#liner notes by jeff buckley

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Liner Notes for Nusart Fateh Ali Khan's "The Supreme Collection Volume 1"

Caroline Records is releasing "The Supreme Collection Volume 1" from Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan & Party on August 26, featuring liner notes written for this collection by Jeff Buckley in 1996.

In his notes, Buckley writes: "The first time I heard the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was in Harlem, 1990. My roommate and I stood there, blasting it in his room. We were all awash in the thick undulating tide of dark punjabi tabla rhythms, spiked with synchronized handclaps booming from above and below in hard, perfect time. I heard the clarion call of harmoniums dancing the antique melody around like giant, singing wooden spiders. Then, all of a sudden, the rising of one, then ten voices hovering over the tonic like a flock of geese ascending into formation across the sky. Then came the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Part Buddha, part demon, part mad angel... his voice is velvet fire, simply incomparable. Nusrat's blending of classical improvisations to the art of Qawwali, combined with his out and out daredevil style and his sensitivity, outs him in a category all his own, above all others in his field.... For the true Qawwali, all meanings of the music exist simultaneously and there is no need of purpose for religious dogma. There is only the pilgrimage to the light within the heart, which is the home of God. There is only a pure devotion and a fierce virtuosity to grow wings and soar through music. To plant a kiss on the eyes of Allah and then sing His loving gaze back into the hearts of Man."

In the wake of Buckley's recent tragic death by drowning, Caroline has dedicated this collection to his memory.

Nusart Fateh Ali Khan's "The Supreme Collection Volume 1"

THE COMPLETE LINER NOTES:

"The first time I heard the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan was in Harlem, 1990. My roommate and I stood there, blasting it in his room. We were all awash in the thick undulating tide of dark punjabi tabla rhythyms, spiked with synchronized handclaps booming from above and below in hard, perfect time.

I heard the clarion call of harmoniums dancing the antique melody around like giant, singing wooden spiders. Then all of a sudden, the rising of one, then ten voices hovering over the tonic like a flock of geese ascending into formation across the sky.

Then came the voice of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Part Buddha, part demon, part mad angel...his voice is velvet fire, simply incomparable. Nusrat's blending of classical improvisations to the art of Qawwali, combined with his out and out daredevil style and his sensitivity, outs him in a category all his own, above all others in his field.

His every enunciation went straight into me. I knew not one word of Urdu, and somehow it still hooked me into the story that he weaved with his wordless voice. I remember my senses fully froze in order to feel melody after melody crash upon each other in waves of improvisation; with each line being repeated by the men in the chorus, restated again by the main soloists, and then Nusrat setting the whole bloody thing alflame with his rapid-fire scatting, turning classical Indian Solfeggio (Sa, Re, Gha, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni) into a chaotic/manic birdsong. The phrase burst into a climax somewhere, with Nusrat's upper register painting a melody that made my heart long to fly. The piece went on for fifteen minutes. I ate my heart out. My roommate just looked at me knowingly, muttering, "Nusrat...Fa-teh...A-li...Khaaan," like he had just scored the wine of the century. I felt a rush of adrenaline in my chest, like I was on the edge of a cliff, wondering when I would jump and how well the ocean would catch me: two questions that would never be answered until I experienced the first leap.

That is the sensation and the character of Qawwali music, the music of the Sufis, as best I can describe it.

In between the world of the flesh and the world of the spirit is the void. The Qawwali is the messenger who leaps empty-handed into the abyss and returns carrying messages of love from the Beloved (Allah). These messages have no words, per se, but at the high point of a Qawwali performance, they come in bursts of light into the hearts and minds of the members of the audience. (Of course, by that time the whole house is either hanging from the rafters, or dancing.) This is called Marifat, the inner knowledge, and it is in the aim of the Qawwali tradition to bring the listener into this state: first through the beauty of the poetry and the weight of its meaning; then, eventually, through the Qawwali's use of repetition; repeating the key phrases of the poem until the meaning has melted away to reveal the true form to the listener. I've seen Nusrat and his party repeatedly melt New Yorkers into human beings. At times I've seen him in such a trance while singing that I am sure that the world does not exist for him any longer. The effect it has is gorgeous. These men do not play music, they are music itself.

