03/29/25 - Jam_13

"There was more resistance to the fact I was using computers than to the fact that I was a woman doing music." -- Laurie Spiegel

 Listen to the show below!

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Year	Notes
Laurie Spiegel	The Unquestioned Answer	The Expanding Universe	Philo	1980 (1974-1976)	A soft and atmospheric piece of progressive electronic music. Spiegel's work at Bell Labs places her in the lineage of early electronic pioneers, though emerging during the Kraftwerk revolution.
Krok	Breath of Night Kyiv	Even the Forest Hums: Ukrainian Sonic Archies 1971-1996	Light in the Attic	2024 (early 1980s)	A jazz fusion piece from the waning years of the USSR. Smooth and polished. Carries a cosmopolitan tone similar to city pop.
T. Dyson & Company	It's All Over	N/A	Cyndee Music	1980	A rare bedroom synth-funk single from Chicago. Reissued for RSD 2021.
Ellen McIlwaine	Higher Ground	The Real Ellen McIlwaine	Kot'ai	1975	A guitar-and-voice psychedelic blues take on Stevie Wonder's "Higher Ground." McIlwaine is generally known for blending folk and blues influences.
Mr. Fingers	Mystery of Love	N/A	Alleviated	1985	Dub-influenced house track by Larry Heard, one of house music's pioneers. Bass-forward mix and experimental textures.
Res	700 Mile Situation	How I Do	MCA	2001	A neo-soul track from Res' debut album, How I Do, which mixes alt-rock, trip-hop, and post-punk revival elements.
Dwight Sykes	Where Ever You Are	Songs Vol. 1	Peoples Potential Unlimited	2013 (1980-1990)	Moody and nocturnal synth-funk track with lo-fi aesthetics. Accidentally aligns itself with vaporwave.
Wilburn Burchette	Birth of a Witch	Guitar Grimoire	Burchette Brothers	1973	Solo guitar piece from a self-taught musician who infused his sound with Tibetan mysticism.
Steve Hiett	Blue Beach - Welcome to Your Beach	Down on the Road by the Beach	Sony/CBS	1983	A dreamy ambient pop track from a photographer-turned-one-time-musician. Originally released exclusively in Japan.

11/09/24 - Jam_4

"The figure fades into the distance, blazing a tenacious path. For all of suffering humanity. Struggling, searching for peace." - Os Teatinos, "Potro Sem Dono" 

 Listen to the show below! 

