(The Who didn’t play here in 2009 but sounded pretty great a couple of years ago at the Xcel Center… this photo predates that show by a little. From This Isn’t Happiness.)
Rokia Traore, The Cedar
Vieux Farka Touré, The Cedar
The Itals, Nomad World Pub
Os Mutantes, The Cedar
King Sunny Adé, Minnesota Zoo
Lucinda Williams/Tom & Lu’s wedding, First Avenue
The veterans (Itals, Mutantes, Adé) came through big time with solid shows while the upstarts from Mali (Traore, Farka Touré) showed they can contend with anybody. And Lucinda & Tom’s wedding as the finale to a great performance by her was just an amazing evening for all.
Each of these discs contains an abundance of tracks that will soothe, delight and inspire. While any of them would make a fabulous holiday gift, my recommendation is to treat yourself.
Other fine music from 2009: new releases from Tinariwen, Amadou & Mariam, Vieux Farka Touré (a great year for music from Mali!), Lura, Céu, Alice Russell, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Tony Allen, Puerto Plata, and Staff Benda Bilili. Ignore the pop charts, there is thrilling music percolating all over the planet.
Reissue of the year: Big Star/Keep Your Eyes On The Sky (Rhino): You may already own most of these tracks but they have never sounded better. The live disc is a revelation as well. A worthy monument to a great (and unjustly ignored in their time) band.
Tonight’s edition of Temposphere featured the debut of two new tracks from The Bamboos’ forthcoming CD (including On The Sly with Kylie Auldist on vocals, see the previous post for the video) as well as more music vintage and new from Caetano Veloso, Dinah Washington, Lizzy Parks, Richie Spice and so many others. You can enjoy the show via MP3 streaming for two weeks from broadcast by visiting the KFAI site. Playlists there and here, after the break.
Some formidable names to conclude the series (now at 100 actors and 100 actresses):
Patrick McGoohan, Orson Welles, David Niven, Robert Vaughn, James Coburn, Edward Everett Horton, Walter Huston, Alan Arkin, Vic Morrow, Peter Falk, George Sanders, Steve Buscemi, Ralph Meeker, Joe Shishido, Broderick Crawford, John Turturro, Charles Bronson, Jackie Gleason, Ben Gazzara, Peter Lorre.
Image sources: IMDb, Dr. Macro, Google Images, and my own screen shots.
Although some stumblebum was announcing the show, the flow of music on tonight’s edition of Temposphere was quite scintillating, ranging from the vintage R&B of Stevie Wonder (listen to that track Visions from Innervisions – just gorgeous) and James Brown to contemporary samba soul by Seu Jorge and Ed Motta to deep roots from Junior Reid and the Itals to the hipster jazz vocals of Mark Murphy and The Third Wave, and much, much more. The magic of internet streaming allows you to enjoy the show at your leisure during the next two weeks so by all means partake. The playlist is posted at the KFAI site and here as well, after the break.
I’ve lost the source of the vintage photo above but it’s from one of those saucy image sites like All Thing Amazing.
Antonio Carlos Jobim, Jose Gonzales, The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, Juana Molina and Baaba Maal were among the artists heard on today’s edition of Global Beat on KFAI. The show is available as an MP3 stream for two weeks at the KFAI site and playlists as always are posted there and here, after the break.
photo crop from a Monkey Business still found on auction at eBay.
