Shape of Broad Minds

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

From MySpace:

"In 2006, all-round hip hop maestro Jneiro Jarel set off on a pan-American voyage to assemble a team of rappers and producers who shared his aim... to create a unique hip hop record unbothered by trend, time and location. In 2007 Shape of Broad Minds is a force to be reckoned with.

Bringing together Dr Who Dat? (producer of the Beat Journey album), multi-instrumentalist and rapper jAWWAAD from Houston, Panama Black from Atlanta, Rocque Wun from NYC and of course JJ himself.

Their debut record, The Blue Experience features none other than rap super-villain MF DOOM and is available as MP3 Download / 12" Vinyl and Ltd edition CD! Following this is SBM's debut album Craft of the Lost Art featuring MF DOOM, Deborah Jordan, Stacey Epps (Madvillain), Count Bass D and John Robinson."
There's a great review on boomkat:
"...'Craft of the Lost Art' shows that you can be future facing while keeping the very essence of hip hop intact. While the band's vision of the future may have been pillaged from Buck Rogers (all theramins and wonky synthesizers) they have managed to come up with a sound which sums up exactly where hip hop should be headed. This is fun music, first and foremost, but it's smart too - there are references that go far beyond the simple jazz samples and clipped beats of so much of the genre...the band's core five members of frontman Jneiro Jarel, multi-instrumentalist Jawwaad, Roque Wun, rapper Panama Black and super producer Dr. Who Dat have influences spanning from classic rap to new wave and free jazz, something that's evident in almost every cut on the album. It sounds at times like you're listening to a mixtape of your favourite hip hop acapellas layered over some truly unusual psychedelic instrumentals, there's not a beat on here that doesn't sound totally fresh and every single flow is delivered with confidence and skill...Stunning from beginning to end...Essential Purchase!"
Heavy, right?

Download 6 tracks from Craft of the Lost Art by Shape of Broad Minds

Complete UK Upsetter Singles Volume 3

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Volume three takes us squarely into the 70s...at this point Scratch is pushing out singles with Marley, U-Roy, Dennis Alcapone and other of the more famous names in Jamaica...

Let's do three from 3...

Shocks 71 by Dave Barker and Charlie Ace
A Place Called Africa by Junior Byles
Piece of My Heart by Hortense Ellis
from Complete UK Upsetter Singles Volume 3

McCoy Tyner - Song for My Lady

Monday, April 28, 2008

Ever hear a freight train barrel down the track? That's what McCoy Tyner's playing can sound like...

Song for My Lady was McCoy's second release for Milestone, coming hot on the heels of his landmark Sahara, one of the era's great records - in any genre.

As such, it would be easy to call Song... a letdown. Easy, but not really accurate. McCoy had a run at Milestone that was so consistently strong as a body of work that each record has career moments, some just happen to be be whole records of those moments! Context: All Music Guide calls Song..., "...a fine collection of tracks and one of Tyner's six best albums." And we're talking about a guy who has recorded 80 or so albums as a band leader...

The Night Has A Thousand Eyes, by McCoy Tyner, from Song for My Lady

Flea Market Funk

Saturday, April 26, 2008

This is a sweet, sweet blog...Flea Market Funk specializes in "Funk, Soul, Jazz and Reggae"...everything a young Dervish could want, no?

Run by a cat name DJ Prestige, this site has me hooked...great 45s and single-song downloads, even better mixes...I dig and appreciate the visuals, too.

Flea Market Funk is in my Hall of Fame...

Go there now.

Burning Dervish Vol 22

Friday, April 25, 2008

I get a lot of questions concerning why I don't write more about the music on the mixes I make.

Especially given that this is a music blog!

I've never had a good answer, or even a mediocre answer. Now that I have been forced to think about it, though, I think the answer lays in why I make these mixes: to amuse myself and to turn you on to music you've never heard (or put songs you know in a different context). So, with that in mind, I give you the track names, the artist names, sometimes images of the records I pulled the music from and leave the rest up to you.

Work for you?

Good.

Welcome to Burning Dervish Vol 22:

Pay Dar Doran - Memory Of Cycles by Madjid Khaladj
Uncle George by Steel Pulse
Majority Rules by Jimmy Cliff
Tchela atbelegn by Asnaqetch Wergu
No Call Dread Name by The Itals
12 Tribes of Israel [Extended] by Linval Thompson
Tezeta by Seyfou Yohannes
Congoman by The Congos
The Tryst by Azam Ali
Soy Campesino by Ska Cubano
I Man by Herman Chin-Loy
Much Smarter by The Meditations
Ene Negn Bay Manesh by Girma Beyene
Reggay Train Dub by Cornel Campbell & the Aggrovators

Download Burning Dervish Vol 22

UC Santa Cruz creating 'Dead Central' room to house new Grateful Dead collection

Thursday, April 24, 2008

The Grateful Dead's long strange trip through American popular culture is ending in a library at the University of California at Santa Cruz, preserved for future generations of study by scholars and stoners.

Three decades worth of archival materials - from business correspondence to stage backdrops - has been donated by the band to the school's McHenry Library, where a room called Dead Central is being dedicated to a beloved band dubbed "the largest unofficial religion in the world."

UC Santa Cruz Chancellor George Blumenthal will join Dead drummer Mickey Hart and guitarist and singer Bob Weir in an announcement of the donation at an 11 a.m. press conference today on the Dead's Web site (www.dead.net) live from San Francisco's Fillmore Auditorium, the birthplace of the San Francisco's psychedelic scene.

