#reid concert hall

[gianttankeh]

Travis Johns / Marlo De Lara / Ali Robertson / Dead Labour Process at Reid Concert Hall, Edinburgh: 29/5/23.

Give Monday the slap it deserves with a quadruple-headed bill of real OUT sounds by a visiting artist, a new resident artist, a long-serving local artist and a freshly reanimated artist in a university building that none of them have ever played at before. You can find out more about this show and make a donation for tickets here.

[domhnallgleesonhaven]

🆕 This’ when the video posted earlier today’s taken: Bob Odenkirk’s show at National Concert Hall in Dublin (April ‘23), feat. Bea.

“Thanks for the hand sanitation station with iron & ironing board to really iron all that Covid out”.

In the pic Juliette and Paul Reid too.

📸 Aisling Bea

[goodiecornbread]

Friends

There is someone I know who is selling their two tickets to Noah's concert next week, for $45 CAD each.

If you're interested, DM me and I'll put you in contact.

[automne-fall]

[scotianostra]

14th April 1582 saw a Charter granted by James VI which would lead to the foundation of University of Edinburgh in 1583.

The founding of the University of Edinburgh can be traced back directly to Robert Reid, Bishop of Orkney and Abbot of Kinloss Abbey. On his death in 1558 he left significant funds for the founding of a seat of learning in Edinburgh, and these formed the basis of the university's endowment. The University was established by a Royal Charter granted by James VI in 1582, making it only the sixth university to be founded in the British Isles, and the fourth in Scotland. Funding came both from the endowment left by Bishop Reid and from the City Council.

In in the 1700s the University of Edinburgh was at the heart of the wide ranging revolution in thinking now known as the Scottish Enlightenment, a revolution that led the French philosopher Voltaire to say "we look to Scotland for all our ideas of civilization". Despite this, until the start of the 1800s, the university had no purpose built buildings, instead occupying a wide variety of rented accommodation. In 1827 this changed with the opening of the Old College, built on South Bridge by the architect William Henry Playfair to plans by Robert Adam.

More new buildings followed, including a new Medical School designed by Robert Rowand Anderson which opened in 1875, and the magnificent McEwan Hall, which was completed in 1880. The university is now also responsible for the oldest purpose-built concert hall in Scotland (and the second oldest in use in the British Isles) St Cecilia's Concert Hall, built for the Edinburgh Musical Society 1763; and in 1889 it opened Teviot House, the oldest purpose built Student Union building anywhere in the world.

The origins of the university library date back to a collection formed in 1580, two years before the university itself was founded. It has grown to become the largest university library in Scotland with over 2 million periodicals, manuscripts, theses, microforms and printed works. It is housed in the main University Library building in George Square, designed by Basil Spence and one of the largest academic library buildings in Europe. There are also a number of more specialised faculty and departmental libraries. In 2011 the previously independent Edinburgh College of Art became part of the university.

The pic shows the charter which the University holdds, the seal itself is not present. Assumed to have been in the possession of the city from the inception until loaned to the University in November 1995.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Tess Owen at The Guardian:

In the last few years, a self-styled political movement that sounds like a contradiction in terms has gained ground online: “Maga communism”. Promoted by its two most prominent spokespeople, Haz Al-Din, 27, and Jackson Hinkle, 24, Maga communism comprises a grab bag of ideas that can seem lacking in coherence – ranging from a belief in the power of Donald Trump’s followers to wrest power from “global elites” to an emphasis on masculine “honor”, admiration for Vladimir Putin and support for Palestinian liberation. The two have been repeatedly kicked off social media platforms for spreading disinformation. Hinkle, for example, was booted from Instagram earlier this year – shortly after claiming in a series of posts that Ukraine was behind the terrorist attack on a concert hall in Moscow, despite Islamic State claiming responsibility for the act.

Hinkle and Al-Din have been ridiculed by critics as pseudo-intellectual, cravenly opportunistic grifters who have carved out an intentionally provocative niche designed to siphon followers away from other highly online political communities. “If you look at their policies, like what they actually propose, it’s clear that this is a deranged fringe movement that doesn’t really have a great deal of articulation,” said Alexander Reid Ross, a lecturer at Portland State University and author of Against the Fascist Creep, which explored how rightwing movements co-opt the language of the left. “It seems ludicrous, but I would say it’s really a symptom of the erosion of rational political life.”

[...] Until recently, Al-Din and Hinkle’s reach seemed limited to corners of the internet largely populated by young men attracted to their messages on masculinity and US foreign policy. But with their inflammatory and often misleading posts about the Gaza war, and as they rail with increasing frequency against what they view as American imperialism, their footprint is growing. “Deranged” or not, Hinkle and Al-Din’s “movement” is attracting recognition in increasingly high places on the right. Hinkle’s defense of Putin’s foreign policy has earned him an invitation on to Tucker Carlson’s show and praise from Trump’s former national security adviser Michael Flynn. Hinkle and Al-Din have also forged international alliances with the likes of the Russian ultranationalist philosopher Alexander Dugin, whom they met at a conference in Moscow earlier this year.

The founder of Maga communism cultivates a militant aesthetic when he addresses his followers via livestream from his home. His beard is carefully coiffed, and he often wears an oversized black blazer and black collared shirt. Behind him, swords are mounted on the wall, “to symbolize the war I am waging to defend the message I believe is true amidst mountains of lies”, Al-Din, 27, who streams on Kick and YouTube under the name “Infrared”, said in a phone interview. Both Haz and Hinkle say they support Trump not out of admiration for the man, but out of the belief that his followers represent the most significant mobilization of the American working class in decades.

They subscribe to social conservatism in a way that appeals to the growing numbers of gen Z males who believe feminism is harmful to men, and cast issues such as transgender rights, the climate crisis and racial justice as neoliberal distractions. “It’s not that we’re against women. We just perceive that the discourse, culture and the political sphere have seen a huge decline in the notion of honor,” Al-Din said. “One of the reasons for that is the decline in basic masculine virtues, the rise of a kind of effeminization, especially of men.” Hinkle has regularly made anti-trans comments on his own social media, making declarations such as: “We need to protect our youth from trans terrorists and propagandists.” “They’re firmly embedded in a corner of social media that is the most vitriolic, terminally online, troll culture,” said Reid Ross.

