music – Page 3 – Stephen Saunders

PASSINGS: JOE CUBA

David Gonzalez, NY Times – For the first time anyone could remember – or even comprehend – the sight of Joe Cuba brought people to tears. For more than half a century, this conga-playing son of El Barrio fronted bands whose music was relentless, hip and happy. Real happy.

But there was no joy on 116th Street Wednesday, at least not at first sight of Joe, laid out in his coffin, though sharp as ever in his black tux, white gloves and a gray homburg. Here was the Father of the Latin Boogaloo, a fusion of Latin and soul music that made him a crossover king in the late 1960s. . .

Outside, under the narrow awning, people huddled to escape the rain.

“I’m going to see him,” Juan Nieves said. “A friend of mine died, too, and I’m going to see her inside. But I have to see him. His music was the best from the ’60s. His sextet was the ultimate. They had all the songs. Oye, ese pito!”

Hey, that whistle! That was the first line to “El Pito” – which was always followed by five quick toots.

For a while in the 1960s, those five notes were the clarion call of an emerging musical . . . The song’s signature chorus is taken from Dizzy Gillespie’s introduction to “Manteca.” The classic whistled opening gives way to hand claps, a Latin-tinged piano line, frenetic vibe playing and maniacal laughter.

In some neighborhoods, the song was a revelation. Where I lived in the Bronx, on Mapes Avenue off 181st Street, teenagers drove people crazy whistling the opening notes while chanting what can only be described (here, at least) as a gleefully obscene twist on Georgia.

Its bilingual lyrics and urban attitude presaged the coming boogaloo craze. The distinctly New York musical form Joe Cuba helped birth reflected the interplay (with the emphasis on play) between Puerto Ricans and African-Americans in this city. Coming at the dawn of a political and cultural awakening among New York-raised Puerto Ricans, it was a heady mix.

PASSINGS: LOUIE BELLSON

Washington Post – Louie Bellson, 84, widely considered one of the world’s greatest drummers, who played with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie, died in California of complications from a hip fracture he suffered in November.

A six-time Grammy nominee who performed on more than 200 albums and wrote more than 1,000 compositions and arrangements and a dozen books on percussion, Mr. Bellson was the last of the triumvirate of great percussionists who came out of the big-band era. He was a member of Ellington’s band from 1951 to 1953 and was often the only white musician who performed with it before segregated audiences in the South.

In 1938, while still in high school, he came up with the idea of using two bass drums in his drum set, an addition that became his signature. Two years later, he beat 40,000 others to win a nationwide drumming contest. He joined Benny Goodman’s band before he was 20 years old.

He married singer Pearl Bailey and left Ellington’s band to be her musical director. Over the years, Mr. Bellson performed with such greats as Harry James, Woody Herman, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Oscar Peterson, Dizzy Gillespie, Louie Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, James Brown, Sammy Davis Jr., Tony Bennett, Mel Torme and Joe Williams. Just a year ago, he issued what would be his final CD, “Louie & Clark Expedition 2,” and he was still touring last fall.

THE DEAD play Inaugural Ball!!

Here are some youtube teasers, and the set list…

Dancin’ In The Streets>
Uncle John’s Band>
Sugar Magnolia
Eyes of the World

<<VP Joe Biden Speech & Dance>>

The Wheel>
Touch of Grey
Box of Rain

<<President Obama Speech 1st
couple dance to ‘At Last’>>

WHY AREN’T MUSICIANS BIGGER SOUND FREAKS?

Steve Guttenberg, CNET – It seems like most musicians I meet are more into making music than listening to it. They don’t care about how music sounds at home; many are satisfied with the sound they get from boom boxes or chintzy computer speakers. Some tell me they’re more focused on the way the players play than the sound.

Sure, I’ve met a few musicians with ears for sound. That happened just recently when I struck up a conversation with jazz drummer and audiophile Billy Drummond.

He readily conceded my point: “Getting a good hi-fi isn’t high on their list of priorities. Like everybody else, musicians listen to music while they’re on the computer or sending e-mails. That’s what music is now, a backdrop, so fidelity isn’t important anymore.”

