Podcasts about John Coltrane

If you want to change the game, first you need to master the game.  Coming up in Newark in the fifties was the exact right place and time for Larry Young to learn the idiom of the Hammond B-3 organ, and he learned his lessons well.  His early records embody the soul-jazz organ trio sound made popular by Jimmy Smith.   But as the sound of the sixties emerged, Larry Young (also known by his Muslim name, Khalid Yasin Abdul Aziz) was reaching for something more.  His journey, including hours of conversation and jam sessions with spiritual avatar John Coltrane, brought about an expanded consciousness that revealed itself in his music.  Larry Young pulled an unmistakably boisterous explosion of sound through the B-3.  He showed new horizons that fellow organists have been pursuing for more than half a century.    Brian Charette is one of them.  He is not only an endlessly inventive multi-instrumentalist and bandleader, but also one of our best students of the music's history.  He joins host Mitch Goldman on this week's Deep Focus.   Did the WKCR archives provide recordings of Larry Young and John Coltrane's private sessions?  Unfortunately, none are known to exist.  Do we have rare recordings of Larry Young and Jimi Hendrix pushing each other in new directions?     Find out Monday (10/27) from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD, or wkcr.org.   Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  Just like WKCR, it's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.   Learn more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.   Photo credit: Photo by Francis Wolff. Shot in Paris. Michael Cuscuna unearthed this photo, amongst others, for Resonance's “Larry Young In Paris” in 2016. #WKCR #DeepFocus #LarryYoung #BrianCharette #JimiHendrix #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman 

durée : 00:59:34 - Banzzaï du vendredi 21 novembre 2025 - Miracles ! - rediffusion - par : Nathalie Piolé -

Welcome to Strictly Jazz Sounds. In this episode, we spotlight saxophonist Mark Turner, an LA native known for his technical brilliance and soulful undertones. Turner's music is influenced by R&B and jazz from his upbringing, as well as legendary saxophonists like Warne Marsh and John Coltrane. Mark's humility and self-deprecation are evident, but his artistry shines through, especially in his latest project, Reflections On: An Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, produced in collaboration with Jimmy Katz and Giant Step Arts. The episode explores how Turner's experiences as an African American have shaped his work in the thematic 10-part suite inspired by the novel penned by civil rights activist, author and poet, James Weldon Johnson, "An Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man." Our conversation covers Turner's compositional process, the challenges of identity and race, and the historical context behind his music. He also shares plans for future projects, including those inspired by Sci-Fi author Octavia Butler, with hopes of returning to Giant Step Arts. You'll hear four movements from the quintet: Mark Turner-tenor sax and narration, Jason Palmer-trumpet, David Virelles-piano, Matt Brewer-bass, and Nasheet Waits-drums. The featured compositions are Movement 1: Anonymous-4:04 (4:24), Movement 4: New York-12:03 (45:18), Movement 9: Identity Politics-6:11(1:07:00), and Movement 10: Closure-2:22 (01:20:08). I am grateful to Jimmy Katz and Giant Step Arts for use of the recordings. Thank you for tuning in. If you haven't subscribed yet, please do so to stay updated on future episodes, jazz news, and our annual Top 20 Jazz playlist. All the music played on this podcast has been authorized. Support jazz musicians by buying their music and support live jazz wherever you are. Now, let's begin with Movement 1. Enjoy the conversation!

Playlist: Jason Marshall - Recordame / Airegin / Peggy's Blue SkylightSpike Wilner - At First Blush / ContrafactusMichael Weiss - I'll Remember April / SuddenlySam Taylor - Philly New York Junction / Without A Smile / Bye Bye Baby

Ravi Coltrane with Marcus MillerMarcus Miller interviews Ravi Coltrane about his musical evolution and the dual legacy of his parents, Alice and John Coltrane. This insightful and candid talk, recorded live on the Journey of Jazz cruise, covers the challenges of growing up under the shadow of a jazz icon and finding one's own voice through the music.Key TakeawaysThe episode is a conversation between host Marcus Miller and guest Ravi Coltrane, focusing on Ravi's development as a jazz saxophonist.Ravi's father, John Coltrane, passed away in 1967 when Ravi was 2 years old, leaving Ravi to be raised by his mother, Alice Coltrane. Ravi notes that his father's instruments are currently in his stateroom.Ravi began his musical journey playing the clarinet throughout junior high and high school. He switched to the soprano saxophone at age 16 after his mother gave it to him for his birthday as a hint, later moving to the tenor saxophone.Ravi did not initially feel pressure from his famous last name because, during the 1970s in the San Fernando Valley where he grew up, John Coltrane was still considered "underground" or "counter culture".The death of Ravi's older brother, John Jr., in an automobile accident when Ravi was 17, caused a "void" that Ravi later filled by studying his father's music. Ravi began listening to his father's records to gain answers for questions asked at parties, and through this, the music "hit" him.Ravi worked with key members of the John Coltrane Quartet, including joining drummer Elvin Jones's band in 1991 (though he felt he was "prematurely" ready) and later working with pianist McCoy Tyner in the 2000s.Ravi and Marcus discuss the meaning of being "ready" to perform at a high level, noting that it means being "prepared to do the job properly" and recognizing that evolution and learning are continuous processes.Host and Guest InfoHost: Lee Mergner (introduction), Marcus Miller (interview).Guest: Ravi Coltrane.This talk was recorded during the Journey of Jazz cruise. Marcus Miller provided the theme music, which is a clip from his song "High Life" on his album Aphrodesia on Blue Note.The talk was captured by Brian Ratchkco and his production team.Send us a text

Playlist: Clark Gibson - Oatts Is Back / BoptudePJ Perry - Too Soon Gone / AgoraphobiaSean Fyfe - See Ya / SkylarkSpike Wilner Trio - Eronel / Lets Cool One / UMMG

Peste 1000 de muzicieni au colaborat pentru un album prin care protestează față de modificările propuse de guvernul britanic la legea dreptului de autor astfel încît companiile de inteligență artificială să-și poată construi produsele pe baza unor opere de artă, muzică, texte protejate de drepturi de autor. „Is This What We Want?” se numește albumul care propune înregistrări silențioase, cu zgomotul de fond din studiouri goale și a fost lansat la începutul anului. În noiembrie albumul a fost lansat și pe vinil, variantă care conține un bonus: o „melodie silențioasă” purtînd semnătura lui Paul McCartney. Artiștii atrag atenția asupra pericolelor și amenințărilor la adresa muncii creative aduse de dezvoltarea inteligenței artificiale și nereglementarea ei, precum și asupra chestiunilor de etică pe care le implică folosirea muncii artiștilor fără a plăti drepturi de autor. Invitaţii noştri sînt saxofonistul și compozitorul Mihai Iordache şi cercetătorul Radu Uszkai, de la Centrul de Cercetare în Etică Aplicată.Ca muzician, înveți și de la alții. Ești ceea ce asculți. Cînd compui, o faci implicit pentru că te-ai hrănit și chiar inspirat din muzica altora – chiar dacă e inconștient și implicit. Nu-l imiți pe John Coltrane sau pe Charlie Parker, dar le-ai ascultat muzica – poate chiar o știi pe de rost – și ceva din muzica lor e și-n compozițiile tale. Ce e diferit față de ce face Inteligența Artificială atunci cînd preia mii de ore de muzică și compilează partituri noi?Mihai Iordache: „Ăsta e cel mai simplu de demontat dintre argumentele pro-inteligenţă artificială în discuţia despre muzică. În momentul cînd te hrăneşti cu ce ai ascultat, cu ce ai citit sau ai desenat ca artist, în mod absolut automat acele lucruri trec prin sensibilitatea ta şi rămîi un om care cîntă, compune, face diverse lucruri. Ceea ce este cu totul diferit de (ce face) o maşină, pînă la urmă – pentru că termenul de inteligenţă este foarte exagerat folosit, ca să nu spun că e greşit –, o maşină care încearcă să compileze tot ce s-a făcut într-un stil, fără nici un fel de suflet, fără nici un fel de intenţie, în afara aşa-zisei intenţii a prompterului care-i spune vreau o melodie aşa, şi aşa, şi aşa şi care abia aşteaptă să-i vină ceva pe tavă fără să fi făcut nimic.”Cum ar trebui reglementată funcționarea modelelor de inteligență artificială astfel încît să fie respectată munca oamenilor pe baza căreia se antrenează AI? Radu Uszkai: „Discuţile despre reglementare le purtăm nu într-un vacuum, ci în contextul existenţei unei diversităţi din punctul de vedere al reglementărlor. Ce facem noi s-ar putea să n-aibă nimic de-a face cu ce se întîmplă, de pildă, în spaţiul chinezesc. Poziţia ideală ar fi ca reglementatorul, adică statul, să reunească toate părţile co-interesate, care au o miză morală în acest proces. Asta înseamnă artişti, public, companii, sistem educaţional şi în primul rînd să pornim de la mizele lor atît financiare, cît şi de natură estetică. În mod uzual însă, ce se întîmplă nu este acest proces transparent, ci cîştigă lobby-ul unei părţi. Fie lobby-ul corporatist, fie interesele de ordin politic ale unor politicieni care sînt împotriva unor corporaţii. Răspunsul este generic, fiindcă realmente nu am un răspuns clar. Vin de pe o poziţie nu neapărat tehno-optimistă, dar tehno-realistă, în care văd diverse elemente cît se poate de pozitive în aceste unelte – chiar dacă sînt lipsite de creativitate în sens uman, le văd ca avînd un soi de creativitate sintetică, ce poate fi un ameliorator în anumite contexte –, de aceea aş zice că modul de reglementare nu ar trebui să blocheze în totalitate capacitatea inginerilor şi a companiilor de a investi şi de a le dezvolta, luînd în considerare însă şi consecinţele negative ale acestui proces.”Apasă PLAY pentru a asculta interviul integral! O emisiune de Adela Greceanu și Matei Martin Un produs Radio România Cultural

Playlist: Jon McCaslin - Sunalta / Different MountainsMetalwood - The Past Before You / BodybeardJeff Libman - Strange Beauty / Stop Hitting YourselfOliver Gannon, Miles Black - I Remember You / I Want To Be Happy / The Nearness Of You

Podcast Jazztime 695 – 18.11.2025 Titel: „Getting some fun out of life” mit Madeleine Peyroux, Astrud Gilberto und Michael Buble Jazz in seiner gesamten Bandbreite von Swing bis Bossa mit tollen Sängerinnen und Sängern heute in der Folge. Folgende Titel sind zu hören: 1. Getting some fun out of life - Madeleine Peyroux 2. Lazy river - Bing Crosby 3. Dream a little dream of me - Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong 4. The evening News - Yellowjackets 5. Beach Samba - Astrud Gilberto 6. Mumbles - Oscar Peterson Trio 7. They say it's wonderful - John Coltrane, Johnny Hartmann 8. Rockit (Rock it) - Herbie Hancock 9. This can't be love - Ernestine Anderson 10. Kissing a fool - Michael Buble Bei Titelwünsche und Anregungen schreiben Sie gern an: jazztime.mv@ndr.de

Playlist: Mike Melito - Ruby My Dear / Straight StreetMiki Yamanaka - Gin / OatmealJoel Haynes - Allure / AngelJeb Patton - E Major / D Major / Prelude To A Kiss

Playlist: Carl Allen - They Say It's Wonderful / Put On A Happy FaceJames Danderfer - I Like You / Garden Of Weeds / Tempest Of The TimesJon Bentley - Down In The Depths / Feeling Of JazzNeil Swainson - One For Rob / Under Cover of DarknessWarren Wolf - Saturn's Child

Playlist: David Murray - Chazz / Portrait / Lyons / ElegyPharoah Sanders - Freedom / Yemenja / Easy / Think

Playlist: Jack DeJohnette - One for Eric / Zoot Suite / Central park / India / Journey / Riff Raff / Inflation