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Year	Notes
Os Teatinos	Potro Sem Dono	Telurismo Vol. 1	Continental	1976	Brazil again... but not at all MPB or tropicalia related! This is the music of the gaucho, the truest idea of the cowboy that exists as far as I understand. In the U.S., 'wild west' cowboys were contract cattle wranglers that worked in teams under a foreman. On the other hand, gaucho in the Pampas region were pretty close to the image of the loner, rugged horseman that is somewhat represented in the Hollywood cowboy. A little confusingly, gaucho music comes from the tropeiros, a group similar to gauchos but different mainly in occupation (tropeiros were traders and transporters), who sang songs while they travelled. These songs are considered the traditional folkoric foundation of gaucho music. A somewhat obscure group that kept this music alive were Os Teatinos, a nativist ensemble from the 70s. Gaucho music thematically speaks of independence, hardship, and pride. The chorus from this track reads: "Go, untamed colt, go free like I do." Name of the song translates to "Untamed Colt," by the way.
Jacques Dutronc	Les cactus	Et moi, et moi, et moi	Disques Vogue	1966	French beat music -- if you don't know beat music, it's 60s rock'n'roll that brushes up against garage rock but not quite getting there. Not rough and tumble enough I guess. Anyway, Dutronc is very popular/well-known in France as a pop writer and soloist, but not very much elsewhere. This track is from his first album after doing some writing for chanson singer Francoise Hardy. He says there's cacti everywhere (read: unpleasant people and things everywhere) and grunts, "aïe-aïe" and "ouille" after each stanza (read: ouch, ow).
The Chamber Brothers	All Strung Out Over You	The Time Has Come	Columbia	1967	West coast psychedelic soul quartet with a drummer who's considered part of the group -- make that a quintet. The four singers are all real brothers originally from Mississippi. They also all play instruments which explains why the drummer is part of the group (most vocal groups typically had an in-house band for their label who were foten uncredited). They had a hit titled "Time Has Come Today" from this same album which was released three times: first as a single in 1966, with this album in 1967, then again as a single in December of '67. The group was in the Questlove doc Summer of Soul, if you want some more of this sort of thing. I prefer this song for its energy.
Bo Diddley	Elephant Man	The Black Gladiator	Checker	1970	Weird turn here for Bo Diddley. Pioneer of one of the most used guitar strumming patterns, he's one of those 50s original rock'n'roll folks. Now, most of these folks by the 70s are not doing too great either artistically or popularity-wise. Consider Chuck Berry who would in 1972 ride his bizarre cover of "My Ding-a-Ling" all the way to the top of the charts -- distressingly his one and only hit, by the way. Instead of something like... that... Bo's here pulling way deep into some really fuzzed-out funk blues. It's raw and gritty, two words I would never expect to describe Bo Diddley with.
Grupo Mango	Mango	Mango	CBS	1975	Salsa group from Venezuela. This is the first track from their first record. It's got a great little bit -- it's great hearing little bits of descarga in places you don't expect it. There's some jazz notes in here as well. The group was born from the Joe Cuba school of salsa.
Andre Nickatina	Dice of Life (The Battle)	Conversation With a Devil - CR3	Fillmoe Coleman	2003	Independent rapper from the west coast. When he was known as Dre Dog, he had his second album hit #3 on the kind of obscure Billboard Heatseekers chart in 1995. Conversations with a Devil is a combo CD/movie project labeled a knockoff of Scarface by critics. Strange, seeing that this song, lyrically not very notable, has a very mystical magical beat that works heavy pulling this song up. It samples an obscure Irish celtic new age harp song from the same year as released.
