga - Superthug ft. The Neptunes Franz Waxman - A place in the sun (Soundtrack Suite)Eli Escobar- In My Bones Ski mask the slump God - DoIHaveTheSause? M.I.A - 100% Sustainable Mount Westmore Eric Demarsan - Le cercle rouge Eric Demarsan - Quand les hommes ont rendez-vousArchie Shepp & Romulus Franceschini - Blues for Brother George Jackson La Femme - HypsolineTierra Whack - Wasteland Vagabon - Do Your Worst Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

THIS WEEK's BIRDS: Clifford Jordan; Diego "el Cigala" in Mexico; Orlando Contreras; cumbia from Pedro Laza y Sus Pelayeros,  Lisandro Meza, and others; cumbia from Charles Mingus; new Henry Threadgill; Bruce Ditmas, David Eyges & Paul Bley Trio; Paul Dunmall & Chris Corsano; Bobby Few with Noah Howard & Zusaan Kali Fasteau; Ahiyad Ait Mimoun; Moroccan song from Mahmoiud al Idrissi; taarab from Zuhura Swaleh & Party; rai from Cheba Zohra; Idris Ackamoor & The Collective; classic John Coltrane Quartet; Archie Shepp reprises Coltrane; Tchangodei w. Shepp  and Mal Waldron;  much, much more ...! LISTEN LIVE: Friday nights, 9:00pm-MIDNIGHT (EST), in Central New York on WRFI: 88.1FM Ithaca, 89.7FM Odessa, 91.9FM WINO Watkins Glen. and WORLDWIDE online at WRFI.ORG.  via PODBEAN: https://conferenceofthebirds.podbean.com/ via iTUNES: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conference-of-the-birds-podcast/id478688580 Also available at podomatic, Internet Archive, podtail, iheart Radio, and elsewhere. Always FREE of charge to listen to the radio program and free also to stream, download, and subscribe to the podcast online: PLAYLIST at SPINITRON: https://spinitron.com/WRFI/pl/17508055/Conference-of-the-Birds and via the Conference of the Birds page at WRFI.ORG https://www.wrfi.org/wrfiprograms/conferenceofthebirds/  Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/conferenceofthebirds/?ref=bookmarks FIND WRFI on Radio Garden: http://radio.garden/visit/ithaca-ny/aqh8OGBR Contact: confbirds@gmail.com

durée : 01:01:59 - Les Nuits de France Culture - par : Albane Penaranda - En juillet 2009, Archie Shepp revenait sur l'événement qu'avait été le premier Festival panafricain à Alger en 1969. Une arme de combat révolutionnaire, selon lui, avec comme mot d'ordre : "la culture est essentiellement l'affaire du peuple". Au cour de l'été 1969, alors qu'à Woodstock on montait la scène d'un autre festival, se déroulait le premier Festival panafricain à Alger. Un festival qui fut immortalisé sur pellicule, dans un film de William Klein. En réunissant des artistes, des écrivains, des cinéastes, des intellectuels et des militants venus de toute l'Afrique, et de la diaspora africaine du monde entier - au sens le plus large de ces termes - il s'agissait de jeter les bases d'une politique culturelle à l'échelle du continent africain tout entier et, pour l'Algérie, récemment indépendante, de s'affirmer, sur tous les plans, dans un rôle de leader des luttes anti-impérialistes. Côté musique, le programme était somptueux. On y retrouvait notamment, parmi beaucoup d'autres, les noms de Miriam Makeba, Barry White, Manu Dibango. d'Oscar Peterson, de Nina Simone et du saxophoniste Archie Shepp. En juillet 2009, alors que se tenait à Alger le deuxième Festival panafricain, Archie Shepp, quarante ans après, revenait dans Équinoxe au micro de Caroline Bourgine sur le Festival de 69, et les impressions fortes qu'il en avait conservées. Archie Shepp, sur le premier Festival panafricain à Alger en 1969 : "Pour nous c'était une expérience africaine, toute l'Afrique était noire. [...] C'était panafricain dans le sens toute l'Afrique vient ensemble et c'était allier tous les gens de couleur". La culture vue comme un combat révolutionnaire : "J'étais là comme un activiste culturel, j'écoutais beaucoup de musique d'Afrique de l'Ouest. [...] J'étais influencé par les expériences de Coltrane et de Ravi Shankar. Je voulais créer une musique sur un troisième niveau, capable de toucher ailleurs, une musique qui change les choses". Par Caroline Bourgine Réalisation : Laetitia Coïa Equinoxe - Le Festival panafricain d'Alger raconté par Archie Shepp (1ère diffusion : 19/07/2009) Indexation web : Documentation sonore de Radio France

Industry veteran, musician, composer, producer and engineer Mark Bingham has had a long and decidedly eclectic career in music. We sat down to talk some jazz - specifically Archie Shepp and his 1965 release 'Fire Music' - and may have finally cracked the code to Rob's ambivalence to the genre. REALLY fun conversation! Songs discussed in this episode: Hambone (recorded live at the Village Gate March 28, 1965) - Archie Shepp; William Blake In Bakersfield - Mark Bingham; Doctor My Eyes - Jackson Brown; The First Girl I Loved - The Incredible String Band; Dream A Little Dream Of Me - Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong; Composition No. 122 - Anthony Braxton; The Way I Walk - The Cramps; Peripetie - Arnold Schoenberg; Hambone, Los Olvidados - Archie Shepp; I Can See For Miles - Petra Haden; Malcolm, Malcolm - Semper Malcolm - Archie Shepp; On The Corner - Miles Davis; Prelude To A Kiss - Duke Ellington; Prelude To A Kiss - Archie Shepp; The Girl From Ipanema - Stan Getz (featuring Astrud Gilberto); The Girl From Ipanema - Mike Tyson; The Girl From Ipanema - Archie Shepp; Shiny Happy People - R.E.M.; Insect Soup - Mark Bingham

THIS WEEK's BIRDS: Arabo-Andalusian vocalist Nassima; dhrupad from le famille Mallik; vintage soukous from Papa Wemba; from Angola: Sara Chaves; Rob Brown and Daniel Levin (duo); new Music from Jane Bunnett et al. new music from David Virelles et al.; salsa from Sonora Ponceña & Tony Pabon; Jorge Humberto (Cape Verde) address Covid; Archie Shepp w. Jeanne Lee teal. (ca. 1969); new music from OGJB Quartet and Sonic Liberation Front (Both w/ Oliver Lake); 2 from Sélébéyone; Taylor Ho Bynum; and much, much more ...! LISTEN LIVE: Friday nights, 9:00pm-MIDNIGHT (EST), in Central New York on WRFI: 88.1FM Ithaca, 89.7FM Odessa, 91.9FM WINO Watkins Glen. and WORLDWIDE online at WRFI.ORG.  via PODBEAN: https://conferenceofthebirds.podbean.com/ via iTUNES: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conference-of-the-birds-podcast/id478688580 Also available at podomatic, Internet Archive, podtail, iheart Radio, and elsewhere. Always FREE of charge to listen to the radio program and free also to stream, download, and subscribe to the podcast online: PLAYLISTS at SPINITRON: https://spinitron.com/WRFI/pl/17277879/Conference-of-the-Birds and via the Conference of the Birds page at WRFI.ORG https://www.wrfi.org/wrfiprograms/conferenceofthebirds/  Join us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/conferenceofthebirds/?ref=bookmarks FIND WRFI on Radio Garden: http://radio.garden/visit/ithaca-ny/aqh8OGBR Contact: confbirds@gmail.com

Episode 164 of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at "White Light/White Heat" and the career of the Velvet Underground. This is a long one, lasting three hours and twenty minutes. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a twenty-three minute bonus episode available, on "Why Don't You Smile Now?" by the Downliners Sect. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata I say the Velvet Underground didn't play New York for the rest of the sixties after 1966. They played at least one gig there in 1967, but did generally avoid the city. Also, I refer to Cale and Conrad as the other surviving members of the Theater of Eternal Music. Sadly Conrad died in 2016. Resources No Mixcloud this week, as there are too many songs by the Velvet Underground, and some of the avant-garde pieces excerpted run to six hours or more. I used a lot of resources for this one. Up-Tight: The Velvet Underground Story by Victor Bockris and Gerard Malanga is the best book on the group as a group. I also used Joe Harvard's 33 1/3 book on The Velvet Underground and Nico. Bockris also wrote one of the two biographies of Reed I referred to, Transformer. The other was Lou Reed by Anthony DeCurtis. Information on Cale mostly came from Sedition and Alchemy by Tim Mitchell. Information on Nico came from Nico: The Life and Lies of an Icon by Richard Witts. I used Draw a Straight Line and Follow it by Jeremy Grimshaw as my main source for La Monte Young, The Roaring Silence by David Revill for John Cage, and Warhol: A Life as Art by Blake Gopnik for Warhol. I also referred to the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray of the 2021 documentary The Velvet Underground.  The definitive collection of the Velvet Underground's music is the sadly out-of-print box set Peel Slowly and See, which contains the four albums the group made with Reed in full, plus demos, outtakes, and live recordings. Note that the digital version of the album as sold by Amazon for some reason doesn't include the last disc -- if you want the full box set you have to buy a physical copy. All four studio albums have also been released and rereleased many times over in different configurations with different numbers of CDs at different price points -- I have used the "45th Anniversary Super-Deluxe" versions for this episode, but for most people the standard CD versions will be fine. Sadly there are no good shorter compilation overviews of the group -- they tend to emphasise either the group's "pop" mode or its "avant-garde" mode to the exclusion of the other. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Before I begin this episode, there are a few things to say. This introductory section is going to be longer than normal because, as you will hear, this episode is also going to be longer than normal. Firstly, I try to warn people about potentially upsetting material in these episodes. But this is the first episode for 1968, and as you will see there is a *profound* increase in the amount of upsetting and disturbing material covered as we go through 1968 and 1969. The story is going to be in a much darker place for the next twenty or thirty episodes. And this episode is no exception. As always, I try to deal with everything as sensitively as possible, but you should be aware that the list of warnings for this one is so long I am very likely to have missed some. Among the topics touched on in this episode are mental illness, drug addiction, gun violence, racism, societal and medical homophobia, medical mistreatment of mental illness, domestic abuse, rape, and more. If you find discussion of any of those subjects upsetting, you might want to read the transcript. Also, I use the term "queer" freely in this episode. In the past I have received some pushback for this, because of a belief among some that "queer" is a slur. The following explanation will seem redundant to many of my listeners, but as with many of the things I discuss in the podcast I am dealing with multiple different audiences with different levels of awareness and understanding of issues, so I'd like to beg those people's indulgence a moment. The term "queer" has certainly been used as a slur in the past, but so have terms like "lesbian", "gay", "homosexual" and others. In all those cases, the term has gone from a term used as a self-identifier, to a slur, to a reclaimed slur, and back again many times. The reason for using that word, specifically, here is because the vast majority of people in this story have sexualities or genders that don't match the societal norms of their times, but used labels for themselves that have shifted in meaning over the years. There are at least two men in the story, for example, who are now dead and referred to themselves as "homosexual", but were in multiple long-term sexually-active relationships with women. Would those men now refer to themselves as "bisexual" or "pansexual" -- terms not in widespread use at the time -- or would they, in the relatively more tolerant society we live in now, only have been in same-gender relationships? We can't know. But in our current context using the word "homosexual" for those men would lead to incorrect assumptions about their behaviour. The labels people use change over time, and the definitions of them blur and shift. I have discussed this issue with many, many, friends who fall under the queer umbrella, and while not all of them are comfortable with "queer" as a personal label because of how it's been used against them in the past, there is near-unanimity from them that it's the correct word to use in this situation. Anyway, now that that rather lengthy set of disclaimers is over, let's get into the story proper, as we look at "White Light, White Heat" by the Velvet Underground: [Excerpt: The Velvet Underground, "White Light, White Heat"] And that look will start with... a disclaimer about length. This episode is going to be a long one. Not as long as episode one hundred and fifty, but almost certainly the longest episode I'll do this year, by some way. And there's a reason for that. One of the questions I've been asked repeatedly over the years about the podcast is why almost all the acts I've covered have been extremely commercially successful ones. "Where are the underground bands? The alternative bands? The little niche acts?" The answer to that is simple. Until the mid-sixties, the idea of an underground or alternative band made no sense at all in rock, pop, rock and roll, R&B, or soul. The idea would have been completely counterintuitive to the vast majority of the people we've discussed in the podcast. Those musics were commercial musics, made by people who wanted to make money and to  get the largest audiences possible. That doesn't mean that they had no artistic merit, or that there was no artistic intent behind them, but the artists making that music were *commercial* artists. They knew if they wanted to make another record, they had to sell enough copies of the last record for the record company to make another, and that if they wanted to keep eating, they had to draw enough of an audience to their gigs for promoters to keep booking them. There was no space in this worldview for what we might think of as cult success. If your record only sold a thousand copies, then you had failed in your goal, even if the thousand people who bought your record really loved it. Even less commercially successful artists we've covered to this point, like the Mothers of Invention or Love, were *trying* for commercial success, even if they made the decision not to compromise as much as others do. This started to change a tiny bit in the mid-sixties as the influence of jazz and folk in the US, and the British blues scene, started to be felt in rock music. But this influence, at first, was a one-way thing -- people who had been in the folk and jazz worlds deciding to modify their music to be more commercial. And that was followed by already massively commercial musicians, like the Beatles, taking on some of those influences and bringing their audience with them. But that started to change around the time that "rock" started to differentiate itself from "rock and roll" and "pop", in mid 1967. So in this episode and the next, we're going to look at two bands who in different ways provided a model for how to be an alternative band. Both of them still *wanted* commercial success, but neither achieved it, at least not at first and not in the conventional way. And both, when they started out, went by the name The Warlocks. But we have to take a rather circuitous route to get to this week's band, because we're now properly introducing a strand of music that has been there in the background for a while -- avant-garde art music. So before we go any further, let's have a listen to a thirty-second clip of the most famous piece of avant-garde music ever, and I'll be performing it myself: [Excerpt, Andrew Hickey "4'33 (Cage)"] Obviously that won't give the full effect, you have to listen to the whole piece to get that. That is of course a section of "4'33" by John Cage, a piece of music that is often incorrectly described as being four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence. As I've mentioned before, though, in the episode on "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag", it isn't that at all. The whole point of the piece is that there is no such thing as silence, and it's intended to make the listener appreciate all the normal ambient sounds as music, every bit as much as any piece by Bach or Beethoven. John Cage, the composer of "4'33", is possibly the single most influential avant-garde artist of the mid twentieth century, so as we're properly introducing the ideas of avant-garde music into the story here, we need to talk about him a little. Cage was, from an early age, torn between three great vocations, all of which in some fashion would shape his work for decades to come. One of these was architecture, and for a time he intended to become an architect. Another was the religious ministry, and he very seriously considered becoming a minister as a young man, and religion -- though not the religious faith of his youth -- was to be a massive factor in his work as he grew older. He started studying music from an early age, though he never had any facility as a performer -- though he did, when he discovered the work of Grieg, think that might change. He later said “For a while I played nothing else. I even imagined devoting my life to the performance of his works alone, for they did not seem to me to be too difficult, and I loved them.” [Excerpt: Grieg piano concerto in A minor] But he soon realised that he didn't have some of the basic skills that would be required to be a performer -- he never actually thought of himself as very musical -- and so he decided to move into composition, and he later talked about putting his musical limits to good use in being more inventive. From his very first pieces, Cage was trying to expand the definition of what a performance of a piece of music actually was. One of his friends, Harry Hay, who took part in the first documented performance of a piece by Cage, described how Cage's father, an inventor, had "devised a fluorescent light source over which Sample" -- Don Sample, Cage's boyfriend at the time -- "laid a piece of vellum painted with designs in oils. The blankets I was wearing were white, and a sort of lampshade shone coloured patterns onto me. It looked very good. The thing got so hot the designs began to run, but that only made it better.” Apparently the audience for this light show -- one that predated the light shows used by rock bands by a good thirty years -- were not impressed, though that may be more because the Santa Monica Women's Club in the early 1930s was not the vanguard of the avant-garde. Or maybe it was. Certainly the housewives of Santa