Playlist: McCoy Tyner - In 'N Out / Taking Off / Isotope

Playlist: Kenny Wheeler - Foxy Trot / Ma / Three / WWKeith Jarrett - Straight No ChaserJoe Henderson - Waltz

Playlist: Benny Golson - Time Pst / Jam The Ave / OriginDavid Murray - Pastel Rhapsody / Dice / Tin Can AlleyFranco Ambrosetti - Milonga / Try Again / Silli's

If you want to change the game, first you need to master the game.  Coming up in Newark in the fifties was the exact right place and time for Larry Young to learn the idiom of the Hammond B-3 organ, and he learned his lessons well.  His early records embody the soul-jazz organ trio sound made popular by Jimmy Smith.   But as the sound of the sixties emerged, Larry Young (also known by his Muslim name, Khalid Yasin Abdul Aziz) was reaching for something more.  His journey, including hours of conversation and jam sessions with spiritual avatar John Coltrane, brought about an expanded consciousness that revealed itself in his music.  Larry Young pulled an unmistakably boisterous explosion of sound through the B-3.  He showed new horizons that fellow organists have been pursuing for more than half a century.    Brian Charette is one of them.  He is not only an endlessly inventive multi-instrumentalist and bandleader, but also one of our best students of the music's history.  He joins host Mitch Goldman on this week's Deep Focus.   Did the WKCR archives provide recordings of Larry Young and John Coltrane's private sessions?  Unfortunately, none are known to exist.  Do we have rare recordings of Larry Young and Jimi Hendrix pushing each other in new directions?     Find out Monday (10/27) from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD, or wkcr.org.   Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  Just like WKCR, it's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.   Learn more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.   Photo credit: Photo by Francis Wolff. Shot in Paris. Michael Cuscuna unearthed this photo, amongst others, for Resonance's “Larry Young In Paris” in 2016. #WKCR #DeepFocus #LarryYoung #BrianCharette #JimiHendrix #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman 

Playlist: John Abercrombie - Back Wood SongDave Holland - SegmentJack DeJohnette - Good BaitStandards Trio - I Hear A RhapsodyJack DeJohnette - Picture 6

Here's SF's poet laureate Jenny Lim reading her piece “Time traveler, For Bob Kaufman and John Coltrane.”

If you want to change the game, first you need to master the game.  Coming up in Newark in the fifties was the exact right place and time for Larry Young to learn the idiom of the Hammond B-3 organ, and he learned his lessons well.  His early records embody the soul-jazz organ trio sound made popular by Jimmy Smith.   But as the sound of the sixties emerged, Larry Young (also known by his Muslim name, Khalid Yasin Abdul Aziz) was reaching for something more.  His journey, including hours of conversation and jam sessions with spiritual avatar John Coltrane, brought about an expanded consciousness that revealed itself in his music.  Larry Young pulled an unmistakably boisterous explosion of sound through the B-3.  He showed new horizons that fellow organists have been pursuing for more than half a century.    Brian Charette is one of them.  He is not only an endlessly inventive multi-instrumentalist and bandleader, but also one of our best students of the music's history.  He joins host Mitch Goldman on this week's Deep Focus.   Did the WKCR archives provide recordings of Larry Young and John Coltrane's private sessions?  Unfortunately, none are known to exist.  Do we have rare recordings of Larry Young and Jimi Hendrix pushing each other in new directions?     Find out Monday (10/27) from 6p to 9p NYC time on WKCR 89.9FM, WKCR-HD, or wkcr.org.   Or join us when it goes up on the Deep Focus podcast on your favorite podcasting app or at https://mitchgoldman.podbean.com/.  Subscribe right now to get notifications when new episodes are posted.  Just like WKCR, it's ad-free, all free, totally non-commercial.  We won't even ask for your contact info.   Learn more about Deep Focus at https://mitchgoldman.com/about-deep-focus/ or join us on Instagram @deep_focus_podcast.   Photo credit: Photo by Francis Wolff. Shot in Paris. Michael Cuscuna unearthed this photo, amongst others, for Resonance's “Larry Young In Paris” in 2016. #WKCR #DeepFocus #LarryYoung #BrianCharette #JimiHendrix #JazzRadio #JazzPodcast #JazzInterview #MitchGoldman 

The Jazz Session No.440 from RaidersBroadcast.com as aired in November 2025, featuring the 2020 remix of Snarky Puppy's superb live recording modern jazz album “Tell Your Friends”. TRACK LISTING: Robot Portrait - Quincy Jones; Don the Dreamer - Kenny Wheeler, w. John Dankworth Orchestra; Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe - Judy Garland; Come Ye - Nina Simone; Ready Wednesday - Snarky Puppy; Anomynous - Snarky Puppy; The Oddity - Davide Monacelli; All the Things You Are - Joe Pass; Bu's Delight - Art Blakey & The Jazz Messengers; Solid - Sonny Rollins; Arthur's Moustache - Colosseum; Just to Cry - Keef Hartley; The Pearls - Jelly Roll Morton; Bourbon Street Parade - Chris Barber; Flood - Snarky Puppy; Skate U - Snarky Puppy; Uuntitled Original 11386 - John Coltrane; Gunslinging Bird - Charles Mingus; Something Beautiful - Acoustic Ladyland; When Can I See You - Herbie Hancock.

This was a good Saturday workout: not the hardest Saturday ever, but engaging, with some truly effervescent cluing. We covered the best-of-the-best in today's episode, but we would also like to note 26A, John Coltrane album whose title suggests making major progress, GIANTSTEPS (check it out, an awesome work); 46D, Pussyfoot: SNEAK; and the star of one of our favorite Marvel series, 9D, Elizabeth of "Wanda Vision", OLSEN (no relation to the photographer Jimmy OLSEN, one reason being that the latter is entirely fictional).Show note imagery: MANSAMUSA, the Elon Musk of his day (1280-1337 AD), admiring his favorite element on the periodic table, gold.We love feedback! Send us a text...Contact Info:We love listener mail! Drop us a line, crosswordpodcast@icloud.com.Also, we're on FaceBook, so feel free to drop by there and strike up a conversation!

Playlist: Keith Jarrett - You Won't Forget MePat Metheny - Two Folk SongsEric Kloss - In A Country GardenKenny Wheeler - Deer WanCedar Walton - Lady Charlotte

hr-Bigband, cond./arr. by Jim McNeely, Musikhochschule Frankfurt, Januar 2017 | Im Januar 2017 spielte die hr-Bigband ein neues Projekt von hr-Bigband-Chef Jim McNeely. Seit neun Jahren war er da schon eng mit der hr-Bigband verbandelt, hat viele atemberaubende Projekte gemacht. Für dieses Projekt holte er Stücke hervor, die ihm immer etwas bedeutet haben und hat sie neu arrangiert, inspiriert unter anderem durch Branford Marsalis, Joe Zawinul und John Coltrane. Mit diesen Stücken gab es ein Abschiedskonzert für den langjährigen Bassisten Thomas Heidepriem, der sich im April des gleichen Jahres in den Ruhestand verabschiedete. (Sendung vom 9.11.)

Playlist: Jackie McLean - Blue FableBill Evans - Someday My PrinceBill Evans - NardisCharles Lloyd - SorceryJack DeJohnette - The Major GeneralWayne Shorter - Water BabiesCharles Lloyd - Days And Nights WaitingMiles Davis - Sanctuary

Performance used with permission from the artist. Since 2014, contemporary jazz band Spin Cycle has been bringing their original music to clubs and concert halls across the US and Canada. Co-lead by Drummer Scott Neumann and Saxophonist Tom Christensen, the band highlights their flexibility, reach and capacity to surprise audiences. On any given song, you might encounter the modal influence of John Coltrane, the second-line funk of New Orleans, or the edgy experimentation of free jazz. The group features guitarist Pete McCann and bassist Dave Ambrosio, both bandleaders and well-respected artists in their own right and this performance is in support of their most recent release Spin Cycle III. From a November 10th, 2024 performance it's Spin Cycle – Live at the Bop Stop.

Sintonía: "Dumplins" - Byron Lee & The Dragonaires 1.- "My Favorite Things" 2.- "But Not For Me"Extraídas del álbum "My Favorite Things" (1960/Vinyl Passion 2013) 3.- "Africa" 4.- "Greensleeves"Extraídas del álbum "Africa/Brass" (1961/Vinyl Passion 2013)Escuchar audio

Playlist: Francisco Mela - Chela / Parallel WorldMatt Choboter - SamskaraSven Ake Johansson - Konsum VFrancois Carrier - Lekh LekaSven Ake Johansson - Schiebe 71 [excerpt]

This week, a nostalgic Cancer Last Quarter Moon is a time to reflect on what we've accomplished in our recent New Moon goals. Venus, the goddess of love and beauty, glides into her elegant home sign of Libra, and promptly meets up with idealistic Neptune, unpredictable Uranus, and probing Pluto. Power issues rise to the surface as Pluto stations direct. The Sun and Jupiter bring a fresh start, but might bring up conflicts in all types of relationships. Words can get a little hurtful as Mercury and Mars come together in Scorpio. And a listener question about houses in the horoscope that are ruled by the same planet - how are they connected? Plus: Calming tea, an autumn leaf, and a trip to Disneyland. Read a full transcript of this episode. It's eclipse season! Order your copy of my “Followed by a Moonshadow” eclipse report! Have a question you'd like answered on the show? Email April or leave it here! Subscribe to April's mailing list and get a free lunar workbook at each New Moon! Timestamps: [01:44] Moon Report: Cancer Last Quarter Moon (Mon., Oct. 13, 11:13 am PDT, 20º39' Cancer-Libra). Reflect on what you've built since September's Virgo Solar Eclipse. Balance your personal spotlight (“A prima donna singing”) with collective harmony (“A crowd upon the beach”). [04:05] Lunar Phase Family Cycle (LPFC) Connects back to the July 17, 2023, New Moon in Cancer — a long-term story about power, control, and emotional authenticity, with peaks at the First Quarter Moon on April 15, 2024, and Full Moon on Jan. 13, 2025. [06:02] Void-of-Course Moons. Mon., Oct. 13, Moon in Cancer trines Saturn at 10:05 pm PDT. It's VOC for 5 hours 42 minutes, then enters Leo on Tues. Oct. 14 at 3:47 am. Perfect for bedtime reflection and initiating soothing routines. [07:18] Wed., Oct. 15, Moon in Leo sextiles Sun in Libra, 10:06 pm PDT. It's VOC for 12 hours 59 minutes, then enters Virgo on Thu. Oct. 16, 11:05 am. Express yourself creatively. [08:13] Sat., Oct. 18, Moon in Virgo opposes Saturn at 2:10 pm PDT. It's VOC for 6 hours 51 minutes, then enters Libra at 9:01 pm. A reality check — do what you can, then let go. [09:31] Venus enters Libra (Mon., Oct. 13, 2:19 pm PDT, until Nov. 6). Venus in Libra delights in beauty, grace, and harmony — but expects manners and mutual respect. It's a time for refinement, art, music, and creating peaceful surroundings. [10:56] Venus opposes Neptune (Mon., Oct. 13, 6:16 pm PDT, 0º12' Libra-Aries). Beautiful illusions or confusing emotions? This transit heightens creativity and longing. Lean into art and inspiration, but beware of wishful thinking in love or finances. [12:52] Pluto stations Direct (Mon., Oct. 13, 7:52 pm PDT) at 1° Aquarius on the Sabian symbol “An unexpected thunderstorm,” an awakening to change and empowerment. With Venus and Uranus in the mix, expect surprising revelations and renewal. Pluto has been retrograde since May 4. [14:33] Venus trines Uranus (Tue., Oct. 14, 7:09 am PDT, 0º52' Libra-Gemini). Fresh energy in relationships, art, and finances — and maybe a glimpse beneath the surface. Sabian symbols: 1 Libra, A butterfly made perfect by a dart through it, and 1 Gemini, A glass-bottomed boat in still water. [16:55] Venus trines Pluto (Tue., Oct. 14, 4:45 pm PDT, 1º22' Libra-Aquarius). Depth of feeling, and a reminder to love deeply, feel our losses, remain open to life's beauty. Sabian symbol: 2 Aquarius, An unexpected thunderstorm. [18:31] Sun Square Jupiter (Thu., Oct. 16, 10:43 pm PDT, 24º06' Libra-Cancer) Confidence meets challenge — a time to stretch beyond your comfort zone while keeping your balance. Excellent for self-promotion, creative pursuits, and reconnecting with loved ones. Sun's Sabian symbol: 25 Libra, All information in the symbol of one leaf. [21:12] Mercury conjunct Mars (Sun., Oct. 19, 11:51 pm PDT, 19º11' Scorpio). Sharp minds and sharper tongues. Productive for research and problem-solving, but watch out for heated words. Speak with care and precision. Sabian symbol: 20 Scorpio, A woman drawing two dark curtains aside. [23:02] Listener Question: Houses with the same ruler. Listener Michelle asks how life areas ruled by the same planet connect in the birth chart. April explains how a shared planetary ruler weaves together different houses — with an example from John Coltrane's chart (b. Sep. 23, 1926, 5 pm EST, Hamlet, NC, Placidus houses) that ties together creativity, study, and financial opportunity. [27:51] To have a question answered on a future episode, leave a message of one minute or less at speakpipe.com/bigskyastrologypodcast or email april (at) bigskyastrology (dot) com; put “Podcast Question” in the subject line. Free ways to support the podcast: subscribe, like, review and share with a friend! [28:30] A tribute to this week's donors! If you would like to support the show and receive access to April's special donors-only videos, go to BigSkyAstropod.com and contribute $10 or more. You can make a one-time donation in any amount or become an ongoing monthly contributor.

