Sunday, November 29, 2009

Billy Strayhorn is not on facebook, or myspace, okay?


Show Description for Sunday 11/29/2009
This week on the four o'clock hour my guest will be Hal Niedzviecki, author of The Peep Diaries: How We're Learning to Love Watching Ourselves and Our Neighbors (City Lights, 2009).

Also this afternoon, we will be celebrating the work of the composer and pianist Billy Strayhorn, longtime member of the Duke Ellington Orchestra, and one of the most highly original contributors to 20th century music. Strayhorn, composer of such classics as Take the A Train, Lush Life, Passion Flower and Day Dream, was born November 29, 1915. We will listen in on a number of different interpretations of his works, including those by Sarah Vaughn and Ella Fitzgerald.


Track Artist Song Album Label


Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn Tonk The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946) RCA - France


Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn Drawing Room Blues The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946) RCA - France


Duke Ellington Orchestra Smada Monologue CBS - France


Duke Ellington Orchestra Rock Skippin' at the Blue Note Monologue CBS - France


Duke Ellington Orchestra Brown Betty Monologue CBS - France


Duke Ellington Orchestra Snibor Primpin' for the Prom CBS-France

-----------------------------air break-----------------------------

Ella Fitzgerald Something to Live For Ella at Duke's Place Verve


Ella Fitzgerald A Flower is a Lovesome Thing Ella at Duke's Place Verve


Ella Fitzgerald Passion Flower Ella at Duke's Place Verve


Johnny Hodges Orchestra Passion Flower The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946) RCA - France

-----------------------------air break-----------------------------

Duke Ellington & Billy Strayhorn Johnny Come Lately Great Times! Original Jazz Classics


Duke Ellington Orchestra Johnny Come Lately Johnny Come Lately RCA


Tommy Flanagan Chelsea Bridge Overseas Original Jazz Classics


Sarah Vaughn Chelsea Bridge Duke Ellington Song Book 2 Pablo

-----------------------------air break-----------------------------

Barney Bigard Orchestra Noir Bleu The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946) RCA - France


Interview with Hal Niedzviecki By Justin Desmangles





Barney Bigard Orchestra Theme for a Javanette The Indispensable Duke Ellington and the Small Groups Vol. 9/10 (1940-1946) RCA - France


Duke Ellington Orchestra It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) Johnny Come Lately RCA

Saturday, November 28, 2009

Heathens By Amiri Baraka


HEATHENS

(Freedom Jazz Dance or Dr. Jackle)

1 They Ugly
on purpose!

2 They get high
off Air Raids!

3 They are the oldest
continuously functioning
Serial Killers!

4 They murder
to Explain
Themselves!

5 They think
Humans
are food.

6 They imitate
conversation
by lying

7 They are always naked
and always dirty
the shower & tuxedo
don't help

8 They go to the bathroom
to have a religious
experience

9 They believe everything is better
Dead. And that everything alive
is their enemy.

10 Plus Heathens is armed
and dangerous.

Heathens in Evolution

When their brains got
large enough
They created
Hell!

Heathen Bliss

To be Alive
& Ignorant

Devil Worship

is Heathen
Self Respect

Civil Rights Bill # 666

The Negro Heathen Enablement Act.

"Essentially, it allows more Negroes to become
Heathens."

Heathen Technology & Media

Seek to modernize
cannibalism

& make it
acceptable to

the food.

"Christ Was Never in Europe!"

(Kwame Toure)

AT LYNCHINGS
HEATHENS WEAR
WHITE TIE
IN FORMAL
HOOD & ROBE

IN THIS FRENZIED
RITUAL
THEY RECONFIRM
THE SUPERIORITY
OF THEIR CULTURE!

Heathens Think Fascism is Civilization

AND THAT THEY ARE SUPERIOR
TO HUMANS & THAT
HUMANITY IS METAPHYSICAL

To under stand that ...

can you? I mean really
really dig what that means ... It's like monsters roaming
the earth ... who sting to live, who know no better. Who, like
wild animals, might sing, or make a sound some way, that
might pretend, imitate, a human cry, the sweet rationality of
love.