Sad, but true, so what is music for? Drummond had a ready answer. “It’s for people to enjoy,” he said. “It can take you somewhere, you can dance to it, music conjures emotions. For musicians it’s an expression, a way to challenge ourselves, and it can be inspiring.”. . .

Drummond’s saying all the right things, so I was a little embarrassed to ask about sound quality, does that matter? Drummond was getting excited. “Absolutely,” he said, “especially when I’m listening to music in all its splendor over my system, it’s second only to being in the concert hall. I’d rather do that than watch a movie.”. . .

You can hear “the sound” on a car radio or a cheap boom box, so what does an expensive hi-fi bring to the party? Drummond doesn’t miss a beat, “OK, if you bring a musician to your house and sit him down in front of your high-end system and play Miles, he will acknowledge the difference. Now, they can really hear his sound. That’s what happens when I bring musicians over and let them hear that kind of thing. They get it, and say something like, ‘Man, I need to get new speakers.'”

Barack Obama Selects the Dead for Inaugural Ball: “It Was Quite an Honor”

rolling stone- 1/15/09, 5:03 pm EST

Photo: Barnard/Getty

Just a week after confirming their first tour in five years, the reunited Dead are booked to rock the Mid-Atlantic Inaugural Ball in Washington, D.C. on January 20th. “A DJ will open up — it’s a long, strange trip!,” Mickey Hart jokes to Rolling Stone (the DJ in question is celeb spinner DJ Cassidy). “[Barack Obama] picked us specifically,” he adds, “so it was quite an honor. There was a short list and we made the cut.” (For a peek into the President-Elect’s iPod, click here.)

As for the most important question — can the band jam at the ball? — Hart is dubious: “It’s pretty tight, about an hour set. When you play these kinds of things you say, ‘How can I be of service?’ The entertainment committee makes it so that it fits into their huge schedule.”

Another pitfall of political rocking: a background check. “It gave me pause when I had to get a security clearance to play a gig!” Hart says. So did they get past the security scan? “Oh, yeah, we don’t look so bad on paper. It’s not as bad as you might think.”

The Dead partially reunited for a Deadheads for Obama gig in spring 2007, and drummer Bill Kreutzmann rejoined the group for a “Change Rocks” Obama fundraiser at Penn State in October. The tour that kicks off April 12th in Greensboro, North Carolina, features founding members Phil Lesh, Bob Weir as well as Hart and Kreutzmann, joined by keyboardist Jeff Chimenti and Allman Brothers Band/Gov’t Mule guitarist Warren Haynes.

No Woman No Cry ‘songwriter’ dies

Bob Marley performs on Top of The Pops in the 1970s

No Woman No Cry was based on the ghetto where both men lived

Vincent Ford, the songwriter credited with composing the Bob Marley reggae classic No Woman, No Cry has died in Jamaica. He was 68.

Ford lost both his legs to diabetes and died in hospital from complications caused by the disease, said a spokesman for the Bob Marley Foundation.

His smash hit appeared on Marley’s 1974 Natty Dread album.

It was inspired by the Trench Town ghetto in Kingston where both men lived in the 1960s.

Some claim Marley wrote it himself but gave Ford the credit to help his friend support himself with the royalties.

Ford is also credited with three songs on Marley’s 1976 album Rastaman Vibration.

Marley remains the most widely known and revered performer of reggae music, and is credited for helping spread Jamaican music to the worldwide audience.

He died of cancer in Miami in 1981, aged 36.

The Dead rumored to play at one of the President Elect’s inaugural parties

Written by Mike Greenhaus
Friday, 07 November 2008

The remaining members of the Grateful Dead are rumored to play one of President-elect Barack Obama’s upcoming inauguration parties on January 20. In an interview with The Daily News, Bob Weir mentioned that he has been told to “keep January 20 free.”

