MetaFilter posts tagged with music and history

Here lies a local culture

AmbroseChapel — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 02:07:42 -0800

It was one of the biggest riots in the nation's history. An estimated four thousand sailors and locals -- an unlikely alliance of the young and unemployed, the gay community, the rockers -- fought with police, threw rocks and burned cars. Echoes of Stonewall, or of similar riots in the UK and USA? It was immortalised in song, and the tale grew in the telling. The media coverage made international news ... maybe the free beer was a mistake? Thirty years later: a toast to the Star Hotel.

"...A Fourth of July picnic, a Sunday Best church revival, an urban rock concert and a rural civil rights rally"

Miko — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:15:26 -0800

There was a historic music festival in the summer of 1969. But it's not the one that took place in Bethel, NY. The Harlem Cultural Festival ran from June 29 to August 24 that summer, presenting a concert every Sunday afternoon in Mount Morris Park (known today as Marcus Garvey Park). Three hundred thousand people turned out for the six free concerts, hearing acts like Nina Simone , Sly & the Family Stone (the only act to play both Woodstock and the "black Woodstock"), Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, The 5th Dimension, Moms Mabley and. Speakers included Jesse Jackson and "blue-eyed soul brother" Mayor John Lindsay. Security was courtesy of the Black Panthers, since the NYC police refused to provide it. Filmmaker Hal Tulchin recorded over 50 hours of concert footage, which has remained unreleased. Historic Films seems to hold the footage; it was supposed to be made into a movie to premiere at Sundance 2007, but its release seems to be continually delayed for reasons unclear. There are a couple of other concerts that also get called the "Black Woodstock," though they took place well after 1969 -- this is a good way to confound researchers in the oughts. They are: Zaire 74, and WattStax.

August 15-17, 1969: 3 Days of Mud and Music.

thread_makimaki — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 03:19:44 -0800

This weekend marks the 40th anniversary of Woodstock, or to give its official name, the Woodstock Music & Art Fair, a little get-together held at Max Yasgur's dairy farm in Bethel, New York. It's not like Woodstock hasn't been picked apart to death for every year around this time, but since this is the 40th year since it happened, there seems to be more than the usual nostalgia fest going on. There's the upcoming Ang Lee directed movie (trailer), a VH-1 documentary; a Heroes of Woodstock concert and other stuff going on in Bethel; and various other planned events. (Heroes of Woodstock is also touring the U.S. (warning: auto-playing loud music!)). Want more? The NY Times asks you what your favorite Woodstock song is; iTunes has a page full of Woodstock-and-its-era stuff(iTunes link); and there's this list too. And not to forget the seminal documentary that was released in 1970 (many clips from it are online.) And of course the reminiscences and analyses. Was it that good for the bands? Maybe not, but Art Guthrie remembers Woodstock, sort of, as a good time. Maybe the generation gap that Woodstock symbolized is no longer. How would it play out in 2009? Last but not least, a lovely personal illustrated essay by Zina Saunders (previously) about two 15 year old girls from NYC going to Woodstock.

Behind the Mask - Michael Jackson's rarest recording?

0bvious — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 10:40:57 -0800

Michael Jackson penned and recorded lots of songs, many of which remain unreleased. Perhaps the most infamous, and rarest recording, is his version of Behind the Mask. Legend has it that upon hearing Yellow Magic Orchestra's original track, somewhen around 1979, Quincy Jones fell in love with the track, and he and Michael worked together on their own version. Jackson wrote new lyrics for it - adding to those of Ryuichi Sakamoto and Chris Mosdell - and eventually recorded it during his Off The Wall sessions. For unknown reasons the track never made the final cut of, arguably, Jones' and Jackson's greatest work. Not long afterwards Greg Phillinganes, Jackson's keyboard player, released his own version of the song, which was later taken up and re-recorded by Eric Clapton for his 1986, Phil Collins produced album, August. The track has since been recorded/remixed by Human League, Senor Coconut, Orbital and others. Does an original Jones/Jackson recording of the song even exist? Perhaps, as the world continues to mourn the star's sad death, someone will finally allow us a listen.