The Undisputed Truth	UFOs	Cosmic Truth	Tamla Motown	1975	Are you ready for Parliament/Funkadelic ripoffs?! Well, there were very few who tried so hard to sound SO much like them like this group does, so you gotta give them at least some credit for that. It's actually quite rare to find something actually completely disconnected from George Clinton that sounds so much like his stuff. The Undisputed Truth were originally a psychedelic soul group from Detroit in the early 70s (on Gordy/Motown). Somewhere along the way getting into the middle of the decade, their producer Norman Whitfield, who is known as one of the creators of psychedelic soul, was very central to whatever group he had control over's sound. The Undisputed Truth perhaps most centrally, as they continue to have the reputation of being basically Norman Whitfield's vehicle for experimentation. And you can clearly hear here what he's going for -- it's pretty overt. One of the vocalists is even doing a Bootsy impression.
Ata Kak	Obaa Sima	Obaa Sima	n/a	1994	Independently released tape from Ghana. It's party music! This has highlife elements, a Ghanian blend of western music and traditional akan and dagomba music -- leads to afrobeat later on. So this is considered "hiplife," a combination of hip-hop and highlife. Though I'd argue this also has hip house overtones, and serves largely the same purpose (party music). Ata Kak actually has decent credentials within the highlife scene, he played drums in a group with Anthony Frimpong, an early adopter of funk into highlife. This is another one of those lost and found records -- originally lost to time and bought by very few if any, and then found miraculously decades later and rereleased.
Guitar Red	Space and Time	Hard Times	Mod-Art	1976	Lo-fi synth soul from Chicago. This track is pretty dreamy, if a bit rough due to low fidelity and poor recording circumstances. On the majority of the album Guitar Red, real name Paul Johnson, plays drums with his feet and guitar while singing all at the same time. However, this track is pretty exclusively synth and drum machine, a rarity compared to the rest of the record. This is a great showing of the incoming super-integration of electronic music into R&B.
Bob Andy	My Time	Bob Andy's Songbook	Studio One	1970	Just a short bit of classic reggae/rocksteady. The record is a bit more like a compilation than a legit album, but works well regardless. Bob Andy is a legend in Jamaican reggae, he's considered very influential. Just wanted to play the song; it's a good song.
Michael Hurley, The Unholy Modal Rounders, Jeffrey Fredericks & The Clamtones	Fooey Fooey	Have Moicy!	Rounder Records	1970	Goofy country-folk collaboration of artists from the northeast US. Michael Hurley is the central figure of the album, so I'll delve most deeply into him: recorded his debut for the legendary Folkways Records in the mid-sixties, so he's predictably part of the Greenwich Village folk scene from that time. Hurly illustrates all of his album covers, this one included. Like everyone else on the record, he's considered more of a folk artist than country, but dipping into country from folk (especially as a non-southern artist) is very common throughout the 20th century... well -- also country comes from folk music so it's more of a roundabout thing anyways.
Sonny & Linda Sharrock	Apollo	Paradise	ATCO	1975	Now for something even more goofy, in my opinion. Sonny Sharrock was a jazz guitarist who first made his name with his debut spiritual/free jazz record Black Woman, with his at the time wife on the cover Linda. Now, going into the 70s, he could have stayed the path of spiritual jazz as many others did (e.g., Pharoah, McCoy Tyner, Billy Harper, Herbie Hancock). Instead, he turned to more Albert Ayler-esque direction with fusion, except not giving in completely to jazz fusion conventions. You can hear that pretty clearly on this track, with Linda vocalizing over the track turning a bit strange at points, but overall keeping it pretty dreamy. It does dive into a typical fusion backing with Sonny soloing over top, but because he's a guitarist, what he's playing is actually quite strange even for the genre. It's very wiry and springy, not adjectives commonly associated with jazz in general. When you only have wes Montgomery and Grant Green as your reference for jazz guitarist, this may come as a bit of a strange turn.
Red Rhodes	Poinciana	Velvet Hammer in a Cowboy	Countryside	1973	Decided to end it with some pedal steel that acts not very much like country and more like surf lounge -- think "Sleepwalk" by Santo and Johnny. However, this observation might just be a byproduct of pedal steel-focused instrumentation. Red Rhodes played pedal steel on a few Michael Nesmith records, which is what he's most known for in the country world. He was a session musician primarily, which garnered my interest in his solo work as most session musicians, even the most renown, do not have any kind of solo work whatsoever.

