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5 More Reasons To Go To The Santa Cruz Blues Festival, May 26th and 27th, Memorial Day Weekend

admin — Wed, 22 May 2013 00:35:34 +0000

By Eric Berg The lineup at this year's Santa Cruz Blues Festival is one of the strongest in years thanks to a well balanced array of killer supporting acts - the real reason to get your butt down to Aptos Park this Memorial Day Weekend. Like these five: Carolyn Wonderland - Saturday, May 25th Opening Saturday's blues fest is Austin guitarist and singer, Carolyn Wonderland, a true virtuoso on lap steel and slide guitar. No stranger to the Central Coast, Wonderland has been driving around this country with her band for a couple of decades performing some amazing gigs on what seems like a endless tour. With six solo cds to her credit and countless appearances on other albums, Wonderland is not to be pigeonholed. Musically, she is a little bit of everything - blues, country, cajun, soul, a little jazz and sometimes a few canciones en español. Wonderland also plays accordion, mandolin, keyboards, trumpet and lately, she's been doing a bit of scat singing. Jimmie Vaughn and the Tilt-a Whirl Band featuring Lou Ann Barton - Saturday, May 25th Another Austin guitarslinger, Jimmie Vaughn ( yes, he is Stevie Ray's older brother) is not to be missed as he is the real deal live when freed from the confines of studio recording. Sharing the stage is Vaughn's longtime singing partner, Lou Anne Barton, from back in the day when both were founding members of The Fabulous Thunderbirds. The two of the are a blues vocal match made in heaven, with Barton being the more aggressive, backed by Vaughn's lyrical guitar playing and the tight knit rhythm section of the Tilt-a-Whirl Band. Vaughn is also a legend in car circles as a collector and designer of classic custom built 50's cars. Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings - Sunday, May 26th Watch out for this pint sized stick of soul and R&B dynamite! Sharon Jones used to be a prison guard and takes no guff from those from those in the crowd still sitting on their butts once she jumps out on stage fired up by horn section of the tighter than hell Dap-Kings. Jones and crew will get you up and jumping and begging for more. Be forewarned: Jones has been regularly observed singling out an audience member or two, inviting the them up on the stage for a dance lesson in soul grindin', peppered with some of her expert "love" advice. Don't say no to Miss Jones. The James Hunter Six - Sunday, May 26th "Blue Eyed Soul" may not be the best description of British singer and guitarist James Hunter, even if his voice does hint of Jackie Wilson. Hunter is far from retro. His songwriting has very unique modern R&B feel to it punctuated by short, tasty bursts of his guitar stretched out by the band's knockout saxophone and keyboard players. Hot on the heels of his best album to date - 'Minute By Minute", Hunter and his longtime band have been working with Dap-King Records producer Bosco Mann who has tightened the group up considerably and added more focus. At one time, singer Van Morrison supposedly said that Hunter has one of the greatest soul voices "that no one's ever heard of". One of these days, everyone will have, but right now Hunter's smokin' hot and so is his band. The California Honey Drops - Sunday, May 26th Oakland's CA Honey Drops is another one of those bands that are much better live than their three studio recordings hint and they are the perfect jump start for Sunday's show. Voted the Bay Area's "Best Soul/R&B band", this five piece band led by front man, and trumpeter, Lech Wierzynski (yes - he was born in Poland) mixes it up with their own blend of old and new R&B, New Orleans Jazz, blues, gospel and some of their own brassy material marked with a sense of humor and Wierzynski's clever lyrics. The Drops just released a brand new studio album "Like You Mean It" and performed some of the songs live at Streetlight Records in Santa Cruz this past Record Store Day, April 21st. The 21st Annual Santa Cruz Blues Festival - Saturday May 25th & Sunday May 26th - 11 am-7 pm - Aptos Park in Aptos Village For complete Blues Festival info - http://www.santacruzbluesfestival.com