Hinkle and Al-Din’s links to communism are tenuous at best, but they may be opportunistically emphasizing the label to tap into shifting attitudes. Polling has indicated that members of gen Z, even gen Z Republican voters, are more open to socialist ideas compared with previous generations. In a video debunking Maga communism published last year, the Marxist economist Richard Wolff noted that there’s precedent for nationalist movements co-opting communist rhetoric, particularly during times of social upheaval and economic hardship. “If you’re a political movement and you want to get supporters at a time when socialism is attracting more and more interest, well, you might be tempted to grab hold at least of the name,” Wolff said, noting that this was a strategy most famously used by Adolf Hitler during his rise to power. “It’s provocative,” Hinkle said of his movement’s name, smirking, in a 2022 interview with the comedian Jimmy Dore. “But that’s why it’s trending on Twitter right now.”

According to an infographic regularly recirculated by Hinkle, proposed Maga communist policies include “dismantling big tech”, banning “antifa street terrorism”, ending “woke academia” and subsidizing gyms in every community. They also propose exiting Nato; deporting the Obamas, Bushes and Clintons to the International Criminal Court; ending “open borders”; and “putting banking into the hands of the people”. Hinkle and Al-Din also claim they’re anti-imperialists and cling to the enduring myth of Trump as the more dovish candidate. Their band of online followers see themselves as pitted against “the unipolar world” and “western hegemony”, and they often support authoritarian nations that the US sees as its adversaries, such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Al-Din, for example, told the Guardian that he has a “profound” admiration for North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in part due to his “resilience in defending the honor and history of Korean civilization”.

[...]

Al-Din and Hinkle’s position on the Israel-Gaza conflict makes them outliers in the broader Maga movement, which has largely rallied behind Israel. Trump and his allies have cast pro-Palestinian protests in the US as another manifestation of “wokeness”. Trump recently described protesting college students as “raging lunatics and Hamas sympathizers”. While some other young leaders on the far right, such as the white nationalist livestreamer Nick Fuentes, oppose Israel for explicitly antisemitic reasons, Al-Din and Hinkle insist that their position on the conflict is grounded in their broader “anti-imperialist” stance, shared by more prominent conservatives such as Tucker Carlson, who has also criticized US support for Israel. Hinkle and Fuentes have been allies in the past; Hinkle and Al-Din have previously streamed on Fuentes’ platform Cozy.tv, and Hinkle said he had gotten dinner with Fuentes last September. They fell out shortly after following an argument about class politics and the country-folk artist Oliver Anthony’s viral song about the working class.

But despite Hinkle and Al-Din’s high-profile support for Gaza, the pair were recently jeered at a pro-Palestine event at Emory University. The event was co-hosted by Cair (Council on American-Islamic Relations) and was to feature the political activist Norman Finkelstein. The Emory law student Grayson Walker, the showrunner for Al-Din’s Infrared show, was a co-organizer, and added Al-Din as a speaker at the last minute.

In his bizarre speech, Al-Din berated members of the audience, saying that they were responsible for spreading “imperialist and Zionist propaganda and slander against my comrade Jackson Hinkle” and were “just as culpable in the crimes of the Zionists as those who give their dollars and money to them”. The audience booed him and shouted “shame on you”, after which Cair abruptly canceled the event and put out a statement. “Today, we unwittingly damaged the movement for Palestinian liberation by allowing a rogue actor to hijack an event intended to highlight the Palestinian genocide,” Cair said in a statement. “A student co-organizer commandeered this platform by inserting hateful and divisive guests into the program,” it continued, adding that the organizer, Walker, had “greenlighted a deeply problematic speech”. (Hinkle and Al-Din later claimed they’d been “canceled” by “the Zionists” and used a homophobic slur to refer to the pro-Palestinian students at Emory.)

The Guardian has an article on MAGA Communism, an ideology that marries communism with MAGA politics (basically right-wing politics with a left-wing aesthetic). Jackson Hinkle and Haz Al-Din are its biggest spokespersons of it.

[thislovintime]

Peter Tork, 1970s. Photographer unnamed, from an old eBay listing.

A look at some gigs around this time period...

“April 14-19, 1970 The Troubadour, West Hollywood, CA: Peter Tork/Earth Disciples (Tuesday-Sunday) Dion, formerly of Dion and The Belmonts, but by 1970 a singer/songwriter himself, had originally been promoted for this week. Dion dropped out, and was replaced by former Monkee Peter Tork. Tork had left the Monkees in 1968, when they had disintegrated. Tork had originally been an aspiring  folk singer, and had returned to that, doing some recording in 1969 that had never been released. By 1970, he was in an only-in-LA circumstance, hugely famous, generally popular but not particularly respected as a singer or performer, since the Monkees were the epitome of ‘plastic.’ No doubt he felt that playing this week at the Troubadour could put on the level of less famous but more ‘serious’ performers. I don't think Tork embarrassed himself as a performer, by any means, but he didn't stand out.” - rockprosopography101.blogspot.com, April 2021

“[Peter performed at the Troubadour] as a last-minute replacement for Dion. He performed such standards as ‘Kansas City,’ ‘Blue Monday,’ ‘Get Back,’ and three forgettable originals.” - NME, June 23, 1970

“A folk-rock concert to raise money for Center Point drug abuse center in San Rafael will be held at 7:30 p.m. Friday at Blessed Sacrament Church hall, 160 North San Pedro Road in San Rafael. 
Performing will be Peter Tork, Nazgul, Dough Reid, Koral and Bluebird.” - Daily Independent, May 10, 1971