The texts from which traditional Qawwals are sung come from the works of the great sufi poets: Bulle Shah (1680-1753), Shams Tabrez (d. 1247), Shah Hussain (1538-1599), and the great Sufi poet and scholar, Amir Khusrav (1253-1325), who was the inventor of Qawwali itself. These texts are devotional, of course, meaning poems of worship for Allah (Hamd) and the prophet Muhammad (N'ati-Sharif). There are also love poems (ghazals), where a more secular romantic interplay is happening between man and woman (which I can dig). The Qawwali's, however, see ghazals as a metaphor between Man and the Divine. They don't care about which meaning was derived from where. In the true Sufi way, through their music, any meaning that is needed by the listener is there for the listener to absorb. For the true Qawwali, all meanings of the music exist simutaneously and there is no need of purpose for religious dogma. There is only the pilgrimage to the light within the heart, which is the home of God. There is only a pure devotion and a fierce virtuosity to grow wings and soar through music. To plant a kiss on the eyes of Allah and then sing His loving gaze back home into the hearts of Man."

Source: Jeff Buckley, New York, 1997

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

[visionsofgideontheninth]

Moon playlist

Has Jin's The Astronaut inspired me to create what are now three different playlists? Does my David Bowie obsession also play a major part here? Did I at the last minute shove a Mandy Moore cover of The Waterboys in because my sister insisted this have 30 songs instead of 29? Yes, yes, and yes. I love some of the playlists others have posted so I wanted to share some of mine 🌝 (images from here and here)

including ... Blue Moon by Billie Holiday / Cosmic Love by Florence and the Machine / Luna by The Smashing Pumpkins/ I Wish I Was The Moon by Neko Case / Moonlight Drive by Blondie, cover of The Doors / Half Moon by Janis Joplin / Moonlight by Agust D / Grace by Jeff Buckley / The Moon by Cat Power ... and then some

[folkimplosionmusic]

Tim Buckley: My Fleeting House is a DVD-Video collection of live appearances and performances by Tim Buckley. It features footage from throughout his career, starting from a 1967 performance of "Song to the Siren" on The Monkees TV show and ending with a performance from May 21, 1974 of "Dolphins" (written by fellow 1960s folk musician Fred Neil) for The Old Grey Whistle Test. Broadcasts from WITF-TV's The Show from 1970 has performances of "I Woke Up" and "Come Here Woman". The DVD also contains recorded interviews with occasional songwriting partner Larry Beckett, regular lead guitarist Lee Underwood and David Browne, author of Dream Brother: The Lives and Music of Jeff and Tim Buckley, a dual biography of Tim Buckley and his son Jeff Buckley. The release also contains a 12-page photo booklet with liner notes.

Track listing

All Songs by Tim Buckley except where indicated: ( * by Larry Beckett/Tim Buckley)

"No Man Can Find the War"* performed at Inside Pop

"Happy Time" performed at Late Night Line Up

"Morning Glory"* performed at Late Night Line Up

"Dolphins" (Fred Neil) performed at Old Grey Whistle Test

"Song to the Siren"* performed at The Monkees Show

"Who Do You Love" performed at Greenwich Village

"Happy Time" performed on Dutch TV

"Sing a Song for You" performed on Dutch TV

"Sally Go Round the Roses" (The Jaynetts) performed at Music Video Live

"Blue Melody" performed at Boboquivari

"Venice Beach (Music Boats by the Bay)" performed at Boboquivari

"I Woke Up"* performed at WITF-TV's The Show

"Come Here Woman" performed at WITF-TV's The Show

"Pleasant Street" performed in the film The Christian Licorice Store

[citylightsbooks]

5 Questions with Daphne A. Brooks, Author of Liner Notes for the Revolution

Daphne A. Brooks is the author of Jeff Buckley's Grace and Bodies in Dissent, and winner of the Errol Hill Award for outstanding scholarship in African American performance studies. A professor at Yale University, she has written liner notes to accompany the recordings of Aretha Franklin, Tammi Terrell, and Prince, as well as stories for the New York Times, The Guardian, The Nation, and Pitchfork.