David Bowie Returns With Stunning New Album – “The Next Day”

admin — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 17:44:48 +0000

Cover art for David Bowie's 'The Next Day' It’s been a good ten years since David Bowie purposely removed himself from the public eye and disappeared back into the real world and went incognito. At age 66 the singer has surprised us all by roaring back to life out of nowhere with a superb new album “The Next Day”, the title song of which Bowie acknowledges his past but he’s telling you, despite the priest's last rites, he’s very much alive rocking in the present with an eye on the future: "...Here I am/Not quite dying/My body left to rot in a hollow tree/Its branches throwing shadows/On the gallows for me/And the next day/And the next/And another day". In 2004, Bowie suffered a massive heart attack and underwent major surgery followed by a lengthy recovery and self imposed vanishing act. Like a lot of musicians and artists now experiencing their senior years, Bowie has also gone down the road of introspection on “The Next Day” with many lyrical references to his past recordings, morality and what lies ahead. The jacket art, which Bowie had a hand in, pretty much spells it out with the album title on Post-It that's stuck smack in the middle of a crossed out “Heroes” cover from 30 years ago. He’s no longer the young leather jacketed Bowie tipping his hand but a very present 66 yr Bowie who's staring straight at you on the inside of the gate fold cover. There's also a black mirror so you can look at yourself. Joined by his longtime producer and musician cohort, Tony Visconti and a cast of top notch musicians including guitarist, Earl Slick, Bowie has crafted some of the finest songs of his 25 album career. All 14 tracks on “The Next Day” can proudly stand on their own, but it will take multiple listenings to appreciate and comprehend what’s going on here. Bowie’s writing has never been sharper. There are the expected couple of Bowie ballads, plenty of honking sax and soaring and crunching guitars that won't disappoint. That Bowie could disappear for ten years and then pop up out of nowhere with this master stroke of an album, is simply remarkable. “The Next Day” may hark back to elements of mid-career Bowie albums “Heroes”, “Lodger”, “Heathen” and “Reality”, it’s very much in the present and leaves a lasting, powerfully forward moving impression. - Eric Berg http://youtu.be/QWtsV50_-p4

Yo-Yo Ma Plays Bach’s ‘Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor’

morgan — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 20:02:40 +0000

Musician Yo-Yo Ma performs during "Healing Our City: An Interfaith Service" dedicated to those who were gravely wounded or killed in the Boston Marathon bombing. Photo: Courtesy of Jewel Samad /AFP/Getty Images by EYDER PERALTA It was an emotional tribute in which the President Obama vowed that Boston would finish the race. The service was punctuated by a performance from Yo-Yo Ma, who chose the sarabande Bach's Cello Suite No. 5 in C Minor. It was haunting and beautiful, a piece that Ma also played following Sept. 11. Yo-Yo Ma lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, across the river from Boston. He told All Things Considered that he thinks of this piece as "a struggle for hope." "The falling motion of most of the notes is contradicted by periodic rising notes. In the last bar of the piece," he said in an email, "all but one of the notes rise and I think that represents the strength of the human spirit and, today, the spirit of Boston." For article & comments visit NPR.org

Will we ever… understand why music makes us feel good?