Monica seemed more willing than one might expect to sign up for another of Cage's ideas. In 1933 he went door to door asking women if they would be interested in signing up to a lecture course from him on modern art and music. He told them that if they signed up for $2.50, he would give them ten lectures, and somewhere between twenty and forty of them signed up, even though, as he said later, “I explained to the housewives that I didn't know anything about either subject but that I was enthusiastic about both of them. I promised to learn faithfully enough about each subject so as to be able to give a talk an hour long each week.” And he did just that, going to the library every day and spending all week preparing an hour-long talk for them. History does not relate whether he ended these lectures by telling the housewives to tell just one friend about them. He said later “I came out of these lectures, with a devotion to the painting of Mondrian, on the one hand, and the music of Schoenberg on the other.” [Excerpt: Schoenberg, "Ode to Napoleon Buonaparte"] Schoenberg was one of the two most widely-respected composers in the world at that point, the other being Stravinsky, but the two had very different attitudes to composition. Schoenberg's great innovation was the creation and popularisation of the twelve-tone technique, and I should probably explain that a little before I go any further. Most Western music is based on an eight-note scale -- do, re, mi, fa, so, la, ti, do -- with the eighth note being an octave up from the first. So in the key of C major that would be C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C: [demonstrates] And when you hear notes from that scale, if your ears are accustomed to basically any Western music written before about 1920, or any Western popular music written since then, you expect the melody to lead back to C, and you know to expect that because it only uses those notes -- there are differing intervals between them, some having a tone between them and some having a semitone, and you recognise the pattern. But of course there are other notes between the notes of that scale. There are actually an infinite number of these, but in conventional Western music we only look at a few more -- C# (or D flat), D# (or E flat), F# (or G flat), G# (or A flat) and A# (or B flat). If you add in all those notes you get this: [demonstrates] There's no clear beginning or end, no do for it to come back to. And Schoenberg's great innovation, which he was only starting to promote widely around this time, was to insist that all twelve notes should be equal -- his melodies would use all twelve of the notes the exact same number of times, and so if he used say a B flat, he would have to use all eleven other notes before he used B flat again in the piece. This was a radical new idea, but Schoenberg had only started advancing it after first winning great acclaim for earlier pieces, like his "Three Pieces for Piano", a work which wasn't properly twelve-tone, but did try to do without the idea of having any one note be more important than any other: [Excerpt: Schoenberg, "Three Pieces for Piano"] At this point, that work had only been performed in the US by one performer, Richard Buhlig, and hadn't been released as a recording yet. Cage was so eager to hear it that he'd found Buhlig's phone number and called him, asking him to play the piece, but Buhlig put the phone down on him. Now he was doing these lectures, though, he had to do one on Schoenberg, and he wasn't a competent enough pianist to play Schoenberg's pieces himself, and there were still no recordings of them. Cage hitch-hiked from Santa Monica to LA, where Buhlig lived, to try to get him to come and visit his class and play some of Schoenberg's pieces for them. Buhlig wasn't in, and Cage hung around in his garden hoping for him to come back -- he pulled the leaves off a bough from one of Buhlig's trees, going "He'll come back, he won't come back, he'll come back..." and the leaves said he'd be back. Buhlig arrived back at midnight, and quite understandably told the strange twenty-one-year-old who'd spent twelve hours in his garden pulling the leaves off his trees that no, he would not come to Santa Monica and give a free performance. But he did agree that if Cage brought some of his own compositions he'd give them a look over. Buhlig started giving Cage some proper lessons in composition, although he stressed that he was a performer, not a composer. Around this time Cage wrote his Sonata for Clarinet: [Excerpt: John Cage, "Sonata For Clarinet"] Buhlig suggested that Cage send that to Henry Cowell, the composer we heard about in the episode on "Good Vibrations" who was friends with Lev Termen and who created music by playing the strings inside a piano: [Excerpt: Henry Cowell, "Aeolian Harp and Sinister Resonance"] Cowell offered to take Cage on as an assistant, in return for which Cowell would teach him for a semester, as would Adolph Weiss, a pupil of Schoenberg's. But the goal, which Cowell suggested, was always to have Cage study with Schoenberg himself. Schoenberg at first refused, saying that Cage couldn't afford his price, but eventually took Cage on as a student having been assured that he would devote his entire life to music -- a promise Cage kept. Cage started writing pieces for percussion, something that had been very rare up to that point -- only a handful of composers, most notably Edgard Varese, had written pieces for percussion alone, but Cage was: [Excerpt: John Cage, "Trio"] This is often portrayed as a break from the ideals of his teacher Schoenberg, but in fact there's a clear continuity there, once you see what Cage was taking from Schoenberg. Schoenberg's work is, in some senses, about equality, about all notes being equal. Or to put it another way, it's about fairness. About erasing arbitrary distinctions. What Cage was doing was erasing the arbitrary distinction between the more and less prominent instruments. Why should there be pieces for solo violin or string quartet, but not for multiple percussion players? That said, Schoenberg was not exactly the most encouraging of teachers. When Cage invited Schoenberg to go to a concert of Cage's percussion work, Schoenberg told him he was busy that night. When Cage offered to arrange another concert for a date Schoenberg wasn't busy, the reply came "No, I will not be free at any time". Despite this, Cage later said “Schoenberg was a magnificent teacher, who always gave the impression that he was putting us in touch with musical principles,” and said "I literally worshipped him" -- a strong statement from someone who took religious matters as seriously as Cage. Cage was so devoted to Schoenberg's music that when a concert of music by Stravinsky was promoted as "music of the world's greatest living composer", Cage stormed into the promoter's office angrily, confronting the promoter and making it very clear that such things should not be said in the city where Schoenberg lived. Schoenberg clearly didn't think much of Cage's attempts at composition, thinking -- correctly -- that Cage had no ear for harmony. And his reportedly aggressive and confrontational teaching style didn't sit well with Cage -- though it seems very similar to a lot of the teaching techniques of the Zen masters he would later go on to respect. The two eventually parted ways, although Cage always spoke highly of Schoenberg. Schoenberg later gave Cage a compliment of sorts, when asked if any of his students had gone on to do anything interesting. At first he replied that none had, but then he mentioned Cage and said “Of course he's not a composer, but an inventor—of genius.” Cage was at this point very worried if there was any point to being a composer at all. He said later “I'd read Cowell's New Musical Resources and . . . The Theory of Rhythm. I had also read Chavez's Towards a New Music. Both works gave me the feeling that everything that was possible in music had already happened. So I thought I could never compose socially important music. Only if I could invent something new, then would I be useful to society. But that seemed unlikely then.” [Excerpt: John Cage, "Totem Ancestor"] Part of the solution came when he was asked to compose music for an abstract animation by the filmmaker Oskar Fischinger, and also to work as Fischinger's assistant when making the film. He was fascinated by the stop-motion process, and by the results of the film, which he described as "a beautiful film in which these squares, triangles and circles and other things moved and changed colour.” But more than that he was overwhelmed by a comment by Fischinger, who told him “Everything in the world has its own spirit, and this spirit becomes audible by setting it into vibration.” Cage later said “That set me on fire. He started me on a path of exploration of the world around me which has never stopped—of hitting and stretching and scraping and rubbing everything.” Cage now took his ideas further. His compositions for percussion had been about, if you like, giving the underdog a chance -- percussion was always in the background, why should it not be in the spotlight? Now he realised that there were other things getting excluded in conventional music -- the sounds that we characterise as noise. Why should composers work to exclude those sounds, but work to *include* other sounds? Surely that was... well, a little unfair? Eventually this would lead to pieces like his 1952 piece "Water Music", later expanded and retitled "Water Walk", which can be heard here in his 1959 appearance on the TV show "I've Got a Secret".  