3:33⅓ Let’s Stay Together with Jimmy Smith
So guess what, I love organ jazz. Love it. So I’m spinning one of the best to ever do it on Jazz88 cause we need it. It’s Jimmy Smith going hard for you and yours.
The Record.
The Artwork.
3:33⅓ Breezin’ with George Benson
Sometimes you gotta rally against the weather. I wanted to bring a little island groove energy to the airwaves of Jazz88 cause we need it. And frankly, we’ll need it even more later this week when it gets downright arctic. In fact I understand the only warm place in all of the Twin Cities on Friday night will be the stage of the Turf Club in St. Paul as you are serenaded by the dulcet tones of one H.e.i.r.u.s.p.e.c.s!
Also, George Benson is just a master, when he’s smooth, he’s the smoothest, when he’s straight ahead he is as fast as a pistol and when he’s funky, he’s the funkiest. That’s right, I like George Benson friends.
The Record.
The Artwork.
The Middle of the Dial, The Magic of Snow, The Rest of the Year
A strange kind of magical Friday. And let’s be fair. This is the last normal ass Friday of the year. Next Friday is Christmas Eve Eve to those who celebrate. To me it’s the Heiruspecs album release party which is a big deal. And for which tickets are moving surprisingly well in my opinion. I’ll be honest, I’ve cried wolf before just to try to make you buy tickets., but in the case I’d say we’ve sold 75 more tickets at this time than I would’ve expected us to. So it’s time to buy those tickets. And I’m not putting you on the guest list. And the Friday after that is New Year’s Eve Eve and my sincere hope is that I’ll be drinking Charles Mingus’ egg nog recipe with some friends (I have discussed this bad idea with exactly no one). That is far from a normal Friday. So god bless the last real Friday of 2022. 2022 you were a complicated year, a lot of medium highs, a couple deep lows. It was a real midrange year.
The Friday started nice because it was couple’s therapy and I was moody and Rachel made smallish talk with me before we had our appointment which was good. She asked about programming holiday music on a radio station and I have all the opinions on that. Couple’s therapy is not fun per se, but on the other hand, I like our therapist, and I love my wife and I love building a stronger bond with my wife, so, you know what, even if it’s intense it is some form of fun.
The vibe at Jazz88 today was good. I think a snow day pulls the cream of the crop. The folks who didn’t want to come to work just work from home on a snowy day if they can. So it was all kind of chatty Kathy’s at the office today. That meant I slipped behind on the work work part of it, but I knew I could work away on my to do list after my on-air shift. I believe all I ate at the office today was pastries that were literally pulled out of the garbage after a big iHeart fundraiser thing that happened yesterday. I’ll tell you this: that pumpkin muffin out of the garbage was fucking good, no regrets. The thing I was able to churn out before getting on the air was a post about the top ten songs of 2022 according to the listeners of Jazz88. I’m really proud of this list, I’m really proud of the songs our listeners choose, I’m really proud of the programming work that I and others have done this year. Check the list here.
My on-air shift was beautiful. The songs were sounding great, I was adding some special flavor, getting some good humor in and channeling the right energy with my traffic partner, Sonny Lane. I heard this Barry Harris song for the first time which was excellent. I joked with Sonny Lane that we were the last two people working in all of Minnesota and it felt like that today, like everyone’s at home, or shoveling, or valiantly pretending that Kurt Cousins is rapidly reading a book about how to quarterback in time for tomorrow’s game. The whole time I’m on the air I’m also chipping at the mountain of prep that awaits me on my Friday shifts, downloading, retitling, coding, voicing traffic. . .just a lot. But when you’re in a good mood and the music is sounding better than your mood, the hours slide by.
After the shift I got to do all my prep work for a show I’m hosting tomorrow at 7pm. It’s called “Ones we Lost” and we are celebrating the musicians we lost in 2022. Mac Wilson does a similar thing at the Current and I thought it was always an excellent thing to do. We lost a lot of great jazz musicians this year and I hope you can listen in tomorrow night to honor them. We can’t cover them all, but I’m planning on celebrating Ramsey Lewis, Pharoah Sanders, Jaimie Branch, Butch Thompson, Betty Davis and more. Check it out at Jazz88.
After that I listened to the best podcast on Planet Earth, The Political Gabfest on a very slow ass drive to St. Paul to pick up Martin Devaney to then slide over to Burger Dive in St. Paul. I had a. . .burger there. Delicious. Simple, not huge, but very filling. The fries were super normal but sometimes that’s all you need if the burger is working. The burger had massive cheese on it, but never too much cheese, just a good old lot of cheese.
You might be wondering a couple things at this point: 1) Why the hell am I reading this? or 2) Who is watching Sean’s kids? I can’t answer number 1, but number 2 is “some Jewish teens that Rachel found on a Facebook group of Jewish Moms. Shout out these girls, Rachel said they did a great job. I don’t even know what my kids ate for dinner to night which is the equivalent on tour of not knowing what the name of the hotel you are staying at is but you know somebody else has it covered and you feel so relaxed in your ignorance. Beautiful feelings.
While I enjoyed this burger and caught up on the week with Martin I watched an incredible thing which was seeing Timberwolves win. We are already a broken team this year, and frankly for our 30 year history with the Kevin Garnett asterisk. I have a couple food recommendations for Chris Finch to enjoy in Minneapolis before he is fired sometime in the next year, but a win is a win and it was a fun one. There are awesome players on this team. That doesn’t make us an awesome team. But getting to watch that win while digging into a burger and a hop water. . .legit. And Fabulous Fern’s is the greatest bar in St. Paul history, that is undisputed, you can’t convince me otherwise. But Burger Dive is checking some of those boxes. What are those boxes: an amazing cross-section of St. Paul racially, age-wise and socio-economically, a great selection of food that can answer most desires, a real sense of the barstaff being friends and supportive of one another, a sense of mischief that you can’t get from most breweries, it’s a bar thing. BUT, let me tell you, Fabulous Fern’s often had an unexplainably high distribution of quite foxy women of all ages. That wasn’t happening tonight at Burger Dive, but who cares, it was still an awesome hang and people were picking good weird karaoke songs.
I also grabbed two tasty drinks that I invented on the spot inspired by my quiet neighbor Angie. It’s called the Angie. Ask for it at the Burger Dive, they’ll have no idea what you’re talking about. Tequila, Tonic Water, Bitters, Grapefruit Juice. Frankly, not bad. There’s definitely one piece that doesn’t need to be in there. I think it’s the bitters.
Me at the Burger Dive with a drink I invented called The Angie
And on the ride home Radio K as per usual just demolished it with an incredible run of songs. I’ve duplicated it here. They have an amazing library with amazing curation and it puts a big ass smile on my face. Let’s be serious, why is Rin Tin 1010 in there? It was from a quite good album released in the summer of ‘21. But it doesn’t necessarily make sense to still be in rotation, except, who cares, it’s Prince, it’s a good jam, the band sounds good, so there it is. And then you’re going to put on a Radiohead song I only vaguely knows that kind of bumps like a Bill Withers song? Okay, that’s beautiful. And then I’m sitting in my warm ass car with beautiful speakers remembering that when I was buying this car, knowing that I was going to make the move to Jazz88 most likely and could only get Radio K to turn on the test drive and thinking, why did I miss this station? I wasn’t ready to move with them to the FM dial, but I’m all over it now. Damn, thinking about all this and then Elliott Smith comes on with Angeles. Big Trouble needs to cover this song. Also, I am so glad that Big Trouble now plays monthly at White Squirrel (last Saturday of the month). . .that means I have an outlet to do something with my desire to cover an Elliott Smith tune. What a world. For the record, I’m still listening to Radio K right now as I type and well. . .it’s still spectacular. I haven’t recognized a song in maybe four songs, and they played a Gorillaz song I think is overrated, but you know what, it’s all good. I have to add that to my list of Music Rules blog: the only Gorillaz songs you need to care about have rappers on them. Also somehow Radio K can read my blog as I type cause they just put on a Miloe song I know. Thanks universe and Sarah.