morgan — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 19:52:57 +0000

Photo: Courtesy of Thinkstock By Philip Ball No one knows why music has such a potent effect on our emotions. But thanks to some recent studies we have a few intriguing clues. Why do we like music? Like most good questions, this one works on many levels. We have answers on some levels, but not all. We like music because it makes us feel good. Why does it make us feel good? In 2001, neuroscientists Anne Blood and Robert Zatorre at McGill University in Montreal provided an answer. Using magnetic resonance imaging they showed that people listening to pleasurable music had activated brain regions called the limbic and paralimbic areas, which are connected to euphoric reward responses, like those we experience from sex, good food and addictive drugs. Those rewards come from a gush of a neurotransmitter called dopamine. As DJ Lee Haslam told us, music is the drug. But why? It’s easy enough to understand why sex and food are rewarded with a dopamine rush: this makes us want more, and so contributes to our survival and propagation. (Some drugs subvert that survival instinct by stimulating dopamine release on false pretences.) But why would a sequence of sounds with no obvious survival value do the same thing? The truth is no one knows. However, we now have many clues to why music provokes intense emotions. The current favourite theory among scientists who study the cognition of music – how we process it mentally – dates back to 1956, when the philosopher and composer Leonard Meyer suggested that emotion in music is all about what we expect, and whether or not we get it. Meyer drew on earlier psychological theories of emotion, which proposed that it arises when we’re unable to satisfy some desire. That, as you might imagine, creates frustration or anger – but if we then find what we’re looking for, be it love or a cigarette, the payoff is all the sweeter. This, Meyer argued, is what music does too. It sets up sonic patterns and regularities that tempt us to make unconscious predictions about what’s coming next. If we’re right, the brain gives itself a little reward – as we’d now see it, a surge of dopamine. The constant dance between expectation and outcome thus enlivens the brain with a pleasurable play of emotions. Why should we care, though, whether our musical expectations are right or not? It’s not as if our life depended on them. Ah, says musicologistDavid Huron of Ohio State University, but perhaps once it did. Making predictions about our environment – interpreting what we see and hear, say, on the basis of only partial information – could once have been essential to our survival, and indeed still often is, for example when crossing the road. And involving the emotions in these anticipations could have been a smart idea. On the African savannah, our ancestors did not have the luxury of mulling over whether that screech was made by a harmless monkey or a predatory lion. By bypassing the “logical brain” and taking a shortcut to the primitive limbic circuits that control our emotions, the mental processing of sound could prompt a rush of adrenalin – a gut reaction – that prepares us to get out of there anyway. We all know that music has this direct line to the emotions: who hasn’t been embarrassed by the tears that well up as the strings swell in a sentimental film, even while the logical brain protests that this is just cynical manipulation? We can’t turn off this anticipatory instinct, nor its link to the emotions – even when we know that there’s nothing life-threatening in a Mozart sonata. “Nature’s tendency to overreact provides a golden opportunity for musicians”, says Huron. “Composers can fashion passages that manage to provoke remarkably strong emotions using the most innocuous stimuli imaginable.” Sound check The idea that musical emotion arises from little violations and manipulations of our expectations seems the most promising candidate theory, but it is very hard to test. One reason for this is that music simply offers so much opportunity for creating and violating expectations that it’s not clear what we should measure and compare. We expect rising melodies to continue to rise – but perhaps not indefinitely, as they never do. We expect pleasing harmonies rather than jarring dissonance – but what sounds pleasing today may have seemed dissonant two hundred years ago. We expect rhythms to be regular, but are surprised if the jumpy syncopation of rock’n’roll suddenly switches to four-square oompah time. Expectation is a complicated, ever-changing interplay of how the piece we’re hearing has gone so far, how it compares with similar pieces and styles, and how it compares with all we’ve ever heard. So, one corollary of Meyer’s theory is that emotion in music will be primarily culturally specific. In order to have any expectations about where the music will go in the first place, you need to know the rules – to appreciate what is normal. This varies from one culture to another. Western Europeans think simple rhythms like waltz time are “natural”, but Eastern Europeans dance happily to metres that sound extraordinarily complicated to others. All of us develop a strong, subconscious sense of which notes sound “right”, whether in sequence in a melody, or sounding together in harmonies. But because different cultures use different scales and tunings – the scales of India and Indonesia, for example, don’t respect the tunings of a piano – there is nothing universal about these expectations. A jolly piece of Indonesian music may be interpreted as “sad” by Westerners simply because it sounds close to being in the traditionally “sad” minor scale. This picture also implies that music isn’t just about good vibrations – it can provoke other feelings too, such as anxiety, boredom and even anger. Composers and performers walk a delicate tightrope, needing to tweak expectations to just the right degree. Not enough, and the music is dully predictable, as nursery tunes seem to adults. Too much, and we can’t develop any expectations at all – which is why many people struggle with modernist atonal music. All this can rationalise a great deal about why we feel emotions from particular musical phrases and performances. Meyer’s ideas have received further support very recently from a brain-scanning study by Zatorre and colleagues, which showed that the rewards stimulated by music heard for the first time are particularly dependent on communication between “emotion” and “logic” circuits in the brain. But it’s not the whole story. Our emotional response to music may be conditioned by so many other factors too – if we are hearing it alone or in a crowd, for example, or if we associate a particular piece with a past experience, good or bad (dubbed the “Darling they’re playing our tune” theory). Underneath all these ideas is the fact that we’re not even sure what kind of emotion we’re talking about. We can recognise sad music without feeling sad. And even if we do feel sad, it’s not like the sadness of bereavement – it can be enjoyable even if it provokes tears. Some music, like some of Bach’s, can create intense emotion even though we can’t quite put into words what the emotion is. So we’ll surely never understand why music stimulates emotions at least until we have a better picture of what our emotional world is really like. If you would like to comment on this article or anything else you have seen on Future, head over to our Facebook page or message us onTwitter.