Tom Brokaw famously described America's World War II servicemen as the “Greatest Generation”. But according to the historian David Nasaw, the Americans who fought in the Second World War are better understood as The Wounded Generation. His eponymous new book describes the pain and hardships that 16 million veterans endured upon their return home - a tragic story of PTSD, racism and family breakup. Brokaw celebrated the nobility with which these ex-soldiers got on with civilian life without either complaining or even talking about the war. But for Nasaw, this silence wasn't just stoicism—it was often undiagnosed and sometimes even untreatable trauma.1. WWII Was America's Longest and Most Brutal War The average soldier served nearly three years in uniform (compared to less than one year in WWI), with 75% deployed overseas. Combat on the European front was relentless, especially in the final year, with severe manpower shortages keeping GIs on the front lines for weeks or months without relief.2. Millions Returned with Undiagnosed PTSD Veterans came home with what we now recognize as PTSD, but it was neither diagnosed nor treated. Unable to talk about their experiences, many self-medicated with alcohol. The silence wasn't stoicism—it was trauma. Writers like Salinger and Vonnegut could only process their experiences through fiction years later.3. The GI Bill Excluded Most Black Veterans While celebrated as transformative legislation, the GI Bill's benefits were distributed by local officials. In the South, this meant Black veterans were systematically denied college access (segregated schools were full) and unemployment benefits (they were told to return to sharecropping). Only Northern Black veterans like Harry Belafonte, John Coltrane, and Tito Puente could fully access their benefits.4. America Faced Its Worst Housing Crisis Ever No homes had been built during the Depression or the war years, creating unprecedented shortages when 16 million servicemen returned. This housing crisis, combined with fears of renewed economic depression, added to veterans' anxiety about rebuilding their lives. Politicians like JFK and Jacob Javits fought hard for veterans' housing subsidies.5. The War's Aftermath Lasted Decades 1946 saw record divorce rates and increased lynchings as racial tensions exploded. Veterans who liberated concentration camps or survived POW camps (especially in the Pacific) carried lifelong trauma. Nasaw's central message: wars don't end with peace treaties—the harm to soldiers and civilians lasts for generations.Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Playlist: Ideal Bread - Roba / BlinksSteve Lacy - Hooky / The CrustBarry Elmes - Fat CatJean Derome - Stray HornPaul Bley, Gary Burton - Ida LupinoMiles Davis - Out Of The Blue

Das primeiras sensações quando voce se descobre surfista é folhear uma revista ou livro de fotografias.O transportar é imediato.Fixando o olhar, voce já não está mais no mesmo lugar, se roubarmos a frase do Chico Science - livro é transporte.No episodio 324 do Boia, Julio Adler, João Valente e Bruno Bocayuva te ajudam a ouvir Jair Bortoleto, um surfista que se descobriu fotografo e não se cansa de compartilhar sua arte.Tambem temos Titus!A trilha vem com Little Brother do Black Star, New Dawn (Participação da Neneh Cherry) do Marshall Allen, Banh Me do Curtis Harding e John Coltrane com o clássico A Love Supreme Part I Acknowledgement.

In this special episode of The Underground Lounge, Lou and Spank welcome an icon who truly needs no introduction: Flea, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Known for his explosive stage presence and innovative bass lines, Flea takes us through the journey of his life and career with honesty, humor, and reflection.The conversation begins with his early childhood and the jazz influences that shaped him, from Miles Davis to John Coltrane, and how picking up a bass in high school completely changed his world. Flea shares how his lifelong friendship with Anthony Kiedis sparked the foundation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and how their bond, while tested over the decades, has been the glue holding the band together through lineup changes, global tours, and creative evolution. He recalls the band's rise from gritty L.A. clubs to massive stadiums, memorable festival moments, and the infamous chaos of Woodstock.Beyond the music, Flea opens up about his personal growth. He discusses the turning point that led him to give up hard drugs in his 30s, the role of sobriety in helping him embrace health and creativity, and how fatherhood continues to shape his perspective. He emphasizes the importance of self-love, learning from childhood traumas, and finding joy in constant growth, whether through reading, exploring new art, or picking up a basketball to shoot around at 57 years old.Naturally, basketball plays a big role in the conversation. A die-hard Lakers fan, Flea reminisces about the Showtime era with Magic and Kareem, the ups and downs of the team over the years, and his respect for LeBron James's longevity and excellence. The discussion connects the worlds of sports and music, highlighting how teamwork, trust, and chemistry are just as crucial on the court as they are on stage.The crew also touch on the cultural shifts in music, from the originality demanded in earlier eras to today's algorithm-driven sameness, and Flea reflects on the importance of pushing boundaries and staying true to individuality. He also shines a light on his nonprofit, the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, which has been teaching hundreds of kids every week for over two decades, giving them the same gift of music that changed his own life.From smashing guitars to smashing stereotypes, Flea proves why he's one of the most compelling figures in modern music. This episode is equal parts funny, insightful, and inspiring, offering a rare glimpse into the mind of a rock legend who's still as passionate, curious, and relentless as ever.

Saxophonist Julian “Cannonball” Adderley (born September 15, 1928) and his cornet-playing brother Nat (born November 25, 1931) co-led a popular jazz combo for many years in the 1960s and 70s. While Nat composed much of the music for the group, Cannonball's galvanic,  pyrotechnic alto saxophone playing was the big draw. Indeed, from the time he arrived on the New York jazz scene in the 1950s, he set the town on fire with his incredible virtuosity and distinctive tone and attack. He was a key member of the great Miles Davis sextet alongside John Coltrane that recorded the classic album Kind of Blue. Plus, St. Michael's Jazz Fest returns for a second year of incredible jazz in Carlsbad Village this Saturday, September 27th! Headlining is New Orleans' own, the legendary Grammy Award-Winning Rebirth Brass Band, joined by Euphoria Brass Band, Gilbert Castellanos Latin Jazz Ensemble, Starsign, Chunky Hustle Brass Band, Sue Palmer Swing Orchestra, and more. Free to the public and held outside on the campus lawn of St. Michael's by-the-Sea in Carlsbad. Learn more and consider volunteering or donating: https://www.stmichaelsjazzfest.org/

The Riffin' Trio delivers a program of Jazz with a carefree spirit, this Sunday September 28 at Dusty's in Minneapolis. It's part of the Riffin' Trio residency at Dusty's, every fourth monthly Sunday 5 till 8PM. Phil Nusbaum caught up with Nelson Deveraux, sax player for the group, and asked Nelson about the Riffin' Trio's approach to a John Coltrane blues.

John Coltrane's A Love Supreme: Some call it the greatest album of the 20th century. Others say it isn't even Coltrane's best album ... of 1965. No matter where you think it sits in the jazz music canon, Coltrane's love letter to God is a masterpiece. We break it down track-by-track, chord-by-chord to uncover what makes this album such a rewarding listen from front to back.This week marks 99 years since Coltrane's birth. In his honor, we look back at this episode from 2024, where we listen deeply to what just may be Coltrane's magnum opus.Looking for more Coltrane? Here are 6 Songs To Turn Coltrane Curious Into Coltrane Converted: https://youtu.be/aSdNNTmL7YkStart your free Open Studio trial for ALLLLL your jazz lesson needs: https://osjazz.link/yhi 

Saxophonist and composer John Coltrane (born September 23, 1926) remains one of the most revered and influential musicians of all time across genres. The spiritual force of his music speaks to people who aren't even jazz aficionados, but has been an overwhelming influence on all of us who play this music to this day.   And don't forget ... St. Michael's Jazz Fest returns for a second year of incredible jazz in Carlsbad Village! Headlining is New Orleans' own, the legendary Grammy Award-Winning Rebirth Brass Band, joined by Euphoria Brass Band, Gilbert Castellanos Latin Jazz Ensemble, Starsign, Chunky Hustle Brass Band, Sue Palmer Swing Orchestra, and more. Free to the public and held outside on the campus lawn of St. Michael's by-the-Sea in Carlsbad. Learn more and consider volunteering or donating: https://www.stmichaelsjazzfest.org/ Saturday, September 27, 2025

Amelia Davis is the owner of legendary Rock Photographer Jim Marshall's archive, his former assistant, and the caretaker of his legacy. Jim Marshall was a photojournalist, street photographer and the Godfather of Rock and Roll Photography in the ‘60s. His work captured that era and is still relevant today. Jim photographed everyone from the Beatles to Jimi Hendrix to the Grateful Dead. Amelia has just published a new Epic Grateful Dead book to commemorate the band forming 60 years ago.My featured song is my reimagined version of Jimi Hendrix's “Fire” from the album Made In New York by my band Project Grand Slam. Spotify link.------------------------------------------The Follow Your Dream Podcast:Top 1% of all podcasts with Listeners in 200 countries!Click here for All Episodes Click here for Guest List Click here for Guest Groupings Click here for Guest TestimonialsClick here to Subscribe Click here to receive our Email UpdatesClick here to Rate and Review the podcast—----------------------------------------CONNECT WITH AMELIA:www.jimmarshallphotographyllc.com—----------------------------------------ROBERT'S NEWEST SINGLE:“SUNDAY SLIDE” is Robert's newest single. It's been called “A fun, upbeat, you-gotta-move song”. Featuring 3 World Class guest artists: Laurence Juber on guitar (Wings with Paul McCartney), Paul Hanson on bassoon (Bela Fleck), and Eamon McLoughlin on violin (Grand Ole Opry band).CLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKSCLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEO—-------------------------------------------ROBERT'S NEWEST ALBUM:“WHAT'S UP!” is Robert's new compilation album. Featuring 10 of his recent singles including all the ones listed below. Instrumentals and vocals. Jazz, Rock, Pop and Fusion. “My best work so far. (Robert)”CLICK HERE FOR THE OFFICIAL VIDEOCLICK HERE FOR ALL LINKS—----------------------------------------Audio production:Jimmy RavenscroftKymera Films Connect with the Follow Your Dream Podcast:Website - www.followyourdreampodcast.comEmail Robert - robert@followyourdreampodcast.com Follow Robert's band, Project Grand Slam, and his music:Website - www.projectgrandslam.comYouTubeSpotify MusicApple MusicEmail - pgs@projectgrandslam.com 