“What began as an unusual booking last week metamorphosed into what might have been the first great 60’s folk-nostalgia review. The Nitty Gritty Band had been set to play the Troubadour beginning Thursday, leaving an empty spot for Tuesday and Wednesday nights. Phil Ochs was asked to fill in but he refused to do so unless the club’s owner, Doug Weston also took to the stage. Doug, the club’s founder, had never before appeared there in all the years of the club’s operation but, in an apparent fit of bravado, agreed to Phil’s suggestion. Soon after the set’s beginning, after Phil had sung his ‘Bells’ song and Doug Weston had read ‘The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock,’ members of the audience began filing on stage to sing, rap and swill Doug’s win. (’Dilute it with water!’ he yelled to a waitress.) Appearances were eventually made by ex-Monkee Peter Tork, who flailed a banjo (which he used to do regularly at a New York joint called the Four Winds, back in the pre-Kirshner days). [Also appearing were, among others, Peter Asher, Chad Stuart, and Jackson Browne.]” - Cashbox, June 22, 1974

[mostlyinthemorning]

Noah Reid, Fashion Icon: Concert Countdown Edition

Just comin' at us hard with this whole look.

Collar: Popped like it's 1987

Hands: Searching for the bottom of his bottomless pockets

Ankles: Alluring

Smile: 1000 watts, just like always

And there's going to be a video about Danforth Music Hall!

[lesser-known-composers]

Johann Christian Kittel (1732-1809) - Prelude for Organ in F Minor ·

John Kitchen, Reid Concert Hall organ, University of Edinburgh

[dustedmagazine]

“Everybody Hollerin’ GOAT” — Derek Taylor’s 2022

I’ve been reverentially pilfering Bill Steber’s photos as visual ledes for as long as I’ve been writing these Year End paeans (the first was in 2003, making this one the nineteenth). There’s something about Steber’s keen eye for negative space, composition and context that makes me think of Blue Note’s Francis Wolff, if transplanted to the Mississippi hill country. No blues to speak of in the stack of recordings this time around, at least as sourced from that legendary, loamy region, but still lots that’s helped keep my head screwed on and faculties relatively fog-free over the past twelve-months.

Wadada Leo Smith

Smith’s ascendance to octogenarian eminence was simply too merry and momentous an occasion to be contained to a single year. As the concluding two entries in a hexalogy of releases on the Finnish TUM label highlighting facets of his multifarious output, Emerald Duets and String Quartets, Nos. 1-12 dropped in May and were also arguably the most ambitious. The Dusted bullpen collectively dug in on both sets in a rousing Listening Post roundtable that forgivably favored the more accessible exploratory encounters with drummers Jack DeJohnette, Andrew Cyrille, Han Bennink and Pheeroan AkLaff.

Joe McPhee

The Powerhouse from Poughkeepsie turned 83 years young in November and as with past years his productive spirit appears immune to enervation or ennui. Ensemble efforts like Survival Unit III’s The Art of Flight (Astral Spirits/Instigation) and Pride of Lion’s No Question No Answers (RogueArt) continue to be the common currency of his artistic realm, but McPhee also found aegis for the release of exhilarating duets with cellist (and freshly-minted MacArthur “genius”) Tomeka Reid (Let Our Rejoicing Rise) and British sax eidolon Evan Parker (Sweet Nothings (For Milford Graves), both pressed on the prolific Corbett vs. Dempsey imprint (see below).

Peter Brötzmann

Speaking again of unstoppable octogenarians, Herr Brötzmann came out of COVID isolation with renewed vigor and a concert calendar still compellingly competitive with musicians a fraction his age. New entries in his edifice-sized discography weren’t nearly as plentiful, but a pair of archival releases still packed a gobsmacking punch. Historic Music Past Tense Future (Black Editions Archive) drops the German reedist and bassist William Parker into the precision polyrhythmic maelstrom of Milford Graves circa spring 2002 across a double slab of vinyl. In a State of Undress (FMP/Be!) is free jazz of a more formal sort with the one-off aggregate of trumpeter Manfred Schoof, bassist Jay Oliver and drummer Willi Kellers tempering the leader’s orotund edges.

Tyshawn Sorey + Greg Osby — The Off-Off Broadway Guide to Synergism (Pi)

Keeping up with Tyshawn Sorey’s indefatigable activities is a lot like keeping pace with Joe McPhee, a full-time pursuit worth every penny and effort. This three-disc set has the instant enticement of capturing his working trio in the hothouse context of an extended gig at the Jazz Gallery in NYC. Add to that a program of alchemized standards sourced from the Great American Songbook and jazz brethren along with altoist Greg Osby in a rare sideman station and the results become an irresistible trigger pull. In a word: epic.

Cecil Taylor

Taylor’s been gone four-plus-years, but his in-life prolificacy continues to bestow posthumous gifts. Revelatory and digital-only, The Complete, Legendary, Live Return Concert at the Town Hall, NYC, November 4, 1973 (Oblivion) expands greatly on its previously truncated incarnation, Spring of Two Blue-J’s originally on Taylor’s own Unit Core imprint back in 1974. Respiration (Fundacja Słuchaj!) and Live in Ruvo Di Puglia 2000 (Enja) reveal previously unreleased prototypes of his solo repertoire separated by the span of thirty-two years. Sharing a surname with the pianist probably suggests the presence of bias, but I will still ardently go on record in stating that all three are essential.

Albert Ayler — Revelations: The Complete ORTF 1970 Fondation Maeght Recordings (Elemental)

Previous editions of this material are now obsolete thanks to this magnificent, meticulously assembled set. So invasive were earlier edits and excisions, particularly as concerns the catalytic contributions of Ayler’s life and musical partner Mary Parks (aka Mary Maria), that it’s like hearing the concerts anew. Parks’ memory and jazz history are restored by producer Zev Feldman and his retinue of collaborators. The results are glorious, both in terms of restored fidelity and the extended majesty of Ayler’s last band firing on collective, conflagratory cylinders.