Celebrating Record Store Day! – A Photo Gallery

admin — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 23:10:04 +0000

Saturday April 20th is Record Store Day- a reason to celebrate the joys of listening to music, so go visit and support your local independent record shop for a day of live entertainment, free music goodies and limited edition collector's vinyl lps and exclusive 45's released just for Record Store Day only. As far as I know there are only four record shops left in the Monterey Bay Area - Recycled Records and Vinyl Revolution in Monterey and Streetlight Records and Meta Vinyl in Santa Cruz. To find out what's going on this Saturday at your local shop wherever you live, go to http://www.recordstoreday.com/Home In honor of Record Store Day, I have posted a few of my record store road trip photos taken over the years across the USA. Unfortunately, I can't find my collection of European and Austin, Texas record shop photos. But what the heck, if you've seen documentary "Searching for Sugarman", you already know that record stores, once you go inside, look pretty much the same in most western countries.

Santa Cruz, California

One of my favorite stores ever, the little record store that could - and did - Cymbaline, once located at Cedar and Union St.in Santa Cruz where Cafe Bene is located today. That's the King of Zydeco, Clifton Chenier and his brother Cleveland standing out front circa 1977/78.

Nashville, Tennessee

Tubb's Record Shop on Music Row in downtown Nashville.

Inside Ernest Tubb's Record Shop. That's Tubb playing guitar.

Third Man Records, home to Jack White, the Greenhornes and many others.

You have to ring a buzzer to get inside Third Man.

Grimey's Records is one of Nashville's most famous. A great place for hard to find new and used vinyl.

Lawrenceburg, Tennessee

You seldom see stores like this anymore. Not only do the Weathers Bros sell vintage instruments, offer music lessons, there's a small section of cds and records hidden in the back of the store.

Memphis, Tennessee

Ecko Record's retail store. They also produce old school gospel records under their own label. Good place to find obscure disco records.

Inside Ecko Records. Note the bulletproof glass at the cashier's window.

Holly Springs, Mississippi

Akei Pro's Record Shop is a classic wreck. You can buy a used bike, Volvo parts and old soda machines but inside is a treasure trove of old lps and 45s - provided you can find them. It's a wall to wall don't miss mess.

All photos by Eric Berg

In loving memory of Rather Ripped Records, Berkeley, CA

Your Picks For The Best Headphones

admin — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 21:56:59 +0000

By ROBIN HILTON | NPR

We got a lot of great suggestions when we asked readers to tell us their picks for the perfect pair of headphones last week. We also learned a lot. For example, you all know way more about this than I do.

Another thing I learned is that the kind of perfect headphones I'm looking for probably don't exist. I want ones that solve everything: ones I can wear at my desk or at the gym; that sound great, are wireless, super comfortable, with a built-in mic and controls to use on my phone. It seems every suggestion we got required some sort of sacrifice: comfort for sound, sound for functionality, etc. That said, here are five of the ones most mentioned or "liked."