In conclusion, I hope you come to the Heiruspecs show, I hope you read about the Best Songs on Jazz88 of 2022, I hope you listen in Saturday night at 7pm for “Ones we Lost” on Jazz88 and I hope you also check out Radio K sometime. And I hope you have a great weekend. I like blogging, I’m glad you like reading it. Sincerely.
P.S. - After “proofing” this, Radio K is now playing Lauryn Hill and D’Angelo together and it is as stunning as it was when it came out. Love those snaps and the incredibly behind the beat keyboard comping. Agggghhh. Yes.
3:33⅓ Louis Armstrong
First off, I pronounce the S. I pronounce Louis Armstrong like “Lewis Armstrong”. I understand that is how Mr. Armstrong preferred to be referred.
I don’t have a lot to say about this record. . .I’m borrowing it from Andrew from Development. Do you want me to tell that Louis Armstrong is amazing and that he excelled in a holiday setting? You already knew that.
The Record.
The Artwork and yours truly holding the artwork.
3:33⅓ You’ve Got a Friend
I slept for two extra hours this morning after dropping the kids off this morning and it was excellent. I am usually filling up those pre-work hours (I try to get over to Jazz88 between 11 and 11:30) with working out, therapist appointments, self-promotion, cooking dinner, walking dogs. But my god I woke up feeling just so tired this morning. Did I stay up to late? Absolutely! Did I watch the Celtics beat the Lakers? I sure did. It was a mistake. I need to swear off West Coast games at least til Valentine’s Day slash I really want to watch Wolves Clippers tonight even though The Wolves are a fundamentally broken team at the moment.
Instead of rolling right to work today I swung through the John B. Davis center for a little staff get together with the larger department that Jazz88 is a part of. Like all mingling events, I mainly talked to people I know and then cornered one person and asked them everything about their entire life (shout out Martha!). This vibe led me feeling friendly and appreciative for working with Minneapolis Public Schools.
So I played Donny Hathaway’s incredible version of “You’ve Got a Friend”.
The Artwork.
Live from Not Checking Social Media and Working Class Boys in America
I’ve been rocking a couple days of no scrolling on facebook, instagram or twitter. I’ve been jumping on to post about the Heiruspecs show coming up on Friday, December 23 because I do believe that attracting digital friends to real life events is a worthy cause. I also still help with social media on Jazz88 during my shift, I believe that attracting listeners away from their phone and into the amazing world of radio is fruitful work. But I’m done with scrolling, with reading DMs et cetera. My wife Rachel is taking a quick glance at the DMs and the mentions for me on Sunday nights (to all the numerous potential suitors who slide in the DMs on the regular asking when I will end this thing with Rachel, she can now answer that for you). Rachel is doing minor scanning for opportunities (shout out to Brian Oake who said he might like to have me on his podcast) and for minor scandals but she’s not necessarily telling me about every person who said something kind of positive about work I did on the radio or similar. I WOULD LIKE TO BE CLEAR: I am not avoiding social media for the same reasons as Beyonce. My life is not dominated by the small profile I have acquired as a broadcaster and bass player. You’d be amazed but my family can go into an Olive Garden in Roseville without being mobbed for autographs. I am also not avoiding social media because I think Elon Musk is a doink. I do think he is a doink, but I give a lot of my money to companies owned and ran by doinks. I am avoiding social media to see if my brain can thrive more without it. I am avoiding social media for some of the same reasons I don’t step on the scale anymore. Is the positive feedback I get actually positive? Is the negative feedback I get actually negative? Is it all negative? Is the information I get from social media helping me be the best possible me I can be? And I don’t mean the most productive. I mean the best. I mean the one that is most present for my wife and for my daughters. The one that sounds the best at band practice, on the radio. The one who is most supportive of his friends in his life. The one who doesn’t the most