2012 done and dusted

2012 was the year in which the balance of my listening habits rather veered away from Radio 6Music. Which is not to say there's been a lowering of standards there as might be said for other sections of the Beeb (see also below), just that I seem to have been casting my musical net a little more widely. On the one hand I've been soaking up a fair amount of Jazz FM and Radio 3 jazz coverage (hence numbers 8, 10 and 11 in my list below) and on the other I've been a reasonably faithful follower of Mike Harding's Wednesday evening Radio 2 slot (2, 3, 12, 15 and 16), soon to be pulled from the schedules, scandalously.

I also seem to have been to more gigs than ever. There's been a lot of jazz--several visits to Ronnie Scott's and, as ever, the annual ten-day November jazz binge that is the London Jazz Festival--and a fair amount of folk--notably a) a Sandy Denny tribute concert early in the year which opened my ears for the first time to a whole catalogue of music hitherto somehow off my radar and b) another rather pleasing August Bank Holiday at the Shrewsbury Folk Festival particularly in the company of some excellent woman singers (2 and 3).

That said, we did hear from a few of the old staples of my CD collection: Hawley, Fagen, Saint Etienne and Stereolab's Laetitia Sadier striking out on her own. I've also tried not to ignore some of the newer kids on the block: Mala's--possibly adult-oriented?--Latinised dubstep, the interesting fruits of Sam Lee's song collecting work among the Romany community and the impressive new blues/soul songs, piano and--especially--VOICE of Natalie Duncan.

For me it's Richard Russell's collaboration with soul-legend Bobby Womack which pips the others to the post. As with his work with Gil Scott Heron in 2010, Russell has brought the best out of a soul artist who's had a difficult time of it recently and whose best years we might have thought were behind him.

That's what I think anyway.

THE LIST

1. Bobby Womack: The Bravest Man in the Universe
2. Karine Polwart: Traces
3. Caroline Herring: Camilla
4. Richard Hawley: Standing at the Sky’s Edge
5. Beach House: Bloom
6. Donald Fagen: Sunken Combos
7. Natalie Duncan: The Devil in Me
8. Kenny Wheeler: The Long Waiting
9. Snowgoose: Harmony Springs
10. Esperanza Spalding: Radio Music Society
11. Trish Clowes: And in the Night Time She is There
12. Thea Gilmore: Don’t Stop Singing
13. The xx: Coexist
14. Saint Etienne: Words and Music
15. Sam Lee: Ground of Its Own
16. Laetitia Sadier: Silencio
17. Lianne La Havas: Is Your Love Big Enough?
18. Quantic & Alice Russell: Look Around The Corner
19. Mala: Mala in Cuba
20. Spiro: Kaleidophonica

To hear more, fire up your Spotify machine...

• albums of the year (at least most of 'em)
• trax of the year (mainly odds'n'sods which have popped up on the radio)
• songs of the week (courtesy of This Is My Jam Inc.)

And, as ever, please argue...

song of the week 34: trombone shorty - the craziest things

Lately I've been listening to Mike Chadwick's Saturday evening "Big Easy" programme on JazzFM. It's pretty good.

The "Tremé" TV series is mentioned in dispatches more than a few times but a fair amount of new music gets an airing too.

Here's some Trombone Shorty to maybe whet your appetite (seems Jools is on the case too):




...and then there's also my fledgling Spotify playlist based on music from the show.

edited highlights

Notable musical events of the last ten days, briefly:

• The London Jazz Festival, particularly a mesmerising performance by the Tord Gustavsen Ensemble. So moved was I that I shelled out for the new CD which I then queued up like some kind of Scandinavian piano jazz groupie to get signed by the man himself.
• Finishing "Bringing It All Back Home", an enjoyable account of the musical loves of bolshie Yorkshire TV presenter and rugby league aficionado Ian Clayton. A good read and an unexpectedly harrowing last chapter...
  
• Music quiz ignominy for Billie Piper At The Gates of Dawn, who put massive effort into finishing bottom of the table at the Three Kings. I was particularly pleased though to dig out Augustus Pablo (so to speak) to up our score slightly in the Obscure Reggae round.
  
• Mozzer on Desert Island Discs: utterly compelling listening. Kirsty Young is good at her job, striking a nice balance between ex-teenage Smiths devotee and gently probing journo. Seems Steven Patrick is actually quite fond of his old mum and dad. Ah bless.
  
• This week's contribution to the "gratuitous oldie" slot comes courtesy of Liz Kershaw on 6 Music. It seems TT main man Mark Hollis went on to make some interesting music, which I admit I need to investigate further before pontificating about here. In the meantime, how's about this for some good-time eighties synth pop...
  

Talk Talk - Such a shame

like it was summer...