"Nowadays a chantey is worth 1000 songs on an iPod"

Miko — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 08:43:49 -0800

Stan Hugill, often known as "The Last Shantyman," authored a book called Shanties From the Seven Seas, based on his own work experiences in the last days of sail. Influential in the folk revival, the book is one of the most important written sources for music sung aboard ships in the 19th and early 20th century, the "Bible" of sea music. Decades of chanteying in pubs and at festivals have kept many of the songs alive, but in most cases they've strayed stylistically from the verses and versions Hugill collected, or dropped out of popularity entirely. Now, one musician is returning to the source and creating a new audio archive for the original versions of the songs as written, by singing through the more than 400 songs in the book, one song each week, and posting the songs on YouTube, with commentary. In case it's confusing, the British spell it "shanty/ shanties/ shantyman" and the Americans tend to spell it "chantey/ chanteys/ chanteyman."

An American Art Form

netbros — Thu, 21 May 2009 17:06:00 -0800

NEA Jazz in the Schools takes a step-by-step journey through the history of jazz, integrating that story with the sweep of American social, economic, and political developments. This multi-media curriculum is designed to be as useful to high school history and social studies teachers as it is to music teachers. Start with the introductory video to get a feel for the place. The education outline contains five lessons. If you just want to listen, all the music samples are on one page. Perhaps you're more interested in individual artist biographies, or a jazz history timeline. These lessons are designed as units; five units serve as a week-long curriculum. NEW ORLEANS: MELTING POT OF SOUND — Jazz grew out of the African-American community at the turn of the 20th century, a time when blacks were being denied their most basic rights. The music has since become a part of every American’s birthright, a timeless symbol of American individualism and ingenuity, American democracy and inclusiveness. The birthplace of jazz is New Orleans, the most cosmopolitan city in the South. THE JAZZ AGE AND CHICAGO — In the 1920s, jazz spread rapidly all across America. The rise of jazz was part of a new, post–World War I optimism, a prevailing sense that something new was happening, that America was finally breaking from European culture and coming into its own. Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald called the new era the Jazz Age. FROM SWING TO BOP — With the decline in popularity of swing bands and the rise of singers as pop stars, many jazz musicians in the mid-1940s retreated to smaller groups of five or six instruments that were easier to organize, were cheaper to book in clubs, and provided more freedom for individual musicians to express themselves. NEW FRONTIER — The 1960s are virtually synonymous with social and political upheaval in America, and with a popular culture nourished by intrepid experimentation and a rejection of traditional symbols of authority. Of course, in the world of jazz, musicians had already been responding to—and carrying out—upheavals in American society for some time. AN AMERICAN STORY — Jazz is the purest expression of the American spirit—innovative, independent, and, ultimately, revolutionary. The history of jazz is inextricably linked with the political, geographic, and cultural history of America, and to understand the evolution of this music is to grasp the passion and genuine humanity at the heart of American democracy.

The Singing Revolution

Effigy2000 — Thu, 14 May 2009 17:16:36 -0800

Some revolutions are about hate. Others are about revenge. But there was at least one that was about hope and music. The Singing Revolution is the story of how hope and music saved a nation. After World War II the Baltic States had been fully incorporated into the USSR after military occupation and annexation in 1940. Many years later in 1985, hoping to stimulate the failing Soviet economy and encourage productivity, particularly in the areas of consumer goods, Mikhail Gorbachev introduced "glasnost", which rescinded the limitations on political freedoms. This gave rise to huge problems in the Baltic States, which had been occupied unlawfully in the build-up to war in the 1940s. From 1987, a cycle of mass demonstrations featuring spontaneous singing eventually collected 300,000 Estonians in Tallinn to sing national songs and hymns that were strictly forbidden during the years of the Soviet occupation.

"We sang all night and everybody went home early in the morning. It was emotionally so strong that the next day there were even more people. The day after, there were even more people. People took out their hidden flags. They had these flags hidden for 50 years and now they took these out and started to wave them.”
Artur Talvik, participant.

These gatherings helped unite the Estonian people, ignited a renewed wave of passion for their national identity and furthered the country's desire for freedom. In September of 1988, 300,000 Estonians gathered at the Lauluvaljak to continue their protest and to hear Trivimi Velliste, an historian who later served as the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs, make the first public demand for independence. The Singing Revolution, as it later became known, lasted over four years, with various protests, rock concerts and acts of defiance. In 1991, as Soviet tanks attempted to stop the progress towards independence, the Estonian Supreme Soviet together with the Congress of Estonia proclaimed the restoration of the independent state of Estonia and repudiated Soviet legislation. People acted as human shields to protect radio and TV stations from the Soviet tanks. Through these actions Estonia regained its independence without any bloodshed.

