Instrumental

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – Selections from “Popshopping Volume 1” by Various Artists

June 25, 2020 by Eric Berman

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – Selections from “Popshopping Volume 1” by Various Artists

Popshopping is a compilation of German TV commercial production music from the 1960s and 1970s. Compilation producers Sir D’Oeuvre and Senor 45 collected these tracks from flexi discs and dusty TV production tape vaults.

Many may consider this music nothing more than a bunch of blaring, dated background noise, but to others (including me), this is highly stylized and inventive music created by some of Germany’s finest composers including Christian Bruhn, Max Meir-Maltez, Klaus Wuestoff, Gert Wilden and Johnny Teupen.

Today’s Song Of The Day includes Christian Bruhn’s music for Ford Capri, Ford Taurus and “Komm In Fahrt” for Hansa-Pils commercials (all 1973), Klaus Wuesthoff’s “Swing A Little, Kim A Little” (1967), Klaus Doldinger’s “Wild Freshness” (1970) and Max Meir-Maltez’s music for Moulinex (1972). All of the tracks collected here are exceedingly groovy, as is the companion compilation to this one, Popshopping Volume 2!

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Reincarnation Of A Lovebird” by Charles Mingus

June 23, 2020 by Eric Berman

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Reincarnation Of A Lovebird” by Charles Mingus

You can almost see the flight of the bird in question during the introduction of this masterwork by bassist Charles Mingus.

However, this bird is actually Charlie Parker, with whom Mingus performed on many occasions and to whom this song is dedicated. In Mingus’ own words: “I wouldn’t say I set out to write a piece on Bird. I knew it was a mournful thing when I was writing it. Suddenly I realize it was Bird. […] It’s mainly about my misunderstanding of Bird […] In one way, the work isn’t like him. It’s built on long lines and most of his pieces were short lines. But it’s my feeling about Bird. I felt like crying when I wrote it.” (Nat Hentoff from The Clown liner notes)

Mingus was a master at orchestral Jazz in the same category as Duke Ellington, but where Ellington was always tasteful and pleasing; Mingus’ M-O was more challenging and deeply emotional, with a penchant for the jagged and gnarly alongside the tuneful and lovely. And with Dannie Richmond on drums to complete the rhythm section, Mingus could certainly swing, as evidenced on this classic from the 1957 album The Clown. The lineup on this track includes Shafi Hadi (aka Curtis Porter) on alto and tenor saxophone, Jimmy Knepper on trombone, Wade Legge on piano and Dannie Richmond on drums.

Song Of The Day by Eric Berman – “Freeway Jam” by Jeff Beck

June 18, 2020 by Eric Berman

Nothing prepared rock fans for the transformation that took place in the mid-70s when Jeff Beck joined forces with producer George Martin on his albums Blow By Blow and Wired.

Beck, of course, was well known as the blues-based British rocker from the Yardbirds and The Jeff Beck Group who dabbled in jazz, but cut his teeth on what is now considered classic rock. By 1975, Beck’s band consisted of Phil Chen on bass, Richard Bailey on drums and Max Middleton, the sole holdover from The Jeff Beck Group, on keyboards.

The sound was full-on instrumental Fusion Jazz which was previously the domain of Miles Davis, Weather Report and Return To Forever. Beck’s foray into Fusion culminated with several records pairing his guitar work with the keyboard mastery of Jan Hammer. “Freeway Jam” was written by Max Middleton and is from “Blow By Blow. The album featured an assist from Stevie Wonder who played keyboards on the track “Thelonious.” Beck had previously performed guitar duties on Wonder’s Talking Book album.

RadioActive Memorial 3Day 2020 III

June 16, 2020 by Marty Masters

Uncle Marty here with you on The Award Winning 3D RadioActivity number 538, as we observe the third part of our musical Memorial Day. On this our final tribute, we pay last respects to the memory of the artists who have left us in the past 12 months by playing cuts from their catalog.

