Like a lot of T. Rex fans, for a long time I overlooked the album Tanx (despite its amazing cover), assuming that The Slider was the last album worth spending time with. Granted, Tanx did mark the beginning of the end of T. Rex. Made in 1973, the very height of the “T. Rextasy” phenomenon, it was the last album recorded with the classic T. Rex lineup, and Bolan’s legendary ego--fueled by brandy, money, and cocaine--was stratospheric by this point. One would assume this would all make for a disaster of an album, but in actuality the louche decadence of the record’s sound is its greatest virtue, perfectly suited for Bolan’s spaced-out lyrical non sequiturs.
John King, Who Made Ukulele Ring With Bach, Dies at 55 By DOUGLAS MARTIN
John King adored Hawaii, though he lived there for only a few years as a boy. The “Hawaiian room” in his Florida home was stuffed with hundreds upon hundreds of hula dolls, leis and other artifacts. He once owned 400 Hawaiian shirts, more than enough to wear a different one every day of the year — which he was proud to do. Is it a surprise that Mr. King played the ukulele?
And boy, did he play that ukulele. His huge hands and stocky wrists darted and danced up, down and across the tiny instrument’s strings in a way that few, if any, players have ever attempted.
Mr. King resurrected a guitar technique from the time of Bach to play a piece that was almost certainly never before tried on a ukulele, Bach’s Partita No. 3, and went on to play other difficult classical works with dazzling mastery. He opened pathways of sound unimaginable to those whose memories of the ukulele involve Arthur Godfrey, Elvis Presley and, of course, Tiny Tim.
The Journal of the Society for American Music last year called Mr. King “perhaps the world’s only truly classical ‘ukulele virtuoso.’ ”
Mr. King’s death at 55 on April 3 at his home in St. Petersburg, Fla., sent shock waves through the ukulele universe, which has widened with enthusiasts now clustering on the Internet and at festivals around the country. His wife, Debi, said that Mr. King died of a heart attack, suddenly and completely unexpectedly.
In one of the tributes that pervade this online universe, Jim Beloff, a leading ukulele player, calls Mr. King’s work in classical ukulele “the finest in the world, and the finest we will ever see in a long time.”
Tom Walsh, a board member of the Ukulele Hall of Fame Museum, said in an interview last week that Mr. King was “adored by the ukulele community,” most of whom faced an inescapable realization: “I could never possibly play like that.”
The foundation of Mr. King’s achievement was reviving a Baroque guitar technique and applying it to the ukulele. The technique involves playing each succeeding note in a melodic line on a different string. The ukulele — which is tuned so that the four strings go not from the lowest to the highest note but instead run G, C, E, A — turns out to be great for doing this. (An illustration of ukulele tuning can be found at theuke.com.) The result is a bell-like quality of sound in which individual notes over-ring one another, producing an effect that some compare to a harp or harpsichord.
“The people Bach originally wrote this music for must have been fabulous musicians, because this stuff is really hard to play,” Mr. King wrote in an essay. “My heart is in my throat whenever I play these pieces in concert.”
In another essay he expounded on the sheer difficulty: “The truth is it’s a crazy way to play the uke; ease of execution is all but sacrificed, subordinated to whatever it takes to get that shimmering, harplike sound. It works for me, because when I play it that way, the ukulele sings.”
John Robert King was born in San Diego on Oct. 13, 1953, the son of a naval officer. The family moved a lot; when John was 6, they lived in Hawaii. His mother took up the ukulele to get a feel for local culture, and John imitated her. He noticed two things: it was difficult, and he had “absolutely no talent.” So he took up the guitar and progressed impressively. He ended up taking lessons from Pepe Romero, the classical guitarist, and Pepe’s legendary father, Celedonio.
He picked up a ukulele occasionally, but not successfully. Then he learned that the diminutive ancestors of today’s guitars were tuned like ukuleles. He tried Bach on the ukulele and was deeply intrigued. He soon commissioned Gioachino Giussani, the Italian luthier, to make a ukulele expressly for classical music. After a decade of practice, he put out a record, including the Bach partita, on his own label in 2001.
Pepe Romero concluded in the liner notes: “The sound of the ukulele is exquisitely well suited for Bach’s music, and I delight in this discovery.”
Mr. King made a second record, again on his own label, Nalu Music. It was music composed in the later part of the 19th century by the members of the Hawaiian royal family, in the decades before the state’s annexation by the United States. Many pieces had not been played for a century.
He also wrote books of arrangements for the ukulele, including works by Mozart, Chopin and Scott Joplin. At his death, Mr. King was working on a book about ukulele history, beginning with its introduction to Hawaii by the Portuguese in the late 19th century.
Mr. King liked to pick his uke at his neighborhood Starbucks, where he said he did not feel nervous, because people had no expectations.
He often said that his fondest desire was to move to Hawaii and live in a shack in the mountains near the beach.