That is the art of it, that it exists and carries with it, so many
complexities, even that craziness, but then aesthetics is con

nected to the real. The deadliness of that

ugliness, or uncomprehended smoothness. The technology of
predatory creatures who feed on flesh, who shit on the tender
aspirations of human evolution, because they have no concept
tion of humanity. Except as that natural yelp, which they can
see as somehow, a reflex of what that might be. It took that
kind of vision for them to understand the use of religion in the
changing world. To cloak themselves in the modest trappings
of early Christianity, having murdered its prophet for power and
profit. ##

Friday, November 27, 2009

When Malindy Sings By Paul Laurence Dunbar



G'WAY an' quit dat noise, Miss Lucy --
Put dat music book away;
What's de use to keep on tryin'?
Ef you practise twell you're gray,
You cain't sta't no notes a-flyin'
Lak de ones dat rants and rings
F'om de kitchen to be big woods
When Malindy sings.

You ain't got de nachel o'gans
Fu' to make de soun' come right,
You ain't got de tu'ns an' twistin's
Fu' to make it sweet an' light.
Tell you one thing now, Miss Lucy,
An' I'm tellin' you fu' true,
When hit comes to raal right singin',
'T ain't no easy thing to do.

Easy 'nough fu' folks to hollah,
Lookin' at de lines an' dots,
When dey ain't no one kin sence it,
An' de chune comes in, in spots;
But fu' real melojous music,
Dat jes' strikes yo' hea't and clings,
Jes' you stan' an' listen wif me
When Malindy sings.

Ain't you nevah hyeahd Malindy?
Blessed soul, tek up de cross!
Look hyeah, ain't you jokin', honey?
Well, you don't know whut you los'.
Y' ought to hyeah dat gal a-wa'blin',
Robins, la'ks, an' all dem things,
Heish dey moufs an' hides dey faces
When Malindy sings.

Fiddlin' man jes' stop his fiddlin',
Lay his fiddle on de she'f;
Mockin'-bird quit tryin' to whistle,
'Cause he jes' so shamed hisse'f.
Folks a-playin' on de banjo
Draps dey fingahs on de strings--
Bless yo' soul--fu'gits to move em,
When Malindy sings.

She jes' spreads huh mouf and hollahs,
"Come to Jesus," twell you hyeah
Sinnahs' tremblin' steps and voices,
Timid-lak a-drawin' neah;
Den she tu'ns to "Rock of Ages,"
Simply to de cross she clings,
An' you fin' yo' teahs a-drappin'
When Malindy sings.

Who dat says dat humble praises
Wif de Master nevah counts?
Heish yo' mouf, I hyeah dat music,
Ez hit rises up an' mounts--
Floatin' by de hills an' valleys,
Way above dis buryin' sod,
Ez hit makes its way in glory
To de very gates of God!

Oh, hit's sweetah dan de music
Of an edicated band;
An' hit's dearah dan de battle's
Song o' triumph in de lan'.
It seems holier dan evenin'
When de solemn chu'ch bell rings,
Ez I sit an' ca'mly listen
While Malindy sings.

Towsah, stop dat ba'kin', hyeah me!
Mandy, mek dat chile keep still;
Don't you hyeah de echoes callin'
F'om de valley to de hill?
Let me listen, I can hyeah it,
Th'oo de bresh of angels' wings,
Sof' an' sweet, "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,"
Ez Malindy sings.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Amiri Baraka reads Black Art

