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Today in Rock History – June 18

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1971, Fleetwood Mac appeared at Up The Junction in Crewe, England.

1974, Peter Hoorelbeke, drummer with Rare Earth, was arrested after a concert for throwing his drumsticks into the crowd.

1975, Elvis Presley had a face-lift at Mid South hospital, Memphis.

1976, Abba gave a special live performance in Stockholm for Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommerlath on the eve of their wedding.

1977, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers supported by The Boomtown Rats appeared at Friars, Aylesbury, England.

1977, Fleetwood Mac went to No.1 on the singles chart with “Dreams,” the group’s first and only No.1

1977, Johnny Rotten and Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols were stabbed and beaten when they were attacked in a parking lot outside a London pub.

1977, The Beatles Live At The Hollywood Bowl went to number one on the album chart The album featured recordings from  August 23rd 1964 and  August 30th 1965.

1980, The Blues Brothers, starring Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi as the deadpan R&B team, premieres in New York.

1993, A&M Records chairman Jerry Moss and vice-chairman Herb Alpert announced they were leaving the company they founded more than 30 years earlier. They had sold A&M in 1990 to Polygram for $500 (£312.5) million. Moss and Alpert started the label in the garage of Alpert’s Los Angeles home in 1962. The label was the home to such acts as The Police, Bryan Adams, Joan Baez, Flying Burrito Brothers, The Carpenters, Joe Cocker, Supertramp and Herb Alpert’s own Tijuana Brass.

2002, U2 lost a bid to prevent the demolition of Hanover Quay studio in Dublin. More than 8,000 fans signed an online petition to preserve the studio, where the group recorded “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” and some of their Pop album.

2003, Pop Idol creator Simon Fuller became the first British music manager since The Beatles’ Brian Epstein to hold the top three positions in the US singles chart. Fuller, who steered the Spice Girls and S Club 7 to success, was in charge of bestselling artists Clay Aiken and Ruben Studdard, together with the American Idol 2 Final 10. During 2003 Fuller sold more than ten million records around the world and has had 96 number one singles and 79 top-placed albums in both the US and UK during his career.

2007, American singer and record producer Hank Medress died of lung cancer at 68. He was the vocalist on The Tokens 1961 US No.1 hit “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” Medress was also in the vocal quartet The Linc-Tones with Neil Sedaka and produced the hit single “He’s So Fine”‘ by The Chiffons, as well as Tony Orlando’s “Knock Three Times.”

Born on June 18: Paul McCartney (1942); Carl Radle, bass, Derek and the Dominoes (1942);  Lincoln Thompson, Jamaican singer-songwriter, The Tartans (1949); Alison Moyet, Yazoo (1961); Oz Fox, American singer-songwriter, guitarist, producer, Stryper, SinDizzy,  Bloodgood (1961); Dizzy Reed, American keyboard player, songwriter, actor, Guns N’ Roses and Johnny Crash (1963); Nathan Morris, American singer, Boyz II Men (1971);

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Song Of The Day – “The Uncle Meat Variations” by The Mothers Of Invention

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Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “The Uncle Meat Variations” by The Mothers Of Invention

Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Dvorak…the alphabet of classical composers goes on and on…and then you come to “Z.”

May I offer “Zappa?” Yup, Frank Zappa…an artist whose music will be studied by serious composers for generations to come.

You don’t believe me? Then check out today’s Song of the Day by Eric Berman, “The Uncle Meat Variations” from Uncle Meat.

The Uncle Meat album was released in 1969 and was conceived as a soundtrack to a science fiction film that was never finished. The front cover sported the following subtitle: “Most of the music from the Mother’s movie of the same name which we haven’t got enough money to finish yet.”

A finished version of the film was released in the late 1980s bearing many of the scenes filmed for the movie and was rather incoherent. The double album was also planned as part of a suite of albums called No Commercial Potential that included the Mothers’ records Lumpy Gravy, We’re Only In It For The Money and Cruising with Reuben & the Jets.