Chris Dingman — Journeys Vols. 1 & 2 (Inner Arts)

Chris Dingman nearly topped my Year End list two-years ago with an ambitious five-disc opus Peace, a dedicatory body of work for solo vibraphone initially conceived as an aural paregoric for his ailing father. The elder Dingman passed away prior to its release and in navigating the grief in the years since, the son’s doubled down on the unaccompanied format as means of realizing Albert Ayler proffered adage that “music is the healing force of the universe.” Journey’s 1 & 2 reflect their predecessor, but also refract it through a sequence of malleted excursions emphasizing melody and repetition in rippling, elliptical patterns that soothe and enthrall.

Corbett vs Dempsey

John Corbett is indicative of my favorite species of record collector: an altruist whose obsessiveness in the endeavor is exceeded by his ardor for sharing the spoils of this searches through reissues that completely do the artifacts justice. Chief among the offerings this year, German free jazz pianist Georg Gräwe’s first two forays as a leader, New Movements (1976) and Pink Pong (1978), and the pivotal Globe Unity (1967), which restores Alexander von Schlippenbach’s first multinational large ensemble enterprise to circulation. Also of note, another stack of entries inspired by the Sequesterfest series of concerts initiated during the pandemic. Drummer Hamid Drake’s Dedications features solo percussion-planted encomia to his influences and is probably my pick of the eight titles released so far.

The Pyramids — Aomawa: The 1970s Recordings (Strut)

A box set that brings a personal blind spot into bracing focus and rectifies it. The Pyramids initial three albums plus a concert air shot given the deluxe treatment by the Strut label. Ancient to the Future with audible Sun Ra Arkestra and Art Ensemble influences, reedist Idris Ackamoor’s ensemble is never slavish or supine in its interpretations of precedence. Percussion jams are plentiful, as are spiritual jazz overtones, and it all combines in an earthy gestalt that also has a healthy respect and acumen for groove. I’m of an age where regrets feel increasingly impractical, but it’s still good to catch up.

Grounation — The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari (Soul Jazz)

An arguable Jamaican analog to Aomawa in its assemblage of certain analogous ingredients, Groundnation was also something else entirely. Sprawling across three LPs (a milestone in the country’s recording industry), The Mystic Revelation of Rastafari resonates as history lesson, call to arms, sacred text, and adulatory celebration among other appellations. Count Ossie, Cedric IM Brooks and their confreres mined both zeitgeist and musical alloy that had lasting effects not just on reggae, but self-determinate roots-oriented music of all sorts. Soul Jazz’s painstaking attention to accurate reproduction and contextualization is admirable and immersive.

Robbie Basho — Bouquet (Lost Lagoon)

Self-produced, released and circulated in 1984, Basho’s penultimate album tests and perhaps proves the prevailing theory that detractors of his singing far outnumber those of guitar playing. Still, he succeeds where other great polarizers of the pipes like Irene Aebi, Yoko Ono and Ethel Merman fail in his unflappable earnestness and credulity. The self-doubt and cumulative frustrations that haunted Basho in life subsume in the sincerity of his music, strangely sui generis in its intensely personalized strains of borrowed religion, spirituality and mysticism. Mileage varies, but there’s no denying Basho’s commitment to his muses.

Sun Ra

Labels like Modern Harmonic and Cosmic Myth Ra continue to keep Ra relevant even though the Saturnian left the planet decades ago. This year’s passel of reissues includes timely returns of Ra to the Rescue and Universe in Blue, each augmented with extra and/or extended tracks. The latter album includes several showstopping John Gilmore spotlights and ample Ra organ-omics while the former gets its most complete edition yet with a survey of snapshots across 1970s sessions. A genuinely new release, Prophet zeroes in on Ra’s 1986 in-studio experiments with the then-newfangled eponymous console and he responds like a kid in a keyboard candy store with select Arkestral band members, including an ailing June Tyson, in exuberant, if fleeting, support.

Steeplechase

The Danish label is an old reliable in these pages, plugging along with current releases from its international stable of artists alongside occasional, but always welcome, reissues. Stephen Riley’s My Romance isn’t the tenorist’s first recording with B-3 organ, but it does mark his first as a leader. Electing Brian Charette to cover the keys with just Billy Drummond on cans in support is a stripped-down stroke of genius. Vintage concert performances with bop pianist Duke Jordan in the company of Danish tenorist Bent Jaedig (Montmartre ’73) and archival recordings by tenorist Brew Moore (Special Brew) and dearly departed Philly guitarist Monette Sudler (In My Own Way) stand out, too.

Bear Family

Bear Family basically has access to a bank vault-sized archive when it comes to vintage country fare. It’s a mighty good thing because Bill Carter holds at best token traction with the 21st century arbiters of the genre. Sixty-seven tracks across two discs chart the ups, downs, and all arounds of Carter’s career (The Complete Recordings from 1953 to 1961) jumping from Western Swing to hillbilly to honkytonk to rockabilly. Perhaps best of all, Carter was 92, lucid, and around to see the release back in March. Western Swing legend Bob Wills’ younger brother Billy Jack was the recipient of similar treatment with Cadillac In Model ‘A’, a comparatively stingy 31-track survey and latest in the label’s long running Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight series.

Ezz-thetics

Born out of both providence and necessity, the Ezz-thetics label exists in the continued absence of the venerated Hat Hut lineage of imprints. The earlier catalogs are tied up in legal proprietary knots, leaving owner Werner X. Uehlinger to throw caution to the curb and pursue a longstanding dream of applying his decades-honed judgment as a producer to free/jazz classics. The venture immediately ran afoul of critics who took umbrage with his audacity in side-stepping stateside copyright considerations and reimagining sacred texts. Wherever one opines on those controversies, there’s no denying the new lease audio engineer Michael Brandli has accorded the source materials. Cecil Taylor’s (With) Exit to Student Studies Revisited, Paul Bley’s Play Annette Peacock Revisited, and Sun Ra’s Nothing Is… Completed & Revisited are exemplary stand outs.