he can to make the world a better place. The one that can most easily focus on enjoying a movie when it’s time for that, the one who enjoys food the most, who gets the best sleep. I don’t really have my doubts about this, I think I can be better with the bare minimum of interaction on social media. I get a lot of out social media, I get laughs, I get that rush from feeling liked. I like that on social media I feel admired and appreciated for my passion for music and my ability to communicate that passion. But, I miss out on silence, on feeling positive about myself as opposed to downloading the support of others into my spirit. I miss out on focus and on productivity. There are surely laughs, opportunities and things I will miss out on, but I believe there is a focus I will gain and I believe that focus will be worth more. To be honest I started to be on social media to get the better gigs, to spread the word and to hopefully get a cooler job than working at a group home (no knock on people who do that for their whole career, that just wasn’t where my head was at). Well I got the cooler job, I play in a cool band, we can play at the venues we want to and I need to change what I do day to day to stay positive and be my best myself. And I tell you, so far it’s working, I’m feeling more focused at work (I even already had blockers set up for my office hours, but just having that thorough commitment is a new level). Rant about social media complete.
Rant about boys to begin now:
I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts lately featuring Richard Reeves who has a lot of arguments about treating boys differently then we currently do. The best episode with him I’ve heard came out today on Vox’s podcast “The Gray Area”. The most salient argument of Reeves that I hear whenever he speaks is that “boys are at a tangible disadvantage in school settings. There are ways we can address these disadvantages and the solutions do not involve placing girls at a newly engineered deficit, but rather just by tweaking things to make them more hospitable to boys.” In every episode I’ve listened to Reeves takes great care to point out that the data documenting the problems for male achievement in schools is long standing and primarily impacts working class boys and specifically black boys. I have a lot of complicated feelings about this:
I Don’t Know Working Class Life In Enough First Hand Ways to Trust My Anecdotes - I grew up in Williamstown, MA (small college town with the most elite liberal arts college on planet Earth parked at the center of town). My dad was a professor. We left Massachusetts for him to become the President of Macalester College. I didn’t see a lot of working class from the windows on Summit Avenue. I am thankful to have lived life with people from many walks of life, including working class. But sharing life and space with working class folks is no substitute for being in touch with it. It is relatively easy for me to think boys are doing just fine, but that is based on the boys in my circle, in my world. When I listen to these podcasts I hear the data and I believe boys are struggling in school.
I Don’t Believe it’s Reasonable to Say that School is Designed for Girls - This comment gets tossed off pretty often by Richard Reeves and I find it just pretty dumb to say. I believe he is trying to say that girls excel in elementary school and beyond. Fine. To go on to say that based on how, when and in-what-nature most girls develop that they excel at school. But to say it was designed for them is historically disingenuous. THERE WASN’T SHIT DESIGNED FOR WOMEN until very recently. I would argue that bras weren’t designed for women, they were designed for men for women. Girls might be excelling at school but that does not mean the shit was designed for them and that’s an important distinction and not just cause I’m picky. The distinction is that if girls excel in school the right question to ask might be “why?” not “how can we change this so boys excel too?”. It seems knee jerk to change something because boys don’t excel at it. I can see that sounding callous, and I agree to that right response is to not sit on our hands and say “tough noogies you dumb boys”. We need a world where boys and girls thrive and that might mean not giving up wholesale on a system where girls thrive.
