Sarah Vaughan – Cherokee
If you only ever buy one album by Sarah, make it In The land of HiFi, her backing group includes: Ernie Royal, Cannonball Adderley, Kai Winding, J.J. Johnson, Jerome Richardson and Jimmy Jones plus many more. Sarah is, as always, brilliant and there’s also a wonderful solo by Cannonball. Altogether a great album. – goneforeign
Blind Willie McTell – I Got To Cross The River Jordan
This has been stuck in my ears for months now. I’ll lie awake hearing it in my head. Which is okay, because it’s so beautiful, and speaks so eloquently with so few words. And there’s something oddly comforting about the fact that we ALL have to walk it alone. – steenbeck
Sondre Lerch – Nightingales
What happens when one of your favourite artists covers one of your favourite songs by another of your favourite artists? Well, in this case, the result is a small spark of magic. I love the sleazy jazz club feel that Norwegian singer-songwriter Sondre Lerch gives to one of Prefab Sprout’s finest moments. I wouldn’t have thought it would work but it does. – toffeeboy
Carolina Chocolate Drops & Luminescent Orchestrii – Escoutas [Diga Diga Diga]
What do you get when you cross the world’s best string & jug band with an acoustic gypsy punk band? Something that sounds curiously like the Macarena. – tincanman
Yara Family – Shirahama Blues
Funkier than a squirrel’s nut. Not a phrase you normally associate with Okinawa but listen to the first minute of this and you might change your mind. It’s called Shirahama Blues and it’s by the Yara Family and that is just about all I know about it. – pairubu
Laptop – End Credits
I like a bit of geetar rootsiness as much as the next man but, adolescent of the 80s that I am, sometimes I yearn for a bit of electro ennui. This has always fitted the bill. – bishbosh
earworm@tincanland.com
Strength to strength, Maki! How do you keep on doing it? Despite the mention of Prefab Sprout (not a favourite), and (aaagh! Cowers in the corner, fingers forming a defensive crucifix) Eighties electro, there isn’t a bad ‘un here.
Sondre Lerch – Beautifully done. Will seek more that aren’t Prefab Sprout covers
Laptop – Dated, but that’s rather the point, isn’t it? Answerphones? What were they, daddy?
It’s really a nice groove, he says through gritted teeth, Eighties electro being a particular bête noir….
Yara Family – Pairubu suggestions all come labelled ‘Approach With Caution’, but this one is really rather lovely. To me, the vocal gives it a gospel feel, sounding (to the untrained ear that understands not a syllable of Japanese) more salvation-uplifting than blues-downtrodden.
Carolina Chocolate Drops – I heart this band, for their music and their name. Don’t know Luminescent Orchestrii from Adam, but the mixture is a joyful thing. Is there an album, Tinny?
Blind Willie – Bound for the River Jordan, bound for glory, bound to get a dond from this sinner! Irresistibly gorgeous, pushes all my buttons. Now where did I put my open-G tuned guitar and chunk of brass tubing…?
Did I mention joyful? Did I mention uplifting? Sarah Vaughan is both, but the track could still be classed as a double-header, because Cannonball absolutely matches her. Pick of the week for me. Fourth play already, and I’m supposed to be working…
Laptops album was released in 2000 – (it’s just 80′s styled) loving in Bishbosh.
“Answerphones? What were they, daddy?”
I always wanted to do a ‘dated references’ RR – Ian Dury’s “who cares if your slip is showing” line being my favourite.
but pagers, telephone boxes, the wireless, etc etc all dating songs interestingly from different eras.
that’s s’posed to say – loving IT bishbosh….
Don’t know any songs about faxes, do you? I remember the company I worked for at the time getting its first fax machine. The Telex operator had to retrain…
Actually, you could do a progression:
Telephones with a wind-up handle and an operator
Telephones with a dial and a receiver (do infants’ toys still feature dial telephones? Why?)
Telephones with keypads/touchtone
Carphones
Mobile telephones with keypads (Keypads? How passé!)
Mobile phones with cameras (Stills cameras? How passé!)
I have a song called ‘Faxing Berlin’ by Deadmau5.
All I know of from chocolate drops & luminescent together is a 4-song EP. Other 3 are dropped.
A curious curate’s egg for me this week.
