Latest on Global Research Latest on Dandelion Salad Latest on Black Agenda Report Latest on Stop NATO Latest on John PilgerIn no particular order
1 May 2013 — Jazz on the Tube
The song that hooked me forever on Gillespie’s groundbreaking work that combined big band jazz with Cuban rhythms. Fantastic music. Who would guess that it was created nearly seventy years ago!
14 April 2013
‘Jazz 625′, recorded at the BBC Studios, London, on March 19th, 1965. Bill Evans – Piano, Chuck Israel – Bass, Larry Bunker – Drums. 1 hour ten minutes of Bill Evans’ sublime music.
11 April 2013 — Dissident Voice
Of all the words uttered by a person, only a few remain unforgettable to any listener, for these can charm, haunt, humiliate, annoy or terrify even decades later. My friend Lan, for example, is reduced in my mind to a single joking sentence, “This time I’ll probably have to sell my body,” and I’ll never forgive X for sneering, “I ain’t got none!” With a public figure, the lingering words can even be misquoted, or conjured up out of malice or adoration, as likely the case with the incipiently subterranean Margaret Thatcher (the Milk Snatcher). Though there’s no record of it, she’s repeatedly cited as having intoned, “A man who, beyond the age of 26, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure.” The public likes this faux quotation because it neatly sums up Thatcher’s disdain for the bottom half, for “losers,” so to speak, and also because it sounds pretty funny.
3 April 2013 — Jacob Collier
Got sent this by a companero: a clever video by Jacob Collier performing his version of the title song from ‘Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory’, ‘Pure Imagination’ with Collier singing six-part harmony and also on melodica. According to his website, he’s 15 years old and all his music was recorded in his own music room and he plays all the instruments as well. Lots more like this here. Enjoy!
28 March 2013
An excellent documentary on Latin music, ‘Calle 54′ by Spanish director Fernando Trueba. Michel Camillo plays ‘From Within’. Also in the video: Paquito De Rivera, Bebo y Chucho Valdes, Eliane Elias Trio, Chano Domínguez, Tito Puente & Amigos.
24 March 2013 — Jazz on the Tube
A masterpiece of documentary film making by French writer/director/cinematographer Karim Dridi.
Seventy-six-year-old Cuban street musician Miguel Del Morales, known as El Gallo (The Rooster), travels around Cuba with his guitar, making music in the homes of friends, in bars, and on street corners, in courtyards and stairwells. His rich voice, colored by a lifetime of cigarettes and rum, weathered by the sun and rain, bespeaks the joys and sufferings of his countrymen. An urban troubadour, Del Morales has been called “a living memory of Cuban bolero.” — Internet Movie Database
6 March 2013 — Stop Imperialism
An excellent series of podcasts well worth subscribing to. Music by the superb Blue Scholars out of Seattle, WA opens episode 59. Go to the site and get the entire set: Stop Imperialism
26 February 2013 — Media Lens
There is an emptiness at the core of our being. The ego’s great task is to fill that emptiness with evidence that we are ‘someone’ rather than ‘nobody’, that we are ‘special’. But no matter how hard we try, our achievements continue to fall and vanish into the void.
8 February , 2013 — The Real News Network
Calls from within government to fully criminalise squatting gather momentum. It could have serious implications for political occupations, and will it backfire on the government’s plans to reduce its welfare budget? (inc. transcript) Continue reading this...
When it gets cold like this—(‘How cold is it?’ the disembodied voice of Ed McMahon asks in my very much embodied brain)—like well below thirty degrees (Fahrenheit), and twenty nine is well below thirty when we get down in this range, I know what to do. At least, I know what I do.
10 January 2013 — Youtube
10 January 2013 — Jazz on the Tube
Maxwell Lemuel Roach was born on January 10, 1924 in the Township of Newland, North Carolina and moved to Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn when he was four years old. Continue reading this...
7 December 2012 — The Guardian
Its origins may be unclear but the Johannesburg street craze that moves every muscle is mesmerising to watch Continue reading this...
20 February 2012 — Democracy Now!
In a Black History Month special, today we spend the hour with the legendary pianist and composer Randy Weston. For the past six decades, Weston has been a pioneering jazz musician incorporating the vast rhythmic heritage of Africa. His most famous compositions include “Little Niles,” “Blue Moses” and “Hi-Fly,” and his 1960 album, “Uhuru Afrika,” was a landmark recording that celebrated the independence movements in Africa and the influence of traditional African music on jazz. The record, which began with a freedom poem written by Langston Hughes, would later be banned by the South African apartheid regime, along with albums by Max Roach and Lena Horne. Continue reading this...
19 January 2012 — Democracy Now!
Congressional support for a pair of anti-piracy bills is weakening after Wednesday’s historic online protest in which thousands of websites went dark for 24 hours. Hollywood film studios, music publishers and major broadcasters support the anti-piracy legislation, saying it aims to stop the piracy of copyrighted material over the internet on websites based outside the United States. But critics say the bills could profoundly change the internet by stifling innovation and investment, hallmarks of the free, open internet. We host a debate between Sandra Aistars, executive director of the Copyright Alliance, whose members include the Motion Picture Association of America, NBCUniversal, Time Warner, Viacom, ASCAP and BMI, and Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Sales. Watch/Listen/Read
21 December 2011 — Youtube
A masterpiece video, the music is an old patriotic song from the operetta “Shehrzad” composed by Sayed Darwish in 1920s. Its title is “the best armies in the world are ours”. The scenes are those of security forces cracking down on the protests in front of the parliament.
22 November 2011 — Cornershop
A must-listen. Mix Punjabi folk music with some wholesome Cornershop beats, cook and serve. Excellent! Continue reading this...
19 November 2011
Came across Blue Scholars some years back on Rootdownfm.com. This Seattle-based Indie hip-hop band create politically conscious lyrics, funky music and this is their latest offering and I think their best so far. Check it out. (See also: Bayani from the album Bayani Redux and No Rest for the Weary from Blue Scholars. At the end of the track you get to pick from other tracks off the album.
Title track from Cinemetropolis. This song is owned by Blue Scholars and the people who pledged towards The Cinemetropolis Project. Enjoy
Mark: There’s also a great tribute to George Jackson on the album.
19 November 2011
Video clip of tenor saxophonist Johnny Griffin soloing over an up tempo blues, filmed at the Village Vanguard with Ronnie Matthews piano, Ray Drummond bass, and Kenny Washington drums.
The Village Vanguard was my Monday night hangout for a while when I lived NYC. Monday was Big Band night that included the ever-changing and on the edge Gil Evans Band and Frank Foster’s ‘Loud Minority’. Both had ensembles made up of the best that NYC’s musos could provide. Memorable nights indeed, propped up at the bar, beer in hand listening to the real world music, Jazz.
18 November 2011 — Gilad Atzmon
There was a time when Jewish politics and culture were associated with liberalism, human rights, pluralism and freedom of expression. Those days are clearly over. Nowadays, it is pretty much the opposite.
Here in Britain, Jewish nationalist lobbies are engaged in several kinds of repressive behaviour. Their practices include: bullying and harassment, disinformation, smear campaigns.
Rag Radio
Greenwashgold.org
Fantastic clip! Love ‘em! Thanks Bill!!