Musical Discoveries April 2021 #4

See also: March 2021 and May 2021 (View all)

Capsule Reviews of my Collection

I like to start out the month with a blank template and then add to it over the month. Stay tuned for more content!

Musical Mystery Meat

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Articles about Music

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Playlists/Youtube

Here’s the lovely Sesame Street closing song, with improvisations on the harmonica. I’ve been searching for this special closing number, and the name of that harmonica player is Toots Thielemans.

Every so often I watch documentary excerpts about musicians — especially the Wrecking Crew. Here’s a nice piece about Carol Kaye , There was a Wrecking Crew documentary a few years ago. You should check out Polyphonics’ other musical analysis. Here’s a fascinating vid about Fleetwood Mac’s Rhiannon (which is based on and a fantastic 1976 live performance for Midnight Special and an early 1975 audio from a Boston concert. Tusk, as I mentioned before was one of the earliest albums I actually bought, and holds up very well.

Speaking of childhood, I never can get enough of Schoolhouse Rock. Here’s a TED talk with Bob Dorough (he performs 2 songs). Here’s a clip of Bob Dorough and the original singer Jack Sheldon singing Conjunction Junction.

I made a Fito Espino playlist (he’s a Panamanian accordionist who was popular decades ago.

I’ve been downloading and listening to lots of South American music as I download emusic albums. Here’s a beautiful duet between Joan Baez and Mercedes Sosa where amazingly Baez plays backup. Apparently they are singing a beautiful Violeta Parra song called Gracias a La Vida (which apparently is world famous). Here’s Parra’s own famous version of the song.

Apparently Ishkur finally revamped his guide to electronic music. In the 2000s Ishkur made this amazing interactive website which used flash player to help explain the evolution of different subgenres of electronic music. I’m pretty well-schooled in EDM, and I don’t know 90% of the artists or genres listed, so it’s a delight to rediscover a bigger and badder version of the original site.

Emusic Purchases

1. Wisconsin Mining State by Thet Liturgiske Oswasendet
2. Golden Voices of Africa by Miriam Makeba. 4.99, 67 minutes. I was hearing and watching the incredible music video Makeba by the French singer Jain (which she wrote in Makeba’s honor). Then, Pomelo Records has this and several other compilations (see below).
3. Folklore Argentino by Atahualpa Yupanqui, 6.99, 140 minutes.
4. Piano y voz con su orquestra by Mexican composer Agustin Lara, 40 tracks, 120 minutes, 6.50.
5. Te recuerdo Amanda by Victor Jara. 27 songs, 90 minutes, famous Chilean guitarist and folk singer who was brutally tortured and murdered at the age of 40.
6. Sus primeros exitos by Rocio Jurado. 6.49 60 minutes. Spanish traditional singer, with orchestra.
7. Voodoo Chicken Shack & Dirty Blues by Southbound Snake Charmers. $4
8. Albums by Quilapayun (long running Chilean folk band). I bought the s/t and Q3
9. Albums by Violeta Parra (a Chilean folk singer from the 1960s).
10. Walk with Me by Pepper Adams. 6.49, 1 hour. I fell in love with a budget jazz album (The Adams effect) by this saxophonist when I first signed up for emusic. That album fell from emusic, but luckily this one is still here.
11. Very Best of Antonio Machin. Vol 1 and Vol 2. Machin is a Cuban singer and musician who recorded in the 1930s and 1940s. I thought Volume 2 had better sound quality and better songs.

Bandcamp Purchases

Freegal Downloads & Library CDs

1. Outrospective by Faithless. British trip-hop band fronted by Dido’s brother. Also No Roots.
2. Varios by Mercedes Sosa
3. Various by Olga Guillot.