I Believe it is a Struggle to find a good masculine identity nowadays - There is a lot of negative reaction to the term “toxic masculinity” in this space of conversations. Many individuals on these podcasts simply say “don’t say that. . .it’s bad, don’t say that, it doesn’t give boys a path towards good manhood”. Okay, cool. BUT, but, but. If it exists, say it. It reminds me of parents who are up in arms about American history being taught honestly in American schools. Their rallying cries largely balance out to “stop telling the truth” or “don’t tell the truth so early”. The idea of sheltering young kids from some of the most painful parts of American history makes some sense to me. The idea of ridding our high schools of that information is such a terrible idea. The term toxic masculinity exists because the reality exists. I don’t think it is made out of whole cloth. So, I do think we need language that supports positive masculinity because that exists too. Big time. I see wonderful men in my life do amazing things, things that code somewhat towards masculine behavior. All for it, fantastic. Bravo. And I do think we are lacking language and conversation about positive men. I think the problem lies in the fact that many excellent things that men do. . .women can do too. So if you shout somebody out for that masculine energy in this world where we think of these qualities as binary one might feel the men are laying claim to a whole set of behaviors and keeping them from women. I don’t think people are actually that provincial. If I shout out a man for being a good ass man I don’t think the grand majority of men or women would think of that as being somehow exclusionary. Could be wrong, I’m probably not.
I’ve Never Found Self-Knowledge to Pre-Empt Self Love - I believe in an almost indefatigable will for people to love themselves. I have that. I am aware and consider in my day to day life the unearned privileges I enjoy as a white man in America. And I consider the heinous ways in which those privileges accrue now and deep into the past. I consider all that and I still love myself. I do not hate myself, I do not hate my family, I do not hate men, I do not hate white people. My disgust with terrible actions and terrible history does not prevent me from feelings of self-love. I understand that I come to this as an adult, but to be honest, my parents were pretty disinclined to sugar coat American history so some of this stuff I received from a young age. Is there research that suggests that young pupils who are presented with a relatively raw presentation of American history grow up with more feelings of hate or self-hate? I’m not certain either way, but I am inclined to think that the mission of keeping the shames of our history away from kids might last til maybe. . .fifth grade at best? Also, is that what we want to teach? LOVE AMERICA, AMERICA IS GREAT, MEN ARE GREAT, DON’T LOOK OVER THERE. IF YOU DON’T LOOK OVER THERE AND DON’T READ THESE BOOKS OR WATCH THESE MOVIES OR READ THESE BOOKS WE ARE GREAT, AMERICA IS GREAT. It’s a fool’s errand.
I believe male role models matter in a special way to young boys - I cherish the men I had in my life growing up as a boy. I had my dad, I had uncles, I had my brother, I had my bass and piano teacher. These men taught me good and bad things about manhood but seeing manhood in practice, in the flesh was important. Reeves’ argument that having more male teachers in elementary school is one I agree with. My first full-year male teacher was Mr. Coniglio in sixth grade and I hated that motherfucker, but man did I love him too. We fought, we butted heads even when we didn’t fight, he was hard on me, but man do I know he loved me, do I know he was trying to teach me some things that I needed to get taught. And some of the ways he did were very masculine. He cracked jokes with me, but not at me, while I would be crying. He didn’t actually say “tough shit” ever, but that is basically how he answered a lot of my complaints. My mom was also the “tough shit”-in-chief at home, but to get it from Mr. Coniglio was an important step. I believe it is relatively accepted that having more men in the classroom might be uniquely good for boys. Why can’t that also be relatively accepted when we talk about the idea of having more black teachers? I feel like that’s the line and I don’t know why. . .except I kind of do, because I think a lot of white parents don’t want black teachers teaching their children. . .which is stupid.
The Crisis in Manhood Can’t Just Be Answered By Artificially Rigging the Game for Boys - The modern world might not suit the way boys are currently taught, supported and developed. The modern world might not reward masculine energy with the financial spoils it has for the eternity of time. But the answer to that. . .it’s not to just bend it back and start rewarding that. We can’t bend it back. If the modern world doesn’t appreciate masculinity as it currently is expressed, there needs to be carte blanche about what changes, masculinity has never been a fixed quality, it can be pliable, it can evolve, it can change.