Big boys don't cry

klangklangston — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:03:15 -0800

10cc's I'm Not In Love and the story behind it.

Harder Better Faster Further.

loquacious — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:07:38 -0800

Daft Punk revealed in bootleg video at the 1996 Even Further festival. Though it's impossible to see what gear-manipulating is going on, this is an excellent example of a "live PA" of electronic dance music as opposed to DJing.

"I played at August Wilson's funeral. You know what he wanted me to play? Danny Boy."

Ndwright — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 12:59:23 -0800

Wynton Marsalis waxes poetic (and music) at the Kennedy Center about art, freedom, jazz, the minstrel shows of yesterday and today, Walt Whitman, American history, the similarities between the Battle Hymn of the Republic and the Mickey Mouse Club March, rock and roll, and how it all ties together. Excerpts: "A financial inheritance can be accurately assessed in dollars, but what is the value of an artistic heritage? Who calculates the value of "Amazing Grace" or "Yankee Doodle" or "Go Down Moses"? ... "Random black folks on the plantation imitating the ways of white folks are imitated by itinerate white entertainers who blacken up and create plantation skits. Plantation owners then cull through their slaves for the most talented who then imitate the white entertainers’ imitation of black folks imitating white folks. These selected blacks are then imitated by professional white performers, and after the Civil War and the rise of black minstrelsy as an enterprise, white professionals were imitated by black professionals." ... "Artists effortlessly speak across time because the technology of the human soul does not change. Ask Eugene O’Neill who absorbed the spirit of the Greeks through the spirit of Wagner’s acolyte Nietzsche who told him what Whitman said was what Buddy Bolden said…Wake up!" Transcript

Sleepy John Estes with Yank Rachell - Mailman Blues & African African

y2karl — Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:06:06 -0800

Sleepy John Estes with Yank Rachel - Mailman Blues
More about Sleepy John Estes
From Stephan Wirz - American Music: Illustrated Sleepy John Estes discography
See also The Tennesseean Encyclopedia - Sleepy John Estes And here are 23 mp3s of Sleepy John Estes 1929-1940 from African African, an online encyclopedia of all things African-American, that for its Rare Recordings and Video page alone--featuring videos and mp3s of civil rights pioneers like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and Angela Davis; vintage films about Negro life from the 1930s through the 1960s and leading to copyright free streaming mp3 pages of select vintage jazz and blues singers like John Adam Estes, which is but a tiny slice of all the African African site offers--is best of the web worthy in its own self. See also Meeting Yank Rachel by Ron Hacker In a similar vein, my friend Jack Cook took a trip down south when he was 19 and met everyone still alive who recorded a pre-war country blues 78. Jack's encounters with Furry Lewis and Sleepy John Estes on that trip are American Splendor style worthy of illustration by someone like R. Crumb. When Jack meet Sleepy John, John was living in a shack, thought the boards of the walls of which could been seen daylight, with his wife and children, furnished with a bed, a color TV and a pile of clothes. No one in Brownsville at the time seemed to know who he was. He later was moved to a low income apartment with solid walls and indoor plumbing, which is now preserved as a historical monument. Jack also stayed with Yank Rachel in Chicago on that trip and remembers Yank as one of the kindest and most generous people he ever met. He remembers bedding down on a sofa in the TV room and noodling on his National over Rollin' and Tumblin' on slide in open G. Yank stopped in to check on Jack and his friend and allowed as to how he hadn't heard that one for awhile--Yank, who'd played with Hambone Willie Newbern, the song's originator, in his very younger days--and took the guitar with a 'please' and then meditatively ran through about five choruses, each a unique variation as different from the last as the one before, and all this done without a hint of showing off. Jack recalls it as a marvelous moment. Jack also recalls Sleepy John as being exactly that--sleepy. He was narcoleptic, not there, dozing most of the time he wasn't playing. It would take him aawhile to respond to a question. But when he pick up a guitar and began to sing--one never heard the blues sung so deeply. That was when he came alive and more than that, a force of nature. Son House was like this when he sang as well. It was like he became possessed.

