• Friday Five

    The Friday Five: March 23, 2012

    Friday Five

    Friday Five : ‘frī-(,)dā,-dē ‘fīv : On the sixth day of every week, I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes, then share the first five tracks and thought for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, occasionally we’ll have a guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

    The Five:

    Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug … today, I’m buzzing like a bumblebee. Here’s what is powering my flight:

    “V-2 Schneider” by David Bowie (from “Heroes”, 1977)

    “Recruting Sargeant” by Great Big Sea (from Play, 1997)

    “Window” by Mordred (from In This Life, 1991)

    “Dirty Diana” by Michael Jackson (from Bad, 1987)

    “So What” by Miles Davis Quintet (from The Unissued Japanese Concerts (disc 1: 1964-07-12: Tokyo, Japan), 2011)

    What’s on your shuffle today?

  • Friday Five

    The Friday Five: December 4, 2009

    https://ickmusic.com/pics/FridayFive01.png

    Friday Five : ˈfrī-(ˌ)dā,-dē ˈfīv : On the sixth day of every week I hit the shuffle button on my iTunes and share my five and drop a little knowledge and insight for each track. Sometimes there is a playlist involved, sometimes there isn’t. Sometimes we have guest, but most of the time it’s just me. The rest is up to you, our friends and readers! Fire up your media player of choice and share the first five random track of your shuffle in the comments.

    The Five:

    Great Lake Swimmers – “Unison Falling Into Harmony” (from Lost Channels, 2009)

    Largely overlooked in favor of the indie folk-pop of Fleet Foxes, Canada’s Great Lake Swimmers released one of the most lush, yet intimate folk-rock records of the past year.

    U.S.A. for Africa – “We Are the World” (from We Are the World: U.S.A. for Africa, 1985)

    I’m fairly certain I could fill an entire page writing about “We Are the World”, what hearing  it again reminded me of was the time in which Michael Jackson could do no wrong and how, even at eleven, I was in awe of his considerable talent.

    Miles Davis – “All Blues” (from Kind of Blue, 1959)

    To say Miles is a force in my life and my musical DNA would be an understatement, I even named my son after him. Part of Davis’ magnum opus, “All Blues” is eleven and a half minutes of pure bliss.

    The Notorious B.I.G. – “Sky’s the Limit” (feat. 112) (from Life After Death, 1997)

    I never connected with the tunes on Life After Death nearly as much as I did Ready to Die.

    Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention – “Happy Together” (from Fillmore East, June 1971, 1971)

    It occurred to me as this track started – and it is a brilliantly crass take on The Turtles classic – that only one of the artists featured on the Five this week is still with us. Not the thought I want to leave you with on a Friday, so I highly suggest hitting play on the track above and regaling in the joy. Baa-Ba-Ba…

    Okay, so who’s next!

  • Jazz

    Miles Davis, The Fillmore West, 1970

    miles

    Seeing Airto Moreira last weekend in Telluride has me going back into Miles Davis’ early 70’s stuff. Airto was percussionist on ‘Bitches Brew’ and ‘Live/Evil’, among others, and toured with Miles. I came across this 1970 show from the Fillmore West in San Francisco – a lineup which included Airto.

    They were opening for another group of musicians. Who were they? Well, let’s think about this. It’s 1970. San Francisco. Who could it possibly be? You guessed right, this April night in San Francisco, Miles Davis and his crew opened for the Grateful Dead. Can you imagine?? Well, we can try our best to recreate the night 36 years later.

    Here’s Miles’ set, with this lineup:

    Miles Davis – trumpet
    Steve Grossman – soprano saxophone
    Chick Corea – electric piano
    Dave Holland – bass, electric bass
    Jack DeJohnette – drums
    Airto Moreira – percussion

    April 12, 1970
    Fillmore West Auditorium
    San Francisco, CA

    1. It’s About That Time – 10:38
    2. Directions – 11:58
    3. I Fall in Love Too Easily – 1:46
    4. Sanctuary – 3:46
    5. Footprints – 10:23
    6. Agitation – 1:46
    7. No Blues – 7:40
    8. Bitches Brew – 14:20
    9. Spanish Key – 11:11
    10. The Theme – 0:46

    To round out the evening, the Dead hit the stage. Now you don’t think I’d leave you high and dry after listening to Miles and company kick off the evening, do you? The entire Dead set, my friends, is streaming right here.

    Is this cool or what? But wait, there’s more (I know, I sound like an infomercial).

  • Jazz

    The Miles Davis Quintet take Berlin

    Miles Davis

    Picture yourself in Berlin in the year 1967. You step from the chill of an early November night into the Berliner Philharmonie, a beautiful, modern concert hall built just a few years earlier.

    Berliner Philaharmonie

    You take your seat and the house lights go dim. The spotlight hits the stage. Tony Williams takes a seat at his drum kit; Ron Carter picks up his bass; Herbie Hancock sits down at his piano; Wayne Shorter appears with his tenor sax; and out shuffles Miles with his trumpet, a vision of undisputable cool.

    Miles Davis Quintet

    I mean, does it get any better than this? What really blows my mind with this performance is that every member just shines; all five are given the spotlight, and all five do not waste a moment. Not really surprising, given that the five are huge legends in jazz… Some of my favorite moments here are listening to the percussion of Tony Williams. That man can bang them sticks in ways you’ve never heard.

    Miles Davis Quintet
    Live at the Berlin Philharmonie
    4 November 1967

    Miles Davis: trumpet
    Wayne Shorter: tenor saxophone
    Herbie Hancock: piano
    Ron Carter: bass
    Tony Williams: drums

    1. Agitation
    2. Footprints
    3. ‘Round Midnight
    4. No Blues
    5. Masqualero

    Bonus: Douglas over at Crossword Bebop (cool name!) has a video performance of “Footprints” up on his site ; also from Germany, 1967.

    Buy The Miles Davis Quintet, 1965-68: The Complete Columbia Studio

    Miles Davis Quintet box set

  • Jazz

    The Genius of Miles

    I listened to sides 3/4 of Miles Davis‘ ‘Bitches Brew’ on the way home from work today. Windows down, volume way up… it had been a while since I took a listen to this groundbreaking album, and I felt compelled to share a tune for the uninitiated…

    …the stellar “Miles Runs the Voodoo Down,” echoes the influence of Jimi Hendrix; with its chuck-and-slip chords and lead figures and Davis playing a ghostly melody through the shimmering funkiness of the rhythm section, it literally dances and becomes increasingly more chaotic until about nine minutes in, where it falls apart. Yet one doesn’t know it until near the end, when it simmers down into smoke-and-ice fog once more. – review from All Music

    Miles Davis: Miles Runs the Voodoo Down (wma) – From: Bitches Brew, 1970.