Personally, I've had complicated moments with my masculinity. I’ve had times when it felt like masculinity as it is understood wasn’t a fit for me. I believe I wanted distance from misogyny, from blind aggression from these things that at time seemed like they were a mandatory part of masculinity. But I’ve also had these moments where being a calming voice in a tense situation, a courageous spirit when I was called upon - where I felt I was drawing from a well of masculinity. One could do the same thing and feel they were drawing from a well of femininity, but I did not feel I was.
If I take out my awareness that I want our ecosystem between Rachel and I to thrive no matter what, on the whole I liked it when I made more money than my wife. I like the fact that now that she makes more money than me, we have more money. I’ll take that all day. But if the total dollar amount is set and I have to divide up who makes it, I’d like to make the bigger piece. I can tell you why: it feels good to make money, it makes you feel like when you come up short on other shit, you are still dropping the dollars in that make everything click for your family. So it gives you a sense of purpose even when you are fucking up as a dad or as a husband. And I listen to a shit ton of podcasts, I know that the data says that by in large heterosexual women want a man who packs away more money than her. Now I think that is just a prime example of the patriarchy living rent free in everyones brains. But, even if that’s what it is, that phenomenon does exist. It was a trying moment early on in our relationship when Rachel asked me to write down all the money I was making each month. This was at a time where I was probably pulling about 75% of my money from playing in Dessa’s band, it meant the $$ was very turbulent. Rachel simply wanted to know about it on a monthly basis. This makes sense, but it felt emasculating, it felt like she didn’t trust that I was bringing in money. That’s not fair. That’s my shit, not Rachel’s. But I struggled. But god damn I was proud when the number looked high to me, a couple big gigs, a couple extra trivia events and I was feeling myself.
The podcast kept on mentioning these depths of despair, and how they happen far more frequently to men. There was research mentioned about the last words that men say before they kill themselves and it was often about feeling useless. This breaks my heart. In my world I have so rarely felt useless: I have felt needed, scheduled, counted on, missed if I’m not there. I’ve been connected to this world and the feeling is mutual. These men don’t. . .maybe it goes back to slipping in school, maybe it goes back to slipping somewhere else and not finding your way. I do think we should try everything we can to end deaths of despair.
This writer Richard Reeves is not wrong - You’re not wrong Mr. Reeves. Men are having worse outcomes in school then they used to and we should try things to make that better. Your ideas, including the idea of holding boys back for one year before they start kindergarten, they’re interesting. There’s something there. I worry that you want to solve the world for boys by catering to them. I think ultimately if the world is moving on from a masculinity that once helped someone thrive, the solutions might need to be more evolved.
Being a boy is awesome - I am raising two girls, I love them and I feel like there is a lot of talk in my young parents circles about how much better girls are than boys. But, we have to stop that. Humans are incredible. Boys are humans. Girls are humans. I think these boys around us, they can hear what we are saying. We need to not treat boys like an inconvenience, we can’t excuse their shithead behaviors as boys will be boys, but we also have to want them to be boys, great boys, amazing wonderful boys. Now I have that Lizzo song about Boys in my head. What a treat.
No one is useless, we can’t let boys be useless. But we can’t artificially create a demand for masculine energy if it’s not there. We need boys to be deeply useful, celebrated for their usefulness, needed, central to the life of their family. I’m glad to be thinking about this.
3:33⅓ Rest in Peace Angelo Badalamenti
The music of Twin peaks is near and dear to my heart. I grew up watching Twin Peaks (mom and dad probably shouldn’t have let a fifth grader watch, nor read the diary of Laura Palmer but here we are).
This was probably my first experience with music that is haunting, but isn’t spooky. I just remember watching Twin Peaks and being so fascinated with the emotions it was conjuring out of me (including shit-my-pants-scared) but the music was such an integral part of that experience.
Angelo Badalamenti brought great sounds into the world, and he passed away this weekend. Thank you for the music and thank you to the Bookhouse Trio out of MPLS for covering it so beautifully!