Like many hip youngsters of my generation, at some point in my twenties I got Jazz-pilled by Beat literature, with writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg name-dropping bop-era musicians like Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Charlie Parker, and many more, sending me to Limewire to download mp3s of 1950s and 1960s Jazz. In recent years, my casual appreciation has turned into a more intense investigation of music history and practice, particularly after discovering “The Grape,” a Jazz club in my neighborhood that's overflowing with colorful characters and musical adventure. My guest today is one of those characters: Monte Montgomery is a multi-instrumentalist, former touring funk guitarist, and all around hip music dude. In this conversation, he shares highlights from his decades in music, from playing funk with a group of Black GIs on a military base in Germany at the age of 17, to entertaining celebrities and insanely rich people on the Beverly Hills philanthropic event circuit, to his current gig holding court on piano, guitar, and drums every Tuesday night at The Grape. Check out my new ‘90s music podcast/video series with John Lombardo, 120 MONTHS: https://substack.com/@120months Listen to our special News Trap episode on the 20th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with Justin Rogers-Cooper: https://www.patreon.com/posts/news-trap-8-30-w-137726055  Subscribe to the Nostalgia Trap Patreon for FREE to get updates on all our podcasts, videos, and writing:  patreon.com/nostalgiatrap    

The Crusaders – A Message From The Inner City – 8:51 Ricky Peterson; The Peterson Brothers – Under The Radar – 5:04 Rick Habana; Michael Lington – La Costa – 4:01 Julian “Cannonball” Adderley; Jimmy Cobb; Wynton Kelly; Bill Evans; Miles Davis; John Coltrane; Paul Chambers – Blue In Green – 5:23 Medeski, Martin & […]

There is no more important relationship in this era of music than that of Miles Davis and John Coltrane; two masters ever-present in the musical and cultural landscape. Someday My Prince Will Come marks the last time Coltrane and Davis played together, and it couldn't be more perfect.We dive into how their partnership played out on stage and in the recording studio over the years, and how their dynamic on Someday My Prince Will Come marks a handoff from '50s jazz to the rock and roll sound of the '60s, with Coltrane leading the way.And Miles Davis, even more so than a masterful trumpet player or composer, was a tastemaker. From the musicians he picked, to the chord changes, to his choice of album art, we explore how this record brings it all together in one phenomenal package.

durée : 00:59:37 - A sec ! - par : Nathalie Piolé -

durée : 01:05:30 - Club Jazzafip - Le chanteur, pianiste et compositeur Andy bey, l'une des voix les plus impressionnantes du jazz, pour lequel John Coltrane ne tarissait pas d'éloge, est décédé samedi dernier à l'âge de 85 ans. Vous aimez ce podcast ? Pour écouter tous les autres épisodes sans limite, rendez-vous sur Radio France.

HUGE Summer Sale! Get 50% off all annual plans at Open Studio and take your playing to the next level: https://link.youllhearit.com/summer John Coltrane's Giant Steps isn't just a jazz classic — it's a rite of passage. Peter Martin and Adam Maness dig into what makes the album so technically punishing and emotionally electrifying. From the iconic solo on the title track to the symmetrical harmonies, the lightning-fast chord changes, the fiery swing of Cousin Mary, and the full-throttle chaos of Countdown, they unpack the brilliance, the feel, and the mythology. Whether you've studied this album or are hearing it with fresh ears, you'll come away understanding Coltrane — and Giant Steps — like never before.You'll hear:- Adam's deep dive into Coltrane's use of symmetrical harmony and lightning fast chord changes — and why it still stumps players today- A glimpse into Coltrane's early years with Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie- The truth about Tommy Flanagan's controversial solo — was he lost or just playing it cool?- How Giant Steps became the tune every jazz musician has to face- Apex moments, desert island tracks, and a spirited debate: is Giant Steps better than Kind of Blue?

On Episode 13 of Steel, we catch up with guitarist and steel player Dave Biller. Based in Austin since the '90s, Dave's played with everyone from Johnny Bush and Ray Price to Jimmie Vaughan and Charley Crockett. There aren't many musicians who can play a classic country E9 gig in the afternoon, hit a jazz club on six-string that night, and then compose a piece for a chamber orchestra the next day...but Dave can. We talk about his winding musical path through rock, metal, jazz, and country; his various musical obsessions including John Coltrane, Jimmy Day, and Django Reinhardt; and the hotel room conversation that led him to spend a decade immersing himself fully in pedal steel. Read more about Dave and hear some of his music at the links below: Read more about Dave at the following links: Instagram Steel Ep 13 Spotify Playlist Steel Ep 13 Youtube Playlist Steel is brought to you by the Fretboard Journal magazine and is mixed by Armen Bazarian. fretboardjournal.com

What can the music of John Coltrane tell us about the relationship of  art to God, and of our own work in general to God? We can all learn quite a lot from Coltrane, actually. And what we can see in his approach to his music applies not just to musicians and artists, but to us all. In this open forum, 1) Tim Keller shares two things we can learn from Coltrane, 2) John Patitucci, a jazz bassist and composer, discusses Coltrane's music, and 3) Keller and Patitucci hold a question-and-answer time with their audience. This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 9, 2007. Series: Redeemer Open Forums. Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:17-26. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

