1000 SONGS - DAY 334 SONG # 365

Day 333: Ambient Before Ambient Ever Happened

John Abercrombie is certainly one of the good jazz guitarists that were already there in the 70ies and more on the alternative side. I once owned his album "Timeless" (featuring Jan Hammer and Jack de Johnette), a timeless recording published on the mostly brilliant ECM-label. This here, the title track, strikes me as being ambient music before someone (I guess it was Brian Eno) created this label. A timeless beauty, methinks, worth to close the first year of the 1000 Songs Challenge.

1000 SONGS - DAY 333 SONG #364

Day 333: Introducing the Great Leftover Cuties

The Leftover Cuties are a band from L.A., California, with members Shirli McAllen (lead vocals, ukulele), Austin Nicholsen (bass, vocals), Mike Bolger (brass, keys, accordion, vocals ) and Stuart Johnson (drums, percussion, vocals [I copied this from Wikipedia, I have to confess]. They are most widely known for their song "Game Called Life", which is the theme song of the TV-Series "The Big C" [never seen any episode of this, btw]. And they really do some beaUtiful cover versions of otherwise widely known songs, f.e. of Bob Dylan's "Don't Think Twice". Nice version, nevertheless, I chose to include two other cover versions done by TLC, "You are my Sunshine" and "At Last". All of this is simply cool, at least according to my definition of "cool", baby. So here we go:

1000 LIEDER - TAG 332 LIED #363

Tag 332: Ein schönes Lied von Wolfgang Ambros

1972, ich war 13 Jahre alt, und Wolfgang Ambros hat sein erstes Album veröffentlicht, mit Texten vom Herrn Prokopetz. Sehr melancholisch, die ganze Sache, nicht nur die Texte, sondern auch der ein bissale gebrochene, zurückgehaltene Gesangsstil, wo sich alles so anhört, als würde das im Augenblick des Gesungenwerdens schon wieder in Frage gestellt, zurückgenommen oder aber nur so dahin gesagt. Melancholische Fragezeichen halt, eine Winterstimmung, ein (ost)österreichisches abgründiges depressives Statement, musikalisch aber wunderschön umgesetzt, erste Sahne in den Arrangements, in der Kunst des Tonsatzes. Hier das Titellied des Albums:

1000 SONGS - DAY 331 SONG # 362

DAY 331: A Tune with a Strange Title by a Genius that Hardly Anyone Remembers

Gary McFarland started with being a musician at age 25 or so; he attended the Lenox School of Jazz and  Berklee School of Music and  moved to New York City at age 27 to work as a musician. He became a well known and much sought-after composer and arranger working with the likes of Stan Getz, Gerry Mulligan, Anita O'Day, Gábor Szábó and others. When he went on doing some more popular music stuff, some folks of the self-assigned intellectual superiority predisposition seem to have critizised him for that. So, fama says, he went on to do one of his master works, namely a suite called "America The Beautiful: An Account of its Disappearance", which  reflects his dissatisfaction with the way US-American civilization went in sacrificing the beauty of its (first stolen and then inherited) landscape for the sake of capitalism (or so). He died a strange death, being poisoned at a New York bar in November 1971. Largely forgotten for a long time, some of his work has been rediscovered (and made availbale again) during the last years. Here is #2 from the said "America the Beautiful" a composition bearing the wonderful name "80 Miles An Hour Through Beer-can Country" (featuring many a fine musician, like Randy Brecker or Eric Gayle). As a bonus-track I add the Samba-version of "A Hard Days Night":

1000 SONGS - DAY 330 SONG # 361

Day 330: My Favourite Version of my Favourite Song about a Hat from 1967

Procol Harum have already been featured on this blog. There is many a fine song that Gary Brooker has composed with Keith Reid writing rather surrealistic lyrics to. Homburg certainly is among the utmost finest (to show some understatement). Certainly, the original version is a good one. Nevertheless, the one live version that Gary Brooker and some fine musicians have done here is unbeatable in my humble opinion. Here it is with lyrics:

