Mp3s

Hank Mobley: This I Dig Of You

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Released in 1960, Hank Mobley's record Soul Station boasts the cast of Wynton Kelly on piano, Paul Chambers on bass, and Art Blakey on drums in addition to his own tenor saxophone playing. Soul Station is known for being one of Mobley's most successful records but if you are not familiar with his sound, let me put it like this. Mobley was referred to as the "Middle weight champion of the tenor saxophone" by Leonard Feather because his playing was not as aggressive as John Coltrane and not as mellow as Stan Getz. For Feather, Mobley was the middle man with a balance of mood, tone, and style.

This middle approach makes the music palatable and easy to enjoy, regardless of what your musical taste may be. I personally have been waking up to this song on my alarm for a little over a month now and I have come to decide that compositionally, This I Dig Of You as a composition, has as much balance and equilibrium as any jazz song out there.

Read on and let me try to explain myself.

Hank Mobley: This I Dig Of You

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Video

Tiny Desk Concert: The Goat Rodeo Sessions

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The Goat Rodeo Sessions is a quartet album featuring Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer, and Chris Thile. This ensemble is my new definition of professional. These musicians do not get to perform together everyday, they have not built their careers learning and performing together, and yet they have the uncanny ability to read each other's non-verbal gestures and move fluently and artistically through severally complicated music. Furthermore, they perform with beautiful blend and intonation; I do not remember the last time I marveled at an artist for being in tune, but I did here. This performance is brought to us by way of the fantastic NPR program Tiny Desk Concerts who offer style at a premium and have found the perfect balance of formal and informal. 

For the most part, the quartet lets their music speak for them in this performance but the set list contains the songs, Quarter Chicken Dark, Attaboy, and Here and Heaven – which also features the lovely vocalist Aoife O'Donavan. Check out the video, Attaboy showcases some rippin' scale technique across the quartet and each piece also has a really cool way of tossing the melodic theme across each instrument for compositional cohesion as well as listener intrigue. I completely admire everyone involved in this project and cannot recommend highly enough that you keep your ears open anytime anyone from this group has music to play.

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New Releases

Cursive – The Sun and Moon

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Cursive will release their seventh album I Am Gemini on February 21st on longtime label Saddle Creek Records. The first single "The Sun and Moon"  is available for download. Since the album's subject is the story of a set of twins, I thought it would be fun to talk about both this new song and an older one.

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Label Year

The Darcys

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Unfortunately I won't be able to complete my Label Year feature within the year 2011, but I am at least getting one last post in today with a look at the self-titled debut album from The Darcys.

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Interviews

Interview with Old Wives' Tale

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A few months ago, we featured the cool and bluesy song "Momma Devil" by Old Wives Tale in a Weekly Roundup (link here). We recently had a chance to ask singer and bassist Felipe Valencia (he founded the band with his brother Jaime, who also sings and plays guitar) some questions about their latest release Late Night Paraphernalia and more. Here's the interview.

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Mp3s

Merry Dig-mas!

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Over the past month or so, we've gotten a lot of Christmas music submissions. It seemed like an appropriate time to share some of those with you. They range from straightforward covers of classics to interesting interpretations to originals – some of which address the stressful or unpleasant aspects of the holiday. Have a listen and more importantly, have a happy holidays! Whatever it is you celebrate, all the best to you from all of us at Those Who Dig!

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Best of 2011

Kyle's Best Albums Of 2011 (10-1)

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I'm pretty excited about my Top Ten this year. There's some legends, some givens, some surprises, and a few that unfortunately I haven't seen on anyone else's lists. There's something for everyone and I hope you all dig some new music for yourselves, because all of these albums are brilliant.

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