The Record.
The Artwork and yours truly holding the artwork.
3:33⅓ Black Market Brass
I love some great Minnesota music and I think Black Market Brass are some of the best. I saw them live way back at the Nomad and felt like I couldn’t think of a band that mustered a more physical groove off the stage in our scene. I also saw them at the Pizza Luce Block Party and I realized they had some serious fans. The way I heard about this band was kind of a trip . . .I was playing a show on the same bill as Caroline Smith (now Your Smith) and I complimented her on how great her band sounded. She told me she had a secret weapon, she had discovered a band in the rehearsal space next to hers with great players. She was hesitant to give me the name, but she ended up saying “Black Market Brass”.
Powerful group but most importantly, this is their best tune. I love a good groove, but when you take a good groove and you add a good melody, great arrangement moves and spectacular solos, than you got a stew going.
The Record.
The Artwork and yours truly holding the artwork.
3:33⅓ Khruangbin
First off, I just really like this dude Michael Cain from MacPhail. Nice spirit, nice energy and a fount of enthusiasm and knowledge about music in general. You ever just meet someone who you know is doing their life for all the right reasons? When he talks about his love of music it feels really earnest. He stopped by cause he had a gig at MacPhail to plug next week, but I’m just glowing from the hang.
I had to decide real quick what to play on the radio off the turntable and I realize it’s been awhile since I shared one of my favorite tunes, The Infamous Bill from Khruangbin. What a jam, what a treat. Enjoy it!
The Record.
The Artwork.
A Video Message for the New Heiruspecs Album
The new Heiruspecs album comes out in two weeks from today. We celebrate with a show at the Turf Club. You should buy tickets here.
3:33⅓ Happy Birthday Jimmy Smith
Jimmy Smith is everyone’s first favorite organ player. You might move on to a different player, but Jimmy Smith is usually the first organ player you hear about. I’ve fallen hard for Larry Young, for Jimmy McGriff and for othrs, but Jimmy Smith was the first one I understood to be a master. And that’s exactly what he is. To me, he’s America’s organist. And he was born on this day in 1925. So we are gonna celebrate Jimmy Smith all afternoon on Jazz88, including with a spin of “Root Down and Get it” at 3:33⅓ today.
The Record.
The Artwork.
Sasha Berliner on the Turntable
Putting one more record on tonight for Jazz88. My friend Amy is friends with the team behind JMI in New York and they sent over a copy of the new Sasha Berliner record and it is a monster. Excited to give a spin to track one: Jade.
The Record.
The Artwork.
3:33⅓ Wain McFarlane
Long live Minnesota Music. Especially those artists that in my opinion never got a fair shake. You ask most folks who were around MN in the 1980s and they’ll tell you that Ipso Facto in general and Wain McFarlane were heading for big things. And though national fame may have eluded them, Wain has been the soundtrack to so many great moments for so many Minnesotans. Tonight he and his family band are taking the stage of the Dakota at 7pm. Info here, Cath a vinyl spin of Wain’s rendition of “Wake Up Everybody” on Jazz88 at 3:33⅓ today.
The Record.
The Artwork.
Superfluous Social Media
I have a huge soft spot in my heart for Bomani Jones, his podcast is one of my favorites. Like almost everyone I listen to right now, he is questioning the value of social media. He is also questioning whether what we need is an alternative to twitter that serves the same purpose. I get that, and as I listen to someone smart folks questioning the value of social media communication, I’m coming back to the same question I’ve been asking for the past two years? Is it working for me? The answer is frequently no. It has helped me get into careers I’ve really wanted and helped me advance reasonably far in those careers. But I am still curious what I’m missing out on by filling many free minutes with social media when I could enjoy the feeling of waiting, thinking, being with my own thoughts et cetera. Podcasts are an out and out good. Wikipedia has made the majority of my careers possible. I reached a lot of people on social media and that helped me build a fanbase. I owe it to the awesome content/music I make to spread the word about where they can consume such content. But, I owe it to myself to stay off of it otherwise. Who knows what my brain can conjure if it’s not pulled into that cesspool quite so often.