Daphne Brooks is in conversation with Ann Powers discussing her new book Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound in our City Lights LIVE! discussion series on Wednesday, February 24

****

Where are you writing to us from? I am writing to you from?

I am writing to you from New Haven, CT… but my heart, and I’m not kidding about this, is in San Francisco—and Berkeley and Oakland and Menlo Park/Palo Alto—my hometown turf!

What’s kept you sane during the pandemic?

Baking, late-night television (Trevor Noah, Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon—watched in the 2AM hour), I May Destroy You (more episodes, please!), The Forty-Year-Old Version, the Childish Gambino record nobody listened to but me, the Fiona Apple record that everybody listened to early in the pandemic, Arlo Parks’ debut album, our beloved and beautiful young chocolate lab Gibson who, so incredibly sadly, we just lost . . . 

What are 3 books you always recommend to people?

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man; Toni Morrison, Jazz and/or A Mercy; Crime and Punishment (had to read it in the 6th grade)—plus one short story: James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues"

Which writers, artists, and others influence your work in general, and this book, specifically?

- Greil Marcus, Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century; - Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century; - Ann Powers, Good Booty: Love and Sex, Black and White, Body and Soul in American Music; - Albert Murray, The Hero and the Blues & assorted essays; - Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man & assorted essays; - Saidiya Hartman, Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Riotous Black Girls, Troublesome Women and Queer Radicals; - Toni Morrison, Jazz, Beloved, Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination; - Farah Jasmine Griffin, If You Can’t Be Free, Be A Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday; - Gayle Wald, Shout, Sister, Shout! The Untold Story of Rock-and-Roll Trailblazer Sister Rosetta Tharpe; - Josh Kun, Audiotopia: Music, Race, and America; - Fred Moten, In the Break: The Aesthetics of the Black Radical Tradition, The Universal Machine, Black and Blur, Stolen Life

If you opened a bookstore, where would it be located, what would it be called, and what would your bestseller be?

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, full coffee bar, turntables and listening booths, extensive newsstand, extensive music books section, BIPOC sections, critical gender studies and queer theory sections, performance space, public library/donations space, extensive children’s lit area. It’s called: Words In Stereo. Bestseller: that’s a tough one! Maybe some kind of a book that hasn’t been conjured up yet, a collaborative endeavor by Amanda Gorman and Greta Thunberg.

[fairplaypittsburgh]

We Bid You FairWell

Dear Musicians, Venue Owners, Live Music Enthusiasts, and Industry Professionals:

 We want you to be the first to know that after much consideration of Fair Play’s role in the music ecosystem, we have decided to let it go dormant during this time of nationwide challenges and transitions. Fair Play was primarily a safe public forum for you to evaluate the live music scene in the Pittsburgh region. We wanted to know how things were going, and we hoped to empower actions towards equity, excellence, and sustainability.

With your involvement we successfully completed our initial goal. You shined a bright light on the realities facing musicians in the 21st century, our physical places, and the many players who make our broader music community what it is. You told us what you needed to thrive and we put that in our high-level summary as a community roadmap. 

Now, with the pandemic, with the reduced ability to perform in person, and the closure of many beloved venues, the local scene needs to adapt. We don’t know how it will develop, survive and thrive but we know the work we've done still has many relevant insights.

Here's What's Changing in the Next Few Weeks

All scheduled Fair Play Shop Talk events have been cancelled.

The Fair Play Facebook Group will be archived Monday, September 14. Pop over and let everyone know what you’ve been working on and where folks can find you. Once the group is archived, you are still able to access all of the information. 

We encourage you to stay connected to other music advocacy Facebook groups; we recommend the Pittsburgh Music Ecosystem Project.

The Fair Play website remains live for the foreseeable future as an archived free resource of our meetings and research, which is open to all. We hope you will re-visit, get inspired by the photos, ideas, and playlists, and launch any of the creative solutions or programs available. It's yours to use. 