Fresh Sound

Lisbon-based Fresh Sound is another reissue label that continuously courts its share of contention. The logical, if admittedly self-serving counter is that American rights holders to nearly all of the music that they traffic in couldn’t be bothered to apply even a fraction of the care or quality they bring to bear. Exacting attention to the most esoteric and obscure jazz artists has long been the archetype. This year’s batch includes definitive collections of trumpeter Dave Burns (1962 Sessions), baritone saxophonist Virgil Gonsalves (Jazz in the Bay Area 1954-1959), altoist Joe “Mouse” Bonati (Portrait of a Jazz Hero) and Belgian vibraphonist Fats Sadi (Sadi’s Vibes: A Retrospective 1953-61).

Morteza Mahjubi — Selected Improvisations from Golha, Parts 1 & 2 (Death is Not the End)

Tempered instruments aren’t an intuitive match for micro-tonal composition, but that hasn’t hindered musicians of manifold ethnicities from adapting them to the intricacies of indigenous music. Iranian pianist Morteza Mahjubi did so prolifically during his lifetime, recording his innovations for Golha (Flowers of Persian Song and Poetry) radio programs between 1956 and his passing in 1965. Spread over two album-length discs (with hopefully future volumes to follow), Mahjubi applies his custom tuning system to the ivories and approximates the sonorities of endemic instruments like the tar (lute) and santur (hammered dulcimer).

Branko Mataja — Over Fields and Mountains (Numero)

Mataja’s biography reads like a Spielbergian screenplay. Abducted from his native Belgrade and conscripted to a German work camp during WWII, the lifelong guitar enthusiast worked a variety of trades after being liberated, before emigrating to England, then Canada, and finally a string of stateside cities. Mataja eventually settled in Los Angeles where he worked as a barber and started a side business a freelance guitar technician. Memories of his home country haunted him, and he recorded a pair of albums in his garage studio/workshop from which this LP is sourced. Milky, murky reverb and sustain are calling cards, alongside an improvisatory approach to traditional Croatian melodies that’s equal parts melancholic and mysterious.

V/A — Padang Moonrise: The Birth of the Modern Indonesian Recording Industry 1955-1969 (Soundway)

A double-LP + 7” survey stacked with sublime discoveries from coordinates geographic and temporal that beg for an even deeper dive. Reverb-dipped guitars and swirling, droning organs are persistent common denominators alongside varied hand percussion and a revolving cast of melancholic crooners across genders and dialects. It’s cross-cultural music that’s exotica-adjacent and still ripely redolent of American soul. Ghost World’s Enid would’ve had a field day immersing herself in this stuff. I know I have.

Jalaleddin

Old, but still new to me, and perhaps my most listened to platters among the many vinyl discoveries procured on record shop safaris this year. Discogs lists seven albums to Jalaleddin’s name, and I feel fortunate to have found six on the cheap in a single shop. Based in San Francisco in the 1970s and a master of the kanun (Turkish trapezoidal zither,) Jalal Takesh started his musical career cutting belly dance records. Benefiting from a Santana-like broadmindedness, his bandleading would soon conscript musicians of other traditions including Indian ragas, Greek rebetika, and Spanish flamenco. Hand-sketched and colored by an academic friend of Takesh’s, the album cover illustrations are aces, as well.

25 More in No Fixed Order…

Andrew Cyrille/William Parker/Enrico Rava — 2 Blues for Cecil (TUM)

Michael Bisio Quartet — MBefore (Tao Forms)

Ingrid Laubrock/Brandon Lopez/Tom Rainey — No Es La Playa (Intakt)

Patricia Brennan — More Touch (Pyroclastic)

Mark Turner — Return from the Stars (ECM)

Jeb Bishop/Pandelis Karayorgis/Damon Smith — Duals (Driff/Balance Point Acoustics)

Ches Smith — Interpret it Well (Pyroclastic)

Sam Rivers — Caldera (NoBusiness)

Toots Thielemans & Rob Franken — The Studio Sessions 1973-1983 (Dutch Jazz Archive)

The Pyramids — Penetration! (Sundazed)

Horace Tapscott Quintet — S/T (Mr. Bongo)

V/A — Girls with Guitars Gonna Shake (Ace)

John Ondolo — The Hypnotic Guitar of John Ondolo (Mississippi)

Biluka y Los Canibales — Leaf-Playing in Quito 1960 to 1965 (Honest Jon’s)

Myra Melford’s Fire & Water Quintet — For the Love of Fire & Water (RogueArt)

Ndikho Xaba & The Natives — S/T (Trilyte/Mississippi)

Brandon Seabrook — In the Swarm (Astral Spirits)

Sirone — Artistry (Moved by Sound)

William Parker — Universal Tonality (Centering)

Charles Mingus — The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott’s (Resonance)

Markos Vamvakaris — Death is Bitter (Mississippi)

Jeff Parker — Mondays at the Enfield Tennis Academy (Eremite/Aguirre)

Mal Waldron — Searching in Grenoble: The 1978 Solo Piano Concert (Tompkins Square)

Allan Botschinsky Quintet — Live at The Tivoli Gardens 1996 (Stunt)

Jimmy Castor Bunch — The Definitive Collection (Robinsongs)

Derek Taylor

[julesblackthorns]

for the end of the year book as: 3, 13 and 23?

3. What were your top five books of the year? i recounted these like seven times and i'm sorry i'm giving a top 6 (also i hate ranking things so this order will not hold water w me tomorrow)

the darkness outside us by eliot schrefer

people we meet on vacation by emily henry

greywaren by maggie stiefvater

you deserve each other by sarah hogle

a far wilder magic by allison saft

the seven husbands of evelyn hugo by taylor jenkins reid

13. What were your least favorite books of the year? i read the 'what if it's us' duology and wasn't into it AT ALL altho i might just be too far out of the target demographic there, really wasn't into 'half a crown' by jo walton which was HEARTBREAKING TO ME (rip to the small change trilogy books 1 and 2 i still love yall), and husband material by alexis hall................... i'm sorry that ending was SO badly done like i felt offended by how stupid this book thought i was

14. What’s the fastest time it took you to read a book? well i read galatea by madeline miller in about ten minutes, but it was very short. other than that, i read two of the summer i turned pretty books while standing in lines for concerts so that was like an hour each?