Another lazy blog post, but what can I do when "Sounds of the Sixties" keep unearthing these easy listenin'-type gems:

pick of the pops

Top platters on the Hooley Towers dansette this week (in no particular order)...

• Rose Elinor Dougall - Start/Stop/Synchro
• Phenomenal Handclap Band - 15 to 20
• Leisure Society - Short Weekend (more top bandstand action)
• Rose Elinor Dougall - Another Version of Pop Song
• Third Degree - Mercy
• Marvin Gaye - Let's Get It On (Step Remix)
• Big Star - Turn My Back on the Sun
• Gemma Ray - 100 m.p.h. (in 2nd Gear)
• Howling Bells - Let's Be Kids Again
  

Thanks to Radcliffe and Maconie for most (though not all) of these. Probably need to branch out a bit with my radio listening...

droning on again about songs i've just heard on the radio

Not so much droning on maybe, more just sharing for the benefit of humankind...



Thanks to Trevor Nelson just now for this 70s funk gem.

sun strokes

Can I just say, a propos of nothing, that Don Letts's 6 Music radio show is well worth a listen if you haven't dipped into it yet.

He plays a real mix of genres. This was this week's "sun"-related selection.

I'm particularly liking the Nu Yorican track with its hypnotic piano riff.

There's a lot more going on in the original version though...



Groovy video too!

meanwhile, back in the lounge...

How about this forgotten gem, as featured on last week's Sounds of the Sixties...

It was written by Tony Hatch, a prolific composer in the sixties, although these days he's mainly remembered for his themes for tea-time soaps like stodgy old Crossroads in the seventies and eighties Kylie-fest Neighbours.

I reckon this song is in a different league though and there are definitely shades of Bacharach in some of the instrumentation. Is that a cor anglais I hear?



...And dig that final chord.

He also wrote "Downtown" for Petula Clark. So good for him, eh?

what should i write?

In my humble opinion, Sounds of the Sixties, presented by veteran DJ Brian Matthew (8-10 on Saturday mornings), is one of the highlights of the Radio 2 week. There's a real mix of hits you've heard a thousand times, hidden gems, and songs which "unfortunately didn't make the charts", basically because they were just dreadful.

I heard this Carole King song on the programme this morning. I think it's a two-and-a-half-minute work of art. Five reasons why:

• the lyrics: the rhymes all rhyme, rather than just sound as if they rhyme as they do in so many songs (which I sometimes find mildly annoying, but that's probably just me). And they say what needs to be said. No less and no more.
• the tune. I'm a sucker for a great melody and this one does it for me. I like the way it curves up in the first two lines of the verse then back down at the end, and...
• the middle eight. Again, what a tune. The same line repeated up a semitone (getting a bit technical for a moment if you'll bear with me), with a neat modulation second time back to the original key.
• the "plink-plonk"/falling-raindrops pizzicato string figure which recurs a few times--like under "I don't need sunny skies for things I have to do" and "it doesn't matter whether skies are grey or blue" (see what they've done there?)--then again at the very end.
• I like Carole King's singing style here. It's a bit rough and ready in places, but what the hell, she's a lovelorn teenager and she's got more important things on her mind than hitting the note on the head.

Enjoy...

Tapestry, schmapestry...

signed, sealed, delivered

It seems that almost every time I put Radio 2 on at the moment, there's a documentary to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of Motown.

Some great music of course, but it wasn't all sweetness and light in Hitsville USA, as this article from last week's Independent testifies. Last night, for example, there was an hour-long programme dedicated to the Funk Brothers who played as backing musicians on most of the label's output from 1959 to 1972. And that's a lot of songs. It wasn't until Marvin Gaye released What's Going On in 1971 that these musicians were even credited in liner notes and it was only with the appearance in 2002 of the film "Standing In The Shadows of Motown" that they were accorded any real credit.

I did start to compile a list of my top ten Motown tracks but frankly I'm going to have to get back to you on that. Particular favourites though are Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell's fantastic Greatest Hits album and almost everything by Stevie Wonder from his Greatest Hits Volume 2--which covers his singles from 1968 to '71--to the slightly over-egged Songs In The Key of Life which saw the light of day in 1976.

By way of a less frequently played track, how about this 1975 Stevie Wonder-penned minor hit from the Supremes?

Diana Ross? Who she?

council debate

During the lazy period between Christmas and the January return to work, I'm often inclined to wallow in wall-to-wall BBC 6Music. Listening to Gary Crowley's show this evening I came across some live tracks from the Style Council in 1984.

Now it's generally considered by those who pontificate on such things in the music press that the eighties were something of a blight on Paul Weller's career, typified as they were in his case by foppish outfits and haircuts, pretentious record sleevenotes (courtesy of the Cappucino Kid), ill-advised party political campaigning (on the Red Wedge tour bus) and watery blue-eye soul.

