Earworms! Yes – lets have a month of them! This week then, the much recorded Music for a Found Harmonium. This catchy piece was written by Simon Jeffes and released in 1984 on Broadcasting from Home, the fourth album by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. The story of the writing of this tune bears retelling (from [...]
Congratulations to Spain – champions of 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa (to give the tournament it’s full name). I started off by supporting Holland but after 10 minutes of watching Spain try to play football and Holland try to stop them by fair means or foul I switched my allegiances to Spain. I’ll give [...]
I’m tempted to change the plan to post a series of South African tracks. After the English goalkeeper’s calamitous fumble in the England v. USA game, I feel I should be posting It’s Not Easy Being Green by Van Morrison! But no, I’ll not be diverted from my original intention. South African music it is. [...]
What to post today after an inconclusive general election and during a weekend of horse trading? Time to rifle through the album collection! There are so many contenders and my initial reaction was to post I Cry and Sing the Blues by Buddy Guy. Perhaps not, but if it’s got to Buddy Guy with a [...]
I’m cheating this week; I confess. I’ve run out of sitar music and haven’t got round to purchasing any more yet. “Shame!” “Charlatan!” and more cries beginning with the phoneme sh..! To fill the sitar shaped hole I’m posting Ganges Delta Blues by Ry Cooder and VM Bhatt from the album A Meeting by the [...]
Thanks to the suggestion of my great friend Dill, this weeks sitar-tastic track is from the Joe Harriott – John Mayer Double Quintet’s Indo-Jazz Fusions album. In 1966, at the behest of record producer Denis Preston, Anglo-Indian John Mayer and Jamaican Joe Harriott put together a double quintet, half jazzmen and half traditional Indian musicians. [...]
I’ve recently spent more of my hard earned soldi extending my jazz music collection. I’ve bought Charles Mingus’s Mingus Ah Um as an early Easter present to myself. If you are not a jazz buff and want to get into the music, where do you start? If you just want to taste the music of [...]
Here is that last in the mini-series, “What I got for Christmas / birthday”; a track from Keith Jarrett’s – The Köln Concert. This was a birthday present from my sister (thanks Jenny), bought at my suggestion. Here’s why I asked for this record. Having resisted digitalising my record collection for ages, I have finally [...]
A quick post this week as I’ve been busy with family visitations and celebrations. I don’t have a version of Happy Birthday to You in my collection and so I’m going with a theme of Happy Music. And as Sharon Shannon was on Transatlantic Sessions on Friday and her music fits the theme well, I’m [...]
After last week’s track, Scott Skinner’s Dargai, I thought that I would post some more Scott Skinner music. This week we have Richard Thompson, no relation, playing a medley of Scott Skinner tunes namely Glencoe, The Rockin’ Step and Bonny Banchory from his instrumental album Strict Tempo! After the modest sales for their 1979 album [...]