10/12/24 - Jam_2

"What about a blues in W, in the key of W." - Rahsaan Roland Kirk. 

 Listen to the show below! 

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Year	Notes
Rahsaan Roland Kirk	Salvation & Reminiscing	Prepare Thyself To Deal With A Miracle	Atlantic	1973	Roland Kirk is probably best known for playing multiple woodwind instruments at once all while being blind. He'd to have had a strong neck for that. Imagine all those sax straps tearing into your neck... Regardless, he labeled his music "black classical" because he felt jazz was not representative of all the things he was taking from. This track is described generally by the term third stream, a genre that combines elements from classical and jazz to create a somewhat controversial "third stream" between the two.
Grupo Folklórico y Experimental Nuevayorquino	Cuba Linda	Concepts in Unity	Salsoul	1975	Experimental Afro-Cuban group from NYC. They made two albums, both melding traditional Cuban music with modern styles like salsa and Afro-Cuban jazz. This song is a great example of that concept -- a traditional song about missing Cuba that starts with a minute-and-a-half long conga solo a la descarga, then moves into guaguancó-flavored salsa dura for the remaining seven or so minutes.
Rodolfo Mederos y Generación Cero	Homo Sapiens	Fuera de broma	Trova	1976	A very modern take on tango nuevo -- modern for 1976, anyway. Astor Piazzolla's style had overwhelmed the genre throughout the 50s and 60s. A new take was definitely in order, and so came the likes of Rodolfo Mederos. He was the bandleader for Generación Cero, and like just about every other tango nuevo bandleader he plays bandoneon (Piazzolla's influence on the genre is so great that even this continues to be true for many groups doing tango nuevo today!), but his style is more of a tango-flavored jazz rock than a jazz-rock flavored tango.
Walter Franco	Cena maravilhosa	Revolver	Continental	1975	Franco was part of this 2nd generation of MPB artists who were not present for the 60s bossa nova or tropicalia excitement. Franco started out in a more freak folk orientation that represented the more out-there sounds of the late 60s. But on this album, his sound is much more on the mellow side, which is the direction he would continue to go in for the rest of his career.
Brian Eno & Robert Fripp	Evening Star	Evening Star	Island	1975	Easy pick for the musical consistency of the show so far -- sorry for being a bit predictable here. I mean, it's pretty well known that Fripp & Eno did some very innovative things together and apart. Fripp from King Crimson, Eno from... well you can say Roxy Music, but that wouldn't really cover it, would it? Apart from the rock bands that brought them success, Their 70s collab records are some of their first projects outside of the rock bands that brought them early success and attention. These records are considered early bits of ambient music that sprang up in the late 60s/early 70s, along with Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Wendy Carlos, and Popul Vuh. This pick is the title track from their second collaboration.
Os Tincoãs	Ogundê	Os Tincoãs	Odeon	1973	Possibly the most musically-pleasing sounds of today's program, Os Tincoãs are a group that deserve more attention than they have gotten outside of Brazil. They started out as an unremarkable bolero trio in the 60s. After some member rotation going into the 70s, they transistioned into afoxé, an Afro-Brazilian style originating in west Brazil. It is a non-religious version of candomblé, an essential part of the Afro-Brazilian religion by the same name. Os Tincoãs completely reinvented themselves in the image and sounds of candomblé. Their sound is very delicate but consistent, with just guitar, some percussion, and vocal harmony. They released three seminal albums in the 70s, only getting better with each record released. This song is from the first of that set, with lyrics mentioning Orisha Ogun, a deity of war and metalwork in the Yoruba religious tradition.
Docteur Nico	Canshita	Orchestre African Fiesta sous la direction du Docteur Nico	Ngoma	1967	Some soukous, a guitar-based dance music emerging from Congolese rumba. Nico Kasanda, or Docteur Nico, was an early figure in Congolese music. He grew up during the Belgian colonial rule in the Congo. He started out as a guitarist in Le Grand Kallé et l'African Jazz, a popular rumba band in the 50s. He soon formed the band African Fiesta with Tabu Ley, another former member of Le Grand Kallé's band. But they had disagreements and split the group in two, with Docteur Nico naming his half African Fiesta Sukisa in '65. This song comes from the first album of this group.
The Mighty Diamonds	Them Never Loved Poor Marcus	Right Time	Virgin	1976	Roots reggae bemoaning the fate of Marcus Garvey. I personally don't really have any significant opinions about Marcus Garvey. As with the other controversial figures in the Pan-African and black power/nationalist movements in history, to me he's just another one of those guys who made an impact on certain elements that have impacted various aspects of black culture and politics, for better or worse. But his impact in Rastafarian culture and politics is perhaps the greatest. You can tell just from the music -- he shows up everywhere in reggae from this time and later. As for his fate, U.S. black orgs considered him controversial, sort of on a Malcolm X level where he spoke angrily about the present conditions, riling people up. So you have folks like W.E.B. du Bois criticizing him. And then later after he left the states, his conservative leanings left him a bit aloof from leftist black orgs like those in London where he lived out his final years. So this song frames the black folks who rejected him as betrayers to the black cause.
Waylon Jennings	Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way	Dreaming My Dreams	RCA Victor	1975	There's a psychedelic twinge to this song that you don't often hear in country music, not even during the period where psychedelia was most popular. This is really due to the phaser effect on the guitar. But it adds a tiny layer of nuance to the track that probably exemplifies what Waylon Jennings is talking about here... country needs some freshening up. Of course, as with other traditional-minded genres and -- really, movements in general, the appeal is not towards the future but to the past for a way to change what's going on in the present. Regardless, there is a bit of subconscious change happening, as this is what is known as progressive country. Very much a reaction to the nudie suit era that was waning in both popularity and relevance in the 70s.
Airto Moreira	Uri (Wind)	Seeds on the Ground	Buddah	1971	Moreira was one of the members of Quarteto Novo, a 60s Brazilian group that very extremely influential to jazz and pop music both in Brazil and abroad. He continued on to be a prolific percussionist in his own solo work and on several monumental records (e.g., Bitches Brew). Down Beat (the top jazz mag) voted him number #1 percussionist in 1981. He consistently has done a samba/latin jazz fusion style for his entire career, not really deviating from that base. But the atmosphere on this track is particularly interesting -- almost with a light drunken feeling? Calling it "Wind" is apt; the sound is not in your face but very subtle, gently winding around the listener... inviting, but not pulling them in.
Batsumi	Anishilabi	Batsumi	Records & Tapes	1974	South African folk jazz, or just afro-jazz for a different term. This group put out two albums in a two year period, so they didn't last very long, but have garnered attention as of recent through reissue labels such as Matsuli Music. Very interesting, this -- to be made during apartheid. Batsumi was inspired by the Black Consciousness Movement of the late 60s, led by forefront anti-aparteid activists Steve Biko. There are a few records like Batsumi during this time that used jazz as a way of defiance against the present opressive system. Batsumi were locally very popular and toured South Africa playing stadiums and festivals. Really speaks to how popular the anti-apartheid movement was.