Amiri Baraka reads his poem Black Art with Sonny Murray on drums, Albert Ayler on tenor saxophone, Don Cherry on trumpet, Henry Grimes on bass, Louis Worrell on bass, for the album Sonny's Time Now. The first album lead by Sonny Murray, Sonny's Time Now was released on Baraka's Jihad records in 1967 (it's liner notes are republished in Black Music, now back in print). Decades later it was reissued by DIW in Japan in a limited edition. Black Art remains one of Baraka's most controversial poems, even at this late date. Composed and recorded with the fires of Black Nationalism fanned to a high flame, it remains innovative on a number of levels, technical and social. The demand that poems ought wrestle cops into alleys, fly planes, shoot guns, remake the world, are bullshit unless they are lemons piled on a step, &c. are but a few examples. The work also provides a snap shot of some of Baraka's thinking prior to his movement away from Black Nationalism and into Third World Marxism, or M-L-M. In terms of jazz poetry, or poetry and jazz combos on record, this would have to rank among the highest historical examples.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Behind the Scenes at CNN: White in America By Ishmael Reed


Behind the Scenes at CNN

White in America

By ISHMAEL REED

“My overall grade for this documentary is incomplete and unsatisfactory. In fact, most of the recent endeavors by major networks on the subject of Latinos in America have failed. ‘Latino in America’ is incomplete because it ignores major Latino socio-demographic dynamics. It's unsatisfactory because it perpetuates a negative stereotypical depiction of Latinos in the U.S. While our (Latino) community is indeed troubled by many of the challenges Ms. O'Brien explores, it is unacceptable to paint that as the exclusive image of Latinos. Frankly, I expected better from Ms. O'Brien.”

--Victor Paredes, Advertising Age 10/27/09

“CNN reporter Soledad O’Brien should have her sisterhood card revoked immediately and never returned! She has damaged, betrayed, and disrespected the entire black female community with her negative, short-sighted, half-assed, stereotypical, and repetitive ‘investigative reporting’ on black women in America.

“Her program Black in America: The Black Woman And The Family was a complete and total fraud! This program did not address the lives and experiences of black women in America at all! It was two hours of the same negative racist and sexist stereotypes that the majority of white America believes about black people, particularly black women.

-- Professor Tracey, Aunt Jemima’s Revenge

Act 1, Scene I

Office of Jon Klein, president of CNN. He is a middle-aged white man whose attire is 50s. Dark blue business suit, striped tie. His hair is grey and white and he wears black-rimmed glasses.

KLEIN: Yessir, I understand that the shareholders are putting pressure on you and you’re merely the bearer of bad news, but we have tried to improve our ratings.

(So loud and belligerent is the voice on the other end after his reply that KLEIN removes the phone a little distance from his ear and makes a painful expression.)

KLEIN: Won’t you give us some more time? (Pause) But sir, with all due respect, I would like to avoid more staff lay offs. Come up with some cost cutting measures? Yessir. Tell all of my friends at Time-Warner.…Hell….He hung up.

(Outside, chants are heard: “Fire Lou Dobbs, Fire Lou Dobbs.” Goes over and shuts the window.)

KLEIN: How am I going to keep Lou from going to that three-ring circus at Fox? Wish we had their ratings though. (Returns to seat behind his desk. Lays his head on the desk.) If I don’t come through, I’ll end up doing weather in Boise.

(SOLEDAD O’BRIEN, CNN’s two-fer, three-fer and four-fer peeks in. Cheeky, a smile that nearly reaches her ears. Egg shaped face. Dark shoulder length hair.)

SOLEDAD: Jon, may I have a word?

(JON looks up.)

KLEIN: Sure Soledad, how may I help you?

(SHE enters the room.)

SOLEDAD: The memo, Jon. Requesting that CNN women wear more mascara like those over at Fox and MSNBC. Jon. Those Fox women look like Raccoons! Jon. Jon, are you listening to me? What’s wrong with you?

(KLEIN shoves the “Business Day” section of The New York Times 10/27/09 toward SOLEDAD. Right column reads, “CNN Last in TV News On Cable.” A hand goes to her mouth.)

SOLEDAD: This is terrible. What are we going to do?

KLEIN: How about doing a “Black In America, 3” narrated by Michael Vick or Chris Brown or maybe we can get O.J. out on bail? Or what about Gabourey Sidibe, the star of “Precious,” you know, the 350 pound black girl who plays a illiterate Harlem black girl who is impregnated by her father? Why she’s trampling from magazine cover to magazine cover and showing up at awards ceremonies like a baby elephant. She was even honored at the Mill Valley Film Festival. The only black person within five miles of the site.

