Brecker Brothers "Some Skunk Funk"

[johnagrandy]

... everything BB related that is.

Since Mike got sick I've been trying to hunt down every BB session on the planet ... absolutely can't believe I didn't have this one until now:

Nov 11 2003 , live in Leverkusen Germany with the WDR Big Band Koln (on BHM). Erskine too.

SSF, Sponge, Straphangin', Song For Barry, etc. ... plus a delicious little groove named Shanghigh plus Let It Go : both Randy tunes from his 34th & Lex (also a 2003 release). Plus there's "Wayne Out" which starts mellow but turns into a total trip out with Randy blowing the band down ( ha ha ! )

For live BB, this isn't quite up there with Heavy Metal BeBop but it just might be #2.

Only strange thing is that Mike only solos on 5 out of 10, while Randy's 10/10. But Mike sounds great !! This session was 2 1/2 years ago and Mike started feeling bad in Sep 04. Tears it up on Straphangin' , SSF ... I've heard mind-blowing MB at live BB shows, but this might be the best MB SSF improv I've heard on a legit recording.

The arrangements really work. As everyone knows, the BB play *tight* -- but band is right there ! Big congrats to arranger/conductor Vince Mendoza and the rest of the crew who made this happen !

Anyone know much about Paul Shigihara (truly beautiful guitar work on Song For Barry) or the rest of WDR ? Man, I don't know nothin' 'bout a single player.

Edited April 4, 2006 by johnagrandy

[Free For All]

Despite the clumsy edits and silly cover (although I must say I do like it in a retro kind of way) this remains one of my favorite BB recordings. I would have loved to heard this band live!

[tjobbe]

by nature I need to comment on that

...this was a great concert at Leverkusen, and luckily I was there when it was recorded (as the location being 30km away from my home only)

HERE you can get a bit more background on the Radio BigBand based in Cologne. One musician you should have close look at specially when you hear him live is the man playing organ and piano

Frank Chastenier (recorded some records as leader as well as with Till Brönner). He doesn'l looklike that but he's a vulcano when playing the B3 on stage)

When you check the bands CD titles records, you'll find them playing Rock as well as free with a multitude of different major artist.

Highly recommended....

BTW: the Brecker Bros one is available as well as SA-CD over here.....

Cheers, Tjobbe

[johnagrandy]

Despite the clumsy edits and silly cover (although I must say I do like it in a retro kind of way) this remains one of my favorite BB recordings. I would have loved to heard this band live!

(

Did you catch BB live on their big reunion tour, early 90s? Not as fresh, but just as good in my opinion because Randy & Mike were far more advanced improvisers.

Actually, I think Mike is the one who made a huge leap from era 1 to era 2. Randy had some pretty sublime stuff going on his head from the beginning ... back then, Mike was more blow the roof off.

I that the HMBB cover is helluv cool ! A spacesuit ! ... Randy sittin' on the Strad case ... c'mon man, time-warp, back to the 70s ... that shit was hip !

Edited April 4, 2006 by johnagrandy

[johnagrandy]

Thanks Tjobbe ! I'm going to check these Eurocats out as much as possible.

From googling, looks like Paul Shigihara has played a bit (Paquito D'Rivera, Pete Escovedo, Patti Austin) ... anyone know his music ?

WR + WDR ...

Zawinul/WDR Big Band CD of Weather Report Music in the Works

November 26, 2005

Zawinul has two new CDs in the works, both scheduled to come out on his BirdJam label in March 2006. The first is a double-CD featuring Joe with the WDR Big Band. It was recorded live during their sold-out, two-week tour in October and November that included a week-long engagement at Joe Zawinul's Birdland in Vienna, as well as performances at the Salzburg Jazz Fest, Leverkusen Jazz Fest, Berliner Jazztage, Madrid Festival and Valladolid Fest in Spain.

"It was a great and extremely successful experience playing some of the music I had written for Weather Report," Joe says. The set list included 14 Zawinul compositions "adapted precisely and very well orchestrated" by Vince Mendoza, such as "A Remark You Made," "Black Market," "Brown Street," "Fast City," and "Night Passage." They also performed an arrangement of "Procession" by Joe, "D Flat Waltz" as arranged by Bob Belden, and two songs without horns: "Indiscretions," and the Jaco Pastorius classic "Continuum" with words by Victor Bailey, who sang the song. One might ask if they also played "Birdland," considering it has been adapted to big bands by other arrangers. But Joe doesn't like to rehash his greatest hits. In fact, he has not played "Birdland" since Weather Report's last concert in 1984. "The band is the hit, not the tune," he says.

Joe also gives high praise to the rhythm section that accompanied the big band, consisting of Nathaniel Townsley III on drums, Alex Acuña on percussion, Victor Bailey on bass and Tokyo-born guitarist Paul Shigihara. Acuña has always been an outgoing presence on the stage--and he was here, of course--but Joe described him as "outgoing on the inside. Totally aware of everything. He played amazing, totally into the music. I never heard him play better. The same with Victor Bailey. He was just off his own tour and in strong form." Joe was particularly impressed with Nathaniel Townsley III, who learned all of the music by heart from the original Weather Report recordings. This was his first performance with a big band, and Joe really liked the way he played. "He played all the important accents, but he didn't over do it, and that opened up the band and gave the music more flow," Joe says, adding that Townsley's playing reminded him of Mickey Roker and the late Shadow Wilson--two drummers who lent a small combo feel to the big bands they played with. Indeed, Joe reports that all the people who know the band and some former members of the WDR band remarked that they had never heard it sound so much like a combo.

