Mp3s

The Jolly-Boat Pirates

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The Jolly-Boat Pirates were a free jazz project on Umlaut Records that lasted from 2004-2008. The ensemble was a quartet of three Swedes and one American – They were Niklas Barno on trumpet, Devin Gray on drums, Joel Grip on double bass, and Lars Ahlund on saxophones. Furthermore, their time together happened to coincide with the time of my undergraduate study at the Peabody Institute of Music where they were also studying.

The Jolly-Boat Pirates had a few years on me at the time, I suppose they still do now, but the point is that seeing them perform and hearing this kind of jazz music making felt and sounded like something I had never experienced before. It felt somehow more organic, more open to responding to itself as it created itself. Their live performances had a way of messing with my sense of time. You cannot always tap your foot along in a measured way when you listen to them, but I was engaged in the kind of way that allowed large quantities of time to slip away undetected. I found them to be completely engrossing then, and I still do today. Recently I have re-discovered the first of their two releases and have gotten hooked on their sound all over again.

The Jolly-Boat Pirates: Bro

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Unearthed Music

Everyman Of Parts – Arid Eyes

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Everyman Of Parts – Arid Eyes

I think I always liked Badly Drawn Boy more than most people seemed to. A lot of this stems from the fact that I loved About A Boy. Yea, jerks, I mean the sentimental Hugh Grant early-oughts heartwarmer. Mostly, i just worship at the alter of Nick Hornby (which in turns stems from my complete obsession with High Fidelity). But, tender admissions aside, Badly Drawn Boy's full-hearted, diverse, sometimes acoustic warblings always struck the right chord for me.

Everyman Of Parts is the musical project of Andrew Sheron who plays almost every instrument of his upcoming album, Travelling Time. Sheron is chanelling Mr. Gough something fierce here, which is refreshing really. It's a form of honest, meandering indie rock that's been lost in the current reverbed, synthy haze. The songs of Travelling Time are comforting with an underlying fierceness. Sheron's talent is always evident as he jumps around genres and woos you with his words. 

Check out Everyman Of Parts on Facebook and pick up the album on his Bandcamp page.

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Weekly Roundup

Weekly Roundup: Jan 1 – 7, 2012 – BONUS ROUND

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Each week, we receive a ton of great music from bands, labels, PR people, and more. We do our best to listen to everything and share our favorites in our Weekly Roundup posts. But oftentimes, there is simply too much music to include (though I've certainly tried). While planning some changes for the new year, we realized it could be a good idea to add periodic "bonus" roundups to let even more be heard. We're happy to kick that off right now!

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Unearthed Music

Kapowski – Section 8

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Kapowski – Section 8

Really, I'll give a fair shake to any band potentially named after a Saved By The Bell character. It's icing on the cake that the Bay Area's Kapowski are actually really good. "Section 8" is a tidy little 60's inspired rock song with a sizable portion of awesome organ. The breakdowns are particularly intriguing, only to be sucked out of existence by the hard-driving percussion. All in all, it's a great teaser for the bands' upcoming February 1st album, Boy Detective.

Bonus robot butlers:

 

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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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