For those who haven't heard the announcement I posted, songs from this point on will sometimes be split among multiple episodes, so this is the second part of a two-episode look at the song “Who Knows Where The Time Goes?” by Fairport Convention, and the intertwining careers of Joe Boyd, Sandy Denny, and Richard Thompson. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a forty-one-minute bonus episode available, on Judy Collins’ version of this song. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by editing, 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/ Erratum For about an hour this was uploaded with the wrong Elton John clip in place of “Saturday Sun”. This has now been fixed. Resources Because of the increasing problems with Mixcloud’s restrictions, I have decided to start sharing streaming playlists of the songs used in episodes instead of Mixcloud ones. This Tunemymusic link will let you listen to the playlist I created on your streaming platform of choice — however please note that not all the songs excerpted are currently available on streaming. The songs missing from the Tidal version are “Shanten Bells” by the Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” by A.L. Lloyd, two by Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, three by Elton John & Linda Peters, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow” by Sandy Denny and “You Never Know” by Charlie Drake, but the other fifty-nine are there. Other songs may be missing from other services. The main books I used on Fairport Convention as a whole were Patrick Humphries' Meet On The Ledge, Clinton Heylin's What We Did Instead of Holidays, and Kevan Furbank's Fairport Convention on Track. Rob Young's Electric Eden is the most important book on the British folk-rock movement. Information on Richard Thompson comes from Patrick Humphries' Richard Thompson: Strange Affair and Thompson's own autobiography Beeswing.  Information on Sandy Denny comes from Clinton Heylin's No More Sad Refrains and Mick Houghton's I've Always Kept a Unicorn. I also used Joe Boyd's autobiography White Bicycles and Chris Blackwell's The Islander.  And this three-CD set is the best introduction to Fairport's music currently in print. Transcript Before we begin, this episode contains reference to alcohol and cocaine abuse and medical neglect leading to death. It also starts with some discussion of the fatal car accident that ended last episode. There’s also some mention of child neglect and spousal violence. If that’s likely to upset you, you might want to skip this episode or read the transcript. One of the inspirations for this podcast when I started it back in 2018 was a project by Richard Thompson, which appears (like many things in Thompson’s life) to have started out of sheer bloody-mindedness. In 1999 Playboy magazine asked various people to list their “songs of the Millennium”, and most of them, understanding the brief, chose a handful of songs from the latter half of the twentieth century. But Thompson determined that he was going to list his favourite songs *of the millennium*. He didn’t quite manage that, but he did cover seven hundred and forty years, and when Playboy chose not to publish it, he decided to turn it into a touring show, in which he covered all his favourite songs from “Sumer Is Icumen In” from 1260: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Sumer is Icumen In”] Through numerous traditional folk songs, union songs like “Blackleg Miner”, pieces by early-modern composers, Victorian and Edwardian music hall songs, and songs by the Beatles, the Ink Spots, the Kinks, and the Who, all the way to “Oops! I Did It Again”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Oops! I Did it Again”] And to finish the show, and to show how all this music actually ties together, he would play what he described as a “medieval tune from Brittany”, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “Marry, Ageyn Hic Hev Donne Yt”] We have said many times in this podcast that there is no first anything, but there’s a reason that Liege and Lief, Fairport Convention’s third album of 1969, and the album other than Unhalfbricking on which their reputation largely rests, was advertised with the slogan “The first (literally) British folk rock album ever”. Folk-rock, as the term had come to be known, and as it is still usually used today, had very little to do with traditional folk music. Rather, the records of bands like The Byrds or Simon and Garfunkel were essentially taking the sounds of British beat groups of the early sixties, particularly the Searchers, and applying those sounds to material by contemporary singer-songwriters. People like Paul Simon and Bob Dylan had come up through folk clubs, and their songs were called folk music because of that, but they weren’t what folk music had meant up to that point — songs that had been collected after being handed down through the folk process, changed by each individual singer, with no single identifiable author. They were authored songs by very idiosyncratic writers. But over their last few albums, Fairport Convention had done one or two tracks per album that weren’t like that, that were instead recordings of traditional folk songs, but arranged with rock instrumentation. They were not necessarily the first band to try traditional folk music with electric instruments — around the same time that Fairport started experimenting with the idea, so did an Irish band named Sweeney’s Men, who brought in a young electric guitarist named Henry McCullough briefly. But they do seem to have been the first to have fully embraced the idea. They had done so to an extent with “A Sailor’s Life” on Unhalfbricking, but now they were going to go much further: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves” (from about 4:30)] There had been some doubt as to whether Fairport Convention would even continue to exist — by the time Unhalfbricking, their second album of the year, was released, they had been through the terrible car accident that had killed Martin Lamble, the band’s drummer, and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson’s girlfriend. Most of the rest of the band had been seriously injured, and they had made a conscious decision not to discuss the future of the band until they were all out of hospital. Ashley Hutchings was hospitalised the longest, and Simon Nicol, Richard Thompson, and Sandy Denny, the other three surviving members of the band, flew over to LA with their producer and manager, Joe Boyd, to recuperate there and get to know the American music scene. When they came back, the group all met up in the flat belonging to Denny’s boyfriend Trevor Lucas, and decided that they were going to continue the band. They made a few decisions then — they needed a new drummer, and as well as a drummer they wanted to get in Dave Swarbrick. Swarbrick had played violin on several tracks on Unhalfbricking as a session player, and they had all been thrilled to work with him. Swarbrick was one of the most experienced musicians on the British folk circuit. He had started out in the fifties playing guitar with Beryl Marriott’s Ceilidh Band before switching to fiddle, and in 1963, long before Fairport had formed, he had already appeared on TV with the Ian Campbell Folk Group, led by Ian Campbell, the father of Ali and Robin Campbell, later of UB40: [Excerpt: The Ian Campbell Folk Group, “Shanten Bells (medley on Hullaballoo!)”] He’d sung with Ewan MacColl and A.L. Lloyd: [Excerpt: A.L. Lloyd, “Tom’s Gone to Hilo” ] And he’d formed his hugely successful duo with Martin Carthy, releasing records like “Byker Hill” which are often considered among the best British folk music of all time: [Excerpt: Martin Carthy and Dave Swarbrick, “Byker Hill”] By the time Fairport had invited him to play on Unhalfbricking, Swarbrick had already performed on twenty albums as a core band member, plus dozens more EPs, singles, and odd tracks on compilations. They had no reason to think they could actually get him to join their band. But they had three advantages. The first was that Swarbrick was sick of the traditional folk scene at the time, saying later “I didn’t like seven-eighths of the people involved in it, and it was extremely opportune to leave. I was suddenly presented with the possibilities of exploring the dramatic content of the songs to the full.” The second was that he was hugely excited to be playing with Richard Thompson, who was one of the most innovative guitarists of his generation, and Martin Carthy remembers him raving about Thompson after their initial sessions. (Carthy himself was and is no slouch on the guitar of course, and there was even talk of getting him to join the band at this point, though they decided against it — much to the relief of rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol, who is a perfectly fine player himself but didn’t want to be outclassed by *two* of the best guitarists in Britain at the same time). And the third was that Joe Boyd told him that Fairport were doing so well — they had a single just about to hit the charts with “Si Tu Dois Partir” — that he would only have to play a dozen gigs with Fairport in order to retire. As it turned out, Swarbrick would play with the group for a decade, and would never retire — I saw him on his last tour in 2015, only eight months before he died. The drummer the group picked was also a far more experienced musician than any of the rest, though in a very different genre. Dave Mattacks had no knowledge at all of the kind of music they played, having previously been a player in dance bands. When asked by Hutchings if he wanted to join the band, Mattacks’ response was “I don’t know anything about the music. I don’t understand it… I can’t tell one tune from another, they all sound the same… but if you want me to join the group, fine, because I really like it. I’m enjoying myself musically.” Mattacks brought a new level of professionalism to the band, thanks to his different background. Nicol said of him later “He was dilligent, clean, used to taking three white shirts to a gig… The application he could bring to his playing was amazing. With us, you only played well when you were feeling well.” This distinction applied to his playing as well. Nicol would later describe the difference between Mattacks’ drumming and Lamble’s by saying “Martin’s strength was as an imaginative drummer. DM came in with a strongly developed sense of rhythm, through keeping a big band of drunken saxophone players in order. A great time-keeper.” With this new line-up and a new sense of purpose, the group did as many of their contemporaries were doing and “got their heads together in the country”. Joe Boyd rented the group a mansion, Farley House, in Farley Chamberlayne, Hampshire, and they stayed there together for three months. At the start, the group seem to have thought that they were going to make another record like Unhalfbricking, with some originals, some songs by American songwriters, and a few traditional songs. Even after their stay in Farley Chamberlayne, in fact, they recorded a few of the American songs they’d rehearsed at the start of the process, Richard Farina’s “Quiet Joys of Brotherhood” and Bob Dylan and Roger McGuinn’s “Ballad of Easy Rider”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Ballad of Easy Rider”] Indeed, the whole idea of “getting our heads together in the country” (as the cliche quickly became in the late sixties as half of the bands in Britain went through much the same kind of process as Fairport were doing — but usually for reasons more to do with drug burnout or trend following than recovering from serious life-changing trauma) seems to have been inspired by Bob Dylan and the Band getting together in Big Pink. But very quickly they decided to follow the lead of Ashley Hutchings, who had had something of a Damascene conversion to the cause of traditional English folk music. They were listening mostly to Music From Big Pink by the Band, and to the first album by Sweeney’s Men: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “The Handsome Cabin Boy”] And they decided that they were going to make something that was as English as those records were North American and Irish (though in the event there were also a few Scottish songs included on the record). Hutchings in particular was becoming something of a scholar of traditional music, regularly visiting Cecil Sharp House and having long conversations with A.L. Lloyd, discovering versions of different traditional songs he’d never encountered before. This was both amusing and bemusing Sandy Denny, who had joined a rock group in part to get away from traditional music; but she was comfortable singing the material, and knew a lot of it and could make a lot of suggestions herself. Swarbrick obviously knew the repertoire intimately, and Nicol was amenable, while Mattacks was utterly clueless about the folk tradition at this point but knew this was the music he wanted to make. Thompson knew very little about traditional music, and of all the band members except Denny he was the one who has shown the least interest in the genre in his subsequent career — but as we heard at the beginning, showing the least interest in the genre is a relative thing, and while Thompson was not hugely familiar with the genre, he *was* able to work with it, and was also more than capable of writing songs that fit in with the genre. Of the eleven songs on the album, which was titled Liege and Lief (which means, roughly, Lord and Loyalty), there were no cover versions of singer-songwriters. Eight were traditional songs, and three were originals, all written in the style of traditional songs. The album opened with “Come All Ye”, an introduction written by Denny and Hutchings (the only time the two would ever write together): [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Come All Ye”] The other two originals were songs where Thompson had written new lyrics to traditional melodies. On “Crazy Man Michael”, Swarbrick had said to Thompson that the tune to which he had set his new words was weaker than the lyrics, to which Thompson had replied that if Swarbrick felt that way he should feel free to write a new melody. He did, and it became the first of the small number of Thompson/Swarbrick collaborations: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Crazy Man Michael”] Thompson and Swarbrick would become a brief songwriting team, but as much as anything else it was down to proximity — the two respected each other as musicians, but never got on very well. In 1981 Swarbrick would say “Richard and I never got on in the early days of FC… we thought we did, but we never did. We composed some bloody good songs together, but it was purely on a basis of “you write that and I’ll write this, and we’ll put it together.” But we never sat down and had real good chats.” The third original on the album, and by far the most affecting, is another song where Thompson put lyrics to a traditional tune. In this case he thought he was putting the lyrics to the tune of “Willie O'Winsbury”, but he was basing it on a recording by Sweeney’s Men. The problem was that Sweeney’s Men had accidentally sung the lyrics of “Willie O'Winsbury'” to the tune of a totally different song, “Fause Foodrage”: [Excerpt: Sweeney’s Men, “Willie O’Winsbury”] Thompson took that melody, and set to it lyrics about loss and separation. Thompson has never been one to discuss the meanings of his lyrics in any great detail, and in the case of this one has said “I really don't know what it means. This song came out of a dream, and I pretty much wrote it as I dreamt it (it was the sixties), and didn't spend very long analyzing it. So interpret as you wish – or replace with your own lines.” But in the context of the traffic accident that had killed his tailor girlfriend and a bandmate, and injured most of his other bandmates, the lyrics about lonely travellers, the winding road, bruised and beaten sons, saying goodbye, and never cutting cloth, seem fairly self-explanatory: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Farewell, Farewell”] The rest of the album, though, was taken up by traditional tunes. There was a long medley of four different fiddle reels; a version of “Reynardine” (a song about a seductive man — or is he a fox? Or perhaps both — which had been recorded by Swarbrick and Carthy on their most recent album); a 19th century song about a deserter saved from the firing squad by Prince Albert; and a long take on “Tam Lin”, one of the most famous pieces in the Scottish folk music canon, a song that has been adapted in different ways by everyone from the experimental noise band Current 93 to the dub poet Benjamin Zephaniah to the comics writer Grant Morrison: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Tam Lin”] And “Matty Groves”, a song about a man killing his cheating wife and her lover, which actually has a surprisingly similar story to that of “1921” from another great concept album from that year, the Who’s Tommy. “Matty Groves” became an excuse for long solos and shows of instrumental virtuosity: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Matty Groves”] The album was recorded in September 1969, after their return from their break in the country and a triumphal performance at the Royal Festival Hall, headlining over fellow Witchseason artists John and Beverly Martyn and Nick Drake. It became a classic of the traditional folk genre — arguably *the* classic of the traditional folk genre. In 2007 BBC Radio 2’s Folk Music Awards gave it an award for most influential folk album of all time, and while such things are hard to measure, I doubt there’s anyone with even the most cursory knowledge of British folk and folk-rock music who would not at least consider that a reasonable claim. But once again, by the time the album came out in November, the band had changed lineups yet again. There was a fundamental split in the band – on one side were Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson, whose stance was, roughly, that Liege and Lief was a great experiment and a fun thing to do once, but really the band had two first-rate songwriters in themselves, and that they should be concentrating on their own new material, not doing these old songs, good as they were. They wanted to take the form of the traditional songs and use that form for new material — they wanted to make British folk-rock, but with the emphasis on the rock side of things. Hutchings, on the other hand, was equally sure that he wanted to make traditional music and go further down the rabbit hole of antiquity. With the zeal of the convert he had gone in a couple of years from being the leader of a band who were labelled “the British Jefferson Airplane” to becoming a serious scholar of traditional folk music. Denny was tired of touring, as well — she wanted to spend more time at home with Trevor Lucas, who was sleeping with other women when she was away and making her insecure. When the time came for the group to go on a tour of Denmark, Denny decided she couldn’t make it, and Hutchings was jubilant — he decided he was going to get A.L. Lloyd into the band in her place and become a *real* folk group. Then Denny reconsidered, and Hutchings was crushed. He realised that while he had always been the leader, he wasn’t going to be able to lead the band any further in the traditionalist direction, and quit the group — but not before he was delegated by the other band members to fire Denny. Until the publication of Richard Thompson’s autobiography in 2022, every book on the group or its members said that Denny quit the band again, which was presumably a polite fiction that the band agreed, but according to Thompson “Before we flew home, we decided to fire Sandy. I don't remember who asked her to leave – it was probably Ashley, who usually did the dirty work. She was reportedly shocked that we would take that step. She may have been fragile beneath the confident facade, but she still knew her worth.” Thompson goes on to explain that the reasons for kicking her out were that “I suppose we felt that in her mind she had already left” and that “We were probably suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, though there wasn't a name for it back then.” They had considered inviting Trevor Lucas to join the band to make Denny more comfortable, but came to the (probably correct) conclusion that while he was someone they got on well with personally, he would be another big ego in a band that already had several, and that being around Denny and Lucas’ volatile relationship would, in Thompson’s phrasing, “have not always given one a feeling of peace and stability.” Hutchings originally decided he was going to join Sweeney’s Men, but that group were falling apart, and their first rehearsal with Hutchings would also be their last as a group, with only Hutchings and guitarist and mandolin player Terry Woods left in the band. They added Woods’ wife Gay, and another couple, Tim Hart and Maddy Prior, and formed a group called Steeleye Span, a name given them by Martin Carthy. That group, like Fairport, went to “get their heads together in the country” for three months and recorded an album of electric versions of traditional songs, Hark the Village Wait, on which Mattacks and another drummer, Gerry Conway, guested as Steeleye Span didn’t at the time have their own drummer: [Excerpt: Steeleye Span, “Blackleg Miner”] Steeleye Span would go on to have a moderately successful chart career in the seventies, but by that time most of the original lineup, including Hutchings, had left — Hutchings stayed with them for a few albums, then went on to form the first of a series of bands, all called the Albion Band or variations on that name, which continue to this day. And this is something that needs to be pointed out at this point — it is impossible to follow every single individual in this narrative as they move between bands. There is enough material in the history of the British folk-rock scene that someone could do a 500 Songs-style podcast just on that, and every time someone left Fairport, or Steeleye Span, or the Albion Band, or Matthews’ Southern Comfort, or any of the other bands we have mentioned or will mention, they would go off and form another band which would then fission, and some of its members would often join one of those other bands. There was a point in the mid-1970s where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport Convention while Fairport Convention had none. So just in order to keep the narrative anything like wieldy, I’m going to keep the narrative concentrated on the two figures from Fairport — Sandy Denny and Richard Thompson — whose work outside the group has had the most influence on the wider world of rock music more broadly, and only deal with the other members when, as they often did, their careers intersected with those two. That doesn’t mean the other members are not themselves hugely important musicians, just that their importance has been primarily to the folk side of the folk-rock genre, and so somewhat outside the scope of this podcast. While Hutchings decided to form a band that would allow him to go deeper and deeper into traditional folk music, Sandy Denny’s next venture was rather different. For a long time she had been writing far more songs than she had ever played for her bandmates, like “Nothing More”, a song that many have suggested is about Thompson: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Nothing More”] When Joe Boyd heard that Denny was leaving Fairport Convention, he was at first elated. Fairport’s records were being distributed by A&M in the US at that point, but Island Records was in the process of opening up a new US subsidiary which would then release all future Fairport product — *but*, as far as A&M were concerned, Sandy Denny *was* Fairport Convention. They were only interested in her. Boyd, on the other hand, loved Denny’s work intensely, but from his point of view *Richard Thompson* was Fairport Convention. If he could get Denny signed directly to A&M as a solo artist before Island started its US operations, Witchseason could get a huge advance on her first solo record, while Fairport could continue making records for Island — he’d have two lucrative acts, on different labels. Boyd went over and spoke to A&M and got an agreement in principle that they would give Denny a forty-thousand-dollar advance on her first solo album — twice what they were paying for Fairport albums. The problem was that Denny didn’t want to be a solo act. She wanted to be the lead singer of a band. She gave many reasons for this — the one she gave to many journalists was that she had seen a Judy Collins show and been impressed, but noticed that Collins’ band were definitely a “backing group”, and as she put it “But that's all they were – a backing group. I suddenly thought, If you're playing together on a stage you might as well be TOGETHER.” Most other people in her life, though, say that the main reason for her wanting to be in a band was her desire to be with her boyfriend, Trevor Lucas. Partly this was due to a genuine desire to spend more time with someone with whom she was very much in love, partly it was a fear that he would cheat on her if she was away from him for long periods of time, and part of it seems to have been Lucas’ dislike of being *too* overshadowed by his talented girlfriend — he didn’t mind acknowledging that she was a major talent, but he wanted to be thought of as at least a minor one. So instead of going solo, Denny formed Fotheringay, named after the song she had written for Fairport. This new band consisted at first of Denny on vocals and occasional piano, Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, and Lucas’ old Eclection bandmate Gerry Conway on drums. For a lead guitarist, they asked Richard Thompson who the best guitarist in Britain was, and he told them Albert Lee. Lee in turn brought in bass player Pat Donaldson, but this lineup of the band barely survived a fortnight. Lee *was* arguably the best guitarist in Britain, certainly a reasonable candidate if you could ever have a singular best (as indeed was Thompson himself), but he was the best *country* guitarist in Britain, and his style simply didn’t fit with Fotheringay’s folk-influenced songs. He was replaced by American guitarist Jerry Donahue, who was not anything like as proficient as Lee, but who was still very good, and fit the band’s style much better. The new group rehearsed together for a few weeks, did a quick tour, and then went into the recording studio to record their debut, self-titled, album. Joe Boyd produced the album, but admitted himself that he only paid attention to those songs he considered worthwhile — the album contained one song by Lucas, “The Ballad of Ned Kelly”, and two cover versions of American singer-songwriter material with Lucas singing lead. But everyone knew that the songs that actually *mattered* were Sandy Denny’s, and Boyd was far more interested in them, particularly the songs “The Sea” and “The Pond and the Stream”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “The Pond and the Stream”] Fotheringay almost immediately hit financial problems, though. While other Witchseason acts were used to touring on the cheap, all packed together in the back of a Transit van with inexpensive equipment, Trevor Lucas had ambitions of being a rock star and wanted to put together a touring production to match, with expensive transport and equipment, including a speaker system that got nicknamed “Stonehenge” — but at the same time, Denny was unhappy being on the road, and didn’t play many gigs. As well as the band itself, the Fotheringay album also featured backing vocals from a couple of other people, including Denny’s friend Linda Peters. Peters was another singer from the folk clubs, and a good one, though less well-known than Denny — at this point she had only released a couple of singles, and those singles seemed to have been as much as anything else released as a novelty. The first of those, a version of Dylan’s “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere” had been released as by “Paul McNeill and Linda Peters”: [Excerpt: Paul McNeill and Linda Peters, “You Ain’t Goin’ Nowhere”] But their second single, a version of John D. Loudermilk’s “You’re Taking My Bag”, was released on the tiny Page One label, owned by Larry Page, and was released under the name “Paul and Linda”, clearly with the intent of confusing particularly gullible members of the record-buying public into thinking this was the McCartneys: [Excerpt: Paul and Linda, “You’re Taking My Bag”] Peters was though more financially successful than almost anyone else in this story, as she was making a great deal of money as a session singer. She actually did another session involving most of Fotheringay around this time. Witchseason had a number of excellent songwriters on its roster, and had had some success getting covers by people like Judy Collins, but Joe Boyd thought that they might possibly do better at getting cover versions if they were performed in less idiosyncratic arrangements. Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway went into the studio to record backing tracks, and vocals were added by Peters and another session singer, who according to some sources also provided piano. They cut songs by Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “You Get Brighter”] Ed Carter, formerly of The New Nadir but by this time firmly ensconced in the Beach Boys’ touring band where he would remain for the next quarter-century: [Excerpt: Linda Peters, “I Don’t Mind”] John and Beverly Martyn, and Nick Drake: [Excerpt: Elton John, “Saturday Sun”] There are different lineups of musicians credited for those sessions in different sources, but I tend to believe that it’s mostly Fotheringay for the simple reason that Donahue says it was him, Donaldson and Conway who talked Lucas and Denny into the mistake that destroyed Fotheringay because of these sessions. Fotheringay were in financial trouble already, spending far more money than they were bringing in, but their album made the top twenty and they were getting respect both from critics and from the public — in September, Sandy Denny was voted best British female singer by the readers of Melody Maker in their annual poll, which led to shocked headlines in the tabloids about how this “unknown” could have beaten such big names as Dusty Springfield and Cilla Black. Only a couple of weeks after that, they were due to headline at the Albert Hall. It should have been a triumph. But Donahue, Donaldson, and Conway had asked that singing pianist to be their support act. As Donahue said later “That was a terrible miscast. It was our fault. He asked if [he] could do it. Actually Pat, Gerry and I had to talk Sandy and Trevor into [it]… We'd done these demos and the way he was playing – he was a wonderful piano player – he was sensitive enough. We knew very little about his stage-show. We thought he'd be a really good opener for us.” Unfortunately, Elton John was rather *too* good. As Donahue continued “we had no idea what he had in mind, that he was going to do the most incredible rock & roll show ever. He pretty much blew us off the stage before we even got on the stage.” To make matters worse, Fotheringay’s set, which was mostly comprised of new material, was underrehearsed and sloppy, and from that point on no matter what they did people were counting the hours until the band split up. They struggled along for a while though, and started working on a second record, with Boyd again producing, though as Boyd later said “I probably shouldn't have been producing the record. My lack of respect for the group was clear, and couldn't have helped the atmosphere. We'd put out a record that had sold disappointingly, A&M was unhappy. Sandy's tracks on the first record are among the best things she ever did – the rest of it, who cares? And the artwork, Trevor's sister, was terrible. It would have been one thing if I'd been unhappy with it and it sold, and the group was working all the time, making money, but that wasn't the case … I knew what Sandy was capable of, and it was very upsetting to me.” The record would not be released for thirty-eight years: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “Wild Mountain Thyme”] Witchseason was going badly into debt. Given all the fissioning of bands that we’ve already been talking about, Boyd had been stretched thin — he produced sixteen albums in 1970, and almost all of them lost money for the company. And he was getting more and more disillusioned with the people he was producing. He loved Beverly Martyn’s work, but had little time for her abusive husband John, who was dominating her recording and life more and more and would soon become a solo artist while making her stay at home (and stealing her ideas without giving her songwriting credit). The Incredible String Band were great, but they had recently converted to Scientology, which Boyd found annoying, and while he was working with all sorts of exciting artists like Vashti Bunyan and Nico, he was finding himself less and less important to the artists he mentored. Fairport Convention were a good example of this. After Denny and Hutchings had left the group, they’d decided to carry on as an electric folk group, performing an equal mix of originals by the Swarbrick and Thompson songwriting team and arrangements of traditional songs. The group were now far enough away from the “British Jefferson Airplane” label that they decided they didn’t need a female vocalist — and more realistically, while they’d been able to replace Judy Dyble, nobody was going to replace Sandy Denny. Though it’s rather surprising when one considers Thompson’s subsequent career that nobody seems to have thought of bringing in Denny’s friend Linda Peters, who was dating Joe Boyd at the time (as Denny had been before she met Lucas) as Denny’s replacement. Instead, they decided that Swarbrick and Thompson were going to share the vocals between them. They did, though, need a bass player to replace Hutchings. Swarbrick wanted to bring in Dave Pegg, with whom he had played in the Ian Campbell Folk Group, but the other band members initially thought the idea was a bad one. At the time, while they respected Swarbrick as a musician, they didn’t think he fully understood rock and roll yet, and they thought the idea of getting in a folkie who had played double bass rather than an electric rock bassist ridiculous. But they auditioned him to mollify Swarbrick, and found that he was exactly what they needed. As Joe Boyd later said “All those bass lines were great, Ashley invented them all, but he never could play them that well. He thought of them, but he was technically not a terrific bass player. He was a very inventive, melodic, bass player, but not a very powerful one technically. But having had the part explained to him once, Pegg was playing it better than Ashley had ever played it… In some rock bands, I think, ultimately, the bands that sound great, you can generally trace it to the bass player… it was at that point they became a great band, when they had Pegg.” The new lineup of Fairport decided to move in together, and found a former pub called the Angel, into which all the band members moved, along with their partners and children (Thompson was the only one who was single at this point) and their roadies. The group lived together quite happily, and one gets the impression that this was the period when they were most comfortable with each other, even though by this point they were a disparate group with disparate tastes, in music as in everything else. Several people have said that the only music all the band members could agree they liked at this point was the first two albums by The Band. With the departure of Hutchings from the band, Swarbrick and Thompson, as the strongest personalities and soloists, became in effect the joint leaders of the group, and they became collaborators as songwriters, trying to write new songs that were inspired by traditional music. Thompson described the process as “let’s take one line of this reel and slow it down and move it up a minor third and see what that does to it; let’s take one line of this ballad and make a whole song out of it. Chopping up the tradition to find new things to do… like a collage.” Generally speaking, Swarbrick and Thompson would sit by the fire and Swarbrick would play a melody he’d been working on, the two would work on it for a while, and Thompson would then go away and write the lyrics. This is how the two came up with songs like the nine-minute “Sloth”, a highlight of the next album, Full House, and one that would remain in Fairport’s live set for much of their career: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth”] “Sloth” was titled that way because Thompson and Swarbrick were working on two tunes, a slow one and a fast one, and they jokingly named them “Sloth” and “Fasth”, but the latter got renamed to “Walk Awhile”, while “Sloth” kept its working title. But by this point, Boyd and Thompson were having a lot of conflict in the studio. Boyd was never the most technical of producers — he was one of those producers whose job is to gently guide the artists in the studio and create a space for the music to flourish, rather than the Joe Meek type with an intimate technical knowledge of the studio — and as the artists he was working with gained confidence in their own work they felt they had less and less need of him. During the making of the Full House album, Thompson and Boyd, according to Boyd, clashed on everything — every time Boyd thought Thompson had done a good solo, Thompson would say to erase it and let him have another go, while every time Boyd thought Thompson could do better, Thompson would say that was the take to keep. One of their biggest clashes was over Thompson’s song “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”, which was originally intended for release on the album, and is included in current reissues of it: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Poor Will and the Jolly Hangman”] Thompson had written that song inspired by what he thought was the unjust treatment of Alex Bramham, the driver in Fairport’s fatal car crash, by the courts — Bramham had been given a prison sentence of a few months for dangerous driving, while the group members thought he had not been at fault. Boyd thought it was one of the best things recorded for the album, but Thompson wasn’t happy with his vocal — there was one note at the top of the melody that he couldn’t quite hit — and insisted it be kept off the record, even though that meant it would be a shorter album than normal. He did this at such a late stage that early copies of the album actually had the title printed on the sleeve, but then blacked out. He now says in his autobiography “I could have persevered, double-tracked the voice, warmed up for longer – anything. It was a good track, and the record was lacking without it. When the album was re-released, the track was restored with a more confident vocal, and it has stayed there ever since.” During the sessions for Full House the group also recorded one non-album single, Thompson and Swarbrick’s “Now Be Thankful”: [Excerpt, Fairport Convention, “Now Be Thankful”] The B-side to that was a medley of two traditional tunes plus a Swarbrick original, but was given the deliberately ridiculous title “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sir B. McKenzie’s Daughter’s Lament For The 77th Mounted Lancers Retreat From The Straits Of Loch Knombe, In The Year Of Our Lord 1727, On The Occasion Of The Announcement Of Her Marriage To The Laird Of Kinleakie”] The B. McKenzie in the title was a reference to the comic-strip character Barry McKenzie, a stereotype drunk Australian created for Private Eye magazine by the comedian Barry Humphries (later to become better known for his Dame Edna Everage character) but the title was chosen for one reason only — to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the song with the longest title. Which they did, though they were later displaced by the industrial band Test Dept, and their song “Long Live British Democracy Which Flourishes and Is Constantly Perfected Under the Immaculate Guidance of the Great, Honourable, Generous and Correct Margaret Hilda Thatcher. She Is the Blue Sky in the Hearts of All Nations. Our People Pay Homage and Bow in Deep Respect and Gratitude to Her. The Milk of Human Kindness”. Full House got excellent reviews in the music press, with Rolling Stone saying “The music shows that England has finally gotten her own equivalent to The Band… By calling Fairport an English equivalent of the Band, I meant that they have soaked up enough of the tradition of their countryfolk that it begins to show all over, while they maintain their roots in rock.” Off the back of this, the group went on their first US tour, culminating in a series of shows at the Troubadour in LA, on the same bill as Rick Nelson, which were recorded and later released as a live album: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Sloth (live)”] The Troubadour was one of the hippest venues at the time, and over their residency there the group got seen by many celebrities, some of whom joined them on stage. The first was Linda Ronstadt, who initially demurred, saying she didn’t know any of their songs. On being told they knew all of hers, she joined in with a rendition of “Silver Threads and Golden Needles”. Thompson was later asked to join Ronstadt’s backing band, who would go on to become the Eagles, but he said later of this offer “I would have hated it. I’d have hated being on the road with four or five miserable Americans — they always seem miserable. And if you see them now, they still look miserable on stage — like they don’t want to be there and they don’t like each other.” The group were also joined on stage at the Troubadour on one memorable night by some former bandmates of Pegg’s. Before joining the Ian Campbell Folk Group, Pegg had played around the Birmingham beat scene, and had been in bands with John Bonham and Robert Plant, who turned up to the Troubadour with their Led Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page (reports differ on whether the fourth member of Zeppelin, John Paul Jones, also came along). They all got up on stage together and jammed on songs like “Hey Joe”, “Louie Louie”, and various old Elvis tunes. The show was recorded, and the tapes are apparently still in the possession of Joe Boyd, who has said he refuses to release them in case he is murdered by the ghost of Peter Grant. According to Thompson, that night ended in a three-way drinking contest between Pegg, Bonham, and Janis Joplin, and it’s testament to how strong the drinking culture is around Fairport and the British folk scene in general that Pegg outdrank both of them. According to Thompson, Bonham was found naked by a swimming pool two days later, having missed two gigs. For all their hard rock image, Led Zeppelin were admirers of a lot of the British folk and folk-rock scene, and a few months later Sandy Denny would become the only outside vocalist ever to appear on a Led Zeppelin record when she duetted with Plant on “The Battle of Evermore” on the group’s fourth album: [Excerpt: Led Zeppelin, “The Battle of Evermore”] Denny would never actually get paid for her appearance on one of the best-selling albums of all time. That was, incidentally, not the only session that Denny was involved in around this time — she also sang on the soundtrack to a soft porn film titled Swedish Fly Girls, whose soundtrack was produced by Manfred Mann: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “What Will I Do With Tomorrow?”] Shortly after Fairport’s trip to America, Joe Boyd decided he was giving up on Witchseason. The company was now losing money, and he was finding himself having to produce work for more and more acts as the various bands fissioned. The only ones he really cared about were Richard Thompson, who he was finding it more and more difficult to work with, Nick Drake, who wanted to do his next album with just an acoustic guitar anyway, Sandy Denny, who he felt was wasting her talents in Fotheringay, and Mike Heron of the Incredible String Band, who was more distant since his conversion to Scientology. Boyd did make some attempts to keep the company going. On a trip to Sweden, he negotiated an agreement with the manager and publisher of a Swedish band whose songs he’d found intriguing, the Hep Stars. Boyd was going to publish their songs in the UK, and in return that publisher, Stig Anderson, would get the rights to Witchseason’s catalogue in Scandinavia — a straight swap, with no money changing hands. But before Boyd could get round to signing the paperwork, he got a better offer from Mo Ostin of Warners — Ostin wanted Boyd to come over to LA and head up Warners’ new film music department. Boyd sold Witchseason to Island Records and moved to LA with his fiancee Linda Peters, spending the next few years working on music for films like Deliverance and A Clockwork Orange, as well as making his own documentary about Jimi Hendrix, and thus missed out on getting the UK publishing rights for ABBA, and all the income that would have brought him, for no money. And it was that decision that led to the breakup of Fotheringay. Just before Christmas 1970, Fotheringay were having a difficult session, recording the track “John the Gun”: [Excerpt: Fotheringay, “John the Gun”] Boyd got frustrated and kicked everyone out of the session, and went for a meal and several drinks with Denny. He kept insisting that she should dump the band and just go solo, and then something happened that the two of them would always describe differently. She asked him if he would continue to produce her records if she went solo, and he said he would. According to Boyd’s recollection of the events, he meant that he would fly back from California at some point to produce her records. According to Denny, he told her that if she went solo he would stay in Britain and not take the job in LA. This miscommunication was only discovered after Denny told the rest of Fotheringay after the Christmas break that she was splitting the band. Jerry Donahue has described that as the worst moment of his life, and Denny felt very guilty about breaking up a band with some of her closest friends in — and then when Boyd went over to the US anyway she felt a profound betrayal. Two days before Fotheringay’s final concert, in January 1971, Sandy Denny signed a solo deal with Island records, but her first solo album would not end up produced by Joe Boyd. Instead, The North Star Grassman and the Ravens was co-produced by Denny, John Wood — the engineer who had worked with Boyd on pretty much everything he’d produced, and Richard Thompson, who had just quit Fairport Convention, though he continued living with them at the Angel, at least until a truck crashed into the building in February 1971, destroying its entire front wall and forcing them to relocate. The songs chosen for The North Star Grassman and the Ravens reflected the kind of choices Denny would make on her future albums, and her eclectic taste in music. There was, of course, the obligatory Dylan cover, and the traditional folk ballad “Blackwaterside”, but there was also a cover version of Brenda Lee’s “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Let’s Jump the Broomstick”] Most of the album, though, was made up of originals about various people in Denny’s life, like “Next Time Around”, about her ex-boyfriend Jackson C Frank: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Next Time Around”] The album made the top forty in the UK — Denny’s only solo album to do so — and led to her once again winning the “best female singer” award in Melody Maker’s readers’ poll that year — the male singer award was won by Rod Stewart. Both Stewart and Denny appeared the next year on the London Symphony Orchestra’s all-star version of The Who’s Tommy, which had originally been intended as a vehicle for Stewart before Roger Daltrey got involved. Stewart’s role was reduced to a single song, “Pinball Wizard”, while Denny sang on “It’s a Boy”: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “It’s a Boy”] While Fotheringay had split up, all the band members play on The North Star Grassman and the Ravens. Guitarists Donahue and Lucas only play on a couple of the tracks, with Richard Thompson playing most of the guitar on the record. But Fotheringay’s rhythm section of Pat Donaldson and Gerry Conway play on almost every track. Another musician on the album, Ian Whiteman, would possibly have a profound effect on the future direction of Richard Thompson’s career and life. Whiteman was the former keyboard player for the mod band The Action, having joined them just before they became the blues-rock band Mighty Baby. But Mighty Baby had split up when all of the band except the lead singer had converted to Islam. Richard Thompson was on his own spiritual journey at this point, and became a Sufi – the same branch of Islam as Whiteman – soon after the session, though Thompson has said that his conversion was independent of Whiteman’s. The two did become very close and work together a lot in the mid-seventies though. Thompson had supposedly left Fairport because he was writing material that wasn’t suited to the band, but he spent more than a year after quitting the group working on sessions rather than doing anything with his own material, and these sessions tended to involve the same core group of musicians. One of the more unusual was a folk-rock supergroup called The Bunch, put together by Trevor Lucas. Richard Branson had recently bought a recording studio, and wanted a band to test it out before opening it up for commercial customers, so with this free studio time Lucas decided to record a set of fifties rock and roll covers. He gathered together Thompson, Denny, Whiteman, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Pat Donaldson, Gerry Conway, pianist Tony Cox, the horn section that would later form the core of the Average White Band, and Linda Peters, who had now split up with Joe Boyd and returned to the UK, and who had started dating Thompson. They recorded an album of covers of songs by Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Johnny Otis and others: [Excerpt: The Bunch, “Willie and the Hand Jive”] The early seventies was a hugely productive time for this group of musicians, as they all continued playing on each other’s projects. One notable album was No Roses by Shirley Collins, which featured Thompson, Mattacks, Whiteman, Simon Nicol, Lal and Mike Waterson, and Ashley Hutchings, who was at that point married to Collins, as well as some more unusual musicians like the free jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill: [Excerpt: Shirley Collins and the Albion Country Band, “Claudy Banks”] Collins was at the time the most respected female singer in British traditional music, and already had a substantial career including a series of important records made with her sister Dolly, work with guitarists like Davey Graham, and time spent in the 1950s collecting folk songs in the Southern US with her then partner Alan Lomax – according to Collins she did much of the actual work, but Lomax only mentioned her in a single sentence in his book on this work. Some of the same group of musicians went on to work on an album of traditional Morris dancing tunes, titled Morris On, credited to “Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield”, with Collins singing lead on two tracks: [Excerpt: Ashley Hutchings, Richard Thompson, Dave Mattacks, John Kirkpatrick and Barry Dransfield with Shirley Collins, “The Willow Tree”] Thompson thought that that album was the best of the various side projects he was involved in at the time, comparing it favourably to Rock On, which he thought was rather slight, saying later “Conceptually, Fairport, Ashley and myself and Sandy were developing a more fragile style of music that nobody else was particularly interested in, a British Folk Rock idea that had a logical development to it, although we all presented it our own way. Morris On was rather more true to what we were doing. Rock On was rather a retro step. I'm not sure it was lasting enough as a record but Sandy did sing really well on the Buddy Holly songs.” Hutchings used the musicians on No Roses and Morris On as the basis for his band the Albion Band, which continues to this day. Simon Nicol and Dave Mattacks both quit Fairport to join the Albion Band, though Mattacks soon returned. Nicol would not return to Fairport for several years, though, and for a long period in the mid-seventies Fairport Convention had no original members. Unfortunately, while Collins was involved in the Albion Band early on, she and Hutchings ended up divorcing, and the stress from the divorce led to Collins developing spasmodic dysphonia, a stress-related illness which makes it impossible for the sufferer to sing. She did eventually regain her vocal ability, but between 1978 and 2016 she was unable to perform at all, and lost decades of her career. Richard Thompson occasionally performed with the Albion Band early on, but he was getting stretched a little thin with all these sessions. Linda Peters said later of him “When I came back from America, he was working in Sandy’s band, and doing sessions by the score. Always with Pat Donaldson and Dave Mattacks. Richard would turn up with his guitar, one day he went along to do a session with one of those folkie lady singers — and there were Pat and DM. They all cracked. Richard smashed his amp and said “Right! No more sessions!” In 1972 he got round to releasing his first solo album, Henry the Human Fly, which featured guest appearances by Linda Peters and Sandy Denny among others: [Excerpt: Richard Thompson, “The Angels Took My Racehorse Away”] Unfortunately, while that album has later become regarded as one of the classics of its genre, at the time it was absolutely slated by the music press. The review in Melody Maker, for example, read in part “Some of Richard Thompson’s ideas sound great – which is really the saving grace of this album, because most of the music doesn’t. The tragedy is that Thompson’s “British rock music” is such an unconvincing concoction… Even the songs that do integrate rock and traditional styles of electric guitar rhythms and accordion and fiddle decoration – and also include explicit, meaningful lyrics are marred by bottle-up vocals, uninspiring guitar phrases and a general lack of conviction in performance.” Henry the Human Fly was released in the US by Warners, who had a reciprocal licensing deal with Island (and for whom Joe Boyd was working at the time, which may have had something to do with that) but according to Thompson it became the lowest-selling record that Warners ever put out (though I’ve also seen that claim made about Van Dyke Parks’ Song Cycle, another album that has later been rediscovered). Thompson was hugely depressed by this reaction, and blamed his own singing. Happily, though, by this point he and Linda had become a couple — they would marry in 1972 — and they started playing folk clubs as a duo, or sometimes in a trio with Simon Nicol. Thompson was also playing with Sandy Denny’s backing band at this point, and played on every track on her second solo album, Sandy. This album was meant to be her big commercial breakthrough, with a glamorous cover photo by David Bailey, and with a more American sound, including steel guitar by Sneaky Pete Kleinow of the Flying Burrito Brothers (whose overdubs were supervised in LA by Joe Boyd): [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Tomorrow is a Long Time”] The album was given a big marketing push by Island, and “Listen, Listen” was made single of the week on the Radio 1 Breakfast show: [Excerpt: Sandy Denny, “Listen, Listen”] But it did even worse than the previous album, sending her into something of a depression. Linda Thompson (as the former Linda Peters now was) said of this period “After the Sandy album, it got her down that her popularity didn't suddenly increase in leaps and bounds, and that was the start of her really fretting about the way her career was going. Things only escalated after that. People like me or Martin Carthy or Norma Waterson would think, ‘What are you on about? This is folk music.'” After Sandy’s release, Denny realised she could no longer afford to tour with a band, and so went back to performing just acoustically or on piano. The only new music to be released by either of these ex-members of Fairport Convention in 1973 was, oddly, on an album by the band they were no longer members of. After Thompson had left Fairport, the group had managed to release two whole albums with the same lineup — Swarbrick, Nicol, Pegg, and Mattacks. But then Nicol and Mattacks had both quit the band to join the Albion Band with their former bandmate Ashley Hutchings, leading to a situation where the Albion Band had two original members of Fairport plus their longtime drummer while Fairport Convention itself had no original members and was down to just Swarbrick and Pegg. Needing to fulfil their contracts, they then recruited three former members of Fotheringay — Lucas on vocals and rhythm guitar, Donahue on lead guitar, and Conway on drums. Conway was only a session player at the time, and Mattacks soon returned to the band, but Lucas and Donahue became full-time members. This new lineup of Fairport Convention released two albums in 1973, widely regarded as the group’s most inconsistent records, and on the title track of the first, “Rosie”, Richard Thompson guested on guitar, with Sandy Denny and Linda Thompson on backing vocals: [Excerpt: Fairport Convention, “Rosie”] Neither Sandy Denny nor Richard Thompson released a record themselves in 1973, but in neither case was this through the artists’ choice. The record industry was changing in the early 1970s, as we’ll see in later episodes, and was less inclined to throw good money after bad in the pursuit of art. Island Records prided itself on being a home for great artists, but it was still a business, and needed to make money. We’ll talk about the OPEC oil crisis and its effect on the music industry much more when the podcast gets to 1973, but in brief, the production of oil by the US peaked in 1970 and started to decrease, leading to them importing more and more oil from the Middle East. As a result of this, oil prices rose slowly between 1971 and 1973, then very quickly towards the end of 1973 as a result of the Arab-Israeli conflict that year. As vinyl is made of oil, suddenly producing records became much more expensive, and in this period a lot of labels decided not to release already-completed albums, until what they hoped would be a brief period of shortages passed. Both Denny and Thompson recorded albums at this point that got put to one side by Island. In the case of Thompson, it was the first album by Richard and Linda as a duo, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Today, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, and as one of the two masterpieces that bookended Richard and Linda’s career as a duo and their marriage. But when they recorded the album, full of Richard’s dark songs, it was the opposite of commercial. Even a song that’s more or less a boy-girl song, like “Has He Got a Friend for Me?” has lyrics like “He wouldn’t notice me passing by/I could be in the gutter, or dangling down from a tree” [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “Has He got a Friend For Me?”] While something like “The Calvary Cross” is oblique and haunted, and seems to cast a pall over the entire album: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “The Calvary Cross”] The album itself had been cheap to make — it had been recorded in only a week, with Thompson bringing in musicians he knew well and had worked with a lot previously to cut the tracks as-live in only a handful of takes — but Island didn’t think it was worth releasing. The record stayed on the shelf for nearly a year after recording, until Island got a new head of A&R, Richard Williams. Williams said of the album’s release “Muff Winwood had been doing A&R, but he was more interested in production… I had a conversation with Muff as soon as I got there, and he said there are a few hangovers, some outstanding problems. And one of them was Richard Thompson. He said there’s this album we gave him the money to make — which was I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight — and nobody’s very interested in it. Henry the Human Fly had been a bit of a commercial disappointment, and although Island was altruistic and independent and known for only recording good stuff, success was important… Either a record had to do well or somebody had to believe in it a lot. And it seemed as if neither of those things were true at that point of Richard.” Williams, though, was hugely impressed when he listened to the album. He compared Richard Thompson’s guitar playing to John Coltrane’s sax, and called Thompson “the folk poet of the rainy streets”, but also said “Linda brightened it, made it more commercial. and I thought that “Bright Lights” itself seemed a really commercial song.” The rest of the management at Island got caught up in Williams’ enthusiasm, and even decided to release the title track as a single: [Excerpt: Richard and Linda Thompson, “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”] Neither single nor album charted — indeed it would not be until 1991 that Richard Thompson would make a record that made the top forty in the UK — but the album got enough critical respect that Richard and Linda released two albums the year after. The first of these, Hokey Pokey, is a much more upbeat record than their previous one — Richard Thompson has called it “quite a music-hall influenced record” and cited the influence of George Formby and Harry Lauder. For once, the claim of music hall influence is audible in the music. Usually when a British musician is claimed to have a music ha