[sarahlancashire]

i realised that on my last reblog i forgot some things! also i was forced to omit a few things bc i ran out of tag space oops ("nobody cares, lamorna" - shut up i need to document this correctly)

so let's explain:

saw belinda lang in present laughter (also saw serena evans in that!! and david from cold feet robert bathurst, but he's less important to me); the reluctant debutante (also saw jane asher in it!!); and single spies

old times: met kristin scott thomas, saw lia williams + rufus sewell

the audience: met helen mirren + haydn gwynne (this was also the day when i chased jenny agutter accidentally, and i saw anne reid + stephen tompkinson going through the stage door)

passion play: met sam bond, zoe wanamaker, and lyndsey marshal (she wasn't in the play, she was just there with zoe), saw owen teale

the weir: saw dervla kirwan, met ardal o'hanlon + brian cox

private lives: met anna chancellor

the importance of being earnest: met cherie lunghi + nigel havers

relatively speaking (i went to an ayckbourn play for felicity. this is true love and dedication) met felicity kendal

the national theatre masterclasses: went to penelope wilton + david hare's one, saw them (saw penelope out front beforehand!!), met penelope afterwards

also went to amelia bullmore's masterclass, along w lots of my lovely mutuals 💖; we all met her and talked to her at length

kiss me, kate: saw hannah waddingham

guys and dolls: saw sophie thompson, and phyllida law (her + emma's mother) was in the audience

a damsel in distress: saw summer strallen

mrs. pat: saw penelope keith

oklahoma!: saw josie lawrence (also saw her + paul merton at the comedy store one time)

me and my girl: saw caroline quentin, also matt lucas

fleetwood mac: i've seen them live twice, once with chris mcvie

once there was an event that a choir my mum + i used to be in were invited to sing at, and a lot of the other performers / organisers were famous people: julie graham was one of the organisers, so i saw her, alison moyet was performing (i'd already been to one of her concerts, but not met her yet), so i met her then (she hugged me!!!!) and emma kennedy was there bc she and alf are best friends so i stood near her awkwardly; and caitlin moran was also a speaker so i saw her (backstage and onstage) too; and my mum spoke to her

my mum once won tickets to see a bbc show being filmed, and it happened to be upstart crow (you don't choose what you see, you just get allocated something by the bbc people), so we were on set with david mitchell, liza tarbuck, gemma whelan

i've told the story of being caught in the fire w the new tricks actors + sarah beeny SO many times, but i will tell it again if anyone else wants to hear it

comedians/-ennes i've seen live: ed byrne (twice), alan davies, omid djalili, rich hall (i wasn't that keen on seeing omid or rich but my mum made us all go with her and they were better than i'd expected them to be), zoe lyons, tim vine

and finally: i live in the same town as dave benson phillips (of get your own back, british blue's clues, various other children's television), and he used to be (might still be, for all i know) the next door neighbour of a family friend, so i met him at a party at their house once as a child

[sheetmusiclibrarypdf]

Procol Harum - "A Whiter Shade of Pale" LIVE in Denmark (2006)

Procol Harum - "A Whiter Shade of Pale" LIVE in Denmark (2006)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St6jyEFe5WM In 2006, Procol Harum took to the stage at Ledreborg Castle in Denmark for a truly special couple of shows, culminating in a performance of their most famous song which has continued to stun fans 15 years later. The English rock band were joined by the Danish National Concert Orchestra and Choir for the show, which was later released on DVD. On top form as ever, the show featured a performance of 1967's 'A Whiter Shade of Pale', which has been seen by over 54 million people on YouTube.

Always a fantastic song to hear, this version is particularly special due to the orchestral backing, as well as singer Gary Brooker's vocals, which if anything sound even better than they did at the height of their fame in the 1960s. 'A Whiter Shade of Pale' was Procol Harum's biggest hit, and is one of the few songs to have sold over 10 million records worldwide. Keith Reid got the song's title at a party. He overheard someone at the party saying to a woman, "You've turned a whiter shade of pale", and the phrase stuck in his mind. Reid later told Uncut magazine: "I was trying to conjure a mood as much as tell a straightforward, girl-leaves-boy story. With the ceiling flying away and room humming harder, I wanted to paint an image of a scene. I wasn’t trying to be mysterious with those images, I was trying to be evocative. "I suppose it seems like a decadent scene I’m describing. But I was too young to have experienced any decadence, then. I might have been smoking when I conceived it, but not when I wrote. It was influenced by books, not drugs." Procol Harum are still performing, and released their 12th album Novum in 2017. The band's 13th album, Novum, was released on 21 April 2017 and the band played 36 dates in the UK and Europe to promote it. However, the most significant concert of the year came in March when the band played with an orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Whilst leaving the stage at the end of the first half, Gary Brooker fell and was seriously hurt. He reappeared for the second half with his head bandaged and nursing "a broken hand". In 2018 the band again toured in Europe, including an orchestral show at the London Palladium on 9 October. They commenced 2019 with a Caribbean cruise hosted by Justin Hayward, with many well-known rock acts. A US tour was due to follow. In 2018, the band was honoured by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame when "A Whiter Shade of Pale" was inducted into the brand-new Singles category.

Procol Harum - A Whiter Shade of Pale LIVE (2006) at the Ledreborg Castle in Denmark

Best site for sheet music download is here.