Though no official word has been made, The Dead are a likely choice for the first Democratic president since 2001. Last February, Weir, Phil Lesh and Mickey Hart reunited for an Obama benefit on the eve of the California primary and, last month, the trio recruited Bill Kreutzmann for another benefit in State College, PA. Lesh, in particular, has been a vocal supporter of the President-elect, while Weir has served on HeadCount’s board of directors since 2004. Weir, Hart and Kreutzmann anchored an all-star band at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s inauguration party in 2007.

Phil Lesh & Friends will perform at New York’s Nokia Theatre this evening, while Bob Weir and RatDog are off until a stop at Boston’s Orpheum Theatre on Saturday.

Best Xmas Tune? Willie and Colbert’s Ode to Weed

By Scott Thill

December 02, 2008 | 9:36:52 PM

A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All has redefined the holiday special for the new millennium. But it may also have redefined holiday songs for the 21st century as well, especially Willie Nelson and Stephen Colbert’s “Little Dealer Boy.” Think “Little Drummer Boy” 2.0, substitute the phrase “finest gifts” for marijuana, and you’re there.

Or better yet, just check out the video of the entire song at right. It’s a double-exposure romp that might make Jesus blush, if he wasn’t already rumored to have used cannabis himself. After all, as Willie sings in the duet, cannabis is a “plant that smokes more sweetly than either frankincense or myrrh.”

If you like the tune, you’re probably going to love the rest of the bizarro standards found A Colbert Christmas, out now as an iTunes-only digital EP. Heck, you might even dig Toby Keith’s War-On-Christmas shocker “Have I Got a Present For You,” the very track that had me worried that Colbert’s holiday special might suck.

Boy, was I wrong about that.

Meanwhile, “Little Dealer Boy” has caught some flak on Colbert Nation, but I think it is one of the finest Christmas tunes ever laid down. Am I high? Post a comment below and let me know.

RAGING AGAINST THE TORTURE MACHINE

Telegraph, UK – Prominent rock bands such as Massive Attack, Rage Against the Machine and Elbow have joined forces with a legal charity to campaign against the use of music as a instrument of torture.

US military interrogators play tracks by artists such as Metallica, AC/DC, Eminem, Bruce Springsteen and even Britney Spears at deafening volume to detainees in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay.

The music is blasted relentlessly in a bid to “break” prisoners, according to Reprieve, which says the practice continues despite a ban on the use of loud music in interrogations by the United Nations and European Court of Human Rights.

Using loud music “to create fear and disorient detainee(s) and prolong capture shock” was among a host of interrogation tactics authorized by then commander in Iraq Lt Gen Ricardo Sanchez in a memo dated September 14, 2003. . .

Musicians backing the initiative include Tom Morello, of Rage Against the Machine, who at a recent concert suggested taking revenge on President George W Bush by putting him in a cell and blasting his own band’s music at him.

“What we’re talking about here is people in a darkened room, physically inhibited by handcuffs, bags over their heads and music blaring at them,” singer-songwriter David Gray has said of the practice.

“That is torture. That is nothing but torture. It doesn’t matter what the music is – it could be Tchaikovsky’s finest or it could be Barney the Dinosaur. It really doesn’t matter, it’s going to drive you completely nuts.”

According to Reprieve, some of the music used by interrogators is written for children. Christopher Cerf, who wrote music for Sesame Street, told the Associated Press he was horrified to learn songs from the children’s show were used in interrogations. “I wouldn’t want my music to be a party to that.”

Binyam Mohamed, a Guantanamo inmate and former London resident, told Reprieve he suffered months of torture at the hands of CIA operatives while in a secret prison.

“There was loud music, (Eminem’s) Slim Shady and Dr. Dre for 20 days. I heard this nonstop over and over,” he said. “The CIA worked on people, including me, day and night for the months before I left. Plenty lost their minds. I could hear people knocking their heads against the walls and the doors, screaming their heads off.”

Other supporters of the campaign include Mercury Prize winners Elbow, The Magic Numbers, James Lavelle of UNKLE, comedian Bill Bailey and The Musicians’ Union, which represents more than 30,000 musicians.