I admire the musicianship – particularly the phrasing – of Sarah and the band but it didn’t grab me. In fact, the breakneck pace and avoidance of the melody almost annoyed me.
I respect the Blind Willie McTell recording but I’m sure he must have played versions where he sang complete lines and didn’t make so many mistakes on the guitar….
The Sondre Lerch is just not my bag. Musically deft and accomplished yet verging on parody. ‘Nice…’
Carolina Chocolate Drops is much more my thing. Possibly beneficial that I can’t understand the lyrics but the joy and passion in the music is brill!
The Yara Family track is cheesy fun. It’s a pity the blackboard-scraping vocals limit its playability.
Laptop is my favourite despite sounding like so many eighties bands I didn’t like. The woman’s phone voice reminds me of the end of Synecdoche, New York (just before the end credits!), when Ellen gives our hero his instructions through an earpiece, the final one of which is ‘Die’. The music has the same doomy feeling as that scene, too.
Yeah, Chris, the Blind Willie does have some guitar ‘misses’ (curiously, not while he’s singing. Is he anchoring his slide playing on his singing? They’re both infinitely variable, but I reckon most guitarists would do the opposite), but I’m with Steen on the partial lines. They’re deliberate, and I think they add to the song rather than being a distraction. And what a boring world it would be if everything was perfect, hey? Or if we all agreed on music…
The Sarah Vaughan is a bit rapid, granted, but to me it has a joie-de-vivre and general toe-tappitty-ness that balances it. After all, The Divine One can’t do sultry all the time, can she [Why not? I love her sultry - Ed]?
Another good mix, Maki. I really liked Laptop…I’m going to listen to it again. The Yara Family was appealing, too. And it’s funny…I’ve really wanted to like the Carolina Chocolate Drops in the past, but always felt there was something missing. Maybe it was a gypsy punk band, cause this was good!
Chris, one of the things I like about that version of River Jordan is that he doesn’t finish every sentence with words…sometimes the guitar finishes it, but you know what it’s saying. It’s like the guitar is talking. And I suppose my hearing isn’t as refined (wrong word, probably) as yours, because I didn’t hear a lot of errors.
Blimey, this might be the most eclectic list we’ve had in a while! On first listen, I found much to admire in Sarah V and Blind Willy but I’ll have to give them more of a go before that admiration turns to love. Really enjoyed the Sondra Lerche (and I too am not as big a fan of Prefab Sprout as I always felt I ought to be) and the Choccy Drops. The Yara Family made me giggle the minute the vocals started – not sure if that was the artists’ intention, but great fun.
Should have clarified that Laptop were 80s revivalists rather than an actual 80s band. Not that I know much about them/him (I think it is/was just a ‘him’.) The only thing I have by them apart from this EP is a cover of Wreckless Eric’s “Whole Wide World”. Performed in much the same electro-lugubrious style. ‘Interesting’ is perhaps a kind assessment. But it’s better than the Lightning Seeds’ (pointless) cover. Anyway, was fully expecting a lambasting for Laptop – pleasantly surprised by the generally positive reaction so far!
God, I love that Carolina Chocolate Drops/Luminiscent Orchestrii track. Gorgeous. Played it four times and it didn’t pall and I didn’t flag. Just what the doctor ordered. My favourite this week.
Enjoyed the Yara Family too. Bit daft but fun. And yes, the bit at the beginning is funky. In an oriental kind of way. Verged on parody at times but no less enjoyable for that.
Blind Willie is great but this track didn’t really hit me on the first listen. I did enjoy it more the second time around. I will give it another spin.
I do like Sarah Vaughan and I liked this one but I prefer her singing slow and sultry stuff. Loved the solo but it was all a bit too rushed and breathless for me. (God, I’m picky).
Sondre Lerch I quite liked but I want to hear them singing “Hot Dog, Jumping Frog” etc. Good voice. Will investigate. Would also like to hear Sarah Vaughan singing Nightingales but this is clearly unfeasible.
Laptop – Great mood music if you’re in the right mood. Slightly reminiscent of the Bowie and Iggy albums of the late seventies. You can sing Heroes to the opening bit if you are so inclined.