Procol Harum is an English rock band formed in 1967. Their best-known recording is the 1967 hit single "A Whiter Shade of Pale", one of the few singles to have sold over 10 million copies. Although noted for their baroque and classical influence, Procol Harum's music is described as psychedelic rock and proto-prog. Current members - Gary Brooker – lead vocals, piano (1967–1977, 1991–present) - Geoff Whitehorn – guitar, backing vocals (1991–present) - Josh Phillips – organ, synthesisers (1993, 2004–present) - Matt Pegg – bass, backing vocals (1993–present) - Geoff Dunn – drums (2006–present) Discography Main article: Procol Harum discography Studio albums - Procol Harum (1967) - Shine on Brightly (1968) - A Salty Dog (1969) - Home (1970) - Broken Barricades (1971) - Grand Hotel (1973) - Exotic Birds and Fruit (1974) - Procol's Ninth (1975) - Something Magic (1977) - The Prodigal Stranger (1991) - The Well's on Fire (2003) - Novum (2017) Read the full article

[greensparty]

2023: The Year in Green's Party

This was a historic year for my blog as it turned 10! In Jan. 2013 I began this blog as a way to share my thoughts on pop culture and since then I've gotten to do things I never even imagined would be possible: interviewing filmmakers, actors, musicians, authors and more; reviewing movies, music, concerts, books, and theater; covering conventions and film festivals; and connecting with fans who also have their hands on the pulse of pop culture at the moment and it's history. This was hands down one of my best years yet! Here are just a few of the highlights:

the many faces of Green's Party

Retweets and social media: Tom Petty's website included a pull quote from my Nov. 2022 album review of Live at the Fillmore 1997 on their website page for the album; Ondi Timoner and her doc Last Flight Home shared my interview with her on Twitter; the Video Archives Podcast liked and shared my Best Podcasts of 2022 list on Twitter; Cadence13 and David Spade of the Fly on the Wall podcast liked my Best Podcasts of 2022 lists on Twitter; TV Guidance Counselor host Ken Reid liked and shared my Best Podcasts of 2022 list on Twitter; Completely Conspicuous host Jay Kumar liked my Best Podcasts of 2022 list on Twitter; U2 Daily Tour News shared my U2 movie review and album review on their daily newsletter and on Twitter; the Video Archives Podcast liked and retweeted my Quentin Tarantino birthday post; Andy Summers shared my concert review on his social media; the Chasing Chasing Amy team shared my movie review on Twitter; X (the band) shared my concert review on their Facebook; the There Was No Alternative team shared my interview with author Jeff Gomez on their Facebook; and Tremolo Productions liked and retweeted my Congrats to them on 20 Feet From Stardom being added to the National Film Registry on Twitter.

Exene Cervenka and I backstage at the X concert

Interviews: I got to interview a number of entertainers I find fascinating including director Ondi Timoner, musician Glen Matlock, Exene Cervenka of X, author Michael Azerrad, author Jeff Gomez, and Pete Stahl of Scream!

me hanging with Indiana Jones

Movie Reviews: I got to review loads of movies including One Fine Morning, Marlowe, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, my annual guide to the Oscar Nominated Short Films, Scream VI, Bono & The Edge: A Sort of Homecoming with Dave Letterman, Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughan: Brothers in Blues, Spinning Gold, Air, Little Richard: I Am Everything, Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie, Master Gardener, Lynch/Oz, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, The YouTube Effect, Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning: Part One, Oppenheimer, Chasing Chasing Amy, Stop Making Sense re-release, Flora and Son, The Holdovers, The Stones and Brian Jones, Silent Night, The Sacrifice Game, and Godard Cinema!

Album Reviews: I got to review tons of albums including Shonen Knife's Our Best Place, Inhaler's Cuts & Bruises, Philip Selway's Strange Dance and Live at Evolution Studios, U2's Songs of Surrender, Mudhoney's Plastic Eternity, The Kinks' The Journey - Part 1 and The Journey - Part 2, Wilco's Crosseyed Strangers: An Alternate Take on Yankee Hotel Foxtrot and Cousin, Iggy and the Stooges' Raw Power RSD Essential release, The Rolling Stones' Beggars Banquet RSD edition and Hackney Diamonds, Galen & Paul's Can We Do Tomorrow Another Day?, Hollywood Vampires' Live in Rio, Tommy Stinson's Cowboys in the Campfire's Wronger, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds' Council Skies, Alice Cooper's Killer and School's Out Deluxe Editions and Road, Extreme's Six, the Asteroid City soundtrack, Deaf Charlie's Catastrophic Metamorphic, Wham!'s The Singles: Echoes from the Edge of Heaven, Brian May and Friends' Star Fleet Sessions, Neil Young's Chrome Dreams, Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros' Live at Acton Town Hall, London, Aerosmith's Greatest Hits, Speedy Ortiz's Rabbit Rabbit and Major Arcana (10th Anniversary Edition), Courtney Barnett's End of the Day (Music from Anonymous Club), Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense Expanded Edition Remaster, Huey Lewis and the News's Sports 40th Anniversary Edition, Will Butler + Sister Squares' Will Butler + Sister Squares, The Replacements' Tim (Let It Bleed) Edition, The Breeders Last Splash 30th Anniversary Original Analog Edition, Ringo Starr's Rewind Forward, Haim's Days are Gone 10th anniversary edition, Chris Shiflett's Lost at Sea, Duff McKagan's Lighthouse, Prince and the New Power Generation's Diamonds and Pearls Super Deluxe Edition, Snail Mail's Valentine (Demos), Jimi Hendrix Experience's Hollywood Bowl: August 18, 1967, Scream's DC Special, The Beatles' 1962-1966 and 1967-1970, Pearl Jam's Vs. 30th anniversary edition, and The Black Crowes' The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion Box Set.

TV Reviews: This year I branched out and got to review some TV shows including Lucky Hank, John Carpenter's Suburban Screams, Geddy Lee Asks: Are Bassists Human Too?, and John Lennon: Murder Without a Trial.

my friend Ron and I at Boston Calling in May

Concert Reviews: I wrote about my day at the 2023 Boston Calling festival and I also got to cover concerts from Andy Summers, X, Sting, The Breeders, and Scream. I also started a new feature called Concert Pics, where I share pics from concerts I attended but didn't review.

Blu-ray Reviews: I got to review some blu-rays including Project: Alf, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, and We Are Not Alone.

Book Reviews: I got to review and cover some books including Stewart Copeland's The Police Diaries, Michael Azerrad's The Amplified Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, and Jeff Gomez' There Was No Alternative.

my friend Jenn and I at Jagged Little Pill

Theater Reviews: I got to review Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill when it played in Boston!