Download or play here
https://archive.org/download/The3dRadioactivity/3dradio_20200607-RadaMem3DayIII.mp3

We have managed to pay tribute to musical lives lost 40 times over our past three programs, ten different varieties of cancer, with 7 heart issues, and 8 ‘natural causes’ rounding things out after a quarter of them were due to corona cooties. We will have another few followup quarantine music installments to begin our Summertime Second’s Series where we go back to visit earlier features that had more music than we could squeeze in, so it will be more fresh and choice cuts that have not been featured on our Frequency before. Got any suggestions? Then tell me messaging me on our Facebook page which has links to the archives of all the earlier episodes and graphics in the photo section, or by email . Remind your circle of best friends and family to look for us on Theacidflashback.com, http://www.villageconnectionmagazine.com/ Long Island, New York; Denver’s MileHiRadio, TuneIn and InternetFM dot com, because the best FM radio is now on the Internet.

Until we meet again, as Al always says, “Rock On!”

…Uncle Marty

“It’s not true I had nothing on, I had the radio on.”

…Marilyn Monroe

Song Of the Day by Eric Berman – “The Alley Cat” by Bent Fabric

June 8, 2020 by Eric Berman

Song Of the Day by Eric Berman – “The Alley Cat” by Bent Fabric

Dance crazes come and go, but they are never forgotten.

Most recently there was Psy’s “Gangnam Style,” wreaking havoc across dance floors all over the world while the youth of America (and Myley Cyrus) began to twerk. In the 1990s, there was “The Macarena.” In the 1980s, country line dancing and “The Lambada” had their day in the sun, and the ‘70s gave us “The Electric Slide.” But in the early 1960s, there was only one communal synchronized dance that kids and adults alike shared in, making it a staple at weddings, proms and Bar Mitzvahs.

That dance was “The Alley Cat.”

In actuality, “The Alley Cat” began life as a 1961 hit for Bent Fabricius-Bjerre in Denmark under the title “Omkring et Flygel” (“Under The Table”). The song was picked up for U.S. distribution by Neshui and Ahmet Ehrtegun and released on their Atco label in 1962, where it became a million-selling top-ten hit. The song also went on to win a Grammy Award for, get this, Best Rock and Roll Record of 1962!

Fabric released six albums on Atco between 1962 and 1968, with titles like The Happy Puppy, The Drunken Penguin and Operation Love Birds, with animal-centric album covers to match. He was also paired up with Atco’s other big instrumentalist, Acker Bilk, for a series of recordings. But no matter how many albums were released, in America he is still only associated with one thing, “The Alley Cat.”

Fabric got his start playing Jazz piano in Denmark before moving into the realm of film scores, where he wrote music for 27 different Danish films. He also founded Metronome Records in 1950, which went on to become one of the most successful Danish record companies. One of his signings was Jorge Ingmann who scored a #2 hit in America with his classic instrumental “Apache.”

While Fabric has seemingly faded from view in America, he’s continued to release recordings in Denmark over the years, most recently scoring two top-ten hits in 2006 from his album called Jukebox. That album’s title track also got airplay in dance clubs across America, where a remix of “Alley Cat” was also re-released.

Surprisingly, in Mexico, ice cream trucks co-opted “The Alley Cat” as their calling card, so when children hear it blaring through the streets, it means the ice cream man is in the neighborhood.

Song of the Day by Eric Berman – “Footprints” by Miles Davis Quintet

June 7, 2020 by Eric Berman

Song of the Day by Eric Berman – “Footprints” by Miles Davis Quintet

They were known as Miles Davis’ second great quintet featuring Herbie Hancock on piano, Ron Carter on bass, Wayne Shorter on sax and Tony Williams on drums, but to some, they were his most important lineup. It was here that Miles was surrounded by a talented group of musicians who were much younger than he was.

The first great quintet featured John Coltrane on sax, Philly Joe Jones on drums, Red Garland on piano and Paul Chambers on bass and were responsible for creating a new modal language of cool Jazz on quintessential classic albums like Kind Of Blue, Round About Midnight and Milestones.

The ’60s quintet’s approach to improvisation was far more free-wheeling and the group’s musical language was far more advanced…they were all on the same plane, and that plane was otherworldly.