It's a piece for, amongst other things, a flowerpot full of flowers, a bathtub, a watering can, a pipe, a duck call, a blender full of ice cubes, and five unplugged radios: [Excerpt: John Cage "Water Walk"] As he was now avoiding pitch and harmony as organising principles for his music, he turned to time. But note -- not to rhythm. He said “There's none of this boom, boom, boom, business in my music . . . a measure is taken as a strict measure of time—not a one two three four—which I fill with various sounds.” He came up with a system he referred to as “micro-macrocosmic rhythmic structure,” what we would now call fractals, though that word hadn't yet been invented, where the structure of the whole piece was reflected in the smallest part of it. For a time he started moving away from the term music, preferring to refer to the "art of noise" or to "organised sound" -- though he later received a telegram from Edgard Varese, one of his musical heroes and one of the few other people writing works purely for percussion, asking him not to use that phrase, which Varese used for his own work. After meeting with Varese and his wife, he later became convinced that it was Varese's wife who had initiated the telegram, as she explained to Cage's wife "we didn't want your husband's work confused with my husband's work, any more than you'd want some . . . any artist's work confused with that of a cartoonist.” While there is a humour to Cage's work, I don't really hear much qualitative difference between a Cage piece like the one we just heard and a Varese piece like Ionisation: [Excerpt: Edgard Varese, "Ionisation"] But it was in 1952, the year of "Water Music" that John Cage made his two biggest impacts on the cultural world, though the full force of those impacts wasn't felt for some years. To understand Cage's 1952 work, you first have to understand that he had become heavily influenced by Zen, which at that time was very little known in the Western world. Indeed he had studied with Daisetsu Suzuki, who is credited with introducing Zen to the West, and said later “I didn't study music with just anybody; I studied with Schoenberg, I didn't study Zen with just anybody; I studied with Suzuki. I've always gone, insofar as I could, to the president of the company.” Cage's whole worldview was profoundly affected by Zen, but he was also naturally sympathetic to it, and his work after learning about Zen is mostly a continuation of trends we can already see. In particular, he became convinced that the point of music isn't to communicate anything between two people, rather its point is merely to be experienced. I'm far from an expert on Buddhism, but one way of thinking about its central lessons is that one should experience things as they are, experiencing the thing itself rather than one's thoughts or preconceptions about it. And so at Black Mountain college came Theatre Piece Number 1: [Excerpt: Edith Piaf, "La Vie En Rose" ] In this piece, Cage had set the audience on all sides, so they'd be facing each other. He stood on a stepladder, as colleagues danced in and around the audience, another colleague played the piano, two more took turns to stand on another stepladder to recite poetry, different films and slides were projected, seemingly at random, onto the walls, and the painter Robert Rauschenberg played scratchy Edith Piaf records on a wind-up gramophone. The audience were included in the performance, and it was meant to be experienced as a gestalt, as a whole, to be what we would now call an immersive experience. One of Cage's students around this time was the artist Allan Kaprow, and he would be inspired by Theatre Piece Number 1 to put on several similar events in the late fifties. Those events he called "happenings", because the point of them was that you were meant to experience an event as it was happening rather than bring preconceptions of form and structure to them. Those happenings were the inspiration for events like The 14 Hour Technicolor Dream, and the term "happening" became such an integral part of the counterculture that by 1967 there were comedy films being released about them, including one just called The Happening with a title track by the Supremes that made number one: [Excerpt: The Supremes, "The Happening"] Theatre Piece Number 1 was retrospectively considered the first happening, and as such its influence is incalculable. But one part I didn't mention about Theatre Piece Number 1 is that as well as Rauschenberg playing Edith Piaf's records, he also displayed some of his paintings. These paintings were totally white -- at a glance, they looked like blank canvases, but as one inspected them more clearly, it became apparent that Rauschenberg had painted them with white paint, with visible brushstrokes. These paintings, along with a visit to an anechoic chamber in which Cage discovered that even in total silence one can still hear one's own blood and nervous system, so will never experience total silence, were the final key to something Cage had been working towards -- if music had minimised percussion, and excluded noise, how much more had it excluded silence? As Cage said in 1958 “Curiously enough, the twelve-tone system has no zero in it.” And so came 4'33, the piece that we heard an excerpt of near the start of this episode. That piece was the something new he'd been looking for that could be useful to society. It took the sounds the audience could already hear, and without changing them even slightly gave them a new context and made the audience hear them as they were. Simply by saying "this is music", it caused the ambient noise to be perceived as music. This idea, of recontextualising existing material, was one that had already been done in the art world -- Marcel Duchamp, in 1917, had exhibited a urinal as a sculpture titled "Fountain" -- but even Duchamp had talked about his work as "everyday objects raised to the dignity of a work of art by the artist's act of choice". The artist was *raising* the object to art. What Cage was saying was "the object is already art". This was all massively influential to a young painter who had seen Cage give lectures many times, and while at art school had with friends prepared a piano in the same way Cage did for his own experimental compositions, dampening the strings with different objects. [Excerpt: Dana Gillespie, "Andy Warhol (live)"] Duchamp and Rauschenberg were both big influences on Andy Warhol, but he would say in the early sixties "John Cage is really so responsible for so much that's going on," and would for the rest of his life cite Cage as one of the two or three prime influences of his career. Warhol is a difficult figure to discuss, because his work is very intellectual but he was not very articulate -- which is one reason I've led up to him by discussing Cage in such detail, because Cage was always eager to talk at great length about the theoretical basis of his work, while Warhol would say very few words about anything at all. Probably the person who knew him best was his business partner and collaborator Paul Morrissey, and Morrissey's descriptions of Warhol have shaped my own view of his life, but it's very worth noting that Morrissey is an extremely right-wing moralist who wishes to see a Catholic theocracy imposed to do away with the scourges of sexual immorality, drug use, hedonism, and liberalism, so his view of Warhol, a queer drug using progressive whose worldview seems to have been totally opposed to Morrissey's in every way, might be a little distorted. Warhol came from an impoverished background, and so, as many people who grew up poor do, he was, throughout his life, very eager to make money. He studied art at university, and got decent but not exceptional grades -- he was a competent draughtsman, but not a great one, and most importantly as far as success in the art world goes he didn't have what is known as his own "line" -- with most successful artists, you can look at a handful of lines they've drawn and see something of their own personality in it. You couldn't with Warhol. His drawings looked like mediocre imitations of other people's work. Perfectly competent, but nothing that stood out. So Warhol came up with a technique to make his drawings stand out -- blotting. He would do a normal drawing, then go over it with a lot of wet ink. He'd lower a piece of paper on to the wet drawing, and the new paper would soak up the ink, and that second piece of paper would become the finished work. The lines would be fractured and smeared, broken in places where the ink didn't get picked up, and thick in others where it had pooled. With this mechanical process, Warhol had managed to create an individual style, and he became an extremely successful commercial artist. In the early 1950s photography was still seen as a somewhat low-class way of advertising things. If you wanted to sell to a rich audience, you needed to use drawings or paintings. By 1955 Warhol was making about twelve thousand dollars a year -- somewhere close to a hundred and thirty thousand a year in today's