Burning Dervish

This one is a little different...

I am tired. My wife and kid have been sick for more than a week. I can't sleep. I'm cranky.

My wife called me at work this afternoon to tell me there is a mouse in the apartment. I think he is under my comfy chair in the living room right at this moment. The "kid friendly" exterminator is coming tomorrow. Let's hope the mice in the building are not kids.

So what's a sour-ass insomniac to do? Rather than sit around and wait for Mickey to resurface I figured I'd throw a mix together, a real one this time, not just a compilation.

I may not quite have the skills to pay the bills but here it is. You decide.

Fucking Mice by Burning Dervish. 10 tracks covering Lonnie Smith- Max Romeo- Material- Taswiyah- Viktor Vaughn- Mouse on Mars- Mike Watt- Mouse- Mouse & the Traps.

  Our very first guest review comes Josh Block, who caught a show last night at Kaufman Center that I was sad to miss...

"The most interesting Jazz program of the season isn’t happening at Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, or at any other of the much flaunted, Marsalis-ordained venues hosted by Lincoln Center.

Rather, Reissue: Classic Recordings Live, the second installment of which occurred last night, is happening quietly around the corner, at the Kaufman Center.

‘Quietly’ also aptly describes the path to light traveled by Andrew Hill’s 2003 release, Passing Ships, performed last night in its entirety. Recorded in 1969, the session that was to become Passing Ships languished in obscurity, shelved alongside other dusty reels of Blue Note sessions not deemed ripe for release. It was revisited over the years by would-be cataloguists, but the date, featuring a nine-piece band – the largest for Hill at the time – was consistently deemed a mess. That is, until the realization that the reference reels only told part of the story. Only a fraction of the nonet was evident on the recording, the rest substituted by echoes and glaring gaps thanks to a faulty recording. When the original 8-track recordings were found, the session was rightly deemed a triumph – a declaration echoed by its audience upon its release.

Hill, a slight man with a voice that make Michael Jackon’s sound gruff, took the stage last night accompanied by a drummer, bass player and six collaborators armed with brass instruments of all flights. ‘Quiet’ would not be an apt description of the music they played.

After an initial performance by Hill’s trio (piano, drums, bass), in which the drummer, playing in a world of his own, focused his energies on perfecting a variety of Dave Chappelle “oh” faces and the bass player struggled to be heard, but, perhaps wasn’t worth the strain, the real show began.

The brass section lined the front of the stage, obscuring the bass player and drummer and leaving Hill off to the side. The nonet’s positioning spoke volumes of how the night would proceed. Before Hill could even take his place at the piano, he was up directing the band with arms outstretched above his head. Fingers wiggled, arms flailed, irises raced back and forth, the corners of Hill’s mouth undulated – leaving the crowd delighting equally in his smiles and frowns – and, both visibly and violently, Hill’s head shook from side to side. None of this was a meditation on the music. The band played adroitly, soaring the more vigorously Hill cast his shamanic motions in their direction, but rarely paling as he retreated to his own instrument.

The few keys Hill did stroke during the evening were lost to the horns, but Hill, clearly, triumphed last night as a composer and arranger. At the night’s close, applause drew Hill back onto the stage where he performed a short solo piece, but it was unnecessary. Hill had lead his big band through an ambitious group of arrangements recorded nearly 40 years ago – one that had been forgotten or simply never known by most, but over which Hill still held command. Hopefully the dust won’t settle again anytime soon around Passing Ships. Highly recommended.

Check out future performances ay Kaufman Center here."

Thanks Josh. I'm back tomorrow with more live MP3s...

Its taken a while but I've finally gotten a new mix together - even have cover art this time.

Lots of links below...those behind artist names go to their specific pages on emusic in case you want to listen to samples of other tracks from them...the links behind album names go to the corresponding page on amazon.

These tracks have come to me from so many sources...its a blast combing through this stuff every few weeks to see how it can be strung together to give us an hour or so of something chill. I hope it worked out.

Click here to download Volume Five until Sunday, November 19.

If you have any tracks or mixes you want to post here, leave a comment and let me know how to reach you - would be fun to put up what you put together.

• You I Love Dub, Wackies Rhythm Force, African Roots, Act 3
• La Rebellion, Orchestra Baobab, Pirates Choice
• This Land is for Everyone, The Abyssinians, Arise
• Gone A Country, Everton Blender, King Man
• We Need Love, Johnny Osbourne, Mojo: Studio One Selector
• Get Ready (12" Mix), Delroy Wilson, Darker Than Blue: Soul From Jamdown 1973-1980
• Follow Marcus Garvey, Burning Spear, Hail H.I.M.
• Fittest of the Fittest Dub, King Tubby, Dub Chill Out
• Mr. Joe (Mojo Rocksteady), Dub Specialist, 17 Dub Shots From Studio One
• Hotter Fire, The Observers, Trojan Dub Rarities Box
• Before Summer Rain, Sanjay Mishra, Blue Incantation
• A Wish, Hamza El Din, A Wish

Click here to download Volume Five until Sunday, November 19.

Bill Carter. Ever heard of this guy?

I bet you haven't.

How about JFK, the Rolling Stones, Tanya Tucker and Reba McEntire? You've heard of them, right?

These are just some of the people Bill has served over the last 45 years as a Secret Service agent, lawyer, security consultant, manager and all-around get-it-done go-to guy.

I wouldn't believe he existed if I didn't know him myself through my job.

I picked up Bill's autobiography, Get Carter, last week from Amazon and blew through it over the the weekend. It is a great read for anyone interested in political lobbying, corporate rock and roll and the real world, behind-the-scenes way "things get done"...

You can check out Bill's preface and introduction on his website as well as the foreward by music writer Jim Bessman.

Read somewhere today that the Airplane played opening night at the Fillmore on this date in 1965, which got me thinking about how long its been since I spun any of their stuff. I love most of Kantner's output, through the first few Jefferson Starship records (Blows Against the Empire, Sunfighter, etc).

There are a couple really great collections I would recommend you start with for your first flight with the Airplane and related projects...

Jefferson Airplane: She Has Funny Cars
from the collection 2400 Fulton Street
Jefferson Airplane: Law Man
from the collection Jefferson Airplane Loves You
and
Jefferson Starship: A Child is Coming
from Blows Against the Empire
Paul Kantner & Grace Slick: When I Was a Boy I Watched the Wolves
from Sunfighter