Al compas del mundo - programa #75

Al compas del mundo - programa #75 - Jazz

Kamasi Washington - The Epic

Curmudgeons like myself need to admit that jazz exists beyond the all-time greats like Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Max Roach, etc., etc., etc. Several of those old lions are included in this week’s playlist: Yusuf Lateef, Bobby Hutcherson, and Sonny Stitt. But a sizable portion of programa #75 brings more recent talent to the airwaves. Artists known to folks in contemporary jazz circles but, admittedly, not so much by yours truly. The Art Ensemble is one exception and then there’s the ringer I’ve always wanted to play, Harvey Mandel’s Cristo Redemtor. The latter such an anomaly when it came out in 1968, the hippies didn’t know what to make of it. I’ve looked up the lead vocalist (shades of Minnie Ripperton, she of the five-octave singing range) and it’s a name new to me, but my goodness – what a voice! I think Mandel fits perfectly in a seque with Kamasi Washington, a big man, with a big horn, and a big sound. His debut solo recording was released in 2015, so he’s taken on a commanding presence early on in what promises to be a bountiful career. Snorre Kirk, Tia Fuller, Damon Locks, Ulysses Owens are all contemporary voices I’ve only recently met. I hope to further the relationship and you can expect to hear them again in future jazz programming on Al compas del mundo.

Play list for Al compas del mundo - programa #75, Jazz

First broadcast 5-4-2023

01 Tia Fuller - My Human Condition

02 Damon Locks - Black Monument Ensemble - NOW (Forever Momentary Space)

03 Yusuf Lateef - Like It Is

04 Ulysses Owens Jr Big Band - Human Nature

05 Snorre Kirk - Blues Arabesque

06 Harvey Mandel - Cristo Redentor

07 Kamasi Washington - Show Us the Way

08 Art Ensemble of Chicago – Proverbes

09 Bobby Hutcherson - (Se Acabó) La Malanga

10 Sonny Stitt - Slave Maidens

Harvey Mandala

Comments

Guitarras del mundo

Choosing music and writing about “the guitar” opens many doors. I could have gone off in any number of directions and with a singular narrow focus - but I didn’t. Instead, I threw a whole bunch of varied tunes against a wall to see which ones stuck. Sometimes there’s a continuity and other times none: just two aesthetically pleasing pieces that worked well in tandem and, hopefully, were preceded and followed with similar morsels. Usually, that is how these programs come together. I receive a divinely inspired revelation for a certain theme, region, or style of music and build it from there. Baden Powell, Brazilian beatnik poet and guitar master, seemed to me an obvious choice to begin the program. From there (as you can well see) we stick around Latin America a bit; segue into Spain, notorious as a guitar hotbed; head South to North Africa for the venerable Bombino (yes, again!) and more of that desert blues ilk; logically morph into a short blues set and settle at the bottom sid...

Electric Chicago blues

Al compás del mundo Run List #172, 3-20-25 - electric Chicago blues 01 James Cotton - Love Me or Leave Me 02 Sonny Boy Williamson - Wake Up Baby 03 Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers - Wild About You, Baby 04 Howlin Wolf - You'll Be Mine 05 John Lee Hooker – Louise 06 Junior Wells - Snatch It Back and Hold It 07 Koko Taylor - Wang Dang Doodle 08 Little Walter - I Don't Play 09 Jimmy Rogers - Walking by Myself 10 J.B. Lenoir - Don't Dog Your Woman 11 Otis Rush - Keep on Loving Me Baby 12 Muddy Waters - I Can't Be Satisfied 13 Sunnyland Slim - Shake It 14 Walter Horton - It's Alright 15 Buddy Guy - When My Left Eye Jumps 16 Magic Sam - She Belongs to Me 17 Johnny Young - Cross-Cut Saw 18 Eddie Boyd - Third Degree 19 Willie Dixon and Friends - I Cry for You Got to feature the blues from time to time on Al compás del mundo as there seems to be a shortage of such on Mexican radio. Although RadioactivaTX.org, the ...

India y Nepal y Tibet

W here a human voice is heard in today’s program it’s often starkly different from what most Westerners might find pleasing and melodic. But I must remind my listeners that the West probably did not invent the concept of vocalizing as accompaniment to plucked/blown/percussed musical instruments. Why do we sing in the style that we do? I imagine there are knowledgeable tomes wrestling with that idea. I ’ve read that vocals were meant to imitate the sounds made by instruments...or vice versa? The chicken or the egg? I’m not here to answer that question, in spite of the college course I had taken of “Music Cultures of the World” decades ago. What I offer is the opportunity to pay attention to and digest musical expressions performed by people steeped in the traditional ways of their culture. T here is a geographic component to lumping together India, Nepal and Tibet as the Himalayas served to isolate and circumscribe the peoples of those northern regions. But here’s where I fud...

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