Truly an eclectic list today. The denine Sarah was a little more frenetic paced than ususal but it set up Cannoball’s solo quite well. Can’t go wrong with Blind Willie either.
Sondre Lerch? Toffeboy’s ” sleazy jazz feel” aptly describes it & has resulted in a note to myself (make sleazy jazz playlist – start with nightinggales). The Gypsy Punk Band vibe was working really well for me on Ecoutas – unfortunately the macarena element was sapping it . Shirahama Blues is undescribable. A friend was stationed in Yokuska & told me a story of the band that played every week at the EM club. Impossible to decipher lyrics , atonal vocals on top of good garage band licks. Music you had to get drunk to he called it. Coulda been them dunno. Favorite of the week ( & really a surprise to me) was Laptop. Electronica is genrally not my groove but this worked on some level I’m not clear about but it’s got 3 listens so…
Shoulda been devine Sarah (sigh)
You might want to consider some Chet Baker for your sleazy playlist …
CB duly noted – thanks TB.
Definitely American influence on the Yara family track. That’s what I love about it. The vocals are pure Okinawa, the guitar and drums R & B influenced and the organ from somewhere over the rainbow.
Really enjoyed the Laptop track – an entirely new name to me bishbosh.
The transition from Sarah to Blind Willy was a bit of a jolt, I think it’s what they call a quantum leap. Nightingales then transitioned back a little jazzwise, a nice cut with a nice voice, Ms. Lerch sounds so English/American, not at all Norwegian. Reminds me of some 70′s jazz singers I’ve heard. Chocolate Drops, nice vibe, wish I could understand it, sounds a bit Cajun/Zydeco. The voice on the Yara family was a bit too much, had to cut that one short and I’m ready to roll the end credits. Ya dig?
@ gf – Mr Lerche – he’s a he!
‘Fraid I agree with Severin and Fintan on the Sarah Vaughan, GF: technically stunning, but it shows off only one facet of her genius, and loses the emotion altogether. Personally, if you have to buy just one album of hers, it would be the one with Clifford Brown; superlative band, great mix of songs.
“Pairubu suggestions all come labelled ‘Approach With Caution’”
Blooming cheek !….well, you probably have a point, actually.
Some nice tunes, I like the Chocolate Drops and Laptop but hightlight,for me, has got to be Blind Willie.
I don’t listen to much blues these days but I’ll always make and exception for Willie ( as the actress said to the bishop). There’s something haunted about his voice and playing.
Much enjoyed as always. Carolina Chocolate Drops and Yara Family were great dumb fun, I appreciate the education I’m getting in the likes of Sarah Vaughan and Blind Willie McTell, who I’d probably never listen to otherwise, and Laptop was great (dated technology in songs – Kirtsy McCall’s “Here Comes That Man Again” will soon be one of the few places where you can hear the sound of a dial-up modem).
Highlight for me was Nightingales, which I do know, though only slightly, in the original. I think I’ve commented on previous ToffeeBoy posts that I find it hard to cope with the 80s production on Prefab Sprout’s records, though I recognise the quality of the songwriting. Perhaps cover versions are the answer. Is there a tribute album?
Looks like I got away with (slightly) dissing one icon but not two…!
This may be heresy but I sometimes get a little bemused by the reverence accorded to scratchy old recordings of guys like Blind Willie. (Remember Blind Lemon Pie, anyone?) If you know the song – and I’m sure that the audiences he played to did – you can slot in the missing words but, I’m sorry steen, the guitar does not indicate what those words are. There is a consistency of tone and feel to the playing that chimes perfectly with the impression of the lyrics but, for me, the missing words and fluffed slide changes take the edge off that effect. I just feel there must be better quality performances where we don’t have to make as many allowances; I’d like to hear one of those.
Chris – I hope I didn’t come across as defensive. I think it’s an interesting conversation. The thing about Blind Willie McTell, and this song is an example of that…I don’t really put him in the same category of all the old guys that made scratchy recordings. I don’t see him as being strictly a blues musician. I mean, obviously…he’s a blues musician, but I think he transcends that category in a way. I think there are a lot of elements I associate with Jazz in his playing, if that makes sense. I think I might do a post on him, because I’ve been thinking a lot about him.
As someone else commented, quite an eclectic mix.
Blind Willie is my standout this week.