Frank Zappa: “It’s all one album. All the material in the albums is organically related and if I had all the master tapes and I could take a razor blade and cut them apart and put it together again in a different order it still would make one piece of music you can listen to. Then I could take that razor blade and cut it apart and reassemble it a different way, and it still would make sense. I could do this twenty ways. The material is definitely related.” (Zappa: A Biography – Barry Miles)

The Mothers consisted of Frank Zappa, Ray Collins on vocals, Jimmy Carl Black on drums, Roy Estrada on bass, Don Preston on keyboards, Billy Mundi on drums, Bunk Gardner on woodwinds, Ian Underwood on keyboards, Artie Tripp on percussion and Euclid James “Motorhead” Sherwood on saxophone.

The album is one of The Mothers’ and Zappa’s finest, and I opine that it will be studied by serious musicians for years to come.

So, “Roll over Beethoven, tell Tchaikovsky the news.”

“Fuzzy dice and bongos”…indeed!

Song Of The Day – “Rhapsody In Blue” by Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra

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paulwhitemanPaul Whiteman was one of the biggest selling artists of the 1920s, and led one of the best-loved sweet bands of all time. Sweet bands were society or café orchestras. They played music for listening and as a background for dining and conversing, as opposed to swing bands whose music was the main attraction and played specifically for dancing.

Many jazz fans frowned down on Whiteman’s sweet approach to music because he believed that Jazz music could and should be notated, rather than improvised. To that end, Whiteman wrote more than 3000 arrangements for his orchestra. Whiteman also liked to write for larger orchestras in a time when most dance bands consisted of 8-10 players.

However, no matter what the music snobs thought, he still sold more records than virtually anyone else during his time, and is well respected for his contributions to music today.

Some of his biggest records include the number one hits “Whispering,” “The Japanese Sandman,” “Wang Wang Blues,” “My Mammy,” “Hot Lips,” “Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers,” “Cherie,” “Say It With Music,” “Play That Song Of India Again,” “Do It Again,” “Three O’ Clock In The Morning” and “Linger Awhile,” and there were lots more from where these came from. However, Whiteman is probably best remembered for the commissioning and debut of today’s Song Of The Day, George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue.”

“Rhapsody In Blue” premiered on February 12, 1924 in New York at a show billed as An Experiment In Modern Music featuring George Gershwin on piano. The performance took place with John Phillip Sousa and Sergei Rachmaninoff present in the audience.

Whiteman recorded the piece twice. The original was recorded in 1924 acoustically with Gershwin playing the piano parts and released on Columbia Records. He recorded the piece a second time in 1927 electrically. That recording, released on the RCA Victor record label, was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 1974. For today’s Song Of The Day, I’ve chosen the original recording with Gershwin on piano. There is also some great footage of Whiteman and the Orchestra performing this piece from the 1930 film King Of Jazz. Whiteman’s orchestral approach to Jazz on “Rhapsody” was a big influence on Miles Davis and Gil Evans and their seminal recordings Birth Of The Cool, Porgy And Bess and Sketches Of Spain.

Some of the greatest jazz men of their day either got their start or moved through Whiteman’s orchestra including Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Jack Teagarden, Bunny Berigan and Fletcher Henderson. Paul Robeson and Billie Holiday both sang their way through his ranks, and Whiteman also billed a singing trio with the band called The Rhythm Boys whose members included a young Bing Crosby. Whiteman also provided music for six Broadway shows and was responsible for producing more than 600 recordings.

One of the finest compilations of Whiteman’s music was released by Collector’s Choice Music back in 1998, and is still readily available today.

Song Of The Day – “Dance At The Gym” from the Original Soundtrack of “West Side Story” – Leonard Bernstein & Stephen Sondheim

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Broadway musicals don’t get any better than this!

You can keep your Andrew Lloyd Webber with his one song per musical, Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim were the real deal! And their musical, West Side Story, has never been bettered.

West Side Story was one of the first musicals where dance played as important a role in story development as dialog. The choreography was expertly done by Jerome Robbins, who also choreographed the Broadway stage version. Robbins was fired from the production before it wrapped due to it going over budget.

The film starred Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer, Russ Tamblyn, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, and was directed by Robert Wise. As was common for film musicals, Natalie Wood didn’t sing any of her parts, and her vocals were dubbed in my Marni Nixon. The same goes for Russ Tamblyn, whose voice was dubbed by Tucker Smith.

The Original Soundtrack recording was one of the biggest selling albums of the 1960s, spending 54 well-deserved weeks at the top of the Billboard charts. The performances on the Soundtrack are far superior to those from the Original Broadway Cast recording.

