Friday, February 29, 2008

Random Leap Year Mix

Since it's a leap year and the final February Friday and the weekend is coming to take me away, I'm just gonna throw up a mutant mini mix for all those trolling by today...

Feel free to add to your own digital diversity collection by perusing the ye olde tunes I have gathered on yer behalf today...

To lead things off I'm gonna pay tribute to my favorite city.

Here's a tune by the late Mr. Turk Murphy, a trombonist who was a legend in Herb Caen's San Francisco for many years. Turk and his many musical cohorts were leading performers in a New Orleans jazz Dixieland revival that was popular here throughout the 1950's & 60's.

Here's a pic of Turk jamming away...









A veteran of Lu Watter's Yerba Buena Jazz band in the 1940's, by the 1950's Turk had his own band playing spots like The Tin Angel & a regular gig at the busy Italian Village at Lombard & Columbus.




In 1960 he opened his own club...

Even after the mob owned strip clubs & punk rockers made North Beach nightlife a less wholesome affair, Turk kept at it, but left the neighborhood.

He kept his club Earthquake McGoon's going, but moved it to a spot near the Embarcadero, and lastly it's final resting place at tourist trap Pier 39, which stayed open until the mid 80's.

Joining on vocals is fellow horn player Bob Schulz who played with the group from 1979 until the end of the Earthquake McGoon's era.




Turk Murphy - San Francisco Jazz




Continuing on this wayback machine journey, I steer this post on down to the tropical isle of Jamaica...

We head into Sir Coxsone Dodd's Studio 1, where a Mr. Welton Irie gives up a classic track fer yer perusal, it's one of about 6000 recorded songs & versions laid down in that hallowed ground...

Just in case ya never heard of this Irie individual, here's a short video clip of him boasting and a toasting of hitting the White House one night and sleeping with the President's daughter...




Welton Irie was born circa 1960, and recorded at Studio 1 circa 1977 before Dodd split for NYC. This track is also sometimes listed as featuring both Lone Ranger & Welton Irie, but what do i know. Maybe you should ask him. Welton, while obscure, is still active and has a MySpace page where you can simply be his friend, or even book him for session y'all.

Welton Irie - Chase Them Crazy




We continue drifting back into 1972, where a certain LA based latin rock group put their spin on a perpetually popular Van Morrison track...




I have had their groovy Viva Tirado LP for years, but this track also on the Kapp label is new to my world... and hopefully yers...

The band was called El Chicano, and they still play a few oldies gigs every year I believe

El Chicano - Brown Eyed Girl


A year earlier than that last track was recorded, a UK band that was signed to the Harvest label released an album called Message from The Country. Their orchestrated psychedelic pop sound is notable, mainly because it marks the beginnings of a new group that would soon sell multiple millions around the world and remain popular for decades... that being the Electric Light Orchestra.

Here's an early effort from The Move featuring Bev Bevan, Jeff Lynne and Roy Wood. It's from a remastered edition of this group's 1971 album, plus bonus tracks that EMI has painstakingly reassembled from original master tapes stored at Abbey Road and in Don Arden's archives.

The Move - Message from The Country ( 1971)



The Move, who eventually evolved into one of the slickest groups ever in ELO, were alos known for wild antics onstage, and had a crash about stage show that apparently rivaled The Who, and would not have been out of place in punk rock years later.

Here's a live Move track from 1968, a cover of a Love tune written by the late Arthur Lee. This line up predates Jeff Lynne's involvement... as he didn't join til midway through 1969.

The Move - Stephanie Knows Who

...

While I wasn't even born when the Move were tearing it up, and I got to town a bit late to enjoy Mr. Turk Murphy live, I did get in my fair share of live entertainment over the years.

One of those entertainers still going strong is the lovely Miss Stephanie Finch, a school teacher that rocks.

I have had the pleasure of watching her play and sing around these parts for quite some time and she is perhaps better known to most in her role as thee Mrs. Chuck Prophet...


As seen supporting the man in action in this here live video clip I shot & edited awhile back...







Here's a little live sonic serendipity from the same folks, a random revelations rarity for y'all ...it's a nice clean recording of Chuck and his wife Stephie pulling off a delightful cover of an old Jerry Ragovy & Mort Shuman composistion. The original is best known as a song by southern soulman Howard Tate ...



This one was recorded in my old stomping grounds up in Sonoma County in 2003...

Chuck Prophet - Shoot Em All Down



Next up is a sample from a new collection that Luaka Bop has available in yer fave download stores this week...

get DRM free mp3's at Amazon & eMusic.

It's a look at some of the best in Brazilian music, an anniversary celebration of sorts for David Byrne's pet label which first began reissuing Brazilian stuff 20 years ago...

and what a long strange, wonderful trip it's been...

I myself have to thank Mr. Byrne for turning me onto to two of my favorite groups, the legendary psychedelic sounds of Os Mutantes and this fine featured performer...

Tom Ze'...

In 1990 Byrne issued a collection of rarely heard & mostly forgotten tracks that were a revelation...

I actually was lucky enough & got a chance to see the now 70 something Mr. Ze back in the late 1990's at Bimbo's when he was in his 60's and touring with the guys from Tortoise...

It was a quirky, uplifting, silly & really remarkable show, in which Ze wore coveralls, a construction helmet and played a variety of percussive devices, and mumbled many cute but mostly indiscernable sayings in Portugese.

I would gladly do it all again...or at least buy a video if such a thing exists...

Here's a track that originally appeared on his 1975 album Estudando O Samba.
Byrne's interest in Ze's obscure music rescued Zé from a job at a relative's gas station and enabled the artist to return to professionally making music. One of Luaka Bop's first releases was the Brazil Classics Vol 4 compilation, which reappropriated 9 out of print tracks from Ze's Estudando o Samba.

Well, why should we stop milking this classic from 1975 now ...

Here is something from it again...

Brazil Classics at 20: Anti-aging Solutions RevealedTom Ze
"Mã" (mp3)
from "Brazil Classics at 20: Anti-aging Solutions Revealed"
(LUAKA BOP)

Stream at Rhapsody

Check it out at eMusic More On This Album



Anyhow... I'm exhausted from all this muckety muck mix business

y'all should enjoy something from that post...

if not, leave me alone...

I gotta go and be back here on the job by 10 am


toodles...

No comments: