Skip to main content

Big Meander greatest hits programs #26-28

 


This program is a big meander, a mighty voyage, and a highflying fling to hither and yon. A greatest hits selection from three programs that ran eons ago. There’s an initial anchor of major soul music talent - ah, an R&B program! Nope, just a snatch. As we throttle down to “Rumble,” so-called desert blues, the forever talent of the Velvet Underground, and the 1981 anthem “Golden Brown” a lifeline is extended to New Orleans’ Nomo and relative cousins Cuba’s Orishas. Bring ‘em back! And as long as you’re at it, Beny Moré’s got to come along for there’s few classics better-loved in Cuba and the Southlands than “La Culebra”. Pairing old masters brings on Earl Bostic, forever intoning “Harlem Nocturne”…and then the zig zags.

Somehow, I see working class Brits following up with a paean to the truck driver heroes of the land. So, Europe it is for the remainder. With an orchestral French fanfare, Bulgarian flutes and other folkloric themes leading the journey, we come to rest with the eerie yet cheery sound of Icelandic crumhorns. Sounds like a reindeer feast around a blazing fire just before the lava flow takes us all away to Vikingholm. JH


Al compás del mundo - programa #153 Runlist
First Broadcast 11-7-24,
Big Meander greatest hits programs #26-28

01 James Brown - Cold Sweat, Pt. 1 (USA)

02 Aretha Franklin - Think (USA)

03 Al Green - I Can't Get Next to You (USA)

04 Otis Redding - Pain in My Heart (USA)

05 Link Wray and His Ray Men - Rumble (USA)

06 Etran Finatawa - Iriarer (Niger)

07 Velvet Underground - What Goes On (USA)

08 The Stranglers - Golden Brown (Inglaterra)

09 Nomo - Nu Tones (USA)

10 Orishas - Represent (Cuba)

11 Beny Moré - La Culebra (Cuba)

12 Earl Bostic - Harlem Nocturne (USA)

13 Stick in the Wheel - Champion (Inglaterra)

14 L'Occidentale De Fanfare - Les Belles Dames (Francia)

15 Nuova Compagnia di Canto Popolare - Vulumbrella (Italia)

16 Kosta Kolev, Emil Kolev, Kristofor Radanov - Neda Voda Nalivala (Bulgaria)

17 Sebo Ensemble - Adjon az Isten (Hungria)

18 Voces Thules - Krummavísur (Islandia)


Atop Orishas - 'Spirits' or 'Gods'
Below - Crumhornland GrogFest






Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...

Experimental Music: Squeak, Squawk, and Skrunk

Leon Theremin and the Orchestra I’m showing my age with today’s Al compás del mundo playlist. Most all the music represented here is from 20-50 years ago. A couple exceptions are Iranian-Canadian Sina Bathaie and Chile’s Föllakzoid, both a nod towards rave culture…which has its origins in the mid -1980s, an old school trip out which lingers on to this day. Experimental music has been around for who knows how long. Rebels always come out of the woodwork when popular taste imposes limitations.  And electronics have influenced and become the medium as far back as the theremin, invented circa 1918. There’s one more ringer in this group (experimental yes, electronic, no) and that’s Steve Reich’s piece, an excerpt from “Pulse.” The chorus and instruments are organic and live – no recorded sounds and no overdubs. That this sort of music has drawn devotees in great numbers and from all parts of the world would make a case for a commonality in human artistic perception and acceptance. Who s...