Your Picks For The Best Headphones:

Audio Technica ATHM50s

The Audio Technica ATHM50s were the most often endorsed headphones in our comments. They run about $120 and are sold as "professional studio monitor" headphones for mixing. They're full-sized, over-the-ear cans with a coiled cord. The ATHM50s aren't totally flat-response headphones, which a lot of engineers prefer for mixing, so I'm not sure how good they'd be in an actual studio. One reader also notes that you'll look like an air traffic controller if you wear them around town, so they're not really designed for working out or talking on your phone. But most of the people who posted in the comments think the Audio Technicas have a superior sound.
Grado

These got the second most mentions and likes. The higher end models are probably more headphone than the casual listener needs or wants. (The Grado PS1000's run about $2,400 dollars.) But there are more moderately priced models, including the iGi's, which Grado calls its "knock-around headphones." People seem to think Grados have the best sound quality. But I saw a lot of complaints about poor comfort.
Koss Porta Pros

The Koss Porta Pros were tied with the Grados in the popularity contest. Most readers praised the Koss for supplying the best bang for your buck. They're only about $50 and, according to the comments, have a great bottom end and overall balanced sound, with no rustling in the cord. Multiple readers also said the Koss Porta Pros were super comfortable. They've got a switch above each ear piece that allows you to adjust the "comfort zone" so you can find just the right fit for you. They look a little clunky to me, but they do fold up and I'm encouraged by the reviews. I'll have to check these out.
Sony MDR7506

This is by no means an official endorsement of any kind, but you'll actually see quite a few of these pairs around the NPR offices. They're very popular with radio DJs, and our own NPR Music Technical Director and engineer Kevin Wait uses these to monitor everything he does, from recording Tiny Desk concerts to mixing audio and webcasting live concerts. I think of them as the workhorse headphones. They're very sturdy, last forever and have a very clear, full-range sound. They're another over-the-ear headphone and have particularly good isolation. But again, they're not the kind of thing you're going to go jogging in.
Etymotic

For in-ear headphones you can actually wear while working out, there were multiple models of Etymotics mentioned. The MC5s were praised for having good isolation and great fidelity, and for staying in place. They're also reasonably priced, starting around $50. The Etymotics seem pretty durable, too. One user said they'd been using theirs for eight years, which is about eight times longer than I've ever used any single pair. If you're picky about the way in-ear buds fit, the Etymotics offer custom fits along with multiple kinds of ear tips. For a bit more money you can get the Etymotic HF3s to use with your iPod. They've got a built-in mic and solid controls.

Keep the suggestions coming. I've discovered several pairs I want to try out based on your comments. Comments