Like the Zawinul Syndicate, Joe conducted the big band with hand signals, and that must have been something to see. Joe said that at Birdland, where the sax section was in front of him and couldn't see him, one of the sax players took signals from Joe and relayed them to the rest of the horns. They kept it up for the rest of the tour. "In the club we had to sit as close together as possible," Joe says, "elbow-to-elbow, which we also kept up on the big stages in order to maintain that close feeling."

Edited April 4, 2006 by johnagrandy

[Free For All]

I that the HMBB cover is helluv cool ! A spacesuit ! ... Randy sittin' on the Strad case ... c'mon man, time-warp, back to the 70s ... that shit was hip !

Yeah, you're right- I remember how cool I thought it was back then, the photo just seems dated now, but so am I..............

I still love it though....I put "East River" on and CRANK IT, usually on Friday afternoons*...........it's SO good!

*.......I also still listen to Earth Wind & Fire for similar reasons........

Edited April 4, 2006 by Free For All

[Joe G]

John - I heard some Mike Brecker yesterday like I'd never heard him before. Go to farmers-market.net and check out the live stuff. Wild!

Edited April 4, 2006 by Joe G

[johnagrandy]

I still love it though....I put "East River" on and CRANK IT, usually on Friday afternoons*...........it's SO good!

Yeah I love it too.

One things that's cool about ER is those are real handclaps not those viral syntho-klaps they use these days. What's so hard about getting a bunch of dudes to clap their hands ?

I never for sure figured-out one piece of the ER lyrics ( in parentheses below ) :

Ohhh, East River

Ohhh, East River

Ohhh, East River

Ohh, ain't no river there no more

Wounded river opens wide

Swallow good and eat a tide

Keep us far away as long

Robot killer can stay on the run

Heavenly funk 'n earthly fate

Wanna jump in 'n be its mate

Elude yourself, disintegrate

Ohhh East River, la de da

Died and went to heaven, uh huh huh

Dancin' with the angels, cha cha cha

Singin' with the devil, ooh la la

Oh East River, la de da

Ain't no river there no more

Left its skin like a giant snake

Is the fake real or the real fake

Is it just some fat catfish

Feeds all day 'n (waits down wish)

I'm standin' on the bridge of time

'N there's no way across but to lose my mind

Jump off time, and see what I find

Ohhh East River, la de da

Died and went to heaven, uh huh huh

Dancin' with the angels, cha cha cha

Singin' with the devil, ooh la la

Aiii, aiii, East River, la de da

Ohhh East River, la de da

Died and went to heaven, uh huh huh

Dancin' with the angels, cha cha cha

Singin' with the devil, ooh la la

Aiii, aiii, East River, la de da

Ohhh East River, la de da

Died and went to heaven, uh huh huh

Dancin' with the angels, cha cha cha

Singin' with the devil, ooh la la

Aiii, aiii, East River, la de da

East River, la de da

Died and went to heaven, uh huh huh

Dancin' with the angels, cha cha cha

Singin' with the devil, ooh la la

Aiii, aiii, East River, la de da

East River, la de da

Died and went to heaven, uh huh huh

Dancin' with the angels, cha cha cha

Singin' with the devil, ooh la la

Aiii, aiii, East River, la de da

[johnagrandy]

John - I heard some Mike Brecker yesterday like I'd never heard him before. Go to farmers-market.net and check out the live stuff. Wild!

Thanks for that. They're keepin' the "special guest" disreet I see.

Norwegians playing Balkan music. Very interesting to me since I'm Norwegian and I have a lot of friends from the Balkans. Have to ask around ...

I recently heard of a legendary Bulgarian or Romanian, very old now, who might be one of the greatest living improvisational musicians. Unfortunately I can't remember his name. He and his band has survived in this impoverished area of the world playing weddings and other such events for maybe the last 40-50 years ? I'm not certain. In that part of the world, on the wedding day the music does not stop from sunrise until late late into the night. The band follows the bride and groom around wherever they go.

He attributes his chops purely to having to play 16+ hours per day, 7 days a week, for decades (ok, there might be *some* exaggeration here). What they do is shuffle band members through breaks throughout the day to eat, use the restroom, rest their chops, etc. In interviews, he's stated he has no special talent, and that anyone would get that good playing virtually non-stop for 40-50 years. Modesty perhaps. I'll post his name when I find out ... unless someone else knows.

.m4a audio clips... wow these guys are on the curve. Not too many out-of-the-box players support this format yet.

Edited April 5, 2006 by johnagrandy

[johnagrandy]

The Balkan master improviser is Bulgarian clarinetist Ivo Paposov.

http://www.creative-music-of-east-europe.com/folk04en.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/awards2005/pro...vopapasov.shtml

A few years ago he cut back his 7 days/week , 16+ hr days, schedule. Then he quit music altogether for awhile to build himself a house.

But he's back playing, and lately is gaining a bit of notoriety in the US. Rasputins, for one, is currently promoting him.

Edited April 5, 2006 by johnagrandy

[Joe G]

Ivo's a badass.