This quintet were responsible for classic albums like E.S.P., Miles Smiles, Sorcerer, Nefertiti, Miles In The Sky and Filles de Kilimanjaro which were recorded between the years 1965 and 1968, and can be heard live from the concert stage on the 5 CD Complete Live At The Plugged Nickel recorded in 1965 and on the 3 CD Live In Europe 1967 where today’s Song of the Day by Eric Berman was culled.

This version of Shorter’s “Footprints,” originally from the Miles Smiles album, but is heard and seen here from the DVD that came with the Live In Europe 1967 set which was the first volume of the ongoing The Bootleg Series. So far, there have been three volumes in the series…let’s hope Columbia will keep them coming.

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

May 28, 2020 by Eric Berman

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

May 24, 2020 by Eric Berman

Paul 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 – “Seven Come Eleven” by Charlie Christian w/ The Benny Goodman Sextet

May 23, 2020 by Eric Berman

The world of music is scattered with “what ifs,” such as “What if Waylon Jennings didn’t give his seat up to Buddy Holly on the ill-fated flight that took his life?,” or “What if John Lennon hadn’t been murdered…would there have been a Beatles reunion?”

One of the more intriguing what-ifs in my book is “What if a 25 year old guitar wiz by the name of Charlie Christian had lived a full life?” What kind of music can we have expected to come from him?

Well based on the two years of recordings he left behind with Benny Goodman, they would have been stunning to say the least. Case in point is this 1939 sextet recording with Benny Goodman on clarinet, Lionel Hampton on vibes, Fletcher Henderson on piano, Artie Bernstein on bass and Nick Fatool on drums. Listen to how tight the lead trio of clarinet, vibes and guitar are as they fly together in unison into the musical stratosphere.

What’s even more fascinating is that this recording was made during a time of uncertainty for Goodman. He had disbanded his orchestra due to medical issues a few months before. After enduring back surgery for acute sciatica (which was far more debilitating then than it is now), Goodman faced the task of putting a new band together after being out of circulation for months.

One of the first things he did was to put this sextet together with Charlie Christian, a new guitarist from Oklahoma he’d found through John Hammond. At the time, the electric guitar was not a common instrument in a big band, let alone in a sextet. Goodman took the opportunity to try something different and it paid off in spades.

Unfortunately, we’ll never really know the answer to this “what if” scenario, but at least we have the amazing recordings we do by Charlie Christian to marvel and ponder.

Note: While the YouTube video is labeled “Roast Turkey Stomp,” it is actually a 1939 live recording of “Seven Come Eleven” by Charlie Christian with The Benny Goodman Sextet.

Song Of The Day – “Soul Makossa” by Manu Dibango

April 30, 2020 by Eric Berman

Hailing from Cameroon, Africa, Manu Dibango established himself as an in-demand saxophone player working with acts as diverse as Fela Kuti, Don Cherry, The Fania All-Stars and Sly and Robbie.

“Soul Makossa,” Dibango’s signature disco smash, was originally released as the flip side to the 1972 single “Mouvement Ewondo” on the French independent Fiesta record label. The song probably would have sunk without a trace if it had not been for Manhattan socialite David Mancuso.

Mancuso was known for throwing exclusive invitation-only loft parties in New York City that served as a precursor to the city’s thriving Disco scene of the 1970s. Mancuso found a copy of the record and gave it a spin at one of his parties where it was heard by DJ Frankie Crocker, who in turn played it on WBLS, New York City’s highest rated urban radio station.

The song became very popular, but the single was so rare that nine cover versions sprung up to fill the demand for the record, before Atlantic Records could rush-release Dibango’s original recording in 1973. As a result of the cover versions, Dibango’s recording only climbed up to #35 on the Billboard singles chart; however the chart position didn’t realistically reflect the enormous popularity of the single.

Later, the song’s “ma-ma so, ma-ma-sa, mako-mako-sa” refrain was featured prominently in Michael Jackson’s single “Wanna Be Startin’ Something,” the lead track from his Thriller album which went on to be the biggest selling album of all time. It was used without Dibango’s permission and he later settled handsomely with Jackson for use of the lyric.

Dibango released an updated version of the track in 1994, and then again in 2011 under the title “Soul Makossa 2.0.”