money -- drawing shoes for advertisements. He also had a sideline in doing record covers for people like Count Basie: [Excerpt: Count Basie, "Seventh Avenue Express"] For most of the 1950s he also tried to put on shows of his more serious artistic work -- often with homoerotic themes -- but to little success. The dominant art style of the time was the abstract expressionism of people like Jackson Pollock, whose art was visceral, emotional, and macho. The term "action paintings" which was coined for the work of people like Pollock, sums it up. This was manly art for manly men having manly emotions and expressing them loudly. It was very male and very straight, and even the gay artists who were prominent at the time tended to be very conformist and look down on anything they considered flamboyant or effeminate. Warhol was a rather effeminate, very reserved man, who strongly disliked showing his emotions, and whose tastes ran firmly to the camp. Camp as an aesthetic of finding joy in the flamboyant or trashy, as opposed to merely a descriptive term for men who behaved in a way considered effeminate, was only just starting to be codified at this time -- it wouldn't really become a fully-formed recognisable thing until Susan Sontag's essay "Notes on Camp" in 1964 -- but of course just because something hasn't been recognised doesn't mean it doesn't exist, and Warhol's aesthetic was always very camp, and in the 1950s in the US that was frowned upon even in gay culture, where the mainstream opinion was that the best way to acceptance was through assimilation. Abstract expressionism was all about expressing the self, and that was something Warhol never wanted to do -- in fact he made some pronouncements at times which suggested he didn't think of himself as *having* a self in the conventional sense. The combination of not wanting to express himself and of wanting to work more efficiently as a commercial artist led to some interesting results. For example, he was commissioned in 1957 to do a cover for an album by Moondog, the blind street musician whose name Alan Freed had once stolen: [Excerpt: Moondog, "Gloving It"] For that cover, Warhol got his mother, Julia Warhola, to just write out the liner notes for the album in her rather ornamental cursive script, and that became the front cover, leading to an award for graphic design going that year to "Andy Warhol's mother". (Incidentally, my copy of the current CD issue of that album, complete with Julia Warhola's cover, is put out by Pickwick Records...) But towards the end of the fifties, the work for commercial artists started to dry up. If you wanted to advertise shoes, now, you just took a photo of the shoes rather than get Andy Warhol to draw a picture of them. The money started to disappear, and Warhol started to panic. If there was no room for him in graphic design any more, he had to make his living in the fine arts, which he'd been totally unsuccessful in. But luckily for Warhol, there was a new movement that was starting to form -- Pop Art. Pop Art started in England, and had originally been intended, at least in part, as a critique of American consumerist capitalism. Pieces like "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?" by Richard Hamilton (who went on to design the Beatles' White Album cover) are collages of found images, almost all from American sources, recontextualised and juxtaposed in interesting ways, so a bodybuilder poses in a room that's taken from an advert in Ladies' Home Journal, while on the wall, instead of a painting, hangs a blown-up cover of a Jack Kirby romance comic. Pop Art changed slightly when it got taken up in America, and there it became something rather different, something closer to Duchamp, taking those found images and displaying them as art with no juxtaposition. Where Richard Hamilton created collage art which *showed* a comic cover by Jack Kirby as a painting in the background, Roy Lichtenstein would take a panel of comic art by Kirby, or Russ Heath or Irv Novick or a dozen other comic artists, and redraw it at the size of a normal painting. So Warhol took Cage's idea that the object is already art, and brought that into painting, starting by doing paintings of Campbell's soup cans, in which he tried as far as possible to make the cans look exactly like actual soup cans. The paintings were controversial, inciting fury in some and laughter in others and causing almost everyone to question whether they were art. Warhol would embrace an aesthetic in which things considered unimportant or trash or pop culture detritus were the greatest art of all. For example pretty much every profile of him written in the mid sixties talks about him obsessively playing "Sally Go Round the Roses", a girl-group single by the one-hit wonders the Jaynettes: [Excerpt: The Jaynettes, "Sally Go Round the Roses"] After his paintings of Campbell's soup cans, and some rather controversial but less commercially successful paintings of photographs of horrors and catastrophes taken from newspapers, Warhol abandoned painting in the conventional sense altogether, instead creating brightly coloured screen prints -- a form of stencilling -- based on photographs of celebrities like Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor and, most famously, Marilyn Monroe. That way he could produce images which could be mass-produced, without his active involvement, and which supposedly had none of his personality in them, though of course his personality pervades the work anyway. He put on exhibitions of wooden boxes, silk-screen printed to look exactly like shipping cartons of Brillo pads. Images we see everywhere -- in newspapers, in supermarkets -- were art. And Warhol even briefly formed a band. The Druds were a garage band formed to play at a show at the Washington Gallery of Modern Art, the opening night of an exhibition that featured a silkscreen by Warhol of 210 identical bottles of Coca-Cola, as well as paintings by Rauschenberg and others. That opening night featured a happening by Claes Oldenburg, and a performance by Cage -- Cage gave a live lecture while three recordings of his own voice also played. The Druds were also meant to perform, but they fell apart after only a few rehearsals. Some recordings apparently exist, but they don't seem to circulate, but they'd be fascinating to hear as almost the entire band were non-musician artists like Warhol, Jasper Johns, and the sculptor Walter de Maria. Warhol said of the group “It didn't go too well, but if we had just stayed on it it would have been great.” On the other hand, the one actual musician in the group said “It was kind of ridiculous, so I quit after the second rehearsal". That musician was La Monte Young: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "The Well-Tuned Piano"] That's an excerpt from what is generally considered Young's masterwork, "The Well-Tuned Piano". It's six and a half hours long. If Warhol is a difficult figure to write about, Young is almost impossible. He's a musician with a career stretching sixty years, who is arguably the most influential musician from the classical tradition in that time period. He's generally considered the father of minimalism, and he's also been called by Brian Eno "the daddy of us all" -- without Young you simply *do not* get art rock at all. Without Young there is no Velvet Underground, no David Bowie, no Eno, no New York punk scene, no Yoko Ono. Anywhere that the fine arts or conceptual art have intersected with popular music in the last fifty or more years has been influenced in one way or another by Young's work. BUT... he only rarely publishes his scores. He very, very rarely allows recordings of his work to be released -- there are four recordings on his bandcamp, plus a handful of recordings of his older, published, pieces, and very little else. He doesn't allow his music to be performed live without his supervision. There *are* bootleg recordings of his music, but even those are not easily obtainable -- Young is vigorous in enforcing his copyrights and issues takedown notices against anywhere that hosts them. So other than that handful of legitimately available recordings -- plus a recording by Young's Theater of Eternal Music, the legality of which is still disputed, and an off-air recording of a 1971 radio programme I've managed to track down, the only way to experience Young's music unless you're willing to travel to one of his rare live performances or installations is second-hand, by reading about it. Except that the one book that deals solely with Young and his music is not only a dense and difficult book to read, it's also one that Young vehemently disagreed with and considered extremely inaccurate, to the point he refused to allow permissions to quote his work in the book. Young did apparently prepare a list of corrections for the book, but he wouldn't tell the author what they were without payment. So please assume that anything I say about Young is wrong, but also accept that the short section of this episode about Young has required more work to *try* to get it right than pretty much anything else this year. Young's musical career actually started out in a relatively straightforward manner. He didn't grow up in the most loving of homes -- he's talked about his father beating him as a child because he had been told that young La Monte was clever -- but his father did buy him a saxophone and teach him the rudiments of the instrument, and as a child he was most influenced by the music of the big band saxophone player Jimmy Dorsey: [Excerpt: Jimmy Dorsey, “It's the Dreamer in Me”] The family, who were Mormon farmers, relocated several times in Young's childhood, from Idaho first to California and then to Utah, but everywhere they went La Monte seemed to find musical inspiration, whether from an uncle who had been part of the Kansas City jazz scene, a classmate who was a musical prodigy who had played with Perez Prado in his early teens, or a teacher who took the class to see a performance of Bartok's Concerto for Orchestra: [Excerpt: Bartok, "Concerto for Orchestra"] After leaving high school, Young went to Los Angeles City College to study music under Leonard Stein, who had been Schoenberg's assistant when Schoenberg had taught at UCLA, and there he became part of the thriving jazz scene based around Central Avenue, studying and performing with musicians like Ornette Coleman, Don Cherry, and Eric Dolphy -- Young once beat Dolphy in an audition for a place in the City College dance band, and the two would apparently substitute for each other on their regular gigs when one couldn't make it. During this time, Young's musical tastes became much more adventurous. He was a particular fan of the work of John Coltrane, and also got inspired by City of Glass, an album by Stan Kenton that attempted to combine jazz and modern classical music: [Excerpt: Stan Kenton's Innovations Orchestra, "City of Glass: The Structures"] His other major musical discovery in the mid-fifties was one we've talked about on several previous occasions -- the album Music of India, Morning and Evening Ragas by Ali Akhbar Khan: [Excerpt: Ali Akhbar Khan, "Rag Sindhi Bhairavi"] Young's music at this point was becoming increasingly modal, and equally influenced by the blues and Indian music. But he was also becoming interested in serialism. Serialism is an extension and generalisation of twelve-tone music, inspired by mathematical set theory. In serialism, you choose a set of musical elements -- in twelve-tone music that's the twelve notes in the twelve-tone scale, but it can also be a set of tonal relations, a chord, or any other set of elements. You then define all the possible ways you can permute those elements, a defined set of operations you can perform on them -- so you could play a scale forwards, play it backwards, play all the notes in the scale simultaneously, and so on. You then go through all the possible permutations, exactly once, and that's your piece of music. Young was particularly influenced by the works of Anton Webern, one of the earliest serialists: [Excerpt: Anton Webern, "Cantata number 1 for Soprano, Mixed Chorus, and Orchestra"] That piece we just heard, Webern's "Cantata number 1", was the subject of some of the earliest theoretical discussion of serialism, and in particular led to some discussion of the next step on from serialism. If serialism was all about going through every single permutation of a set, what if you *didn't* permute every element? There was a lot of discussion in the late fifties in music-theoretical circles about the idea of invariance. Normally in music, the interesting thing is what gets changed. To use a very simple example, you might change a melody from a major key to a minor one to make it sound sadder. What theorists at this point were starting to discuss is what happens if you leave something the same, but change the surrounding context, so the thing you *don't* vary sounds different because of the changed context. And going further, what if you don't change the context at all, and merely *imply* a changed context? These ideas were some of those which inspired Young's first major work, his Trio For Strings from 1958, a complex, palindromic, serial piece which is now credited as the first work of minimalism, because the notes in it change so infrequently: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "Trio for Strings"] Though I should point out that Young never considers his works truly finished, and constantly rewrites them, and what we just heard is an excerpt from the only recording of the trio ever officially released, which is of the 2015 version. So I can't state for certain how close what we just heard is to the piece he wrote in 1958, except that it sounds very like the written descriptions of it I've read. After writing the Trio For Strings, Young moved to Germany to study with the modernist composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. While studying with Stockhausen, he became interested in the work of John Cage, and started up a correspondence with Cage. On his return to New York he studied with Cage and started writing pieces inspired by Cage, of which the most musical is probably Composition 1960 #7: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "Composition 1960 #7"] The score for that piece is a stave on which is drawn a treble clef, the notes B and F#, and the words "To be held for a long Time". Other of his compositions from 1960 -- which are among the few of his compositions which have been published -- include composition 1960 #10 ("To Bob Morris"), the score for which is just the instruction "Draw a straight line and follow it.", and Piano Piece for David  Tudor #1, the score for which reads "Bring a bale of hay and a bucket of water onto the stage for the piano to eat and drink. The performer may then feed the piano or leave it to eat by itself. If the former, the piece is over after the piano has been fed. If the latter, it is over after the piano eats or decides not to". Most of these compositions were performed as part of a loose New York art collective called Fluxus, all of whom were influenced by Cage and the Dadaists. This collective, led by George Maciunas, sometimes involved Cage himself, but also involved people like Henry Flynt, the inventor of conceptual art, who later became a campaigner against art itself, and who also much to Young's bemusement abandoned abstract music in the mid-sixties to form a garage band with Walter de Maria (who had played drums with the Druds): [Excerpt: Henry Flynt and the Insurrections, "I Don't Wanna"] Much of Young's work was performed at Fluxus concerts given in a New York loft belonging to another member of the collective, Yoko Ono, who co-curated the concerts with Young. One of Ono's mid-sixties pieces, her "Four Pieces for Orchestra" is dedicated to Young, and consists of such instructions as "Count all the stars of that night by heart. The piece ends when all the orchestra members finish counting the stars, or when it dawns. This can be done with windows instead of stars." But while these conceptual ideas remained a huge part of Young's thinking, he soon became interested in two other ideas. The first was the idea of just intonation -- tuning instruments and voices to perfect harmonics, rather than using the subtly-off tuning that is used in Western music. I'm sure I've explained that before in a previous episode, but to put it simply when you're tuning an instrument with fixed pitches like a piano, you have a choice -- you can either tune it so that the notes in one key are perfectly in tune with each other, but then when you change key things go very out of tune, or you can choose to make *everything* a tiny bit, almost unnoticeably, out of tune, but equally so. For the last several hundred years, musicians as a community have chosen the latter course, which was among other things promoted by Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier, a collection of compositions which shows how the different keys work together: [Excerpt: Bach (Glenn Gould), "The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II: Fugue in F-sharp minor, BWV 883"] Young, by contrast, has his own esoteric tuning system, which he uses in his own work The Well-Tuned Piano: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "The Well-Tuned Piano"] The other idea that Young took on was from Indian music, the idea of the drone. One of the four recordings of Young's music that is available from his Bandcamp, a 1982 recording titled The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath, consists of one hour, thirteen minutes, and fifty-eight seconds of this: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "The Tamburas of Pandit Pran Nath"] Yes, I have listened to the whole piece. No, nothing else happens. The minimalist composer Terry Riley describes the recording as "a singularly rare contribution that far outshines any other attempts to capture this instrument in recorded media". In 1962, Young started writing pieces based on what he called the "dream chord", a chord consisting of a root, fourth, sharpened fourth, and fifth: [dream chord] That chord had already appeared in his Trio for Strings, but now it would become the focus of much of his work, in pieces like his 1962 piece The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer, heard here in a 1982 revision: [Excerpt: La Monte Young, "The Second Dream of the High-Tension Line Stepdown Transformer"] That was part of a series of works titled The Four Dreams of China, and Young began to plan an installation work titled Dream House, which would eventually be created, and