Tag Archives: music now & then

Covers of Classic Bands – The Turtles and Spirit Get Revived

Back in October an all-star lineup including Beck, Jakob Dylan, Fiona Apple, Cat Power and others staged “Echo In The Canyon” in Los Angeles, paying tribute to bands and songs from the early days of Southern California rock and roll.  The concert was timed as a 50th Anniversary celebration of the release of The Byrds’ debut album, “Mr. Tambourine Man”.  

A studio album is due out sometime in 2016, and the first track available is “You Showed Me” performed by Jakob Dylan and Cat Power.  The original was The Turtles’ last big U.S. hit in 1969 and was written by Roger McGuinn and Gene Clark of The Byrds.  Listen to the cover then enjoy a studio performance of the original – complete with vintage 60’s hairdos.

Hollywood Vampires is a super-group of classic rockers built around Alice Cooper and Joe Perry, with Johnny Depp thrown in for good measure.  The band’s name harks back to a drinking club formed by Cooper in the 70’s, with members that included a fair bit of rock and roll royalty.

“I Got A Line On You” covers the incredible band Spirit. Headed by guitarist/vocalist Randy California, Spirit also included Randy’s stepfather, Ed Cassidy. Cassidy was a well known jazz drummer, who just before joining his stepson played in Rising Sons with Taj Mahal and a 17-year-old Ry Cooder. Check out the Hollywood Vampires’ take and the original, and if you want to hear a bit more by Spirit, refer to this earlier post.

Upcoming Releases from Sir Elton and Lake Street Dive, plus a Glenn Frey Tribute

Elton John’s new album “Wonderful Crazy Night” will be released February 5th.  It’s Sir Elton’s 32nd studio album (or 33rd depending on what internet page you believe).  Long-time collaborator Bernie Taupin is still writing lyrics, and uber-producer T Bone Burnett is back after helping out on John’s 2013 album, “The Diving Board”.  Here’s “Looking Up”, one of a few live-studio performance videos made for the new release.

On February 18th Lake Street Dive will release “Side Pony”, their first release with new label, Nonesuch Records.  Nonesuch is a great label, being home to acts as diverse as The Black Keys, Wilco, Ry Cooder, Pat Metheny, and Emmylou Harris. Hopefully it will mean a new level of exposure for LSD.  Unlike Elton’s new album, no cool videos have yet dropped for “Side Pony”, but the band previewed the track “Close to Me” at last year’s Outside Lands Music Festival in San Francisco.

While I wasn’t planning a Glenn Frey tribute this week, I tripped across this Lake Street Dive cover of “Take It To The Limit”. Written by Frey, together with Don Henley and Randy Meisner, it was the only Eagles single on which Meisner sang lead. Here’s the song with Rachel Price singing lead.

David Bowie’s Last Shape Shift

David Bowie’s prolific and inventive recording career began over 50 years ago, and he achieved fame early on with the release of “Space Oddity” in 1969 (see our post from 2013).  Over the decades he was called a “shape shifter” for surprising us regularly with changes in look and musical style.  It is a bittersweet final chapter to his story that he passed away on the day he released “Blackstar”, with its full serving of new musical direction.  We won’t have the opportunity to hear Bowie expand and expound upon this new direction in interviews or performances, so let’s make sure to do a little examination of his last work on our own.

Blackstar was recorded with the backing of jazz musicians saxophonist Donny McCaslin, guitarist Ben Monder, drummer Mark Guiliana and keyboardist Jason Lindner.  Bassist Tim Lefebvre was on hand as well.  Bowie met McCaslin in 2014, and McCaslin, Monder and Guiliana played in the orchestra on Bowie’s 2014 single “Sue (Or in a Season of Crime)”.  The track is in a straighter jazz vein than the more eclectic sounds the group created on “Blackstar”.

The songs from “Blackstar” getting the most early attention are its nearly 10-minute title track and “Lazarus”. Both are the subjects of elaborate videos, the latter taking on a special meaning in light of Bowie’s passing.  But the videos can frankly be a distraction from hearing the music, so let’s start with “Dollar Days” which has no video – but close your eyes for good measure.

Now that you’ve practiced listening with closed eyes, listen to “Lazarus” once that way, then take the last look at one of Rock and Roll’s geniuses he apparently intended us to take.

Two Fine Pianists – A Jazz Prodigy and a Special Singer Songwriter

Let’s start with a VERY young talent, in case you missed the piece on “60 Minutes” last weekend.  Joey Alexander is a 12-year old jazz piano prodigy who’s being mentored by no one less than Wynton Marsales.   The story goes that Joey taught himself to play listening to his parents’ jazz records in his native Bali. It’s pretty obvious that his brain is wired in a special, special way.

Check out this soulful studio performance of “Over the Rainbow”, a track featured on his 2015 debut album “My Favorite Things”, Grammy-nominated for Best Jazz Instrumental Album.   If you’d like to hear him really cook, listen to another track from that album, Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”.  The recorded version is nominated for “Best Improvised Jazz Solo”.

Vienna Teng has five studio albums to her credit, a recording career that began in 2002 after this Stanford-educated computer scientist quit her day job. Her most recent album, “Aims” released in 2013, covers a lot of musical ground and reveals many influences. You can listen to and buy the tracks on her website.

Vienna lists Tori Amos as one of her influences, and you can’t help but hear that on “Close to Home”.  In case you need a reminder, though, listen to Tori’s performance of her exquisite “Silent All These Years” from 1992.

Back in the Saddle!

After a extended hiatus for most of 2015, Music Now & Then is mounting a comeback for 2016!  Please send your encouragement, and I’ll try to keep the posts coming.

Though it might fairly be said that 2015 will not go down as one of the most memorable years for new music, there is plenty to catch up on over the next few weeks.  A fun place to start is this mashup by DJ Earworm.  “50 Shades of Pop” is the ninth installment in his annual series of retrospectives.  This year he samples from the top 50 songs in Billboard’s Year-End Hot 100. While The Hot 100 is not typical grist for Music Now & Then, this mix gives a nice feel for what you’ll be hearing if you watch the music award shows in the months ahead. The first voice you hear is a single word from Adele.

DJ Earworm’s first effort in this vein was 2007’s “United States of Pop”, but he only dug 25 deep into that year’s pop stack.  Rihanna was exploding that year, and Adam Levine started sporting that tux!  Instead of Adele, the first voice you hear is Jay Z.

If you want to dig deeper into the history of these mashups and get DJ Earworm’s views on the underlying music trends, this recent article on Vox.com is what got me going on this post.  Enjoy, and it’s good to be back!