This week I'm joined by Australian musician Gareth Liddiard (Tropical Fuck Storm, The Drones) who chose to discuss one of the greatest concert films of all time,  EINSTÜRZENDE NEUBAUTEN:HALBER MENSCH.We talk about how Tropical Fuck Storm made their own film (Goody Goody Gumdrops) during the pandemic lockdown, Gareth playing shows with Neubauten, how TFS writes their brain-melting songs and how Neubauten's influence crept into their work, TFS having to leave Melbourne due to economics, making their music using equipment they didn't know how to use, how not to be too good at guitar, the influence of Greg Ginn, John Coltrane & Jimi Hendrix, Thrasher magazine, the current difficulties of touring the States, blowing things up in music videos, industrial high-school study music, Neubauten playing inside an actual freeway, how Neubauten are The Beatles of the industrial world in terms of charisma, how the film transcends pretension, Butoh dancers, Tarkovsky's Stalker, the microphoned shopping cart, Blixa's take on The Police, how the film is so well scripted and shot by filmmaker Gakuryū Ishii, how the legendary music producer Gareth Jones recorded one of the most expensive industrial records of all time and more. So let's set our instruments on fire and the music to stun on this week's episode of Revolutions Per Movie!TROPICAL FUCK STORM:https://usa.firerecords.com/products/tropical-f-storm-fairyland-codexhttps://tropicalfstorm.bandcamp.com/album/fairyland-codexREVOLUTIONS PER MOVIE:Host Chris Slusarenko (Eyelids, Guided By Voices, owner of Clinton Street Video rental store) is joined by actors, musicians, comedians, writers & directors who each week pick out their favorite music documentary, musical, music-themed fiction film or music videos to discuss. Fun, weird, and insightful, Revolutions Per Movie is your deep dive into our life-long obsessions where music and film collide.The show is also a completely independent affair, so the best way to support it is through our Patreon at patreon.com/revolutionspermovie. By joining, you can get weekly bonus episodes, physical goods such as Flexidiscs, and other exclusive goods.Revolutions Per Movies releases new episodes every Thursday on any podcast app, and additional, exclusive bonus episodes every Sunday on our Patreon. If you like the show, please consider subscribing, rating, and reviewing it on your favorite podcast app. Thanks!SOCIALS:@revolutionspermovieBlueSky: @revpermovieTHEME by Eyelids 'My Caved In Mind'www.musicofeyelids.bandcamp.com ARTWORK by Jeff T. Owenshttps://linktr.ee/mymetalhand Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today on AirTalk, Trump's appeal to keep CA's National Guard in LA will be heard by a San Francisco court; the latest on Israel's military operations in Iran; specialty ice cream shop Salt and Straw's co-founder Tyler Malek, talks about the mastery behind his craft in a new book; an update into LA's houseless community services; a tribute concert to John Coltrane and the 50th anniversary of 'Jaws.' Today on AirTalk San Francisco court hears Trump's appeal to keep National Guard in LA (00:15) Latest on Israel-Iran and how local Iranians feel (15:48) A new ice cream cookbook (36:16) LA's houseless services check-in (51:48) A tribute concert to John Coltrane (1:09:58) 'Jaws' turns 50 (1:26:08)

