Rediscoveries

I played this song last Sunday, 2/10 in a Valentine’s set, now Jason Bentley is playing it again (he, like I, have played this song many times before).  It is one of the most sublime love songs ever written.
It’s all also one of the greatest doo wop songs of all time.  It was written by Henry Warren and Al Dubin and released in 1959.  It …

This means some delicious, holographic Proustian moments. A time machine propelled by music and memories.    By the way, this year marks the 100th anniversary of Proust’s masterpiece, Swann’s Way, in which the famous madeleine-in-the-tea mnemonic episode occurred.
One of those happened last night.  I pulled out a two lp set, Philippe Lefebvre playing Duruflé’s organ works on the immense Chartres cathedral pipe organ.  Suddenly …

Miles Davis and Gil Evans first worked together in 1949 on the seminal Birth of the Cool, which took jazz away from bebop and introduced the cool sound.  Gone was the frenetic flurry of notes, replaced by a smoother, softer groove.   Their next big collaboration was Miles Ahead:  Miles Davis + 19;  it was their first record for Columbia, two years before the …

1986 was the date of the original release of Peter Gabriel’s So.  It was one of the most moving of all albums that year, and probably the 80s decade too.  The luminous love song “In Your Eyes”, and quasi-mystical song “Mercy Street” that alluded to the dark visions of American poet Anne Sexton.  Sexton wrote only for herself and not for an audience, which …

Tim Maia has a new cd out on David Byrne and Yale Evelev’s superhip Luaka Bop label.    It’s called The Existential Soul of Tim Maia.  He started the Black Rio music movement, a genre based on American soul and funk music.  Maia’s biggest influences were not Brazilian but rather American soul and funk music from the 60s and 70s.  Today his nephew Ed …

Hanni El Khatib, a contemporary LA-based singer-songwriter of Palestinian & Filipino descent,  is getting a lot of KCRW airplay these days.  He’s on board to perform at KCRW’s big Masquerade Ball this Saturday night October 27th (it’s sold out, but VIP cabanas are still available).  Hanni’s KCRW hit is “You Rascal You”.
So imagine my surprise, while researching music for a small consulting job, that …

Television writer and producer Robert Herridge (1914-1981)  isn’t a well-known name, but he produced some of the greatest network coverage of televised jazz concerts ever in the USA.  While it was common back in the day to celebrate jazz icons on film in Europe via TV broadcasts, this was a rarity on network TV in America.  Herridge infused CBS two-camera production values, filming some …

I think I know a fair amount about Brazilian music.  I’ve been following the music for a long time, have visited Brazil like eight or nine times, and love the music, culture, and country.  Brazil is unique.  So is Brazilian music.
And so when I heard this classic cut from a 1964 album by Wilson Simonal on the radio I loved it and wanted to …

Fania Records, founded in the 1960s by Gerry Masucci and Johnny Pacheco,  became the top tropical latin label in the world.  Izzy Sanabria had been designing covers for Fania beginning in the late 60s, then stepped up to the plate as marketing and and art director of Fania in the early 70s, and helped coin the name “salsa” to bring together and market the various …

Join UCLA historian Robin D. G. Kelley and me, KCRW DJ Tom Schnabel for a conversation and listening session that revisits the late 1950s and early 1960s, when African musicians began to swing and American Jazz artists turned to Africa in an attempt to nudge the art form beyond bebop. Kelley and Schnabel discuss the struggles faced by four little-known trailblazers who dared to …