Thank You and Farewell

Many people made this project happen and their passion and professionalism was a joy to work with. Here are the liner notes:

First and foremost, we thank you for the years of engagement at meetings, in personal conversation, and online. You made FairPlay what it is.

We thank the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council (GPAC) — especially Christiane Leach, Artist Relations Manager - for giving enthusiastic and wise administrative oversight to this project since its inception. It would not have happened without her. GPAC will continue to host Fair Play information on their website. Thank you!

We thank Lauren DeMichiei for her incredible initiative and skill at design, creating Spotify playlists featuring Pittsburgh music, leading Shop Talk, and keeping the FB group activated. If you are interested in continuing efforts with musician advocacy in Pittsburgh, Lauren has some irons in the fire. Definitely get in touch with her.

Both GPAC and Lauren were instrumental in providing financial support to keep the project going and we thank them for their generosity.

Additional thanks to all the venues that hosted our meetings, to Randall Coleman, Kristy Strickler, and Heather Mull for the excellent photography, RJ Kozain and JuliAnne Wright for moderating the Facebook group in recent months, and Traci Jackson for her deft ability to help Fair Play organizers sift through all the data to create our summary document which now serves as a guide for future activities. Haven't read it? Go HERE.

Thank you to the amazing line-up of folks who took part or agreed to take part in Shop Talk! A quick shout out to: Jeff Betten, Justin Strong, Allison Kacmar Richards, Sondra Woodruff, Tim Wolfson, Gordon Nance, Bob McCutcheon, Jimmy Hoyson, Tom Brieding, Brian Buckley, Jordan Snowden, and Katie Oltmanns. 

Finally, we want to thank Heather Kropf for being nuts enough to start this whole thing by inviting us to take stock of our work and our selves as a community, and enticing us to publicly imagine best case scenarios. 

We have loved this project and hope it has brought you some value over the past five years.

Take care of yourself.

Heather Kropf | Christiane Leach | Lauren DeMichiei

F a i r P l a y   P i t t s b u r g h

[savetopnow]

2018-03-17 10 MUSIC now

MUSIC

Brooklyn Vegan

tours announced: Candiria, The English Beat, POPTONE & more

Charli XCX played guest-filled 'Pop 2′ show in L.A. (review, videos)

Gov't Mule announce 'Dark Side of the Mule' dates with The Avett Brothers

Bill's Indie Basement (3/16): the week in classic indie, college rock, and more

Yo La Tengo celebrating new LP with Rough Trade in-store with Yuka Honda

Consquence of Sound

The Decemberists thank Special Counsel Robert Mueller in the liner notes of their new album

Motion Picture Academy president John Bailey accused of sexual harassment

SXSW Film Review: Paradox Works Better as a Concert Film Than As a Sci-Fi Western

Film Review: Love, Simon Puts New Faces At the Center of the Romantic Comedy

Neil Young calls farewell tours “bullshit”

Fact Magazine

Inga Copeland releases new Lolina album The Smoke

Visit MJ Cole’s gin factory-turned-studio in east London

Influential South African artist DJ Spoko has died, aged 35

Behringer shares prototype of Sequential Circuits Pro-One synth clone

Google has designed a DIY controller for its AI synthesizer

Fluxblog

The Sun In Your Cold World

Took Me For A Ride

At My Leisure

What Is This Force

Hopes Or Holidays

Idolator

She’s Coming! Tinashe Announces ‘Joyride’ Release Date, Unveils Cover

PRETTYMUCH Have A Massive Pop Moment With “Healthy”

Demi Lovato Helps Q-Tip Put A Unique Spin On Elton John’s “Don’t Go Breaking My Heart”

The Driver Era Talk “Preacher Man,” New Direction & Innovation: Interview

Troye Sivan Delivers A Chic “My My My!” Performance For ‘Jimmy Fallon’

Listen to This

Circa '69 - Open Seas [Rock / Blues / Psychedelic] 2018]

LCMDF -- Another Sucker [Electropop] (2018)