SOLEDAD: (Thinking to herself) What is it with some of these white men and their fetish for overweight black women? Have to ask Paul Mooney next time I see him.

(Aloud to KLEIN) Er-- good idea Jon but I think that we can get a bigger share of the market if we did “White In America.” We’ve already done two “Black In America” shows where we traced the problems of blacks to their making excuses instead of institutional and structural racism and we did “Latino In America” in which we concentrated on mostly illegal immigration, desperation, poverty and crime, grafting ideas from “Cops” and “48 Hours”, which you used to produce, now maybe “White In America.” (Paces up and down the room.) The increase in the incarceration of white women, showing that Martha Stewart, Lindsay, Paris and The Barbie Bandits are not alone, the fact that California white women do more drugs than black and Latino teenagers, heroin overdoses and emergency room admissions on Long Island and the suburbs of Dallas, the thousands of rural white families destroyed by meth--not only poor people but upper class whites like Andre Agassi, hate crimes against black, gays and Hispanics committed by white male teenagers, Sam Roberts’ report that while two parent households are on the rise among blacks, those among whites are on the decline, the rash of kidnapping and murders by white male pedophiles, the cover-up of child abuse cases committed by male members of the orthodox community, reported by The New York Times--

KLEIN: OK. OK. I get the picture. Let me think about it.

(SOLEDAD exits. KLEIN dials.)

KLEIN: Yessir, about our conversation earlier. I think that I have a cost-cutting idea. Fire Soledad O’Brien.

Ishmael Reed's “Barack Obama And The Nigger Breakers,” a book of essays, some of which have appeared in CounterPunch, will be published in the Spring by Baraka Books, a publisher located in Montreal.”Ishmael Reed, The Plays” was recently published by Dalkey Archives.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

A.B. Spellman and the tradition of damn sure telling it like it is


New Day Jazz


Justin Desmangles

Jazz music for lovers and the lonely

Genre
Jazz

Miss the Show?
MP3 Stream (128kbps, broadband)

MP3 Stream (32kbps, dial-up)



[View Past Shows]

[View Upcoming Shows]







Track Artist Song Album Label


Ray Charles Let The Good Times Roll The Genius of Ray Charles Atlantic


Ray Charles & Betty Carter It Takes Two to Tango Ray Charles & Betty Carter ABC - Paramount


Lorez Alexandria The Wildest Gal in Town Alexandria the Great Impulse


Esther Philips I'm Getting Along Alright Confessin' the Blues Atlantic


Esther Philips I Wonder Confessin' the Blues Atlantic


Jesse Faucet (read by Ellen Holly) La Vie C'est La Vie A Hand is on the Gate Verve - Folkways


Binga Dismond (read by James Earl Jones) At Early Morn A Hand is on the Gate Verve - Folkways


Ray Charles Tell Me You'll Wait For Me The Genius of Ray Charles Atlantic

-----------------------------air break-----------------------------

Dewey Redman Boody The Ear of the Behearer Impulse


Oscar Brown, Jr. 40 Acres and a Mule Oscar Brown, Jr. Goes to Washington Fontana

-----------------------------air break-----------------------------

Ray Charles & Betty Carter Baby, It's Cold Outside Ray Charles & Betty Carter ABC - Paramount


Bill Evans Star Eyes A Simple Matter of Conviction Verve


Modern Jazz Quartet Monterey Mist Blues at Carnegie Hall Atlantic

-----------------------------air break-----------------------------

Esther Philips I Love Paris Confessin' the Blues Atlantic


Duke Ellington It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing) Johnny Come Lately RCA


Interview with A.B. Spellman By Justin Desmangles





Duke Ellington I Ain't Got Nothing But the Blues Johnny Come Lately RCA


Duke Ellington Chocolate Shake Jumpin' Punkins RCA


Duke Ellington Clementine Jumpin' Punkins RCA