The musical was set in New York City of the late 1950s and was loosely based on Shakespeare’s Romeo And Juliet, except the lead characters, Tony and Maria, were of American and Puerto Rican descent respectively. In its original incarnation, the story focused on a Jewish and Catholic couple and had the working title of East Side Story. (Another working title for the musical was Kids With Matches.)

When original work began for the Broadway production of West Side Story, Stephen Sondheim was a complete unknown, while Bernstein was a renowned conductor and composer who had written several other musicals (On The Town and Wonderful Town ), operas (including Candide which also ran on Broadway), ballets (Fancy Free),film scores (On The Town and On The Waterfront), plus a fair share of choral music, symphonic music, and piano music.  

Today’s Song Of The Day is “Dance At The Gym” features several sections: a blues, promenade, mambo, pas de deux and jump. This gorgeous piece of music is breathtaking in its scope, and works on every level: as ballet, as orchestral work and as jazz.  The piece has such power, that stripped of its visuals from the movie, it stands on its own as a modern Jazz classic. Never before and never again would we ever get music this expertly crafted for the Broadway stage.

Song Of The Day – “Aquarium” by Van Dyke Parks

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vandykeparksVan Dyke Parks has essentially been making the same album since 1968, and fortunately for his fans, that album is a great one. Parks’ fascination with Tin Pan Alley sounds and Depression-Era songwriting has infused his work since the mid-1960s, resulting in albums that sound like original cast recordings from musicals that don’t exist.

Over the last two years, Parks self-released a series of six 7” singles on his own label. His brand new album, Songs Cycled compiles all of the singles. While the sticker on the outside of the album claims that Songs Cycled is his first “proper solo” album in 24 years, it’s all a matter of record company promotional semantics since his last album of all-new original material was Orange Crate Art, a collaboration with Brian Wilson that was released in 1995.

The album’s title references Parks’ debut album for Warner Bros back in 1968 called Song Cycle, and many of the musical themes in his debut album are revisited here. In the promotional interviews for the new album, Parks has said that due to the high costs associated with releasing records today; this could well be his last album. If that is indeed the case, the music contained within Songs Cycled brings his storied career full circle.

Parks is perhaps best known for his collaborations with Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, and especially for his lyrical contributions to their ill-fated Smile project. He has also worked with such notable performers as Phil Ochs, The Byrds, Little Feat, Frank Zappa & The Mothers Of Invention, Three Dog Night, Tim Buckley, Loudon Wainwright III, Rufus Wainwright, Harry Nilsson, Keith Moon, Ringo Starr, Randy Newman, Ry Cooder, Victoria Williams, Joanna Newsom, U2, Grizzly Bear, Silverchair and Rufus Wainwright.

Part of his “Zelig-like” charm comes down to being at the right place at the right time. For instance, Parks sessioned on The Byrds’ Fifth Dimension album, after which David Crosby asked him to join the band. He was also later offered membership in Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, however, he declined both offers.

When Parks first met Brian Wilson, he was asked to write new lyrics to “Good Vibrations” because Wilson was dissatisfied with Tony Asher’s lyrics. Parks declined, stating that he didn’t’ think he could improve on Asher’s lyrics. However, it was Parks idea to have the cellos play the eighth notes in the track.

It was through his involvement with “Good Vibrations” that Wilson asked Parks to write lyrics for the Smile album that was recorded in 1966, but did not get a proper release until 2012. In preparation for the writing and recording of the album, Wilson purchased several thousand dollars’ worth of marijuana and hash for him and his friends (including Parks) to consume.

Parks worked on numerous sessions for Warner Bros. and Reprise Records artists throughout the 1960s and 1970s. In the mid-1960s, he pitched a song composed by his brother Carson to Frank Sinatra. Sinatra recorded the song with his daughter Nancy, resulting in the chart-topping single “Somethin’ Stupid.” Parks also directed, arranged, produced and composed soundtracks for a many theatrical films, TV commercials and television shows.

Today’s Song of the Day is one of two tracks on Songs Cycled that are re-recordings of previously written material from Parks’ other albums. “Aquarium” is an instrumental recording made with The Esso Trinidad Steel Band composed originally by the French classical composer Camille Saint-Saëns. The track originally appeared on the 1971 album Van Dyke Parks Presents The Esso Trinidad Steel Band which was produced by Van Dyke Parks.