The Tiffanys - Blow [shoegaze, indie pop] 2018

Leo Nite -- Crystallized [Psychedelic / Soul] (2017)

Lowtide -- Elizabeth Tower [shoegaze / dream pop] (2018)

Popjustice

Saluting the artwork for PRETTYMUCH’s Healthy

Louisa Johnson interview: “We went, ‘oh, fuck it, let’s just get drunk’”

Popjustice’s Spring Statement: Key Points

New Music Friday: Vera Blue’s Lady Powers are still strong

New Music Friday: When it’s time to put Andrew WK at the top of the playlist it’s time to put Andrew WK at the top of the playlist hard

Reddit Music

Jeff Buckley - Eternal Life + Kick Out The Jams - Rock Werchter ‘95

The Cranberries - Zombie - Fingetstyle Guitar Cover, In tribute to Dolores

What metal album is best experienced listened to front to back?

Yo! It’s Matt from Dirty Heads. Ask me anything!

Run the Jewels has a new animated video out

Rolling Stone

Aretha Franklin Cancels Upcoming Concerts on Doctor's Orders

Mike Gordon: Five Songs That Transported Me

Hear Toni Braxton's Heartbroken New Song 'Sex & Cigarettes'

10 New Albums to Stream Now: The Decemberists, Meshell Ndegeocello and More Editors' Picks

Rich Homie Quan Reveals New LP Made With 'Hennessy, Weed, Fruit Snacks'

Slipped Disc

What James Levine wants

Australian tenor pleads guilty to child sex offences

The next Mahler cycle will come from … Minnesota

Alberto Vilar is out of jail

How the other tenth live

Spotify Blog

Spotify Launches Self-Serve Advertising Platform in the UK and Canada

Spotify Announces Launch of Line-In

John Hancock and Spotify Give Runners Everywhere Access to Custom Playlists and Tips from Some of the World’s Fastest Marathoners

Spotify Kicks off Women’s History Month with the Launch of ‘Amplify,’ a New Hub Spotlighting Causes & Community Voices

Spotify’s Electrifying Concert Series “RapCaviar Live” Returns with a New Tour Lineup featuring Migos, 2 Chainz, Tory Lanez, DJ Mustard, Lil Pump, and more

We Are the Music Makers

Introducing MovingCollage: create video collages online for free - made with musicians in mind*

Any tips on starting a label on DistroKid?

Relearning to play guitar.I need some advice.

Whats the deal with audio over 0DB?

How do i make the buffer size higher than 1024? I'm working on a really heavy mix and I need the extra latency.

[violasbabygirl]

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by VIOLA'S BABYGIRL'S VENTURES (@violasbabygirlsventures)

I'm so happy for this lady right here. She is ah-mazeink!! 😋 Git it Becca!! ✌✊❤💜💙 Reposted from @beccastevensbsb She’s here. It’s been exactly 364 days since the first WONDERBLOOM recording session with @nic.hard in Brooklyn. This record has pushed & pulled me, and redefined who I am as an artist & producer. Thank you Nic for making this with me and for the unbelievable amount of time and care you put into this. Thanks to the 46 collaborators(!!) who played their hearts out/butts off (listed below). Thank you to @groundupmusicny @polyartsmanagement @rekroommedia for holding me up & believing in whatever I do. And thank YOU all, friends, family, and fan-mily for receiving each new chapter with open arms and open minds. Oh & hey! Link in my bio takes you to the record. Liner notes & lyrics are on my website. ‘Cause streaming, ‘n stuff. With love & gratitude, Becca 🤘🏼 ::: WONDERBLOOM GUEST MUSICIANS ::: Alan Hampton @alanshampton Bob Lanzetti @boblanzetti Bobby Sparks @moogboogieman Bill Campbell Bill Stevens @myopicgroove Chris Tordini @chris_tordini Cory Wong @coryjwong David Crosby @thedavidcrosby Eric Lense @ericlense Hamilton Berry Jeff Babko Jacob Collier @jacobcollier Jan Esbra @jan.esbra Jason Lindner @flymyspcshp Jordan Perlson @jordanperlson Joshua Lopez Josh Mease Jules Buckley @julesbuckleymusic Justin Berger @_j_berger Justin Stanton @justinmstanton Kaveh Rastegar @kavehrastegar Keita Ogawa @keita_percussion Larry Goldings @larrygoldings Laura Perrudin @lauraperrudin Lenny Falwell @lenhole_ Liam Robinson @liambrobinson Marcelo Woloski @marcelowoloski Mark Lettieri @mjlettieri Max ZT @maxzt Mike ‘Maz’ Maher @mikemazmaher Michael Mayo @merker_merr Michelle Willis @boutwillismusic Michael League @michaelleague Nate Werth @nwerthy Nathan Schram @schramnate Nic Hard @nic.hard Roosevelt Collier @rooseveltcolliermusic Ryan Scott @ryanscott_boom CHOIR: Ella Hard Talula Hard James Corman Lela Corman Satie Stevens Julianne Stevens - #regrann https://www.instagram.com/p/B9-O1HqJSkV/?igshid=1hb80wdm7y7rf