Music Rules
Here are all the rules of music.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a middle quality band unless John Frusciante is with them, then they are often a good band and occasionally a great band.
If the record involves Charlie Haden on bass and just one other person, buy it, they are all incredible discs.
Turntables have only sounded good in rock settings twice: Andrew Broder’s Fog project and Modest Mouse’s “The Lonesome Crowded West” record
Except for the years 1972-1980, the live version is never better than the studio version.
Songs with excellent drum breaks are often good songs.
Songs with sample friendly saxophone moments are often garbage songs.
If the first solo on a song is a bass solo, the ensemble is trying to hide something.
Percussion has to be really bad to make a song worse
If you can’t tell if it’s a Rhodes or a Wurlitzer, it’s a Rhodes
No band has ever made their best record after making ten or more records, keep swinging, but you’ve hit your peak
If you think a song doesn’t need back up singers on it. . .you’re right
Rage Against the Machine is punk mixed with rap. That’s great. Limp Bizkit is rock mixed with rap. That’s terrible.
Sade is even better than most of us realize.
If your song needs a fourth verse, there might be something wrong with the first three.
Trumpets make things better, and trombones make trumpets better.
The only Gorillaz songs you need to care about have rappers on them.
3:33⅓ Herb Alpert Tijuana Brass
Usually when someone says “what does this song mean to you” they are aiming for a deep answer that involves the connections between certain lyrics or textures that conjure deep spirits from the person being asked. Sometimes, music is a utility. Sometimes the best music is a utility. When they play that song at Wolves games where the voice says “everybody clap your hands” it to me means, “watch how few people are about to clap”. It’s a utility. For me, if you play “Spanish Flea” by Herb Alpert all I hear is trivia. For over a decade I ran trivia on The Current with Jill Riley and company for Trivia Mafia. This bed music outlasted co-hosts, hairstyles, studios and more. When I hear this tune, it’s time to run trivia. Periodt. I’m excited to hear it in a different application today. Catch it on Jazz88 at 3:33⅓ today.
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3:33⅓ The Three Sounds
Getting back into grind on a Monday is always easier with Jazz88 on the speakers. I decided to keep it simple today and pull out the Three Sounds. When I was just starting to get into jazz in high school me and Dad walked up to Cheapo on Snelling and one of the discs I got was the best of the Three Sounds. We need to celebrate those gateway drug artists. Long before I could really enjoy some of the jazz I now love. . .I could understand the Three Sounds, they were students of the groove, they didn’t do elaborate chord substitutions, you could hear the melody of a tune throughout every chorus, soloing or not. Spectacular musicianship. Love it. Love vinyl. Love DJing, love getting back to it.
The Record.
The Artwork.
3:33⅓ A Blues Appetizer from B.B. King
Here at Jazz88 Fridays belong to the Blues. We get started at 7pm with Bobby Van Dell’s “Bridge to the Blues”. I always like to start things off with a couple blues appetizers before we go all blues. Today I brought in some B.B. King on vinyl. We’re going to enjoy the sounds of “Sweet Little Angel”. There’s a reason why B.B. King is the name most people think of when they think of the blues. The man had the spirit in spades and there is no better way to hear B.B. King than in a live setting.
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3:53⅓ Wayne Shorter - Adam’s Apple
Had to get the turntable rolling a little late on Jazz88 today. The turntable was only giving off one channel and I couldn’t figure it out. Thankfully, I’m getting a little more courageous trying things and I got it to work. I am fighting my desire to do nothing technological ever and starting to figure some things out about the gear I rely on which makes me happy. You know what else makes me happy? Wayne Shorter. I love how DIVERSE what he writes is. He writes bluesy, he writes abstract, the man just writes and he writes so well. ENJOY!
The Record.
The Artwork.