The Esso Trinidad Steel Band had been performing with Liberace in Las Vegas when Van Dyke Parks heard them. According to Parks, “I saw them as enslaved in their relationship to Liberace; I thought it was a vulgarity. I wanted to save them from their trivialization.”

Of Songs Cycled Parks said, “I think it is safe to say that my work can be branded Americana, but I think it’s also safe to say it can be branded ‘anti-Americana’ and ‘an inconvenient truth’ as well.…There is very little ‘divergent music’ made in America. I go to ‘worldbeat’ to get out of the box. I think those influences show in my perspective.”

To that end, the album features several songs tied to historical events including “Wall Street” which was written in response to the September 11th attacks on the U.S., and “Money Is King” which deals with the post-9/11 corporate greed in America. The song “Dreaming Of Paris” deals with the American bombing of Baghdad and “Missin’ Missippi” was written about Hurricane Katrina.

The most overtly Broadway-esque track on the album is a cover of Billy Edd Wheeler’s “Sassafrass,” which Parks calls “outlaw chamber music,” and the album’s centerpiece, “The Parting Hand” comes from The Sacred Harp Society’s Hymnal of 1835. The track begins as a straight-up acapella hymn and is followed by a long, ornate orchestral coda.

Songs Cycled is everything you’d want from a Van Dyke Parks album, Copland-esque Americana, fussy orchestral arrangements and songs that bring you into another world…a world that today is only inhabited by Parks himself. At 70 years old, Parks keeps pushing the envelope forward and has worked in recent years with Silverchair, Joanna Newsome, Grizzly Bear and Skrillex.

Here’s the whole album:

Song Of The Day – “Soulful Strut” by Young-Holt Unlimited

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young-holtIt was a breath of funked out fresh air when “Soulful Strut” hit the charts in 1968, and today the song is one of the most refreshing instrumentals of all time.

Eldee Young (bass) and Isaac “Red” Holt (drums) were Chicago musicians who made up the rhythm section for The Ramsey Lewis Trio. After gigging with Lewis for ten years and scoring the monster hit “The In Crowd,” Young and Holt left to form their own jazz combo called The Young-Holt Trio with pianist Don Walker.

Together, the trio scored a top 20 R&B hit with “Wack Wack,” and recorded several records for the Brunswick record label. By 1968, Young and Holt replaced Walker with Ken Chaney and renamed the group Young-Holt Unlimited in an effort to sound more current and tap into the youth market with their recordings.

Today’s Song Of The Day got its start as the backing track of “Am I The Same Girl,” a minor hit by Barbara Acklin (#33 R&B/#79 Pop) which was written by Eugene Record (Acklin’s husband) and Sonny Sanders. Acklin was a Chicago soul singer who scored numerous hits on her own, but is perhaps best known as the co-writer (with Record) of the Chi-Lites’ smash hit “Have You Seen Her.”

It was Brunswick Records producer Carl Davis who got the idea to remove Acklin’s voice from “Am I The Same Girl” and to release it as an instrumental. Acklin’s vocal was replaced with a piano solo played by Floyd Morris and the instrumental was renamed “Soulful Strut.”  The instrumental version was released before Acklin’s “Am I The Same Girl” and it climbed all the way to the #3 position on both the R&B and pop charts.

The single was credited to Young-Holt Unlimited; however it is believed that the backing track was actually performed by the Brunswick Records studio band with neither Eldee Young nor Red Holt present on the track. At least three other songs from Young-Holt Unlimited’s Soulful Strut album were originally Acklin backing tracks including “Please Sunrise,” “Love Makes A Woman” and “Just Ain’t No Lovin’.”

As a vocal, “Am I The Same Girl” was covered by both Dusty Springfield and Swing Out Sister, who both scored minor charts hits with their versions (although Swing Out Sister’s version did top the adult contemporary charts). As an instrumental, “Soulful Strut” was later covered by George Benson in 1979, and again by Grover Washington Jr. in 1996. The song has also been sampled by 2 Live Crew and The Beastie Boys, and Joss Stone used the track as the basis for her 2005 track “Don’t Cha Wanna Ride.”