No Lounld Music

netbros — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 15:33:33 -0800

As patrons begin to fill a room decorated with toy monkeys, beer posters and a silver disco ball, Mr. Seaberry emerges in a startling suit of red with white pinstripes and a snazzy white hat, and smoking a cheroot. “Po’ Monkey is all anybody ever called me since I was little,” he said. “I don’t know why, except I was poor for sure.” Transformed in the 1950s from a sharecropper shack that was built probably in the 1920s, Poor Monkey's Lounge is one of the last rural juke joints along The Trail of the Hellhound on the Mississippi Delta. Photographs of Po' Monkeys and other Delta Blues History Blues, Booze, & BBQ by Michael Loyd Young Po' Monkey's Juke Joint Flickr group American Music by Annie Liebovitz Early blues musicians you might hear covered at Po' Monkey's Juke Joint. [be sure to click the sound icon to the left of each name for sample music] Son House's place, not only in the history of Delta blues, but in the overall history of the music, is a very high one indeed. He was a major innovator of the Delta style, along with his playing partners Charley Patton and Willie Brown. No blues singer ever presented a more gentle, genial image than Mississippi John Hurt. A guitarist with an extraordinarily lyrical and refined fingerpicking style, he also sang with a warmth unique in the field of blues, and the gospel influence in his music gave it a depth and reflective quality unusual in the field. No two ways about it, the most influential slide guitarist of the postwar period was Elmore James, hands down. Although his early demise from heart failure kept him from enjoying the fruits of the '60s blues revival as his contemporaries Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf did, James left a wide influential trail behind him. Among the earliest and most influential Delta bluesmen to record, Skip James was the best known proponent of the so-called Bentonia school of blues players, a genre strain invested with as much fanciful scholarly "research" as any. If the Delta country blues has a convenient source point, it would probably be Charley Patton, its first great star. His hoarse, impassioned singing style, fluid guitar playing, and unrelenting beat made him the original king of the Delta blues. Like many of his contemporaries on the Chicago circuit, Muddy Waters was a product of the fertile Mississippi Delta. From the late '40s on, he eloquently defined the city's aggressive, swaggering, Delta-rooted sound with his declamatory vocals and piercing slide guitar attack.

Revival Revival

Miko — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:06:52 -0800

The Folkways Collection is a downloadable, 24-part podcast series that "explores the remarkable collection of music, spoken word, and sound recordings that make up Folkways Records (now at the Smithsonian as Smithsonian Folkways Recordings)."

Events and Festivals Across the USA

netbros — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:49:11 -0800

Top Events USA lists their top 20 events across the USA, the top 10 events and festivals for each of the United States, and lists of the best annual events and festivals by category or theme. There are comment input boxes on every page - or nominate a new event or festival that you think is something important Top Events USA has missed.

glimpses of the African Rock n' Roll Years

nickyskye — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 08:45:01 -0800

Clips from the BBC documentary, The African Rock n' Roll Years - Part 1 l Part 2 l Part 3 l Part 4 l Part 5 l Part 6 - a six-part series mixing interviews with key artists, concert footage and news archives, the series examines and explains the "styles that make up the continent's music, and the political and social pressures that led to their development." BBC documentary details. Found in YouTube member, Duncanzibar's, good collection of mostly African music videos. Details of the full documentary: "Episode 1: WEST AFRICA: Praise Singers and Superstars This is the story of how the musical caste lost their monopoly, taken over by state intervention and a craze for Cuban music, which helped to create one of the most exciting music scenes in the world today. Featured artists include Youssou N'Dour, Baaba Maal, Salif Keita, Orchestra Baobab, Rokia Traore, Ali Farka Toure and Daara J. Ep 2: SOUTH AFRICA: Rhythms of Resistance South Africa's vibrant music scene developed in the apartheid era, when songs were used as a way of hitting back against repression. Featured artists include Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba, Abdullah Ibrahim, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Thomas Mapfumo from Zimbabwe and newcomer Thandiswa. Ep 3: COASTAL SOUNDS: Sierra Leone to Cameroon This programme explores the effect of calypso on the 'palmwine' styles that developed in Sierra Leone and Nigeria. It tells how music from Sierra Leone and elsewhere affected the massively popular highlife dance styles of Ghana, and how palmwine music was also to influence the makossa dance scene in Cameroon. Featured artists include Fela Kuti, Femi Kuti, King Sunny Ade, Osibisa, Alpha Blondy, Angelique Kidjo and Manu Dibango. Ep 4: CENTRAL AFRICA: Congo Jive Some of the most infectious dance music in Africa came from Kinshasa on the Congo river, as guitarists and band-leaders mixed local and Cuban influences to create the rumba and soukous styles that shook up dance floors across Africa and beyond. Featured artists include Franco, Tabu Ley Rochereau, Ray Lema, Pepe Kalle, Konono No 1 and Corneille. Ep 5: LUSOPHONE AFRICA: The Lisbon Legacy Angola, Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde were cut off from neighbouring states because the language of their colonisers was Portuguese and not French or English. The musicians developed distinctive styles; from the high-energy rhythms of Angola to the sad-edged blues and European-influenced ballads of the Cape Verde islands. Featured artists include Cesaria Evora, Manecas Costa, Mariza, Bonga and Mabulu. Ep 6: NORTH AFRICA: Rai Rebels and Desert Blues The programme follows the careers of rai stars like Khaled and the Arabic rocker Rachid Taha, and also the great female singers who have emerged from Islamic North Africa and from further east in Christian Ethiopia. Featured artists include Tinariwen, Khaled, Rachid Taha, Souad Massi, the musicians of Jajouka Amina and (from Ethiopia) Gigi and Aster Aweke." Each clip is about 1/7th the length of the original series but still worth watching. Lots of music, examples, so one can seek out music by those musicians and very listenable music history.