which currently exists in Tribeca, New York, where it's been in continuous "performance" for thirty years -- and which consists of thirty-two different pure sine wave tones all played continuously, plus purple lighting by Young's wife Marian Zazeela. But as an initial step towards creating this, Young formed a collective called Theatre of Eternal Music, which some of the members -- though never Young himself -- always claim also went by the alternative name The Dream Syndicate. According to John Cale, a member of the group, that name came about because the group tuned their instruments to the 60hz hum of the fridge in Young's apartment, which Cale called "the key of Western civilisation". According to Cale, that meant the fundamental of the chords they played was 10hz, the frequency of alpha waves when dreaming -- hence the name. The group initially consisted of Young, Zazeela, the photographer Billy Name, and percussionist Angus MacLise, but by this recording in 1964 the lineup was Young, Zazeela, MacLise, Tony Conrad and John Cale: [Excerpt: "Cale, Conrad, Maclise, Young, Zazeela - The Dream Syndicate 2 IV 64-4"] That recording, like any others that have leaked by the 1960s version of the Theatre of Eternal Music or Dream Syndicate, is of disputed legality, because Young and Zazeela claim to this day that what the group performed were La Monte Young's compositions, while the other two surviving members, Cale and Conrad, claim that their performances were improvisational collaborations and should be equally credited to all the members, and so there have been lawsuits and countersuits any time anyone has released the recordings. John Cale, the youngest member of the group, was also the only one who wasn't American. He'd been born in Wales in 1942, and had had the kind of childhood that, in retrospect, seems guaranteed to lead to eccentricity. He was the product of a mixed-language marriage -- his father, William, was an English speaker while his mother, Margaret, spoke Welsh, but the couple had moved in on their marriage with Margaret's mother, who insisted that only Welsh could be spoken in her house. William didn't speak Welsh, and while he eventually picked up the basics from spending all his life surrounded by Welsh-speakers, he refused on principle to capitulate to his mother-in-law, and so remained silent in the house. John, meanwhile, grew up a monolingual Welsh speaker, and didn't start to learn English until he went to school when he was seven, and so couldn't speak to his father until then even though they lived together. Young John was extremely unwell for most of his childhood, both physically -- he had bronchial problems for which he had to take a cough mixture that was largely opium to help him sleep at night -- and mentally. He was hospitalised when he was sixteen with what was at first thought to be meningitis, but turned out to be a psychosomatic condition, the result of what he has described as a nervous breakdown. That breakdown is probably connected to the fact that during his teenage years he was sexually assaulted by two adults in positions of authority -- a vicar and a music teacher -- and felt unable to talk to anyone about this. He was, though, a child prodigy and was playing viola with the National Youth Orchestra of Wales from the age of thirteen, and listening to music by Schoenberg, Webern, and Stravinsky. He was so talented a multi-instrumentalist that at school he was the only person other than one of the music teachers and the headmaster who was allowed to use the piano -- which led to a prank on his very last day at school. The headmaster would, on the last day, hit a low G on the piano to cue the assembly to stand up, and Cale had placed a comb on the string, muting it and stopping the note from sounding -- in much the same way that his near-namesake John Cage was "preparing" pianos for his own compositions in the USA. Cale went on to Goldsmith's College to study music and composition, under Humphrey Searle, one of Britain's greatest proponents of serialism who had himself studied under Webern. Cale's main instrument was the viola, but he insisted on also playing pieces written for the violin, because they required more technical skill. For his final exam he chose to play Hindemith's notoriously difficult Viola Sonata: [Excerpt: Hindemith Viola Sonata] While at Goldsmith's, Cale became friendly with Cornelius Cardew, a composer and cellist who had studied with Stockhausen and at the time was a great admirer of and advocate for the works of Cage and Young (though by the mid-seventies Cardew rejected their work as counter-revolutionary bourgeois imperialism). Through Cardew, Cale started to correspond with Cage, and with George Maciunas and other members of Fluxus. In July 1963, just after he'd finished his studies at Goldsmith's, Cale presented a festival there consisting of an afternoon and an evening show. These shows included the first British performances of several works including Cardew's Autumn '60 for Orchestra -- a piece in which the musicians were given blank staves on which to write whatever part they wanted to play, but a separate set of instructions in *how* to play the parts they'd written. Another piece Cale presented in its British premiere at that show was Cage's "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra": [Excerpt: John Cage, "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra"] In the evening show, they performed Two Pieces For String Quartet by George Brecht (in which the musicians polish their instruments with dusters, making scraping sounds as they clean them),  and two new pieces by Cale, one of which involved a plant being put on the stage, and then the performer, Robin Page, screaming from the balcony at the plant that it would die, then running down, through the audience, and onto the stage, screaming abuse and threats at the plant. The final piece in the show was a performance by Cale (the first one in Britain) of La Monte Young's "X For Henry Flynt". For this piece, Cale put his hands together and then smashed both his arms onto the keyboard as hard as he could, over and over. After five minutes some of the audience stormed the stage and tried to drag the piano away from him. Cale followed the piano on his knees, continuing to bang the keys, and eventually the audience gave up in defeat and Cale the performer won. After this Cale moved to the USA, to further study composition, this time with Iannis Xenakis, the modernist composer who had also taught Mickey Baker orchestration after Baker left Mickey and Sylvia, and who composed such works as "Orient Occident": [Excerpt: Iannis Xenakis, "Orient Occident"] Cale had been recommended to Xenakis as a student by Aaron Copland, who thought the young man was probably a genius. But Cale's musical ambitions were rather too great for Tanglewood, Massachusetts -- he discovered that the institute had eighty-eight pianos, the same number as there are keys on a piano keyboard, and thought it would be great if for a piece he could take all eighty-eight pianos, put them all on different boats, sail the boats out onto a lake, and have eighty-eight different musicians each play one note on each piano, while the boats sank with the pianos on board. For some reason, Cale wasn't allowed to perform this composition, and instead had to make do with one where he pulled an axe out of a single piano and slammed it down on a table. Hardly the same, I'm sure you'll agree. From Tanglewood, Cale moved on to New York, where he soon became part of the artistic circles surrounding John Cage and La Monte Young. It was at this time that he joined Young's Theatre of Eternal Music, and also took part in a performance with Cage that would get Cale his first television exposure: [Excerpt: John Cale playing Erik Satie's "Vexations" on "I've Got a Secret"] That's Cale playing through "Vexations", a piece by Erik Satie that wasn't published until after Satie's death, and that remained in obscurity until Cage popularised -- if that's the word -- the piece. The piece, which Cage had found while studying Satie's notes, seems to be written as an exercise and has the inscription (in French) "In order to play the motif 840 times in succession, it would be advisable to prepare oneself beforehand, and in the deepest silence, by serious immobilities." Cage interpreted that, possibly correctly, as an instruction that the piece should be played eight hundred and forty times straight through, and so he put together a performance of the piece, the first one ever, by a group he called the Pocket Theatre Piano Relay Team, which included Cage himself, Cale, Joshua Rifkin, and several other notable musical figures, who took it in turns playing the piece. For that performance, which ended up lasting eighteen hours, there was an entry fee of five dollars, and there was a time-clock in the lobby. Audience members punched in and punched out, and got a refund of five cents for every twenty minutes they'd spent listening to the music. Supposedly, at the end, one audience member yelled "Encore!" A week later, Cale appeared on "I've Got a Secret", a popular game-show in which celebrities tried to guess people's secrets (and which is where that performance of Cage's "Water Walk" we heard earlier comes from): [Excerpt: John Cale on I've Got a Secret] For a