Comedy Reviews: I got to cover The State reunion show in Boston!

me at the Boston Underground Film Festival in March 2023

me with Mr. Sam J. Jones at 2023 MusicCon Collectibles Extravaganza

Film Festivals, Conventions and Events: In February I got to cover Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Man of the Year presentation to Bob Odenkirk and Woman of the Year to Jennifer Coolidge; the 2023 Northeast Comic Con Spring Edition; the 2023 Boston Underground Film Festival (my first time covering them since 2019); the 2023 Salem Horror Fest; the 2023 Independent Film Festival Boston; the 2023 MusicCon Collectibles Extravaganza; I got to cover the Stop Making Sense reunion Q&A simulcast from TIFF, IFFBoston's 2023 Fall Focus mini-fest, and the 2023 Northeast Comic Con Fall Edition.

Me seeing Stop Making Sense on the big screen!

Stray Observations:

I got to cover Hollywood Vampires collectively and individually: In June I got to review Hollywood Vampires' album Live in Rio and I got to see them live in July, I also saw Joe Perry solo in April and I got to review Aerosmith's Greatest Hits in August, and I got to review Alice Cooper's Deluxe Editions of Killer and School's Out in June and his newest album Road in August.

It was a sad year for Gen X: in May MTV News announced they were ceasing operations; and there was also the passing of Andy Rourke of The Smiths, Sinead O'Connor, and Paul Reubens, all staples of the 80s and 90s :(

The Police never ended: It's as if I got to see a Police reunion this year because I got to cover guitarist Andy Summers' concert in July, singer / bassist Sting's concert in September, and while I didn't see drummer Stewart Copeland live, I did get to cover his book The Police Diaries in October!

Tough year for physical media fans like me between Netflix ending it's DVD by mail service and Best Buy announcing they're going to stop selling DVDs. Time to go to my local library more often for DVDs and blu-rays!

...And the Biggest Postings and News of the Year on Green's Party:

1/2/23: This blog turned 10! It feels like I'm just getting started in some ways!

1/20/23: A very rare clip of The Eric and Mike Show, the cable access TV show I co-hosted and co-produced as a teen, surfaced online.

Jan. - Mar. 2023: I rolled out my Best of 2022 lists in time for awards season!

3/15/23: I had my 3000th post on this blog!

4/18/23: After Netflix announced they would be discontinuing their DVD by mail service, I wrote my remembrance of Netflix DVD.

6/26/23: I shared my thoughts on the Best of 2023 so far.

9/14/23: I got to cover the re-release of Stop Making Sense, the re-release of Talking Heads' soundtrack album, and the simulcast of the Talking Heads' reunion Q&A at TIFF with Spike Lee.

10/28/23: I posted about Dave Grohl's history of SNL appearances. 34 notes.

10/30/23: I got to cover The Holdovers screening with an intro and Q&A from director Alexander Payne.

11/25/23: I wrote about the passing of Marty Krofft. 16 notes.

11/29/23: In memory of George Harrison's passing on that day in history, I posted his music video for "Any Road". 10 notes.

11/30/23: I wrote about the passing of Shane McGowan. 192 notes, making it my biggest post of the year!

11/30/23: I was quoted in a Boston.com article about the best holiday music!

Nov - Dec. 2023: I got to do an album review of Scream's DC Special, interview singer Pete Stahl and cover their concert, a rare hat trick for me!

12/27/23: I wrote about the passing of Tom Smothers. 11 notes.

Thank you for attending Green's Party in 2023! Now onto more pop culture thoughts in 2024....

[design-research-chloe-tredgett]

My photography

This is a few of the shots I got of Ruel when I shadowed Michelle. It was at the Auckland Town Hall and it was so incredible to watch and I am very proud of how the photos turned out.

This was from a show I was asked to shoot in wellington. Park Rd has been my favourite band for a few years now and I have been to 12 of their shows. I have been lucky enough to connect with the band and become good friends with the lead singer and after seeing my photos of Ruel he asked me to shoot their show which was a dream cone true! They posted my work own their instagram after!

This is Molly Payton. I have seen her live a few times now and after posting my photos of her she reposted them on her instagram and I got a lot of traction to my account after she did.

This is a few examples of my other work at concerts such as Lorde, The 1975, Reid - who opened for Park Rd, and Smokefreerockquest Rockiest. I posted some of my photos of The 1975 to tiktok and they got 10 Thousand Likes and almost 50 Thousand views which was very crazy and a little scary.

[jedivoodoochile]

On this day in 1967, Procol Harum released the single “Whiter Shade of Pale” (May 12)

It was Procol Harum’s debut single…

The instantly recognisable, mesmerizing, Bach-inspired keyboard riff, and soulful vocals by Gary Brooker propelled the song to greatness, becoming one of the most commercially successful singles in history, and one of the anthems of the so-called Summer of Love in 1967.

Originally, the writing credits only listed Brooker and Keith Reid, but nearly 40 years after this song was released, Matthew Fisher, who played the organ in the recording, filed a lawsuit claiming that he deserved songwriting royalties for his contributions, and in 2009 after an appeal, the courts finally found in his favour.

Keith Reid wrote the lyrics of every song released by the band that is not an instrumental or a cover, and was an official member of Procol Harum, attending all their recording sessions and most of their concert performances, despite having no performance role in the band.

“A Whiter Shade of Pale” originally had two extra verses which the band used to play when they did the song live, but they were not included on the single because it made the song nearly 10 minutes long.

In 2004 the United Kingdom performing rights group Phonographic Performance Limited recognised it as the most-played record by British broadcasting of the past 70 years and “Rolling Stone” ranked "A Whiter Shade of Pale" #57 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".

In 1998, the song was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

There are more than 1000 known recorded cover versions of this song.

Just let that sink in....

It’s also appeared on the soundtracks of movies such as “The Big Chill” and “Tour of Duty”, and it was a #1 song virtually all around the world (#5 in the US)

John Lennon was a fan of the song, and Billy Joel has also nominated it as one of his favourites.

An absolute classic...