Well that's their view and their entitled to it. In support of the case for the defence however, I humbly submit two examples from the beginning and end of the band's career, and modestly enquire if, in the opinion of the court, these are not two great examples of feel-good pop music?

Exhibit A: Headstart for Happiness (released 1983 though this live clip is from later)



Exhibit B: Wanted (released 1987)



Also recommended:

• You're The Best Thing
• The Paris Match (starring Tracey Thorn)
• The Paris Match (Weller version)
• Changing of the Guard

ooh johnny johnny...

I've been listening to Radio 2's recent three-part series on the career of the French musical institution that is wizened Elvis-a-like Johnny Hallyday.

You wouldn't expect a Radio 2 documentary to take much of a critical approach to its subject, but having his son David ("who is also a singer"--Wikipedia) present the programme was a bit bizarre, telling the tale--of Johnny's failed marriages as well his unbridled success in the Francophone music market--as if he had just been an impartial observer.

I think that's got to be the big caveat with Johnny's success, massive as it has undoubtedly been: it's all happened in France, Belgium and Switzerland. Even the Radio 2 documentary couldn't deny that his attempts to crack the US market—like his 1996 concerts in Las Vegas—were a failure. The BBC web site admits that "even the French struggle to explain Hallyday's extraordinary popularity. His music is blatantly derivative, defiantly American and often consists of French language covers of stateside hits like Long Tall Sally and Roll Over Beethoven." I have to agree. There was some dreadful stuff played over the course of these three programmes.

There's something about a deep male voice belting out le rock'n'roll in French. Somehow the gentle, nasally sounds of the language don't work for Johnny in the way they work for Francoise Hardy's tuneful songs, Brel's dramatic ballads or Serge's deep Gitaney mumblings.

I think it’s fair to say that French pop music has had quite a dramatic rehabilitation in the UK in recent years after being roundly scorned for a long time from the sixties onwards. It struck me that when the excellent electro-lounge "Moon Safari" album appeared in the shops in 1998, it came with a label pointing out that the artists were "French group" Air as if that was suddenly a selling point. Since then, artists like Phoenix and Charlotte Gainsbourg (with her Jarvis Cocker/Divine Comedy/Air collaborations) have won critical acclaim and (some) success in the UK. Gainsbourg père is reverentially cited as an influence by Anglophone musicians (step forward again Jarvis). With the recent release of a new compilation CD of songs of the “yéyé” girls of the early sixties, even that fluffy, poppy music has been favourably reappraised (for example in an effusive review by Stuart Maconie in Word Magazine).

So here's my theory: French pop music's tarnished name this side of the Channel has all been Johnny's fault. Now he’s disappearing over the hill he’s no longer a threat and French music can move on.

whatever happened to radio 2?

Last weekend BBC radio celebrated the 40th anniversary of its four main stations. In tribute to the former BBC Light Programme, BBC4 broadcast a half-hour TV documentary called "Whatever happened to Radio 2?".

At time of writing, the station's homepage drops several "modern" names (Arcade Fire, Russell Brand) and recent TV adverts have understandably made much of its current status as the most listened to station in the UK, but a number of long-running programmes with less widespread appeal continue to appear in the schedules. This documentary features several of these, interviewing some of the presenters and listeners involved.

These programmes seem to fall into two camps. Some are purveyors of genuine easy-listening music from a more innocent pre-"lounge" era. One such is the Desmond Carrington programme (his most recent playlist features Lena Horne, Henry Mancini and "Anchors Aweigh" by the Dutch Royal Marines/Swing College Band). Another is Friday Night Is Music Night which features the BBC Concert Orchestra performing golden oldies like "Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines" and "The Dambusters".

There are also genre-specific programmes: Nigel Ogden's recitals on cinema, theatre and church organs on the Organist Entertains, 86-year-old Humphrey Lyttleton's Best of Jazz), brass band music on Listen to the Band, Mike Harding's Wednesday evening folk music programme. All these are featured on tonight's documentary.

Only goes to prove that there's still a whole Middle England subculture which exists way off the radar of the usual bland daytime radio programming and credit to the station for standing by these niche programmes in the face of pressure to "broaden the station's appeal". There are some commercial stations who have caved in in this regard.

Other articles on BBC radio's 40th anniversary celebrations:
- msn.uk report
- Miranda Sawyer in the Observer.

radio radio

...It's better than the "idiot lantern". *

This month's top 10 digital music radio stations:

10. Radio Ye-Ye: superbly tacky French 60s pop

9. BBC Radio London: A shadow of its former incarnation as GLR but Sean Rowley, Robert Elms and DJ Ritu still flying the musical flag

8. Live365 blackgospelradio: does what it says on the tin
7. BBC Radio 2, step forward Radcliffe & Maconie
6. XFM: good music but a limited playlist and too many ads!
5. Resonance FM: interesting mix of obscurer stuff
4. BBC Radio 3: Kershaw/Duran (see earlier waxings lyrical)
3. Radio Nova: see also 5 above
2. Chill: my latest discovery. No DJs (good), but no-one to tell you what music is being played (bad)
1. BBC 6 music: still the best of the bunch.