The ‘Singing Sound’ Of Saxophonist Charles Lloyd

admin — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 22:52:10 +0000

Charles Lloyd, 75, continues to tour widely. Photo: Dorothy Darr/ECM Records By WALTER RAY WATSON Charles Lloyd has a way of talking that sounds a lot like the notes from his saxophone: full of youthful energy, yet packed with experiences reserved for grownups. "Look," Lloyd says. "I heard Billie. I heard Dinah, I heard Aretha, Marvin. I knew Sam Cooke — he used to come and get me and take me in his Ferrari up in the hills and stuff." Lloyd's namedropping comes from a lifetime in the company of celebrated artists. It all started when he was a kid in Memphis, where house guests included Duke Ellington, Lionel Hampton and Count Basie. "My mother had a large house, and there wasn't an adequate hotel, so these musicians, they would stay," Lloyd says. "I had so many questions, and they were all very kind to me. Watch: Sangam performs at the 2011 Newport Jazz Festival. Lloyd's early fascination with music took him to amateur shows on Beale Street. When he was 7, he won second place as a singer — but that victory, he says, was short lived. "I was walking down the street in my neighborhood, which was called Orange Mound in those days," he says. "A girl was approaching me, a little older than myself, and she looked at me and she said,' You didn't deserve to win that prize.' And she was right. I didn't have the voice for it." So he changed course and picked up the saxophone — first an alto and later a tenor. "That piece of plumbing became my voice," Lloyd says, "and so all these years I've been pursuing that singing sound because I still think of myself as a singer." Listen: 5 Songs By Charles Lloyd, Jazz's Spirit Warrior (A Blog Supreme) Lloyd's professional connections with singers go way back, too. He first became friends with The Beach Boys in the 1960s; they recorded and toured together. He includes one of their signature songs, "God Only Knows," on his latest album, Hagar's Song. "It's a Beach Boys song that I remember Carl Wilson used to sing with a very pure voice, and it touched me very deeply. And I sort of filed that away as something that I wanted to play one day." On the album, he plays it with pianist Jason Moran. "It's classic Lloyd," Moran says, laughing, "in that he really steps beautifully through the melody. And I really just follow him as he moves." Lloyd's last record featured the singer Maria Farantouri. "Maria, when I heard her sing, it moved me so much," Lloyd says. "There was Billie Holiday right before me when I heard Maria. They're not singing the same song, but the same heart informs you." Lloyd met the Greek singer a decade ago. In 2010, the two played a program of traditional Greek and Byzantine melodies with jazz improvisation. Farantouri says she felt comfortable singing with Lloyd, and together, they began to build a bridge connecting ancient forms with jazz. "I remember the musicians, they started to smile, dancing with the rhythms," Farantouri recalls. "And then I think, 'OK, we can walk over the bridge.'" Moran says part of Lloyd's affinity for singers is his understanding of lyrics. "Oftentimes when we're on the road," Moran says, "he is singing while we're waiting to board a plane. He is singing when we're checking into a hotel. At sound check, there are these very private videos of him singing into the microphone at the piano. The lyrics — he really takes them to heart when he plays those melodies. And I feel it every time he then decides to put the saxophone to his mouth." Lloyd's connection to the human voice has kept his music distinctive — that, and the 75-year-old musician's childlike sense of wonder. "This 9-year-old music lover is still in here, and it informs all I do," Lloyd says. Maybe a little bit of that 7-year-old singer is still in there, too. Comments

Beyond the Purple Haze: ‘People, Hell and Angels’ – New Sounds From Jimi Hendrix

admin — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 02:06:04 +0000

(People, Hell and Angels - the new posthumous album by Jimi Hendrix, culled from 12 unreleased tapes, was released March 5th, 2013. The above podcast is the short version of my review of this album that includes sample tracks. It aired Monday, March 11th. - EB@KUSP) Almost 42 yrs have passed since Jimi Hendrix left this earth, but he’s still releasing mind blowing albums. Fortunately for us, he was joined at the hip by a portable reel to reel tape recorder that he took everywhere 24/7 and made sure somebody was on hand to record every idea and guitar note he ever played in and out of the studio. Hendrix left behind over 500 hundred hours of unreleased tapes now stored in the Seattle family vaults. Hendrix’s latest album from these tapes is "People, Hell and Angels" shows completely some new sides to this legendary rock guitarist who never played a song the same way twice. Some of these are strudio jams and nearly finished tracks. Others just Hendrix and a few musicians experimenting with new ideas and getting to know each other. A few more familiar songs heard in their embryonic stage. The 12 song titles selected for this posthumous album were remixed by Hendrix longtime studio recording engineer and guitar effects genius, Eddie Kramer who painstaking stripped these tracks clean and brought them back to life making them sound if Hendrix had recorded them yesterday. The album’s excellent track by track liner notes are warmly written by Hendrix biographer and album co- producer John McDermott. SOUL SIDE The album’s real revelation here is the R&B track "Let Me Love You" from 1969 that showcases a side of Hendrix rarely heard and is joined by Lonnie Youngblood on sax and lead vocals. At the end of the song Hendrix throws down some gritty Albert King licks. The other is “Mojo Man” recorded in New York City when Hendrix was working on the "Dolly Dagger" sessions and used his friends the Allen Brothers as backup singers who were later known as the Ghetto Fighters. On this contemporary soul rocker, the lead vocals are by Albert Allen accompanied by a horn section and piano. DID YOU HEAR THAT?!! Thank god Hendrix never played anything the same way twice. That’s what makes these unreleased-until-now recordings so interesting and current because on every track Hendrix pulls an awesome guitar lick or head effect totally new that you’ve never heard before. I call it the “Wow…did you just hear that?” factor. Be it a an off the wall riff, a totally out of body solo never heard before, a new wha-wha effect, or a sharp 90 degree creative turn exploring fresh genres with inspired guitar talk on songs most folks never new existed. Just when you think there can’t possibly be any more Jimi Hendrix tapes left worth listening to and that the bottom of the Hendrix tape barrel has been scraped thoroughly clean, along comes "People, Hell and Angels" – disproves all that with its many moments of ear candy revelations. If ever there was a time to rediscover and explore a another side of Jimi Hendrix beyond the purple haze, this album is it - even if I still can't figure out what's with the title. –Eric Berg

