Posted in Folk Music, Rock on Aug 25th, 2008 No Comments »
An intense, insistent and hypnotic version of this tragic and vicious ballad from Fairport Convention. The late Sandy Denny’s deadpan vocal suits it perfectly. Dave Swarbrick on banshee wailing violin, Richard Thompson’s guitar crackling with electricity.
“I’d rather a kiss from dead Matty’s lips than you with your finery” before being skewered to the wall.
The coda is a long instrumental, an improvised duet between Swarbrick and Thompson, a tribute to their close musical relationship in the band, cranking up the tension.
Read Full Post »
Posted in Jazz on Aug 25th, 2008 No Comments »
This is one of those odd jazz encounters between two men whom you wouldn’t ever expect to share the same stage - Ian Wheeler, traditional jazz clarinettist, and Joe Harriott, avant-garde alto sax player, England’s answer to Ornette Coleman. They are accompanied by a rhythm section of banjo, bass and drums. To try and get a sense of its oddity, imagine John Coltrane playing with Eddie Condon’s Dixieland Band or the Firehouse Five plus Two. But it works and it’s’wonderful. Listen to them chase each other round and round this Gershwin tune, Wheeler the more outgoing, Harriot more introspective. I wrote my original appreciation of this 1961 concert recording here.
Read Full Post »