Sarah Vaughan is also up there, so to speak. She’s one of those who rarely put a foot wrong when it came to material. Married to George Treadwell who was the Svengali behind The Drifters. He wasn’t a very pleasant character by all accounts. When told that lead singer Rudy Lewis had died of a drug overdose the day before the session to record “Under The Boardwalk”, he merely picked up the phone and rang ex-Drifter Johnny Moore saying “We need a lead singer – wanna job?”
I know what toffee means about the sleazy jazz club feel of Sondre Lerch. Nice. My problem with Prefab Sprout was their name – I hate, loathe and detest sprouts! Vegetables of the devil!
Tinny’s Chocolate Drops was nice, although at times it reminded me of those Spanish restaurants where the waiters all crowd around your table and sing at you.
I’m afraid Laptop and The Yara family didn’t really float my boat – sorry about that.
Aba: Thanks for the comment, I don’t have the Clifford Brown album but I’ll definitely look for it.
Just lost a long post through accidentally touching BACK SPACE.
I did look for it, at Spotty and found 3!
They showed up under a search for
‘Sarah Vaughn+Clifford Brown’. Unfortunately there aren’t 3 there, they’re all variations of the same album, reissued under different names, and that’s not the worst of it, half the cuts, posted as Sarah , featuring CB or Sarah +CB sextet are actually the album that I posted from that features Cannonball not Clifford! There are enough cuts to comprise an album and there is a trumpeter featured but they’re all very slow and moody ballads, my taste still goes with the Ernie Wilkins orch! To each his own; of course Sarah is divine, or if you prefer devine whatever she sings.
Yes, that’s very odd; I’ve just checked Spotify as well, and it’s the album that comes up as ‘Sarah Vaughan featuring Clifford Brown’ (2010) – but only the first 9 tracks are from that album! They do include a fair number of fast or medium ones, though – Lullaby of Birdland, You’re Not The Kind, He’s My Guy, Crazy. Not sure why they’ve left the second version of Lullaby off either. My version is much better…
I’m worn out so here’s the minimalist version . . .
1. Loved it.
2. Crossed with Blind Wille Johnson. Fabulous.
3. Great contralto.
4. Sorta Cajun and French Canadian. Truly fab.
5. What year? Sounds very 60s. Brilliant!
6. Wasn’t sure this was my kinda thing until two minutes in. From then in it gripped me. Really liked it.
My lost post was far more detailed so forgive me if I seem brusque. Thanks everyone.
Glad you liked Yara Family. Not sure of exact year, the album says Okinawan pop from 60s-70s.
I’d guess tail end of 60s early 70s.
Wow, what a lot of interesting comments! Yeah, I went for eclectic this week. Glad the list has at least provoked a bit of debate. Keep sending your submissions – they are what this is all about and what make the feature work. Thank you everyone.
Faves for me this were the Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Laptops, just loved them both. Liked Blind Willie, and the Yara family (but due to the vocals, maybe couldn’t listen to it more than once). Slowly coming around to some jazz thanks to RR. Don’t know the Prefab Sprouts original, but Nightingales had a kind of nice Girl From Ipanema type vibe for me. The Sarah Vaughan I liked ok, but had a bit too much of a Mom and Dad file feel for my own taste.
Thanks much, everyone and the Makis!
Really late to the party this week; apologies for that. To the best of my knowledge, I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of these, which normally would have me diving straight in.
But for some reason – i.e. unlike my normal earworm habit – my tardiness part-caused me to read the comments BEFORE contributing, and I’m glad I did.
(a) Saves me from also rabbiting on about “eclectic”, which was also my first thought; and
(b) Chris has encapsulated my thoughts perfectly on all six songs! (Though I couldn’t tell a Blind Willie bum note from a hole in the wall, and I’ve never heard of Synedoche, New York.)
Laptop the surprising hit on me, and (to be blunt) the only one I’m likely to seek out more of.
Well, if I’ve saved everyone from having to read the same drivel twice, maybe my life is not wholly without purpose (despite the underlying message of Synecdoche, NY).
Did you really put Willie, bum and hole in the same sentence?!
I did indeed, but then you’ve lost me my virtual quid at the ‘Spill Bookie’s for who’d be the first to respond to it!