[sweetdreamsjeff]

In the small workspace room, they painted a poem on the window pane in blue stained-glass paint. Alluding to the nicknames they had for each other-Jeff was “Scratchy,” Moore “Butterfly”-it read: “The tip of her wing grazed the water lightly where only moments before she had seen the shadow move. She heard the rumors about a lone scratchy fishy. Possibly the only one of it’s kind. Roaming the dark water with his eyes to the sky. With each careful swoop she moved close to the swirling, beautiful blue.”-from Dream Brother

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Jeff Buckley’s debut album, Grace, has been heralded by many journalists and musicians as one of the best albums of the ’90s. Today, 10 years later, Jeff’s music continues to inspire and influence fellow musicians, artists and fans around the globe.

Now Columbia Records is proud to present, Grace (Legacy Edition). The Grace (Legacy Edition) will be released on the same day as the original Grace album marking the 10th anniversary of this monumental album.

Jeff Buckley was a prolific singer/songwriter, always striving for perfection. He would record many of his songs in various styles. Jeff also took time to record a number of songs by the artists that inspired him. Both of these aspects of Jeff’s music are encompassed on Grace (Legacy Edition). Disc One features the original album newly remastered for a new sonically rich, crisp sound not heard before. Disc Two features perviously unreleased live recordings and material recorded during the Grace sessions, including the highly sought-after track “Forget Her.” “Forget Her” was originally recorded for the Grace album but was taken off by Jeff after he and band member, Michael Tighe wrote “So Real.” This marvelous new edition also includes many previously unseen photos and new insightful liner notes and song by song annotations for the bonus material.

Grace (Legacy Edition) also includes a bonus DVD featuring a newly expanded version of the original Grace documentary (included on the Live In Chicago DVD), now titled The Making Of Grace. The Making Of Grace includes original documentary material interwoven with new and archival interviews with band members and producers, featuring rare unseen footage of Jeff in the studio recording the album. In addition, this fantastic bonus DVD features all four videos done for the album and a new video done for the previously unreleased track “Forget Her.”

With a treasure trove of material (most previously unseen and unheard), Grace (Legacy Edition) is the definitive document of a brilliant artist and talented performers – an essential recording for fans and collectors.

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Jeff Buckley Grace (Legacy Edition) C3K/CVD 92881

Order now and get your FREE, limited edition Jeff Buckley CD-sized booklet with photos of Jeff (same previously unseen) and your FREE Jeff Buckley Poster. While supplies last.

Jeff Buckley's debut album, Grace, has been heralded by many journalists and musicians as one of the best albums of the '90s. Today, 10 years later, Jeff's music continues to inspire and influence fellow musicians, artists and fans around the globe.

Now Columbia Records is proud to present, Grace (Legacy Edition). The Grace (Legacy Edition) will be released on the same day as the original Grace album making the 10th anniversary of this monumental album.