Transa, recorded in 1972, is my favorite album by the legendary Brazilian artist Caetano Veloso. This was the last album he released while living in political exile in London, and there's a bramble of seemingly incompatible ideas clashing on the record: exile, anonymity, hope, memories of Brazilian music, British pop music, lyrics sung in English, lyrics sung in Portuguese. I love how Veloso embraces these contradictions with a celebratory defiance.
On the other side of the universe from these two funkmasters is Neko Case, who gives good advice for those celebrating Earth Day. From her new album Middle Cyclone:
Let's continue our funky-bassist-gone-solo series with P-Funk legend Bootsy Collins and two tracks from his 1976 solo debut album "Stretchin' Out in Bootsy's Rubber Band". Both tracks here lay out a template for the tremendous success of Outkast almost 3 decades later
Heather and I commemorated Record Store day by scooting on over to Recordbreakers on the 2100 block of South State. $10 coupon in hand, we scoured the bins for an hour while some truly abominable bands assaulted our senses with live in-store performances. I came across this sealed copy of Graham Central Station and had to have it. Larry Graham was the bass player for Sly and the Family Stone, and I had heard from many that his solo material was top notch.
We knew we were in for a treat when we threw on side A and the acapella album opener "We've Been Waiting" came at us like some soul version of Bohemian Rhapsody. From that point forward, the album plays like a cross between The Staple Singers, Sly and The Family Stone, and Funkadelic, with some of the most astoundingly hot bass playing ever put to tape (listen to the beginning of "Hair".
“Every Little Bit Hurts,” written by Ed Cobb and originally recorded by soul singer Brenda Holloway in 1964, is one of those songs that just keeps coming back. Small Faces, The Clash, George Clinton, The Jam, and others have covered the song with success, and, like “The First Cut is the Deepest,” the song seems to weather any interpretation that’s thrown at it. I found my favorite version, by the Jamaican group The Rulers, on a MOJO compilation that came out a few years back. As a bonus, I’ll throw in the other Rulers song that was on the compilation, “Wrong Em’ Boyo,” which was also covered by The Clash.
When Phil Spector was initially acquitted in the 2003 murder of Lana Clarkson, I posted Pistol Packin' Papa from Jimmie Rodgers right here on this page. Now that Spector has finally been convicted of the murder, its only right to commemeorate it with "In the Jailhouse Now" another track from "The Singing Brakeman".
New music today from Bonnie Prince Billy, who recorded his latest record, Beware, right here in Chicago at Engine Studios with our friend Neil Strauch manning the boards. Its an ambitious effort, with arrangements incorporating Leonard Cohenish female choral backing vocals, fiddle, banjo, cornet, accordian, manolin, and pedal steel into a sound that blends americana, rock, chamber, and spiritual styles.
BPB's incredibly prolific with his output, releasing a new record every 7 months or so , and like Neil Young and Van Morrison (Pre-millenial), its the sound of BPB's voice alone that draws me in, regardless of the record or its approach.
I listen over and over again to the opening track "beware your only friend", especially in the morning. Don't miss this one!
Speaking of Crazy Hoes(?) I did see "Lez Zeppelin" Saturday night at the Double Door, and well, it rocked. On paper it sounds like a gimmick: 4 women playing Led Zeppelin covers, including a front-woman who is almost as hot as Robert Plant himself ...
And it would be, except they are really, really good at it (though Quickdraw's Robert Plant might still be better!), especially the guitar player Steph Paynes, who makes me think I could have been hearing Led Zeppelin.
But it got me thinking of some other hard playing / hard singing women-fronted bands like 70's prog-rockers Babe Ruth, and Ohio's Heartless Bastards, who played the Bottom Lounge saturday, as well. "The Mountain" is the title track of their new record ...
P.S. Do check out this Babe Ruth video for intense 70's costumes and visuals - esp. around minute 1:30 or so."
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Noir Doo Wop gets the choral treatment on the debut single from Swedish women's choir The Sweptaways' forthcoming sophomore album The Sweptaways Show. Sign Your name
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Unpacking those boxes from storage, I came across the countless mixtapes I made back in the 90's. One of the oldest of these was entitled "Neil Young and Crazyhoes", which alternated Neil Young tracks with those by the plethora of female indie rockers exploding onto the scene in the early 90's...Liz Phair, Bettie Serveert, Sonic Youth, Throwing Muses, and The Breeders to name a few. Tanya Donelly had stints in the latter two before making her bid for pop stardom fronting Belly whose pop confection "Feed The Tree" captured the airwaves in 1993. Today's double daily download covers boths ends of Donnelly's spectrum, from the sugary indie pop of that track to the dark swing of "Honeychain" from Throwing Muses' The Real Ramona. Donnely's rare writing and lead vocal contribution to that band is my pick for best Throwing Muses song ever, despite the fact that half-sister Kerstin Hersh was primary songwriter and frontwoman for all those years.
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