Song Of The Day – “The Nutcracker Suite” by Les Brown & His Band Of Renown

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lesbrownnutcrackerThe story of The Nutcracker was inspired by E.T.A. Hoffmann’s ‘The Nutcracker and the King Of Mice’ and was presented to Russian composer, Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky, by Marius Petipa who was maître de ballet of the Imperial Theater from Dumas. Tchaikovsky was unmoved by the prospect of writing a ballet for the story and was practically strong-armed into doing so. At the same time, he was also writing an opera called ‘Yolanta.’

Work on the ballet was put on hold when Tchaikovsky took a trip to America for the opening of Carnegie Hall. It was there he was introduced to the musical instrument the celeste. A celeste is like a piano, but instead of mallets hitting strings like they do in a piano, mallets hit metal plates on the celeste giving the instrument a kind of woozy bell-like sound. The celeste inspired him to write “The Dance Of The Sugar Plum Fairy” and finish the ballet upon his return, so he could introduce the instrument to Russia. Upon its debut, “The Nutcracker” was widely panned, and the opera, “Yolanta,” was hailed as a great success…

Fast forward to 1957, by now Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker” is considered the classic it has rightfully become (does anyone remember “Yolanta?”), and arranger Frank Comstock writes this jazz arrangement of the piece for Les Brown & His Band Of Renown to record. They, in turn, record it for the album “Concert Modern” and history is made again.

While I adore listening to the classical recordings of this gorgeous piece of music, especially Eugene Ormandy & The Philadelphia Orchestra’s late 1960s interpretation on the Columbia label, Les Brown takes the cake for recording the most satisfying and enjoyable adaptation of the piece. Today, the piece is kept current by annual performances by the very superb Brian Setzer Orchestra.

Song Of The Day – “Simbah” by Gerry Mulligan Tentette

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GerryMulligan1The innovative instrumentation and arrangements of Miles Davis’ landmark Birth Of The Cool nonet sessions from 1948, on which Gerry Mulligan played baritone saxophone, was a major influence on Mulligan’s Tentette recordings from January of 1953 that included “Simbah,” today’s Song Of The Day. But even though the Tentette recordings are less well known than the storied Birth Of The Cool sessions, they are every bit as essential and influential.

Sessions for the songs “Westwood Walk,” “A Ballad,” “Walking Shoes” and “Rocker” took place in Los Angeles on January 29th 1953, while the recordings of “Flash,” “Ontet,” “Taking a Chance On Love”  and today’s Song Of The Day “Simbah,” took place on January 31st, 1953. Seven of the eight compositions were penned by Mulligan and the doubling up of the voices of the trumpet, baritone saxophone and drum parts was inspired by the arrangements from Davis’ Birth Of the Cool session.

The Tentette line-up consisted of Chet Baker and Pete Candoli on trumpet, Bob Enevoldsen on ventile trombone, John Graas on the French horn, Ray Siegel on tuba, Bud Shank on alto saxophone, Don Davidson and Gerry Mulligan on baritone saxophone, Joe Mondragon on bass and Larry Bunker and Chico Hamilton on drums.

While Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan had an, at-best turbulent relationship, there is no sign of animosity in the grooves of the eight tracks from the session that are featured on the album Walking Shoes,”  a 1972 vinyl Capitol compilation album. In 1971, Mulligan commented “The tentet (sic) is essentially my original quartet with Chet Baker combined with the instrumentation of the Miles Davis nonet…I would have liked to pursued (the tentette) further at the time, but c’est la vie.”

The recordings of the Mulligan Tentette and Davis’ Birth Of The Cool both marked a major development in post-bebop jazz whilst casting a long, lingering shadow on all that would follow in symphonic jazz.

Song Of The Day – “Rhapsody In Blue” by Paul Whiteman & His Orchestra

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paulwhitemanPaul Whiteman was one of the biggest selling artists of the 1920s, and led one of the best-loved sweet bands of all time. Sweet bands were society or café orchestras. They played music for listening and as a background for dining and conversing, as opposed to swing bands whose music was the main attraction and played specifically for dancing.

Many jazz fans frowned down on Whiteman’s sweet approach to music because he believed that Jazz music could and should be notated, rather than improvised. To that end, Whiteman wrote more than 3000 arrangements for his orchestra. Whiteman also liked to write for larger orchestras in a time when most dance bands consisted of 8-10 players.

However, no matter what the music snobs thought, he still sold more records than virtually anyone else during his time, and is well respected for his contributions to music today.

