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

Al compas del mundo, programa #92 - Japan

The Japanese historically have been a most creative people, excelling in aesthetic conventions like architecture, painting, culinary arts, theatre, music, and more. A craftsman’s care and an artist’s flair have come to define everyday household objects such as articles of clothing and kitchen ware, designed with a sensibility that imbues them with import and elevated status. After WWII in the United States however, an item inscribed “made in Japan” usually indicated a tchotchke of mediocre quality. A perfect example is the large number of Northwest Coast Native American-style bone totem poles made for the tourist shops in the Northwest. There is a distinctive difference in these “artifacts” from the real, home-made variety that illustrates someone from another culture tackling aesthetics they don’t fully comprehend. And that leads us to some of this week’s musical choices. Imitating Western pop, rock and jazz, Japanese artists have recorded many forgettable efforts – not unlike those o...

British blues of the 60s y 70s

  This has to be one of my favorite programs. The British blues scene gave us a healthy dose of reverential and, admittedly, imitative music that awakened a youthful audience suffering from pop fatigue on both sides of the ocean. Of course, the blues, as interpreted by young white musicians who couldn’t have been much further from the Mississippi Delta or the South side of Chicago, can be considered as cultural appropriation. At the same time, those involved in the scene have reminisced that playing the blues was largely a visceral reaction to a compelling combination of rhythm, lyrics and energy that was distinct from the British music scene up to that point. I don’t believe anyone at the time felt guilty playing the songs of their Southern US heroes. Does it make a difference that a number of these groups went on to earn far more money than the originators ever dreamed of? Probably, though many of the greats – Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Sonny Boy Williamson and others – profi...

Nuyorican boogaloo cha-cha-cha

 I’m labelling this week’s playlist as “Nuyorican” music, the lion’s share of the players from Puerto Rico or of Puerto Rican ancestry.  Two notable exceptions are Joe Bataan, a Filipino-African American, and Mongo Santamaria born in Cuba. What they all have in common, however, was centered around the music scene of New York City where African American and Latino musicians forged a common ground in creating “boogaloo” dance music, mixing elements of R&B, Soul, and Latin dance rhythms. The boogaloo genre was fairly short-lived, enjoying popularity during the 1960’s before giving way to salsa, in what was largely an East Coast and Caribbean impulse. “Watermelon Man” and ”El Watusi” were early and major boogaloo hits, but truly, most of the titles included in the program were popular recordings in their day, whether cha-cha-chas like Tito Puente’s “Oye Como Va”, or GFyEN’s guajira. I’ve gathered them here for an hour’s worth of revelation for those too young to have heard thi...