while, Cale lived with a friend of La Monte Young's, Terry Jennings, before moving in to a flat with Tony Conrad, one of the other members of the Theatre of Eternal Music. Angus MacLise lived in another flat in the same building. As there was not much money to be made in avant-garde music, Cale also worked in a bookshop -- a job Cage had found him -- and had a sideline in dealing drugs. But rents were so cheap at this time that Cale and Conrad only had to work part-time, and could spend much of their time working on the music they were making with Young. Both were string players -- Conrad violin, Cale viola -- and they soon modified their instruments. Conrad merely attached pickups to his so it could be amplified, but Cale went much further. He filed down the viola's bridge so he could play three strings at once, and he replaced the normal viola strings with thicker, heavier, guitar and mandolin strings. This created a sound so loud that it sounded like a distorted electric guitar -- though in late 1963 and early 1964 there were very few people who even knew what a distorted guitar sounded like. Cale and Conrad were also starting to become interested in rock and roll music, to which neither of them had previously paid much attention, because John Cage's music had taught them to listen for music in sounds they previously dismissed. In particular, Cale became fascinated with the harmonies of the Everly Brothers, hearing in them the same just intonation that Young advocated for: [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "All I Have to Do is Dream"] And it was with this newfound interest in rock and roll that Cale and Conrad suddenly found themselves members of a manufactured pop band. The two men had been invited to a party on the Lower East Side, and there they'd been introduced to Terry Phillips of Pickwick Records. Phillips had seen their long hair and asked if they were musicians, so they'd answered "yes". He asked if they were in a band, and they said yes. He asked if that band had a drummer, and again they said yes. By this point they realised that he had assumed they were rock guitarists, rather than experimental avant-garde string players, but they decided to play along and see where this was going. Phillips told them that if they brought along their drummer to Pickwick's studios the next day, he had a job for them. The two of them went along with Walter de Maria, who did play the drums a little in between his conceptual art work, and there they were played a record: [Excerpt: The Primitives, "The Ostrich"] It was explained to them that Pickwick made knock-off records -- soundalikes of big hits, and their own records in the style of those hits, all played by a bunch of session musicians and put out under different band names. This one, by "the Primitives", they thought had a shot at being an actual hit, even though it was a dance-craze song about a dance where one partner lays on the floor and the other stamps on their head. But if it was going to be a hit, they needed an actual band to go out and perform it, backing the singer. How would Cale, Conrad, and de Maria like to be three quarters of the Primitives? It sounded fun, but of course they weren't actually guitarists. But as it turned out, that wasn't going to be a problem. They were told that the guitars on the track had all been tuned to one note -- not even to an open chord, like we talked about Steve Cropper doing last episode, but all the strings to one note. Cale and Conrad were astonished -- that was exactly the kind of thing they'd been doing in their drone experiments with La Monte Young. Who was this person who was independently inventing the most advanced ideas in experimental music but applying them to pop songs? And that was how they met Lou Reed: [Excerpt: The Primitives, "The Ostrich"] Where Cale and Conrad were avant-gardeists who had only just started paying attention to rock and roll music, rock and roll was in Lou Reed's blood, but there were a few striking similarities between him and Cale, even though at a glance their backgrounds could not have seemed more different. Reed had been brought up in a comfortably middle-class home in Long Island, but despised the suburban conformity that surrounded him from a very early age, and by his teens was starting to rebel against it very strongly. According to one classmate “Lou was always more advanced than the rest of us. The drinking age was eighteen back then, so we all started drinking at around sixteen. We were drinking quarts of beer, but Lou was smoking joints. He didn't do that in front of many people, but I knew he was doing it. While we were looking at girls in Playboy, Lou was reading Story of O. He was reading the Marquis de Sade, stuff that I wouldn't even have thought about or known how to find.” But one way in which Reed was a typical teenager of the period was his love for rock and roll, especially doo-wop. He'd got himself a guitar, but only had one lesson -- according to the story he would tell on numerous occasions, he turned up with a copy of "Blue Suede Shoes" and told the teacher he only wanted to know how to play the chords for that, and he'd work out the rest himself. Reed and two schoolfriends, Alan Walters and Phil Harris, put together a doo-wop trio they called The Shades, because they wore sunglasses, and a neighbour introduced them to Bob Shad, who had been an A&R man for Mercury Records and was starting his own new label. He renamed them the Jades and took them into the studio with some of the best New York session players, and at fourteen years old Lou Reed was writing songs and singing them backed by Mickey Baker and King Curtis: [Excerpt: The Jades, "Leave Her For Me"] Sadly the Jades' single was a flop -- the closest it came to success was being played on Murray the K's radio show, but on a day when Murray the K was off ill and someone else was filling in for him, much to Reed's disappointment. Phil Harris, the lead singer of the group, got to record some solo sessions after that, but the Jades split up and it would be several years before Reed made any more records. Partly this was because of Reed's mental health, and here's where things get disputed and rather messy. What we know is that in his late teens, just after he'd gone off to New

Saxophonist James Brandon Lewis has carved out a career as an instrumentalist, composer, bandleader, and collaborator who has played with a spread of artists within and beyond the jazz world, including instrumental power trio Messthetics. In this episode, he discusses how tunes by Ornette Coleman, Archie Shepp and Abdullah Ibrahim, and Sonny Rollins influenced his playing. Essential Tremors is produced by Matt Byars and Lee Gardner and distributed by Your Public Studios.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In Soundworks: Race, Sound, and Poetry in Production (Duke UP, 2020), Anthony Reed argues that studying sound requires conceiving it as process and as work. Since the long Black Arts era (ca. 1958–1974), intellectuals, poets, and musicians have defined black sound as radical aesthetic practice. Through their recorded collaborations as well as the accompanying interviews, essays, liner notes, and other media, they continually reinvent black sound conceptually and materially.  Soundwork is Reed's term for that material and conceptual labor of experimental sound practice framed by the institutions of the culture industry and shifting historical contexts. Through analyses of Langston Hughes's collaboration with Charles Mingus, Amiri Baraka's work with the New York Art Quartet, Jayne Cortez's albums with the Firespitters, and the multimedia projects of Archie Shepp, Matana Roberts, Cecil Taylor, and Jeanne Lee, Reed shows that to grasp black sound as a radical philosophical and aesthetic insurgence requires attending to it as the product of material, technical, sensual, and ideological processes. Henry Ivry is a Lecturer in 20th and 21st Century Literature in the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/african-american-studies

In Soundworks: Race, Sound, and Poetry in Production (Duke UP, 2020), Anthony Reed argues that studying sound requires conceiving it as process and as work. Since the long Black Arts era (ca. 1958–1974), intellectuals, poets, and musicians have defined black sound as radical aesthetic practice. Through their recorded collaborations as well as the accompanying interviews, essays, liner notes, and other media, they continually reinvent black sound conceptually and materially.  Soundwork is Reed's term for that material and conceptual labor of experimental sound practice framed by the institutions of the culture industry and shifting historical contexts. Through analyses of Langston Hughes's collaboration with Charles Mingus, Amiri Baraka's work with the New York Art Quartet, Jayne Cortez's albums with the Firespitters, and the multimedia projects of Archie Shepp, Matana Roberts, Cecil Taylor, and Jeanne Lee, Reed shows that to grasp black sound as a radical philosophical and aesthetic insurgence requires attending to it as the product of material, technical, sensual, and ideological processes. Henry Ivry is a Lecturer in 20th and 21st Century Literature in the School of Critical Studies at the University of Glasgow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network