The jazz standard "All The Things You Are" has been performed countless times by master jazz vocalists, 30s big bands, bebop small groups, hard-bop combos, modern deconstructionists, and even soon-to-be Kings of Pop. On this episode, Kirk takes listeners through the history of the now-famous tune, from its humble Broadway origins all the way to his recording studio in Portland, where he and some friends recorded an all-new arrangement just for Strong Songs.Music/Lyrics: Jerome Kern & Oscar Hammerstein IIVersions Featured:Broadway Original Cast Recording of "Very Warm for May," - 1939Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra, feat. Jack Leonard, 1939Artie Shaw w/ Hellen Forrest, 1939Dizzy Gillespie w/ Charlie Parker, 1945Johnny Griffin w/ Hank Mobley, John Coltrane, Lee Morgan, Wynton Kelly, Paul Chambers, Art Blakey on A Blowing Session, 1957Ella Fitzgerald from Sings the Jerome Kern Songbook, 1963Michael Jackson, 1973Sonny Rollins w/ Coleman Hawkins from Sonny Meets Hawk!, 1963Bill Evans w/ Chuck Israels, bass, and Larry Bunker, drums at Shelly's Mane-Hole, 1963Keith Jarrett Trio, from Standards, Vol.1, 1983Brad Mehldau Trio, from Art of the Trio 4, 1999Jim Hall & Pat Metheney, 1999Strong Songs Version Featuring:Kirk Hamilton, tenor saxAndrew Oliver, keyboardScott Pemberton, guitarSam Howard, bassTyson Stubelek, drumsThe "All The Things You Are" Playlist:Spotify | Apple | YouTube MusicALSO REFERENCED/DISCUSSED:The Jazz Standards: A Guide To The Repertoire by Ted Gioia, 2012The terrific 99% Invisible episode about The Real Book“Autumn Leaves” by Joseph Kosma as recorded by Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis on Somethin' Else, 1958“Pennies From Heaven” by Johnston and Burke, recorded by Stan Getz with the Oscar Peterson Trio, 1957“Bye Bye Blackbird” by Henderson/Dixon, recorded by Miles Davis on ‘Round About Midnight, 1957“All Of Me” by Marks and Simons, played by Charlie Parker, Lennie Tristano and Kenny Clarke, 1951“I Got Rhythm” by George Gershwin, recorded by Sonny Stitt on The Hard Swing, 1961Rachmaninoff: Prelude in C-Sharp Minor,  performed by Jason Minnis, 2011“Goodbye Yellow Brick Road” by Elton John, 1973“Bird of Paradise,” recorded by Charlie Parker w/ Howard McGhee, Tpt. on The Complete Dial Recordings, Feb 1947“Prince Albert” recorded by Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers (Mobley, Dorham, Watkins, Silver) live at Cafe Bohemia, 1955“Poinciana” by Simon/Bernier recorded by Amhad Jamal Live At The Pershing, 1958----LINKS-----