9/28/24 - Jam_1

 The first show of the 2024 fall semester was a Jam. Listen to the show below! 

Artist	Track	Album	Label	Year	Notes
Eddie Kendricks	My People...Hold On	People... Hold On	Tamla	1972	Founding member of the Temptations. Relatively successful solo career in the 1970s. People... Hold On is part of prevalent wave of 70s black power music that was very popular to engage in regardless of the artist's typical output.
The Counts	Thinking Single	What's Up Front That Counts	Westbound	1972	Little known funk group from Detroit. The album is overall pretty fantastic if you're into funk, a real rare nugget. They incorporate a few weird bits in their stuff, the beginning of this track being one of them.
Frank Zappa and The Mothers of Invention	Andy	One Size Fits All	DiscReet	1975	What a weird bit of Zappa this is. It lacks that satirical/parodic angle he typically goes for -- not in the lyrics mind you (see: "Andy Devine had thong rind") but the instrumental behind it has a strange sincerity that I wouldn't expect from a Mothers showing. Features George Duke and Napoleon Murphy Brock on vocals.
João Bosco	Casa De Marimbondo	Caça à raposa	RCA Victor	1975	Brazilian MPB singer-songwriter. As is the case with other MPB artists, Bosco is a conscious and philosophical writer. This track is no different... it declares samba to be a powerful cultural force that should not be belittled or dismissed. Possible political implications.
Eero Koivistoinen Music Society	SUITE 19	Wahoo	RCA Victor	1973	Finnish band leader Eero Koivistoinen puts together a group for a bit of jazz fusion in 1973. Reminds me of fusion from the 90s. Ahead of its time in that way. Koivistoinen is decently prolific if you're interested in hearing more. This group is probably his most well known project outside of the world of performance and in the world of recordings.
Stray	Time Machine	Stray	Transatlantic	1970	Heavy Psych from the UK. Outside of the confines of men 40s+ who collect heavy psych records, this group isn't very well known. Their sound is solid regardless. I found out about them through Peel sessions.
Cortex	Troupeau bleu	Troupeau bleu	Espérance	1975	Upon first listen, I immediately recognized Cortex as sample music despite not being able to think of any songs that sample them. It's definitely got that air about it. The drums, the vocals, the piano, the sax, the bass, the guitar. Sample-able elements galore. You really don't even have to do anything to it. The musical hooks are everywhere, this song is a prime example.
Mahmoud Ahmed	Endenesh gedawo	Mahmoud Ahmed	Kaifa	1975	Super warm tizita from Ethiopia. Ahmed released a few albums and many singles before moving to the U.S. He had a revival in the mid-80s and returned to making music, largely because of the album this song comes from. It's a very involved experience, puts you in a trance.
Lucio Battisti	Anima latina	Anima latina	Numero Uno	1974	Anima latina = Latin soul/inner self. Music by Battisti, lyrics by Mogol -- big duo in 70s Italian artsy pop music. This track is from their most progressive and complex album, featuring grand orchestrations. This album is supremely ahead of its time and shocking to be from 1974. I hear a lot of different things in it, pretty crazy. If you listen to any album from today's set, this is the one. Battisti and Mogol spent months in Brazil making it. Like the rest of album, the title track explores themes of colonialism, cultural resistance, and the impact of consumerism on traditional societies; i.e., Latin America circa mid-20th century.