Benny Anderssons Orkester has been creating their own special blend of pop, big band jazz and Swedish folk music for over a decade now. See them in a delightful 2-hour concert recorded last summer courtesy of SVT Play.
Part 1 [59m, expires Feb 7],
Part 2 [59m, expires Feb 14]
[more inside]
posted by hippybear
on Jan 28, 2012 -
8 comments
It was music to be heard, not listened to. It was the soundtrack to the relaxed, sophisticated, mature vision of the good life. It was music for lovers. It was upbeat, elaborately arranged, chart-toppingly popular, and yet has been almost written out of the popular music history books, dismissed as “elevator music”; soulless, toned-down, pre-chewed, limp cover-versions of popular songs for old people. So sit back, put aside the politics and angst, slip into something comfortable (preferably with someone of similar description), and allow yourself to experience
The Joy of Easy Listening [2, 3, 4, 5, 6]
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey
on Jun 16, 2011 -
42 comments
Nazi swing music from the 30s. FMU's terrific blog presents mp3s of songs by Charlie and His Orchestra, a big band assembled by Hitler's minister of propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, to spread the Nazi message abroad even while trying to stamp out jazz and swing domestically.
"Leave it to Goebbels to take the music of The Andrews Sisters, Paul Whiteman and Irving Berlin and fill it with venomous rants against Jews, America and the British."
Vol. 1 is here. Some
history. And now I want to see
this movie about the band.
via BB
posted by CunningLinguist
on Dec 10, 2005 -
20 comments
Basil Kirchin, 1927-2005 Who he? Kirchin began, aged 14, as a drummer in his father Ivor's jazz band. By the mid-1950s, he and his father were co-leading the most acclaimed jazz band in Britain. They backed
Ruby Murray (whose name lives on as cockney rhyming slang for curry), and the great Sarah Vaughan
wouldn't tour the UK without them; neither would Billy Eckstine. After disbanding the Kirchin band at the height of their fame, Basil set off around the world, a trip which ended disastrously, when Kirchin's tapes of his band's best moments (obsessively recorded, thanks to the fact that the Kirchin band was one of the first to travel with their own PA system) were accidentally dropped into Sydney Harbour. [more inside]
posted by Len
on Jul 1, 2005 -
6 comments
The King of the Jukebox who disturbed the status quo They called rock music
jump blues during the World War II era, and this
amazingly talented clown was its master, with over fifty Top 10 R&B hits --
eighteen reached #1 -- between 1942 and 1951. Chuck Berry identified with him
"more than any other artist." James Brown said,
"He was everything" and considered him one of the earliest rappers. A pioneer of
music video, the first black artist to
cross over from the "race" market to a white audience and a
central link between big bands and rock, he was a primary influence on
Bill Haley,
Ray Charles and B.B. King, who once said,
"I wanted to be like him." Rest in peace, Louis Jordan. [Dozens of one-minute song clips
here]
posted by mediareport
on Jul 10, 2002 -
11 comments