Jeff Buckley was a prolific singer/songwriter, always striving for perfection. He would record many of his songs in various styles. Jeff also took time to record a number of songs by the artists that inspired him. Both of these aspects of Jeff's music are encompassed on Grace (Legacy Edition). Disc One features the original album newly remastered for a new sonically rich, crisp sound not heard before. Disc Two features previously unreleased live recordings and material recorded during the grace sessions, including the highly sought-after track "Forget Her." "Forget Her" was originally recorded for the Grace album but was taken off by Jeff after he and band member, Michael Tighe wrote "So Real." This marvelous new edition also includes many previously unseen photos and new insightful liner notes and song by song annotations for the bonus material.

Grace (Legacy Edition) also includes a bonus DVD featuring a newly expanded version of the original Grace documentary (included on the Live In Chicago DVD), now titled The Making Of Grace. The Making Of Grace includes original documentary material interwoven with new and archival interviews with band members and producers, featuring rare unseen footage of Jeff in the studio recording the album. In addition, this fantastic bonus DVD features all four videos done for the album and a new video done for the previously unreleased track "Forget Her."

With a treasure trove of material (most previously unseen and unheard), Grace (Legacy Edition) is the definitive document of a brilliant artist and talented performers---an essential recording for fans and collectors.

August 23, 2004

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Live a L'Olympia - Review

GENRE:Rock

LABEL:Columbia

REVIEWED:October 1, 2001

Release Date: July 1, 2001

Many religions prescribe time for meditation. It's a concept I'm sort of attracted to. I've even attempted ...

Many religions prescribe time for meditation. It's a concept I'm sort of attracted to. I've even attempted some of the traditional methods, but I always get distracted: my foot falls asleep, my ass starts hurting from being sat on all weird, or I have intense, apocalyptic visions like the ones in Ken Russell's Altered States. (Incidentally, being transformed into a cro-magnon and busting into a zoo in the dead of night to consume live bovine is highly overrated.) I'm not really sure why I attempt to put myself through such torture, though, when I know that music can provide the obliteration of surroundings I seek. Jeff Buckley is always there for me.

The first ten tracks from Buckley's second officially released live album, Live a L'Olympia, are culled from two shows that took place on July 6th and 7th in 1995, almost a year after the release of Grace. The recordings are sourced from an analog audio cassette that was found among Buckley's possessions after his death. For a major label concert release, there's a high amount of noise present, but this is significantly outweighed by the quality of the performances documented. The liner notes call these shows "high points of [Buckley's] performing career," a fact that's quite apparent in the material, which is by and large pretty stunning stuff.

Such is the case with the two songs that open the album, "Lover You Should've Come Over" and "Dream Brother." Buckley's band are a focused and tight bunch who can only complement Buckley's ecstatic falsettos. Both tracks exceed seven minutes in length, yet there's not a second lacking in energy. Buckley begins the verse of "Dream Brother" with a barely audible, steadily repeating guitar note that builds to a reverbed crash as he hammers the pickup. The arrangement isn't very distant from the performance on last year's Mystery White Boy, but this recording seems somehow more poignant.

Then there's "Eternal Life," and the cover of the MC5 classic, "Kick Out the Jams," while expose Buckley's subtle death metal leanings, allowing them to gawkily escape into the open. I doubt the fans are looking for more of that after the version of the former song on Mystery White Boy. Then again, I've always preferred the more minimal Live at Sin-E version of the song to Grace's studio version.

Which leads me to the only problematic flaw of L'Olympia: at times, the live energy defies capture on tape, and at others, it actually interrupts the performances. Buckley stops in the middle of both "Je N'en Connais pas la Fin" and "Hallelujah." On the latter, he even asks the audience if they want him to finish the song. When heard, the question seems to be an angry retort to an impolite audience, but according to a statement made by Buckley's mom in the liner notes, Jeff was reveling in the support of his audience-- something that was relatively new to him at the time of this recording.

The audience joins in to sing "Hallelujah." Buckley proclaims, "This is so rock and roll," and proceeds to sing harmony with his active audience. But while this would have been an astounding experience in person, the recording doesn't capture much of the audience, and some of Buckley's complementary vocal lines seem awkward. Later, the disc concludes with a soundboard recording of "What Will You Sa," recorded at 1995's Festival of Sacred Music, which was held in a small village in western France. Here, Azerbaijani singer Alim Qazimov adds vocals and plays tabla, with Buckley occasionally mimicking Qazimov's middle-eastern vocal turns, making it a uniquely engaging track in Buckley's live oeuvre.