The Guqin Silk String Zither

netbros — Sun, 14 Dec 2008 14:17:32 -0800

Pronounced "chin" ("stringed instrument") or "goo chin" ("old stringed instrument"), the qin / guqin throughout its long history has been the musical instrument most prized by China's literati. They categorized it as one of their "four arts", collected it as an art object, praised its beautiful music, and built around it a complex ideology (compare its image in popular culture). No other instrument was described and illustrated in such detail, so often depicted in paintings, or so regularly mentioned in poetry. And its tablature documents the world's oldest detailed written instrumental music tradition, allowing both historically informed performance (requiring silk strings) of the many early melodies, and practical exploration of the relationship between Chinese music theory and music practice. The guqin silk string zither work of John Thompson. John Thompson is the best-known musician giving historically informed performances of early Chinese music for the guqin silk-string zither. After a college degree in Western musicology (early music) and graduate studies in ethnomusicology, he began in 1974 to study the modern guqin tradition from Sun YüCh'in in Taiwan. Since 1976 he has focused on early repertoire, personally reconstructing over 150 melodies published in 15th and 16th century handbooks. In 1992 the National Union of Chinese Musicians invited him to Beijing as the focus of a seminar on reconstructing music from the earliest surviving guqin handbook, Shen Qi Mi Pu (1425 CE). While based in Hong Kong as artistic consultant to the Festival of Asian Arts he performed throughout East Asia, and published seven CDs of his musical reconstructions as well as four books of music transcription. Since moving to New York in 2001 he has continued to perform, research and lecture on the guqin. His website is the most comprehensive English-language source of information on this instrument.

The Tone Generation, A Radio History of Electronic Music

jack_mo — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 15:15:34 -0800

The Tone Generation is a radio series by Ian Helliwell 'looking at different themes or composers in the era of analogue tape and early synthesizer technology'. The original globe-trotting series: Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Holland, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe, USA, Canada, Rest of World. Bonus programmes: Expo 58, The RCA Synthesizer. All links are to MP3 files, except the first one. Alternatively, you can slurp down the lot in one go by subscribing to the podcast feed.

Voices and Music of Both World Wars

Kattullus — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 17:26:41 -0800

Voices and Music of World War I and Voices of World War II: Experiences From the Front and at Home both feature spoken word, sheet music and songs galore (all audio RealPlayer). The Great War site has plenty of stuff, but the core is the collection of songs, anti-war, patriotic, France-themed, Kaiser-knocking and so forth. The WWII site also has a whole bunch of music, demonstrating the changing mood of the US, from conflicted feelings about the start of the war to conflicted feelings about the atomic bomb. Among the artists are Nat King Cole, Leadbelly, Benny Goodman and Fats Waller. But in addition the wonderful songs there are newscasts, speeches, propaganda and other radio broadcasting of all kinds.

art history

nickyskye — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:27:05 -0800

All-Art.org provides an extensive image library, essays and information on art history, organized by date and movement, up to the 20th century, including photography, design and classical music with audio samples. A small selection of the encyclopedic range offered: Erotica in Art l Paintings that changed the world l The Origins of Typography and Graphic design l Russian Silver Age l Japanese Prints l African l Posters l A Brief History of Western Literature l An illustrated dictionary of art and artists. Bauhaus and Deco l Pre-Columbian l New Architecture and the Harlem Renaissance l Op, Pop and Performance l The New Avant Garde, Postmodernism and now. Examples of some of the hundreds of artists' histories: Arcimboldo l Francis Bacon l Beardsley l Matisse.