I know, I should get out more...

* copyright Radcliffe & Maconie (see no 7)

live stuff: world routes at the barbican, 26/5/07

On Saturday I went along to a live broadcast of Lucy Duran's excellent Radio 3 programme "World Routes", part of the Barbican's programme of events preluding Sunday's World Music Awards concert (watch/listen to this on the Radio 3 website). Surprisingly poorly attended, given that it featured free performances by two of this year's award winners. Maurice El Medioni's "piano orientale" is an interesting mix of Algerian and American styles developed in the bars of Oran during the in the years immediately following the end of WW2 when U.S. GIs were still in the city. Lebanese Ghada Shbeir's set of Arabo-Andalusian love songs, backed by some accomplished musicians (on ney, oud, mandolin, violin and percussion), received an equally enthusiastic reception from all present.

six underground

After a music-free Christmas, I went to ground for the day on Saturday and listened to practically all of the 6Music Top 100 singles of the year. Some good stuff here (although way too much Muse for my liking), and the occasional track which I hadn't heard before, like "Setting Sun" by the Howling Bells (available in video and audio format thanks to the usual suspects). As a result, I went HMV sale-shopping on Sunday and took a flyer on their album. Some good tracks, but generally a bit disappointing. Hopefully it's a slow burner. Also shelled out for Michigan by Sufjan Stevens (on "Asthmatic Kitty" Records!), another 80-odd-minute epic in his state-by-state musical travelogue and pretty much more-of-the-same as (the more recent) Illinoise which I bought this time last year. What with his 4-CD Christmas box-set (favourable reviews all round), I'll be surprised if he can keep this pace up for much longer. Third purchase (a snip at £5) was Songs To Remember by Scritti Politti (their best?), the cassette copy of which I lost a long time ago. Should keep me going for a while...

another saturday night

Sad news tonight that Charlie Gillett is having to give up his Saturday night radio show on BBC London due to ill health. He's been an (almost) weekly staple of mine for the last few years and, along with WOMAD, is pretty much responsible for introducing me to world music. Good to see he's carrying on with his BBC World Service show but I'm not sure I trust BBC London to replace him wisely.

sound and vision

Some interesting stuff on the TV, radio and at the cinema this week for the aspiring ethnomusicologist:

- a Channel 5 programme about folk music in the North East of England featuring Kathryn Tickell, Northumbrian piper and fiddler, and showing some of her work as a teacher in Northumbrian schools. It's great that people like this are doing something to preserve this music and pass it on to future generations. Interesting that you can now do a degree in folk and traditional music at Newcastle University, apparently the first course of its kind in the UK.

- then I put the radio on. "The Organist Entertains" really is a remnant from a bygone age, with a selection of tunes played on huge theatre and cinema organs. Amazing to think there is still such a community of enthusiasts out there and credit to Radio 2 for continuing to put the show on, another example music of the past being preserved.

- then later in the week I saw "Favela Rising" at the cinema. Anderson Sa and his band, Afro-Reggae, have done fantastic work in recent years in the favelas/shanty towns of Rio by getting youngsters involved in music- making and offering them an alternative to a life of crime mixed up with the local drugs trade. Now signed to a record label and touring in Brazil and overseas (recently opening the Barbican's current "Tropicalia" season), the band have ploughed all royalties back into the favelas. It'll be interesting to see if their international success cuts them off from their roots at all as time goes on.
More about the rise of Afro-Reggae.

le freak, c'est chic

One of my most welcome discoveries of 2005 has been Stuart Maconie's "Freak Zone" which goes out every Sunday evening between 5 and 8 p.m. on BBC's digitally excellent 6 Music radio.

Some good stuff I've recently heard for the first time: Supersister (Dutch prog rockers), Vashti Bunyan (folk hippie/mate-of-Donovan whose first album since 1970 is just out), 1960s "library music" (TV music from "Vision On" and the like!) and a Chris Squire solo album.

Stuff I have heard before but had forgotten how good it was: Robert Wyatt, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Focus, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Can, Michel Legrand, Talk Talk and Miles Davis's "Bitches Brew", last week's featured album.

All human life is here: ambient electronica, jazz fusion, post-punk, psychedelia, folk and more prog rock than you have been able to shake a stick at since 1974. Check out the tracklistings from recent shows and further info on the 6 Music website.