Live a L'Olympia hasn't yet been issued domestically, and it isn't listed on Columbia's American release schedule. For Buckley fans, I personally consider "What Will You Say" to be worth the hassle of an international order. And if you care to sing along, Jeff will harmonize. You might just forget where you are.

[sweetdreamsjeff]

Music Review: Jeff Buckley, Live at Sin-é

August 27, 2003

BySal Cinquemanion

Jeff Buckley was much more than the tragic rock god he has become. He was a soul singer who incorporated a passion for the blues and jazz into his folky brand of rock music. No Buckley release since his death in 1997 has captured this soulful essence the way his 1993 EP, Live at Sin-é, did (and does). Reissued by Legacy Recordings with an additional 17 tracks, Live at Sin-é, in its new form, is what 2000’s Mystery White Boy (and the second disc of Sketches: For My Sweetheart the Drunk, for that matter) should have been: a private yet very public glimpse into the evolution of one of the most promising artists of the ‘90s. The album captures the folk movement of the East Village that was still flourishing in the early part of the decade—it’s an artifact left over from when there were more artists on St. Mark’s than fast food joints. The performances found here—recorded at the Sin-é Café in the summer of 1993—find Buckley disarmed, challenged, inspired and, above all, graceful. Only a handful of songs on the album are original compositions (“Mojo Pin” and “Eternal Life,” both of which appeared on the original release, along with “Grace” and an early version of “Last Goodbye”), but the covers Buckley chose to perform seem tailor-made for him. He makes Dylan his own (“Just Like a Woman,” “I Shall Be Released”) and even manages to fit his little white-boy feet into Billy and Nina’s shoes (“Strange Fruit,” “Twelfth of Never”). And, of course, there’s Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” a song he transformed into something wholly unique on his landmark full-length debut Grace. The listening experience is at once disturbing and comforting—the double-disc set includes many amusing interludes, one of which is an impromptu impersonation of Jim Morrison while another nods to one of Buckley’s contemporaries, Kurt Cobain. For fans of Buckley (both casual and hardcore), this new version of Live at Sin-é will be nothing short of a treasure. The album’s liner notes read: “He was the Montgomery Clift of singer-songwriters, beautiful and bruised, struggling so hard to communicate you could feel it.” One might call communication you can feel “music.” And Live at Sin-é is beautiful communication indeed.

[dreamsister81]

"The next album has this song that we're working on called 'Chocolate' that's all about sex-having the person," Buckley explains.-UR Magazine, September, 1994

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"But I like literal stuff, too. I wanna freak you. I love those fuckin' R&B guys, those really literal, 'Girl, take your clothes off but leave your shoes on, I'm gonna freak you all night, wax your body down with love oils'--totally tacky and clumsy and material sex about satins and furs and 'I'm gonna do anything for ya,' and it's all a lie. It's good, though. I'm makin' up a song like that called 'Chocolate.' I love sex songs, but I don't like most sex songs. There's a song coming out of me called 'Chocolate.' It's just about how good"--Buckley pauses just for a split second--"pussies feel. And everything. I...love...it. I do love it--the way people make a moment out of nothing together, and they must show themselves, and they are naked and have a special language sometimes."-Dallas Observer, November 24, 1994

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"We had just returned to New York after our first tour of the United States and Canada. We were back on home turf and feeling really good about the music. Jeff had begun to improvise intros to this song, but had never gone on as long as this ever before. He was really opening up and incorporating the Nusrat (Fateh Ali Kahn) influence-it was like an incantation. He was proud of it, too. I was there when he heard it on the playback for the first time. He got this great big grin on his face-a beatific look-he was lip-syncing his own lyrics and smiling. I know he specifically asked that they include this performance on the CD."-Michael Tighe from The Grace EPs liner notes