Esperanza Spalding: Song For A ‘City Of Roses’

morgan — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:54:58 +0000

Watch the Live Performance here

Photo: courtesy of opbmusic by JOHN KIN Esperanza Spalding has often said that she hopes to use the fame from her 2011 Best New Artist Grammy to help give her friends and mentors in the jazz world the recognition they deserve. She got her chance earlier this month, when Spalding and her longtime teacher and mentor, trumpeter Thara Memory, accepted the Grammy for their arrangement of "City of Roses" from Spalding's 2012 albumRadio Music Society. Spalding started studying with Memory as an 8-year-old jazz prodigy, and credits his instruction with giving her a foundation in music. Memory went on to create the American Music Program, a magnet school which has been credited with training a new generation of jazz players — including Spalding and saxophonist Hailey Niswanger. "City of Roses" is a celebration of Spalding's hometown of Portland, Ore. For the recording, Spalding wanted to showcase the city's jazz scene and the power of mentorship. She and Memory decided to include students from his Pacific Crest Jazz Orchestra in the session, along with local professional musicians such as saxophonists Renato Caranto and trombonist Dan Brewster. The group reunited in August 2012 for a benefit concert for the school; there, they performed this version of "City of Roses" for a hometown audience. Click Here to listen at NPR

Robert Belfour: Live In Concert

morgan — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 20:33:18 +0000

Listen Here

Photo: Courtesy of Joe del Tufo for WXPN by JONNY MEISTER The 74-year-old Mississippi blues guitarist Robert Belfour possesses a deep, earthy tone which makes his live performances enthralling and compelling. Belfour has been playing since childhood in the Mississippi hill country around Red Banks (just south of Memphis, Tenn.), where he picked up his father's guitar and learned to play. When his father died, the burden of supporting the family fell largely on the 13-year-old. He went into construction work in Memphis, playing blues on the side when there was time. Belfour was discovered by "blues professor" Dr. David Evans, who included him on the anthology The Spirit Lives On — Deep South Country Blues and Spirituals in 1994 for a German label, Hit Fox Records. That's a hard CD to find these days, though Belfour's two records on the Fat Possum label remain in print. Belfour often plays chord-melody accompaniment — that is, he plays the melody lines along with harmonizing chords all at once. In this concert, recorded live at Philadelphia's World Cafe Live on Feb. 15, Belfour plays some of his originals, such as "Pushin' My Luck," as well as some hill-country favorites like "Old Black Mattie," plus the ever-popular "Catfish Blues" and a couple of John Lee Hooker songs, including "Boogie Chillen'." At 74, Belfour remains a passionate blues communicator, as this show amply demonstrates. The Mississippi Blues Project is supported by The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage through the Philadelphia Music Project.