The gift contains none of the band's vast musical recordings; those are stored in an Los Angeles-based vault belonging to producer Rhino Records, where they continue to make money through re-releases.

But it contains valuable artifacts that document the band's ascendence into California's most durable and influential musical phenomena. Currently held in a 2,000 square foot San Rafael warehouse, the collection includes their first recording contract. It also holds an estimated 50,000 to 75,000 fan letters from around the world, most decorated with art.
Click here for the full article.

Eugene Francis Jnr

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

It has been a while since I posted about any of the many submissions/requests for reviews I get through this site...

I am not head over heels for the tracks I heard on this artist's MySpace page, but they are bouncy in a way that is hard to dismiss...

The artist describes himself as,

"evan dando whilst piggybacking beck and bright eyes but collectively on less drugs with more of a falsetto"
I say don't knock the drugs, especially where Evan Dando is concerned.

You listen then tell me.

McCoy Tyner - Sahara

Monday, April 21, 2008

In case it was not immediately obvious, I am on a quest to blog about every album in the McCoy Tyner canon...these first posts have been focused on his work as a band leader, but over time I will get to band member, sideman, etc...some say I have too much time on my hands...of course, they have no idea...

The problem with this project just may be this record...widely considered McCoy's great work, it is definitely a great work in jazz...his first record for Milestone, where he would record throughout the 70s and document all of the elements that would make up his style: the thundering chords and lightning runs, the experimental line-ups, the fine songwriting...

Sahara is a peak moment in a long career. The entire record is worthy of posting, with each track reflecting one or more of the attributes above...but let's not encourage piracy here, right?

The definitive track is, for me, the title track. Epic.

McCoy Tyner - Sahara
from Sahara

Burning Dervish Vol 21

Sunday, April 20, 2008

What? A jazz mix on a Sunday? "How cliche!", you moan...Starting off with Jobim? "It must be because the weather is warming up!", you declare...

Right and right...wrong and wrong...been working on this one for a few weeks and having been enjoying the finished product for a several days now...I hope you do, too.

Lemme know.

Thanks.

Burning Dervish Vol 21 is:

Triste by Antônio Carlos Jobim
Beale Street by Donald Byrd
Deed I Do by Diana Krall
Daddy Bug by Roy Ayers Ubiquity
Come Sunrise by Grant Green
Just You, Just Me by Thelonious Monk
The Cat by Rusty Bryant
Passion Dance by McCoy Tyner
Totem Pole (Alternate Take) by Lee Morgan
Ask Me Now by Joe Henderson

Download Burning Dervish Vol 21

El Reza

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The easiest way to get on my blog roll is to post a lot of music...or better said, post a lot of music that intrigues me on a regular basis. The music-blog-as-arcane-music-directory is one of the most distracting inventions of the last 10 years...I follow way too many blogs in Google Reader, and way too many of them post great music, new to me...

El Reza is one of those. Jazz, soulful and spiritual, is a common element in the music posted there. Lots of really unique finds...stuff I wouldn't stumble upon in my own digging.

Check it.

Brother Joscephus in my in-box

Friday, April 18, 2008

BROTHER JOSCEPHUS and The Love Revival Revolution Orchestra at:
Sullivan Hall
Friday, May 9th
214 Sullivan St. b/w Bleecker & W. 3rd
NYC
9:30pm

Dig the music here.

Complete UK Upsetter Singles Collection, Vol. 2

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Volume 2 of 4...all of which I will post about in the coming days...started with volume 1 last week...

This series consists of every 7" single put out by the Upsetter label in Jamaica between 1969-1971...all the handiwork of Lee Scratch Perry, twisting the knobs...

From upsetter.net:

"...in contrast to Volume 1 , the 50 tracks on Volume 2 are much more upsetting and experimental. This was when Scratch first started to live up to his Upsetter nickname: weird intros, spooky instrumentals, more than one rhythm spliced together into a single song..."
Dig four skanking tracks here.

Burning Dervish Vol 20

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

This might be my favourite of all of my mixes here yet...although I am working on another one now that will be a close second...

Who cares what I think, though? I am really looking forward to the feedback from some of the music nuts that read this blog...

Anyway, some great tracks here, spanning roots, dub...lots from Africa with some psychedlia, funk, even electronica as well as more folky, traditional vibes from Algeria and Ethiopia...

  1. Get Together -by- Brigth Engelberts And The B.E. Movement
  2. Roots Controller -by- Groove Corporation
  3. Heywete -by- Tesfa-Maryam Kidane
  4. Me Waan Justice -by- The Itals
  5. Chispa Tren -by- Ska Cubano
  6. Desert Equations -by- Sussan Deyhim / Richard Horowitz
  7. Mal Hbibi Zaafan -by- Cheikha Remitti
  8. Kulun Mankwalesh -by- Mahmoud Ahmed
  9. Hit Me -by- Lee "Scratch" Perry
  10. Stay A Little Bit Longer -by- Delano Stewart
  11. Yellow Fever -by- Fela Kuti
  12. Brace's Tower Dub No. 2 -by- Augustus Pablo
  13. Envy No Good -by- Mercury Dance Band
  14. Do Good -by- Everton Blender
  15. Come Away Jah Children -by- Original Survivors


Download Burning Dervish Vol 20 now.