"No, Miss Vega. Consider the Black Box theory!"

Blazecock Pileon — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 05:04:09 -0800

"So, that’s my long and winding history of a little postcard from the Upper West Side of Manhattan!" Suzanne Vega writes about writing the hit song Tom's Diner, coping with its numerous remixes, and its part in the birth of the MP3 music compression format.

A Forest of Guitars

boost ventilator — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 19:24:50 -0800

Dick Stacey's Country Jamboree is now available on DVD/CD after years of slowly fading into obscurity. "I was wrong in thinking the Jamboree was a thing of the past," said Dick Stacey, a man whose three gas stations and motel took over sponsoring this uniquely Maine talent showcase on a whim in 1973—and ended up lasting just over a decade. The original show (Frankenstein's Country Jamboree) was started by Bob Whitten in Milbridge, Maine during the late 1950s. "There were no rehearsals, and auditions were unheard of. The only thing you had to be to be on Stacey’s Country Jamboree was to be sincere and sober," said 30-year-host Charlie Tenan. "Saturday Night Live was trying to invent characters like this...these were real people, but they were characters who couldn't be manufactured," said Nova Scotia resident and fan Brian White to The Halifax Daily News in 2001. For a sample, check out Bucksport's own Jennie Shontell sing "Wings of a Dove." The longevity and regional success of this program (yet current lack of YouTube presence) was partly due to the bizarre "Bangor/Atlantic Canada cable connection," which also bolstered the career of the late Great Money Movie host Eddie "We'll put 'em on for ya" Driscoll, until being destroyed by a decision by Atlantic Canadian cable providers to opt for Detroit feeds instead of ones from Bangor.

Први светски рат

tellurian — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 17:06:22 -0800

Prvi svetski rat - Gritty and poignant Serbian postcards from the First World War. Just one of the seriously interesting (e.g. check out the collection of 78s) holdings at the Digital National Library of Serbia.

Click click victorious, buzz buzz glorious, Long to reign over us, buzz buzz click click.

Artw — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:49:44 -0800

The first known recording of a digital computer playing music, recorded by the BBC in 1951. The music played on a Ferantti Mark 1, one of the first commercial general-use computers, and was entered via punchtape and played on a speaker usually used for making clicks and tones to indicate program progress.

Driving fast and jazzing it up in the 1920s.

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 25 May 2008 18:53:55 -0800

The opening shots of 1920s New York City are wonderful, then you get a zany high-speed Harold Lloyd blazing down the avenues, and that's fun to watch, but the real killer is the horse-drawn trolley absolutely tearing-ass through lower Manhattan, full gallop. Ends badly. Then it's over to San Francisco for one last bit of homicidal vehicular activity with a bus. Well, they sure don't drive like they used to! In case that crazy 20s spirit grabbed you, you might want to spend a little time with the archetypical "jazz age" sounds of Jan Garber and his Orchestra, full of pep, silly humor and choked cymbals: There Ain't No Maybe In My Baby's Eyes Don't Bring Lulu! Since My Best Gal Turned Me Down Baby Face Positively-Absolutely "is she nifty? ABSOLUTELY! under fifty? POSITIVELY!" Louisiana Way Down Yonder In New Orleans Of course, Garber's music was lively, entertaining and well played, but, unsurprisingly, the music of the same era and style as played by black folk had that extra swing, that rollicking but relaxed easy groove that was just a wee bit lacking from bands like Garber's. These musicians deserve FPPs of their own, but for the time being, let's drop by and listen to the music of a couple of early pioneers, Freddie Keppard and Joe "King" Oliver. Freddie Keppard Jazz Treasury (two 1920s gems on this clip) King Oliver's Too Bad and Riverside Blues.

Rockabilly Rundown

Miko — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 13:24:09 -0800

Whole Lotta Shakin' - a PRI documentary series on the history of rockabilly, hosted by Rosie Flores.