Some of his biggest records include the number one hits “Whispering,” “The Japanese Sandman,” “Wang Wang Blues,” “My Mammy,” “Hot Lips,” “Parade Of The Wooden Soldiers,” “Cherie,” “Say It With Music,” “Play That Song Of India Again,” “Do It Again,” “Three O’ Clock In The Morning” and “Linger Awhile,” and there were lots more from where these came from. However, Whiteman is probably best remembered for the commissioning and debut of today’s Song Of The Day, George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue.”

“Rhapsody In Blue” premiered on February 12, 1924 in New York at a show billed as An Experiment In Modern Music featuring George Gershwin on piano. The performance took place with John Phillip Sousa and Sergei Rachmaninoff present in the audience.

Whiteman recorded the piece twice. The original was recorded in 1924 acoustically with Gershwin playing the piano parts and released on Columbia Records. He recorded the piece a second time in 1927 electrically. That recording, released on the RCA Victor record label, was inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame in 1974. For today’s Song Of The Day, I’ve chosen the original recording with Gershwin on piano. There is also some great footage of Whiteman and the Orchestra performing this piece from the 1930 film King Of Jazz. Whiteman’s orchestral approach to Jazz on “Rhapsody” was a big influence on the Miles Davis and Gil Evans and their seminal recordings Birth Of The Cool, Porgy And Bess and Sketches Of Spain.

Some of the greatest jazz men of their day either got their start or moved through Whiteman’s orchestra including Bix Beiderbecke, Frankie Trumbauer, Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang, Jack Teagarden, Bunny Berigan and Fletcher Henderson. Paul Robeson and Billie Holiday both sang their way through his ranks, and Whiteman also billed a singing trio with the band called The Rhythm Boys whose members included a young Bing Crosby. Whiteman also provided music for six Broadway shows and was responsible for producing more than 600 recordings.

One of the finest compilations of Whiteman’s music was released by Collector’s Choice Music back in 1998, and is still readily available today.

Song Of The Day – “Moon/Light” by Herbie Hancock and Foday Musa Suso

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herbiehancockfodaymusasusoIn West African culture, a griot is a musician and storyteller who holds all of the keys to the history of his people. It is the griot’s place in society to share that history through music, entertainment and poetry. The kora is a 21-string instrument that is the chief instrument accompanying a griot. Foday Musa Suso was born in Gambia and is a direct descendent of the inventor who invented the musical instrument over four hundred years ago.

Now anyone who’s ever heard the music of the kora, no doubt, has fallen under its spell. It is a string instrument that has the player handling rhythm, harmony and melody at the same time, similar to the sitar, but the sound of the kora is more mystical in its feel and majestic in its sound.

Back in 1983, I went to see Herbie Hancock perform at the Pier (which was a small outdoor venue) in New York City. Hancock was riding high, particularly in the lower east side dance circles, with his electronic hit “Rockit,” which was one of the first fusions of jazz and hip hop music. Its one-of-a-kind MTV video, directed by Godley and Crème (of 10cc fame), helped to fuel its success, winning a Grammy Award in the process. It was a great show, complete with the “Rockit” mechanical robot legs straight from the video right there on stage, along with such luminaries as Bill Laswell on bass and Grand Mixer D.S.T. on the turntables.

The hit renewed my interest in Hancock, who I had already admired greatly for his work with Miles Davis and his essential solo work, particularly the albums “Speak Like A Child” and “Head Hunters.” My interest led me to discover today’s Song Of The Day from the five-star, 1985 album, “Village Life,” by Herbie Hancock and Foday Musa Suso.

“Village Life” is a high water mark for all involved. The album was recorded in Japan over three days in 1984 with Bill Laswell accompanying Hancock on production duties. At the time of its release, it kind of stuck out like a sore thumb compared to Hancock’s recent hip-hop infused output. Indeed, this is a somewhat more meditative affair, and a straight-up duet album with Hancock playing a Yamaha DX-1 synthesizer (detuned to match the tuning of the kora) and drum machine, and Suso on the kora, talking drum and vocals.

Musically, the album is completely captivating, but sold poorly because Hancock’s recent converts were expecting more music along the lines of “Rockit.” That doesn’t subtract from the fact that this record is truly one of those mesmerizing records that certainly opened my ears up to world music back in 1984, and is still worthy of a far bigger audience today.