Your multilingual business friend

Has packed her bags and fled

Leaving only ash-filled ashtrays

And the lipsticked unmade bed

The mirror, on reflection

Has climbed back upon the wall

For the floor she found descended

And the ceiling was too tall

Your trouser cuffs are dirty

And your shoes are laced up wrong

You'd better take off your Homburg

'Cause your overcoat is too long

Town clock in the market square

Stands waiting for the hour

When its hands they both turn backward

And on meeting will devour

Both themselves and also any fool

Who dares to tell the time

And the sun and moon will shadow

And the signpost cease to sign

For the sake of completeness, the original version (in a slower tempo with a younger voice):

1000 SONGS - DAY 329 SONG # 360

DAY 329: Another Fine Song by Brian Eno

One of my favourite albums of all time certainly is "Another Green World" by Brian Eno. After that, he did "Discreet Music" and "Before and After Science" and then turned to Ambient Music, at some point abandoning vocals. "Another Day on Earth" (2005) was the first solo-album by Eno again introducing the strange idea, that there is a singer to a song and something like a song on an abum. The album in question starts with this:


And methinks, THIS is beautiful.

1000 SONGS - DAY 328 Song #359

DAY 328: A Song I like to Dance to

Back to music, back to Hip-Hop, back to Love, Monie Love. From her first album "Down to Earth", here it is, featuring a sample of a song written by Stevie Wonder for The Spinners (It's  a Shame) and featuring Ultra Naté. Makes me dance around the house, 25 years after. First, the original recording, then the Cool-As-Mix, featuring a sample of Sister Sledge's "He's the Greatest Dancer". I do like the original version more, although the extended mix might work well with a fine DJ.

1000 SONGS - DAY 327 SONG #358

DAY 327: Northern Soul's Inspiration

Northern Soul is either a musical style in Northern England or a life-style in Northern England heavily influenced by Motown RnB and Soul, especially by those "rare soul" tracks released on the many small labels by those gifted soul artists of the early 60ies. Here are three songs that would fit into these categories, the first one by Charles Sheffield, more a RnB thing in the great New Orleans tradition. And in that tradition, it is only natural, that Voodoo is mentioned. If you want to know more about "Voodoo", click here: http://cultrelhgh.blogspot.co.at/2009/08/zombies-leopards-and-genre-theory.html, if you want to know more about Charles Sheffield, click here: http://soulstrutter.blogspot.co.at/2009/09/ns596-charles-sheffield-its-your-voodoo.html.

We go on with Sherri Taylor and her wonderfully ringing bell - very straight to the point -  to end up with Ted Taylor and his complaints about all those other guys trying to ring the bell he alone is in charge of or so...

1000 SONGS - DAY 326 SONG # 357

DAY 326: A Song transposed from Major to  Minor Key

Gustav Mahler (1860-1911) was a great Austrian composer, opera director and so on. His symphonies are among my favourites. His first symphony (named after a book by Jean Paul that I have read in its entirety [each and every one of the "Jobelperioden"]: Titan), features - as the 3rd movement - a treatment of one of the most popular French folk songs (along with "Sur le pont d'Avignon"), Frere Jacques, transposed from the major key of the original to the minor key in which the song might have been rendered in the Austrian empire. Some commentators also hear influences of Kletzmer in this one. Be that as it may, it is simply great. Here is a version of it, as performed by The Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Pierre Boulez.

1000 SONGS - DAY 325 SONG # 356

DAY 325: Bring It On, Mr. Bassman! Remembering Charlie Haden

Charlie Haden (1937-2014), born in the Midwest (Missouri), died in the Far West (California) yesterday. One important Jazzman, he played the double bass in bands and orchestras with likes of Ornette Coleman,  Keith Jarrett, Archie Shepp or Carla Bley, to name but a few. Here is a swinging tune called "Ginger Blues" recorded in 1995, with Ginger Baker on drums and Bill Frisell on guitar; this is very "elastic" due to the great bass-lines of Mr. Haden. There is also a solo done by him on that one. May he rest in peace!